WASHINGTON (JTA) — Stephen Miller, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, is insisting his grandmother did not die of the coronavirus, despite a death certificate that states otherwise.
Miller’s maternal uncle, David Glosser, who has criticized Miller in the past for crafting Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, took to Facebook to commemorate the death of his mother, Ruth Glosser, who died at 97 in Southern California, Mother Jones reported Thursday. He said in the post she died of “the late effects of COVID 19.”
The White House has come under fire for mishandling the pandemic. On Thursday, the number of infected in the United States hit 4 million. The death toll tops 141,000.
Mother Jones asked the White House for a response.
“This is categorically false, and a disgusting use of so-called journalism when the family deserves privacy to mourn the loss of a loved one,” the White House said. “His grandmother did not pass away from COVID. She was diagnosed with COVID in March and passed away in July, so that timeline does not add up at all. His grandmother died peacefully in her sleep from old age. I would hope that you would choose not to go down this road.”
Mother Jones presented the White House with her death certificate, which listed “respiratory arrest” and COVID-19 as “a condition leading” to the cause of death.
The White House doubled down, saying Ruth Glosser had recovered from a “mild” case of COVID-19 in March. David Glosser told the liberal online news site that she never recovered.
In 2018, Glosser wrote a broadside against his nephew calling him an “immigration hypocrite” for crafting policies that Glosser said would have consigned their Jewish immigrant ancestors to the mercies of Nazi Europe.
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