Harris halts trips; staff positive
Trump wishes her well as Biden camp has first COVID scare
WILMINGTON, Del. — Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, will suspend in-person events until Monday after two people associated with the campaign tested positive for the coronavirus.
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said Thursday that Biden had no exposure, though he and Harris spent several hours campaigning together in Arizona on Oct. 8, when the two people were on a flight with Harris. Both candidates have tested negative for COVID-19 multiple times since then, and Biden’s campaign said he tested negative again on Thursday.
It’s the Biden campaign’s first major coronavirus scare, after months of careful health procedures that brought mockery from President Donald Trump, even after a White House virus outbreak that included the president and first lady Melania Trump. The Democratic campaign’s cautious reaction underscores again the differences in how the rival camps have approached the pandemic, both in terms of preferred government response and the candidates’ personal protocols.
Trump, speaking without a mask at a crowded outdoor rally in North Carolina Thursday afternoon, offered his best wishes to Harris.
“We worry about her. I’m very concerned about her,” he said, later adding: “Masks, no masks, everything, you can do all you want, but you know, you still need help.”
The travel suspension interrupts the Biden campaign’s aggressive push across a wide battleground map, including North Carolina and Ohio, the next two states Harris was scheduled to visit.
In North Carolina, increasing Black turnout is key to the Democrats’ hopes of flipping the state. Harris had been scheduled to travel to the state Thursday for events encouraging voters to cast early ballots.
Her Friday trip to Cleveland would have been her first to Ohio as the vice presidential nominee and would have taken her into the metropolitan area with the state’s largest concentration of Black voters.
The Biden campaign told reporters Thursday morning that Harris’ communications director, Liz Allen, and a flight crew member tested positive after the recent campaign trip to the southwest. Campaign manager Jen O’malley Dillon said both tested negative before and after Harris’ travels.
Their positive results came in subsequent tests.
But O’malley Dillon said Harris would suspend travel for several days “out of an abundance of caution.”
The campaign also is canceling upcoming travel for Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband.
Harris will continue virtual campaigning, including fundraisers.