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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Tests Positive For COVID; Source Tells Reporters The President's Vitals Over Last 24 Hours Were Concerning, Next 48 Hours Will Be Critical; More Questions Than Answers As Trump's True Condition Remains Unclear; Questions Arise About Timeline Of Trump's Illness. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired October 03, 2020 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:00]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: The President's doctor also saying that the President tested positive 72 hours ago, which is much earlier than his diagnosis was publicly announced. Trump was airlifted to Walter Reed, the military hospital yesterday as a precaution according to the White House after experiencing mild symptoms such as a fever. The President's doctor confirming that Trump is being treated with a five- day course of Remdesivir.
A drug that is shown to shorten the amount of time a patient is hospitalized with coronavirus. The President was also given an experimental antibody cocktail made by Regeneron a full 48 hours ago. This all coming as a growing number of people in the President's inner circle have now also tested positive for the virus. And then moments ago, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announcing that he has tested positive for COVID.
Christie helped prepare the president for his debate with Joe Biden earlier over the weekend. In fact, last weekend this morning, Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin announcing that he has tested positive, the third GOP senator to get that diagnosis in the last 24 hours. And several of those infected have not -- Senator Johnson actually attended a White House ceremony one week ago to introduce the President's U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.
And events were few masks, as you see in this picture were worn. And now uncertainty surrounds how the President's diagnosis will impact the election. And just when he indeed contracted the virus. All right, lots of new questions, largely because his doctors had a very different scenario than many were expecting. Let's begin with Jeremy Diamond and Walter Reed Medical Center where the President is being treated.
So, Jeremy, the President's doctor, you know, says he was diagnosed 72 hours ago, whereas most people thought he was diagnosed or at least it was publicly revealed more like 36 hours ago.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And that is raising enormous questions. And that has really been the takeaway from this briefing. I mean, to hear Dr. Sean Conley say that the President was diagnosed with coronavirus 72 hours ago puts the timeline that the President would have been diagnosed with this virus on Wednesday, midday Wednesday, which is not at all what the White House has been describing.
They have said that the President tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday evening. And then of course, they released that information around 1:00 a.m. early on Friday. It does seem like the White House may be trying to clear that up. But we need to wait and see if we get a statement from Dr. Sean Conley to try and clarify what he was saying there. Because right now we're left with a distinct impression that the President tested positive, was diagnosed with coronavirus 72 hours ago and then went on to have a rally in Minnesota to do fundraiser in Bedminster, all of these things.
Nonetheless, Fredricka, what we heard from the President's physician Dr. Sean Conley, and the other doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center was essentially saying that they have been pursuing a pretty aggressive treatment with the president, both his antibody cocktail as well as this antiviral drug Remdesivir. Really throwing everything that they can at the wall, particularly because this is the President of the United States.
But also, clearly because the President was experiencing some pretty significant symptoms of this virus. But they did ultimately come out with a fairly rosy picture of the prognosis for the president and where he is heading. I want you to listen to one of the doctors describing something that the President said to him just earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DOOLEY, MEDICAL DOCTOR: He's 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's in exceptionally good spirits. And in fact, as we were completing our multidisciplinary rounds this morning, the quote 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And so, that was kind of the tone of this briefing was a fairly optimistic assessment of the President's health, even though they acknowledge that the President will likely have to remain in the hospital for several more days, particularly because that Remdesivir treatment that he is receiving is supposed to be received in a hospitalized setting. But after that rosy assessment from the President's physicians, we also heard this. And this came to the pool reporters. So, print reporters, T.V. reporters who share information with the rest of the White House press corps. These are the reporters who were actually allowed on site, a smaller group of reporters and they received this statement from a source familiar with The President's health who told them this, 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.
[13:05:10]
DIAMOND: We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery. So obviously, raising some pretty significant questions about the health of this 74-year-old president who is in a high-risk category, not only because of his age, but also because he is considered obese by Clinical Standards. And this also suggests that the President not -- was taken to the hospital, not simply out of an abundance of caution, as we initially heard from White House officials.
And even from Dr. Sean Conley, and one of his memos that he released yesterday. But really, because there were significant concerns about the President's health, and because his vitals over the last 24 hours were, "very concerning." I would just note that there were very few White House officials who were actually on the grounds there, I wasn't there. So, I don't know exactly who the statement came from.
But obviously, there were only the President's doctors who were there, as well as the White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows when poolers received this statement. So again, more questions raised than answered here and we are waiting to see whether the White House and the White House physician Dr. Sean Conley clarifies the statements about the president being diagnosed with this virus 72 hours. Fred?
WHITFIELD: Right. And again, Jeremy, the doctor was given the opportunity because the reporter did ask you said 72 hours, and he refused to correct himself if he had misspoken. So again, more questions than answers. Thank you so much, Jeremy Diamond.
All right. And now this some breaking news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is seeking an agreement to push back senate floor activity two weeks, until October 19th after multiple Republican senators announced that they have tested positive for coronavirus and the confirmation hearings for the President's U.S. Supreme Court nominee now less than two weeks away.
CNN Congressional Reporter Lauren fox is with us now. So, what exactly is Mitch McConnell asking for here?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, there's a lot of uncertainty on Capitol Hill right now when it comes to Amy Coney Barrett's nomination and whether or not they're going to have the votes they need in the committee to actually move forward. But I'll take a step back. What McConnell is asking for here is essentially a pause and legislative business on the Senate floor.
But in order to get that agreement, he needs to get the top Democrat Chuck Schumer to sign off on it. There are still questions about whether or not that's going to happen. I've reached out to Schumer's office, as have my colleagues, but it's important to note that the hearings, the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett are still moving forward. That's according to the judiciary Chairman, Lindsey Graham.
That's significant because even though Tillis and Lee, who had both tested positive for coronavirus, may or may not be present for the actual hearings, in order to get her out of committee, they would actually need to be present. So, of course, that opens up a Pandora's box of uncertainty and questions about when they would be able to return to Capitol Hill, when they would be able to actually vote on her nomination in committee.
Because without them there, if Democrats decide not to show up for the vote, they need a quorum, meaning they need at least more than half of the members on the committee to be present. If Democrats don't show up and Tillis and Lee are missing that puts that vote in jeopardy. So, a lot of questions right now about when exactly her nomination could move forward.
And of course, we're still talking about the fact that three Republican members have tested positive for the coronavirus and there of course, questions about how that influences ultimately a floor vote if members get to that. So, the timeline right now very much in flux, we'll keep you posted on what Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat says in response to McConnell's calls to cease floor action over the next couple of weeks.
WHITFIELD: Yes. OK. And those Republican senators Ron Johnson, Tom Tillis and Mike Lee of course, we have a graphic a picture that will show of so many others who work closely with the president who have also tested positive and now including the former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. All right. Lauren Fox, thank you so much.
All right. Joining me now to talk about what we do and still do not know about the president and his condition. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Margaret Talev, political analyst and politics in White House editor for Axios and former director of Office of Government Ethics and the Bush administration, Walter Shaub and CNN political analyst and journalist Carl Bernstein. Good to see all of you.
All right, Sanjay, you first, you know, if the President was diagnosed 72 hours ago, which is what we heard from Dr. Sean Conley, and he's been starting this antibody therapy 48 hours ago. What is this now tell you about the President's condition and why he was taken to Walter Reed when he was yesterday after all?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this timeline is quite shocking, frankly, Fred. I mean, it's very different than what we heard before.
[13:10:05]
GUPTA: Keep in mind, we were told that the President received a positive COVID test around 1:00 a.m. in the morning on Friday, and now we're basically saying that it was Wednesday morning, when he was actually diagnosed with COVID. Wednesday morning, and then it was actually a day later, on Thursday morning, well, before again, anybody knew that even had the disease, that he was receiving an experimental therapy.
This monoclonal antibody therapy at the White House. Very, very different scenario and very, very important, Fred, because if he knew that he had COVID on Wednesday morning, and again, this is from the White House doctors, he had the disease, he was carrying the virus on Wednesday morning. He did not go into isolation, and he did not even regularly wear a mask going around people.
So, this is a concern because if there were -- for anybody in this situation, they could then be a significant source of spread. So, that is -- that is a -- that timeline is really critical. And as you point out, that -- the follow-up question was, are you sure it was 72 hours? Because -- and the doctor said, yeah, it was 72 hours. So, this is very different and critically important in terms of how this this spreading event, the spread of the virus likely occurred here.
Sounds like they tried to give the president this this experimental therapy at the White House under compassionate use, which means that they would have had to order that, they would have had to go through the process that he got it Thursday morning but it probably the plans were in effect, probably at least a day earlier, maybe even longer. So, there is a lot about this that is very, very upsetting, frankly, in terms of how this was handled.
Not to mention that the doctors didn't tell us had the president ever been on oxygen. How low did his oxygen go? Does he have any evidence of lung damage? Just evaded these questions couldn't even tell us how high his fever was at any given point. So, if the question is, how is he going to do? We just -- we simply got very evasive answers and a very concerning timeline.
WHITFIELD: And on the issue of the oxygen, because, you know, Dr. Conley kept saying he's not on oxygen now. I mean, he was asked the question of variety of ways, but he would still keep deferring to not now. But then he did seem to imply that he -- it wasn't yesterday, either. So, what did you feel like you've learned from that moment? I mean -- and what difference, what kind of difference might it make for a patient, particularly the president, if he was getting oxygen artificially? And if he's no longer -- I mean, how important was that exchange to you?
GUPTA: Well, it was -- it was really important, first of all, you know, just -- I'm a doctor, I talk to patients all the time, you know, talk to their families try to explain what's going on. There's a certain precision of speech, you want to give the details here. He clearly was being evasive. He just -- he just wouldn't answer the question. He's not on oxygen right now he kept saying, maybe not over the last 24 hours, it was just a strangely evasive thing.
But it's relevant, because if someone had required oxygen, it gives some indication of how significant this infection was the impact that it's having on their lungs. It's great if it's true, and it's hard to know what is true, what is not right now. But if it's true that he's no longer on oxygen, that's also important information to have. But there was a degree of trying to understand what is the impact this disease has had on the president?
We don't know, when did the President actually develop this disease? It's still unclear, although it sounds like he was diagnosed at least as early as Wednesday. So, all these things go into how you would plan the possible care, anticipate the recovery of somebody, and either the doctors don't know all this, or they were purposely being misleading there. Answering the question, hey, was the president ever on oxygen and saying over and over again, the president isn't on oxygen now is not an answer to the question. And it's a medically relevant question.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And then I wonder, you know, when did it even get -- I guess, a little curious to you that the doctors did want to convey the message that the --that the President is up and around, he's walking around, he's able to do his work, you know, he's doing exceptionally well. And there seemed to be a greater effort to not answer questions, then there was to kind of, I guess, leave script, so to speak, to try and paint this rosy picture that the President was doing okay?
GUPTA: It very much sounds like it. But look, if, you know, I listen to that very carefully. They didn't answer again, about the oxygen. They didn't answer again about the fever. They did not answer again about lung damage. They didn't couldn't even answer, you know, about the testing in some sort of satisfactory way. And then, of course, the strange document that gets circulated afterwards saying the President had very concerning vitals and there's no clear path to recovery.
I -- this is -- this is so strange and bizarre but I have to say concerning at this point despite the rosy assessment that we just heard as a nation, there seems to be something else going on here that they're being very evasive about.
[13:15:11]
WHITFIELD: You had mentioned earlier, you know, that this therapy, the antibody therapy may have been administered potentially even at the White House. A, why would it happen that way? And then B, how unusual that an experimental therapy, you know, who would give the OK to that? Would it be the president himself as long as he's, you know, lucid and of all that? Or would it be his doctor who would say I recommend this and let's just go for it?
Or what would it say to you that the President or anybody around him had a willingness to go for some experimental therapy?
GUPTA: Yes. Well, and just first of all, it was, you know, according to the doctors given on Thursday morning, this experimental therapy, we didn't even learn to the President's diagnosis until Friday --
WHITFIELD: Before -- yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: -- at 1:00 in the morning. So, just to -- just to put an exclamation mark on that, he didn't even -- we didn't even know that he had the disease. And he was already getting an experimental therapy a day earlier. That doesn't track obviously. But as far as the process goes, obviously, the patient in this case, the President would have to give consent.
But it might be one of those things where you know that the medical team may say there is this option and experimental therapy, given that you have the disease, it may help prevent you from progressing to more severe symptoms.
It's not even authorized, let alone approved. So, we have to get compassionate use approval for this. And I'm sure you know, look, it's the White House, it's the president. They can pull strings. I'm sure they went to the NIH probably got the authorization to use this. And it was -- sounds like it was administered, but again, a full day earlier than we even knew that the President had the disease.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Bottom line, the timeline just doesn't add up. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. We'll talk much more about this. Now more questions than answers about the President's condition when he was diagnosed with COVID-19. And what kind of treatment he's been on, and how is he doing. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:21:14]
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more now about the president being hospitalized at Walter Reed and now the doctors really throwing a monkey wrench into things as to when the President was diagnosed with COVID-19. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us, Margaret Talev, CNN Political Analyst and Politics and White House editor for Axios former director, Office of Government Ethics in the bush administration, Walter Shaub, and CNN political analyst and journalist Carl Bernstein.
Good to see all of you. All right. So, Sanjay, one more time. You know, the President's doctor says the President is doing very well. But then he says he's been diagnosed 72 hours ago. And that confused everybody because most people thought the diagnosis came early yesterday morning and that he's also been on a five-day treatment regimen of the drug Remdesivir. What does this underscore about the President's real condition?
GUPTA: I think it makes it very hard to know what the real condition of the president is because there's so many things that we were just told that don't track. They don't make sense. They don't fit with what we had been told before. Not the least of which is when was the president actually diagnosed with this disease? Just a fundamental question. Again, we were told Friday, 1:00 o'clock in the morning.
Now we're hearing it may have been Wednesday morning that he was given an experimental therapy, not the Remdesivir but an experimental monoclonal antibody therapy at the White House on Thursday morning. Again, that's before he was even diagnosed, we were previously told. As far as the basic questions about his health here, you're right. They say that he's doing well. They couldn't tell us.
Have you ever been on oxygen? How low did his oxygen and go? They could -- they didn't answer whether or not he has any evidence of lung damage, or I guess viral pneumonia. They couldn't even tell us, you know, how high his fever had gone. They simply would not answer those questions. So, it's very hard to piece this together. And I think that they really, you know, just as a -- as a doc myself, when you're -- when you're describing a patient's condition.
There's a certain specificity to it and you plan, and you want to, you know, the hours you want to get the timeframe right. There was an evasiveness here to answer the most basic questions about the president of the United States. And you know, I just -- I find this really concerning, if not shocking, I mean, they came out to inform the public, and they definitely created more questions than they did answers.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Carl, trust truth in this White House have had a very strange relationship. And there was, you know, great anticipation that perhaps the public would learn more about the President's condition during this press conference. But now, that whole trust thing has been thrown out the window because the doctor's information about when the President was diagnosed conflicts with what the general populace knew. How is this made matters worse for this White House, Carl?
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the trust window that -- to the extent that it's ever been opened has seen one thing after another being thrown out with it, especially since the President has become ill. What is clear, is it a moment of grave national crisis, that the instinct of the president and those acting in his direction has been to cover up the facts surrounding his illness rather than to be forthcoming at a time when the American people in the world need to know the most basic elemental, truthful, contextual facts about the President's health.
What he himself knew about his health, and when he knew it, because we have a situation now that that the world is depending on good information.
[13:25:00]
BERNSTEIN: Our system is dependent on good information. And whether at the President's direction today or someone else, we once again saw an attempt to cover up rather than to tell us the truth. And now we have this extraordinary statement on background from someone else in the White House, two reporters, giving a very different picture than the doctors did. So, we have to ask ourselves, we go back to what the President has done from the beginning of the COVID epidemic and pandemic.
And that has been to cover up. Going back to his meeting on January 28th, with his national security advisors that he told Bob Woodward about in his book. He instead of leveling with the American people has covered up and why? Because of his reelection attempts, he wants to be reelected. And this is all in that same context to cover up while he seeks reelection. And hopefully in the next few hours or days, we're going to get this thing straightened down in terms of what is truthful.
WHITFIELD: And, Carl, just to add to what you were talking about, with, you know, this anonymous statement, a White House, you know, source to pool reporters there at Walter Reed saying the next 48 hours will be critical, this in reference to the President. He's not on the clear path to full recovery, which is in complete contrast, our reporters have been reporting on that statement.
Incomplete contrast, however, to what we heard from Dr. Sean Conley, who said, you know, the President is doing exceptionally well, and he's in good spirits, and that even the president says, I feel like I could walk out of this hospital today and go home. So, Walter, you know, it's back to the issue, you know, just bouncing off what Carl said, the issue of if this White House thinks that the public can't handle the truth.
Doesn't want to hear, you know, with full transparency how the President is doing, instead, try to, you know, spin it that the President's doing OK that he really was diagnosed, you know, 36 hours ago versus now his doctor says, actually, he was diagnosed 72 hours ago.
WALTER SHAUB, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS: You know, I sincerely hope Donald Trump recovers and recovers quickly, but if he does, it'll have nothing to do with the information his administration and as doctors are telling us, this is not a transparent administration. And as Carl Bernstein said, this is consistent with the way that they've not only handled the entire presidency, but the way they've handled this pandemic.
It's been one cover up after another. And the problem is that cover up has killed many Americans and put many more in danger. And now it's infected the President himself. This is a national security crisis for us that we can't trust our president. And it doesn't speak well of his effect on the government as a whole, that these government doctors are coming out and being evasive and participating in the deception that leaves us wondering what is the state of affairs.
There's something particularly malevolent about Trump going to a fundraiser while knowing either that he had COVID-19, or was in danger of getting it because he had to take a test and was concerned that it might come back public. And I think that is a microcosm of the entire presidency, a self-dealing malevolence, where other people's health and safety comes second to what he views as his political interests.
And the American people deserve transparency. We have hostile foreign powers like Russia and China that may test us while they think our president is out of commission and knowing where we stand would give us and our government the ability to prepare to deal with that kind of crisis or anything else that comes up. So, this is a real betrayal of the underlying principle that public service is of public trust.
They have an honored our trust, we have no reason to trust this president who's told 20,000 documented false statements and lies, and we're in the dark about what comes next. WHITFIELD: Yes, and you call it a level I wonder if people are going to question, you know, with this discrepancy on the timeline, if this is, you know, exemplifies a willful neglect, you know, and even intent, you know, that the President may have been diagnosed much earlier than the public would learn, and he would actually insert himself around people and potentially expose others.
So, Margaret, you know, this this statement coming from, you know, a White House source to pool reporters, and it being complete contrast with the very doctors who just came outside of the hospital and this statement would be handed out to our reporters and others, and it would say that, you know, the President is not on a clear path to full recovery. How unusual is this, that you'd have pool reporters getting one message, you know and just paces away. You know, sources for the White House would be conveying another?
[13:30:07]
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Fred, it's just a complete breakdown of communication and transparency inside the White House.
And I think at this point, they are going to need to come out again at some point in the next couple of hours with, I suppose, the ultimate clarification of what actually happened and what is an accurate timeline.
I think Dr. Conley's name is going to need to be on that statement. And the fact that we haven't seen that statement yet tells us how truly complicated this is.
These credibility questions are important not just because President Trump is the leader of the free world. But also for two reasons.
One, there's an entire and continuously expanding orbit of people who came into contact with him or someone else who was in contact with him who has now tested positive. And people need to understand the span of their risk.
When did he really know it? How many tests were there? Was there a test on Wednesday morning and Wednesday night? Or how does 72 hours come up? And how were the -- how were the decisions to go to Bedminster and some other things made.
But also think, a month before the election, a credibility question like this on a broader level goes to questions of, if there were a national emergency, how could you validate the accuracy of the information of the readouts.
If there was an issue that didn't just involve the president's health but the public's health, such as the pandemic, how do you validate -- how do you verify the accuracy of the information that's being given without having to put it through a political prism.
And so a month before the election, to the extent that there are undecided voters or voters who are trying to figure out whether to cast a ballot, if they were intending to cast it for President Trump, I think this is the political peril, the moment of political peril for the president.
But far beyond politics, this is a crisis moment now for the country. And the White House was probably trying to assure people with this presentation by doctors.
But it raised an awful lot of questions that now are not answered and are less clear than they were before.
WHITFIELD: This is like crisis 2.0 now.
Everyone, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Our breaking news coverage continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:43]
WHITFIELD: A source telling White House reporters today President Trump's vitals over the last 24 hours were concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical. But the White House remains optimistic about his condition.
With this tweet coming from the president just moments ago: "Doctors, nurses and all at the great Walter Reed Medical Center and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them are amazing. Tremendous progress has been made over the last six months in fighting this plague. With their help, I am feeling well."
All right. Let's bring in White House correspondents, Kaitlan Collins and Jeremy Diamond.
Kaitlan, to you first.
It's back to that routine of, you know, everything is normal, nothing to see here.
But we heard from the president's doctor who said he was diagnosed 72 hours ago as opposed to the world learning early yesterday. And then the president, if, indeed, 72 hours ago, would go to Bedminster and possibly put everybody else's life in jeopardy there.
But is this the president's or the White House's, you know, continued attempts to just say everything is normal? You know, don't be concerned?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's kind of been half and half where some people are publicly minimizing what the president's condition is. As you saw, even just 24 hours ago, saying that he had mild symptoMs, saying it was a moderate case.
Now the president is hospitalized, and he's on experimental drugs and he started Remdesivir, which is a five-day treatment as well. Clearly, it's more serious than they initially let on.
And what's concerning now is that we're not being fully aware of what the president's vitals are and what's going on with the treatment. Because what they are saying now is that the president is no longer on oxygen.
Well, that would lead you to believe that the president was previously on oxygen, even though they've not said that because you would just come out and say I'm no longer X, Y, Z, if you were not that in the first place. That's what we primarily believe with the oxygen situation.
We know the president had a fever in recent days. They will not tell us what it was. But sources indicate that it was a quite high fever.
So it seems those are the decisions that led to the president being taken to Walter Reed late yesterday evening where he's expected to remain for the next several days.
But what we were really hoping with this briefing with the White House physician, who has been treating the president since he was diagnosed with this, whenever the timeline is the White House has not been clear on, is some clear answers.
And we did not get those from Dr. Conley. It seemed he was trying to avoid giving certain answers to questions, pretty pointed questions about the president's condition.
Whether it's a directive from the president because he does not want all of these details being out there so that people can properly analyze what his actual condition is right now and instead can be a little foggy, that's not clear.
But it is important for the White House to be clear right now. More important than it's ever been in any briefing that we've ever had with anyone here at the White House.
This is when it matters. This is when it's critical to let people know what's going on with the health of the president of the United States.
Not just for us at the White House but because people want to know what is going on and how concerning his condition really is. And it appears that it is quite concerning based on what we've heard from sources.
WHITFIELD: Jeremy Diamond, at Walter Reed.
Jeremy, if the doctor's intent was to clear things up or, you know, hope people would be satisfied with the answers he gave them, it's the opposite. There's more confusion now than ever about the president's condition --
[13:40:08]
DIAMOND: Yes.
WHITFIELD: -- and his prognosis.
DIAMOND: Yes. And I think ahead of that briefing, one of the things we were waiting to see was how transparent Dr. Conley and the other officials from Walter Reed were going to be.
We received more information from them than we had received in the last 24 hours about the specifics of the president's condition, about the kind of treatments that he was undergoing.
And the kinds of things that doctors are looking for in the next 24, 48 hours as they continue to monitor his condition for those potential danger signs of developing pneumonia or developing other potential -- blood clots, those kinds of things.
Ultimately, what we got was, while we got some transparency, we also got a lot of evasiveness from Dr. Conley and we got a lot of dodging, whether on the question about the president's fever and how high it actually went, or if it was on this question of oxygen where Dr. Conley repeatedly said that the president is not on oxygen right now.
And even as it related to yesterday, he said the president did not receive oxygen with the team here at Walter Reed, suggesting that the president may have gotten supplemental oxygen administered to him at the White House before leaving for Walter Reed.
So again, we still don't have the full and complete picture, the tick tock of exactly when the president was diagnosed with coronavirus, first of all, and when he developed symptoms and when those symptoms, of course, began to worsen.
And as we look at these questions about this timeline of 72 hours ago versus what the White House had said, which was that the president got his coronavirus test on Thursday evening.
Ultimately, regardless, we know that the president, on Thursday, after Hope Hicks tested positive for coronavirus, one of his closest aides who was at his side all the time, he still boarded Marine One with a couple of aides, went to this fundraiser indoors with 18 people who were not wearing masks.
And then also addressed a crowd of about 250 people outdoors at Bedminster, doing all of this without letting people know that he had very likely, and now we know was, indeed, exposed to coronavirus.
WHITFIELD: And then, Kaitlan, we still don't know the origins of this statement coming from the -- to the pool reporters that the next 48 hours was so critical for the president in contrast with what we heard from the doctor today.
COLLINS: Yes. It's unacceptable that it's not on the record to an official because that does matter who we're getting this information from. Is it a medical official or just a political aide to the president who is offering this assessment?
And it raises the question of why are we getting a more bleak assessment of the president's condition on background with no name on it than we got from the doctor when he was in front of the cameras with the microphone in front of his mouth talking to us about what's going on. The White House needs to get it in one line because this is not the
time to have conflicting messages or have people questioning your credibility. This is the time for the White House to step up and actually provide clear, clean-cut answers.
And that's not something that just critics of the president will ask for. Even the president's supporters will want to know what's actually going on with his health.
So I think across the board, everyone believes that these statements about the president's health and what's really going on should be on the record.
It's not some political analysis or anything like that about how the president feels about a certain cabinet secretary.
This is literally life and death for the president because it comes to his health for a very serious illness that we do not fully know all of the details of.
So we have asked for that statement to be on the record. We have not gotten that request granted. It doesn't seem likely that we will.
But we'll keep pushing these officials to give us on-the-record statements so we can know who we're getting this information from.
WHITFIELD: Yes. The importance of clarity, not confusion on the health of the president of the United States.
Thank you so much, Kaitlan Collins.
Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.
We've got more coverage of the president's condition at Walter Reed and when was he diagnosed, who knew it, and what kind of treatment came along the way?
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We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Just hours after President Trump was rushed to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment of COVID-19, today, his doctors are raising new questions about when the president actually contracted the virus, when he tested positive, and when the treatment began.
With me now to discuss, Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, Dr. Seema Yasmin is a former CDC disease detective and a CNN medical analyst, Brian Stelter is CNN's chief medical -- chief -- sorry. "RELIABLE SOURCES."
Oh, my gosh. So sorry about that. It said something else and I'm like, that's not right. Anyway, good to see all of you.
Dr. Yasmin, so today, the president's doctor now says, you know, he was diagnosed 72 hours ago. Far earlier than we were told.
So what are the implications of this, given his busy schedule during the time that he may, indeed, have been infected?
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Fred, as someone who teaches physicians on how to communicate with clarity, this was a master class on all the things not to do.
This was a physician who was prevaricating, who was speaking half- truths, and just not being transparent and giving us clear answers to very basic questions.
Things like, how much oxygen the president has or has not been on. For example, Dr. Conley said he's not on oxygen now. OK, well, has he been? What are his 02 stats? What do his lung scans look like? We didn't get that basic information.
And then, on top of that, as you mention, we get this news that we're just 72 hours into the diagnosis. And as soon as he said that, I thought, wait, what? That would mean the president was diagnosed either in the morning or around the midday of Wednesday.
And we know, from following his event since then, he attended a fundraiser in Minnesota. He attended a rally in Minnesota. He attended a fundraiser in Bedminster, New Jersey. So he's had contact and exposed so many people.
[13:50:07]
If it turns out he really was diagnosed on Wednesday, which it may turn out to be, that's really reckless behavior that's endangered the lives of so many more people.
And then, of course, it raises so many questions. Of course, this is the president of the USA. He's going to get the kitchen sink thrown at him, whether it's emergency use or not in the case of the antibody treatment.
But then there were 210,000 Americans who have died over the past few months because the pandemic response has been so bad and they certainly didn't get access to this kind of treatment.
WHITFIELD: Dr. Choo, the president's doctor is painting a very rosy picture of the president's health, you know, saying he's doing exceptionally and he's in exceptionally good spirits.
Even the president saying I feel like I could walk out of here today.
And then the White House correspondents giving another statement coming from the poll reporters that the next 48 hours are critical.
Who do you believe at this point? DR. ESTHER CHOO, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, OREGON HEALTH AND
SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: It is just remarkable how conflicting and confusing the information is.
And I'll say, in my practice, as an emergency room doctor, we're used to getting incomplete and sometimes inconsistent clinical information when a patient comes in. This is on a totally different and wild level.
In the past 24 hours, we've heard that he's both energetic and fatigued and lethargic. He both has a fever and doesn't have a fever. He possibly was on oxygen but doesn't have an oxygen requirement. He is perfectly well. We expect him to go home in two or three days.
But we're also doing serial ultrasounds on him. Ultrasounds of what? We don't know. If it's an ultrasound of the heart, which is what I suspect, what a curious thing to do on somebody who you think doesn't have serious symptoms of coronavirus. So a completely puzzling picture.
But the fact that there are concerning parameters in there, including the comment that there were many concerning vital signs overnight, makes me think that there are serious features here. It makes me concerned about the trajectory of the president's disease.
And also, as a reminder, this whole idea that he's fine and he just needs two or three days or 48 hours of monitoring, that doesn't make sense. There's no reason, if we understand the time course, for us to be able --
WHITFIELD: He may be a little run down.
CHOO: -- to be reassured.
WHITFIELD: Right. That he may be a little run down.
CHOO: Yes. And what would be clarified in two days? We know the time course of this disease. If you're symptomatic early, you tend to get worse as time goes on into the second week of the disease.
So if we're really monitoring out of an abundance of caution, then it shouldn't be a two-day plan.
WHITFIELD: Brian, back to this timeline and optics and the conflicts of all of this, are they covering up for the fact that Trump did go to those fundraisers, was in the space of so many people and perhaps just trying to, you know, make it seem like everything was normal --
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right.
WHITFIELD: -- that there's nothing wrong with this?
STELTER: When he was taking this trip on Thursday afternoon for a big fundraiser, raising a lot of money in Bedminster, New Jersey, was he already actively giving off this virus? It seems like he was. Did any doctors think he was already contagious? That is a key
question that has not been answered. This timeline suggested that they did have suspicions.
And we know some White House aides didn't go on the trip because of Hope Hicks' diagnosis.
So it seems like, Fred, the Trump White House tried to engage in downplaying the disease and denying the disease, all the way from January, February and March, all the way until Friday morning, all the way until 12:54 a.m. Friday, when the president tweeted that he had tested positive.
It's as if the denialism went up until that very moment.
And of course, that's a huge problem for the country. And it's a huge problem -- it's been measured in lives lost.
But specifically, with regards to the president, what happened in Bedminster on Thursday? Why did he go on the trip? Who was around him?
These donors are probably pretty ticked off. Some have been quoted already in the media saying they're angry about what has happened here.
And what about the people who work at Bedminster? What about the people who live in the town?
All of these decisions have consequences, these ripple effects for anonymous individuals, names we will never know, who might get sick as a result.
That's partly why this is so upsetting. The American people deserve real doctors, not spin doctors right now.
Look, there are opportunities for these doctors to win back credibility. You know, credibility every day, it's like a bank. You either take some out or you put some in. You make a deposit, you make a withdrawal.
Credibility can be earned back. But these doctors and the White House's aides and officials have to start trying to win back credibility.
WHITFIELD: We'll leave it there for now.
Brian Stelter, Dr. Yasmin, Dr. Choo, thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.
YASMIN: Thank you, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK. More breaking news. Can't have enough of this today. My goodness. Now New England Patriots quarterback, Cam Newton, has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus. That's according to ESPN.
[13:55:09] The team releasing a statement a short time ago but did not identify the player infected. Several other players, coaches, staff, were tested as a precaution. The results all coming back negative for just about everyone else there reportedly.
But now the Patriots' scheduled Sunday opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs, also having a positive test. The NFL saying Sunday's game between the Patriots and Chiefs will be rescheduled.
So, again, Cam Newton testing positive for COVID-19.
Thank you so much, everyone, for being with us and rolling with us. A lot of breaking news. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
More NEWSROOM continues after this.
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