President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus on April 1, 2020.

Ninian Reid / Shutterstock (10600225b)

A group of White House reporters lingered outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda on Saturday morning awaiting an update on President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 symptoms and prognosis. All the while, three of their colleagues in the press corps had recently tested positive for the virus.

White House reporters say they work in cramped conditions in the executive mansion, in mostly shared office space just outside the briefing room. Since March, journalists have been required to have their temperature checked when entering the White House. They must also wear masks and maintain social distance, under guidelines set by the White House Correspondents’ Association. However, Gabby Orr, a reporter with Politico and a resident of Prince George’s County, told DCist those guidelines are in sharp contrast to the protocols followed by White House staff.

Upon entering the lower press room at the White House, Orr says, reporters are usually “greeted by a White House press aide that is not wearing a mask and doesn’t wear a mask throughout the course of the day when they’re interacting with who knows who else.”

Nadia Bilbassy, the Washington bureau chief for Al Arabiya News and a resident of McClean, Va., spent almost three decades as a war correspondent, knowing where the enemy lines and militia encampments were located.

Now with President Trump, the First Lady, and top aides testing positive for COVID-19, Bilbassy says she feels a “different kind of fear.”

“When you’re here covering the White House specifically and there is an unknown enemy which is COVID-19, it is really tough,” Bilbassy told DCist while parked outside of Walter Reed on Saturday.

Bilbassy has tested negative for the virus 20 times. She says she’s avoided attending certain events, such as last month’s Rose Garden announcement of Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. At least eight people who did attend the event have since tested positive for the virus.

“I didn’t think it was worth the risk,” Bilbassy said. She opted to cover the event remotely.

She says in some ways she was surprised that the president had contracted the virus, given the precautionary measures of temperature checks required at the White House.

“But also I’m not surprised because … even in the briefing room, I’ve seen [the president] in close proximity to senior staff [without a mask],” Bilbassy said. “In the early days of COVID when [Trump] had the first press conference, I remember joking saying if any place I’m going to get [COVID] it’s here.”

While traveling with the president on Air Force One to rallies and other events, journalists say the WHCA has arranged for reporters to receive daily rapid COVID-19 testing. Orr says she’s tested negative almost a dozen times since March.

“We’ve all sort of been living with the reality that for the past couple of months that we’re taking a risk in order to keep the rest of the American people informed about the president’s movement and interactions,” Orr said.

At an outdoor rally in mid-September in Nevada, Orr recounts that many Trump supporters weren’t wearing masks. There were other events that weekend that were indoors with maskless attendees.

“I’m thankful the correspondents’ association has arranged for daily [rapid] testing on these multi day trips…but, as we’ve seen with people that have contracted COVID-19, you don’t always test positive the moment you are exposed to the virus.”

In a statement to reporters Friday evening, Zeke Miller, president of the WHCA, wrote that access to the shared office space would be restricted. “We are insisting that journalists who are not in the pool and do not have an enclosed workspace to refrain from working out of the White House at this time. We must lower our exposure to possible further infections.”

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