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President's Doctor: Trump Has Been Fever-Free For 24 Hours; Questions Arise About Timeline Of Trump's Illness; Former NJ Governor Chris Christie Tests Positive For COVID-19; Trump Not On Oxygen Now, WH Doctor Will Not Say He Never Was. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired October 03, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And if he had been diagnosed on Wednesday, this is a massive scandal and also it causes even more concerns about his health, if he has been sick now for this period of time.
This did not seem like a real medical news conference, right? It seemed like a White House press conference, the sort of political press conference we are accustomed to, where there are more questions than answers and lots of no comments and that is very troubling.
The public should see a medical press conference where every detail is shared. At one point Dr. Conley was asked how high was the president's fever when he had a fever and the answer was I'd rather not give any specific numbers. It doesn't matter what he'd rather do. The American people need to have those numbers.
The American people need to be given all this information as transparently and accurately as possible so I thought this was a disturbing press conference by the president's medical team.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Yes.
STELTER: That ended up with a lot of questions and we need to continue to show skepticism because here's the big thing Fred, when Trump was on for Sean Hannity Thursday night, he acted like this was no big deal. He downplayed Hope Hicks' diagnosis. He said he was going to get a test and he would see what happens.
If in fact he knew he had been diagnosed on Wednesday then he was lying to the public again on Thursday night.
WHITFIELD: And we know the downplaying, I mean he admitted on tape, right? About what - that was his strategy, downplaying this and now potentially we're learning just from that short press conference from his doctor now bringing into question was he also you know being deceitful you know with the public about not really revealing his situation.
All right, also with this political analyst Mark Preston. Mark, while the team may have thought this was going to bring some real clarity and some relief, it has instead brought other potentially disturbing revelations.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well Fred, you know just about an hour ago, we were sitting and talking about how this press conference was going to unfold and I think we all kind of came to the conclusion that we were looking for as much information as possible but the expectation was that we were not going to get it.
And that's exactly what happened today, which does bring a lot of concern I think in cause for wondering what is the White House really doing, how is the president doing right now and why is Vice President Pence continuing on with his campaigning activities specifically later on when he's going to go in a huge rally, later this week.
I mean it just seems so ridiculous at this point.
WHITFIELD: And you know Mark, it then brings in a question of intent. I mean if the doctor is saying 72 hours and you know we all learned at 1 AM. I mean, I'm talking you know the public, not just the press, everybody because the president tweeted out you know 1 a.m. that he had tested positive and the doctor would then reveal that perhaps it was much earlier than that, the potential exposure, the exposure not even potential, the exposure that the president you know had on so many other people to know how dangerous you know this disease is, this virus is.
Now you're bringing into question the intent. What would be the president's motivation of not sharing with people the truth of his positive test?
PRESTON: Well, it certainly Fred, it's his modus operandi, right? That's how he has acted throughout his own presidency. It seems like how has acted throughout his whole business career.
He hasn't been very open. In fact when he gets called on the carpet for it, when he's actually told what you just said is not true, he's very dismissive of it and you would have noted this, just a moment ago, he downplays it, downplays it, downplays it, downplays it because if you don't think about it, if you don't look at it, if you don't discuss it, guess what, in his mind it doesn't occur.
Well guess what, it has occurred and that's where we are right now unfortunately.
WHITFIELD: White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond also with us. Jeremy, what are you learning from your reporting?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well listen Fredericka, if this timeline of 72:00 hours that Dr. Conley laid out that the president 72:00 hours ago was diagnosed with coronavirus, that adds a whole new layer, takes the president's irresponsibility as far as this virus is concerned to a whole new level.
Already the president has been irresponsible by holding these rallies with thousands of people but now this adds a dimension that if he was indeed diagnosed with coronavirus 72:00 hours ago, that is midday Wednesday Fredricka and I want to take you through all of the things that the president did since midday Wednesday because it is stunning.
The president at 2:38 PM on Wednesday emerged from the Oval office went to gathered press. He spoke with reporters without a mask. 3:05 PM, the president departed for Minnesota. 5:00 PM, the president arrives in Minneapolis where he attended a fundraiser and then subsequently attended a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, later that evening.
Again the president flying on Airforce One with staff including Hope Hicks who we understand was quarantined on the flight back home because she was starting to experience symptoms.
[12:05:00]
And then you look at Thursday. Thursday, the president leaves the White House at 1:14 PM in the afternoon, heads to his Golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey where I'm told that he gathered not only addressed 250 donors outside but before that he also met with about 18 donors in an indoor round table.
One of those people I'm told who attended was the one of the sons of Stanley Chera, the president's friend who died of coronavirus last spring. His son was attending that round table with the president. I'm told that nobody was wearing masks in that room and that was when the president was already starting to experience some symptoms of coronavirus.
We know that because people who I talked to said that the president appeared to be tired and in retrospect once they heard that he had been diagnosed with coronavirus, it was clear that all of that was kind of linking up.
But this timeline of 72:00 hours ago, Fredricka, if that is true, that is a stunning revelation and it is the height of irresponsibility for the president to have continued to go out and engage with supporters, travel on a plane with staffers all while having coronavirus.
WHITFIELD: Yes, all right, Jeremy, hold on. This just in. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has tested positive for coronavirus. He was in contact with President Trump and helped the president with debate preparations, just moments ago. We're talking about how he revealed on Friday, shortly after the world heard the president had tested positive, that there are about five or six people in prep debate prep along with the Governor, Governor Chris Christie just prior to debate night last Tuesday.
Christie tweeting this. I just received word that I am positive for COVID-19. "I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues who have reached out to ask how I was feeling in the last day or two. I will be receiving medical attention today and will keep the necessary folks apprised of my condition."
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, all right, now the list is growing of people who have tested positive that have been in close contact with the president. DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes I mean it's become
very clear that the White House itself is a hot spot, a hot bed of viral activity. So many people at these events and we know Chris Christie was at that event but also the - he did the debate prep you know and there was other people at that a debate prep as well.
I mean this is going to be a real medical investigation. You know frankly, it could have been avoided by basic public health measures. I think everyone realizes that by now but now it's going to turn into a significant spreading event where not only people there but now their families and other people they may have come in contact with are going to need to be evaluated, possibly tested, probably quarantined.
You can get a sense of this just even with this relatively small population of people so this is now a microcosm, I think of what's happening in so many places around the country. This could have been prevented or at least greatly mitigated. You know it is a contagious virus but what we're seeing here did not need to happen.
I do want to back to that timeline for a second if I could.
WHITFIELD: That's what I was going to ask you to follow up on that. Yes. Go ahead.
GUPTA: So Wednesday - Wednesday morning now, you know Wednesday late morning is when, if you pay attention to what the doctor said, that's when the diagnosis came in for the president. 48:00 hours ago so that will be Thursday morning is when he received this monoclonal antibody therapy.
Again, this is according to his doctors so that was before we even knew as Kaitlan pointed out that he had coronavirus in order to get that therapy, that would have been a compassionate use application. Meaning it wasn't just sitting there, let's try this. It would have had to have been ordered.
You know it wasn't - it's not even something that's emergency use authorized in this country right now. I'm sure there were several discussions around this so if you start to think about it, diagnosed Wednesday, automatically say hey, let's try this experimental therapy basically to see if we can prevent him from getting any symptoms sounds like.
And sounds like he got it on Thursday morning, didn't reveal the diagnosis until Thursday night and still became symptomatic enough anyway on Friday to warrant this visit to the hospital.
So this is this is very, very different picture than what was told to us and concerning and I was really, really disappointed the doctor would not answer the most basic questions about how sick the president had been and really didn't answer about how sick the president is now in terms of any potential lung damage or other problems.
WHITFIELD: Yes, so and Sanjay, there are few issues with the whole timeline. That that you just described and usually you would have to order you know that dose, even if it's compassionate use but there's also then the timeline of when your symptoms you know rise to the surface, which differs from the timeline of when you may have been exposed and now we're talking about Chris Christie.
[12:10:00]
As far as we know at least the weekend you know prior to the debate, that was one of his last close contacts with the president that he would - now you know, you talked earlier about when you're most contagious, not necessarily when you show symptoms but just ahead of that.
GUPTA: That's right. I mean this is critical now you know. If a lot of people became exposed what, six days ago now, seven days ago and they're starting to test positive now which would make sense, you know somewhere around five - six - seven days is when people would start to test positive, maybe a little bit earlier, a little bit later and if people who have symptoms--
First of all, you can spread the virus even if you never have symptoms. That's in fact a significant source of spread in this country. 40 percent of the spread probably coming from people who never have symptoms of which now sounds like there are many of them coming from this one event but if you do develop symptoms to your point Fred, it's the couple days usually before you develop those symptoms where you are the most contagious.
So again, if you talk about Hope Hicks, she became symptomatic of what we're told on Wednesday, it would be Tuesday, Monday, possibly where she was most symptomatic. For the president if he truly became symptomatic on Friday although we don't - again, we are not sure now because the timeline doesn't make sense but that would mean--
WHITFIELD: Yes, we didn't get that kind of clarity.
GUPTA: - Wednesday, Tuesday - correct. Wednesday, Tuesday is when he may have been most contagious. This is concerning Fred. I mean, I know everyone said it but think about what's happening here now. You have someone who knew they had the virus. They were trying to use an experimental therapy, still visiting with people, you know potentially spreading the virus even more.
WHITFIELD: Yes, all right, very concerning, very frightening. Sanjay, thanks so much. Jeremy Diamond is also with us outside of Walter Reed so this timeline is just so disturbing you know because there - it promotes more questions than answers. When did the president really know you know and when did the people in his orbit know and what kind of treatment is he getting now so what are you learning about this timeline?
DIAMOND: There's no question, this news conference by Dr. Sean Conley and the other doctors at Walter Reed who are treating the president has only raised more questions than it has answered and to add to that now, after you heard Dr. Conley out there really you know trying to provide an optimistic assessment here of the president's health saying that he is doing better, he doesn't have a fever, all of these - all of these things to kind of put a rosy picture out about where the president's health is headed.
We now have a statement from a source familiar with the president's health. This was given to the pool reporters who were at Walter Reed, both the print reporters and the TV pool reporters which suggests typically that this is an official who was coming forward to provide some information that they want out there.
And this is what the statement says Fredericka, the president's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48:00 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery. I want to repeat that last part, we are still not on a clear path to a full recovery. This is not at all what we were hearing from Dr. Sean Conley during this news conference.
That is not the prognosis that he was - that he was putting out there and this suggests also that what we've been hearing from White House officials over the last 24 hours which is that the president was taken to the hospital essentially out of an abundance of caution more so than because of the development of his symptoms and the worsening of his symptoms.
This suggests that he was brought to the hospital because he was the facing some pretty significant and severe symptoms of this virus, saying that the president vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning so and then particularly when you add to the fact that Dr. Conley refused to say what the president's fever was, you know he wouldn't say how high it went and he refused to provide some other details of his vitals.
He kind of danced around the question of whether or not the president had received supplemental oxygen at any point. Instead saying that the president is not right now on supplemental oxygen. Really adds a whole new layer of concern to what we're learning here about the president's health.
WHITFIELD: All right, also adding you know he has been fever free for 24 hours. Jeremy, thanks so much. Back to the White House and Kaitlyn Collins, what are you learning Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fred, it is tunning that the statement that Jeremy just read has no name on it. It is attributed to just a White House official, I believe, a source familiar with the president's health is how they described it.
And they gave a much more concerned assessment of the president's current status than what the doctor just offered publicly when he was talking about the president not having a fever, not being on oxygen while abating these other questions and now immediately after that you know, the only officials there are the president's doctor and the White House Chief of Staff from what we say of who exited the building for that brief press conference that we just got.
[12:15:00]
And now we're getting this anonymous statement from the pool that offers a much more concerning assessment about the president's health by saying he is not on a clear path to a full recovery. That is being said about the President of the United States and it should have a White House official name on it or the doctor's name on it, whoever provided the statement to reporters.
So we're going to work on getting that cleared up because if you're going to say something like that, something that serious about the current health status of the President of the United States, it certainly should be on the record and so the questions going forward are going to be, how long is the president going to be in the hospital of course.
And they talked about Remdesivir, I know Sanjay was talking about it and they said it's a five-day treatment but they said he started it 48:00 hours ago so it does make you wonder if they do only expect him to be in Walter Reed for three more hours.
But it was notable also to hear the president's doctors say he is a patient at Walter Reed. Some White House officials had tried to frame it in another circumstance. It was just out of an abundance of caution but he was saying, no, he is a patient here. He is under our care and this is the current status of him.
So we're looking into this statement Fred, and we'll keep you updated on when we actually get someone who will put their name on saying that the president is not a clear path to recovery at this moment.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and how did you, Kaitlan receive that statement?
COLLINS: So it came from the pool so this is an event where the pool goes and if you're not familiar with the White House for viewers at home, we have a limited amount of reporters who travel with the president for every event so we don't have to have hundreds of reporters go and they send disk batches back to the rest of us.
So for example, we have someone who is there representing every TV network, every outlet. CNN, Fox news, NBC, everybody and so then they sent back a statement and so this is a statement they got but it was described as attributed to a source familiar with the president's health, not with a name on it even though the doctor had just given a press conference where he was taking questions.
So we will try to get that on the record but what it does show is that despite this rosy assessment that we got about oxygen and about the president no longer having a fever which is obviously good news, they do still seem to be concerned about what is actually going on here and it doesn't seem as if the president has made progress since he left the White House, a little under 24 hours ago.
WHITFIELD: All right, this becomes even more alarming, doesn't it? Kaitlan, thank you so much. Gloria Borger, OK so confusing and even more so now of this statement, you know anonymous, a person familiar with the president's health, this only muddies the water, especially since you know Dr. Conley was saying is in exceptionally good spirits.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, well, the water got muddied by the doctor. Now it's not even muddied even more and before we started all of this, I think we started out by saying what we needed to do was clarify the timeline.
WHITFIELD: Right.
BORGER: If Dr. Conley was speaking the truth, we don't know the answer, we know that there is now a 36 hour discrepancy and one question that I have, if he was diagnosed the morning after the debate, why didn't anybody reach out to the Biden people and say you know what, we have a problem here and you guys need to know this.
The Biden folks say that they learned about the president's health like everybody else did. Nobody was reached out so you haven't reached out to so not only do you have that, not only do you have a president endangering the lives of supporters, of his staff, etcetera, etcetera but you have a doctor today, who essentially was spinning it seems to me the president's medical condition.
He gave political answers. He refused as Sanjay noted earlier, we were talking about earlier, to talk about exactly when the president was or was not on oxygen. Now we have somebody on background saying well you know, the president wasn't doing so well whereas you had the doctors saying yes, he's doing great. He felt like he could - he could walk out of here.
I mean, it all sort of came to fruition to me when the doctor said well, you have a president who is 74, male and "slightly overweight." We know that is not true so now in an effort to sort of clarify things, I think, what they've done is spin and open a Pandora's box of more questions about the timeline of this and about the actual health of the President of the United States.
You know in an effort to kind of spin, sometimes what happens in politics is that you raise more questions than you answer and I say politics because what we heard today was a political description, I now believe, rather than a medical description of the actual health of the President of the United States and so now we're going to have to go back and look at this timeline and raise more questions and if I were in the Biden camp, I'd be furious about why they weren't told about this if the timeline that was given by the doctor is actually accurate.
[12:20:00]
WHITFIELD: Yes, and these inconsistencies are now also painting a picture of negligence and neglect if people were left in the dark.
BORGER: And incompetence perhaps, yes.
WHITFIELD: All right Gloria, thank you so much. We're going to talk some more. We're going to take a short break for now and we'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Well, the president's doctors just provoked a whole lot more questions after saying that the president has been - it's been 72:00 hours since the president's diagnosis which is in contrast with when the rest of the world learned of the president's diagnosis that he was positive, tested positive for COVID- 19 yesterday at about 1 AM.
And then the doctor also said, it's been about 48:00 hours since he received the antibody therapy and then just yesterday started a five- day course of Remdesivir.
[12:25:00]
So a lot of new questions about the president's condition and all the people that have been in his company this past week, if not just the last 72:00 hours now alone.
All right, so let's talk about the concern at the White House and beyond. Questions about national security and the security and welfare of people who the president has been working with. Joining me right now are infectious disease expert, Syra Madad and former secret service agent in the Obama administration Johnathan Wackrow and CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of the Atlantic Ron Brownstein. Good to see all of you.
All right, so Syra, let me begin with you. What's your response about what you heard from the president's doctor, that he says it's been 72:00 hours since his diagnosis when most of us and the rest of the world thought his diagnosis came yesterday at 1 AM.
SYRA MADAD, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS: It's very alarming. I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions. It's still very unclear where in the timeline in the clinical course of disease the president currently is and this certainly is very important for the general public to know but more importantly for public health to know because we need to make sure that we're doing a very rigorous contact tracing network.
We know that the current infection that's happening with the president and the First Lady are second generation, which means that third generation faxes are going to happen in the coming days. We also need to make sure that we have a contact tracing network that's going to see where these cases are to prevent more cases from coming. So the next 48:00 hours are going to be very, very important.
WHITFIELD: Johnathan, as a former secret service agent, obviously you work in close contact with the president and when we saw pictures of the president earlier in the week you know getting on Marine One and secret service, even you know the pilots were not wearing masks and then in the last 24 hours we were seeing a lot of his detail wearing a mask.
Talk to me about what their concerns might be now to hear the president's doctors say that it's been 72:00 hours since his diagnosis even though everyone else you know in the world learned for the first time the diagnosis was early yesterday morning.
JOHNATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Fred, thank you. Listen, let me put a button on all of this. This is health security malpractice in its perfect example. We are at a point with the president now hospitalized, the First Lady now has contracted this virus, other secret service protectees have, we shouldn't be here.
We should have had a policies and procedures in place to protect the most vital leadership of our country, starting six months ago.
WHITFIELD: All the recommendations were there. It's a matter of adhering to those recommendations though, right?
WACKROW: Exactly, there is policy and there is practice and we will fully ignore the practice of wearing masks, engaging in social distancing, everything that we have talked about ad nauseam, there is now consequences for people not following that.
The President of the United States is currently at the Walter Reed National Medical Center, sitting in the METU unit. Now thankfully according to this, the press briefing we just had, it seems like he still has his faculties, is still in command, he can command the government from the METU facility. He has all of the communications, he is safe.
WHITFIELD: Well, that's what we heard from the doctor but then you heard from our Kaitlan Collins who received and Jeremy Diamond who received a statement from someone else, who works closely with the president, who says counter to that, that actually he's not on a clear path to full recovery.
So now this of course conjures up you know, a lot more concerned about all the people that are in contact with him and have been really in this past week if not 10 days and how you know their lives have been or are going to be impacted.
WACKROW: Well Fred, unfortunately right now what I think you have is we have multiple people trying to do too many things. We have this press conference that was out there trying to reassure the American public but there's a fine balance. We talked about some of this before with national security, under the national security continuity policy, one of the key tenants in essential function is to provide leadership visible to the country and the world in maintaining the trust and confidence that the president is in control.
That was really the intent of Dr. Conley coming out here but at almost the exact same time, we heard from an unnamed sources as Kaitlan Collins was reporting, speaking to the press pool that we have a different dynamic with - in terms of the president's health.
[12:30:01]
That delta, we needed a greater understanding and reassurance that what is the current condition because all of us are walking away right now, unsure of the current health of the president.
WHITFIELD: The confusion has just been heightened, Ron, I mean, people were -- we were all looking forward to some clarity, you know, well- wishers from around the world for the welfare of the President and the First Lady, and this great anticipation to learn more from the team of doctors. And now it's just stirred more confusion. RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, even before this remarkable statement from the doctor, that the diagnosis were may be 72 hours in, even from what we already knew that he, after the whole pigsty diagnosis that he flew to a fundraiser, that he exposed all of the White House staff and military staff, his own donors to risk that -- at the debate, his family and entourage explicitly refused to wear masks, despite requests from the Cleveland Clinic.
And now you add this I mean, all of it to be, Fred, it traces back to the same route from the very beginning, from the disparity between what he told Bob Woodward publicly and then told the public exactly the opposite in terms of the severity of the risk from the beginning, his entire focus has been to project normalcy at all costs, whatever the implications for public health, because he believes that is his best pathway to reelection.
And that has had an enormous impact, as I've said, not only on his own behavior and policy choices, but in terms of putting pressure on Republican governors in states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Arizona, to open early and widely to invalidate local mask wearing requirements to basically also act as though this is not happening as a way of avoiding, you know, any thunderbolts from the Oval Office. And so this just continues The pattern from day one that he has chosen to try to project normalcy, even at enormous cost in public health.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks to all of you, appreciate it. We've got so much more straight ahead zeroing in on the timeline of all this. When was the President diagnosed, when were his first symptoms exhibited? And when was the last negative COVID-19 test for the President of the United States. We'll be right back.
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[12:36:39]
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Big questions now over the White House timeline as the President remains at Walter Reed Medical Center receiving treatment for COVID. Let's bring in Jeremy Diamond outside Walter Reed. So Jeremy, we heard from the doctor today the President's bit was diagnosed 72 hours ago. So why is it the rest of the world learned about his testing positive about 36 hours ago?
DIAMOND: Yes. It's really not clear. And again, if Dr. Conley's timeline is correct, about 72 hours, that would be wildly out of step with what the White House has told us. It would also be irresponsible, of course for the President to have been going to a rally in Minnesota on Wednesday night and then proceeding to a fundraiser in Bedminster on Thursday, if that is true.
But beyond that, there is also this question of what White House officials have been telling us about the President's condition over the last 24 to 32 hours. And that is this notion that the President was taken to the hospital primarily out of an abundance of caution rather than because his symptoms were so severe that he required hospitalization. But after we heard this fairly rosy assessment from Dr. Conley about the President's condition and his prognosis, we -- the pool reporters who were at Walter Reed, so print reporters and T.V. reporters who share information with the rest of us in the White House press corps, they received this statement from a source familiar with the President's health saying the President's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning. And the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care.
We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery, which is of course a remarkable statement to be making about the health of the 74- year-old President to say that it is not yet clear, there's not yet a clear path to the President's full recovery, despite, of course, the White House physician saying that the President hasn't had a fever in 24 hours, and that he is doing much better.
I would also note, of course, that there are very few officials who are actually over there with the President. We saw the White House physician Dr. Sean Conley in a gathering of other physicians from Walter Reed, the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was also with reporters from the White House and with those physicians, though he did not appear on camera.
So I would just point that out for people to kind of chew over as we try and assess this. But it is strange that the White House, you know, this is this is such a critical moment in this presidency. And right now, we are getting mixed messaging from the White House as we have on so many other issues, and the lack of a clear and consistent message and the questions about this 72 hours from Dr. Conley and how that lines up with what the President has been doing for several days, I expect, Fredricka, that we will be getting some more White House cleanup to come in the hours to come, Fred?
WHITFIELD: What was interesting, Jeremy, because there was an opportunity for Dr. Conley to clarify that when there was a follow up question about 72 hours. What do you mean by that? You know, when he did not take that opportunity to say, oh, I misspoke. Instead, he continued to try to underscore the President is, you know, doing exceptionally well, and he's up and walking around. He's able to do the work that he needs to do. So there was an opportunity for him to chime in, but he deferred.
DIAMOND: That's right. And there's no question that he danced around the series of other tough questions. He wouldn't say exactly what the President's fever was. You know, he wouldn't -- he kept saying that the President is not right now on supplemental oxygen when he was being asked. Well, has the President ever been on supplemental oxygen in the course of his coronavirus treatments?
[12:40:05]
So, again, raising more questions than have been answered and the only way to clean this up if indeed that 72 hours is inaccurate is from with a statement from Dr. Conley, himself, anything short of that just won't do it. WHITFIELD: Right. And also, to underscore or at least offer some clarity, when was the last negative test of the President because the President has always boasted that he takes, you know, COVID test every day. But, you know, Dr. Conley, would not answer that.
DIAMOND: That's right. We've been told this sometimes takes in multiple times a day.
WHITFIELD: Right. All right, only offering more questions and answers through that press conference. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.
We're going to have much more when we come back, the timeline, this underscores a whole lot of holes in when the President was diagnosed, when he exhibited symptoms, and who he exposed possibly along the way.
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[12:44:59]
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. So when was the President diagnosed with COVID-19? Was it Thursday, 1:00 a.m. when he tweeted, or was it what his Dr. Sean Conley said today, just 72 hours into the diagnosis now, lots of questions about the President's treatment now at Walter Reed Medical Center.
I want to bring in White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, and CNN chief correspondent Brian Stelter. Kaitlan, you first, this press conference last hour only made matters worse for the White House. There are so many more questions that still need to be answered.
COLLINS: It's not a low bar to ask for a physician to provide a detailed updated assessment of what's going on with the most powerful person in the world. And that is what was asked of these doctors, this team of doctors who are clearly working hand and foot with the President, working very closely with him to try to obviously get him better.
And we had been saying yesterday, you know, we do need to hear from the doctor on this because the President went to the hospital without us really getting a chance to question the doctor about this and what was going on. So it was a good thing that the White House made this move to have Dr. Conley come out and briefed reporters today. But he did not give a lot of updates.
And the reporters were asking the right questions about when was the last time the President tested negative? What's going on? Has he been on oxygen? And the thing is, Fred, by not answering whether or not the President has been on oxygen this week, and then evading that question, it just makes it seem more suspicious.
If Dr. Conley had said, well, actually, on Wednesday, we did put the President on oxygen or on Thursday, we did. But instead he said the President was not on oxygen on Friday. He said he has not been on it today and purposefully was smiling while answering, avoiding answering these questions. That's not really comforting. And what you want to see from the person who is treating the President of the United States, not answering those questions.
And I'm assuming that potentially could have come from a higher power. Maybe it was the President who did not want those details being disclosed. And obviously, that's something for the physician to juggle with the President. But it's really not difficult to say when his last negative result was and when he -- or whether or not he had been on oxygen and what his fever was when he had one because we've acknowledged he had a fever, we've all had fevers before. It's not something out of the ordinary.
But people want to know what exactly the President's fever was. So then people can properly analyze and discuss what's going on with the President's health. And those are just small details that by avoiding answering those questions, it just makes the situation look worse, and does not lend credibility to the rest of the world who wants this honest, updated assessment of what's going on with the President.
So hopefully, they will clarify this. Hopefully, they'll clarify the timeline about the President's test, because that seems obviously critical, given what the President's schedule was this week, and since he maintained it. But we are waiting to hear back on that. But it certainly was not a comprehensive briefing, like most people wouldn't believe the doctor for the President of the United States should give given the fact that he is in the hospital.
WHITFIELD: And Kaitlan, there was that confusing messaging coming from the doctors. And then there is a statement that you and other reporters have received from the pool reporters about the President's condition, which is in complete contrast to the rosy picture that we heard from Dr. Conley.
COLLINS: Right. And I want to be honest with our viewers here, when we talk about this statement that we've gotten because use all the doctors come out and brief reporters, it was the Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and a team of several doctors that came out. The doctor spoke on the record and answered questions from reporters.
And then of course, after a few, you saw them turn and go back inside, and then the reporters who are present, there's a select few given that, of course, this is a hospital, you can't have hundreds of reporters there, it's during a pandemic.
And so they just had a few select reporters on hand. And so then, a source familiar with the President's health gave reporters this statement saying, quote, the President's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning. And the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. This may be the most concerning part of the, quote. It says we are still not on a clear path to a full recovery. That's a stunning thing to say about the President of the United States.
And Fred, it should be said on the record. It wasn't and we're going to tell you that quote. But we are also going to point out the fact that whoever said this that was present today for that briefing on behalf of the White House did not put this on the record. It's not clear why but it does paint a pretty stark contrast to what you heard from the doctors who were saying the President's fever has broken. He's not on oxygen. This is what we're thinking about this Remdesivir treatment that he's on.
And then we get a statement anonymously saying, well, he's not on a clear path to a full recovery. You can't just say something like that about the President of the United States without being incredibly crystal clear about why you think that what the doctor's assessment of it is, and we're not getting that.
And it's just kind of baffling why they wouldn't put that on the record if that is truly an assessment of a medical professional, but we have not gotten that so far yet. And we're asking for it. And we'll keep you updated if we actually get that on the record.
WHITFIELD: All right, Brian Stelter with us now. So, you know, Brian, clearly the doctor, the White House, the objective had to be, you know, control the message, calm people down. You know the President's doing exceptionally well 72 hours into his diagnosis. But instead, it's that statement that is now provoked confusion. You know, there is a huge lacking of clarity now.
[12:50:19]
STELTER: Yes, the press conference was a T.V. show for President Trump, who was presumably watching it from his hospital room. The President who loves T.V. and loves photo ops, was absent and is absent. His doctors say he -- says he feels well enough to walk out, walk out of the building and go back to the White House. But the President is not waving to the public from the windows of Walter Reed. He is not walking outside to get a breath of fresh air. He is not present. He is not even calling into Fox News.
So I think our skepticism levels have to be as high as they've ever been, given all these contradictions, given all these warning signs and given the administration's lack of credibility. There is simply not transparency or stability being shown by this government right now. There is no clarity. There are major questions, major discrepancies about the timeline.
And Fred, I just want to say one thing to the White House officials who are probably watching Kayleigh McEnany, Alyssa Farah, Mark Meadows this is bigger than the President. This is bigger than the current President. We all love the President. Hope he gets well very quickly. But this isn't about the President, it's about the presidency. This is about the presidency of the United States.
So sources should not be on background contradicting his doctors. They should be on the record. And his doctors should not be performing a show for the television networks. This is worrisome, Fred. And hopefully in the next few hours, they'll try to improve the transparency we're getting from the White House.
WHITFIELD: Right. And in addition, you know, talking about really underscoring the scope you're talking about, it's not just the timeline. I mean that is huge. But it's the number of people now who are testing positive who have been interacting with the President. And we don't know about the other names of people who perhaps are, you know, less famous. And so I mean, adding to this now, you know, the New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, you've got Senator Mike Lee, Hope Hicks, Melania Trump, the campaign manager, Bill Stepien, the RNC Spokesperson Ronna McDaniel, Notre Dame President Reverend John Jenkins.
And so if it is indeed the case, where the doctor said it's been 72 hours since the diagnosis, that would also lead one to believe or think about the willful neglect, you know, that comes with not being forthright, knowing how many people the President has been in the company of knowing that he went to a rally inviting people in his circle, knowing that he has COVID-19.
And then we don't know about all the other people in the White House or what kind of tracing, you know, perhaps, you know, you can also, you know, speak to that but Brian, you know, the tracing that will take place. There are so many people in the White House who would come into contact with the President from, you know, in the kitchen, the chef to someone doing laundry.
STELTER: Well, here's another question for Mark Meadows. Mark, how many of your White House staff, you're the Chief of Staff, how many staff members have tested positive? The White House has not told us. But we know of at least one. We know one staffer who sits near the press corps, who was tested positive yesterday. And we only found that out because the White House press corps found out.
So we don't know how many White House staffers are sick. We don't know how many people who were who fly, who Clean Air Force One, who fly with the President, who travel with him, we don't know how many people there are sick. We are not getting that kind of transparency from this White House.
We do know Fred, three White House reporters, three members of the media who cover the President have tested positive. They all tested positive on Friday. So there's three different cases that received positive results on Friday, but they were in the -- they were two -- some of them were at the Supreme Court announcement, others were at the White House on other days.
So, you know, talk about this tracing. So many roads lead back to that Saturday Supreme Court event where there was the outdoor event you've been showing on the air. There were also indoor events for the Supreme Court announcement. There were VIP receptions, there's a photo on the front page of "The New York Times" of Amy Coney Barrett with a receiving line meeting with people, celebrating her nomination. This all happened one week ago, right around this time. And now one week later, we know the White House is an outbreak zone.
WHITFIELD: Yes. So much now under the microscope, not just the responsibility of the presidency, the responsibility of health, you know, of care of others, this transparency or lack thereof, about a timeline, and just about the President's condition overall. All right, Kaitlan Collins, Brian Stelter, we'll check back with you. Thank you so much.
[12:54:45]
We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
All right, we begin this hour with an update on President Trump's health condition amid his battle with COVID-19. The President's doctor is raising new questions now about the timeline of his illness. But first the presence condition, just moments ago, Trump's doctor held a press briefing announcing that the President is doing well saying he is feeling upbeat and is not on oxygen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SEAN CONLEY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PHYSICIAN: It's important to note the President's been fever free for over 24 hours. We remain cautiously optimistic, but he's doing great. With that, oh, one other note, it should be clear that he's got plenty of work to get done from the Chief of Staff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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