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Herman Cain Hospitalized With COVID-19 After Attending Trump Tulsa Rally Maskless

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This article is more than 3 years old.
Updated Jul 2, 2020, 01:53pm EDT

TOPLINE

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was hospitalized for coronavirus on Wednesday, two weeks after he attended President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa bare-faced.

KEY FACTS

“We are sorry to announce that Herman Cain has tested positive for COVID-19, and is currently receiving treatment in an Atlanta-area hospital,” representatives for Cain announced Thursday.

Cain, 74, reportedly tested positive on June 29 and developed symptoms severe enough to warrant hospitalization on Wednesday, but did not require a ventilator and is said to be “awake and alert” and “resting comfortably.”

While the statement argued “there is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus,” the development comes two weeks after Cain attended Trump’s rally in Tulsa in June as one of his top surrogates, where he tweeted a photo of himself not wearing a mask and surrounded by several other maskless people.

The rally was criticized in advance by health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Trump’s former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, for the risk it posed to spread coronavirus in an area where confirmed cases were on the rise.

Dozens of Secret Service agents and multiple Trump campaign staffers were instructed to self-quarantine after working the rally.

Big Number

6. That’s how many Trump staffers tested positive for coronavirus shortly before the rally, which featured a lack of mask-wearing and social distancing. Reports later claimed Trump staffers removed social distancing stickers at the BOK Center.

Key Background

Cain is a business executive who has worked as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Cain rose to national prominence in 2011 when he launched an outsider campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. His 9-9-9 tax plan and debate performances led to a brief lead in the polls, but he declined and dropped out before the Iowa caucus.

Crucial Quote

“In 2006, Cain received a diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer, which also had spread to his liver,” reported Newsmax, where Cain is a host. “Doctors gave him a 30% chance of survival, but he was able to beat the disease and remain cancer-free.”

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