Members of President Donald Trump's Secret Service detail volunteered to take the president for a ride in his sealed limousine to wave at his supporters who have gathered outside Walter Reed Military Medical Center, Corey Lewandowski, the president's former 2016 campaign manager, said Monday.
"The president wanted to thank all the supporters who had been standing out there for days, supporting him," Lewandowski told NBC "Today" anchor Savannah Guthrie. "It's my understanding from the information I've obtained that the detail leader of the Secret Service and the driver both volunteered for that assignment."
Both people have difficult jobs and were not required to take Trump out for his ride, said Lewandowski. He added that they were protected by PPE and a piece of plexiglass between them and Trump.
Lewandowski said he spoke with Trump Saturday night, and the president was upbeat, positive, and "ready to go out and take this battle on behalf of the American people directly."
Dr. James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed and chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Emergency Medicine, was also on Monday's program and disagreed with Lewandowski's assessment.
"The reality is that this was a dangerous move," said Phillips, whose tweets on the issue went viral Sunday night. "There is no medical benefit for this to have taken place. It violates CDC guidelines that come from the president's own administration."
He said he thinks his tweets got so much attention was because he was being honest.
"It's been a back and forth between the medical community and this administration trying to get the right message to the citizens of America," said Phillips. "Beyond the risk that was clearly taking part or the risk that was imparted upon the Secret Service agents voluntary or not, it sends a message to other people who are sick that it's okay to go out."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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