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No Clear Picture of President's Health as Questions Loom After Doctors Briefing; Medical Experts Express Deepening Concerns About President's Health; As COVID-19 Pandemic Spreads So Does Food Insecurity; What Happens if President Becomes Too Sick to Govern?; Non-Essential Businesses in Some Parts of New York City May Have to Close. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired October 04, 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]

TAPPER: Get well, and please, for the rest of us who don't get to go to Walter Reed, get well and get it together.

Thanks for spending your Sunday with us. The news continues next.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with an attempted cleanup on messaging of the president's condition in his battle with COVID. Only today another briefing from his medical team ignites more questions, more confusion, less clarity.

The president's doctors maintain President Trump is doing well, but admitted Trump did need supplemental oxygen Saturday after announcing yesterday the president didn't. They add that he also received a second dose of Remdesivir, a five-day treatment that is usually supposed to be administered in a hospital. Yet, the medical team said that the president could be discharged as early as tomorrow?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BRIAN GARIBALDI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S MEDICAL TEAM: Today he feels well. He has been up and around. Our plan for today is to have him to eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile, and if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, now major questions about the credibility of the story that we're being told about our president. We have a team of correspondents covering these fast-moving developments for us. Boris Sanchez at the White House. Let's begin with Joe Johns at Walter Reed Medical Center where the president is being treated. So, Joe, you know, the president's medical team trying to clear things

up all these contradictions in the last few hours. Yet now more contradictions. How could he be possibly discharged as early as tomorrow when there is so much uncertainty about the volatility of COVID and the president?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. I can't say that they have cleared anything up, quite frankly, Fred. On the one hand, they say there has been substantial progress for the president. But on the other hand, they say at least two times over the last several days the president has seen a drop in his blood oxygen levels, which is potentially a serious problem.

Also, the doctors indicated today that they put him on dexamethasone. Now that is a steroid, a very strong steroid that's generally recommended for patients with very serious cases of COVID. The president is also still on Remdesivir, a five-day course of treatment, which requires him essentially to be at the hospital for that to be administered because there are potentially serious side effects.

Despite that, we're being told from the doctors that the president might go home as early as tomorrow, which doesn't seem to jive, if you will. And one of the doctors, Sean Conley, who leads the team, was asked about his rosy scenarios, some of which he put forth yesterday, and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Now, one of the things that wasn't said there is the fact that a doctor essentially cannot release information unless a patient gives permission. And we do know that President Trump has been working very hard throughout this year to project strength, if you will, and he does not like to be portrayed as weak. However, the important thing and the bottom line, the reason why we're paying so much attention to all of this, is because this is an election year and the American people certainly have a right to know about the president's health before the election.

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that plus we're talking about COVID-19. You know, coronavirus, a virus, a disease that has killed 208,000 plus Americans.

All right. Thank you so much, Joe. Boris Sanchez at the White House. So, Boris, let's talk about this.

You know, who's trying to be in control of the messaging, the White House, the president, or the medical team?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's a great question, Fred. Clearly some disparities between what we've heard from Dr. Conley and other White House officials. At one point during this press briefing he was asked specifically about a comment made by the president's chief of staff yesterday to reporters saying that the president's health had been very concerning.

[13:05:10]

Conley effectively said that the comment was misconstrued and that's when he got into that sound bite that you just played with Joe talking about wanting to paint a rosier picture. To be clear, though, the contradictions are out there. Conley today revealing that the president had these drops in his oxygen level revealing that President Trump had a high fever, things that he did not mention yesterday.

He also revealed that the president did receive supplemental oxygen despite having trouble answering that question yesterday as well.

Notably, you know, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, now under fire. The president, according to sources, furious at his chief of staff for having this conversation with reporters and making comments that reveal concern among the president's staff, among aides here at the White House about the president's health.

We have heard from a source close to the president that revealed that Dr. Conley and President Trump met before yesterday's briefing. We're still working to confirm if they met before today's briefing but the source made clear that Conley would not be sharing any information that the president wouldn't approve of. So it seems like there's a lot of mixed messaging perhaps what the president wants out there, what Dr. Conley is sort of struggling to conceal from reporters and then what others on sort of the tangential side of the president's infection are sharing with the public.

The White House clearly has a crisis of credibility at this point and a big part of the skepticism that a lot of people are feeling toward these statements made by people like Dr. Conley is because if you go back from the beginning of this administration the White House has put out misinformation or just inaccurate statements about things that are trivial. And now when there is a serious issue at hand there are a lot of question marks about the information that we're receiving -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you so much.

I want to bring in now CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

So, Sanjay, you know, let's talk about so many holes now, gaping holes, and among the questions being asked of the medical team were the latest images, you know, taken of the president involving his lungs. We know COVID attacks so many organs. And the doctors said that the findings were expected. Listen to what was said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And what did the x-rays and CT scans show? Are there signs of pneumonia? Are there signs of lung involvement? Was there any damage to the lungs?

CONLEY: Yes, so we're tracking all of that. There is some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: How do you translate that?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're hiding things, Fred. I hate to say it. I know that's a serious thing to say. But if these were normal scans, he would have said they were normal scans. So clearly they are abnormal. But he is not telling us what they showed. You know, expected findings doesn't really mean much. But, you know, on one hand, you're hearing he is doing fine.

So what's expected findings for someone who just a moment ago he said was doing fine, maybe even going to be discharged tomorrow. I don't -- it's very -- we have to sort of really sort of dig into this, read between the lines, understand what they're telegraphing us. And as Boris Sanchez was just saying, it's a pattern.

I mean, all day Friday it was he is doing fine, he has mild illness, he had a fever, he has moderate illness. And then by the end of the day he's essentially being medevacked to the hospital. So you've got to take these things in context.

What we do know -- if what we're hearing is true, what we do know is that the president has had a significant impact of this disease on his lungs. His blood oxygenation dropped low enough at least twice, they say, to require supplemental oxygen. That's a big deal when you're talking about this sort of disease. It puts him in a different sort of risk category.

We know about all the different medications that are now being given to him. So, you know, there is a significant level of concern, despite what you hear from that press conference, which is difficult to interpret by anybody, frankly, there is a significant level of concern that they are telegraphing.

WHITFIELD: And the doctors gave some numbers on the oxygen levels, you know, in the 90s, but then the doctor was quick to say but never below -- never in the 80s. Why is that significant to hear him say that?

GUPTA: Well, actually, it's interesting because I listened to that carefully. So they said, so how low did it go? Did it go into the 80s? And he said it did not go into the low 80s, he said, which, again, you know, why are they doing this? This is juvenile at this point. We're talking about someone's health. That someone happens to be the president. Why these games that are continuing to get played? That aside, it's relevant because it gives some idea of the impact that this disease is having on his lungs. How well are his lungs keeping up.

[13:10:02]

We could say at this point that his lungs have had some difficulty keeping up. That's why the oxygenation has dropped. They also want to know, because they're giving him three medications now, monoclonal antibodies, which don't even have emergency use authorization, the Remdesivir, and now steroids. So you're monitoring oxygen levels. You want to see what's the impact on the lungs.

But also, are these medications hopefully having a beneficial impact on the lungs. So this is critical information. It's not the only critical thing. There's other things I'd love to know, but that's at least one thing that they've given us.

WHITFIELD: Are people to extrapolate here that the president may be in worse condition than the doctors are willing to say, especially if the doctors are willing to say he is in a second day of a five, you know, day treatment, and you've underscored that that is treatment that has to be administered in the hospital, yet the doctors would also say he could be discharged as early as tomorrow. I mean, what is anyone to think about what the true condition is of the president?

GUPTA: Yes. Well, I mean, so I would say a couple of things. One is that I think the president is sicker than the doctors are letting on. And again I hate to say it that way, but they have made that clear all throughout these last several days. They keep telegraphing things that are highly concerning, but then painting this rosy picture.

The president is on three different medications. His oxygen levels have dropped. We know that there are findings on his imaging studies that are not normal. So these are all things that would certainly lead one to believe that he is sicker than, you know, doing fine, maybe going to go home tomorrow.

The going home tomorrow sort of comment, that really struck me, as it did you, Fred, for two reasons. One is that he is on a medication that is supposed to be administered in the hospital, this Remdesivir, and it's a five-day course. He is the president. There is a White House medical unit. So could it be possible that they could set up something to administer this IV medication at the White House? Perhaps.

I mean, you know, would it be advisable? I don't think anybody would advise that. But, you know, look, these are unusual times. What I think struck me about the fact that Dr. Garibaldi said that, is that's the expectation now, right? The expectation that they've set now is the president should go home tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: Right.

GUPTA: I mean, he is sick. He is on three medications with this fluctuating oxygenation.

WHITFIELD: And that in step with the president sending out, you know, tweeting images, video, still images that make it look like hey, business as usual, he is able to conduct the business of being a president while at Walter Reed.

This other medication you mentioned, this dexamethasone, what kind of condition does a COVID patient need to be in to be administered that?

GUPTA: Yes, the dexamethasone, again, which is one of only two medications that have an emergency use authorization for this disease, is typically given to people who have objective evidence of troubles with their lungs in terms of their oxygenation. Sometimes it's given to people who are already on breathing machines, which the president is not. But people who -- it's an anti-inflammatory. It's a steroid.

You know, and when you start to think that you have significant inflammation that could be overwhelming the lungs you can give a medication to basically tamp down that inflammation. Many people have heard the term cytokine storm by now. That's when you develop a significant inflammation in response to this disease, and that could be really troubling and really, you know, concerning from a medical standpoint.

If you're giving dexamethasone, that means they are concerned about that. They are concerned about this inflammation. So, you know, he has gotten two doses of that, and when you start, again, to translate, read between the lines, put this information all together, it does paint a concerning picture.

WHITFIELD: And then quickly the other thing. I mean, to hear the doctors say as early as tomorrow the president could go back to the White House. Contact tracing hasn't been executed or even completed, and the idea of the president going back to the White House, there are a host of vulnerabilities. What do you say to that potential of the president going back to a place where it's a working and a residential location?

GUPTA: Well, you know, he would have to be in isolation if he were to go. And again, I don't think going back to the White House is a good idea at all given the picture they frame. But if he were to go, he needs to be in isolation over there, which is more challenging to do. People who interact with him would need to be in personal protective gear. I mean, he is a -- right now he is someone who is carrying the virus in his body so he could be a source of spread, obviously.

So it would have to be a really, really contained situation in some way for him at the White House, which is another reason for him to stay in the hospital. I mean, this is what hospitals do. They have all of the people there who are trained to be able to interact with somebody who is carrying this virus.

[13:15:01]

So, you know, if he goes back to the White House tomorrow, I don't think that would be a medical decision. I don't think the medical doctors would want that to happen. They would be just basically following orders at that point.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Appreciate that. We've got so much more on all of this coming up. What happens when a

president becomes too sick to perform his duties? We'll lay all of that out for you.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Following two briefings this weekend from President Trump's doctors, more details about the course of his COVID-19 illness are emerging. If you had questions yesterday, however, you probably have even more now.

I want to bring back my panel.

[13:20:02]

Dr. James Phillips is the chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital. Karoun Demerjian is the national security reporter for the "Washington Post" and CNN political analyst. And Patrick Healy is the politics editor for "The New York Times" and also a CNN political analyst.

Good to see all of you.

All right. Dr. Phillips, you first. The president's physician, you know, saying he hopes Trump could possibly be discharged as early as tomorrow in spite of his oxygen levels, you know, dropping twice. What's your assessment of what we all heard?

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Yes, thanks for having me on. So you know discharge planning is a medical terminology that we use. It has complexities to it. Now typically when we think of discharging from the hospital that means we're going home, or that you or I going to the place where we normally live where we may have our oral prescription that we take, but no major medical care.

But the other type of discharge from a hospital is to a place where you get continued care. A place where you go if you are on a five-day course of antibiotics or continued monitoring is necessary, regular checkups from doctors and nurses --

WHITFIELD: And that could happen at the White House? Especially when we're talking about a five-day Remdesivir?

PHILLIPS: It would be necessary, right? So we would typically send one someone to a long-term care facility or the more antiquated colloquial term is a nursing home. And the president is very fortunate --

WHITFIELD: But we're talking about the president. But the president of the United States is how we should be applying all of this. So realistically can be treated at the level that you would hope the president of the United States is being treated with COVID, which has killed 208,000 Americans, at the White House for this five --

PHILLIPS: Well, what we know about --

WHITFIELD: -- dosage.

PHILLIPS: What we know about White House medical unit is that it has very extensive capabilities. I mean, you heard that the president received oxygen prior to being transported to the Walter Reed. If you look at pictures of the White House medical unit, it has extensive abilities, including monitoring, nursing PAs, doctors and all that care. The president should be able to receive that IV treatment if that White House medical unit and the president's residence is converted into a nursing home or better term, long-term care facility.

WHITFIELD: So still unclear, Doctor, so, you know, when the president, you know, contracted COVID, when he first developed and demonstrated his symptoms, when he was actually diagnosed because, you know, there were some discrepancies yesterday, and the last time that he tested negative. And then there was this question to the doctors about imaging and the findings from the doctor's visit there at Walter Reed. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What did the x-rays and CT scans show? Are there signs of pneumonia? Are there signs of lung involvement? Any damage to the lungs?

CONLEY: Yes, so we're tracking all of that. There is some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So was there anything there that you found curious? You know, tracking the findings, nothing really of clinical concern, and, you know, he had shortness of breath and he has been, you know, treated with supplemental oxygen, he's taking now another, you know, dose of medication as an anti-inflammatory, a steroid. So there has to be something there that they have seen in imaging, but perhaps the issue is they just don't want to share it.

PHILLIPS: Right. And the question is, what are expected findings in COVID-19?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

PHILLIPS: That can vary from a normal chest x-ray, which I would hope we see in most patients, to what we call ground glass opacities in both the lungs all the way to things like multifocal pneumonia. And if you remember early on we thought that COVID-19 was somewhat similar to a disease called ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome, which itself has very distinct x-ray findings.

Then if a patient becomes hypoxic, especially in a disease where we worry about blood clots, a CT scan may be necessary to look at the blood vessels within the lungs to see if there is a blockage from a blood clot. Without knowing all of the lab values involved, and we should talk about lab values as well, we don't know if the president is currently being anti coagulated with something called Lovenox or (INAUDIBLE).

When it comes to those lab values, I think there is something we need to dig into -- that reporters should dig into a little bit. Yesterday it was said that he had normal kidney and normal liver function. Today a subtle change said that the president had normal cardiac, I'll quote it. His cardiac, kidney and liver function showed continued normal findings or improving findings. And if you do the addition and the subtraction there, they added in the cardiac stuff and implied that maybe there was an abnormality there.

WHITFIELD: Right. Including what?

PHILLIPS: So I think that that deserves some questions to clarify that a bit.

WHITFIELD: So, Karoun, how much information do the American people need to have about this president, any president's condition?

KAROUN DEMERJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, I think that the American people need to have as much information as possible.

[13:25:03]

If you're going to be making these statements and updates about the president's condition, you want to be able to believe that they are being as complete and as forthright as possible. At any time, but especially when you're in the last month before an election, in which you are trying to determine, you know, in a very fairly close race and trying to determine whether to re-elect this president. So there's not that much time left I suppose for people to be able to make that decision.

But just in general, when you are, you know, whether the president can perform the duties of his office, or whether he is in a dire physical state or not, does seem relevant for the American people to know. There are of course privacy laws that dictate how much the president is obligated to share and how much he can make the decision himself about what he is going to share.

But in general, just this kind of philosophical, you're the leader of the country question, the American people want to know whether you are healthy, whether you are going to be healthy in the next few days and to have a full rendering of his state if you are going to be giving updates is kind of imperative on the whole team in the White House.

WHITFIELD: I mean, Patrick, clearly, you know, the president is preoccupied with an image issue. He always has been. And he doesn't want to be, you know, seen by anyone as being weak, et cetera. So even the doctors said, you know, we're trying to have the most optimistic portrayal of his condition as possible. His chief of staff, Mark Meadows, last night after being pressed, you know, after the doctors left so many questions, Mark Meadows said, you know, he is not out of the woods yet.

You know, still very critical time and then reportedly the president is very upset about that and perhaps today's effort of course correction, you know, they may not have hit the mark.

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's right, Fred. What's so troubling here is that we are getting all of this constantly confusing information that seems due to the fact that the doctors and Mark Meadows are not trying to provide factual information to the American people. They are trying to provide rosy information that the president will hear when they are carried live, the remarks are carried on CNN, on FOX, elsewhere.

They are really speaking to an audience of one instead of keeping the American people up to date. The president is angry at Mark Meadows because Mark Meadows briefly came out and told reporters basically something that was sort of closer to the truth, which was that he had struggled. And then you see mark meadows coming out later yesterday basically going back to the rosy script that the president wants.

And now today, Fred, we're seeing allies and advisers to the president who are coming out again mocking the idea of Joe Biden wearing masks, sort of downplaying --

WHITFIELD: Jason Miller actually accusing Biden as, you know, using it as a prop. You know, that it's just over zealous --

HEALY: Yes. And (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: -- step that he wears.

HEALY: That's right.

WHITFIELD: I mean, this message after the president in the hospital?

HEALY: That's right. I mean, the president is in the hospital and yet they're still saying, well, you know, the family, the first family didn't need to be wearing masks at the debate on Tuesday night. You know, Joe Biden looks silly over his wearing a mask. You know, somehow we're getting into now day four of this with the White House in terms of Hope Hicks and the president testing positive, and their storyline now is that everything is rosier and masks aren't essential.

WHITFIELD: And Dr. Phillips, last word, I mean, it's one thing, and it was very clear, you know, the president, the White House demonstrating its disdain for masks. Then the president, you know, gets a diagnosis of positive and that message would still carry on. How does that sit with you?

PHILLIPS: Well, I think that the importance of masks is very clear. I hope that there are people that are able to learn from the president's example that by not wearing a mask you can get sick. No one is invincible to this. And what I also want to just make clear is that while we're talking about the president and his hospital stay, several thousand Americans are going to die of COVID during that time period. So please wear a mask. Please abide by those social distancing guidelines and remember that we are not out of this yet.

WHITFIELD: Right. And clearly most are not getting the kind of access to treatment and medical expertise that, of course, the president of the United States is being afforded.

Dr. James Phillips, Karoun Demerjian, Patrick Healy, thanks so much.

[13:30:02]

All right, President Trump's doctors say he could be discharged from the hospital as early as tomorrow. But his treatment for coronavirus would continue at the White House? Ahead, why some are calling the president's infection a code red for national security.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Nine months after first learning about the coronavirus, the president joins the more than seven million Americans infected with COVID-19 so far. But the impact of this pandemic expands to many millions more. Millions who are out of work and millions who don't have enough food to feed their families.

[13:35:02]

CNN's Natasha Chen spoke with struggling families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first cars in this line arrived three hours before the Dekalb County monthly food drive began. Each driver got one box of vegetables and one box of meat. Meat which has gotten more expensive in grocery stores and therefore harder for people like Dolores Rich to afford on her retirement income.

DOLORES RICH, RETIREE: Feels like more when they go up sky high.

CHEN: Within the first hour of people arriving all 700 tickets accounting for the available boxes at one of three locations were handed out. That's according to Michael Thurman, the Dekalb County CEO who hasn't seen this many people show up for a food drive since the pandemic began.

MICHAEL THURMOND, CEO, DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA: The number one issue is I think the initial relief, federal relief, has run out. People have lost the $600 supplement on their unemployment insurance.

CHEN: The people we talked to said they had never been to a food drive before this year.

BEVERLY KIRKSEY, RETIRED SCHOOL CAFETERIA WORKER: I feel bad about it because I never had to do it until, you know, the pandemic. I have always been able to keep food on the table.

CHEN: Tania Larkins says before the pandemic she would have misjudged these drives.

TANIA LARKINS, CHILDCARE WORKER: I think I would have judged it wrongly. I would have judged it like, you know, it's for poor people or something like that. No, it's not. (LAUGHTER)

LARKINS: No, it's not. It's for people in need at this point. It's very humbling.

CHEN: Larkins used to work in childcare. Her husband drives a school bus part time. Bill Webber builds fences for people.

BILL WEBBER, FENCE BUILDER: It's hit me real hard as well.

CHEN (on camera): So you've seen fewer clients --

WEBBER: Fewer clients, less people planning on doing work that they had planned on, you know. They cut back, said -- they called back saying hey, we're not going to be able to do this right now, which I understood. I'm not upset at people.

CHEN (voice-over): The Georgia Chamber of Commerce says as of August 22 percent of Georgia businesses have not reopened, including almost a quarter of all restaurants, 40 percent of bars, businesses even being rough for the people supplying the meat being given out in these boxes.

GARY BLACK, GEORGE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE: We're supplementing the fresh fruits and vegetables with protein, but it's also coming from a local Atlanta business that needed the business.

CHEN: The Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture and local county officials work together to use federal dollars to help pay farmers for this food while helping the people who need to eat.

THURMOND: He is a Republican and I'm a Democrat, but hunger doesn't affiliate with any party. I hope you notice the diversity of the people who came through here today. Black folks, white folks, Asian, Hispanic, Latino. Food insecurity impacts the entire community.

CHEN: A community unsure of how long they'll need to continue this routine once a month of waking up early to ask for help they didn't need before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN: And that's a concern for how long this need will continue because, as we mentioned, this is a resource coming from federal dollars from the CARES Act, which eventually would dry up. But you saw that county CEO there talking about this. H told us he's adamant he wants to figure out some way to continue these drives as long as people need it, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

All right. And this just in with coronavirus cases rising in several New York City neighborhoods. Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to shut down some non-essential businesses as early as this week. We will have a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:41]

WHITFIELD: All right. With the president of the United States in the hospital being treated for COVID-19 just 30 days before the end of voting, it has thrown both the White House and reelection campaign into disarray. In addition to issues of succession, the president's illness is also raising some national security concerns.

Let me bring in CNN national security analyst and former senior adviser to the national security adviser, Samantha Vinograd.

Samantha, good to see you. We know that Vice President Pence is next in line, but national security is especially paramount right now. What are your concerns about the message that is being conveyed?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the message that's being conveyed by the White House is, unfortunately, adding to the sense of instability when it comes to the U.S. government. Right now when we look at the discord and talking points coming from the president's doctor and the chief of staff and others, I am really thinking that a kindergartner could do a better job at crisis communications.

The mishandling of information related to the president's health is adding to a narrative that this White House is in disarray. That is sending a message globally that when it comes to the stability of the U.S. government, how the U.S. government is able to function and perform business as usual, there are serious downside risks. That really degrades our image globally as a competent global leader.

I think about the fact that Russia and China have been working for years to discredit this image of the United States as stable and as an example for other countries to follow. And just based upon how the White House is handling this crisis, they don't have to work very hard anymore.

WHITFIELD: You're calling this really a code red moment and it sounds like you're describing, you know, a host of failures by the president and the White House to rise to the occasion?

VINOGRAD: Well, that's putting it mildly. They certainly failed to rise to the occasion. But from a resource perspective as well, it is a fact that the president cannot fully discharge his duties from his offices at Walter Reed if he is there for several days. It takes all that a healthy person has to fully work on national security. When you think about the functionality of the national security process, the ability of the president to make fully informed, timely national security decisions, that is undoubtedly under pressure, Fred.

[13:45:02]

At the same time, critical resources are being diverted just to deal with this crisis. Personnel are having to take time off to get tested, engage in contact tracing and potentially quarantine. That means that we do not have all hands on deck when it comes to just monitoring the range of threats facing our country. So this is a moment of heightened vulnerability for the United States.

WHITFIELD: And you know, you said, you know, the fitness of a president is essential to national security, and the president, you know, is being treated for COVID-19. Do you blame the president or do you blame the people around him for his vulnerability to COVID-19? I mean, after all, this is somebody who, you know, has had disdain for wearing a mask.

VINOGRAD: The president of the United States is distinctly to blame for his own diagnosis. He has messaged from the get-go that engaging in basic CDC guidelines is a sign of weakness. He has mocked members of his own administration for the guidelines that they have put forward. He has mocked Vice President Joe Biden. He has set the message.

And even more, Fred, you know, I take a step back and I think to myself, this president wants us to believe what he cares about protecting American lives. That's the message he is sending domestically and tries to send globally. The fact that he likely knowingly exposed Americans to himself while he was a source of contagion, the fact that this White House failed to engage in immediate contact tracing to ensure that no one else got sick, that really castrates any content that they are putting out about caring about American national security.

And the president is the leader of the United States. He is distinctly to blame for his own ill health right now.

WHITFIELD: And apparently officials in other states where the president, you know, most recently traveled in the last week, they have not heard from the White House on any kind of efforts of contact tracing.

All right, Sam Vinograd, thank you so much.

VINOGRAD: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Up next, a stunning setback in the fight against coronavirus is New York City on the verge of another shutdown.

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[13:51:14]

WHITFIELD: All right, this breaking news. As the coronavirus cases continue to climb at a concerning rate, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is proposing closing all non-essential businesses in some parts of the city to slow the spread of COVID-19.

CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is joining us live now. So, Evan, what is the mayor proposing exactly?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you say, Fred, this is after dramatic news for people in New York City who have been through the worst of this pandemic and been hoping that those numbers were going to go the other way and stay the other way. This is news just coming in in the past couple of hours here. So for

the past week or so, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been monitoring about 20 zip codes across the city in Brooklyn and Queens, and say that, look, these are dangerous places where we've seen numbers of the infection rate above 3 percent or around 3 percent, a dangerous number. And today he announced that nine of those zip codes have been above 3 percent for seven consecutive days.

Now what he's proposing -- this is a proposal that has to be approved by Governor Cuomo. What he's proposing is that in those nine zip codes, private schools, public schools and all nonessential businesses will shut down again starting on Wednesday, October 7th. That includes restaurants, which are now enjoying outdoor dining, that will close. And in the 11 other zip codes that are of concern, where there's numbers are not above 3 percent yet, other businesses like gyms and pools and indoor dining, which just returned here in New York, will also shut down again on October 7th.

Now it's hard to put into words just how dramatic this news is for those of us in New York City, but Mayor de Blasio talked about it in his press conference today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Now, look, Fred, the city's goal here is to fight this virus neighborhood by neighborhood, so as to prevent a large- scale shutdown like we saw back in April. Now this is the early days of this, it starts Wednesday, we'll see what happens, but obviously those numbers going up a grave cause for concern -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Big concern for so many. All right. Thank you so much, Evan McMorris-Santoro in New York.

All right. Another NFL game on hold today because of COVID-19. And that's because New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has tested positive, and it's not the only COVID problem the league is facing. CNN's Coy Wire explains, next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[13:58:20]

WHITFIELD: A game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs that was supposed to be played today is now rescheduled for Monday after Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tests positive for coronavirus. A high-ranking NFL official has spoken to our Coy Wire, who is joining us right now.

So, Coy, what have you learned?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. Good to see you. I am told that Newton was tested Friday morning, but then, Fred, went through an entire day of meetings and practice before the team learned of his test results early Saturday. The source also tells me that while other games have been played as scheduled, even after the player tested positive earlier in the week, this game was postponed so quickly because of the nature of the quarterback position, calling plays in huddles, leading and speaking in front of so many groups of players within the team.

Now just about an hour ago, the league announced there are no new positive cases in today's results, so they have rescheduled the game in Kansas City tomorrow at 7:05 Eastern pushing back the Falcons- Packers Monday night game to 8:50.

All right, meanwhile, four additional Tennessee Titans have tested positive for COVID-19 today, bringing the total to 20 within the organization. Ten players, 10 staff members. The league source I spoke to yesterday said that there's an investigation to determine whether the team was following COVID protocols that have been put in place. Their game against the Steelers which was originally scheduled for today has been postponed until later this month.

Now, Fred, yesterday college football fans were seen in stands all across the country, up to 20,000 fans were in attendance for the number four Georgia Bulldogs win over number seven Auburn in Athens, Georgia. They were required to wear masks while entering the stadium and within concourse areas, but they could remove them once they got to their seats according to the school.