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Trump Back at Walter Reed After Motorcade Outside; Interview with Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) about Trump's Coronavirus Infection; New York's Mayor Proposes Closing of Nonessential Business and Schools in Coronavirus Hot Spots; Wisconsin Battles Surge in COVID-19 Cases. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired October 04, 2020 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:11]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking New.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.

We begin tonight with a ride by the president of the United States, one that is calling into question what we know about his health and his judgment.

This was earlier tonight. The president waving to supporters from the back of his SUV after leaving his suite at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the hospital where he's being treated by COVID-19. Of course he wasn't alone in that vehicle. Two people, presumably Secret Service agents, were in the car with him.

While we don't know what this means for their health, we did learn more details of the president's health from his doctor and those details were troubling. His physician Dr. Sean Conley was upbeat about the president's condition, but what he said led our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta to say the president of the United States may be sicker than his medical team is letting on.

And one striking detail, the president is now taking a steroid, one that's recommended by the World Health Organization only for people suffering the most severe cases of COVID and need supplemental oxygen. Of course he's also being treated with two other powerful drugs. An experimental antibody cocktail and Remdesivir, which has been then to shorten recovery time for some coronavirus patients but there are potentially side effects.

Let's get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's outside Walter Reed right now for us.

So, Jeremy. you were standing there when the president made that unannounced surprise photo-op appearance just a little while ago. How did it go down? How did the people outside the hospital react? What's the latest? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it was a surreal

scene. There have been dozens of the president's supporters who have been here outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center all day to show their support for the president. But it was a surprise to them as much as it was to us to see the presidential motorcade suddenly rolling down the street right in front of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

I mean, the president of the United States, we know that he is ill, he is extremely contagious, he has coronavirus. We know that he is on three powerful drugs now to try and get the president to recover from this virus. And yet here he was in this SUV rolling down the street. The president waving to his supporters who were here giving a few fist bumps.

And Wolf, it was signature Trump. You know, at a moment of weakness, at a moment where we know the president is in ill health, we heard his doctors earlier today describing his condition, the fact that his oxygenation levels dipped below healthy levels both yesterday and the day before, and so the president obviously here seizing control of the message to try and project this image of strength at a time, Wolf, where he is anything but that. Really going through the ringer with this virus.

BLITZER: The president and his team of doctors, Jeremy, spoke to reporters earlier today, the second time in two days. What are they saying about the president's health right now? And which direction do they see his condition moving?

DIAMOND: Well, Wolf, we learned more details about the president's condition. We learn that he had a worryingly high fever on Friday and that his oxygen levels dipped below 94 percent. Prompting this visit to Walter Reed hospital, and while we did hear more details, Wolf, from the president's doctor. Dr. Sean Conley and the other physicians there today, we also still have a lot of questions that remain.

I mean, Dr. Conley explained that he provided an upbeat assessment yesterday because he was trying to steer the course of the president's illness in a positive direction, trying to reflect the upbeat view of the president's medical team.

But, Wolf, that's withholding information from the American people about the health of a 74-year-old president who is in a high risk category for this virus. And they continue to withhold more information today. Even as they revealed that the president is not only on this antibody cocktail, he is also on the anti-viral Remdesivir, and he is also now on a steroid, dexamethasone, which is indicated only typically, Wolf, for patients with severe symptoms of the coronavirus, they still withheld other critical information.

For example, declining to say exactly how low the president's oxygen saturation levels went and also more critically, Wolf, declining to say what the president's lung CT and x-ray scans actually show. Dr. Conley only saying that they found expected findings which leads to the questions of what those expected findings are. Does the president have pneumonia? Does he have any scarring on his lungs? Those are some of the critical questions that medical experts have

raised in the wake of this briefing. But unfortunately, Wolf, we did not get the answers to those questions today.

BLITZER: Key word, unfortunately. Thank you very much, Jeremy Diamond over at the Walter Reed.

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It's been a few days since the world learned that President Trump is now diagnosed with coronavirus, and tonight, there isn't much clarity on how his administration is alerting people who may have been exposed to the president while he was surely contagious.

Let's go CNN's Kaitlan Collins. She's joining us from the White House right now.

Kaitlan, time is crucial in what's called contact tracing. What do we know about the White House's efforts to try to curb the spread? So many of the president's aides and supporters have now also tested positive for COVID-19.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. You are seeing a growing number of people who have spent time in the president's vicinity in recent days now test positive for coronavirus, and of course what has been so critical about that is letting those people know whether or not they were exposed to someone who had tested positive. You can see how many people surrounding the president there have now tested positive for coronavirus.

And what the White House has been doing to contract trace, the medical unit here, it seems to be minimal or slow at best, based on what we've heard from people who were at these events who had not heard anything from the White House through official channels. But even people -- a cabinet secretary we were told was struggling to get all of the information of what was actually going on when the president was moved to Walter Reed on Friday.

But, Wolf, going back to what happened this afternoon when the president took that ride in Secret Services agents, I wanted to let you know about a statement we just got from the White House defending that trip that the president took, and this is what a White House spokesman saying that, "Appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those supporting it including PPE."

They said, "This movement was cleared by the medical team as safe to do." Now they do not say who on the medical team cleared this movement, whether it was Dr. Sean Conley, the president's physician himself, or another member of that team given we know there are multiple people treating the president. But they are talking about PPE, you see the Secret Service agents there in the front seat, wearing a mask, a face shield, and a gown over their clothing.

The president of course is in the back seat, only wearing a cloth mask. And this is a sealed vehicle, obviously meant to protect the president from any kind of chemical attack. But the windows are up. Typically, if you've been riding in a car lately with someone else, your windows have likely been done. The windows were up there. So, of course, given the president is positive, it raised questions about whether or not he was endangering the people who were meant to protect him.

BLITZER: And they didn't even notify the traveling White House press corps, the pool of reporters who always have to be informed about the president's whereabouts, right?

COLLINS: That's right. They did not tell them. They actually had sent them back to the White House. They had been at Walter Reed earlier today for that briefing with the doctors that you're talking about with Jeremy. And then they said there were going to be no more presidential movements. So the reporters made the drive back here to the White House. It's a good 30-minute drive probably to Walter Reed from where I'm standing right now.

And so then the president makes this movement, and we had no idea. And Wolf, if you cover this White House as of course you did, but if you don't, for viewers at home, if the president makes any movement, if he goes to get a pack of gum, reporters are there traveling with him because it's vital. You never know what can happen to the president. And it's important to have independent coverage not just White House cameras or White House accounts of what's going on with the president.

And some of the most major movements ever in presidential history, there have been reporters there. On 9/11, when Ronald Reagan was shot. Those moments reporters were present. So it's important even if the president is only taking a short drive outside the White House, that reporters are there, too. And tonight the White House did not inform us about that. We found out about it literally as it was happening, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. And that is totally, totally unacceptable. I speak as a journalist but also as a former White House correspondent.

Kaitlan, thank you very much. We're going to get back to you.

Joining us now for more on the president's condition, Dr. Patrice Harris. She's the immediate past president of the American Medical Association, and Dr. James Phillips, he's chief of Disaster Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital. He's also a non-military attending physician at Walter Reed.

And I want to make clear he has not, repeat, not, participated in the care of the president but has treated COVID in similar circumstances.

So, Dr. Phillips, you tweeted that this photo-op with the president driving by his supporters was in your words political theater, unnecessary, and actually put the lives of Secret Service agents at risk. We just got a statement from the White House saying the trip was cleared by the medical team as safe to do. Those are the words. So do you buy that?

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: That's not standard practice by any means. And I have a hard time believing that without undue influence based on their chain of command that those physicians would have cleared that.

When we take care of patients in the emergency department, or in the thousands of hours I have spent on the in-patient ward and surgery and medicine and ICU, we don't let patients leave the hospital when they're sick, unless they sign out against medical advice offering some bit of protection to the medical staff and the hospital itself.

In the emergency department, if a patient wants to go smoke a cigarette, we can't let them leave the hospital premises to do so.

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There's risk to the public and risk to the patients themselves. So the idea that this would be cleared without any medical indication is absurd. The only reason why someone with COVID-19, severe COVID-19, causing hypoxia on multiple IV drugs, should I be leaving the hospital would be in an ambulance to be transferred to a higher level of care. There is no higher level of care than what our president is currently getting.

He's being treated by the premier military physicians in the world, being augmented by doctors from Johns Hopkins and potentially elsewhere. So why leave? What was the purpose of this? And certainly looking at the risks of transmission of COVID-19, what we know is it being in enclosed spaces is dangerous. Masks or no masks. Being inside a vehicle that is hermetically sealed circulates virus inside and potentially puts people at risk.

BLITZER: Yes. It certainly does. And, Dr. Harris, the president now has spent just a little bit more than 48 hours at the Walter Reed Medical Center. We learned that he is receiving some very sophisticated drugs. Remdesivir, this experimental antibody therapy, and now dexamethasone, a steroid.

For someone to get all three of these at the same time, what does that tell you about his condition?

DR. PATRICE HARRIS, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, Wolf, good to be with you. And certainly his physicians are treating him very aggressively. And just based on what we know so far, the president is ill. And he has had a couple of instances where his oxygen saturation has been low enough to require supplemental oxygen. And again, he is on all three of these medications.

So, I agree with Dr. Phillips that he is still quite ill. We know that during the course of this illness, a patient can feel just fine and suddenly take a turn for the worst. So, really, for the president's own health and safety, this visit outside of the hospital was quite risky today.

BLITZER: It certainly was. You know, Dr. Phillips, what do we know about these medications? They're all pretty sophisticated, experimental, some of them. When it comes to possible side effects, what kind of effect could they have, for example, on his mental state of mind?

PHILLIPS: That's a question that has been asked a lot in social media and talked about amongst physicians. He has been given dexamethasone, which is a steroid and an anti-inflammatory that helps to sort of suppress the immune system just a touch. And it's been known to affect the outcomes of COVID-19, severe COVID-19, in a way that it helps you survive. We used similar medications in the treatment of asthma, allergic conditions and dermatologic conditions.

Now what we know is in a certain subset of patients, there are side effects. They can be as simple as water retention and poor sleep, but in some patients, they can induce things like manic behavior and mania, and things like that.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not insinuating that any of that is happening, nor am I insinuating that the president's judgment has been affected in any way. But there are certain side effects particularly from the steroids that are possible. With Remdesivir, you know, the side effects we do know some but that profile has not been extremely well-defined, because it's relatively new.

And to be quite honest with Regeneron, we have no good data to tell us what that is because it's so new. Been used on so few patients. What we know of the biochemistry, it shouldn't cause tremendous side effects. But that's why we do proper safety testing. Before even an emergency authorization can be granted by the FDA which it hasn't been in this case.

BLITZER: And as you know, Dr. Harris, the details are scarce, but the ones we have gotten are also confusing. The president's doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, mentioned chest scans and said, there were, quote, "some expected findings but nothing of any major clinical concern." What does that say to you? Because if I listened very closely, I'm not a physician obviously but you are. Tell us about that.

HARRIS: Well, Wolf, you know, the White House physicians are certainly required to navigate a delicate balance. Right? They certainly bear responsibility to the president, but they also bear responsibility to the public to be neutral, and objective and transparent. And so does the president. The president is certainly as a patient entitled to his privacy, but as a public official we need him to be open and transparent.

The public again balancing issues around his privacy and national security issues, the public needs to know. And I can tell you that patients can handle the truth. As a former public health director, the public can handle the truth. And they deserve that open transparent, consistent and clear communication so that they know what's going on, and have actually a sense of greater confidence with the truth rather than these non-answers and not having clear and open and transparent communication.

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BLITZER: Dr. Harris, stand by. Dr. Phillips, stand by. We have more developments unfolding. As President Trump remains in the hospital, top members of Congress,

including the House speaker, say they haven't been briefed on his condition at all. Instead they're relying on media reports. Congressman, a Gang of Eight member, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, he's standing by live. We'll discuss when we come back.

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BLITZER: The president tonight surprising supporters, waving from his motorcade during a very brief drive outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. But the photo-op does little to make up for the lack of transparency from his medical team. And it's not just the American people that don't have the answers. Today the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she still has not been briefed on the president's health, even though after the vice president, she is next in line of succession.

Democratic congressman and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, is joining us right now.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what was your reaction to seeing the president, who is infected, seriously infected with coronavirus and is on all sorts of medications right now, waving at his supporters from the back of that SUV?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Incredulous, Wolf. What on earth is he thinking? Why would he imagine it's a good idea to go for a photo-op, a joyride when he is sick, when he's on experimental treatments? And what's more, if he wasn't going to look after his own health, what about the people in the vehicle, that hermetically sealed vehicle, those Secret Service agents who are not in a position to say no to the president.

It's irresponsible to them. And for what? I mean, I just -- you know, after he was explaining how much he'd learned about the virus to go and do this, it's just unthinkable.

BLITZER: Yes, it was really, really amazing. You are a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, the top leadership in the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans. I take it, you guys have not been briefed by the White House on any of this, the president's condition, is that so?

SCHIFF: We have not been briefed on it. And what's more, if foreign nations are looking and taking advantage of the president's potentially diminished capacity, we are not getting briefed on that either. Now maybe that's not happening. Hopefully that's not happening. But I would hope the administration will keep us in the loop, although I have to say, Wolf, the experience of the last several months, where they have withheld or tried to muddy the waters in terms of the intelligence, isn't encouraging in terms of their transparency.

BLITZER: Yes. I'm surprised that the speaker of the House hasn't been briefed yet either, is that right? SCHIFF: Well, you know, I don't know. I haven't spoken to the speaker

about it. But I think as of this morning that's what she was saying. And you know, the problem, Wolf, is if you had a responsible president who had a diminished capacity because he was taking serious medications, that president would be weighing what's in the best interest of the country. Is it in the best interest now for me to transfer authority to the vice president until I'm through this treatment?

But we don't have that kind of president. He is only ever looked out for himself which means that we could be potentially at risk if the president's condition were to deteriorate or the drugs were impairing him. And you know sadly given the performance of his doctors, in terms of being transparent with the public, it's hard to accept what we hear from the medical staff and certainly you can't rely on what you hear from the White House staff.

BLITZER: Let me play a little clip of what the president posted about a minute long video on Twitter a couple of hours or so ago. And in that video, he said this. Let me play it for you, Congressman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn't the "let's read the book" school. And I get it and I understand it. And it's a very interesting thing and I'm going to be letting you know about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So seven months, eight months into this pandemic he now says I learned a lot about COVID. What did you think when you heard that?

SCHIFF: Wolf, he's had experts -- he's had access to the very best experts in the world. They've met with him. They've talked with him. He has been told over and over again the importance of wearing a mask and socially distancing. He has been told when Clorox was not a legitimate treatment. He's been told not to push hydroxychloroquine. He doesn't listen to the experts, and the fact that he would leave the hospital and go on that joyride just a further illustration that he still hasn't learned.

Now look, I hope he makes a speedy and full recovery, and the first lady and all of the administration and my Republican colleagues in the Senate. I wouldn't wish this nasty virus on anyone. But the hope that he will learn from this experience when he demonstrates yet again by going on this joyride that he hasn't, it's an illusory hope at this point.

BLITZER: Yes. We all hope he and everyone else who have gotten COVID over the past few days make a speedy recovery. The timeline of the president's illness, though, Congressman, is still unclear. What questions would you like to be answered at this point?

SCHIFF: Well, I'd like to know when he got tested, when he knew he was negative, when he first suspected that he was negative? What steps did he take to protect his own health? What steps did he take to protect the health of other people around him? Did he knowingly go off to meet with supporters knowing that he might be infectious because he'd been in contact with others who had been? Why if he was on FOX and already had one positive test did he not discuss that?

[20:25:05]

You know, I just -- I think there's so many unanswered questions and because contact tracing is so important to the health of other people around him and a lot of those other people are also important government officials, we need the truth from the president. We need the truth from the White House, and that has always been in short supply.

BLITZER: Do you have any information -- and you're the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, that other nations, adversaries, specifically whether Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, might be plotting to take advantage of the uncertainty, what's going on in Washington right now?

SCHIFF: You know, Wolf, I have not been briefed on that. I would hope that if there is evidence of that kind that the Gang of Eight would be immediately briefed on it. Can I be confident of it if it contradicts the president's preferred narrative that he's got things under control? I can't be confident of that, not with Director Radcliffe who has shown too many times his willingness to, you know, bend to political pressure. So I would hope so but I don't know that I can count on it.

BLITZER: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: New York City right now also seeing a spike of cases across nine neighborhoods and now the mayor of New York is proposing new lockdowns that could start as early as this week. The coronavirus pandemic, it continues here in the United States. Nonstop. We have new developments.

We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: Much more coming up on the president's hospitalization, his condition right now, his ride outside the Walter Reed hospital in just a few moments. But first, there are major developments unfolding in New York City right now. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, considering closing all nonessential businesses and schools in various neighborhoods places where COVID test positivity rates are now very disturbingly climbing. And joining us CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro.

Evan, so what more are you learning about the mayor's proposal for a partial second shutdown in New York City or at least major parts of New York? EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly ominous

news, Wolf. What's at issue here is a rising infection rate in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. And what the mayor is proposing is basically a neighborhood-by-neighborhood battle against those rising numbers. In nine neighborhoods he's proposing basically a return to the kind of lockdowns we saw in all of New York back in April -- closing of school, nonessential businesses, things like that.

And in 11 other neighborhoods near those nine neighborhoods, he's proposing new restrictions on things like gyms and outdoor dining which just reopened here. Now New York has been enjoying a lot of good days when it comes to the pandemic over the past few months. But in a press conference today, Mayor de Blasio made it clear that today is not one of those days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: So today unfortunately is not a day for celebration. Today is a more difficult day. And I'm going to be giving an update that gives me no joy at all. In fact it pains me to be putting forward this approach that we'll need, but in some parts of our city, in Brooklyn and Queens, we're having an extraordinary problem, something we haven't seen since the spring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Now, Wolf, as I said, these are proposals, Mayor de Blasio needs Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign off on it. But for those of us who have been in New York for this entire pandemic, the thought of returning to some of these lockdowns is a very scary one -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly is. Evan McMorris-Santoro in New York, thank you.

New York, by the way, isn't the only city seeing a troubling new bout of new cases. A new surge of cases. The entire country has as well. Get this, more than 54,000 cases were reported on Friday including the president's, of course. That's the highest single day case number reported since 64,000 cases back on August 14th.

Dr. Patrice Harris is back with us. Dr. Harris, how worried are you right now that potentially, I hope it's not going to happen, we're seeing the start of a spike or what they call a second wave here in the United States?

HARRIS: Well, Wolf, these are certainly difficult decisions. But certainly they should be driven by the data. It looks like the infection rate is increasing there, at least in some of the zip codes in New York. We've seen an increase nationwide, we've seen certainly an increase in Wisconsin over the last couple of weeks or so.

Now, certainly, more folks are opening businesses. More schools, colleges and universities are open. And so, as a result, there is likely to be increased spread. The key is, do you have systems in place to quickly address outbreaks so that folks can quarantine and isolate? Wolf, this is what we were talking about at the very beginning when

New York was hit really hard. So the idea is to make sure that you're collecting the data and then that you can determine what next steps to do according to that data. Hopefully, you can slowly shut down any businesses where maybe there are a lot of people or there's an inability to wear masks or social distance. And not have to go back to the total shutdown that we, particularly New York, experienced early on.

[20:35:02]

BLITZER: We're now in October. The flu season is starting here in the United States. How will this flu season, Dr. Harris, complicate the fight against the coronavirus?

HARRIS: Well, certainly we are worried about the twin-demic as folks have called it. The COVID-19 and the flu. Now, Wolf, and I have said this before on your show, we are not helpless and perhaps some of the very basic public health measures that many are using, wearing masks, again keeping distance, washing hands. Those very measures can also protect us and prevent high flu rates.

The other huge intervention that can be used to decrease the flu is to get the flu vaccine. So certainly I and physicians across this country, the AMA, are encouraging everyone to get the flu vaccine that's appropriate for them.

BLITZER: That's very, very important. Could be life-saving indeed.

All right, Dr. Patrice Harris, thank you very much.

We're only 30 days out from election day here in the United States. Millions of Americans, by the way, have already voted. So what effect does President Trump's hospitalization have on the race for the White House? We'll discusses when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:40:24]

BLITZER: Here's some breaking news coming in THE SITUATION ROOM. The U.S. Justice Department says the attorney general of the United States, Bill Barr, has received four negative coronavirus tests since Friday, including another one today, but we're also told he will begin self-quarantine at least for now.

Remember, he was in the Rose Garden event a week ago Saturday for the president's U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the announcement. There you see him with Kellyanne Conway there. She's tested positive since then. At least seven people, by the way, at that event in the Rose Garden have now tested positive for COVID-19.

Very disturbing developments. We'll see what happens on that front.

Meanwhile, the president tried to shift attention away from coronavirus all summer. But now it's certainly driving the political conversation here in the United States with less than a month to go before election day. And the administration is still downplaying the threat even as this virus hits the White House.

Before the president's photo-op today, his physician addressed the mixed messages concerning President Trump's health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SEAN CONLEY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S MEDICAL TEAM: So I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, that his course of illness has had. I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN politics reporter and editor at large, Chris Cillizza, is joining us. Also, CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash.

Dana, the president's surprise little motorcade trip outside the Walter Reed Hospital today, what did you make of it?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was reckless. You know, it was classic, vintage Donald Trump, that he wanted to have a moment, and that he wanted to thank the people out there, but also he wanted to have the visual or the optics of him being vital and him being, you know, OK, which is wonderful, but he's got a deadly virus and he's in a car, as you've been talking about this evening, Wolf, with physicians.

In a hermitically sealed car, with other people, and whether they're, you know, wearing PPE or not and they were, it's just dangerous, unnecessarily so. Never mind the fact that somebody who has this kind of virus and has had the issues that his own doctor finally admitted to with regard to oxygen levels and so forth. Why do this? Well, we know the answer. He did it because he could.

BLITZER: Yes.

BASH: And because he wanted to, again, show vitality.

BLITZER: So, Chris, so what's the president's little drive-by today meant to reassure Americans or do you think this was more of an effort to reassure the president that he could do this if he wanted to?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes, I think it's the latter, Wolf. I think if Donald Trump wanted -- to echo Dana, Donald Trump wanted to do it, he's the president, he has a group of people around him who enable him, largely. No one says, Mr. President, the Secret Service will go with you because that's their job and their sworn responsibility. But maybe this isn't the smartest thing because, as dana said, it's not necessary.

You can't -- just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. I just think Donald Trump likes to hear the people who love him cheer for him. And I think this is another example of that. We know he's concerned, as most presidents would be, honestly, if they were in a situation like this, to make sure that they present themselves as sort of hail and as hardy as possible.

We know he cares very much about appearances and being appearing strong and tough. But this is not someone who thinks about other people. Never has. We shouldn't be surprised by this, Wolf, but we should call it out for what it is which is deeply irresponsible.

BLITZER: You know, from a bird's eye view, Dana, how is the president's illness, he is in the hospital now, changed this final month of the presidential campaign?

BASH: Every time something happens, you know, has happened over the past week or two weeks from Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing away to the crazy debate performance that we saw just last week, to the president contracting coronavirus. We think, OK, this is -- this is the October surprise. This is the thing that we're not expecting.

[20:45:01]

So I'm reluctant to say that we've seen the things and that's it because who knows what's going to happen next. But particularly this past week, between the president's debate performance and not just contracting coronavirus, but what we know about the way that he handled it, and not being safe and being really irresponsible and putting other people at risk, even his own supporters, his own money people, his own donors, as he went to that fundraiser in New Jersey.

It's not good. And I have talked to people even today who are in the field with polls for their own races and their own clients who have said that they have seen a drop of the president's, or with the president's support. And he was already not doing that great in a lot of really key battleground states. No, it's not to say that things won't turn around. But remember, people are voting right now.

BLITZER: Yes.

BASH: There's early voting that is happening right now in key states like North Carolina, for example.

BLITZER: A key battleground state. You know, it's interesting, you know, Chris, the Trump campaign wanted to focus in on the Supreme Court, wanted to focus in on the stock market and wanted to focus in on law and order. The last thing they wanted the American public to focus in on was coronavirus. But that has all changed these last few weeks, right?

CILLIZZA: Yes. It's remarkable. I'm with Dana that, you know, October 4th, there's still 27 days left. And a couple of days after that for the election, 30 days total so you always got to be careful particularly when Donald Trump is involved. But I think what you saw in the last six to eight weeks, Wolf, especially was Donald Trump doing anything and everything he could to make the conversation in the last 30 days of this election be about anything other than the coronavirus. So whether it's law and order, and peaceful protest versus violent

protest, Antifa versus white supremacist, all of that, then obviously the Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett, could this be a referendum on Donald Trump and conservative justices, but remarkably, Donald Trump getting the coronavirus and so many people around him getting it, we're continuing to wait on others, that will be the thing that makes it impossible for Donald Trump to not -- to get away from it, this being a referendum on coronavirus and his handling of it.

BLITZER: Yes. It's an important point as well.

Chris Cillizza, Dana Bash, guys, thank you very, very much.

There are new cases of coronavirus spiking all across the United States right now. But one state is seeing such a big surge that hospitals are getting overwhelmed right now. We have that story when we come back.

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[20:52:04]

BLITZER: Until he became ill with the coronavirus and now spending day three in the hospital, President Trump had planned back-to-back rallies in Wisconsin this weekend. Now Wisconsin is considered a coronavirus hot spot amid a spike in new cases.

CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke to health officials who are struggling big time to try to keep up.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a comeback story in Wisconsin no one wanted to see. This week Wisconsin set a record for average daily coronavirus cases in the state as well as a record- number of hospitalizations and a record-number of deaths due to COVID- 19.

DR. PAUL CASEY, BELLIN HEALTH GREEN BAY: This is a scenario we were scared of. Our numbers rise every day. The hospital is now over capacity. We're having to resort back to some of our contingency plans.

JIMENEZ: Since mid-June, the number of new cases in the state had been on a steady rise, but beginning in early September the numbers exploded.

(On camera): This is a relatively brief moment of calm inside the emergency department at Bellin Hospital here in Green Bay over what's been weeks of chaos trying to keep up with the pace of patients they have seen, fearing they're on the brink of a crisis as they've now have to put beds in the hallway for the first time just to handle the pace of people that have come in.

Why are we seeing the numbers that we've been seeing at least over the course of the past three weeks? CASEY: There's a significant part of the population that doesn't

believe in the public health measures we all recommend. So the common theme we're seeing right now is acquisition of the virus through close family or friend contact.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): County officials also point to COVID fatigue. People have started to relax their practice of health guidelines. Labor Day weekend gathering with few masks or social distancing. Schools reopening, with students in close quarters, and some rebelling against the statewide mask mandate, all this factors in the sudden rise.

CHRIS WOLESKE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BELLIN HEALTH: We're all seeing these increasing hospitalizations that are taking beds away from our ability to care for other services and we've managed it, but it is getting very challenging and very concerning as we watch the numbers continue to grow.

JIMENEZ: But it's not just Green Bay. Cities and counties across the state are struggling to find a way forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our case numbers have reflected us, you know, we're in a bad spot.

JIMENEZ: The White House Coronavirus Task Force says Wisconsin has one of the highest rates of new cases in the country. Within the region of the Midwest which now has the country's highest seven-day average of new daily cases per capita, according to Johns Hopkins data. And as the state tries to get a handle on the growing crisis, those affected serve as cautionary examples.

LEAH BLOMBERG, DIAGNOSED COVID-POSITIVE EARLIER THIS YEAR: COVID really does a number on your body.

JIMENEZ: Thirty-six-year-old Leah Blomberg said she had to be put in a medically induced coma after she tested positive in the spring.

BLOMBERG: He had actually told my husband to prepare for the worst. That they did not expect me to make it.

JIMENEZ: And months later the virus' affects still linger.

[20:55:00]

BLOMBERG: I get winded carrying my groceries 20 steps from the front step to the kitchen. Even if you don't think it's serious, not hurting anything to treat it like it is, which it is. I know firsthand. I barely made it through the first round, I don't know if I'd survive a second round.

JIMENEZ: Omar Jimenez, CNN, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Omar. Coming up, amid contradictory messages about his health, President

Trump says he has now learned a lot about the coronavirus but instead of isolating, the president, get this, chose to use his motorcade as a photo-op today just outside the hospital.

Stand by, we are getting new information.

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