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President Trump's Physician Gives Update On President's Condition And Treatment. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired October 03, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:59:41]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. I'm going to Walter Reed Hospital, I think I'm doing very well. But we're going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well.
So thank you very much, I appreciate it. I will never forget. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A growing number of people in the president's inner circle have now also tested positive for the virus. Just in the past hour Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin announced that he has tested positive, the third GOP senator to get that diagnosis in the last 24 hours.
Several of those infected attended a White House ceremony one week ago to introduce the president's U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, an event where few people in the audience, you see right there were wearing masks.
And now uncertainty surrounds how the president's diagnosis will impact the election with just one month until voters begin casting their ballots on November 3.
We have a lot to talk about today. Joining me right now are CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Boris Sanchez at Walter Reed Medical Center, CNN's Ryan Nobles at the White House, also with us CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston.
All right. Mark, I'm going to begin with you because at any moment now it is expected that the president's doctor will be up dating people, we're hearing from sources that they are concerned that the president has shown some stress in breathing and that he has been very fatigued, yet at the same time the White House and the president is trying to say, you know, everything is normal, we are not making any kind of adjustments.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Not to be surprised that the White House, Fred, would move forward with that tact and any other White House for that matter except any other White House might be a little bit more willing to tell us what is exactly happening with the president. And that is the biggest problem right now is the lack of information as we head into this campaign, this closing month of the campaign.
There's so much discussion about what is going to happen. For President Trump to do well in the campaign, let's assume that all is well, and we pray that all is well, you know, with this COVID diagnosis.
But let's assume that he does get back on the campaign trail. Really what he needs to show the American people at that point is that he is healthy, that he has the stamina and that he has the facilities to continue moving on as president. As we know, we don't know all the side effects and Dr. Gupta can talk about this. We don't know all the side effects of this -- of what's going to happen to COVID a year from now, six months from now, who knows?
But Donald Trump, assuming he gets over this which we think he will, we hope he will, needs to show that he has the stamina as he goes forward in this campaign.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, right now, we need to hear more about how he is doing there at Walter Reed as we see some people who are coming out of the building there.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, if I could ask you, you know, when we hear from sources that there is fatigue and that he is having difficulty in breathing, what is this telling you about his condition and what this virus is doing to his body and his experience right now?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean the fever that we heard about yesterday sort of is something that the body -- that is the body basically trying to mount a response to the virus. What is interesting about that and it is important a little bit in the time line of things, is that usually comes a little bit later.
You get exposed, the virus starts to replicate in your body. At some point, and I'm talking about a few days later typically, the body -- you know, you start to be able to detect that virus and obviously the fever is an indication you are trying to fight that virus.
The difficulty breathing if that is true, that is a more serious sign, that could be indicating that he is developing a viral pneumonia or inflammation in the lungs and that is an objective thing. People often say he has difficulty breathing, but once you are in the hospital, that's something that can be more objectively, you know, sort of investigated. Is it true difficulty breathing, is it intermittent, what is it exactly?
At the hospital -- a hospital like Walter Reed, they can do more sophisticated imaging like a CAT scan, which is something that's been really important for COVID to try and figure out exactly what's happening in the lungs.
But again, you know, we're sort of speculating here because we haven't really heard from the doctors and these statements have been pretty opaque. You know, I've looked at a lot of the doctor statements over the past several months and it's tough to read into them sometimes so hopefully they'll answer some of these questions a give a little bit more definition.
WHITFIELD: And Sanjay, what do you want to hear about the detail of this cocktail that was given to the president, this experiment cocktail and what is an FDA-approved Remdesivir and how these things were presented to the president?
DR. GUPTA: Yes, this is a really good question. I mean you know, keep in mind, Fred, just by way of background, you know, we heard the president was doing well and then almost the next thing we heard was that he was receiving an experimental monoclonal antibody cocktail.
[11:04:54]
DR. GUPTA: That's not something that's even has emergency use authorization yet. It's got a lot of optimism around it, but it's truly experimental and would have been given under compassionate use. The question that I would like to know is why was that decision made --
WHITFIELD: And who made that decision.
DR. GUPTA: -- if he's doing well. Was there some particular reason, who made that decision, and as you asked, what was the -- how was it presented to the president. We want to give you this experimental cocktail. It is not even authorized under the EUA. We want to give it to you under compassionate. Here is what we expect it will do for you. I'd be curious if the doctor talks about that conversation.
Because ultimately the president had to agree, I'm going to take something that doesn't even yet have emergency use authorization. Was that because of a heightened level of concern or what was going on at that point? That must have been a discussion happening in the White House involving lots of people. How did it get presented?
WHITFIELD: Yes. And the president would be extended any and all things particularly at Walter Reed there. But what is that facility, that hospital able to do for the president that perhaps being on watch at the White House couldn't do?
DR. GUPTA: Yes. You know, the White House has a pretty extensive medical facility, but when you go to Walter Reed, I think there's a few things that are different.
One is you -- instead of bringing a lot of the specialists to the White House, the specialists are there at Walter Reed, you know. Lung doctors, infectious disease doctors, critical care doctors. All these people are there. They can quickly, you know, assess the president and determine what the best course of care is.
There is also advanced imaging. And again, the White House medical unit can do a lot, but if you need to get advanced imaging CAT scans, MRIs, things like that. I think one of the biggest things Fred is you now have proximity to an intensive care unit. You know, he doesn't necessarily need it and hopefully he doesn't, but if you suddenly need -- if you are in a critical situation and somebody need to get someone to a critical care unit, that is a much more challenging prospect to suddenly transport someone like that from their home to the critical care unit versus some, you know, general care floor within the hospital itself.
You may remember this happened with Boris Johnson. He had a positive diagnosis, sort of had mild symptom, was going to go into the hospital out of an abundance of caution and then ended up spending three days in the ICU, in the intensive care unit. So I think that is part of it as well, you know,. Just the proximity to all this level of care.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And in Boris Johnson, a ventilator was actually applied, you know, brought in even if Boris Johnson later said, you know, he was near death.
I also want to bring in chief political analyst Gloria Borger. Gloria, this White House believes it has been very transparent by a, informing the world that the president and the first lady tested positive, that we get to see him walk into Walter Reed, that he sends out a video, you know, thumbs up, I'm feeling good. Everything is great.
Talk to us about the importance of transparency. How much more transparent does this White House need to be for the sake of the office, for the sake of national security?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. First of all, I would argue with them if they say they have been transparent. They've been anything but transparent.
First of all, the way we heard about this was through an initial Bloomberg report which had the news that Hope Hicks had contracted COVID. If Bloomberg had not released that report, I wonder how much we would know at this particular point. Then they realized, of course, once the president had tested positive, we had to know about it.
But what we're waiting for right now, Fred, is the first real briefing, and let's see what it is, the first real briefing from doctors that we have been able to see about the president's condition.
We have had statements about the president and vice president. We have had gaggles with the White House chief of staff about the president or the president's economic adviser out in front of the White House about the president, but we have not had serious medical briefings that people like Sanjay Gupta can listen to and then raise questions about.
I think the American public deserves to know more, I'm glad to see that we are finally going to get a briefing now. you know, we've learned that the president obviously had to be transported to Walter Reed, he is on an experimental drug. He's now on Remdesivir. That raises questions about his oxygen supply. And we need to know the answers to these questions, not just tweets, not just videotapes of the president saying he thinks he's doing fine, and hear from doctors.
And this goes to sort of a White House that has a credibility problem to begin with because you want to be able to believe what the people at the White House are telling you about the health of the president of the United States.
[11:09:55]
BORGER: And if you can't believe them and they come with a deficit when it comes to credibility, then the people you should be able to believe are the doctors at Walter Reed and the president's doctor himself.
So hopefully we will be able to get some real tangible information this morning.
WHITFIELD: And of course, if anyone is just now joining us, we're expecting at any moment now to emerge from that door at Walter Reed will be the president's physician to tell the public exactly how he is doing while he continues to be treated there as of yesterday when he went in late in the afternoon.
Ryan Nobles at the White House. The White House had said, hey, all systems are go. We're going to continue with our campaigning, nothing has changed. That was up until just moments ago. Has anything changed now?
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously Fred, the campaign is missing out on its biggest weapon in its arsenal and that is President Trump. He is obviously the reason that they are able to draw huge crowds. He's of course, leading the ticket and he is going to be off the campaign trail for an indefinite amount of time.
But according to what we're learning about the campaign itself, not much else is going to change. The campaign is continuing to do in- person canvassing. Their volunteers are still going to be knocking on doors.
And we're learning more about the role of Vice President Mike Pence. It's going to become much more prominent in this campaign. And despite the fact that, you know, the president and so many in his inner circle have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to hold of these in-person rallies on Thursday of next week. Now we should point out, that the vice president and his wife did test negative again this morning for the coronavirus, so he remains in the clear.
He is scheduled to go to the debate on Wednesday. But it is pretty remarkable, Fred, given everything that has happened with this campaign and with this administration over the past 48 hours, and the criticism that the president and his associates have been given because of the fact that he has spent so much time defying all of these guidelines that are set out by his own CDC in terms of the mass gathering of people without social distancing and without masks, that Vice President Pence is going to hold an in-person rally in Arizona on Thursday.
So the campaign is just continuing to move forward. They still firmly believe that President Trump has a strong chance to win this election, that is why they are not backing off. And we should also point out, Fred, that in addition to all the administration individuals that have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Republican senators that have tested positive, the president's own campaign manager Bill Stepien, who was there with him for debate prep, was around Hope Hicks the night of the debates, he too has tested positive for coronavirus and is going to be working from home.
But the campaign says that he is still very much going to be in charge of the day to day operations. So, you know, despite the fact the president's going to be a part of this, the campaign and in every other way, shape and form, moving forward as planned.
WHITFIELD: And then Ryan, we have yet to hear anything about the kind of contact tracing that is taking place. There are a lot of people that work at the White House and come into contact with the president, many of whom you don't see, you don't know, you know, from the chef perhaps to who is doing laundry, you know, the drivers. And one has to wonder how now all of those people are being tested, are being evaluated, you know, what is happening in their world right now.
All right.
I also want to bring in now Boris Sanchez -- and you are at Walter Reed there. So Boris, what can you tell us about the sequence of events leading up to this decision to have the president arrive there yesterday and the importance perhaps of the White House or maybe the president making sure that people could at least see him walking into Walter Reed?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is just it, Fred. We've learned within the last hour, our colleague Jamie Gangel reporting from a source familiar with the decision to transport the president to Walter Reed Medical Center, that it all had to do -- or largely had to do with optics.
The White House, the president wanted to be seen walking on his own volition out of the White House coming to Walter Reed Medical Center, showing that he was still in good health. The opposite of that they felt would have been catastrophic if the president needed physical assistance, that image would have sent the wrong message to the American people in their eyes.
And so that really answers a large question that we had yesterday, exactly why this was happening, when it was happening, if the president had tested positive for COVID-19, earlier or rather, the evening prior and announced it earlier in the day.
The last update that we got from the White House was that the president was in good spirits, that the reason for this trip was out of an abundance of precaution, but of course as we just noted, part of the reason that the president decided to come here at the time that he did yesterday had a lot to do with the message that he wanted to send to the American people, that he was still in good health, walking of his own volition to Marine One, coming here.
[11:14:55]
SANCHEZ: We're still waiting for this update. Last we were told it was just minutes away. And the last we heard, the president was only experiencing mild symptoms related to COVID 19, a congestion, a low- grade fever as well as fatigue. So obviously we are eager to hear what Dr. Sean Conley the president's physician has to say, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Right. The first message from the White House of out of an abundance of caution as you note, but then now according to sources, his condition has accelerated to, you know, far more concerning symptoms.
So Sanjay, back to you. There has been no transfer of power, you know, from the president to the vice president. And you just heard from Ryan Nobles about the campaigning plans, the vice president still expected to debate, you know, coming on Wednesday, we don't know what kind of adjustments might be made, you know, to that arena of debate, but that the vice president would still continue to go according to schedule to a rally or campaign stop.
You know, what is your concern about the message that the White House is trying to send, a message of normalcy when we have a very serious, potentially a very serious situation here?
DR. GUPTA: Well, you know, I think there is a practical message here in that, you know, the vice president, we don't know what his specific exposures have been, you know. The guidance and I think the sort of agreed upon CDC recommendations, if you have had exposure to someone with known COVID, and again the exposure if you ant to define it more precisely, if you've been within six feet of somebody for longer than 15 minutes without a mask on, that would be considered a close contact.
So, you know, for the vice president, if he's had that sort of contact with anybody who then subsequently tested positive for COVID, that is a concern for him and the guidance recommendations would be that he be quarantined. And that is irrespective of whether or not he's had a negative test.
As I was just saying, you could have an exposure and likely you wouldn't test positive after that exposure for several days. The virus has to replicate and become to detectable in the body.
In fact, we can show this graphic, quickly if we have it, in terms of what happens in terms of the exposure and the symptoms, if we have that. But typically it is several days between exposure and then when someone develops symptoms. So you see, Fred, we're really talking about that time period in between infection and symptoms there.
My point is that the vice president, hopefully he does not ever test positive, but the fact that he has tested negative now after exposure to some of the folks who have COVID doesn't mean he is free and clear. That's why they say people should be quarantined after that so that they don't continue to spread the virus.
WHITFIELD: you know, we also have a photograph, if we can pull it up, of that Rose Garden ceremony, and the placement of where the vice president was sitting in proximity to other people who have since tested positive. And talk to us, explain to people about, you know, earlier in the week -- or I should say really within, you know, Friday's period, we heard the negative test right there of, you know, the vice president is in the front row seat. Senator, you know, Mike Lee not far away, Kellyanne Conway not far away. You talk about the six, you know, foot proximity.
While the vice president at first tested negative, explain to people why another test because of, you know, potential, you know, false reads of the first negative, why it is important to have yet another test and we're learning today a second COVID test for the vice president testing negative. But you also underscore it doesn't necessarily mean, you know, that somewhere down the line he may have to be tested again.
DR. GUPTA: Yes, exactly right. And so whatever event it is, in this case the Rose Garden event, if you were to test people the next day, it is not likely that an exposure from that event would lead to a positive result the next day. That is sort of the point.
And in an era in the country where we don't have enough testing, what the guidance has been is look, if we can't test you, the best guidance is just quarantine yourself. The virus shouldn't incubate longer than 14 days and after 14 day, you shouldn't be carrying the virus anymore, you shouldn't be contagious.
But for the vice president, to your question, you'd really have to did regular testing for a period of time after every potential exposure. And again, a positive test today could reflect a positive exposure up to a couple of weeks ago. On average it's around five days or so, five or six days but it could be a couple of weeks earlier.
So it is a good -- it's important to have testing. I don't want to minimize the importance of testing, Fred. If you have a positive test, you have your answer there. You need to be isolated. If you have a negative test, it just basically means at this point in time you are negative. It doesn't mean you haven't had an exposure and it doesn't mean that test may not turn positive the next day.
[11:19:53]
WHITFIELD: Mark Preston, we're looking forward now to hearing from Dr. Sean Conley, that is what we're expecting to hear from coming out of Walter Reed.
And I wonder if you could give us some insight. It would seem that Dr. Conley will not be telling the public anything that the White House won't already perhaps even approve of or know. This just moments before he is expected to come out on the microphone.
PRESTON: Just imagine the struggle right now that is taking place as we await for this press conference to occur. You have the doctors who, you know, who are not political, who want to come out and just tell the truth, calm the nation. And then you have President Trump and his team which are bombastic with just about everything. And I suspect that is going on right now, you know. Not that we wouldn't have this kind of confusion or controversy during any situation if a president was in a bad way. But right now, what we're seeing is this delay, wondering what are they going to say? Have they got all of their ducks lined up.
You know, one thing to note Fred, and I think Gloria hit upon this earlier, as did Dr. Gupta, what we saw was this potentially super spreader event. But what we saw was, we've not only put the presidency in peril, we have now put Congress in peril, and perhaps the Supreme Court in peril.
So, you know, as much as folks say listen, we have to get through COVID, you know, eventually everyone is going to get it and what have you, whatever, the bottom line is that the recklessness of the White House has really put the government in peril at this point.
WHITFIELD: All right. Everybody stand by. We're going to continue to have this conversation. Take a short break.
Again, we're waiting for the president's physician to emerge there from Walter Reed Medical Center, give us an update about the president's condition after testing positive for COVID-19.
[11:26:46]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome back.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
We are waiting to hear from the president's physician right outside of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Sources have been telling CNN that the president has experienced some difficulty in breathing and in fatigue. This after the White House sent a message earlier in the day that he was being transported out of an abundance of caution.
I've got a great panel with me now. Let's me go first to chief political analyst Gloria Borger. So Gloria, you know, what is happening right now between the medical team of the president and perhaps the White House in trying to coordinate perhaps the message that they want conveyed to the public just minutes ahead now of the president's physician coming out and hitting that microphone?
BORGER: Well, the message ought to be the truth. I mean there is just nothing beyond that. There's no way to spin, or there shouldn't be any way to spin the president's physical condition.
And I think also the public is owed a time line of just what happened to the president and when. And you know, you just did an interesting interview with Dr. Wen who raises some really interesting questions about the president's illness, which is she makes the case, and Sanjay can talk about this, she makes the case that the president's illness seems to have progressed very, very quickly. Normally after you get COVID, it doesn't go from just experiencing mild symptoms to something more dramatic requiring experimental drugs over a couple of days. And so the questions that need to be answered are when he contracted it so they can do the right kind of contact tracing, when was the president sick, was the president sick when he was doing the debate for example? We just don't know.
So when did he contract it? What is his condition right now? What is his prognosis? What kind of medications is he on.
All of those questions remain to be answered because don't forget, you have a vice president who is going to be out on the campaign trail who has been not only in contact with the president, they say not recently, but in contact with the president, but others who may have been infected by the president or Hope Hicks or somebody else in the White House.
WHITFIELD: Others who have tested positive.
BORGER: These are important questions -- right.
WHITFIELD: Right.
BORGER: So these questions need to be answered but most of all what the public demands is the truth.
WHITFIELD: Right. So Dr. Sanjay Gupta, back with us now. On that timeline, and you talked earlier, you know, about exposure and exhibiting symptoms. There is space in between that. And one would hope that the doctor comes out and is honest and says, ok, you know we think this now.
But we haven't heard that thus far. And you know, we went from out of an abundance of caution the president would head to Walter Reed, you know, hours after testing positive to now barely 24 hours later and exhibiting symptoms that seem a bit aggressive and, you know, far along in terms of someone's exposure.
What are you expecting to hear from the president's doctor? What questions would you ask?
DR. GUPTA: Yes. Well, let me just put a fine point on this because I think this is -- it is a bit of a nuanced issue. But I think it is worth really highlighting this. At the time of exposure, you wouldn't a, test positive right away or be, typically develop symptoms right away. And so keep that in mind.
We're told the president is tested every day. I think one of the questions I would ask, is when was his last negative test because if he truly was negative every day up until I guess, what, Thursday night --
WHITFIELD: Right.
[11:29:49] DR. GUPTA: -- and then he quickly developed symptoms, it doesn't track, which is what I think Gloria is sort of, you know, alluding to here and it's something that, you know, we're curious about because you don't typically have exposure right away they say and then he got exposed on Wednesday or Thursday during the day or Wednesday night, whenever it might be. You wouldn't typically develop symptoms that quickly. So that would suggest the exposure happened earlier and then the couple three days before you develop symptoms, that is when you are most contagious, ok.
So now, if you look at the calendar, if he started to develop symptoms, you know, on Friday or Thursday night, whenever it may have been, go back two or days. Go back -- those actually end up being the most critical, that is the beginning of the week, that's is during the debate, that's during all that travel. That is critical.
And obviously if he had a positive test before that, that would be really problematic. Despite a positive test, there may have been a lot of people then potentially exposed.
WHITFIELD: Right. And we're learning within the last 24 hours -- might as well say the last 48 hours because of Hope Hicks' diagnosis as well. How many people in the president's orbit have tested positive. Of course, the first lady, we've got his campaign manager Bill Stepien, RNC spokesperson, even Ronna McDaniel and Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis, and then the Notre Dame president, Reverend John Jenkins who was there in the Rose Garden. There are some of the pictures there in the Rose Garden during the announcement of the nominee.
So Sanjay, who would be conducting the contact tracing for the White House? When and who was exposed and at what time so that they could get a better handle of who is going to need treatment?
DR. GUPTA: Right. Well, it's typically a local public health department, but given that this is the White House and it was a ceremony at the White House, maybe the White House medical team is involved as well. I mean they do have the luxury in some ways of having had so many people tested. Not everyone, by the way, was tested.
But having had so many people tested, and being able to keep track, the contact tracing is more possible in a situation like this versus, you know, the 40,000 people who become newly infected every day. Going back and contact tracing them is really challenging, just a laborious task.
But I think it's, you know, it is a real medical investigation. So if you show that image again of the Rose Garden ceremony and see who subsequently has tested positive, first of all, there is likely to be more people given that the trajectory of this super spreader event is increasing, but where are they seated?
Did they get together anywhere else besides just this ceremony? Did a bunch of them cluster somewhere either outside in the Rose Garden or even inside somewhere? Who else within there now orbits outside of the Rose Garden ceremony may be coming back positive. There is a real medical investigation that goes into this. But I think it has become clear, to your point, that that event on Saturday was a super spreader event of some sort. We don't know exactly who, why, was there other sort of ancillary events, satellite events that could have worsened it even. You know, people may get together not just at that ceremony but then go inside somewhere and cluster for a period of time. Who knows?
But that is the sort of investigation typically by public health department, probably now in conjunction with the White House medical team.
WHITFIELD: Right. And then you also, you know, underscore Sanjay there are other people in the proximity, but perhaps they don't have access to the kind of testing that gives you instant or near instant results. They may be in the category of they have to wait another ten days, so then again, you don't really know for a long time all the other people who could potentially even be spreading it to others.
Let me bring in Ryan Nobles. He's at the White House. Hey Ryan, you know, the president has said he gets tested every day for COVID. And, you know, Sanjay -- you know, Dr. Gupta was underscoring well, if that was the case then, you know, how is it that, or when is it that he really received his first positive test in conjunction with the symptoms.
Because already if reportedly he is experiencing the symptoms, that would have meant likely based on the medical time line the exposure was, you know, days ago, five to some maybe even ten days ago. So what about this daily testing that the president gets, does that happen and who else gets it?
NOBLES: Yes, Fred. I mean that is what the White House repeatedly tells us, right. That the president is tested every single day and, you know, that decisions about where he goes in any given day is based on the fact that he gets a negative test every day.
Now, we don't know when that test takes place over the course of the day or how longs the results take to come in. generally, the White House is using these rapid tests with the results come in within 15 minutes.
[11:34:50]
NOBLES: And what was interesting about how things played out when we learned about the Hope Hicks test on Thursday was that we first learned that she had tested positive.
The president was alerted to that fact as he was en route to a fundraiser, he still ended up going to that fundraiser, was around a group of people inside a room without masks. Came back to the White House and then we didn't learn as reporters and as the general public that the president himself was actually going to get tested until he told a host on Fox News Channel. That was the first time anyone had learned of that. And then it was a period time before we then eventually learned that that test came back positive. So, you know, the White House is not especially transparent when it comes to just exactly how all these tests are administered and what they do with that information when it comes in. You know, there is even a lot of inconsistency as it relates to who gets tested when they're around the president, you know. It's not as if you get a test as you walk on here into the White House grounds. I was not tested when I came here this morning.
You know, journalists and reporters are only tested if they are a part of the pool that could end up being within a short distance of the president. We saw some inconsistencies in who was tested at that event where the Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was announced. There was a group of people who were going to be close to her and the president. They were tested.
But there was a whole other group of people, you know, there were more than 100 people at that event, who were not tested. And so this inconsistency that we see on a regular basis, Fred, you know, and a lack of transparency, could be part of what led to this exact scenario that we find ourselves in.
So you know, I think that is the big question that lot of our medical experts have been asking over and over again, when was that last negative test. Because that's going to go a long way in trying to figure out exactly, you know, where this virus originated.
Did it come from Hope Hicks? Did it come from someone associated with Hope Hicks? Did it come from someone in debate prep, right. We know that there have been a number of people that have tested positive in this debate prep setting including the campaign manager Bill Stepien, Kellyanne Conway and others.
I should also point out, Fred, we still don't know results of Chris Christie's test.
WHITFIELD: Right.
NOBLES: The New Jersey governor, who said he was tested yesterday and expected the results this morning and hasn't announced those results yet. So I mean the lack of transparency has been a big problem.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And he did share publicly that there were about five or six other people that were in in close confines with the president and with him the former governor to prepare the president for that debate.
Ryan, thank you so much. Gloria Borger, back to you. So, you know, there has been some transparency by like a Chris Christie who says hey, there were, you know, a handful of people and then there is also the criticism that there hasn't been enough transparency at all.
BORGER: Right. And well look, I think that you have a group of people in a room with a closed door, one would presume, trying to test the president.
The thing that I wanted to add just now is that don't forget what Chris Wallace told us about the debate, which is that the president arrived at the debate too late to get his COVID test there. And so there was the so-called honor system.
Do we have that spot ready from Chris Wallace?
Ok, all right.
We're trying to locate that shot (ph). At the same time trying to identify the people who are coming out.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: The chief of staff, it looks like wearing a mask among the three who just walked.
But continue because the doctor has not emerged. Well, we're now seeing white coats so --
BORGER: Yes, so there was an honor system -- oh good.
WHITFIELD: And until we see them walk up to the mike -- in fact, it's a team of doctors.
All right. So here they are. Let's hear what they have to say.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: I want to note that Mark Meadows -- sure.
WHITFIELD: Here are the doctors that are helping to treat the president. Let's listen in at Walter Reed.
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
DR. SEAN CONLEY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PHYSICIAN: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming. Dr. Sean Conley, physician to the president.
This morning I'd like to start by first sharing that the president, first family, first lady, extremely grateful to the enormous pouring of support and prayers that the whole world and the country have been providing.
I'd like to thank Colonel Andrew Barr and all the medical and support staff here at Walter Reed for their tireless efforts providing everything and anything the medical team and the president and I could need. This morning the president is doing very well.
[11:39:34]
DR. CONLEY: Behind me are some of the members of the president's medical team whom I'd like to introduce. Dr. Sean Dooley, pulmonary critical care; Dr. Brian Garibaldi, pulmonary critical care; Dr. Robert Browning, pulmonary critical care; Dr. Jason Blaylock, infectious disease; Dr. Wes Campbell, infectious disease; Dr. John Hodgson, anesthesia; Major Kurt Klein, army nurse; Command Megan Nasworthy, Navy nurse; Lieutenant Juliano Levopa (ph), Navy nurse; Lt. Commander John Shay (ph), clinical pharmacist, and not present with us are Lt. Beth Carter, Lt. Maureen Mayham (ph), both Navy nurses and Dr. Jesse Schonau, director of our executive medicine program.
As reported yesterday, in consultation with this group, I recommended we bring the president up to Walter Reed as a precautionary measure to provide state-of-the-art monitoring and any care that he may need. Just 72 hours into the diagnosis now, the first week of COVID and in particular day 7 to 10 are the most critical in determining the likely course of this illness.
At this time, the team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made. Thursday he had a mild cough with some nasal congestion and fatigue, all of which are now resolving and improving.
At this time, I'd like to bring up Dr. Dooley to discuss some of the specifics of the president's care.
DR. SEAN DOOLEY, WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER: Thank you and good afternoon. I'm Dr. Sean Dooley as Dr. Conley mentioned.
I'll start off by mentioning what an incredible -- how incredibly proud I am of our medical team assembled behind me and the honor it has been to care for the president over these last 24 hours here at Walter Reed.
He is receiving outstanding multidisciplinary care, the state of the science for coronavirus infection. We are monitoring him very closely for any evidence of complications from either the coronavirus illness or the therapies that we are prescribing to make him better.
We have monitored his cardiac function, his kidney function, his liver function -- all of those are normal. And the president this morning is not on oxygen, not having difficulty breathing or walking around the White House medical unit upstairs
He is in exceptionally good spirits and as we were completing our multidisciplinary rounds this morning, the (INAUDIBLE) he left us with was I feel like I could walk out of here today and that was a very encouraging comment from the president.
Moving forward, I'll go ahead and introduce Dr. Garibaldi who will talk about some of our therapeutics and the plan for -- plan of care for today. Thank you.
DR. BRIAN GARIBALDI, WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER: Thank you Dr. Dooley. And I would like to echo the sentiment from the entire team and what an honor and privilege it is to be part of this multidisciplinary unit to care for the president.
About 48 hours ago, the president received a special antibody therapy directed against the coronavirus and we're working very closely with the company to monitor him in terms of that outcome. Yesterday evening he received his first dose of IV Remdesivir. And our plan is to continue a five day treatment course for Remdesivir.
And the big plan for today since he is in such great spirits and doing well is to encourage him to eat, to drink, to stay hydrated, to be up out of bed and to be working and doing the things that he needs to do to get well.
I'll refer Dr. Conley for any questions.
DR. CONLEY: Thanks, Brian.
It is important to note the president has been fever-free for over 24 hours. We remain cautiously optimistic, but he is doing great.
With that -- one other note, it should be clear that he's plenty of work to get done from the chief of staff and he is doing it.
With that, if there's a couple of questions about the president's health in the last couple days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can tell us the president's oxygen saturation level please?
DR. CONLEY: Yes. So the last saturation that we had up walking around, he was about 96 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he's receiving no -- he has not received any supplemental oxygen?
DR. CONLEY: He is not on oxygen right now, that's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has not received any at all?
DR. CONLEY: He has not needed any this morning today at all. That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have an estimated date when he might be discharged?
DR. CONLEY: Well, I don't want to put a hard date on that. He is doing so well. But with the known course of the illness, day seven to ten, we get really concerned about the inflammatory phase -- phase two.
Given that we provided some of these advanced therapies so early in the course, a little bit earlier than most of the patients we know and follow, it is hard to tell where he is on that course. And so every day we're evaluating does he need to be here, what does he need, and where is he going.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there a probability that he will need supplemental oxygen going forward?
[11:44:52]
DR. CONLEY: I don't want to put a percentage on that, but right now all indicators are that he will remain off of oxygen going forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And in terms of like blood clot, pneumonia, bacterial infection, what do you see as the risks on that front? DR. CONLEY: Well, we know that all of them are risks associated with
this condition. He is receiving all of the standard of care and beyond for routine international COVID protocols. So we're monitoring for all of that, but at the moment, there is no cause for concern.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've said he was fever free now. What was his fever when he had one?
DR. CONLEY: I'd rather not given any specific numbers, but he did have a fever Thursday into Friday. And since Friday morning, he has had none.
(CROSSTALK)
DR. CONLEY: I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why Remdesivir on top of the antibodies?
Dr. CONLEY: so Remdesivir works a little bit differently than the antibodies. We're maximizing all aspects of his care, attacking this virus, you know, multiprong approach. As the president, I didn't want to hold anything back if there was any possibility that it would add value to his care and expedite his return and the team agreed and that's what we proceeded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doctor, what was the date of the president's last negative test?
DR. CONLEY: I'm not going to get into all the testing going back, but he and all his staff routinely are tested and so --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, what is the (INAUDIBLE) protocol for President Trump receiving visitors and doctors?
DR. CONLEY: It's the same as any hospital has. We have an area that is clean that you put your equipment on and then beyond that, everybody is fully gowned up, masks, gloves, we're protecting ourselves and him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you done a screen if there's been any sign of any lung damage whatsoever?
DR. CONLEY: We're following all of that. We do daily ultrasounds. We do daily lab work. The team is tracking all of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has there been any sign of damage, sir.
DR. CONLEY: I'm not going to go into specific of what the finding are --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you please pin it down to one thing? Has he ever been on supplemental oxygen?
DR. CONLEY: Right now he is not on oxygen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know sir. I know you keep saying right now. But shall we wade in to the fact that he had been previously?
DR. CONLEY: Yesterday and today, he was not on oxygen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So he has not been on it during his COVID treatment?
DR. CONLEY: He is not on oxygen right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has hydroxychloroquine been considered as a viable treatment option for the president?
DR. CONLEY: We discussed it. He asked about it. He is not on it now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Doctor, what symptoms -- has he also experienced difficulty breathing?
DR. CONLEY: No. No, he has not. Never did. He had a little cough, he had the fever. More than anything, he has felt run down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who is handling contact tracing? Is that the White House or CDC?
DR. CONLEY: The White House medical unit in conjunction with -- in coordination with the CDC and local state and health departments -- are conducting all contact tracing per CDC guidelines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was the positive diagnosis made? You said 72 hours -- that would present Wednesday.
DR. CONLEY: So Thursday afternoon following the news of a close contact is when we repeated testing and given kind of clinical indications, had a little bit more concern. And that is when late that night we got the PCR confirmation that he was --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there any clarity on how he became infected?
DR. CONLEY: I'm not going to go into that. As far as his care, that is irrelevant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When he became infected?
DR. CONLEY: Yes. We're not going to go into that. We're just tracking his clinical course and providing the best care we can.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was it that (INAUDIBLE) Walter Reed to get the five day Remdesivir treatment?
DR. CONLEY: We discussed that. Right now, if he needs all five days that will likely be the course. But again, every day we're reviewing with the team his needs for being here. And as soon as he gets to the point where it is not a requirement, he may still need some care, but if we can provide that downtown at the House, then we will transition at that point. As long as it is safe and appropriate and the team agrees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In addition to his weight, does he have any other risk are factors that make him more at risk for sort of a severe case?
DR. CONLEY: No. Not particularly. I mean he is 74. He is male. And he is slightly overweight. Other than that, he is very healthy. His cholesterol is great. Blood pressure is great but on medication for that. He is up and active and so his activity, the day he's leading up to are long hours and everything else. He's been able to handle it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you provide other vitals like heart rate, blood pressure and temperature?
DR. CONLEY: His heart rate is in the 70s to 80s. His blood pressure has remained where it's historically been during our physicals -- you know, 110 to 120 systolic. He's great. It's never budged. I have no concerns there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So why was the decision made to transfer him here?
[11:49:55]
DR. CONLEY: Because he's the president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And (INAUDIBLE) doctors have found that the prone position is helpful for COVID, has he been in that at all?
DR. CONLEY: No, we actually -- he asked about that. He did, Thursday into Friday. He's been briefed by the task force and all the scientists for months, and he brought that up, you know, as we were discussing his cough. And at the time his oxygen levels were ok. We didn't feel like we need to do it. We came up here and discussed it with the team as well. We considered all options but he does not need it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why wasn't the first lady admitted as well?
DR. CONLEY: The first lady is doing great. Thanks for asking. She has no indication for hospitalization or advanced therapy. She's convalescing at home. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me try to pin you down one more time. I know you said there's no oxygen --
DR. CONLEY: Yes, he's not on oxygen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But did he receive any on Thursday?
DR. CONLEY: What's today, Saturday? No, no, Thursday --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Thursday, no Friday, no Saturday. That was why we were concerned --
DR. CONLEY: Thursday no oxygen. None at this moment and yesterday with the team, while we were all here, he was not on oxygen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So has the president actually been admitted as a patient to this hospital?
DR. CONLEY: The president is a patient at Walter Reed Military Medical Center.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is he on any steroids?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Press, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.
DR. CONLEY: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.
(END OF LIVE EVENT)
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, it looks like an abrupt end to that press conference involving Dr. Sean Conley there, the president's doctor. You see the other members of the medical team. We also heard from Dr. Sean Dooley and Dr. Brian Garibaldi among the doctors who spoke.
Sanjay Gupta with us now. Very interesting because there does seem to be a discrepancy on the whole timeline. The doctors saying within 72 hours but it was, what, yesterday, 1:00 a.m. when the world learned about the president's testing positive for COVID-19.
So what did you hear there? What struck you as interesting?
Dr. Conley underscoring that the president is not on oxygen now, he kept saying now, but then he also said not yesterday and that he's doing exceptionally well.
DR. GUPTA: Yes, Fred. It was almost more about what he wouldn't answer versus what he did, right? The timeline struck me as well. So he said it's been 72 hours since his diagnosis. So here we are on Saturday morning -- you know, 73 days (SIC) ago, was that when the diagnosis was?
Because as you point out, we didn't hear about it until 1:00 in the morning on Friday -- I'm getting my days mixed up as well, but the point is that doesn't jive with what we've heard for the diagnosis.
WHITFIELD: right.
DR. GUPTA: Sorry, I don't know if you can hear.
WHITFIELD: Yes, yes. The audio was funny there. Go ahead.
DR. GUPTA: The oxygen thing was really relevant. I mean this is not a small point. And the reporters who were asking the question followed up several times. Was he on supplemental oxygen or not, at any time? And for some crazy evasive sort of thing, the doctor just wasn't answering that. And I just found it really odd to say that.
I mean was he specifically told, do not admit that the president was on oxygen? Because again, this is a medically relevant fact here. And then the issue that we raised before the briefing started about testing. And again, the reporter asked the right question was when did he last have a negative test? And again, right -- and he would not answer that question either. Even at the end, right when they ended the press conference, someone asked about some of the therapeutics like steroids and again, no answer.
So you know, it's really hard, Fred, when you have these situations because once you start to detect that someone is being evasive with you it does throw into question everything else as well.
You know, I have interviewed so many of these doctors taking care of the president and it's always this sort of thing. Ronnie Jackson did the same thing. Would not be forthright about information. You really had to pin down, come back over and over and over again. This was not -- I'm glad they did this press conference but it wasn't really helpful.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: And I'm not sure how much of it frankly we can totally rely on in terms of this information.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it almost seems like the objective was really to convey everything is all right as opposed to conveying -- filling in the blanks that so many would have about the president's condition, the urgency of getting him to Walter Reed.
His answer was, he's the president of the United States. You know, to -- what do people who are around the president need to know? Perhaps there's information that we need to impart and we didn't receive it there.
So I think I'm hearing from you there's a little disappointment in what was not heard today from these doctors.
DR. GUPTA: Yes. Was he on supplemental oxygen? Has he had any lab tests that would show concern about his heart? Someone asked about -- has he had evidence lung damage? Well, he's gotten ultrasounds. That's not an answer to the question, right. I mean you don't need to be a doctor to know that's not an answer to the question.
Does he have viral pneumonia. I mean these are, you know, if you're going to come out and brief the public about the health of someone, in this case, the president, those are very reasonable questions that were being asked but unfortunately not answered.
[11:55:00]
WHITFIELD: Yes. Dr. Conley also saying, you know, the president's up and walking around. He's going to be able to do the things that he needs to do.
Gloria, you talked about -- Gloria Borger, you talked about the importance of transparency. That was lacking -- a lot of transparency.
BORGER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Instead it was, send the message that, whether it's the president or his team or this doctor really wanted to hit home, which is everything is fine. He was in here out of an abundance of caution but we are going to keep him here. Possibly he's going to have, you know, more treatments of Remdesivir, but he didn't necessarily definitively answer that about the five-day treatment. Just that if he needs it, you know, we have it here for him.
BORGER: Right. I mean, the one interesting thing he said in terms of describing the president's condition is that he quoted the president this morning saying, "I feel like I could walk out of here". Which means that the president doesn't have a fever anymore. He feels a little better.
But the whole timeline is still curious to me because they said 72 hours since diagnosis. And then -- so the question is, you know, just where is he in the course of this disease, which we know, Sanjay knows this better than we do, can go up and down and up and down and then go down very quickly. And his answer was that since we provided all these advanced therapeutics to the president, you know, they front loaded everything, since we provided that, it's just hard to tell where he is in the course.
And does that mean, and Sanjay can answer this, does that mean they don't want to let up? That we -- it's hard to tell if they were to remove, you know, the monoclonal antibody, what would happen? You know, I think they need him there to continue to observe him and decide just when they pull him off some of this stuff and when they don't and where he is in the course of this awful disease.
WHITFIELD: That's right.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House. And Kaitlan, you know, you couldn't help but be, you know, caught off guard. And it made us all, you know, come to attention when we heard 72 hours. I mean this timeline now is not making any sense. And, you know, was that an error that the doctor made? Or is this revealing about when indeed they had a positive test of COVID for the president.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would be really concerning if the president's doctor had an error with the president's timeline of when he diagnosed. So we're going to side with the doctor here who says it's been 72 hours since the president was diagnosed and 48 hours since he started that experimental treatment, the drug antibody cocktail we were talking about yesterday.
Both of those things are before we even knew that the president tested positive for coronavirus because that's only about 36 hours since we found that out, Fred. That was about 1:00 a.m. early Friday morning. Obviously, it was right after we had gone off the air briefly when the president tweeted he had tested positive for coronavirus.
So this calls every single thing that the White House has said into question. If he was diagnosed with coronavirus 72 hours ago and yet continued on with his normal schedule and went to a fundraiser in New Jersey, knowing that he had coronavirus, which if you are going on what his own physician is saying, that is the timeline that matches up, that is a stunning statement that we just got from the physician who would not answer questions as Sanjay was pointing about the current status with what's going on right now about the fever and the oxygen.
But this timeline, it may be the most stunning thing that he revealed. I don't know if it was inadvertent if he wasn't aware of when we actually found out that the president had coronavirus. But we didn't find out until Thursday night that Hope Hicks had tested positive. Of course, she had tested positive about 12 hours earlier that morning. That's when the White House learned of her diagnosis.
But he is saying that the president tested positive around the same time or that's when they learned. So it's going to raise massive questions about why, if the president tested positive for coronavirus 72 hours ago and we only found out about it 36 hours ago and no one has felt the need to clear that up, it's going to raise major questions about everything that we know about what's been happening here in the last few days at the White House and the president's health.
WHITFIELD: Right. This has just revealed another big potential problem.
Joining us right now also, anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter. So Brian, while the doctor's objective was to paint this relatively, you know, rosy, positive, you know, view of how the president is doing, a new problem has just arisen. This timeline.
Why would the public learn about this positive test of COVID-19 and the doctor says, actually, we have been doing treatment this long, since 72 hours ago he was diagnosed. How big of a problem is that going to be?
[11:59:47]
BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Yes. This credibility problem just became worse. Yes, this credibility gap just became even bigger. And that's because of these timeline questions. It matters because the president was in front of dozens of people on Wednesday and Thursday. We know it for a fact. And if he had been diagnosed on Wednesday, this is a massive scandal.
It also, of course, causes even more concerns about his health.
