Grandmother Ruth Glosser

July 27, 2020

The Trump Administration on July 23 discredited news that White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller’s 97-year-old grandmother had died of the coronavirus—the strong disclaimer coming after his uncle reported her passing due to COVID-19 on July 4.

Mother Jones first reported on Thursday that Miller’s uncle David Glosser was “angry and outraged” at President Donald Trump’s “lack of response” to the crisis, which has left more than 140,000 people dead in the United States and has infected more than 4 million.

“This morning my mother, Ruth Glosser, died of the late effects of COVID-19 like so many thousands of other people; both young and old,” Glosser wrote on Facebook on July 4. “She survived the acute infection but was left with lung and neurological damage that destroyed her will to eat and her ability to breathe well enough to sustain arousal and consciousness.”

But when asked about Glosser’s death, the White House told Mother Jones that the link to the coronavirus was incorrect.

“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 told the magazine.

Rather, the White House prevaricated, “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.”

Mother Jones obtained a copy of the death certificate, which lists “respiratory arrest” linked to COVID-19 as the cause of death. When the news outlet asked about the document, the White House said it was “categorically false.”

“She had a mile [sic] case of COVID-19 in March,” a spokesperson responded. “She was never hospitalized and made a full and quick recovery.”

However, Glosser directly denied the Trump administration’s claim that his mother didn’t die of COVID-19 complications, saying the White House had attempted to conceal the underlying cause of her death.

“Keeping the tragic facts about COVID deaths of our countrymen and women, young and old, from the American public serves no purpose other than to obscure the need for a coherent national, scientifically based, public health response to save others from this disease,” he told Mother Jones.

Research contact: @MotherJones