Katie Miller, who is married to Donald Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller, is the second White House staffer who has contracted COVID-19 after the president's personal valet also tested positive for the virus.
- May 9, 2020
AceShowbiz - Vice President Mike Pence press secretary Katie Miller has tested positive for coronavirus. It was President Donald Trump himself who confirmed the news on Friday, May 8, one day after his personal valet was also confirmed to have contracted the virus.
"She's a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive," Trump said during a meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House.
The president said Miller, who is married to his senior adviser Stephen Miller, has not come into contact with him but noted that she has been in contact with Pence. Due to the nature of her job, Mrs. Miller was frequently in contact with members of the press.
Addressing her positive diagnosis, Miller said in a tweet on Friday, "Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. I'm doing well and look forward to getting back to work for the American people."
Earlier on Friday, a senior administration official told the press pool aboard Air Force Two that a Pence staffer, whom they did not name at the time, tested negative for the coronavirus Thursday and positive Friday morning. Miller, who was not on the plane, was believed to be in contact with six people scheduled to fly with Pence to Iowa that morning. Several individuals were later seen exiting the plane before it lifted off of the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington.
Everyone who deplaned has since been tested for the coronavirus and the results all came back negative. The White House also announced that it is now making more coronavirus testing available to journalists.
A senior White House official said contact tracing was also performed inside the White House after Miller's positive test. All of the people whom she was in touch with, including her husband, tested negative, the senior White House official said.
Miller is now the second White House staffer who has tested positive for coronavirus after Trump's personal valet had the virus. On Thursday, Trump said about his personal valet, "I've had very little contact, personal contact, with this gentleman." He added, "Know who he is, good person, but I've had very little contact, Mike has had very little contact with him. Mike tested, and I was tested, we were both tested."
