Herman Cain Hospitalized For COVID-19 Hours After Condemning Masks
UPDATE: July 30 — Herman Cain has died of COVID-19, roughly four weeks after he was admitted to the hospital for the disease.
PREVIOUSLY:
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been hospitalized with COVID-19.
A spokesman confirmed the diagnosis Thursday afternoon, describing the 73-year-old as “resting comfortably” at an Atlanta-area hospital after his symptoms became serious enough Wednesday to require care, but not a ventilator.
Cain’s positive June 29 test came just over a week after he appeared at Donald Trump’s indoor campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Addressing speculation he may have picked it up at Trump’s campaign event, Cain’s team said in a statement they are unsure how or where he contracted the virus.
“We honestly have no idea where he contracted it,” HermanCain.com editor Dan Calabrese wrote on the site. “I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week, including to Arizona where cases are spiking. I don’t think there’s any way to trace this to the one specific contact that caused him to be infected. We’ll never know.”
Cain tweeted a photo of himself attending the event without a mask.
Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!#TulsaRally2020 #Trumptulsa #TulsaTrumprally #MAGA #Trump2020 #Trump2020Landslide pic.twitter.com/27mUzkg7kL
— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) June 20, 2020
Six staffers working at the event tested positive the day of the rally and were sent home, and a reporter who covered the event later tested positive, though he’s unsure where, exactly, he’d come in contact with it.
On Wednesday ― just hours before he required medical intervention because of his worsening condition ― Cain sent a tweet hailing a Trump event in South Dakota where masks wouldn’t be mandatory.
“Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump,” he said. “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
