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tv   Bloomberg Technology  Bloomberg  October 2, 2020 5:00pm-6:00pm EDT

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>> i am in san francisco and this is bloomberg technology coming --, coming up patient in chief. president trump has a coronavirus. he has been treated with the regeneron antibody cocktail, will have the very latest. case,he severity of his what it means for the public perception of the virus.
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plus the health of the u.s. economy, jobs rise. to fun of limit rate falls 7.9%, participation also dropping. we begin with breaking news, we are continuing to get updates from president trump's condition, a lot of information coming from washington as we mentioned, doctors say the president is feeling fatigued, but in good spirits. we also learned he was treated with the regeneron antibody cocktail that is not available to the public yet. our david westin is with us now to give us the very latest, we have not seen a tweet from the president sets -- since he announced his diagnosis yet -- last night, we have not seen him in public. he was supposed to be on a call that was replaced with vice president mike pence, what is the latest we know? david: mark meadows said he talked to the president and was in good spirits, but then we got from therandum
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physician for the president who as you said this regeneron payment was action under compassionate use, it is not been approved for general use at all. it is experimental, they have tried it on 250 patients with good effects. they have tried that in addition with zinc and some melatonin given to the president. --you said, the patient physician said he is in good spirits. melania trump actually has a slight headache and a mild cough. going to advance from what mark meadows said earlier this morning, the president was basically doing fine, it appears he was giving treatment and they would not be given -- giving treatment if they were not concerned. soly: of course what is scary is that we do not know how badly it will affect anyone who is infected.
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many are a systematic and for others the results can be devastating. presidentems like the and first lady are having mild symptoms, how is it affecting the white house plan? last night he had this one called remaining on his calendar, he did not do that call. what do we know about his plans tomorrow? said: the white house has they are either postponing or making ritual whatever appearances he had. they are also postponing any appearances from the first family overall. said, vice president pence stood in for him today. it appears he is going to stand down without a question. meantime, former vice president joe biden is campaigning in michigan and this shows us why we have to pay attention to science. today from aier doctor in your medical is, he
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says someone in 74 years old and borderline obese is not a great chance of mortality. there is only like 10% that you are going to end up in the hospital. it is not a large percentage, but something we are concerned about. and he is getting the best conceivable medical health. of thethere is analysis events leading up to this, what happened first and next and hope hicks testing negative on wednesday, then positive on thursday. the president as we understand it finding out but still proceeding with his day, there is a question about the rest of the white house staff. white house aides, others who have been exposed, what do we know about other people who were in the rooms with the president? wasd: it is fascinating, it important yesterday because what he did do is get in a helicopter and go to his golf club in missouri where he raised $5 million in person.
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he says he was a fair distance from people and was safe, but we have had various reports not confirmed, other individuals both in the media and on a staff that it testing positive. one thing that should be reasserting, the entire white house staff is getting tested every single day. if something comes up positive, i think we will know quickly. mike pence has said he is negative and does not have a positive test. as you know, the fact that you got a negative test today does not mean you will get a negative tomorrow as we are learning with both hope hicks and the president. right, and of course joe biden and jill biden have also tested negative. their condition was also of concern given that the president and former vice president debated earlier this week. ok, david, i wanted to stand by. we will continue to follow all the headlines out of this. thank you so much for that update.
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meantime, the president diagnosis and the september jobs report playing into the markets. weighing the implications of the president's positive test results, will have more on that, but first, the disappointing lessreport that show that hiring than analysts had estimated is happening. underscoring this urgency to push through stimulus funds. bloomberg got an update from bytedance white house economic advisor larry kudlow. our judgment asking for a lot of extraneous things that have nothing to do with covid and the economy. the split has narrowed somewhat, but is still wide enough -- emily: mitch mcconnell saying the two sides are getting closer, he made those comments less than an hour ago, for more now on the markets i want to bring in abigail doolittle who has been following all of the
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back-and-forth today from new york. down, ite markets open seems like a tumultuous day. they did recover later in the day, but still closing in the red. investors having a lot to digest between the diagnosis, the jobs report, walk us through what you saw. abigail: so many factors weighing on the markets and on the news that president trump did test positive for covid-19, initially, the reaction for stock futures very negative overnight. downw the s&p 500 features as much as 2%, but as the day went on and the jobs report came out, the possibility that stingless might be inching closer from a speaker of the house, we did see recovery, but nonetheless it dropped. that represent volatility on all of this. investors not knowing what to make of it. at the end of the day the s&p
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500 down. this risk be sought for stocks not showing everywhere and not for all stocks, but we did see a selloff in the nasdaq 100, the big tech make a cap index down 2.8%, its worst day in about two weeks. on the other hand, you had the down -- doubt transport higher, the russell index up. that is considered to be a growth your index. there is not a flight for safety at all, the yen and just about flat and bonds in fact down. if it was panicked, you would have seen stocks down sharply. you also would have seen bonds and again and a gold rallying. we did not see that. at the end of the day lots of uncertainty. bloomberg's abigail doolittle, thank you so much for following the ups and downs. it is going to be interesting when markets reopen next week.
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there have been a lot of signals coming from the white house today on both the health of the economy and the health of the president, i want to get the latest from bloomberg's josh who covers the white house for us. david westin is still with us, josh, we are getting a lot of signals and reports about the president's condition. officially we have been told he is fatigued, but in good spirits. what is the latest you have heard? dancingare sort of around what other symptoms he might have, notably, the new york times and cnn reporting he has a low-grade fever. the letter from his physician did not mention that, the white house and he has mild symptoms. as david mentioned, we have not heard from him in sometime. questions are swirling right now as to how much in impact this will have. as we know, the campaign has put off events.
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they're taking steps to try to make some of them virtual, but we do not know how -- again, as we discussed, one thing on his public schedule, the call about covid he did not participate in. that raises the question of how quickly he will start participating in say virtual rallies for instance. this certainly has upended the president's plans. parties, thet republican campaign runs through donald trump, if they are not able to send him places, do rallies, that is going to change the strategy and of course this comes one month out of the election with a voting largely underway and poll after poll showing joe biden with the lead. david: you know how this works at the white house, and any other circumstance where you have a crisis involving the president's health, you would have regular briefings at least once a day where some buddy comes out and talks to us, what the symptoms are, what is
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happening, what his oxygen levels are. is there any suggestion coming from the white house about how they will handle the greek -- briefing? there has to be transparency for the sake of country. >> there is no indication. my belief is the current physician, trump's doctor has never briefed press in terms of a question and answer type they tend to release written statements from him. we have had statements from mark meadows, from the press secretary, from the white house economic advisor larry kudlow and all of them sort of said, he has got mild symptoms but none of these are medical professionals. they are not equipped nor are they showing willingness to answer details about the president's condition. i think the one example that it jumps to mind is boris johnson who had this back in the springtime. boris johnson was hospitalized nine days after he initially went into isolation after being
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diagnosed. that is a timeline to keep in mind. we are still in the early days. one thing we are learning is that a lot of the folks who have come forward to say they have tested positive including senator lee of utah and of course the president and first lady, the president of notre dame university, all of them attended the saturday event six days ago where trump unveiled amy coney barrett as his nominee. we do not know yet what the event was or if there has been a single event of that led to these infections. certainly, that one event is going to get a lot of scrutiny. david: you had that event and then the following events of judge amy coney barrett going around capitol hill. we had micah lee testing positive, is the real jeopardy
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for the nomination confirmation process at this point? >> it does not look like it in fact the opposite. we are hearing concern from republican senators that they scrapped the session next week so as not to risk anyone getting sick for the week after winter those hearings for coni barrett are due to start. republicans do not want to real -- roll the dice and risk another senator getting sick. they cannot afford to lose any s.ok -- vote i think rather than taking steps to delay the nomination or the confirmation, they're looking at steps or at least there is pressure on a mitch mcconnell to look at steps to take other things off the table to maximize the chance they can get this justice through before the election. dr. was about what this actually means for the campaign. joe bidenwe saw
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getting out there, it does not seem his campaign is slowing down. it looks like we are getting breaking news president trump has -- is about to visit walter reed medical center. he will be going to the hospital. this is very significant news. josh, what is your reaction to this? now,s, it is a pool report we have no further information. hasays supplemental pool traveled to walter reed in into vans of a visit by the president today, they are awaiting the president. so far the president is still at the white house, we have no further information than that. the white house does not seem to have confirmed this yet. i would treat it with caution, we do not know if it is for test or if he will stay there. this is breaking as we discussed at, i would put attention on
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this and this will feel this -- the question of severity of the case, but i would caution we do not know whether this is a sign that it is worse or whether it is more routine. there is commentary throughout the afternoon -- that this would treatment given the facilities at walter reed. circulatedbeing saying a group of reporters is already at walter reed and expecting a visit by president trump. david: to reinforce what you said, we do not know what this means exactly. he is going to the hospital and will -- does not mean that he will stay there, does not mean he has taken a turn of all, we should inform everybody what walter reed is. it is the largest military facility for hospital care in the country where they merge walter reed with the medical on wisconsin avenue. it is where presidents always go
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for their major and minor operations. at the same time, just to push a bit, going back on the timeline first it was everything fine then mark meadows saying really mild symptoms then there was the physician saying it was being treated. now we are saying he is going to go to the hospital to check in for a bit. does not mean there is anything dire going on, but the progression is not a positive one. >> i think that is true, if i am reading between the lines a bit here. as i say this we have a new statement from the white house saying that an abundance of caution at the recommendation of his physician, the president will be working from the offices at walter reed for the next few days. the white house is now saying that president trump will spend the next few days at walter reed. that gives us more information. the statement says president trump appreciates the support for he and the first lady. the statement says this is done out of an abundance of caution,
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so this is a statement released just now by the white house. one thing, if the pool is already there at watery, that means the president will probably fly. we might have an opportunity for cameras to see him boarding that judging whether this goes as it normally goes. it is possible that cameras will get a shot of president trump boarding the helicopter on his way there. this statement just now from white house saying out of an abundance of caution at the recommendation of his physician, the president is going to work from the offices at walter reed for the next few days. emily: we -- david: you please go ahead. emily: we just got a statement from white house press secretary saying president trump remains in good spirits has mild symptoms and has been working
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throughout the day. out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of his physician, the president will be working from the offices at walter reed for the next few days. president trump appreciates the outpouring of support from both ash for both the end of the first lady and to underscore the point you have both been making the hospital is not mean he has taken a were -- turn for the worse, this is the white house saying out of an abundance of caution. josh, i am curious of what you see -- think of the language being used by the white house that the president will continue to work through these next few days when of course we know that this virus can act quickly and affect people in very dramatically different ways. it is true that at his age he is at an elevated risk, but still not a particularly high risk. in other words, the vast majority of 74-year-old man
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would not suffer severe consequences from this illness. i mentioned earlier, the timeline the prime minister was on. even though they are saying it is out of an abundance of caution, it is a quicker timeline. it took nine days for boris johnson to go to the hospital, president trump less than 24 hours is now saying he will spend the next few days in the hospital. the statement continues to say the president has mild symptoms and has been working throughout the day. i note that it is a rare day we go through without tweets from president trump and other than the one before 1:00 a.m. announcing his diagnosis, we have not had any, so i think i'll -- all eyes will be on the president. cannot sayink we often enough that all of us are mainly concerned about the health and well-being of the president, but there is a political aspects to this. we are just a little over a month away from the election
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where he is running for reelection. him being there personally at the rallies was terribly important. if he is going to be at walter reed for a few days, that means he is not going to be at rallies, not meeting with fundraisers. >> that is right, there is a reason for that. b he is a big draw, and likes it. obviously they have scrapped these now, i think people tobably start going back doing these tele-rallies he have been -- has been doing through facebook. president trump does not appear to be interested in doing them. the timing of this is difficult to imagine. we are in the home stretch of a campaign, the president has grown almost a single-handed campaign. they have been doing the same
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use some, they do surrogates but have scrapped a lot of those plans in terms of using his children for instance and there partners and family members to campaign on their behalf. they are in uncharted territory and a lot of the questions that have been posed to the white house today, the answer has been it is too soon to say for instance will he participate, can he participate in the next debate with joe biden which is two weeks from now or -- excuse me 13 days from now. does not look like it is a slamdunk that will happen. much: josh, thank you so for your analysis there. we are continuing to get new headlines rolling in about the president condition. just to recap, the president set to visit walter reed medical center, he will be there for a few days out of an abundance of caution. the white house print -- saying the president will work through those few days, we do not know what this signifies about his
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condition, but there are a lot of questions and speculation. i want to bring in our health care worker michelle cortez who joins us, michelle, the president has been given eight regeneron antibody cocktail that is not available to the public yet. what do we know about this treatment and other treatment options that are available to him in the event that his condition does get worse? gotelle: we actually just the first set of data on that compound and it looks like it is pretty effective. it works well for people who do not make antibodies themselves and the way you have to think about it is when you get an infection, your immune system produces antibodies to fight off a virus. is doing ison literally building those antibodies themselves and infusing it into the patient. president trump was diagnosed a
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very early with this infection, we knows because he has so many tests. basically they are jumpstarting his immune system for him, giving him antibodies early. it is no wonder he is going to the hospital because all the other freemans we have can only be given in the hospital. david: that raises the question, is this simply a prophylactic? they just want to make sure he does not get worse, or are they saying this is something they think he needs, this use of an expert mental drug and now we think he needs to go to the hospital because he may need further intervention? michelle: it is a great point, it would not be a prophylactic and that means to prevent it and we know he has already been diagnosed. the question is is he getting it to ward off worsening of symptoms or because he already has some bad symptoms. i have been talking to doctors and they are saying it might be much worse for president trump than what people have been saying.
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specifically because the first lady did not get the regeneron antibodies. clearly, the president condition is somehow different than the first ladies in ways they have not disclosed to us. the other thing noteworthy is going to the hospital. think about it, when you have influenza or feeling unwell, as a general rule, the vast majority of people who get this virus recover completely uneventfully, many of them never even know they have it. the fact he is going to the hospital must mean that they are trying to circumvent some that outcome they are afraid might happen. otherwise they would keep him at home. david: we have to come back to the fact he is 74 your -- years old and borderline obese. a worsecandidate for version of this covid-19. michelle: absolutely, the risk
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of dying for -- from cover 19 is pretty low, the risk of hospitalization is also pretty low. the chances are the president will come through well. there have been questions about his health over the years. he was not well on saturday a few months ago and we got -- he was at walter reed a three-month ago. certainly this president has not been as forthcoming as others when it comes to his health and other circumstances. what that means we are just going to have to guess on, there is no doubt he is a high-risk havingand to have an -- gotten the virus so early, getting treatments, going to a hospital, they are not disclosing, but from where i am sitting it does not look good. emily: we are continuing to follow the breaking news out of the white house, as we understand, president trump is preparing to get on a helicopter now to walter reed medical center. the white house pool has
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gathered at the hospital to receive him there. he will be staying there for the next few days, the white house saying he will work through those few days saying they are doing this out of an abundance of caution. i'm curious, we have seen treatments advanced incredibly in the last six months, how much of a better position is he in right now getting sick today then he would have been six months ago given what has advanced and how much we still don't know? scarele: he did have a with coronavirus earlier in the outbreak where some of his aides -- his ballet had been diagnosed. we know he took hydroxychloroquine at that time to prevent the virus from infecting him and in fact he did not turn out positive. we have also gotten study results on hydrochloric when since that period in time that have definitively shown it does not work. he did not go that route this
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electing a instead different experiment to drug showing much more promising early signs that you do not have the definitive results it. certainly aware waiting on those -- we are waiting on those. we have remdesivir and we know that helps people who have been hospitalized recover quickly. there is also another drug, a steroid given to people once they are in intensive care. again, the treatments we have for coronavirus with the exception of the antibodies he got and perhaps convalescent plasma are only treatments given to the very sickest people in the hospital. michelle, thank you so much for giving us your analysis there. this is a huge development, i want to underscore, we hope that
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does well here, we want him to get better. obviously this is a significant development. david: certainly it shows they have the real capability to deal with something serious if it comes, i wants to turn to wendy benjamin in washington, give us a little of the history here, walter reed as it is now called, a lot of presidents have gone there. i know i have spent time there as one of my colleagues was there any, after being blown up, they've got the capability of doing extraordinary things at this facility. is, it is one of the best hospitals in the u.s. and president has options. white house is telling us that he will be working in the presidential suite. for those of us old enough to remember when president reagan was shot, we have seen pictures of this suite.
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it is an office with a desk and all the hospital equipment he needs. what hist really sure condition is. one of his economic advisers, larry kudlow, has said he has very moderate symptoms. the white house press office is saying he has moderate symptoms and will just be working there. the president is being hospitalized for covid-19 for a few days, that is what we know and that is a very serious to say. journalist we are also pressing for more, we know that we do not know. we are not hearing from people who really know the answer, even larry kudlow said he has not seen him. we are not hearing from the physician, not from people with information. that is not sustainable, is it over the long-term when the president is in the hospital for a potentially serious condition
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wendy: we're certainly hoping we get much more information from the white house. we would normally expect to hear hourly briefings on his conditions. this is a new kind of president. i don't know what kind of information we will be getting. we will obviously all be trying to figure that out minute by minute over the next few days. david: it is a different kind of president both with respect to what kind of information but also how much he's involved in. we have heard report after report that is he is his own communications director, basically everything goes to the oval office and the president. the oval office does not have the president now. what can that mean for the government? wendy: that's a very good point and it could mean a lot. it could mean that stimulus talks are stalled. it could mean they delay the supreme court nomination. it could mean a lot of things to
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stop. i don't know if you know that the president has not tweeted today and that is staggering. the fact we don't know what he is thinking at every moment, what shall he is watching in every moment, what book he is reading at every moment is kind of remarkable because in the first time in four years, we are relying on the press secretary to tell us what's going on. you are absolutely right, president trump that as he set at the 2016 convection, i alone can fix it and right now we don't know what's going on. there is a provision for the 25th amendment to turn things over to mike pence if he were to be incapacitated, which would mean if he was going to be anesthetized or not conscious except to be asleep, then the 25th amendment would mean that mike pence takes temporary charge of the country. wendy, as you
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mentioned, no tweets since the president announced his diagnosis. it has been 16, 17 hours ago, no retweets either. there is an interesting question here, how president trump fares, how severe his case is, how that impacts public perception of the virus given he has played a huge role in shaping how millions and millions and millions of americans view this disease. if they believe it, is serious or not if they wear a mask or not. what is your take on that? will: i think we -- it really become clear in the next few days. if this is as the press secretary says, an abundance of caution to making sure he is getting the medicine he believes, as michelle was saying, some things can only be given at the hospital. if it is just that and he comes out of it and says it is fine, no big deal, that may not help
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get to the point where all americans will wear masks and social distance. if he is seriously ill and democratic nominee joe biden was making this point that an event in michigan, really, this is a useful, teachable moment for americans to realize that this is serious, it is contagious no matter how many precautions you have like the president is surrounded by people protecting him, yet he came down with it. the lesson here to everyone should be wear a mask, social distance, stay home. like many of us have been for the last seven months. david: we can certainly use a teachable moment if it saves lives. is it a votable moment? we had a race before this where former vice president biden wanted this to be about covid-19, president trump's response. i don't think that the trump camp wanted this to be about covid-19 at all. do they lose that battle?
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wendy: they certainly did for the next week or so. and joe biden was planning to give a speech in michigan to union workers about his build back better economic plan and half of it was about the virus. biden has always wanted this to be about the virus because president trump response to it lacking --mind is o is so lacking and not coherent. so biden always wanted to make this about the virus and this gives him an opportunity to do that but he has to walk a very fine line so he does not seem to be making political hay out of another man's illness. he's certainly taking the tact to say let's all wear masks. i don't think he's going to give up that drumbeat. who knows? the way this campaign is going, who knows what's going to happen in the next two weeks? emily: let's talk about next week. we've got the vice presidential
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debate coming up on tuesday. it seems like light years away at this point between what's going to happen in the next when he four hours will be critical. what do you imagine the white house will do? will the debate happen as planned, the way it was planned? wendy: at this point, kamala harris has not been around donald trump or any white house people and her boss, joe biden, has tested negative. she is planning to be there. vice president mike pence said he will, too. now, if things go badly for the president, they may have to cancel it. at the moment, that debate in salt lake city is going forward. there is a presidential debate on october 15 in miami which is will only be 12 days from now. it's -- i don't think it is likely they will hold that debate. i've heard nothing about it yet
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but president trump should not be out in public in 12 days. david: the debate commission was saying we would have to change the rules and president trump's team was saying we don't want to change the rules. the vice presidential debate next week, assuming it happens, how will it be different because of what has happened in the last 24 hours? wendy: we haven't heard anything officially yet, but after the all agreed upon disaster that the last debate was in terms of the republican members of trump's entourage did not wear masks inside even though it was being held at the cleveland clinic, a premier medical facility, and they were trying to give out masks to trump's family and they wouldn't take them. there have been a number of journalists who were at the debate that tested positive for covid and other people. i think there's going to be a big push that really requires
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some protective measures for the people in the audience. and then of course, any topics they were thinking about, talking about the vice presidential debate. if senator harris is as smart as she seems, she will bring it back to the coronavirus and mike pence will try to push it away from the coronavirus. david: what kind of question does this put on the fda? the fda gave permission to use this regeneron cocktail. people are going to clamber and say, wait a second, if it is good enough for the president, it is good enough for me. wendy: i think there will be. if he does get that sort of drug and it's not available to the rest of us, to other 74-year-old obese men who catching the disease, then i think the public will be demanding some quick action. thank all right, wendy, you so much for your insight. we are continuing to follow the breaking news as it rolls in.
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we are waiting for president trump now to arrive at walter reed medical center. again, his doctors have said he is fatigued but in good spirits. going to the hospital out of abundance of caution, but will stay there for the next few days. i want to bring in our white house reporter, mario parker, who has been covering every move the president has made over the last week. first of all, give us the very latest that you are hearing from the white house. they have not raised any alarm yet, the fact he is going to the hospital. it does not mean he has taken a turn for the worse, but it also doesn't mean he has taken a turn for the better either. what exactly do we know at this point? mario: i mean, we know it is indeed notable, the fact that the president is going to walter is going to be staying for several days, per press secretary kayleigh mcenany.
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we know that is a notable development. earlier today, the white house physician, may be about one hour or so before kayleigh's statement, said that the president, while he is fatigued, the where they used, he remains in good spirit. earlier, chief of staff mark meadows also said the president was experiencing mild symptoms, but was still in good spirits. then, larry kudlow and other staff had mentioned the president had still been delivering orders through chief of staff mark meadows, so they took that as a good sign. emily: you've got other outlets reporting he's had a fever since this morning. of course, speculation is rampant about just what condition he is actually in. talk to us a little bit about what we have not seen in the het 17 or so hours since tweeted that he and the first lady tested positive. we have not seen a tweet. we have not seen him in public.
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he didn't participate in the close press call. vice president pence participated instead. does that say anything to you? mario: yes, it does. quite frankly, i was with him yesterday on his trip to bedminster. he didn't stop to talk to reporters as we have grown accustomed to. whether upon his departure from the white house or upon landing at joint base andrews and porting air force one. neither leg of the trip, did he stop to talk to reporters. he has been quiet since you sent the tweet last night updating us on him and the first lady's condition. that is uncharacteristic of the president. david: i want to explain to our viewers what we are looking at. this is the main entrance of the walter reed medical complex. it is northwest of the white house. it used to be called bethesda medical complex.
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they combined it into a makes ordinary complex. the largest military hospital complex in the country. mario, if you can, give us a sense of what the president's schedule would have looked like. that is to say, what will bwe be missing? mario: that's a good question. there's quite a bit. today, in addition to his public appearances at the white house, he was supposed to hit the campaign trail. there were about the -- we are 30 some odd days out from the november election and his strategy had been to aggressively campaign. it was a contrast to what joe biden had been doing. he was going to be at a florida rally today. he was going to pennsylvania on sunday. he was going to be in wisconsin on saturday. then, he had a west coast trip coming up next week. his campaign says most of the events -- all of the events in
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the near future he was scheduled to attend have been either canceled either canceled., or moved to virtual events. david: in that same announcement, the white house said vice president pence would continue with an active campaign schedule. is that still going to be the case? where is vice president pence going to be, given that the president will be in the hospital for a few days? is he going to have to stay closer to home? now, the viceight president pence is still planning to head out to utah next week for the vice presidential debate against kamala harris. nothing has changed so far from what we have heard in terms of those plans. he also has some campaign stops that he was going to be making on that trip as well. we have not heard anything different. emily: thank you, mario parker. david: our colleague who reports on the white house. we will bring in professor larry
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brown. great to have you with us give us a sense about the question about who is running the government as the president goes into the hospital. >> we've had no indication whatsoever from the white house that the president has lost any of his mental faculties or that there is any sort of incapacitating reason why he would need to transfer the powers and duties of the office. so, it does appear as though the president remains in control. he is the president. and until such time as he either voluntarily decides to transfer those powers to the vice or something serious to occur -- we have seen presidents voluntarily do that in the past when they've had procedures like a colonoscopy
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where they have to go under with the medication that puts them out. so, we don't have any indication we are in that kind of a situation. and if that were to happen, then there is a section within the 25th amendment of the constitution, section 3, that provides for that voluntary transfer to the vice president. david: as you say, we've had that invoke four or five times in history but those were cases where they were fairly limited medical procedures. this could be a very different one than from what we've ever seen because if it is transferred, it would not be clear when it's over. to howell, according this process works, if it is a voluntary transfer of power, that goes in writing so the president pro tem of the senate and the speaker of the house.
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it is a written declaration. and it is a written declaration that undoes that process as well. were there to be something more severe, we could see a situation where then there is the question of is it the presidential succession ac t that takes over or is there some necessity under section 4 of the 25th amendment where the vice president and the cabinet might need to actually look at other ways to take that power? your description of a historical precedent is fascinating. it is also really unique that we are now just about one month away from an election. could that impact or change the process in terms of the power
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protocol and who is running what, when, how? so, i hate to sort of speculate because we don't have any indication that the president is in any way in that place of severity where he might have to go on a ventilator and he might not have the kind of consciousness to continue to execute the office. but we do have a situation where we are now at a point in the election where most states are unable to print different ballots because we have past the deadline by which ballots have to be -- those nominees have to be named. risk where the president not able to essentially stand for reelection, that then the
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republican national committee would have to have an emergency meeting. put forward a new nominee. presumably, that would be vice president pence as the presidential nominee. they would likely select another vice presidential nominee to fill that second spot and they would, in fact, direct their supporters to continue to vote is writtenlot as it and it's likely they would then end up directing their electors to select the new nominees that they have chosen. this brings up all sorts of legal concerns and there would likely be lawsuits based upon electors now, if you will, being directed to be faithless directors, especially in light of the recent supreme court decision on this. emily: now, just to underscore
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as you said, we do not want to speculate, but again, we have not heard from the president himself since he tweeted last night. i'm curious just in terms of the white house presentation of this, as they navigate this minute by minute, do you expect we will hear from the vice president tonight if we don't hear from president trump himself? lara: if we look back in history he wasge bush sr., actually in a plane coming back from texas from some campaign event in march. when president reagan had his assassination attempt and reagan was taken to the hospital. it is fascinating that if you look at that moment, george h w bush chose to actually wait to give any statement until they
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knew where president reagan's health was because they did not want to put out a perception the he was trying to usurp powers of the presidency before there was anything known. i imagine that vice president pence wants to support the president and the statement that fine anddent is doing that he is just going to walter reed for observation and he will be working from walter reed. discharging his duties of the office. david: ok, thank you for very much for joining us. professor lara brown of george washington university. now we turn to the men we always turn to, marty schenker, thank you so much. you and i, we have been through a fair amount of history. i have not seen this. i thought we had one october
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surprise in the passing of ruth bader ginsburg. it turns out we have at least two. marty: and who knows what what is to come because we have one month to go. this has been just extraordinary in terms of the news cycle. david: give us a sense of the white house approach to this. you have seen a number of white houses deal with different crises. we have a white house that has said first the president tweeting, i got this. we have his chief of staff mark meadows saying mild symptoms, no big problem. this afternoon, the white house physician says, he's got this drug and now he's in the hospital. at some point, don't they have to set up a way for briefing us in the press? the american people need to know what's going on. marty: they do. it is sort of ironic that because the white house communications have been so poor and imprecise over three years, really, almost anything that comes out of this white house is going to be subject to some
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speculation. and speculating about somebody's health is an extraordinarily dangerous thing to do anyway so it's going to be very hard for this white house specifically to try and keep the public informed and away that is believable. your point -- this is emily chang in san francisco -- when the news crossed last night, and lot of folks i talked to thought it was fake news. they had to look at five different news sources to believe that this was true, the president had in fact contracted covid-19. given your decades covering politics, all that you have seen, give us a sense of the gravity of this moment as we head towards an election that is just now weeks away. this disease has been the main storyline for the last six months, the president has played it down.
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he has not worn a mask in public. he spent time indoors unmasked with people just this week. talk to us about the moment that we find ourselves in. i don't think shakespeare could have written this. david: no, stephen king maybe would be a better author for this scenario. marty: it can be a very difficult and troublesome time for the american democracy, because as i said earlier, believing the information that is coming from the white house is going to be very difficult for a large number of people. happens, when faith in the government is undermined, it really can have very long-lasting effects and short-term effects on the functioning of government. who is really in charge is the question. even in the best of times, this white house was chaotic.
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from all reports we are here, they are just stunned, the people in the white house, at what is going on. its effect on the campaign right now is very hard to tell. it could actually benefit donald trump, ironically, in the long run. looking at a are picture of walter reed medical center. the president has not left the white house yet but will be en route shortly. there's a pool of reporters waiting on the president to arrive in the next minutes or hours. they are going to be very thatcal for a white house has been unscripted and unpredictable. how do you expect the next minutes and hours to unfold based on what we know about this white house and how they have navigated crises in the past? itty: i do think -- i take
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face value the notion that they are taking just precautionary in transferring him to walter reed. it does make sense. when i hear about this, i hear about what happened with boris johnson in england of the british government. he contracted coronavirus and was placed in the hospital for observation as a precaution because of anything good turn for the worse, they would be able to deal with it. in fact in his case, it turned almost deadly in the matter of days. i believe he was on a ventilator. rushing anyone in that kind of situation to a hospital when things are dire are not ideal. i do think this is a precaution, but the next days, the next couple of days are going to be critical for the white house to put out clear and believable information on his condition. it will be interesting to see
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who they put out to provide that information. david: we are looking at a live shot of marine one, the helicopter the president uses, waiting to take them to walter reed medical hospital. there appears to be some delay. we will continue following that. this president is a master of the narrative. he likes to control the narrative, dryvit where he wants. is there some irony that he seems to have lost the narrative when it comes to the significance of covid-19? he said it would go away. now it has overtaken him and his presidency for the moment. marty: it is completely ironic. i'm sure we and others are going to point out he has downplayed this virus and now a fair number of world leaders that this has happened to. i think everyone wants clear information that is believable on the condition of the president. we will see in the next 24, 48
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hours whether we will get that. david: thank you so much. you are the man we always turn to, marty schenker. emily, it is a pretty extraordinary day, as you said at the top. emily: absolutely. we are getting new headlines from the white house. there will be no transfer of power with the president at the hospital. again, huge question about how they navigate the next few hours, next you days. we've also got a headline from president obama who had been in an event with senator kamala harris, a fundraising event, giving his best wishes to the president. so many questions. i know you will continue to cover this for the next hour. you have a long night ahead of you. david: it is going to be a special wall street week with breaking news as we have to continue to cover this story. this has turned into an even more extraordinary election then we thought it would be. there is so much to cover. just last tuesday, we had that extraordinary debate, even
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chaotic. emily: absolutely. we will see what happens on tuesday with the scheduled vice presidential debate between senator harris and vice president mike pence. it will be one to watch. david, thank you for staying with us. best of luck as you continue to cover this. this is bloomberg. ♪ [ sigh ] not gonna happen.
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yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. ask about saving up to $1,500 on your installation. virtual appointments now available. david: this is a bloomberg special report. i'm david westin. we are reporting on the situation with respect to president trump and the first lady. particularly president trump who after midnight tweeted out he contracted covid-19, as had his wife. as the day has progressed, the story has progressed as well. we heard from mark meadows this morning, saying just mild symptoms. he was working and everything is fine. we heard late this afternoon from his physician that he had been treated with an experimental cocktail, regeneron, as part of a special treatment. now word is he's about to go to walter reed medical cent p

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