House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has never taken a test for the coronavirus, she told reporters Thursday.
Pelosi, a California Democrat who turned 80 in March, said she did not take a test earlier this year because of the scarcity of the testing supplies. Both Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined tests for lawmakers offered by the White House.
Pelosi said her own doctor told her she should not get tested because she did not have any symptoms. “We didn’t want to be first in line to get tested when so many people who had symptoms and had justification for it,” Pelosi said. “What I want is to have many, many more tests, so that there’s a competition for them.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has tested negative for the coronavirus at least once, according to interviews with reporters. McCarthy and other Republicans were likely tested for the coronavirus ahead of personal meetings with President Trump.
On Thursday, Sen. Tim Kaine announced he and his wife, Anne Holton, tested positive for coronavirus antibodies.
The two were sick with flu-like symptoms in April, and Kaine tested positive for influenza earlier this year, the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.
Pelosi is touting a $3 trillion measure House Democrats passed earlier this month that includes funding for expanded coronavirus testing.
“In our bill is a system where there, there’s massive testing, tracing treatment, saving of lives with isolation that would go with it,” Pelosi told reporters. “But now the doctor says no, you don’t need to. And you’d be putting yourself ahead of other people in line, so you don’t have [the test].”
