It’s like a novel and not a terribly good one. It now seems quite probable, if not certain, that the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18th triggered a chain of events that led directly to the President’s diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization for COVID-19. As you may have heard, a growing body of circumstantial evidences points strongly to the conclusion that the announcement event for Amy Coney Barrett as the President’s nominee to replace Ginsburg was the spreader event that has led to the current outbreak at the White House and in the upper echelons of the GOP.

To date, Trump, Melania Trump, Sens. Lee and Tillis, the President of Notre Dame University, Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager Bill Stepien, Hope Hicks have all tested positive in the last 48 hours. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and Sen. Ron Johnson have also tested positive, though their connection to the Rose Garden event is less direct or at least unclear.

This is one of a handful of times in TPM’s history that our reporting sparked a congressional probe.

The Biden campaign has announced that Joe and Jill Biden both did PCR COVID tests today and both tests came back negative.

The timeline of events leading up to the disclosure of President Trump’s diagnosis point overwhelmingly to some mix of a coverup and gross negligence and likely both.

Let’s review some key facts, as far as we presently know them.

The House Oversight Committee has just launched an investigation into the deployment of COVID-19 tests to nursing homes. The investigation was launched in response to a TPM report from August.

Just recorded a quick crisis edition of the podcast. Keep an eye on whatever podcast app you use.

Under any circumstances, the President contracting a potentially fatal disease – and one that moves quickly – constitutes a grave national security crisis. We cannot and should not shy away from the fact that the President’s affliction – and likely those of others around him – is a direct result of his own reckless behavior. Overnight reports suggest his top aides seldom wear masks in his presence “in deference to the president’s disdain for them.” At Tuesday night’s debate his family and entourage pointedly refused to wear masks, even refusing a Cleveland Clinic doctor’s appeals to do so, which the debate rules mandated. Given these facts it is all but certain that a significant number of other top officials at the White House also have COVID.

All of our ongoing coverage of Trump’s deeply ironic positive test here. Ironic, but still a legitimate crisis.

You’ve probably already seen the news. The President and the First Lady have both tested positive for COVID, according to a tweet a short time ago from the President. Presumably they were infected by Hope Hicks, though I don’t think we can rule out some other chain of transmission, like Hicks and Trump both being infected by some as yet unknown person.

I don’t want to be alarmist. But the President spent almost two hours in relative proximity to Joe Biden only 48 hours ago.

Trump, Hicks and Melania Trump are almost certainly not the only three people at the White House with COVID.

This is a grave situation, coming in the midst of what was already a developing national crisis.

Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s top aides, has tested positive for COVID. She traveled with him on Air Force One to Tuesday’s debate. She was apparently also traveling with the President yesterday when he held a rally in Minnesota.