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White House Sows Confusion About Trump's Condition; How White House Rose Garden Gathering Likely Became a Superspreader Event; Senate GOP's Third Positive COVID-19 Case Threatens Quick Barrett Confirmation; Biden Slams Trump over Handling of Pandemic; Coronavirus Cases Worldwide; COVID-19 and the NFL. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 04, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A credibility crisis at the White House as President Trump battles COVID-19. He says he feels better, while his doctors and advisers can't seem to keep their stories straight.

Many more in Washington now sick as well. We'll walk you through what happened in the Rose Garden last weekend.

Was this the super spreader event that started it all?

Plus, we are less than a month from Election Day now.

Can you believe it?

Inside the changes the campaigns are making in light of the president's positive coronavirus diagnosis.

And welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and, indeed, all around the world, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes.

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HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.

The U.S. president's medical team is cautiously optimistic but warns that he is not out of the woods just yet. Donald Trump now spending a second night at Walter Reed military hospital as the virus that is defining his presidency is also potentially endangering his life. Earlier, Trump posted this video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am starting to feel good. You don't know over the next period of a few days. I guess that's the real test. So we'll be seeing what happens over the next couple of days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now Trump's doctor later said, his patient made substantial progress since his diagnosis, having completed a second dose of remdesivir, losing his fever and being off supplemental oxygen. The doctor adding that the president spent a lot of Saturday conducting business. The White House releasing some photographs of that. You can see there.

But a source told reporters earlier, the previous 24 hours were not so positive, that the president's vital signs were quote very concerning, that the next 48 hours will be critical. "The New York Times" and Associated Press identifying that source as the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Now later on Saturday, Meadows called into one of his boss' favorite FOX News shows and painted a somewhat more optimistic picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: And the doctor is exactly right. He is doing extremely well. In fact, I'm very, very optimistic based on the current results and as the doctor said, he's not out of the woods the next 48 hours or so with the history of this virus, we know can be, can be tough.

And but he's made unbelievable improvement from yesterday morning. When a number of us, the doctor and I were very concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And now the treatment, doctors say the president is getting remdesivir for five days. A source close to the White House adding that Trump definitely has had supplemental oxygen since his illness began, although, the doctor dodged, when asked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Has he ever been on supplemental oxygen?

DR. SEAN CONLEY, TRUMP'S WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: Right now he is not on --

QUESTION: I know you keep saying right now.

But should we read into the fact that he had --

CONLEY: Yesterday and today he was not on oxygen.

QUESTION: So he has not been on it during his COVID treatment?

(LAUGHTER)

CONLEY: He is not on oxygen right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now at that same briefing, Conley had some heads spinning when he said Trump was diagnosed 72 hours earlier. He later released a statement saying he misspoke and said it was day three of Trump's diagnosis. One medical adviser said the briefing was short on facts and long on spin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If you go out there wearing a white coat, you are a medical doctor, not a spin doctor. And what we saw today was just spin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Meanwhile, a senior official in the Trump administration tells CNN, this tsunami of positive COVID tests among Republican officials can likely be traced back to what you see there, that White House event last week, where the president announced his latest Supreme Court bid.

There was no social distancing and not too many masks, either. Several attendees tested positive since then, including Chris Christie, who we learned has checked himself into a hospital as a precaution. The senior official says the next major concern will be securing Capitol Hill and protecting lawmakers.

CNN's Sarah Westwood is live from Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Thank you for being with us.

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HOLMES: There is such confusion, contradiction, clarification needed on Saturday.

What is the latest on what we actually know of the president's condition?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, the latest comes from a memo that the president's physician Dr. Sean Conley released this afternoon, saying the president made substantial progress since his diagnosis, that he did take the second dose of remdesivir he is taking here at Walter Reed.

He remained fever free heading into this evening. But there was a lot of confusion after Dr. John Conley and the president's team came out. He painted a rosy picture. The president was in good spirits. He as you mentioned refused to answer questions about whether President Trump had been on supplemental oxygen earlier before he came to Walter Reed or today.

CNN is reporting that there was a point on Friday when the president did have to receive some supplemental oxygen. But then just after Dr. Sean Conley wrapped up that press conference, a source told reporters that the president's symptoms over the past 24 hours were very concerning. And that's part of what led the president to being here at the

hospital so some really mixed messages out of the White House about where exactly the president has been over the past 24 hours.

But the memo that Dr. Sean Conley released this afternoon says the president is not yet out of the woods, a key part of that conference, the doctor saying the seven-to-10 day mark after the president's diagnosis, after anyone's diagnosis, can be a window of concern.

So suggested the president could be here for a while. Meanwhile, we are awaiting test results from White House aides and advisers who may have come in contact with others testing positive. The White House medical unit conducts contact tracing for everyone at the Supreme Court nomination.

And a round of aides have tested positive. We have been learning more of positive tests, including the campaign manager Bill Stepien, Chris Christie, Kellyanne Conway and others that helped the president prepare for his debate.

HOLMES: Sarah Westwood, we'll check in with you next hour as well. Thanks.

Now Dr. Esther Choo is a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and joins me from Portland, Oregon.

Good to see you, Doctor.

What did you make of the medical news conference?

Confusing information, an optimistic tone. Even as reporters were getting more sober information about the president's condition, what was your take from what you heard?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: It was a completely confusing press conference with kind of incomplete and conflicting information and also, frustratingly, a lot of evasion around some key questions, at least questions that I had as a medical professional.

I mean, they kind of said he's not on oxygen now. That insinuated that he had been on oxygen. There was some mention of testing, like doing serial daily ultrasounds. That was a really puzzling thing when we haven't heard about a chest X-ray or a CAT scan, that would be the more common test to diagnose some early complications in COVID disease.

And then at the end when the White House physician was asked about whether or not the president had started a course of steroids, which is kind of the next thing we'd expect him to be treated with if he had pulmonary disease and required oxygen, the conference abruptly ended.

So they left a lot of questions. I'm so sorry. It left a lot of questions rather than answers. And we certainly are all kind of waiting with bated breath to hear a little bit more from the White House. HOLMES: Yes. Lovely cameo, she can pop in any time, by the way.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: The fact is that even based on what these doctors said, in the revised form, I mean, the timeline suggests it is entirely possible the president could have been mingling while infectious and perhaps even knowing he was.

If so, what does that show?

CHOO: Yes. He almost certainly was mingling while he was infectious. I mean, if we count backwards, he started to have symptoms on Thursday, it seems like, at least by from Thursday into Friday.

And since we know that typically coronavirus symptoms begin 4-5 days into the disease, if you count backwards, it's likely that he had the disease. He most certainly was infectious at the top of that week and so that takes us into, you know, the time of travel.

The debate, many private meetings after the debate and fundraisers. And so, it leaves open just a world of possibility for every single person who crossed his path and also those who caught it at the same events.

[00:10:00]

CHOO: And so it went out from there and went along on their business with many other contacts.

HOLMES: It certainly smacks of recklessness.

Given the usual progression of the illness, what would you be looking for in the next few days?

CHOO: This is actually usually the slow buildup. We don't expect much in the first week. Often, we will see patients early in the course of their disease and we will say, we're sending you home, not because we are saying you are out of the woods, but because there is nothing to do right now because you have mild symptoms of a cold or kind of a flu.

Then we give everybody a warning that 7-10 days into the disease, they could take an abrupt turn for the worse and to just be, to be very cautious about that and to return to the hospital if things should get severe.

And we, of course, saw that in the British prime minister, Boris Johnson became precipitously ill nine days into the disease, which was kind of classic for COVID.

HOLMES: And it can hit hard later on. One other thing, we know from others. You mentioned a cardiogram and other tests, from others who have recovered from initial infection, there can be lasting impacts, lung scarring, neurological issues, so on.

Could those things be a risk for the president?

CHOO: Yes, certainly. If he goes on to having severe coronavirus disease, that can affect every organ in your body. And those patients who have gone and are very sick and are in the hospital for a prolonged period of time or require ICU care, their illness course can go on for many, many weeks, even months.

We're still learning about patients who, many, many months after the disease, are still not recovered. But even patients with milder disease -- this is not just like the flu. The friends I've had who have had it, even though they've stayed home and didn't have to go in the hospital, it really knocked them down to the ground. They've really described this bone breaking fatigue.

I've heard it compared to other diseases, to dengue and to even Ebola. People say it knocked me down like no other disease has had. There was a long recovery, even for people who weren't critically ill. So I'm anticipating his course will go well into the next month.

HOLMES: Yes. We've done plenty of segments on long haulers and so on. It is a real problem.

Just quickly before we go, there was a senior administration source, said the spread probably originated at that Supreme Court event or on Capitol Hill.

If the origin was Capitol Hill -- and we've seen senators test positive, too -- what should happen on Capitol Hill?

Should there be a shutdown?

Should there be mass testing?

What would be urgent, in your view?

CHOO: Yes. It's so interesting from them to go from zero -- not quite zero to 100. We need to do common sense things. Of course, they should do world-class contact tracing, testing and quarantine, really investigating who exactly came into contact with whom.

But it would also help if people stopped going to these close gatherings without wearing masks. I mean, do the basic things that weren't even happening at the White House. That's a great place to start going forward. But certainly I hope doing very aggressive contact tracing.

HOLMES: Exactly, exactly. Dr. Esther Choo and daughter, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

(LAUGHTER)

CHOO: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. We'll take a quick break here on the program. When we come back, several people who attended an event together at the White House come down with the coronavirus. Also the virus isn't just spreading at the White House. Capitol Hill

as well, as we just said. Why this could hurt President Trump's chance of getting that Supreme Court pick confirmed before the election.

You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

Well, what happens when you gather a large, mostly maskless crowd in a small space during a pandemic? Well, you get that potential superspreader event. The one we are talking about features several of the most powerful people in the U.S. government.

Last Saturday, President Trump holding that ceremony in the White House Rose Garden to announce his nomination for Supreme Court. Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us how it became dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're looking at is the origins of a likely superspreader event. At least eight people, including President Donald Trump himself, are now infected. And that is among those who have had the ability to actually get tested.

GUPTA: You can't see the virus but what is happening during a superspreading event?

DR. ERIN BROMAGE, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You know, it's a very rough analogy. But if we think of a campfire and say that that's a person who is infected and releasing virus, it's not like it's the ring around the person that is actually going to be the risk.

It's those that are on the side where more of the virus is being projected, either through big talking or through the breeze, the air that's blowing it there.

GUPTA (voice-over): But it was also these moments that caught CNN medical analyst Erin Bromage's eye.

BROMAGE: When the event finished, when they're all coming up and hugging and shaking hands and saying congratulations, that's where -- if I was a betting person, I would be putting my money on of where this occurred.

GUPTA (voice-over): We know that the safety protocol for the event was to test anyone in close proximity to the president. But it wasn't required for everyone attending the ceremony. And it clearly wasn't foolproof.

Again, take a look here, where the people who were diagnosed as positive were sitting not next to each other, which leads us to again look at what happened right before and right after.

Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, closely leaning in to speak with attorney general William Barr. Lots of people closely interacting with their guard down. It can be difficult to pinpoint these superspreader events.

[00:20:00]

GUPTA (voice-over): This one ceremony, though, is giving us a look at the anatomy of how it happens all the time, not just here but anytime people aggregate together in large groups in the middle of a pandemic.

BROMAGE: There's no doubt that there has been transmission at the protests, the political rallies. It's just a fact that the virus doesn't discriminate.

Just because we haven't documented it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened. It's just that we've got an event now that is very visible, well documented, well tested and we're seeing the outcome from it.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Coronavirus is also putting President Trump's plan for the Supreme Court under threat.

Three Republican senators now testing positive for COVID-19. Now that could potentially delay the confirmation of Mr. Trump's pick, judge Amy Coney Barrett. Senator McConnell is trying to make it happen before the election and is pushing for all senators to come back to work by October 19th. Phil Mattingly explains what's happening next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not just the White House that is grappling with the magnitude of this moment, the president testing positive for coronavirus. It's also here on Capitol Hill, where now three Republican senators have also tested positive for coronavirus.

There is obviously the public health issues there, trying to figure out, one, how those senators will deal with it. Right now two senators have reported mild symptoms. A third believes he's asymptomatic.

But there is also the question of what happens next on a massive issue, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to join the Supreme Court. Republicans have made it clear they're working on a compressed timetable. They want her confirmed before the election.

In fact, hearings are already scheduled to start October 12th. Well, two of the three Republican senators, Mike Lee, Thom Tillis, they are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee that will move forward on that nomination. They will need to be present if the committee is to vote, likely starting the process October 15th.

So the big question now is twofold.

One is will those senators who tested positive be OK in time to be back to consider that nomination?

The second one, this is what unsettles everyone, is anybody else going to get sick?

Right now, they don't have answers to those questions. They've made clear they want to move forward on the nomination but those answers could change that calculation -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And Jessica Levinson is a professor at Loyola Law School. She joins us from Los Angeles.

Good to see you again. That doctor's news conference on Saturday, more questions than answers. Speak to the opacity, the evasiveness from the administration on these key issues of the president's health.

Did you get any sense of transparency from this administration and how important is that?

JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: Quite to the contrary. Exactly the opposite. Right. We didn't get a sense of transparency. In fact, what we got is the sense that there were doctors dodging questions about the health of the leader of the free world.

Again, if Mr. Trump was just a private citizen and he didn't want to tell people about his health, then really, that's up to him and his family. But there are national security concerns when it comes to the president of the United States, the leader of the free world.

And the idea that we would have to ask, followup after followup, is the president on oxygen?

Has he ever been on oxygen?

It shows the lack of transparency, not just with respect to this health crisis but also that it is systemic in the Trump administration. The idea that the American people wouldn't have a full and fair accounting of the president's health 30 days before an election, in the middle of a pandemic, when we're dealing with wildfires across a number of states, is really just surreal.

HOLMES: It is. You are absolutely right when you put it that way. This, of course, puts COVID now on the campaign forefront. Donald Trump stuck in a position he spent months trying to avoid, facing an election all about the coronavirus pandemic. No way to really change the topic.

How does the diagnosis change the campaign dynamic?

LEVINSON: I think for the worse for President Trump. The thing that was really strange when news broke is, of course, not everybody believed it. People thought, this is where we are in America in 2020. I should say in the world of 2020.

People weren't sure when the president said he had a potentially deadly virus as to whether or not it was a campaign stunt. Well, I think it's not one because we have to have so many people cover for them. But two, because it's not a political winner for him.

Take aside the idea that, of course, we're worried about the health and safety of any human who contracts this virus. It's also bad for President Trump politically.

[00:25:00]

LEVINSON: As he said, the more we say coronavirus, the worse it is for candidate Trump. Now previously, we were talking about, there's going to be another Supreme Court nomination. This really energizes the Republican base.

Now the conversation is largely off of judge Amy Coney Barrett except in the situation of talking about whether or not the announcement of her nomination was a superspreader event. That's not good politically.

HOLMES: That is true. But to that point, the GOP, of course, desperate to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. You got these infections among Republican senators, who are members of the Judiciary Committee.

How might the timing of the hearing be impacted?

I mean, if those two senators, Lee and Tillis, are absent due to illness, could the Democrats not show up?

Prevent a vote?

How important is that and what could happen?

LEVINSON: It's very important that they show up. I will give everybody's least favorite answer right now, is it's changing so quickly. We don't know if somebody else is going to get sick. How sick people are going to be.

Let's talk about what we do know. Senator Mitch McConnell wants Amy Coney Barrett to be Judge Barrett -- excuse me -- to be Justice Barrett within weeks. He does not want to leave this to chance. I think he's willing to lose Republican seats over it and arguably he may think it's more important than gaining the presidency. Because he wants her on the bench for all these consequential decisions.

She's 48 years old. She could change the shape of American culture and society for decades. In addition, he wants her on the bench in case there is a another Bush v. Gore, another election-related case. They don't want to take their chances with a 4-4 court.

So I think we will see Mitch McConnell just with record speed try to do anything he can, you know, completely flout CDC warnings that you need to quarantine for 14 days. I think we will see sick senators on the floor voting.

HOLMES: Just before we go, you raise the Affordable Care Act. Health care for Americans front and center. And I see a lot of chatter out there on social media about, you know, how the president, who reportedly paid $750 in federal taxes, is getting, you know, a gazillion dollar health care at the moment when this justice could be ruling and doing away with the Affordable Care Act and health care for millions of Americans. There is a lot of anger out there. This could become a part of that pre-election conversation and already is.

LEVINSON: Absolutely. Of course, we shouldn't just look to Judge Barrett when it comes to health care. I mean the real beginning point is that Congress has not passed and the president has not proposed anything other than let's just tear down ObamaCare.

So, yes, it deeply matters who is on the Supreme Court. But this isn't the question of whether or not Congress has the power to pass health care.

Clearly they do. And it's very popular with the American public. At some point, everybody is going to have to see a doctor. Nobody wants to go bankrupt. So this is something Americans across the political aisles understand.

And so, again, yes, it's going to be before the Supreme Court. But it didn't have to be. Congress has the power to change it. So I think there is a lot of anger to go around.

HOLMES: Yes, indeed. Professor Jessica Levinson, always a pleasure. Good to see you.

LEVINSON: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES: We'll take a quick break on the program. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, how the president's positive coronavirus diagnosis is affecting the Biden campaign. We'll discuss.

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HOLMES: Well, welcome back to our viewers here around the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes.

Right now President Trump is spending his second night at Walter Reed Medical Center just outside Washington. His doctor saying Mr. Trump is not out of the woods yet but he has made substantial progress since his coronavirus diagnosis and that the medical team is quote, "cautiously optimistic." Donald Trump posting this message on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I want to begin by thanking all of the incredible medical professionals, the doctors, the nurses, everybody at Walter Reed Medical Center. I think it's the finest in the world for the incredible job they have been doing.

I came here, I wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now.

We're going to beat this coronavirus or whatever you want to call it. And we're going to beat it soundly.

So many things have happened, if you look at the therapeutics, which I'm taking right now, some of them and others are coming out soon that are looking like, frankly, they're miracles. If you want to know the truth, they're miracles. People criticize me when I say that. But we have things happening that look like they're miracles coming down from God.

So I just want to tell you that I'm starting to feel good. You don't know, over the next period of a few days, I guess that's the real test. So we'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.

I just want to be so thankful for all of the support I've seen, whether it's on television or reading about it. I, most of all, appreciate what's been said by the American people, by almost a bipartisan consensus of American people. It's a beautiful thing to see. And I very much appreciate it and I won't forget it. I promise you that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: But earlier, a source told reporters that the president's vital signs over the last 24 hours were, quote, "concerning" and that the next 48 hours will be critical. "The New York Times" and Associated Press saying the source of that was the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Meanwhile, the virus continues to strike more people in President Trump's orbit. CNN learned, a short time ago, one of his personal assistants, Nicholas Luna, has tested positive. Luna is often in close contact with the president.

It has been a harrowing weekend in the U.S. so far, full of confusion and mixed messaging from the White House. John Harwood breaks down what we do know about the president's condition and what we do not.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: More than two days after we learned via presidential tweet that Donald Trump had contracted the coronavirus, we still do not have clear, credible information about the president's condition or his prognosis.

[00:35:00]

HARWOOD: Here at Walter Reed Medical Center today, a team of doctors, led by White House physician Sean Conley, gave a press conference but it was extremely evasive about specific details.

Dr. Conley did not say how high the president's fever had been, whether he had taken supplemental oxygen, though we later reported that he had taken supplemental oxygen, or whether he had experienced damage to his lungs.

Dr. Conley also confused the timeline of when the president had contracted the coronavirus, which is a full day before he traveled to Bedminster and would have put at risk donors that he met with at his golf club in Bedminster.

Later, Dr. Conley clarified and said he meant to say that the diagnosis occurred on Thursday, that he had misspoken.

Now this press conference was so unsubstantial that, subsequently, a White House official came out on background, later identified by "The New York Times" as White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and said the president's vital signs had been concerning on Friday and that it was unclear exactly what the president's prognosis was, the next 48 hours would be critical.

We only got that news on camera from the president himself, when he released a four-minute videotape taken from Walter Reed, where he acknowledged he had not been feeling well when he came to Walter Reed.

He said I'm starting to feel good. But he also displayed a note of vulnerability and said, we don't know what's going to happen. We will have to wait and see for the next 48 hours.

And we, in the news media, are going to have to wait and see whether the physicians decide to provide any more candid information and detail as we move forward in the course of the president's treatment -- John Harwood, CNN, Bethesda, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, depending on the timing of President Trump's diagnosis, which we still aren't clear about, of course, he may have knowingly been in close contact with aides and supporters, attending rallies and fundraisers and traveling on Air Force One. I asked CNN global affairs analyst Max Boot about how reckless that would be.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: He's shown a high degree of recklessness throughout this crisis. He has just not done enough to address this pandemic.

As a result of that, we have the greatest number of fatalities from COVID of any country in the world, more than 200,000. There is nothing inevitable about that having happened. Now we can't even get the straight story on when was the president infected.

When did he know about it?

There are just so many conflicting stories from different people in the White House, from the president's physician, from his chief of staff. It's very confusing.

And but that's really emblematic of the chaos and the deceit that has characterized the White House reaction to the coronavirus from the start.

I mean, remember, Donald Trump is on tape with Bob Woodward talking about how he understood what a serious disease this was back at the beginning of the year. But that's directly opposite to what he has been telling the American people then and now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We'll have my full interview with Max Boot next hour on the program. Do join us for that.

Many health experts warning that vice president Mike Pence should be self isolating right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES (voice-over): There he is circled in yellow at that White House Rose Garden event. He was seated very close to others who have tested positive for COVID-19. Pence says since he has tested negative; since the president's diagnosis, that is.

But under CDC guidelines, he should be isolating for 14 days. Instead, on Monday, he's going to travel to Salt Lake City ahead of the vice presidential debate, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

On Thursday, Mr. Pence expected to attend a campaign event in Arizona, not quarantining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, already in Utah ahead of Wednesday's debate with Vice President Pence. On Saturday, she toured the This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. The monument honors the Latter-Day Saints pioneers who came to the area in the 1800s.

Now that President Trump and several others have tested positive for COVID-19, the Democratic nominee Joe Biden, well, he's going to get tested more often. That's what our sources are telling us.

The nominee himself says he does not want to attack the president and first lady over the diagnosis but that he would have handled the pandemic fundamentally differently. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For so long, Washington left our states, cities and transit agencies to bid against one another.

If that's not the president's responsibility, what the hell, the heck, is his responsibility?

"Not my fault. I have no responsibility. Go to your mayor, your governor, your employer."

It's unconscionable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:40:00]

HOLMES: Arlette Saenz is following the campaign for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden is moving forward with his in-person campaigning and officials say he will be tested more regularly for coronavirus.

This follows the news that President Trump has tested positive for coronavirus as well as several other people in his orbit. The Biden campaign says they will release the results of the tests each time he is tested.

Biden last received his last negative test results on Friday and told supporters that, while he wasn't tested on Saturday, he will be tested for coronavirus on Sunday morning.

Now the Biden campaign has always adhered to social distancing and safety standards at his campaign events. Officials believe that the way that they've structured these events have promoted health and safety, not just for their candidates but also those involved in the events and for the general public.

Biden is always wearing a mask when he is at these events. And they have people at social distances from each other and him. And those are protocols that they plan to move forward with as he continues to campaign in person.

On Monday, Biden is heading to South Florida and, on Thursday, he will travel to Arizona, his first visit to the battleground state and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will also be joining him.

Kamala Harris is set to face off against vice president Mike Pence in their first debate on Wednesday. We are learning there have been some changes to the way that debate will play out.

The two candidates will be seated down for that debate and originally were only slated to be seated 7 feet apart. They will now be 12 feet apart from each other as this debate plays out. We have also learned that masks will be required for everyone in that

debate hall, except for the two candidates and the moderators. This follows Tuesday night's presidential debate when many in the audience on the Trump side were not wearing masks.

But going forward, anyone who is in that debate hall must wear a mask and if they fail to do, so they will be asked to leave, just one of the many changes that is occurring in this campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

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HOLMES: Well, the next debate will be between the vice presidential nominees, Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. CNN's coverage begins Wednesday on the East Coast, midnight Thursday if you are in London. Stay up for that. And 7:00 am in Hong Kong, get up for that.

China reacting to news that President Trump testing positive for coronavirus. Up next, a report from Shanghai on what President Xi and others are saying.

And one model is predicting, get this, 2,900 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. per day in December, unless Americans do one simple thing. You can guess what it is. We'll have that and more when we come back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

Throughout history, many presidents and many of their aides and supporters have tried to hide presidential illnesses from the public and the press.

Since President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, reporters and the public have had to piece together often confusing and conflicting information about Mr. Trump's condition.

There was a time when reporters willingly went along when asked not to publish details about a president's declining health. Renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke with CNN earlier about trust and transparency, particularly with this president.

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DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, the conflicting timetables, I think, is just a minuscule example of the fact that we've lost in many ways, trust in the President's word and it's the most important thing a president has. Think of it a president is the person who has to tell us that we need to go to battle, why it's important to do so.

Roosevelt, FDR had to tell people why rationing was essential during World War II, so that there'd be an equitable distribution of scarce resources. You had to believe him to go through all of that.

If you don't believe even the timetable of what's happened, who knows what, when, is what history is always about.

And the fact that we've had a conflicting timetable now, just raises the larger question of what it was that President Trump knew back in February about the seriousness of the -- of the virus but didn't think the public could hear it thought, again, the public would panic. It's the same thing all over again.

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HOLMES: Well, President Trump, of course, has long blamed China for the coronavirus. Inside China, news of Mr. Trump's illness has been met with both sympathy but also criticism.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent get well wishes to President Trump and first lady Melania Trump for a speedy recovery. With the latest, our David Culver.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Between a range of responses to President Trump testing positive for the coronavirus coming from officials here in China, the original epicenter of the outbreak, as well as state and social media.

As far as officials are concerned, you got President Xi Jinping putting out what is a diplomatic, even compassionate well-wishing to the president and first lady of the U.S.

State media taking a different approach, partially criticizing President Trump and one editor of one of these state-run tabloids putting out a very harsh critique on Twitter, saying that President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his, referring to the president's, gamble to play down the COVID-19, going on to say the news shows the severity of the U.S.' pandemic situation. That coming from the editor of the "Global Times."

Social media is echoing that to some extent. It's also creating this rise in nationalism as, China is in the midst of Golden Week and just traveled within the past couple of days from Beijing to here in Shanghai. We feel as though we are living in a bubble that certainly state media wants to portray as a safe and sound environment, albeit one that is not easily penetrated for folks traveling from other countries coming in, could be rather challenging.

But for that reason, China believes they have been able to contain the spread of this virus. Daily reported numbers have ranged from single digits to upwards of 20 but really no more than that. Of course, all of that, according to the central government. So the juxtaposition from what we are seeing on the ground here, as

life has gone pretty much back to normal, to life in the United States and the president, the leader of the free world, himself, now being diagnosed with this virus, is quite striking.

Nonetheless, the reaction is expected to continue over the coming days, as folks here are closely monitoring how the president, first lady and other officials in the U.S. are able to move forward with this diagnosis -- David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.

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HOLMES: Now the U.S. is currently averaging more than 700 COVID deaths per day, 700 people, according to Johns Hopkins University. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke earlier with a University of Washington researcher. His research institute predicts 2,900 COVID deaths per day in December, not far off. But he says we do have an effective way to fight the virus.

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DR. CHRISTOPHER MURRAY, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: Given what we know about the effectiveness of masks and given what we know about half of Americans wearing a mask when they're out, we think that about 86,000 lives can be saved if we can get mask use way up.

So it's very much in our control as to what's actually going to happen.

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HOLMES: On Saturday, the state of California surpassed 16,000 total deaths from coronavirus.

Officials in Kentucky reporting the highest number of new cases for the state since the pandemic began.

Plus, a record high case count in Wisconsin.

Overseas, France reported a new daily record on Saturday as well, nearly 17,000 cases in a 24-hour period. That's almost a thousand more than the previous record set just over a week ago.

And the U.K. reporting more than 12,000 new cases but blamed the spike on a, quote, "technical issue." The government said unreported infections from last week made the number so high. The 12,000 new cases more than doubled the U.K.'s seven-day average. The government says it has resolved that technical issue.

One of the top football stars in the United States, positive for coronavirus. When we come back, what that means for NFL games this weekend and beyond. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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HOLMES: We continue to see the impact of the ongoing global pandemic on the sports world. Now the New England Patriots' quarterback, Cam Newton, testing positive for COVID-19, according to the NFL Network and ESPN.

The 31-year old, who was most recently with the Carolina Panthers, has played three games with New England in this season. The Patriots were scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday but the NFL decided to postpone the game after players on both teams tested positive. They hope to play either Monday or Tuesday.

The Patriots took to Twitter but didn't name Newton by name but did confirm a player is self-isolating and added that any players, coaches and staff who came into close contact had been tested and that the results came back negative.

This is actually going to be the second game this week postponed due to the coronavirus. On Friday, the league rescheduled the Tennessee Titans-Pittsburgh Steelers game after several tested positive.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after the break.