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President Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19; Vice President Pence Tests Negative for COVID-19; Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Related to President Trump's Testing Positive May Include Many Members of U.S. Government; Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is Interviewed About President Trump Testing Positive for Coronavirus. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 02, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Hicks has been very close with the president, in very close proximity for days, including debate prep, including traveling to the debate, including heading to a rally in Minnesota. You can see pictures here. They're all getting on the plane. She's been traveling in close proximity to so many aides over the last several days.

But to be clear, we don't know if it was Hope Hicks who infected the president. We do know that a small group of White House officials knew she had tested positive yesterday morning, and this president still traveled to New Jersey where he held indoor events yesterday afternoon.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We also know from reporting that there was apparently some hope to keep that quiet about the Hope Hicks positive test result, that it wouldn't get out. There are more questions too as we have learn more, specifically how many people have come in contact with the president, the First Lady and Hope Hicks in the last few days. John laid out just a few of them. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who of course helped the president prepare for Tuesday's debate, well, he just weighed in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: No one was wearing masks in the room when we were prepping the president during that period of time, and we were -- the group was about five or six people in total.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And keep in mind, the contact tracing on this is going to involve the highest levels of the U.S. government. We're talking about cabinet members, congressional leaders, potentially the president's new Supreme Court nominee who we know was at the White House as recently as yesterday before heading up for meetings on Capitol Hill. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin met with the president on Wednesday and then went to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Also in question this morning, just how will the West Wing operate with the president in isolation? What about staffers who may need to be in quarantine? What is the implication for the 2020 race? Former Vice President Joe Biden shared the debate stage with the president for 90 minutes earlier this week. A source tells CNN Biden will be tested this morning, but future debates and campaigning, frankly, are now in question.

Joining us now, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood, and Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

John Harwood, I want to start with you, because we are getting some new information at this hour as this story is evolving. We are learning that the vice president tested negative. Also, some reporting from a colleague from "Bloomberg," rather, talking about how the president was feeling on Wednesday. All of that is going to be incredibly important as we move forward today, John.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erica, I just want to read this tweet from the vice president's press secretary Devin O'Malley, because it's important for continuity of government reasons as we await further information about the president. He said, "As has been routine for months, Vice President Pence is tested for COVID-19 every day. This morning, Vice President Pence and the Second Lady tested negative for COVID-19. Vice President Pence remains in good health and wishes the Trumps well in their recovery."

So that is positive news. It's not necessarily dispositive because we know it takes people some time -- takes the virus some time to germinate in somebody's body before they can test positive, but we can hope that the vice president does not and will not have this virus.

But we do have that reporting that you mentioned from our colleagues at "Bloomberg" that aides were concerned that the president didn't feel well. Remember, Erica, the White House has not voluntarily disclosed anything about this. Hope Hicks, the president's very close aide, was not feeling well on Wednesday. White House aides knew that. They traveled yesterday without masks. Hope, the president, close aides to the president. We know that the administration has been stunningly irresponsible throughout the last several months in not elevating the science, in not emphasizing the danger and transmissibility of this, in mocking people who wear masks, and not wearing masks themselves. We saw that at that debate Tuesday night, the president's team came in, removed their masks, sat in the audience without wearing them.

So a lot of people have been put in jeopardy by the president's behavior, and now we have learned of course this morning that one of those people is the president himself.

BERMAN: And I do want to point out Wednesday night the president held what rally in Minnesota, and it was half as long as his rallies had been, and there were some people wondering why he went on -- it was still 45 minutes, but he had been going on for an hour-an-a-half. Was this something perhaps different about this on Wednesday night in Minnesota? Jennifer Jacobs from "Bloomberg" is reporting that some of the president's closest aides sensed Wednesday that the president might have been feeling poorly. Maybe they thought it was just exhaustion or something else. But there was some worry, apparently, Jacobs reports, that maybe he was sick. Maybe he was sick.

[08:05:00]

So Sanjay, to you on the president's medical condition. I understand you have some new information about possible treatment now?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know, as you point out still what the president's status is. We read this memo from the president's doctor, Sean Conley, says the president and the First Lady are doing well. We don't know if they have symptoms or not, which is going to be really relevant.

But when we're doing all this reporting about the various options in terms of therapeutics, one of the things that has been coming up more recently is the idea of using monoclonal antibodies even in someone who doesn't have much in the way of symptoms or is very early on in the course of the disease. There was some studies that came out over this past week that showed that benefit. Given that he's the president, this might be something, I'm hearing, we may be hearing about as a possible option that they may use for President Trump.

Also, the way he may be monitored during isolation in addition to, obviously, staying away from people, checking blood oxygenation, having a pulse oximeter, people have heard this term probably, checking blood oxygenation fairly regularly. And if there are problems with blood oxygenation, which sometimes people don't notice it themselves, possibly using medications like remdesivir at that point. So again, this is speculative because we don't even know what the status of the president is in terms of symptoms just from what you have been saying now. But these are things that the medical team probably are starting to think about in terms of how things might proceed.

HILL: There are so many questions not only in terms of not just the president's condition this morning, the First Lady's as well, and Hope Hicks, but also when this change of events really went, was set in motion. And I was struck by one of the things that the president said last night in terms of Hope Hicks. He was speculating on how she had perhaps contracted this virus. And if have this, it's S-1. If we can play this moment, because I think there's a telling moment in there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know Hope very well. She's fantastic, and she has done a great job. But it's very, very hard when you are with people from the military or law enforcement, and they come over to you and they -- they want to hug you and they want to kiss you because we have done a good job for them. And you get close, and things happen. I was surprised to hear with Hope, but she's a very warm person with them. And she knows there's a risk, but she's young.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: Dana, there's a couple things in there, right. The president is clearly intimating that Hope Hicks, well, she can't help it, she's really nice. She just wanted to get close to people. Oh, by the way, it was the military. So I don't know if he's implying that a member of the military may have passed the virus on to Hope Hicks, but there's a lot in there I think that we're getting from the president in terms of how he's viewing this. And perhaps what's most remarkable is he's admitting that if you get close to people, you can get the virus.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right, that's kind of the fundamental. But Erica, this is the most important thing that Sanjay has been saying all morning and we have to say it again. We don't know who got the coronavirus first. We don't know if Hope Hicks got it and gave it to the president or vice versa. And it is entirely possible that it was vice versa, particularly since, if our friends at "Bloomberg" have their reporting is that the president wasn't feeling well on Wednesday.

The other thing is, and just this was thrown out there by somebody who knows the president very well, and that's a question of whether or not the president would have been as forthcoming as he was at 1:00 in the morning eastern time if he wasn't having some symptoms. That's something that we have to dig on today, and in a very big way. And it is very hard considering, as John Harwood said, it is very, very opaque when it comes to the president's health considerations, when it comes to his health situation. It has been since not just the beginning of his presidency, but before he even was president when he released his medical records, but it was actually a letter from his doctor that he dictated himself.

BERMAN: We just don't know at this point, but it's a fair question, and it is fair to ask whether or not he would have told us if he didn't have to.

I'm trying to give you all the news as it comes in. It is coming in fast and furious this morning. We did just get word from the head of the debate commission, the Commission on Presidential Debates, Frank Fahrenkopf, he was asked what was going to happen to the vice presidential and the presidential debate. The vice presidential debate scheduled for next week, the next presidential debate two weeks from now. He says no comment right now. I think they're still trying to process this as are the rest of us. No comment right now he says. Vice President Pence has tested negative. His debate is scheduled for Wednesday. We don't know if that will take place. The next presidential debate less than two weeks away at this point. We don't know if that will take place.

[08:10:10]

Dr. Jha, to you, as a doctor here now, the scope of the contact tracing that needs to happen blows your mind. It really does. Everyone who has been in close proximity with the president over the last five days. Steve Mnuchin, who then met with Nancy Pelosi, Mike Pence, who we just saw, Amy Coney Barrett, who is the Supreme Court nominee has been working out of the White House. We don't know who exactly she's been in contact with inside the West Wing. We do know she's been going up and meeting with senators then. So the scope of this now is really immense. What do you see?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, so good morning, and thanks for having me. The scope is immense here. We think that chances are that the president was infected sometime between three and five days ago, and was contagious probably in the last couple of days. And so you can think about all the things that he has done, all of the people who have been in enclosed spaces with him without wearing a mask. Anybody who has been within six feet of him for any extended period of time, those are all people at risk, and most if not all of them should be quarantined.

So we have got a lot of work ahead of us to sort this out, including who the president was infected from. There's no reason to be convinced that it was Ms. Hicks. They could have had a common source. There's just lot of work ahead in sorting all of this out.

BERMAN: I have to say when you say it, when you say it's possible he was infected within the last three to five days and was contagious even before that, it just opens up this huge range of possibilities, just giant range of possibilities. Everyone inside this government, not to mention sharing the stage with Joe Biden the other night. It really does stretch the imagination.

HILL: Yes, it does. And still so many questions, as we know, this morning. We're also looking at the impact this is having on the markets. U.S. futures tumbling on the news that President Trump tested positive for coronavirus. Let's bring in CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. Good morning. This is a market reaction seen all around the world here, quite frankly, because it's a big uncertainty that's injected just 32 days before an election, an election that investors were already concerned about the possibility of a contested election because of some of the president's statements and behavior, and now coronavirus in the White House. Just a remarkable turn of events.

Markets hate uncertainty. They like clarity, and this just puts more uncertainty into the whole picture. It also comes at a time when the recovery appears to be slowing, the economic recovery appears to be slowing. So they're very concerned about stimulus. What kind of factor this could be in negotiations for a new stimulus, and what it means about safe reopening in the country. Safe reopening of the economy has to have mitigation and solid national leadership, and of course we know we haven't seen that, much of that in the last few months. Does that change anything here, guys? John?

BERMAN: Markets I guess off its lows.

ROMANS: Yes, important to note.

BERMAN: But obviously they're watching closely to see what happens and what we hear from the administration over the next several hours. Christine Romans, thank you very much.

Obviously, the breaking news, the president and First Lady testing positive for the coronavirus, there are still so many questions, including when was the House of Representatives, when was congressional leadership informed of all of this? We're joined by a member of leadership, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:05]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The breaking news, the president and first lady have both tested positive for coronavirus. The White House doctor in a statement overnight said they are both doing well.

We do not know at this point if the president is symptomatic. We are waiting to get more information.

Joining me now is House Democratic whip, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the number three Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Congressman, thank you very much for being with us.

Your reaction to the news that the president has tested positive?

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): First of all, thank you very much for having me.

Well, my reaction, I guess, like everybody else in the country is wishing for a speedy and complete recovery for the first couple. And, hopefully, that the testing and tracing that needs to take place will take place and that everybody that has been exposed will do what's necessary to make sure that we contain this.

We have got to do this in a way that everybody that has possibly been exposed will get the treatment as necessary.

BERMAN: I think -- I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

CLYBURN: I'm sorry?

BERMAN: There's an outbreak at the highest level of U.S. government now. I think that's crystal clear. The president and the first lady have both tested positive. Senior aide Hope Hicks has as well.

Do you know -- when did you learn of this news and do you know when other House leadership was informed of this overnight?

CLYBURN: Well, I found out around 3:00 this morning. And, of course, as you know, Secretary Azar is scheduled to be before our select committee for a hearing at 9:00 this morning. So I spent some time between around 4:00 this morning and now taking a look at everything that we plan to cover. As you know, we have been very concerned about the fact that a study

would be released last night indicated that on 47 different instances, this administration seemed to be -- in order to continue to downplay this virus. Having little pressure applied to the entities of government when you are in a crisis such as we're in, it doesn't seem like the thing to be doing. And that's a part of what the hearing is all about today.

So I spent some time this morning going over all of that to see what may or may not be appropriate for us to do today.

[08:20:01]

BERMAN: Is it an in-person hearing, Congressman?

CLYBURN: It is an in-person and virtual. I plan to be in person with Secretary Azar and some members of the committee will be in person. These were the plans and so my staff is in touch with the secretary's staff to make some evaluations as to what we'll do today. I have no idea where Secretary Azar has been --

BERMAN: I do.

CLYBURN: -- who he --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I do.

He was at the White House on Saturday, unmasked for part of it at the introduction of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court nominee. So we know he has been at the White House. We know he was in contact with people there.

You can see Chris Christie who had been in debate prep in a small room with the president. So there he is.

And so, the reason I'm asking you about this is -- I mean, are you concerned about having Secretary Azar who's been in close proximity now with people who may or may not have been infected doing this in person?

CLYBURN: Well, you know more than I know about that, and that's what I'm trying to find out. I'm trying to find out the information that you seem to have already.

When I found out about this at 3:00 in the morning, I didn't go about the business to try to find out where Secretary Azar may or may not have been.

So thank you very much for informing me and my staff. Hopefully, he hears this as well, and our staffs will decided to how best to proceed.

BERMAN: I'm -- I'm glad to provide that information. That's what we've been trying to do that over the last several hours since learning this stunning development.

But it does get to the question we also know that Steve Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, met with the president Wednesday morning and he's been on Capitol Hill meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in person.

So, are you aware of or can you tell us what the contingency plans are for house leadership and for Congress in general to contain this outbreak at the highest levels of government?

CLYBURN: No, I'm not aware of what it is. I did see Secretary Mnuchin here two days ago or three when he was at the speaker's office, our offices are near each other. So I did see him.

I have not talked to the speaker this morning. The last time I talked to her in close -- pretty close proximity was last night on the floor as we were taking votes.

So everything may change today. I have no idea. But all of us would do what we think is the prudent thing to do and we have the attendant physician here and that we will consult with as we have since this virus has been among us.

And we'll continue to do that and be guided by the science, and we do believe in science. And whatever the scientists tell us to do, we will follow their instruction.

BERMAN: It's quite a thing. Isn't it quite a thing?

I have to say, listening to you just process this as we have all been and I think I get up earlier than you so I have been processing it for an hour or two longer, it's a lot. It's a lot to think through right now when the president of the United States has tested positive and everyone that he's come in contact with, you now have to wonder if they may or may not be infectious.

The web just grows and grows and grows. The possible web grows and grows and grows.

You know, reflect on where we are this morning, six months into this pandemic with these questions.

CLYBURN: Absolutely. And that's why we have been -- since back in February, we have been saying to this administration that we need to have the national plan. We needed leadership right from the White House to help us contain this virus.

Our children could very well be back in school today if we had the national leadership and not the political interference with the scientists that seemed to be taking place.

We know what the CDC had been going back and forth with information simply because there's been political interference in their work. And that's what this hearing today is all about.

Look at where we are. We as a country, we are of one hundred and fifty, what, four (ph) countries that we have good information from, we have somewhere around 145 or 142 or something. That is not the kind of leadership that we as a nation give when it comes to the science.

I was around for the polio vaccine and I know how this country led on that. I know how we led on the Ebola, and that is the kind of place that I would love to see the country in on this pandemic -- of this virus.

[08:25:02]

Yet, we're lagging behind the rest of the world. That is not a good place for this shining light on the hill that we've always been. That's not a place for us to be.

BERMAN: Congressman Jim Clyburn, I do appreciate your time this morning. I appreciate your honesty too as we work through this moment.

Keep us posted. This hearing is still scheduled for this morning and we will be watching if it takes place. Thank you very much for your time.

CLYBURN: Thank you.

BERMAN: It is so interesting to hear from members of Congress who are waking up to this news being informed of something that very much deals with the continuity of government in the United States of America. You're looking at live pictures of the White House, the president and first lady testing positive for coronavirus. Obviously, the entire world is wishing them a speedy recovery.

There are serious questions now about the political implications with Election Day about a month away. Our special live coverage continues, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, the president and first lady have tested positive for coronavirus and are in isolation at the White House.

Joining us now CNN political director David Chalian.