New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear slammed the White House after testing positive for COVID-19, accusing the administration of “not taking it seriously.”
Shear attended a Rose Garden event surrounding Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, later flying on Air Force One. President Donald Trump, Melania Trump and multiple other people within the White House recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Since then, reporters have tested positive as well, Shear included. He spoke on CNN’s “New Day” Monday morning after testing positive and accused the White House of ignoring contact tracing, adding that no one from the building has contacted him. (RELATED: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Tests Positive For Coronavirus)
“I have not been contacted by the White House,” Shear said on CNN. “Nobody from the White House has said ‘boo,’ and asked anything about where I was, or who I talked to or who else I might have infected. And so I think that just shows you that they’re not taking it seriously, at least as it pertains to themselves.”
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Shear described some of his symptoms and accused Trump of “following a completely different set of rules” than what the American public has been told regarding COVID-19.
“And I think that undercuts, that sets him apart and I think it probably makes people angry that, ‘hey, we’re, you know, moving about our lives, having all of these terrible impacts to our mobility and to our children’s education,’ which is shut down in places,” he said. “And yet the president can sort of evade the kind of rules that we are having to live by.”
Shear added that Trump was not wearing a mask when he spoke to reporters after going on Air Force One, although he has been unable to confirm exactly who he contracted the virus from.
“He was not wearing a mask and spoke to us for about ten minutes off the record,” according to Shear. “It’s hard to know, right, if he had just been infected himself that day, the medical experts I think that you guys have been playing would suggest he probably wasn’t very infectious at that point.”