As of Tuesday morning, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Ca.), Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo introduced they’d obtained constructive outcomes on coronavirus exams after attending the dinner on the downtown Renaissance Washington Hotel.
In addition, about a half-dozen journalists, and members of the White House and National Security Council workers additionally stated they examined constructive following the occasion. Their names are being withheld as a result of they haven’t introduced their standing publicly.
Tom DeFrank, a contributing editor at National Journal and the president of the Gridiron Club, famous that guests had been required to point out proof of vaccination however that “a small number of our guests have reported positive tests since then,” he stated. “We wish them a speedy recovery.”
The white-tie-and-gowns dinner attracted about 630 guests, including members of Congress, the Cabinet, diplomatic corps, military, and business. President Biden did not attend, but appeared via video.
Among those in attendance were Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and Centers for Disease Control director Rochelle Walensky.
Other guests included Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri); Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.); attorney general Merrick Garland, agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack and special presidential envoy John F. Kerry; Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell; Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) and New York mayor Eric Adams (D).
The guest list also included White House press secretary Jen Psaki, former NFL great Emmitt Smith; NBA commissioner Adam Silver; CBS host Jane Pauley and her spouse, “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau; Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova; “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff; ABC chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl and Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan and editor Sally Buzbee.
Following a predinner cocktail reception, guests sat together at long narrow tables for hours, and watched satirical skits and songs performed by members. At the event’s conclusion, guests joined hands for the traditional singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”
The dinner was supposed to reflect a return to normalcy after being canceled the past two years due to the pandemic. Few guests wore masks or practiced social distancing, according to people in attendance. Only the serving staff was consistently masked throughout the evening.
One guest said that while organizers asked attendees to show their vaccination cards at the door, there was no requirement to be tested.
The evening’s sketches, performed by veteran Washington journalists, parodied figures in both parties, although Republicans — such as former president Trump, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) — came in for the sharpest jabs. None of those figures were in attendance.
At one point, a performer dressed as Fauci sang from the stage to the real Fauci in the audience: “Doctor, doctor, give me some clues, we’ve got a bad case of covid blues.”
The Gridiron dinner is a smaller, more elite precursor to the better-known White House Correspondents’ Association gathering in late April. That organization’s president, Steven Portnoy, said Monday night that the WHCA will require guests at its event to show a same-day negative coronavirus test to enter its dinner.
Portnoy spoke before news of the Gridiron outbreak emerged; he said Tuesday morning that the WHCA was meeting to review its covid protocols for the dinner. The president typically attends the event.
This is a breaking story and might be up to date.
Staff author Tyler Pager contributed to this report.