Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

President Trump Tests Positive for Coronavirus. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 02, 2020 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: But there's a lot that we don't know. They didn't tell us what that means, for instance. What does it mean, they're doing well? Is the president showing any symptoms?

One of the issues is we can't count on this White House to provide reliable information right now and transparency is critical. Obviously, we wish them a speedy recovery.

Word of their diagnosis came in around 1:00 in the morning. This happened after we learned that one of the president's top aides, Hope Hicks, was diagnosed with coronavirus. She was, we are told, showing symptoms. And she had been traveling with the president and spent a ton of time, frankly, with the president over the last several days, including debate prep, then going on the road to the debate and a rally in Minnesota. You can see her right there, that photo with Stephen Miller. She was traveling with all kinds of White House aides in close proximity, unmasked.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: You mentioned Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, as well, which raises the question, of course, who else may have been exposed? And just think for a minute about the contact tracing that will need to happen here, all of the people the president has met with in the last week. This will involve the highest levels of the U.S. government, congressional leaders, cabinet members, even the president's new Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.

And how will the west wing operate with the president in isolation? Who can come into the west wing today to work? What are the implications on the 2020 race? A source telling CNN that Joe Biden will be tested this morning, CNN has learned. But then that brings us to the debates, the vice presidential debate scheduled for next week, not to mention the two presidential debates upcoming. Will they even happen?

CNN's Joe Johns is live this morning at the White House with our major breaking news. And, Joe, I'm curious, if you've seen anybody coming or going or heard anything out of the White House yet this morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Not so far, and that's not surprising, around 7:00 in the morning. You don't see that many people coming and going around 8:00. It gets a bit busier, very quiet here at the White House. I can tell you this, while there aren't any outward signs at the moment, what we do know is the president's schedule, Erica, has certainly changed. He was supposed to go down to Florida for both a fundraiser and a rally. That rally to be held in Sanford, Florida. We know that that is canceled. We know that's not going to happen.

The president was also supposed to go to Wisconsin. That was on the schedule for this weekend as well, on Saturday. It hasn't officially been canceled, but as you said, it's our understanding that the president and the first lady are going to quarantine, so it doesn't seem possible that those events are going to happen either.

Still, you would expect to get some type of confirmation of that, officially from the White House. None has been forthcoming at least so far.

So, what we also know is this all kicked off around, what, 1:00 this morning, officially, when the president went on Twitter, reporting that he and the first lady had tested positive for COVID-19, not a real surprise, of course. Because here at the complex and in other places, we've reported again and again, over these many months, that the president has flaunted the guidelines that have been put out by his own coronavirus task force, especially when it comes to the wearing of masks, so perhaps a bit of a shock this morning for Americans, but not necessarily a surprise.

So we got that report from the president at 1:00 A.M. confirming that he and the first lady had turned up with coronavirus, testing positive, I should say, for having been exposed to it.

Now, the president reported about two hours before on Twitter that his aide, who has been with him for so long, Hope Hicks, had, in fact, also tested positive for the coronavirus. And she traveled with him, in fact, on Wednesday, out to Minnesota, where he did a rally there and came back. Our reporting is that she started showing symptoms on the plane, on the way back, but had earlier tested negative for coronavirus, which allowed her to get on the plane.

And, apparently, Hope Hicks' diagnosis was made clear at least by Thursday morning, and at that time, we're trying to find out why the word didn't go out all over the White House. What's clear is the president, just yesterday, went to a fundraiser in New Jersey.

And the question, of course, being whether the president and people here at the White House knew that Hope Hicks had tested positive, because she comes into such close contact with the president. Back to you.

HILL: Yes, it's such an important point, when they knew it and when they planned to tell the American people, very important. Joe, thank you.

We are also getting more from the Biden campaign this morning. Of course, former Vice President Biden spent 90 minutes on stage, not too far from the president --

BERMAN: Who was shouting.

HILL: There was a lot of shouting.

[07:05:00]

And we know what happens when you shout in terms of spreading those droplets.

CNN's Arlette Saenz covering the Biden campaign, she is live in Washington now with more. What more are we hearing from the campaign and how this is impacting those plans and the vice president and his health?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, it's been a little over six hours since President Trump tweeted his coronavirus diagnosis and Joe Biden and his campaign have yet to respond specifically to that. But a source familiar with his plans tells CNN that Biden will be tested for coronavirus this morning.

Now, the campaign has previously told us that he has tested for COVID- 19 weekly and that if he ever did test positive, they would make that public. This comes after Biden and Trump shared that debate stage, standing at those socially distanced podiums. We're not sure if they had any other contact, perhaps backstage, or if their aides mingled in any way. But this certainly raises questions, not just about the health of each of these men running for president, but also what the future of this campaign looks like.

You have a vice presidential debate slated for next week. Two weeks from now, another presidential debate. President Trump was supposed to hold events down in Florida today, Biden is heading down -- or supposed to head over to Michigan. The campaign hasn't said where that trip stands today. But certainly, we've seen the Biden campaign over the course of the past few months, take a lot of precautions when it comes to coronavirus.

The former vice president is nearly always out there, wearing a mask. In fact, at the debate when he walked out on stage, that was one of the rare times when you've seen him walk into an event without a mask on. You've heard him promote in his speeches the need for people to socially distance and wear masks in order to curb the spread of coronavirus. And it's a stark contrast to the approach that the president has taken.

You'll remember, on the debate stage, President Trump mocked Biden for wearing masks as much as he does, but the Biden campaign has really tried to be careful with the way that they campaign, with the way that he is out in public, due to the coronavirus pandemic. In part, they say so that he's leading by example.

BERMAN: President Trump mocked the former vice president for not wearing a mask at a time when President Trump may very well have already been infected with coronavirus. We simply don't know at this point exactly what the timeline would be.

Arlette Saenz, thank you very much. And just so people are clear, the next two debates are both scheduled within a two-week window. The vice presidential debate and the next presidential debate, hard to imagine that they will take place, but we are waiting for official word.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood.

I do want to delve into the president's medical situation, particularly, a man in his 70s who is overweight being diagnosed, and we will get to that. But, Sanjay, first, I understand we do have some breaking news on continuity of government. One of the open questions here is how will things be run and who will we see in the coming days, especially because the entire top strata of government has been in contact with the president or people infected over the last few days, including the vice president as recently as Tuesday? So you would think he would have to quarantine for two weeks. But what do we know about what he might be doing?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right. So, yes, this is coming from a source that I spoke to earlier this morning. So what should happen, first of all, is he's come in contact with someone who has known COVID, you should be quarantined for 14 days. What can happen, and you've heard this term before, essential worker or critical infrastructure worker, more specifically. And that's a designation that is given to people who they say are necessary to be working, they're performing critical infrastructure duties.

Now, if you are considered a critical infrastructure worker, as it turns out, even if you've had an exposure, you don't necessarily need to be quarantined as long as you remain without symptoms and you wear a mask wherever you're out of the home, out in public.

So it is possible, to your point, John, you go into the situation where Vice President Pence, for example, he's got contact, if he's an essential worker, he may not necessarily need to be quarantined. And that's something we could hear about over the day today. Exactly what is the designation of the vice president going to be now going forward in this situation?

BERMAN: Certainly, this White House has shown willingness to stretch all kinds of boundaries when it comes to safety. So I wouldn't be surprised if they try to figure out a way to have the vice president be public.

HILL: Yes. And also, there's some reporting from Jonathan Martin in The New York Times this morning that there's also a talk, he says, at the White House, about how to put the president out there today, to put him out possibly addressing the nation, to see -- for the nation to see him.

[07:05:01]

But there are reports he's concerned. He has these co-morbidities, he's 74 years old, he's clinically obese.

John Harwood, it's fascinating too that this is what we're hearing in this moment.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erica, this is a personal tragedy for the president, for the first lady, Hope Hicks. This is a dangerous disease. It's an unpredictable disease. And as you all have been mentioning, he has co-morbidities. It is also the most vivid possible demonstration of the incompetence and the irresponsibility of the administration, unable to protect the country these last several months, unable to protect those around him, unable to protect himself.

The president, by mocking mask-wearing, by downplaying the significance of the virus, by trying to suppress the medical expertise that has been warning of the danger of this, you could not have had a clearer demonstration of this for the American public.

So, in addition to the blow on a personal level, this is also a serious, serious blow to his re-election campaign at a time when it was reeling already.

BERMAN: I will note, Maggie Haberman, who is on the byline in The New York Times, suggesting the White House is trying to figure out a way to put the president out public today. We have her coming up. So we'll get some new reporting on that shortly.

I do want to talk about the president's health, Dr. Reiner. You treated or still treat, I think, Vice President Dick Cheney. President Trump is a man in his 70s who is obese. He also had a trip to Walter Reed, we don't know what that was about. So, someone of that age and of that type, what's his situation now dealing with coronavirus? What does he face?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: He faces an increased risk of a bad outcome. We know that two of the greatest risks are advanced age and increased body mass. And the president has both of those.

Look, John, we don't know very much about the president's health. Remember that when he was running for office the first term, he wrote his own medical clearance letter and had his physician in New York sign it. And his annual exams have been very, very opaque. We do know that he visited Walter Reed last November on a Saturday afternoon and the public has never been told what happened at that encounter.

So we really don't know what other co-morbidities the president might have, but just being over the age of 70 and having obesity is enough to significantly increase his risk of death from this virus.

Having said that, it's still overwhelmingly likely that he will do okay and survive this.

HILL: And, Dana, as we look at this, I think the point that Dr. Reiner brings up too, what we still don't know about that visit to Walter Reed nearly a year ago, and the fact that this White House has not put out reliable information on the virus, has not been transparent about the president's health, just remind us. It sound like a simple question, but it really isn't. Why is it so important that the American public know how their president is doing, have real, accurate information about the health of the leader of the country?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a great question. And it does seem so simple. But the simple answer is because the country and the systems of government, many of them rely on the awareness and the competence of the president of the United States, particularly when it comes to national security and international threats. But there are other issues, as well.

And that is why post-JFK assassination, the 25th Amendment was passed. So that there are continuity of government procedures with the president of the United States, and why, as Jeffrey Toobin was talking about last hour, someone like George H.W. Bush, who, when he was president, was kind of by the book on these kind of constitutional issues kind of guy, even when he got a colonoscopy, he wrote a letter to the Senate saying, I'm going to give my duties over to the V.P. for an hour or two.

That's what we should expect from our president and what we should expect from our elected officials. Because we, the people, voters, everybody in America, put them in there and there needs to be, you know, a two-way street when it comes to trust.

And you're right, Michael Schmidt of The New York Times wrote a book, talked about that a trip that the president took to Walter Reed. And we don't know very much about it except that talk inside the west wing that there were issues that we didn't know about, perhaps a transfer of power at that time to the vice president.

[07:15:06]

And that plus so many other unanswered questions puts us in a place where we don't want to be right now as reporters and more importantly the American public, in terms of having unanswered questions and not a lot of confidence that we will get factual answers.

BERMAN: Right. This is the moment when we need transparency. This is a moment when we need truth. And we cannot, in any way, be confident that we are getting it right now because of what this White House has said about any number of things over the last several years, including coronavirus, including masks.

I have another question. But let me just play so people can see as recently as Tuesday night, on the debate stage what President Trump was saying about masks, attacking Joe Biden for wearing a mask. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I mean, I have a mask right here. I put a mask on when I think I need it.

I don't wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from them and shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: To an extent, Sanjay, that's how we got here.

Now, let's talk about where we are and what has to happen. The amount of contact tracing that needs to happen now and the level of government that we're talking about here will almost blow your minds. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has been working out of the White House. She was there yesterday. She has been meeting with officials and then going to the Senate. So think about all of that contact tracing there.

Steve Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, met with the president, we were told, Wednesday morning and was on Capitol Hill meeting with Nancy Pelosi Wednesday afternoon. Nancy Pelosi is next in line after the vice president.

So, again, you are talking about the top strata of U.S. government here. If you contact trace, you know, if you think everyone is going to need to quarantine, this is going to be everybody, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Yes, and that's what the CDC guidelines sort of recommend. And I went over this again this morning and I went over it with people who are helping craft these guidelines. And they're pretty clear on this, that if you've had contact with somebody with known COVID, regardless of your test.

And I think it's really fundamental point. I mean, we just saw with Hope Hicks, even you can test positive one day -- test negative one day and then test positive the next day, or even the same day, you can get two different results. That's an important thing to keep in the back of the mind. It's why testing can only go so far.

People will need to be quarantined as a result of what has happened here and because, you know, they're not -- there's a lot of close contacts. It's not just contacts, but close contacts, within six feet, unmasked for over 15 minutes. So it's really going to add a really complicated dimension to this.

I will say, I've gotten a couple of calls now from sources on this, this idea that there may be people, including the vice president, designated as an essential/critical infrastructure worker. Why is that important? Because if they are considered essential workers in this regard, then there is wiggle room, according to the CDC guidelines, about not necessarily needing to be quarantined, as long as you don't have symptoms and as long as you wear a mask.

So we'll see. I mean, we're all learning and sort of figuring this out in real-time as we go along here.

BERMAN: All right. Everyone, stand by for just a second here, because we are getting some breaking information.

HILL: Yes. We have Maggie Haberman with us, of course, CNN Political Analyst, White House Correspondent at The New York Times. And, Maggie, you and your colleagues have this excellent reporting about what the White House has been talking about over the last several hours in terms of how they plan to handle this. And that includes how they want the country to see the president in this moment. What are you learning?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. So there are discussions that are underway. There were, when I closed my eyes for a few hours at about 4:00 a.m., about the possibility of the president doing some kind of a national address or some other way in which he could be seen by the country, so that they can see he's still functioning, so they can see that he is still effectively running the country without interruption.

Whether that actually ends up happening remains to be seen. But, Erica, they are very conscience of the fact that there are going to be a lot of Americans who are worried about the possibility that he is -- I don't want to say, incapacitated, but that he could be sicker than they're saying or, in fact, they've said very little about how symptomatic he is at all.

And I think they realize that electorally and just for reassuring the markets and so forth that there's a need for people to see the president. But they are also very candid, some of them, that this is a -- this is fraught with problems for the president, that this is likely going to remind a number of voters that he downplayed the virus for several months, including as recently as yesterday.

BERMAN: Maggie, I've been reading your reporting all night long as you keep on adding to it. And one of the things that you did report as of a few hours ago, Hope Hicks, we understand, tested positive yesterday morning. CNN is reporting that there was a circle of officials who knew this, even before the president went to New Jersey to meet indoors with people at fundraising events and the like.

[07:20:10]

But your reporting was that there was a hope somehow that the news about Hicks would not go public? Talk more about that.

HABERMAN: Sure. So we have similar reporting that there were a small group of aides who knew on Wednesday night that she was sick. She started getting symptoms while she was at the rally, according to our sources. She was quarantined on Air Force One on the way back, exited off the back of the plane, and then was tested on Thursday morning.

So just to be clear, Thursday morning is before the president goes to Bedminster for a campaign-related fundraiser. It is before, I think, Kayleigh McEnany holds a briefing with reporters, where she was not wearing a mask. So they were well aware of what was going on and a number of them had been hoping that they were going to be able to keep the information from getting out when news did break.

But Bloomberg News first broke the story. There were efforts to deny confirming it for people. This is how they have typically handled people around the president getting sick. And what they cite is medical privacy. And that's fine, and absolutely true, that people are entitled to medical privacy. But this is a different situation, where the people are getting sick and can infect other people. This is an infectious disease, this is not, you know, this is not an internal illness.

And so that is how they have handled it before and have handled it this time.

HILL: And to your point, Maggie, yes, there are medical privacy issues, 100 percent. But when we're talking about a highly contagious disease and the people who can get affected -- infected, rather, we're talking about the president of the United States. And at that point, as we've been talking about, there is a duty to let the country know.

Is it your sense that it is seen as a duty? And I know that sounds like a rhetorical question, but we have to ask it. Does this White House see it as their duty to keep the American public informed of the president's health and well-being and informed accurately?

HABERMAN: Erica, I just want to start out by saying, you know, I think everyone hopes that the president has a speedy recovery. I don't think -- I think that everyone who covers him, certainly, you know, is sorry that he is sick.

I do think this is on a White House who -- that has typically been forthcoming about his health. I mean, just think about those mystery visits to Walter Reed last 2019, his excuse for which he wanted to get a jump on his physical, an explanation that never quite made sense.

They have not been fully disclosing about his health information and that's in keeping with how the president views the office. He does not see it the way -- and, look, there's a long history of presidents not being particularly forthcoming about their health, but this is the first time in a very long time that we have had a president with a really threatening, potentially threatening medical condition while he's serving this close to an election.

BERMAN: Maggie, what is the level of concern inside the west wing about the people who work inside the west wing this morning? And do you have any sense about how they intend to go about their work?

HABERMAN: So it's a great question, John. There has been, as of 1:00 A.M. last night, my understanding is that no broad email had gone out to advisers. I assume that was across the complex. I assume that's going to change about what had happened, or at least that something had happened and what people should do.

Several people are aware that they need to quarantine. There were a number of aides who morally travel with the president who weren't with him yesterday on his way to Bedminster. And that was noticeable at the time to people. Some of them, I think, are planning to quarantine. I don't know if all of them are.

The issue with quarantining is how sort of resistant many people in the White House have been to it. And this is about the tone it sets for the rest of the country. Nobody wants to be in quarantine, but it is important to keep it from spreading. And you have a bunch of people who are doing something of a choose your own adventure. There were a number of people at the White House yesterday, some wearing masks, who, you know, were around Hope Hicks or around the president, and probably should have been quarantining.

So, I think the answer is, for one, there is really widespread concern at the top levels of the White House that this is going to impact a number of the president's senior aides heading into the election. And that affects the campaign as well, because the debate prep over the weekend, which is critical to the debate. And then the question is, how many people are sort put out of commission for a quarantine for a time.

BERMAN: All right. Maggie Haberman, thank you very much for this reporting. I mean, it goes without saying, we have an outbreak inside the White House involving the president, first lady, and one of the president's top aides. What we don't know yet is how much further this goes.

[07:25:02]

That is one of the open questions we have this morning.

Another, what will we see from Joe Biden? Will he continue with his campaign events today? We're trying to figure that out right now.

Plus, how there affect the workings of Washington?

Stick around, we're getting new information by the second. Our special live coverage continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The breaking news, the White House tells us the president and first lady have tested positive for coronavirus. A note from the president's doctor says they are doing well, but we don't know how much that exactly means. We do not know if the president is exhibiting any symptoms. These are just some of the unanswered questions this morning, including just how far now the contact tracing has already gone to figure out who else might be infected, because there is an outbreak at the highest level of U.S. government.

With us now, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, and Jeff Mason, he is a White House Correspondent for Reuters, who's, frankly, been attacked by the president for wearing a mask, doing his duties at the White House.

[07:30:09]