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White House Sows Confusion About Trump's Condition; Biden Slams Trump over Handling of Pandemic; Trump Diagnosis Affects Suburban Voters; Coronavirus Pandemic Worldwide; COVID-19 and the NFL. Aired 1- 2a ET
Aired October 04, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company.
The U.S. president's medical team is cautiously optimistic but warns he is not out of the woods yet. Donald Trump now spending a second night at Walter Reed military hospital as the virus that defines his presidency also potentially endangers his life. Earlier, Trump posted this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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. We'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now Trump's doctor later said his patient made substantial progress since his diagnosis. The doctor adding that the president spent a lot of Saturday conducting business. The White House releasing a couple of photographs depicting that.
But a source told reporters earlier that the previous 24 hours were not so positive, that the president's vital signs were, quote, "very concerning," and 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 in to one of his boss's 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)
HOLMES: And now, turning to 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 some supplemental oxygen, although the doctor dodged that question when asked about it more than once.
(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, Dr. Conley had some heads spinning when he said Trump was diagnosed 72 hours earlier. But he later said he misspoke and meant to say it was day three. One former White House adviser said the briefing was a fiasco.
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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, another person in the president's orbit has tested positive. Nicholas Luna is one of Trump's personal assistants and was frequently in close contact with him.
Now as far as the outbreak of positive COVID tests among Republicans this week goes, a senior official in the Trump administration telling CNN many likely can be traced back to the White House event last week, where the president announced his latest Supreme Court pick. And those images there are now becoming infamous. No social
distancing. Not everybody wore masks. In fact, few did. Several attendees have now tested positive. Sarah Westwood is live from Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda.
What is the latest?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The latest, Michael, comes from memo that the president's doctor released this evening, saying the president has made substantial progress since being diagnosed with COVID-19 and that he's cautiously optimistic.
We learned that the president today received his second day, his second dose of remdesivir. He's on that five-day course of the antiviral drug and he is fever free today and is currently not on supplemental oxygen.
As you mentioned, whether the president has received supplemental oxygen was just one of the points of confusion that came out of the briefing that we received from the president's doctors at Walter Reed earlier today.
There was also confusion about whether the president had serious symptoms before he came to Walter Reed and the timeline of his illness.
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WESTWOOD: In fact, the doctor was forced later to release a clarification about when the president started exhibiting symptoms and received the first positive test. And adding to that confusion, after the very upbeat assessment around 11:00 this morning, a source told reporters that the president had very concerning symptoms before he was taken to Walter Reed.
So the White House has been sort of in cleanup mode, trying to project that the president feels fine. The president himself has contributed to that, posting videos of himself at Walter Reed, continuing to work.
We're also awaiting the results of more tests of aides and advisers. The White House medical unit conducting contact tracing after the event in the Rose Garden. At that event, very little social distancing took place.
The president's personal assistant, Nicholas Luna, tested positive today. That was reported out this evening. But we know that many others who had come into contact with the president, including his campaign manager, Bill Stepien: Chris Christie and Kellyanne Conway, and three senators, including Ron Johnson have also tested positive. So
the extent of this outbreak that sickened the president still isn't quite known, Michael.
HOLMES: And it just keeps growing. Sarah Westwood there at Walter Reed, appreciate it, Sarah. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: 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.
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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.
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.
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HOLMES: 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
We already know several people who attended a White House event have tested positive for COVID-19 and now more of the president's aides and advisers also testing positive. We'll try to understand how it all came to this when we come back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
The U.S. president, Donald Trump, had been downplaying the need to wear face covering for months, of course, before finally wearing one in front of the cameras. Let me show you some video.
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HOLMES (voice-over): This was back in July. Of course, face masks have long been known as one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But even then, the White House was trying to find a way around them.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: The president is the most tested man in America. He's tested more than anyone, multiple times a day. We believe he's acting appropriately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Testing, of course, is not prevention. A few people have been wearing face masks at the White House, especially at the event that may have gotten U.S. president Trump affected. Here's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I say it all the time. We're rounding the corner.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Infections and concern about them are ricocheting through the immense web of people surrounding the president. He announced his new Supreme Court nominee last weekend with health officials, his attorney general Bill Barr and more standing close by.
Now several from that event have tested positive, including Trump, the first lady, senator Mike Lee and the president of Notre Dame University.
Trump has shared space with vice president Mike Pence, who traveled on to campaign in Pennsylvania. Trump met with a Gold Star parent, military leaders, cabinet and Congress members, journalists, too.
TRUMP: No matter where we go, we're having crowds like nobody -- I don't think anybody's ever gotten before ever, not even close.
FOREMAN: Trump met with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who went to Capitol Hill to talk with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who then, along with Pence, met with that Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.
Trump talked with his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who then went to see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And to prepare for the debate, Trump sat down with advisers, including Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie.
CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: No one was wearing masks in the room when we were prepping the president during that period of time.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Leaving for the debate, Trump was surrounded by dozens of aides and family members, including Ivanka and Jared Kushner, Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, with few signs of masks or social distancing.
Trump did not get close to moderator Chris Wallace or Joe Biden and members of his team posed with masks backstage.
TRUMP: And I have a mask right here. I'd put a mask on -- you know, when I think I need it.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But then they took them off, in violation of the rules and refused replacements, even as Trump mocked his opponent about the subject.
TRUMP: Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from it and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And on it went. Trump and his entourage cramming into Marine One, Trump sharing photo ops with political allies, Trump again talking with reporters, holding a large outdoor rally and attending a fundraiser.
TRUMP: I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight. And next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country.
FOREMAN: Multiply it out and the president clearly has had first or secondhand contact with thousands of people. That, of course, doesn't mean that they will all get the virus. But it completely shatters his long claim that it could never penetrate his inner circle -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: Max Boot is a CNN global affairs analyst and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and he joins me now from New York.
Always good to see you, Max. Let's start with something you wrote in "The Washington Post."
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HOLMES: I just want to read it to people.
"Trump seemed to base his whole reelection campaign on the pretense that the coronavirus was going to magically disappear. Not even all the resources of the White House could keep him safe.
"How much greater is the danger to the rest of the country?" unquote.
And that is a key point politically, Max. It lays bare the president's own playing down of the virus and here we are.
MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Exactly right, Michael. I mean, really, since the virus hit, President Trump has been pretending that it's going to go away of its own accord. He said numerous times, that magically it will disappear. This summer he said it was down to embers. He said in September we're about to get a vaccine.
He said in fact on Thursday right before his diagnosis was announced that we were turning the corner.
And I think the fact that he is now in Walter Reed hospital because of the coronavirus is a very sharp indication that we are not turning a corner. The virus is not disappearing. In fact, we're seeing in many states across the country that it's actually getting worse.
And a lot of that reason is due to the fact that President Trump has not treated the virus with the gravity and seriousness that it deserves. His administration has not done enough to stop the spread of this disease and, unfortunately, now, he is one of the victims of the very disease that he has ignored.
HOLMES: And if they can't protect the president, what chance the rest of us?
It does seem stunning when we talk about the cavalier attitude, stunning that the president may have knowingly gone around, mingling while infectious, depending on the timing. Could have been fundraisers, perhaps even a rally, traveling on Air Force One, Marine One. People in close contact.
If that is so, how reckless was that?
BOOT: That's a very high degree of recklessness. But 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.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly, knowing that it was airborne way back then.
Let's talk about Joe Biden. He's had a surge of campaign donations over the last couple weeks. He's still campaigning. Mr. Trump has, of course, lost, at least for a while, his favorite campaign tool and that is in-person crowded rallies of adoring supporters.
How has this diagnosis changed the campaign, in your view? BOOT: I think it's too early to say what the impact is going to be on the campaign. But I'm not sure there's going to be a huge impact, because the race has actually been very stable for a year.
A year ago Joe Biden had a lead of 8 points in the polls and right now he has a lead of about 8 points in the polls. Certainly, President Trump did not reverse Joe Biden's momentum with his meltdown in the debate on Tuesday. We'll see what the fallout is going to be from the diagnose of the president.
It is possible he could get some personal sympathy in the way that Boris Johnson did in the U.K. But it also shines a very harsh spotlight on the administration failure to control the coronavirus.
And this is the last thing they want to be talking about in the last month of the campaign. The president wanted to conclude the campaign talking about the Supreme Court.
Instead, the only story anybody's focused on is the coronavirus and the failure of the administration to contain it, of which Donald Trump is simply the latest victim of millions of Americans. So I don't think that's a story that the Trump administration wants to go to the polls on. So I very much doubt this is going to help the president.
HOLMES: Good point. I mean, it's interesting that Biden removed negative ads while Trump is hospitalized. Interestingly, too, the Trump campaign has not removed its negative ads.
Purely politically, shouldn't the Biden campaign be full steam ahead?
Trump not only didn't slow down when Hillary Clinton had pneumonia, he ridiculed her and used the illness against her.
Are the Democrats playing enough hardball?
BOOT: I think Joe Biden is right to take the high road, at least for a few days, because he wants to show that he is somebody more committed to bringing people together and respecting his opponents than Donald Trump.
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BOOT: Can you imagine what would happen if it was Joe Biden who had the coronavirus?
Would Donald Trump suspend ads?
No, he would probably attack Joe Biden for getting sick, just as four years ago he attacked Hillary Clinton for getting pneumonia. But I think it's still right for Joe Biden not to imitate the gutter tactics that Donald Trump is known for.
But I don't think he can take all the negative ads down until the election. At some point, he needs to go full steam ahead.
But I think for a few days, to show respect for the president, that's the right thing to do.
HOLMES: As you were saying before we started, every day feels like a year. We'll talk again soon, Max. Thank you very much.
BOOT: Thank you very much.
HOLMES: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We'll take a quick break. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, how the president's coronavirus diagnosis is affecting the Biden campaign.
And also this.
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DAVE ELLISTON (PH), MICHIGAN VOTER: You should have wore a mask, dude. You didn't wear a mask and now you're going to pay the price.
HOLMES (voice-over): What the voters are saying about the president contracting the virus and how it might affect their votes. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers all around the world, I'm Michael Holmes, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM and we thank you for doing so.
Right now, U.S. president Donald Trump spending his second night at Walter Reed Medical Center.
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HOLMES: His doctor says Mr. Trump has made, quote, "substantial progress" but isn't out of the woods yet. The doctor says the president spent most of the afternoon conducting business.
The White House sending out this picture earlier, one of a couple they released. It's been a frustrating couple of days, full of confusion and mixed messaging from an administration that does so much of that. John Harwood breaks down what we do know about the president's condition and what we do not.
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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.
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: Coronavirus also putting President Trump's plan for the Supreme Court under threat. Three Republican senators have now tested positive for COVID-19 and that could potentially delay the confirmation of Mr. Trump's pick, judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Mitch McConnell is trying to make it happen before the election and is pushing for all senators to come back by October 19. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains what happens 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.
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HOLMES: Well, now that President Trump and several others have tested positive for COVID-19, the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is 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 while they're ill but that he would have handled the pandemic in a fundamentally different way. 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?
[01:35:00]
"Not my fault. I have no responsibility. Go to your mayor, your governor, your employer."
It's unconscionable.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Arlette Saenz is following the campaign for us.
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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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The next debate will be between Senator Kamala Harris and vice president Mike Pence. Special coverage begins 7:00 pm Wednesday on the U.S. East Coast. If you're up late, that's midnight in London, 7:00 am in Hong Kong. We are less than one month away from the election in the U.S. The
president's diagnosis reverberating in voters' minds as they decide which candidate to back. CNN's Jeff Zeleny spoke to voters in the key state of Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Denise Hardaway (ph) cast her ballot on Friday she had President Trump's health on her mind.
DENISE HARDAWAY, MICHIGAN VOTER: I pray for him, I home he recovers. I hope his family recovers.
ZELENY (voice-over): But she voted for Joe Biden, in part because of what she believes has been the president's mishandling of coronavirus for which she has now tested positive.
HARDAWAY: He has been denying the whole science behind coronavirus and so I hope this is a wake-up call for him. And I hope that it changes his administration's thinking and that he realizes and understands the importance of this pandemic that we're in.
ZELENY (voice-over): In Michigan, like many states, the election is already underway, with voters dropping off their ballots, even as the campaign is suddenly filled with fresh uncertainty.
BIDEN: This is not a matter of politics. It's a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously.
ZELENY (voice-over): At a stop in Grand Rapids, Biden also wished the president well, hours before the president was admitted to Walter Reed hospital, a remarkable development that put the pandemic back in the forefront in the final stretch of the campaign.
TOM ORLOVSKY (PH), MICHIGAN VOTER: I hope it turns out right for him. But he was kind of pressing the limits with a lot of things he's done recently.
ZELENY (voice-over): Tom Orlovsky (ph) has supported many Republican presidents but Friday he voted for Biden.
ZELENY: Did the president's handling of the coronavirus influence your vote this year?
ORLOVSKY (PH): Sure, sure it did. I believe, again, based on what I know, that this has been poorly handled. And a lot of it could have been eliminated. I can't help but think it's going to be, obviously, a big issue in this election. People that know people that have died or been affected by it.
ZELENY (voice-over): Four years ago, Trump narrowly won Michigan, the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since 1988.
TRUMP: On November 3rd, Michigan, you better vote for me. I got you so many damn car plants. ZELENY (voice-over): His strength here in the suburbs of Detroit will
help determine if he does so again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we was dealt a bad hand.
[01:40:00]
ZELENY (voice-over): Philip Brown (ph) cast his ballot for Trump and does not blame the president for how he's handled coronavirus. Yet he said he's not surprised Trump tested positive.
PHILIP BROWN (PH), MICHIGAN VOTER: A number of people have tested positive in the White House. This is a very contagious disease. I think at some point with all of the protections he would have caught it.
ZELENY (voice-over): The president's COVID-19 diagnosis is the latest bombshell of the 2020 campaign. But conversations with voters suggest it may not change many minds.
LAURA LAURAIN, MICHIGAN VOTER: I can't believe it took this long it for him to get the virus because he just didn't follow any of the rules as far as staying safe.
ZELENY (voice-over): Linda (sic) Laurain said the president should have taken the pandemic more seriously but noted that she always planned to vote for Biden.
Dave Elliston (ph) was less charitable towards Trump.
ELLISTON: You should have wore a mask, dude. You didn't wear a mask and now you're going to pay the price.
ZELENY (voice-over): His words dripped with sarcasm but turned serious.
ELLISTON (PH): I don't want him to die right now. But he should get a little bit of a taste of his willingness to avoid what everybody tells him he's supposed to do and set a good example for this country.
ZELENY (voice-over): Yet not all voters here are as harsh.
STEVE, MICHIGAN VOTER: Nobody could have done anything different. Blaming him for all the deaths is ridiculous. This is something we've never experienced before ever.
ZELENY (voice-over): This Michigan doctor, who asked to be identified only as Steve, said he's leaning towards Trump because of his economic policies.
ZELENY: Will coronavirus play a role into how you vote this fall?
STEVE: No, not at all.
ZELENY: It's an open question if the president's case of COVID-19 changes the minds of any voters. But one thing is clear, coronavirus is now front and center in this campaign conversation one month before Election Day -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Birmingham, Michigan.
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HOLMES: President Trump has not held back on criticizing China, blaming that country for the pandemic. If you're wondering how President Xi is reacting to Mr. Trump's hospitalization, stick around, we'll tell you when we come back.
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[01:45:00]
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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 media. Now since President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, reporters and the public have had to piece together confusing and contradicting information about Mr. Trump's condition.
Now there was a time when the media willingly went along when asked not to publish details about a president's decline in health. Renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke to CNN earlier about trust and transparency, particularly with this president.
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DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: When the presidential health was not revealed directly to the public, the rationale is, the public will panic, we can't do it.
I mean, looking at Cleveland having secret surgery for jaw cancer, in the middle of a recession, they figured, oh, my God, the stock market will go down. So we can't let the public know. So he's on a friend's yacht and has part of his jaw removed and we never know about it then.
Wilson is in the midst of the third wave of the Spanish flu, he's trying to persuade the country to do the League of Nations and he has a severe stroke. So they don't tell the public, that has not regarded well for Wilson or his administration at the time.
FDR, in the middle of World War II, is diagnosed by a young cardiologist with severe congestive heart failure. His own doctor says don't even tell FDR what you found, don't say anything to the public. And then he goes out, the personal doctor does, and said, it's just bronchitis, he'll be fine.
So it's never a good thing, because democracy needs the people to know. And I think they can face the truth. They have the wherewithal to do it. And then they can trust the people that are telling them what they're -- what they're not supposed to know. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I know -- you said, you know, trust is the -- and the president's word is critical and timetables are the spine of history. Given that, I'm wondering what you make of what we've been seeing just the last two days or three days.
GOODWIN: 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: President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization has sparked reaction from leaders around the world, as you might imagine, and yes, even from China's President Xi. We begin with international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: In that growing list of world leaders who have sent their support to President Trump, wishing him a speedy recovery, there has, for quite a while, been one noticeable absence. That was President Xi of China.
Well, he has now sent his extended sympathies to President Trump, wishing him a speedy recovery.
Too, Kim Jong-un of North Korea has said he sincerely hopes President Trump will recover soon, make a good recovery.
And prime minister Boris Johnson today, he called President Trump's family. He said, he said that he believes that the president will be doing what his doctors tell him to do and he said that President Trump has a resilient character and that he's sure he'll pull through well.
But I think, when we look at it in balance, significant, that President Xi held back his good words.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow, where Vladimir Putin has sent President Trump a telegram, wishing him and the first lady a speedy recovery. He said their, quote, "inherent vitality, good spirits and optimism" would help them cope.
But of course it's more than just those qualities that the Russian leader has depended on to defend himself against COVID-19. Unlike Trump, Putin has spent much of the pandemic in a virtual bubble, usually speaking to his officials by videoconference, canceling all foreign trips, according to the Kremlin, and working mainly from his residence outside of Moscow, where disinfectant tunnels that spray visitors down as they pass through have been installed.
The growing club of world leaders with COVID-19 is one the Russian president seems at pains not to join.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Mexico City, where people woke up to headlines like this one, Trump hospitalized, infections spread. The article talks about people close to Trump in recent days have also gotten sick with the virus.
And it also shows a picture of Trump on his way to Walter Reed wearing a mask. The newspaper expresses some surprise that he did so, considering that it says as recently as the debate on Tuesday, he was making fun of Joe Biden for always wearing a mask.
Well wishes have poured in from across Latin America, the president of Mexico, of course, as well as the president of Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro is a Trump supporter and says he wishes the president well and hopes this will not hurt his re-election campaign.
Both Trump and Bolsonaro have expressed skepticism over the threat posed by the coronavirus, despite the fact that both men have now had the coronavirus.
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HOLMES: One of the top football stars in the United States testing positive for coronavirus. When we come back, what that means for NFL games this weekend and beyond. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Well, we continue to see the impact of the ongoing global pandemic on the sports world. [01:55:00]
HOLMES: Now the New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton testing positive for COVID-19. That's according to the NFL Network and ESPN. Now the 31-year old, who was most recently with the Carolina Panthers, has played three games with New England so far this season.
The Patriots were scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday but the NFL deciding to postpone that game because players on both teams tested positive. They hope to play on either Monday or Tuesday.
Now the Patriots took to Twitter on this issue but didn't name Newton. They did confirm a player is self-isolating and added any players, coaches and staff that came in close contact had been tested for COVID-19 and the results had come back negative.
This is going to be the second game this weekend that's been postponed due to the coronavirus. On Friday, the league rescheduled Sunday's Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers game for October 25th after several Titans players and staff members tested positive for the virus.
CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan says more games could be postponed.
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CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: This is the worst week for the NFL during COVID and during a time that they're trying to play games in the midst of all of the issues that we are discussing as a nation. Obviously it carries over to sports as well.
My sense is this will not be the last -- these will not be the last two games that are postponed.
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HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. Don't go anywhere, though. The lovely Natalie Allen, who we love and adore, picks up our coverage after a short break.
