White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows brushed off concerns on Monday morning that President Donald Trump put his Secret Service agents at risk the day before, when the President had them accompany him during his drive outside Walter Reed Military Medical Center, where he is being treated for COVID-19.
“A number of folks are trying to just make a big deal of that,” Meadows said during an interview on Fox News, “when indeed I know that myself and and some of the Secret Service detailees are right there with him trying to make sure that he’s protected each and every day and that he returns to the White House as expeditiously as possible.”
Secret Service agents escorted Trump on his jaunt so he could wave at a group of supporters through a car window.
President Trump, wearing a mask, rides by his supporters outside Walter Reed while in the back of a Suburban. pic.twitter.com/nsCJyYXHdK
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 4, 2020
Several agents expressed frustration to CNN at how Trump’s political theater, including the drive and his campaign rallies, have put them at serious risk of contracting COVID-19.
“That should never have happened,” one agent told CNN. Additionally, “the frustration with how we’re treated when it comes to decisions on this illness goes back before” the incident.
Another agent slammed President’s drive on Sunday as “simply reckless.”
Watch Meadows below:
Meadows says critics of Trump's drive outside hospital are "trying to just make a big deal" out of potential risk of Secret Service catching COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/vKypYa2chP
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) October 5, 2020
