Over the first month of the virus’s spread, four Republicans and four Democrats announced they had contracted it, according to a database maintained by NPR. Two more Senate Democrats announced later in the spring that they had tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, tracing their infection to the middle of March when they previously thought they had a mild cold.
But since late April — around the time federal health guidelines recommended wearing a mask indoors — the virus has moved more freely in Republican circles. With three GOP senators announcing their positive results in recent days, 10 Republican members of Congress have said they contracted the deadly virus in the last four months.
And that tally does not include President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and more than a half-dozen current and former senior advisers at the Republican White House.
Just two Democrats have announced positive tests in the last six months.
In the chaos following the revelation that Trump had the coronavirus, many lawmakers renewed their call for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to finally implement a rigid testing regime for members, aides, U.S. Capitol Police and the many support staff.
The two leaders have resisted those calls, even as their closest allies have warned that it’s not safe to have so many lawmakers traveling back and forth across the nation.
But some Democrats see a more ideological cause for the virus’s recent spread along Pennsylvania Avenue, one that regular testing can only counter so much. Democrats say their GOP colleagues have played loose with the new rules, particularly when congressional Republicans meet with Trump, whose anti-mask views are well-documented amid recent events with big crowds packed together.
“I think it’s time [for] my colleagues who are, you know, denying the science to stop their ‘Flat Earth’ nonsense and protect themselves and others. Yeah, I think it’s about time that all sensible adults stop, stop behaving like they can’t see the threat right in front of them,” Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.) told reporters Friday.
For months, Republicans have said they have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on social distancing, consulting the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician on how to go about their business.
In Kentucky on Friday, after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) announced his own positive test, McConnell remained boastful about how he has managed the Senate and said that the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett would go “full steam ahead,” with no other changes in schedule.
“As I said, we’re following the advice of the CDC in how we operate the Senate, and so far we’ve been able to do it quite successfully,” he told local reporters.
That success story ended Friday night. Four hours later, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lee and Tillis, both members of the Judiciary Committee, attended the Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony where Trump announced his selection of Barrett, with more than 150 guests sitting shoulder to shoulder, most not wearing masks.
One attendee said that guests, after clearing a rapid coronavirus test before the event, were encouraged to take off their masks, and the outdoor event was buffeted by receptions inside the White House.
Tillis was pictured wearing a mask outside in the Rose Garden, but then posted a picture on social media from inside the White House not wearing a mask, despite all scientific evidence pointing to greater risk at an indoor event.
Despite their own negative tests, Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who sat one seat apart from Lee and Tillis, and James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced they would quarantine at home until Oct. 12.
Then, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) revealed Saturday morning that he, too, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Johnson had just spent 14 days in Wisconsin quarantining because he had been in contact with someone who had tested positive.
He returned to the Capitol on Tuesday, having never tested positive back in Wisconsin, but within three days he had the virus — puncturing the bubble of security that Republicans have lived under.
How did Johnson contract it? His official statement did not say, and it’s possible he will never fully know. But throughout the spring and summer, Republicans and Democrats have behaved differently in Congress, with one side exposing itself to more risk.
By mid-March, all four congressional caucuses disbanded their regular in-person meetings, in favor of conference calls.
In early May, McConnell resumed holding private luncheons with all 53 GOP senators and a smattering of senior staff in a spacious hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building. They eat boxed lunches rather than the normal buffet, and the tables are spaced much farther apart than their usual gatherings.
They wear masks entering and exiting the luncheons, but while eating they are maskless, about five senators per table.
The lunches last more than an hour, so any Republicans seated next to Lee or Tillis the past few days may have found themselves in the path of the virus.
Medical experts in the attending physician’s office, in the wake of this outbreak, have told those tested for the virus that, even if they get a negative result, they must do a strict quarantine if they were within six feet of someone who tested positive for more than 15 minutes of contact within 48 hours of their diagnosis.
That definition may apply to quite a few more Republicans. So, not surprisingly, by midday Saturday McConnell announced the Senate would not meet for legislative business for the next two weeks.
He said the Judiciary Committee would hold the Barrett hearing as scheduled, with senators appearing remotely if they wish.
Neither Senate Democrats nor House Democrats have held an in-person caucus meeting in more than six months. In a recent interview, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted those meetings would not resume until there is a widely available vaccine.
House Republicans, after disbanding their weekly in-person meetings, restarted them in late July with attendance limits in a spacious theater, following demands from arch conservatives, many of whom prefer not to wear masks. One of those, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), tested positive for the coronavirus a week later, just before he was supposed to travel with Trump.
Every Democrat who has been on the congressional campus the past five months regularly wears a mask, prompting fears that they are living by a different set of rules.
“This virus is punishing. It’s unforgiving, draws no distinction between Republicans and Democrats,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Friday.
Lately, however, inside the Capitol, it has drawn a distinction.
