The head of the White House security office is gravely ill with COVID-19 and has been hospitalized since September, a White House official has confirmed.
Crede Bailey leads the office in charge of credentialing people for access to the White House and works closely with the Secret Service, according to Bloomberg, which was the first to report his illness Wednesday.
According to Bloomberg, Bailey got sick before the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event, where Trump announced his pick of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court.
Several people who attended that event, including President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, have tested positive for COVID-19.
Trump returned to the White House Monday after spending three days in the hospital to receive treatments for COVID-19.
Shortly after Trump was released from the hospital, he released a video message touting the care he received and downplaying the severity of the virus.
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it,” Trump said in a video posted to his Twitter account Monday night, echoing a message he embraced earlier in the day that drew fire from critics who noted presidents receive the best care possible.
A growing list of White House officials have also tested positive for the virus, including senior White House aide Stephen Miller and Hope Hicks and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
In addition, most of the nation’s top military leaders have been quarantining after coming in contact with a senior officer with COVID-19, according to the Pentagon.
The military’s top two officers, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. John Hyten, along with service chiefs from the Army, Navy and Air Force, are in quarantine after meeting last week with the officer, Adm. Charles Ray, the No. 2 officer at the Coast Guard.
A second officer, Marine Gen. Gary Thomas, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, has also tested positive. Thomas is experiencing mild symptoms, but otherwise is feeling well, according to a statement Wednesday from the Marine Corps.
A top White House security official, Crede Bailey, is gravely ill with Covid-19 and has been hospitalized since September, according to four people familiar with his condition.
The White House has not publicly disclosed Bailey’s illness.
He became sick before the Sept. 26 Rose Garden event President Trump held to announce his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that has been connected to more than a dozen cases of the disease.
He is in charge of the White House security office, which handles credentialing for access to the White House and works closely with the U.S. Secret Service on security measures throughout the compound.
A career federal employee who has seldom appeared in the news, Bailey was swept up in a controversy last year over security clearances granted to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Bailey privately testified to the House Oversight Committee that he didn’t face pressure from others at the White House to grant clearances.