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White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Two Aides Test Positive For COVID; Doctors Warn Of Potential Side Effects Of Drug Trump Is Taking; Walter Reed Doc Slams Trump's Stunt, Says, Irresponsibility Is Astounding. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 05, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Don't go anywhere. Thanks for joining us. I hope to see you here tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up this very busy news day right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi. I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

We are beginning with breaking news. The West Wing is effectively shut down right now. The coronavirus outbreak at the White House just got worse, as White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and two of her aides reveal that they have tested positive. And we certainly wish them the best of recovery.

But we should note that McEnany did not quarantine despite her known exposure to infections around her. She also did not wear a mask while briefing reporters 24 hours ago. We will discuss her case here in just a moment.

First though, for the third day, the president of the United States is waking up in Walter Reed Hospital where he is being treated for coronavirus. And we as a nation are no closer to knowing the truth about his health. What we know is his doctors and his closest aides can't seem to get the story straight.

Yesterday, Dr. Sean Conley, the navy commander, who is President Trump's physician, admitted that he wanted to, his words, reflect the upbeat attitude that Trump and his team wanted to convey about his condition, even as the president has at least two significant drops in oxygen, which Conley did not disclose during a Saturday briefing, even as Conley refused to give specifics on whether damage has been done to the president's lungs.

And another thing that we know is that the president has undergone multiple treatments. This includes steroids to help his oxygen levels and an antibody cocktail that is not yet approved by the FDA. As for his mood, sources tell CNN that he is, quote, done with the hospital and demanding to go back to the White House. And perhaps that is what inspired his joyride outside of Walter Reed, where the president waved to reporters from a hermetically sealed SUV, jeopardizing the safety of his Secret Service detail as well as their families in the process. This morning, the Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, who allegedly sparked anger of his boss by telling reporters that the president's vital signs on Friday were concerning, offered this update.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Obviously, he continues to improve overnight and his health continues to improve, the doctors will actually have an evaluation sometime late morning and then the president, in consultation with the doctors, will make a decision on whether to discharge him later today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I'm joined now by CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta, as well as CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger and CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter with us as well.

Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, is now the latest staffer to announce that she has been infected with coronavirus. And, Jim, she knew that she had been exposed to Hope Hicks and to the president, known coronavirus infections. But here she is yesterday briefing reporters without a mask.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. I mean, this is inexplicable and it's inexcusable. I mean, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, who is supposed to be a role model for the United States of America, she's supposed to be almost a spokesperson for United States of America, has been working at the White House mostly maskless ever since she found out that she was exposed to Hope Hicks and potentially exposed to the coronavirus.

And yet she has been going in and out of the White House day-in and day-out, exposing herself to other people. We now learned just in the last hour or so that a couple more press staffers in her area of the West Wing have tested positive for coronavirus.

Brianna, I will tell you, I just walked up to lower and upper presses, what's called in the West Wing, you know what that's all about, Brianna, but those are the areas where the press staffers and the communication staffers for the White House work every day. It's usually a beehive of activity. Those offices are almost entirely empty.

It is eerily silent in that corner of the West Wing right now, as all of those staffers -- almost all of those staffers have been asked to go home, work remotely as a precaution. And so what we essentially have over here at the White House is kind of a hot zone for the coronavirus.

Now, the other thing we should point out, as you just mentioned a few moments ago, Kayleigh McEnany did gaggle with reporters yesterday. And as you saw in that video, she takes off the mask as she's walking up to reporters to give an update on the situation with the president. I mean, there's just no other way around it. The White House press secretary has been needlessly putting other people's lives at risk by walking around maskless, talking to people and potentially spreading coronavirus around.

And it is just the latest illustration, Brianna, of how the West Wing, this White House, this administration just does not take the dangers of COVID-19 seriously.

[13:05:07]

And they finally had their super-spreader event, and it is now infecting other people inside the West Wing, and people as young as the very young communications and press staffers who work for the press secretary.

Now, you also mentioned the president, might he come home today. I just talked to a White House official, that's to be determined. But as you were just mentioning, I talked to a couple of sources just this morning and last night, who said the president has been demanding to go home from Walter Reed Hospital. He wants to get back to the White House. One of his source said to me the president is concerned that he looks weak being in Walter Reed Hospital when compared to Joe Biden. And that's part of the reason why he wants to get back over here.

And one of the questions that has to be asked, Brianna, is, it safe for the president of the United States to come back here while he is recovering from coronavirus. He could take it -- and you never know what could happen with this. He could take a turn for the worse. And do they have the medical facilities here, capabilities here to deal with the president, deal with a coronavirus patient who can suddenly get critically ill. And none of those questions have been answered.

And on top of that, we've gotten so many conflicting and false answers from the White House physician and top White House officials, we've almost gotten to a point where we don't know who to trust any more.

KEILAR: No, most of them, you can't. That's what's so clear when it comes to credibility and judgment, Gloria. And the president seems to not understand that this coronavirus does not discern between whether you're the president or not, right?

And when it comes to Kayleigh McEnany, there just seems to be -- and, look, not just her, but other folks in the White House as well, it is either an inability to understand or perhaps it's an arrogance of understanding some of the basic things that we know about this, this coronavirus, right, that we know that you can be infected, you cannot have symptoms. You can be infected and still test negative until you're positive. There are many things we already knew and it is playing out like textbook at the White House.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, if you were to do a list of do's and don'ts about coronavirus, the White House right now would be everything on the list of don'ts, and whether it is selfishness or incompetence or negligence or recklessness, all of the above, some of the above.

I mean, as you and Jim were just talking about, let's take Kayleigh McEnany, for example. She knew that she had been exposed to Hope Hicks. She was told you have been exposed to Hope Hicks. So she takes one of these quick tests and says I have been tested, I'm fine.

And we all know after nine months into this pandemic, that all of us know that those quick tests are not necessarily reliable, plus, you want to quarantine for ten days at least if you have been in contact with somebody who develops coronavirus. I think we should be asking the same question about the vice president of the United States, by the way.

So, why is this White House not playing by its own rules, the rules that were set by the CDC? It is remarkable. Maybe they think they're bulletproof, I have no idea, but Americans should be scratching their heads saying, wait a minute, this isn't what we have been told to do, why are you not paying attention to these rules? It's stunning.

KEILAR: Yes, they think they're exempt.

BOGER: Yes, totally.

KEILAR: And the virus is showing they are not. And we definitely are, Gloria, going to talk about the vice president. I do first want to ask Brian Stelter what the White House Correspondents' Association, the association that represents the reporters covering the White House, what they're saying.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right, the association is out with a statement wishing Kayleigh McEnany and the president swift recovery. But I am also hearing, Brianna, from White House reporters who were quite angry, who think the association should have spoken more forcefully or forcefully at all and call this what it is. It is outrageous.

Look, I don't want to kick somebody when they're down or sick, but McEnany's behavior, her conduct was outrageous. And it is more evidence of a cover-up, more evidence of denialism at the White House up until the point where you start coughing and you can't deny it any more. I think the idea that she's an essential worker is an insult to the truck drivers, the delivery workers, the grocery clerks who are essential workers. We know that someone like McEnany can work from home, just the like other press aides.

Once again, the White House because more and more paralyzed by this virus. And I think the question becomes now about Wednesday, about this vice presidential debate, how can the vice presidential debate go on? How can Vice President Pence go to this debate? He was supposed to fly there in a couple of hours, fly to Salt Lake City. How can this debate go on? How is he not quarantining?

KEILAR: And look at all the folks, Brian, who have clearly had exposure to not just one but multiple known infectious people, people who had exposure to both Hope Hicks and to President Trump, right? And yet they still went to work on Friday. We saw this with his son-in- law.

[13:10:00]

We're seeing this with Mark Meadows. I mean, surely these people are being tested regularly, but it can take days to get the answer about whether they've actually been infected. And the vice president, he should be quarantining.

STELTER: We all remember Chris Cuomo anchoring from the basement. That's what we would be doing right now if we had the contacts that these White House aides had done. Companies, non-profits, associations, churches, schools, they have all been ahead of the White House on this and it is so infuriating.

KEILAR: Gloria?

BORGER: Yes, I totally agree. I mean, it is remarkable to me. I mean, now we have about a dozen people that we know of. The question I think we ought to be asking is how many are there we don't know of. I mean, how many are there who are now getting sick who have been at the White House compound or who were at the event for Amy Coney Barrett that we do not know about?

I mean, there's been very little contact tracing that we know of organized, but if you were at the event for Amy Coney Barrett, you need to self-quarantine. And if you work at the White House right now and you've talked to any of these people who are on this list that we now know of, you need to self-quarantine.

And if the president comes back to the White House, what does that mean? I'm sure they're disinfecting the White House but, you know, it is just remarkably selfish, just as it was selfish for the president of the United States to be in a vehicle yesterday with Secret Service agents who were in full PPE, but were in a hermetically sealed car with the president because he wanted to go out and wave to his supporters.

I mean, how much more stunning and selfish can anything get?

KEILAR: No, it is very selfish. He is not putting their health at all as a priority when it comes to this. I mean, it is like a COVID hot box rolling down Rockville Pike. It is nuts, okay? It is just crazy.

Gloria, Brian, I really appreciate you talking about all of this. Thank you so much.

BORGER: Thank you.

KEILAR: There are doctors warning that there may be serious side effects from the steroid that the president is taking. We're going to dig deeper into that. We're going to discuss the risks.

Plus, as Gloria mentioned, Secret Service agents are denouncing the president's COVID parade as one doctor at Walter Reed calls the irresponsibility astounding.

And the credibility of the president's doctors, that's also in question, after one admits to lying to the public about the president getting oxygen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:15:00]

KEILAR: Since testing positive for coronavirus, President Trump has undergone an aggressive treatment plan, and this includes everything from a steroid to an experimental cocktail that is not yet approved by the FDA.

Jacqueline Howard is our CNN Health Reporter. And, Jacqueline, just take us through this, these three medicines that he is taking and also their side effects.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, so we know that the president has been given an aggressive treatment plan. He has access to medications that most COVID-19 patients wouldn't necessarily be treated with.

Here is a list of the three main medications that we have been told the president has received. It includes the antiviral drug, remdesivir, it includes the investigational antibody cocktail -- monoclonal antibody cocktail from the company, Regeneron, and the corticosteroid drug, dexamethasone.

Now, regarding side effects of these drugs, we know that with Remdesivir, the antiviral, it is administered through an I.V. And we do know that the president is on a five-day course of that medication, so side effects of it can include pain at the injection site, as well as nausea. We also know that with Remdesivir, the goal is for it to help speed recovery.

When it comes to the corticosteroid, dexamethasone, the goal with that mediation is for it to target inflammation. And we do know the side effects here, the corticosteroid is commonly used for other conditions, as well as well-known drug. And along with the side effects it can cause includes mood swings. So that's important to keep in mind with dexamethasone as far as the side effects.

And then with the investigational monoclonal antibody cocktail from the company, Regeneron, he were told the president was given a single eight gram dose of this medication, and it is currently still experimental. So, that means the president's physician had to request compassionate use for it to be used. Because it is still investigational and, still experimental, we're still learning more about it.

But, Brianna, that's a list of what we know so far. That's we've been told. But as you know, there are still a lot we don't know. So we're hoping more details will unfold in moments to come.

KEILAR: Yes, that was helpful though. Thank you, Jacqueline Howard, we appreciate it.

And let's get more now with Dr. Peter Hotez. He is a Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

So, Dr. Hotez, let's start with the side effects of these drugs. And what would you say of these drugs is most concerning to you considering the side effects? Just walk us through that.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, there is a lot we don't know about the remdesivir, which is an antiviral drug. So we're going to learn more about it. With steroids, they can cause mood swings, sometimes euphoria. You're seeing a lot of it on the internet trying to claim that that ride through the streets of Washington last night was in response to some kind of euphoria induced by dexamethasone.

[13:20:03]

It's really hard to make that call. I wouldn't be prepared to go there. But on the other hand, these drugs are very powerful and we haven't seen them used in combination a lot.

I think, for me, the puzzle is how sick the president was on Wednesday and Thursday. And that's important, because we are getting widely divergent points of views. On the one hand, we're hearing that the president was not that sick, that there was -- that was a precaution, which is a pretty extraordinary regimen of medicines for someone that is not that sick. On the other hand, you're hearing he was, of course, he had all the risk factors, he was declining in terms of oxygenation and his respirations, and there was a lot of concern. And that's what prompted this very aggressive regimen.

So it would be really helpful if we had more transparency about that, because some of these medicines are experimental. For instance, that monoclonal antibody that he got, those contain virus-neutralizing antibodies. And we've talked, Brianna, over the last few months about how that is so important in protecting individuals against COVID-19, all of the vaccines work by inducing virus-neutralizing antibodies, except it can take six weeks after two doses to induce that. These monoclonal antibodies give it up front.

So, one possible scenario is that the president was deteriorating and these monoclonal antibodies saved his life. That is a possibility. But without any real transparency or knowledge from White House medical staff of what the heck was going on with the president, it is hard to really piece it all together.

KEILAR: So maybe this is a question that you can answer. On one hand, you're saying there could -- one of the reasons for giving him all of these things, which are serious medications, is because he has been very sick and they're throwing everything at the problem that they can. Is there another possibility that there's a hope that maybe they can do this, and it would be -- he's the president, maybe a speedy recovery, or is that not really a consideration here in how these medications might be being prescribed?

HOTEZ: You know, at this point, it's so hard to know. It could be that is it because the physicians panicked and because he is the president, they just had this reflex action. I would tend to doubt it.

I mean, if you were the White House physician, knowing how reckless everyone is at the White House with wearing masks, you would think -- I mean, I would certainly, if I were the White House physician, I would actually have a plan ready to go in case the president starts getting COVID-19 and starts to deteriorate.

And that would mean calling ahead of time with the companies, Regeneron, to have that monoclonal antibody ready so that if he did start to deteriorate, we might consider that.

And it's just a matter of pressing the send button, and is that what happened or was it because the president himself insisted on getting all these medications. Again, without any kind of clarity, we could speculate all day.

My best guess is that -- it is only a guess, is that the White House maybe had a plan for what to do, he started to deteriorate and they activated that plan. And part of that plan, notifying Walter Reed, getting ready to admit him, and maybe using the monoclonal antibody, which neutralizing antibodies are probably one of the most effective weapons we have, it would be nice to have those randomized clinical trial results before we went ahead and did that.

KEILAR: Sure. And just very quickly, because I am out of time, Dr. Hotez, considering some of the side effects here, should he have outsourced his duties to the vice president?

HOTEZ: Yes, that's a good question. Given how quickly he could have deteriorated, given what we know about COVID-19 and all of his risk factors, with his age, in fact, he is male, and the underlying co- morbidities, the weight and maybe high blood pressure, I think that could have been a viable strategy.

And also in terms of keeping him in the hospital, that Remdesivir is a five-day course. Stay there. Stay at Walter Reed at least for the next five days, because we don't know about all the drug interactions. And there's still a lot that could go wrong. The president is not out of the woods, even despite the crazy ride last night.

KEILAR: Doctor Hotez, it was a crazy ride. Thank you so much for explaining this to us.

The president leaving isolation, putting two Secret Service agents at risk to take this joyride outside of a hospital. Hear what agents are saying behind the scenes. They are not happy.

Plus, Joe Biden comments on the future of the race with the president in the hospital.

And, nationwide, there are disturbing new signs that the virus is surging again.

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