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1. President Trump and First Lady test positive for the coronavirus
President Donald Trump tweeted early Friday morning he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. It's unclear how long President and First Lady Trump will quarantine.
Earlier this week, Trump mocked his opponent Joe Biden in the presidential debate for his use of a mask.
"Tonight as an example, everybody had a test and you've had social distancing and all of the things that you have to," Trump said on Tuesday. "But I wear a mask when needed. I wear masks. I don't wear masks like him. Every time you see him he has a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen."
2. How did this happen? It started with Hope Hicks
The president confirmed late Thursday that Hope Hicks, a senior White House staffer who serves as counselor to the president, was infected with the coronavirus.
Hicks was on board Air Force One during Trump’s trip to Minnesota yesterday, and to Cleveland on Tuesday. Photos taken by the Associated Press on Wednesday show Hicks was in close proximity of several other senior staffers, including Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino.
ABC News reported that Hicks was on board the presidential helicopter Marine One with the president on Wednesday. None of the staffers were seen wearing a mask entering Marine One.
3. What’s next for President Trump?
Trump’s visit to Florida on Friday for a scheduled Make America Great Again rally is off. He was also scheduled for a roundtable with supporters in Washington on Friday. That is now canceled.
With a now confirmed outbreak of the coronavirus inside the White House, a number of senior staffers, Secret Service agents, aides and others may be required to quarantine. How the White House will function with a president in isolation and senior staff in quarantine remains in question.
There are also questions on how this impacts Joe Biden’s campaign. Biden shared a stage with Trump on Tuesday, and senior staff of both candidates sat in the audience for Tuesday’s debate.
4. Is help on the way? House passes coronavirus bill
The House narrowly have passed a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Thursday, but an air of pessimism has largely taken over the Capitol.
The Democratic bill passed after a partisan debate without any Republicans in support. The move puts lawmakers no closer to actually delivering aid such as more generous weekly unemployment payments, extended help for small businesses and especially troubled economic sectors and another round of $1,200 direct payments to most Americans.
Passage of the $2.2 trillion plan came after a burst of negotiations this week between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
5. Anything else going on? Conservative hoaxers face charges
Jacob Wohl, 22, and Jack Burkman, 54, each were charged Thursday with four felony counts in Detroit, including intimidating voters in violation of election law, conspiracy and using a computer to commit crimes.
The calls falsely warned residents in majority-Black Detroit and urban areas in at least four other states that voting by mail in the Nov. 3 election could subject people to arrest, debt collection and forced vaccination.
This isn't the first scheme for the duo. One of their most notorious stunts was in 2018, when Wohl and Burkman attempted to slime then-special counsel Robert Mueller with a sexual assault allegation. That story collapsed after journalists and internet sleuths tied the story to them.
Today's Forecast
Storms could produce heavy rainfall this afternoon. Flood Watch in effect.
Get your complete hour-by-hour forecast here.
On This Day In History
Chief Justice Earl Warren swears in Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on October 2, 1967.
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