Giuliani tweets that he is ‘feeling good’ as Covid diagnosis sparks exposure fears nationwide

Rudy Giuliani, who tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to a hospital on Sunday after spending recent weeks traveling across the country in an effort to overturn President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections, said he’s “feeling good” in a new tweet.

“Thank you to all my friends and followers for all the prayers and kind wishes,” he wrote in the post. “I’m getting great care and feeling good. Recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.”

However, lawmakers who met with the president’s personal attorney last week to discuss his debunked claims and conspiracy theories may not be feeling as good as the former New York City mayor, as fears of potential exposure to the novel virus consumed parts of the country visited by Mr Giuliani’s election conspiracy tour.

It remained unclear as of Monday morning when the former mayor first tested positive for the novel virus — which is now responsible for nearly 270,000 deaths nationwide this year alone — or when he first received his diagnosis. The Trump campaign said in a statement that Mr Giuliani did not experience any symptoms associated with the virus during his travels last week, and that no lawmakers or reporters were included in his contract tracing list.

As the head of the president’s last-ditch efforts to overturn the election results, Mr Giuliani visited Arizona, Georgia and Michigan last week to meet with state representatives, where he laid out his baseless allegations of fraud, the vast majority of which have already been disproven.  

The Arizona state legislature, which met with Mr Giuliani early last week, announced it was closing for the week "out of an abundance of caution" in response to the news. Mr Giuliani appeared without a face mask for several hours during the two-day hearings.

Following his trip to Arizona, Mr Giuliani headed to Lansing, Michigan, where he met with a House Oversight Committee and brought several witnesses whose claims of alleged voter fraud had previously been discredited by state judges.

At one point, he asked witness Jessy Jacobs — whose story of alleged fraud was said to be “incorrect and not credible” by a judge that denied her lawsuit — to take off her face mask.

“I don't want you to do this if you feel uncomfortable,” Mr Giuliani said.  “But would you be comfortable taking your mask off, so we can hear you more clearly?”

Ms Jacobs, touching her face mask, appeared hesitant. She looked back at the panel of lawmakers and asked: “Can you hear me?"

When lawmakers responded in unison that they could hear Ms Jacobs just fine, Mr Giuliani shrugged and said: “OK.”

The moment was recorded and immediately shared online last week. It also recirculated on Sunday night after Mr Giuliani’s diagnosis, with countless social media users urging Ms Jacobs to get tested — and some congratulating her for making the decision to keep her mask on despite being asked by the president’s attorney to take it off.

While Mr Giuliani has potentially exposed others around him to Covid-19 due to his lack of wearing a face mask and following proper safety protocols, he has absolutely spread misinformation and outright falsities about the vote.

To date, there has been no evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 elections. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security have both indicated as much, with Homeland Security describing the election as the “most secure” in US history.

Mr Trump, who himself has continued promoting false claims about his electoral defeat while raising more than $200 million since Election Day, announced Mr Giuliani’s diagnosis in a tweet wishing him well.

The president claimed Mr Giuliani “has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA” in the announcement that referred to Covid-19 as “the China Virus.”

“Get better soon Rudy,” Mr Trump wrote. “We will carry on!!!”

At least one Democratic lawmaker said her life was threatened after Mr Giuliani’s hearing with the Michigan oversight committee drew national scrutiny — but not from exposure to the virus.

Rather, State Representative Cynthia Johnson, a Detroit Democrat and Black woman, said she received lynching threats in the form of voicemails to her phone.

“Your time is coming ...from the (expletive) gallows you'll be hanging,” one recording said, according to the lawmaker.