a president usually so telling. thanks so all of you for joining us. our breaking news coverage continues with "ac 360." good evening. we begin with a picture of the most serious presidential health crisis since the attempt on ronald reagan's life four decades ago. president trump being choppered to walter reed medical center in maryland. a stunning sightseeing that helicopter land and wait for the president. he's being treated for covid which as of tonight killed 209,000 americans including so many in the president's age group. both he and the first lady are infected, both showing symptoms. the president tweeted out a video made shortly before leaving the white house. >> i want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. i'm going to walter reed hospital. i think i'm doing very well. but we're going to make sure that things work out. the first lady is doing very

well. so thank you very much. i appreciate it. i will never forget it. thank you. >> shortly before air time, we learned three journalists that work at the white house have also tested positive according to the white house core spon dan -- corresponde correspondent's association. hope hicks tested positive showing symptoms wednesday night. mike lee is infected and the president of notre dame university. they both attended a white house ceremony last saturday announcing the supreme court nomination of amy coney barrett. at the event, as you can see here, there was no social distancing, very few masks being worn. because that was followed by a stream of campaign trips and the debate on tuesday, the list of people the president and first lady were in contact with is daunting. frankly, so, too, is the number of people largely kept in the dark including the president's own task force according to cnn chief medical consprrespondent sanjay gupta.

the last 24 hours makes it lard to report on what is actually going on. with that in mind, we don't want to get ahead of the facts we know without losing sight of the implications of this moment. we'll be joined by the best medical experts around and some of the best thinkers about politics and history including david garrigan that saw the regan shooting and aftermath. jim acosta starts it off with the president receiving initial treatment with an experimental antibody cocktail earlier today. jim, you were there when the president walked out of the white house and bored boarded marine one. >> i talked to a trump campaign advisor a short while ago that said this is serious. that the president has been having some trouble breathing, that he's been very fatigued today, very tired. and, you know, emphasized that this is not just a run of the mill trip up to walter reed, that this is a serious situation. talked to another source familiar with this situation this evening who said that there

are serious concerns among white house staffers about the president's condition. now we should add to that that white house officials continue to maintain that the president is just experiencing mild symptoms from the coronavirus, has a fever. they expect him to pull through just fine. to have the president of the united states transported via marine one to walter reed where he's going to be staying for the next few days, according to white house officials and working out of the white house, according to those white house officials, that under caindicat is perhaps more than a mild case of the coronavirus. and, you know, the trump advisor i spoke to this evening emphasized that, that this is a serious situation for the president at this point, anderson. >> jim, it seems like with the public statements coming out of the white house are just pretty much meaningless. i mean, we're told just a few hours before the president actually left to go to the hospital in a helicopter, was airlifted to a hospital, that the president would be conva

lessing for the entirety of the white house and they could cover his needs there. now they say he'll be at walter reed for a couple nights. they have no idea. i mean, that is not a factual statement. >> i think there is wishful thinking going on over here, anderson. i talked to several white house officials this evening who said that the president's symptoms are more serious. more concerning than those of the first lady at this point and that's part of the reason why he had to go to walter reed. so we don't want to, you know, over state the situation, but to some extent, anderson, what we've been hearing from the white house all day long and white house officials all day long is sort of nothing to see here, please disburse. when in fact, it sounds as though talking to our sources that the president's conditions have worsened throughout the day and that this has caused some alarm inside the west wing, that they were concerned enough that this decision was made to get

the president up to walter reed. and i think if he's going to be up there for a few days, you know, we'll have to go back and have folks on talking about this from a historical standpoint. when is the last time we had a president of the united states at walter reed for that kind of period of time? that indicates to me that this is serious. this is very, very serious. >> just the timeline on this is so important and there is a lot we don't know, which, again, goes to the lack of transparency. in terms of timeline from what we know hope hicks started to show symptoms wednesday night on board air force one with the president. she tested positive. do we know if she had a test -- it's strange to me she would feel symptoms wednesday night, isolate herself on air force one and not get a test wednesday night but from the public reporting that we have or that cnn has had, it's that she found out thursday or at least people in the white house learned thursday that she had tested positive. despite that, the president went

to a fundraiser in new jersey some staff members were pulled off that trip so the white house knew about hope hicks. the president knew about hope hicks. he met with supporters inside. didn't wear a mask. and we found out early morning the president and first lady have covid. do we know when the president was tested? shouldn't it have been when hope hicks was diagnosed? >> reporter: this is as precise as they'll get about that timeline. they said it was yesterday when he was tested. in terms of hope hicks, you know, white house officials we talked to the chief of staff mark meadows today would not be more specific when it comes to a timeline and you get the sense, anderson, they are guarding some of these details out of some concern that perhaps they didn't handle this very well. keep in mind, a lot of this may date back to last saturday when the president announced his pick for the supreme court amy coney barrett where as you mentioned, it appears perhaps that senator mike lee contracted the

coronavirus then as we now know the president of notre dame who was also at that event tested positive for the coronavirus and some of these members of the press anderson who have come up with positive results, they too were working last saturday and perhaps this was spreading around last saturday 1and peopl were getting infected after that. there were members of the president's team going up to bedminster potentially carrying this virus. >> it's possible then that the president was infected during the debate? or had been -- was infected by the time of the debate. >> that is possible. if you look at the way things have progressed over the last 24 hours, it appears his symptoms have gotten worse, and that is consistent with what we hear in terms of the symptoms from the coronavirus. that this progressively gets worse over time. it starts off perhaps a bit mild but then gets worse after that

and that appears to be how the president is dealing with this. >> thanks very much. i want to go to jeremy diamond outside walter reed. i know you were there when marine one landed. what do you know about the treatment he's getting inside? >> reporter: well, anderson, we don't know a lot about what exactly the president is undergoing. earlier in the day the president received this experimental drug treatment a promising but experimental treatment from regeneron that's an anti body cocktail and several other medications, viet htamins, as w. we don't know exactly what the president is going to undergo during the next few days he's expected to remain here at walter reed. what we do know is something must have changed. something quite significant must have changed in the nearly 18 hours between when the president's physician dr. sean conley released that first memo around 1:00 in the morning early, early this morning saying that the president and the first lady expected to remain at the

white house as they recovered from this virus and then when the president arrived around 6:30 this evening here at walter reed national military medical center to remain not just for a battery of tests for hours but to remain and be admitted as a patient and remain here for several days. obviously, something must have changed especially when you take into account this is the optics president that doesn't like to look weak and project that kind of thing. it must have taken something quite a change in his condition for the president to agree to be taken here even as some white house officials are insisting this is merely a precautionary measure. >> jeremy diamond. thank you. perspective from dr. sanjay gupta and infectious disease specialist dr. selene gounder on the air with us last night when this began to break. the white house says the president was taken out of an abun dendance of caution. given what we know about his

medical condition and frankly, there is a lot as we point out we do not know because the white house is not allowing the doctors to be speaking and be interviewed by reporters, how concerning is this in terms of the president's health? >> well, i think it can be a component of both, an abundance after caution but a heightened level of concern. i've been reporting on this since 1:00 in the morning hearing the various statements from the white house, talking to sources at first it was that he's doing well and then it was minor symptoms and then it was the fever and then you heard it was more moderate symptoms. this experimental therapy that he got. these are all sort of signals. this is having covered this story for so many months now, this is the way we get this type of information in these little bread crumbs and you have to read between the lines but it became clear there was increasing level of concern among the medical team. i also, you know was talking to

another person who is very close at the white house to the coronavirus task force and they said you know there was this thinking that if they move the president to the hospital because they have better access to medical care, various specialists, if that was going to happen, it should happen now as we can walk out, walk to the helicopter if he does become sicker and needs a rapid medivac situation, that would be a lot more jarring. anderson, i'm concerned. i mean, what happened today is concerning. you know, there was a rapid deterioration of some sort and prompted a visit by the president via helicopter to the hospital. he's going to be there for awhile. so hopefully, we get more details from some of these doctors at some point. >> sanjay, the president pushed hydroxychloroquine for people early on in this pandemic saying why wouldn't you try it? he said he tried it. we don't know if that's actually the case. clearly, it doesn't seem like he's doing that now. he's doing another experimental treatment. what do we know about that?

>> yeah, so this is a very early data treatment. monoclonal antibodieantibodies. you can give the antibodies and that's what this treatment is. you give the antibodies that helps the body fight the infection using those antibodies. you get the highest dose of this, again, very experimentaex only 275 patients in one of the trials that we saw have actually gone through this. so we don't know much more about it. it's a promising therapy but it really doesn't have any data behind it. so what i took that as in part talking to people who are some of the sources there, this was another indication of their level of concern. i was surprised that they decided to do this without having members, infectious disease doctors, members of the

task force even weighing in on this. they are in the dark as you mentioned about this. but i think it really speaks to the level of concern. let's try something and see if we can keep the president at the white house. i don't know if it had any impact at all or if you'd see that impact yet but i think it speaks again to the level of concern. >> doctor, is there anything we can tell? the president had symptoms apparently all day, a fever throughout the day to the reporting. is there any way to be able to tell at this stage when he may have actually contracted the viru virus? >> anderson, our best guess of the exposure and testing is probably sometime between saturday and tuesday but i think to me, one thing that i've learned over the last 24 hours that's been really concerning is that the early testing at the white house may not truly be daily testing of everybody and

so. >> i agree with you. i was stunned to over the last 24 hours to understand how porous this alleged safety system that the white house put in place is. i mean, you know, they talk abdomen email security and physical security. there is no covid security at the white house. >> well, that's right so that actually makes it harder to pinpoint the window he might have been infected. if we knew he had a negative test in the morning and positive test the following morning, he was probably incubating the virus prior to that and has a scaleup of the virus levels over the course of the day and turns positive and then you can sort of count back when hi might have been infected based on that. because of how porous the white house situation appears to have been that does throw a wrench into things in terms of contact tracing and figuring out when transmission may have started in the white house.

>> sanjay, what is extraordinary is chris wallace said that everybody was told that they had gotten tested, both candidates were tested before the debate. chris wallace said the president got there too late to actually be tested and so it was just sort of the honor system he said that he was negative or the campaign said he was negative and therefore the debate went ahead. that's stunning to me. >> yeah, i mean, you know, as she said, there was a, the surprising how porous this was in the situation like that indoors, obviously prolonged contact. people -- he was far enough away from vice president biden but still, an indoor setting. we know this virus can potential potentially aerosolize. we were hearing daily testing. i think obviously, the biggest concern is going forward for the

president and i think it will be important to sort of figure out when was his last negative test? he tested positive today and then has this sort of decline right away? step pick typically, if you look at the time course of things, you test positive, it's usually a few days after that you develop more significant symptoms. >> dr. gupta and dr. gounder, i want to bring in david garrigan and abby phillip and former trump communications director anthony scaramucci. this is certainly the most serious health threat to a sitting president since regan was shot in 1981. what do you make of the fact the president is at walter reed. what do you want to know that you do not know at this point? >> well, the regan white house experience certainly did teach me a lot of things, anderson. actually, i was designated as a briefer on the afternoon he was shot to tell people where he was

and what happened. i learned how important it is for the government to be straightforward in a democracy to tell people the truth. it will help people understand the full story. otherwise, what you find is that people start making up stories and then they get and make up the most negative stories they can. then you find that enemies overseas look for ways to take advantage. we got our eye on the wrong ball at the time. so it goes in, if you provide people with truth, then americans, you know, they can cheer you on and bring us together and if you got hard truths, it's better to let people know and not speculate. i think that the people in the press who have been arguing this afternoon, this white house ought to open up. we need a set of doctors, not the chief of staff, not some communications person, not some political person, we need real physicians to come and tell the country what is going on.

they don't have to have everything, every little detail but they have to have the basic truths. >> abby, i mean, not just about the president's condition, which we don't really know anything about specifically, we don't know -- the president said on "hannity" on thursday night which would have been the 9:00 hour that he and the first lady were waiting for the results of tests they had had that evening. if that is true, that they weren't tested until thursday night and that they were waiting for test results at 9:00 p.m. at night, that's extraordinary because hope hicks and other people in the white house and assuming the president knew at least thursday morning that hope hicks was positive. the idea that the president of the united states would have gone the entire daday, seeing other people f flying, places

without a mats k sk, that's incredible. >> it's a combination not knowing if that is true and if it is true, it would really smack a lot of irresponsibility not just for the president and his health but also for any of the people that he came into contact with. we already know according to the chief of staff that they knew that hope hicks was positive. according to the chief of staff taking off from marine one. at that point, they knew that someone who had had close contact with the president -- >> they pulled staff members off that trip. >> exactly. so to believe president trump's statements on "hannity" last night they were waiting for a test that had been administered late in the day would be extraordinary. why would they not test him immediately finding hope hicks was positive? all of this really just doubles down on a crisis of credibility that this white house is dealing with for years. they have been trying to talk about the president's health and incredibly routine matters whether it is the way that even

the white house physician dr. ronny jackson as john say would not be straightforward when the president's medical record said about his cardiovascular health. the problems are deep and a trip to walter reed he took under somewhat mysterious circumstances. there is a culture of transparency around the president's health and not a culture of truth around any issue which is why we're here. >> anthony, you know this better than anyone. you worked there. when there isn't trust and there isn't transparency or history of it, you can go along for awhile without that but when there is a crisis like this and a really serious issue and everyone is concerned about the president e's health, there is a transparency deficit and that's when it really hurts.

>> but it does come from the president. listen, i wish him a speedy recovery as i do the first lady and hope hicks but it comes from the president. he is the communications director in the white house. he is the one that everyone is waiting for anderson in terms of where to give the signal and what to say to the press and how to say it. he's setting the culture to the white house and he's telling people he doesn't like mask wearing and so guess what the people didn't wear masks but what about today? they are standing outside the white house, every person outside the white house as part of that staff had a mask on. this is a rude awakening. there is a lot of symbolism if you want to go back to the election and talk about the election because his narrative has been it's a hoax and will go away. it's not that big of a deal. he was beraiding the vice president about mask wearing and gathering crowds and if the vice president could gather the same amount of crowds, he would do the same thing. that symbolically isn't true.

so what happened is the president's reality distortion field ent with reality and we have a sad situation. it a symbolism that will haunt him into the final days of the election. >> sanjay, the fact that the president, you know, he delivered a video message for the al smith dinner on thursday night saying that i wrote it down, that basically -- it was that, you know, the end is in sight on the pandemic. we turned a corner. it a phrase he's commonly used. the fact that the president delivered a video message was able to walk on to and off of marine one, that was meant as a signal to the country that he was okay. medically, that's also a good sign, the fact he at least was able to walk on his own? >> yeah, i think so. i was a very -- yes, he is

walking on his own wearing a mask, which is obviously critical because he does have the virus in his system. he -- it was a short little talk that he gave before. you know, it is just very hard to read too much into that. i -- >> sanjay, hey -- i'm sorry. i just want to give you an update. we just learned senator tom 'ho tillis tested positive. mike lee was there. a number of others who tested positive. we certainly wish him well. so sanjay, another one. >> you're getting a sense that event, even though it was outside may have been a significant spreading event. we don't know. contact tracing is challenging to do. we have talked about this. we have 40,000 people a day roughly being infected. it's a lot of contact tracing.

here, there is of usually the contact tracing is underway and starting to look more and more like that may have been a significant source of spread. so we'll get more data coming. there is loats of people that my not test positive if at all for up to two weeks. >> sanjay. >> you go through a couple days and think -- >> if it is that saturday event, then can one -- if in fact that is the case, that was an event where a number of people got positive and it spread among a number of people, if the president picked it up then, by the time the debate, would he have -- i mean, how long does it take to start to be able to detect the virus after you've come in contact with it and start to spread it? >> yeah, i mean, i don't know if we have this timeline. we put this together earlier. the answer, obviously, it's variable person to person.

typically four to five days you get the exposure, typically, you know, four to five days before you would actually test positive as you know, it can be as long as a couple weeks but on average, that time frame. the thing to also keep in mind, anderson, if someone has symptoms, the question is when are they most contagious and what they have found is people who have symptoms, it's usually just before they develop symptoms. so for example, you develop symptoms today for the president or yesterday i guess i'm confused on the days, whatever day then it would be the two to three days before that where he was likely most contagious, most likely spreading it. same thing with hope hicks. couple three days backwards from that would be when they were the most contagious. >> wow. i mean, it just extraordinary again and the fact that chris wallace said they actually didn't get a test before the debate at the debate hall. we don't know when the president's last actual test was prior to the testing positive. we're going to pick this up

after a short break and hear more from everyone. joining us, as well, what one reporter saw up close at the white house today as staffers at that small self-contained community struggled to cope with what was happening and tom freedman on how he thinks this will affect a divided country. 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi.

the president being treated for covid. this is serious and the

president was having trouble breathing throughout the day. in the last few minutes, we learned that senator thom tillis has tested positive after attending that rose garden event on saturday, mikes him and mike lee, the president and first lady, the president of notre dame all at the event. tillis said he tested negative saturday, unclear if it was saturday morning. as we dismissed, there doesn't seem to be the level of covid security at the white house we expect. we'll get back to the group in a second. first, we want to talk to peter nickelous, a staff writer at the white house today. i read the article. i was up on the air from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and read your article about going in the atlantic this summer in august about how -- you said the quote vibe was shockingly lax. it really stunned me. you went back there today. describe what you saw. >> i went back there today and i didn't see much of improvement,

frankly, anderson. when i was there in august with no temperature checks done, nobody asked whether i had covid symptoms or my health. it was much the same today. this is hours after the president tested positive for the virus and again, there was no digital thermometer placed on my forehead. nobody asked if i was coughing or if i had fever. this is different actually than it was in may. may when i was at the white house, those checks were done. those precautions were asked. it seems like things are moving in the wrong direction and getting more lax and not more strict even though the number of cases are going up and the president as we've learned sadly was under great risk. >> it's harder to get into an equinox now it sounds like than it is to get into the white house. they take your temperature at least and, you know, have you answer questions. >> the white house is the most secure building, one of the most secure buildings on the

planetment planetmeplanet. it's a fortress. they check diligently for weapons and it's a pandemic and they aren't doing this question and searches necessary to determine whether you're sick or you're well. for that matter, i was in some of the areas of the white house, the west wing that are accessible to the press. i had a mask on but there was no mask place there. i could have taken my mask off. i could have had a coughing spasm and there was nobody there to stop that from happening. what i'm saying is the president needs to be protected and, you know, he has a secret service to protect him but they're looking at the physical threats that come from weapons, not biological threats and pathogens that are equally as grave. >> it comes from the top. the president, you know, attacked hillary clinton for her lack of email security or carelessness with personal email

systems. i mean, covid security can, you know, devastate -- i mean, it can kill people. it's just as much a part of security as other aspects in the white house. >> well, i think you make a good point and the point is, it does come from the top. the president obviously has issues with masks. masks are a visual reminder the pandemic has not gone well. we have to wear masks. he doesn't like to see them or wear them. he mocked joe biden for wearing a mask and he's seldom wore one in public and that sent a signal and message to people lower down the white house chain and they won't wear masks in his presence if they don't have to and that's concern for spreading a dangerous virus. >> thank you for your reporting. back with david garrigan, sanjay gupta, anthony. i'm just stunned.

again, i've learned just over the last 24 hours, i just assumed naively that they would be on top of this at the white house but i mean, it seems like from getting in the gate to the office culture inside it just -- it's completely unsecure. >> okay. but look at how the republican congress acts or the republican senate acts around the president. so he has this amazing control over these people. it's like literally being the pully at t l bully at the middle school lunch table. everyone wants to sit with the bully and they are giving you rules against yourself interest but you abide to them anyway. that's basically what happened. you're going to come to a situation where the west wing and members of congress are going to have more covid-19 than the entire country of new zealand due to this laxity. so it's sad for me because a lot of these people are my friends. hope is my friend. i wish her well. i want her to get better.

it's also sad for the country because we put the country now in this dilemma where we politicized the science, the masks, the health and well being of the people in the country and so i'm hoping that this will be a wakeup call for the president and his staff and they will start to speak the way anthony fauci speaks about it or the way dr. gupta speaks about the virus in terms of the seriousness of it. >> abby phillip, there is no indication, though, that i mean, mark meadows was talking to reporters without a mask today. i mean, i saw it on television. it seems like a lot of them are walking around without masks, even today. >> at least earlier in the day it certainly seemed many white house officials, there were at least three we saw with photograph evidence standing outside talking to reporters doing various things with no mask on and meadows suggested he didn't have to wear a mask because he had been tested and it was negative and they were

standing outside more than six feet apart but, you know, part of it is the symbolism and knowing if you test negative in one moment, it doesn't necessarily mean you are negative forever. i think that this is the problem. we saw when the president took off from marine one later this afternoon the extraordinary sight of all of these white house officials. i can't tell you that i have seen that many white house officials inside or outside wears masks publicly individual by individual. it seems that something has changed there. they are recognizing the seriousness of it. does this carry forward? i have a lot of questions about the people at the debate, who were around hope hicks and who are going out and about their lives carrying on their lives without quarantining. what are they going to do? don junior, the president's son. he has campaign events scheduled early next week. shouldn't these people be quarantining themselves? how is the campaign and this white house acting from this moment forward will tell us how

seriously they are taking this because it's not just wearing a mask, you have to social distance and quarantine yourself from other people if there is a chance you could have been exposed to the virus. >> i mean, the fact, the idea that the president of the united states could have been covid positive at that debate standing on the stage with vice president biden with his family members refusing to wear masks is just extraordinary. there is new reporting trump's condition is not deteriorating and there is no reason for the public to be alarmed. it would mean a heck of a lot more if an actual doctor stood before cameras and took questio questions and explained what is going on. some anonymous official, you know, putting ocho uput a countk everything is fine, he's not

deteriorating. when you -- yeah, i don't know what to ask. >> to me, that's not meaningful information at all. i'd like to have a name and face behind the information. i'd like to see perhaps something in writing, some lab reports and x-rays, that sort of information and i would really like to know his oxygen s saturation before leaving to the hospital and what was the reason for him going to walter reed? i would make educated guesses why patients are hospitalized. usually they have a low oxygen saturation level. with somebody like the president, maybe you hospitalize before that out of caution but based on what we know about his personality, he's not somebody who would want to show precautionous measures that would imply he truly needs to be in the hospital. we need more objective data to

better understand the situation. >> i got to get a break in. next up tom freedman on how president trump's diagnosis and hospitalization might impact this divided nation. ♪ ♪ "hmm's and ahh's" heard in-call. ♪ "hmm's and ahh's" we'll look back and remember the moment that things, for one strange time in our lives, got very quiet. some lost work and invented new ways to get by.

others were busier than ever, and found strength they never knew they had. we sheltered with the people who matter most, sometimes finding how far apart we'd drifted. we worried over loved ones, over money, over our planet. and over take-out. and we found a voice one the noise out there had kept quiet. when the world starts spinning again, let's remember this time where none of us felt secure, and fight for a future where everyone can. because when the world seems like it's standing still... that's the perfect time for us to change it.

there is more breaking news. white house officials saying the president's condition has not deter ratd det detd deter rated. thom tillis, tom freed man was on the program last week before today's dramatic developments,

he said he thought the country was on the verge of a six-alarm fire because the threat of possible violence spurred by his rhetoric and refusal to have a peacef peaceful transition or accepting a peaceful transition. he's the author of the book "thank you for being late" and he joins me now. so tom, since we talked, that seems like a year ago. what do you make of what is going on? >> yeah, you know, what did lennon say? sometimes you go a whole decade and nothing happens and sometimes a decade happens in a week. what we've been through. you know, anderson, i want to begin like everyone else. i really hope the president and his wife recover and all these people who have caught it recover and become safe and healthy again. not only for their sake but for the sake of the country. we cannot afford more instability and disorder right

now around the presidency. but what i also wish as i wish for them wisdom not just health. i wish that they will sit back and reflect on what they have been doing. you know, there is a cliff out there, anderson, and it was labeled coronavirus. and the president was actually speeding towards that cliff. there was a fog but we knew the cliff was out there a bit and he was speeding for it and giving other people permission to speed toward that cliff and mocking people like joe biden who weren't taking precautions against going over that cliff. so what happened today president was it an act of bad luck, anderson? it was a product of recklessness on his part and on the part of mark meadows, his chief of staff and so many other people and so most of all, i so hope is when he gets better, he comes out and reflects on what he did the way john jenkins the president of

notre dame did. they circulated a petition calling for the president's removal because he attended the meeting with judge barrett last saturday without a mask while he's telling notre dame students they can't go anywhere on campus without a mask. and, you know, that is such an advocation of leadership. we're at a time, anderson, where people are so vulnerable. they're so vulnerable. so we're at a time where in the middle of a pandemic that is very confusing. people really look to leaders now more than ever. they look to teachers and to doctors and to politicians. and leadership matters so much. you know, my friend i wrote a column with about leadership and really thinking about tonight, he said when this is over, what do we look back on and feel provided great leadership and the leaders that put more trust into the world than they eroded at during this crisis and more truth into the world than they

muddied during this crisis. that's the failing here. this -- the president is in the hospital now. and again, we need to pray he gets well for his sake, the family and country but we cannot shirk from the fact he's in the hospital now because of a real failure of leadership in the middle of this pandemic. >> i echo your sentiments on wanting him to recover quickly for the sake of all of us as well as for his family and first lady, as well and all the others. but today i couldn't help but think about all the other 205,000 plus people who in this country who have now died who faced what the president is facing right now and, you know, heard the president say, you know, hydroxychloroquine, why not go for it? do you got to lose? why not lose that? the president is now in the position they were in.

he's apparently not using hydroxychloroquine. he has access to a very experimental, albeit allegedly promising thing and let's hope it is as promising as they think it may be. but there is a lot of other people who while they were going through this moment, which is a somber and serious life and death moment, he was exhorting them to try things that there was no evidence that they worked. >> well, you know, i want to go back to the point to pick up on what you said i so hope he would come out of this. and reflect and say you know what? i just had gold plated medical treatment at walter reed. you know, i mean, thank god he's getting it and any president should get it. while i was getting that, my administration is in the supreme court trying to eliminate obamacare for millions of americans who will not have --

all they have is maybe this kind of bronze plated treatment and maybe facing these kind of crisis. i hope he'll reflect on that. i hope he'll reflect on the fact that he pitted masks against jobs. he pitted masks against school. he pitted masks against football. and it was never masks or jobs, masks or school, it was masks for jobs, masks for school by wearing a mask, you could actually do these things because it's been proving all over the world. i was looking up statistics before i came on. in the last two weeks, there have been 14 cases of coronavirus tested in taijuan. probably 14 people in the white house today that have it. that's because taijuan has this mask policy. you know, it's -- we don't wear masks, anderson, just to protect ourselves. we wear masks to protect our neighbors. we wear masks to protect our co-workers. we wear masks to protect the

secret service. we wear masks to protect the police. we wear masks to protect our fellow americans. we don't just wear them for ourselves. you look at the picture and i promise you, anderson, it will be an iconic picture of the entire trump clan at that debate sitting around unmasked when possibly their father was actually carrying the coronavirus. it is such a profound act. not just of recklessness but such disrespect to their fellow americans. i pray he gets well because nothing could heal the country more than if president trump comes out of this and says i want to reflect like the president of notre dame reflected. i want to say i'm sorry. i was on the wrong track. i was not leading the right way, and i'm going to try to win this election now, not by dividing us but by uniting us, not on fake news but on science.

>> yeah. tom freedman, appreciate it. i want to drill down on the breaking news two senators tested positive for covid. mike lee and thom tillis. how will this affect confirmation hearings for amy lee barrett. phil, what are you learning? >> it's a very fluid situation. the health of the senators say they are not feeling symptoms but feel well and both moved into quarantine. the committee has planned to hold the first of four days of hearing october 12th given the fact it october 2nd. at least one of the senators possibly both would not be back or out of their quarantine by that time. the question becomes on a committee where the split is 12 republicans and ten democrats what actually happens next. the senate judiciary chairman lindsey graham said today one he tested negative for coronavirus but that he planned to move forward with the hearing the.

this was before thom tillis the north carolina senator who just announced he was positive came out and said that but graham said he planned to move forward and there is a possibility of virtual hearings. there is a question how the nomination's process works whether or not that is possible. democrats say it isn't and shouldn't and because of what is going on now, the full scope of the outbreak on capitol hill, whether or not democrats are pushing to have things delayed until everything is under stood. i'll tell you new york city anderson, mitch mcconnell made clear full steam ahead on the confirmation >> the video we were showing earlier is mike lee at that event saturday, hugging people. well, hugging multiple people. tested positive. phil mattingly, thanks very much. coming up, i will talk with a presidential historian, who shares his thoughts on where the

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the president and first lady a speedy recovery. tim neftali. and steve, who's written a fascinating article in the "new yorker." steve, i read the article today, and i just thought it was just so -- i mean, i had no idea, you know, about -- about wilson. we heard a bit from david gergen earlier on the parallels to president reagan. let's talk about woodrow wilson. he contracted the so-called spanish flu. you wrote he became ill at a decisive moment, making the virus an insidious actor. it was in the midst of negotiation with british leader -- the leader of france about what the postwar europe would look like. >> yeah. he was in paris, in 1919, in the aftermath of the first world war. negotiating the outcome of the

war. the terms that would be imposed upon defeated germany. but also, the future of the empires of france and britain and germany. and the aspiration of many nations, at that time, to become independent. and so, it was quite a fraught negotiation. it went on for months and in the middle of it, in april, wilson became ill. the best evidence, now, is that he contracted the virus that was often called the spanish flu. and that, it really affected his ability to negotiate and actually the outcome of the negotiations. essentially, wilson became very incapacitated and he capitulated on a lot of terms that he had previously been insisting upon. and as a result, quite harsh terms were imposed upon germany. >> which they came -- which, then, ultimately led to the rise of hitler. and to, obviously, then, world

war ii. it's fascinating how you pinpoint, sort of, the -- the consequence of this illness. and, tim, when you look, also, at the parallels with wilson. wilson, in steve's article, it tal talks about you -- he basically -- his sole focus was world war i. he really refused and punished people who discussed or focused on the influenza outbreak, which was, you know, decimating, you know, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the united states. >> indeed, anderson. when we talk about leadership or the lack of leadership, in the 191 1918-1919 pandemic, we rarely talk about president wilson. he seems to have bceen awol. there was no effort at presidential leadership. in part, as steve mentioned, is because the president was quite sick in the spring and as of october, 1919, he'd be

completely incapacitated. so -- but even between the spring and the fall of 1919, wilson is so focused on getting the united states to enter the league of nations. to get the senate to support the treaty. that he's not focused on the huge, domestic crisis, that is the of transparency, obviously, you know, it's been an issue in this white house, really, from day one, obviously. and also, the lack of truth, often. in a time like this, it seems particularly important. >> well, i'm glad you mentioned the word transparency because i was thinking about how in wilson's time, nobody knew, at the time, it was some medical uncertainty what he was suffering from. but he managed to keep his incapacity after he suffered a stroke, largely out of the public eye. and of course, you know, tim can provide example, after example, in the 20th century before the television and, never mind the

radical era of social media that we're in, now. of presidents who are able to disguise or downplay their illnesses while they were in office, sometimes for extended periods. what's so fascinating now, is you have a president who, on the one hand, is not at all transparent. you know, repeatedly misleads the public about important aspects of the pandemic we've all been suffering through. and at the same time, he, himself, is such a -- an active participant in social media that, when he went off social media for a few hours today, everyone thought that was quite significant. so, you know, here we are talking about his illness within less than 24 hours it became apparent to him, at least. and that's so different than it was a century ago, when there was a much clubbier, protective environment, including presidents who were stricken in various ways. >> tim, many white houses in recent history have tried to

hide or play down any illnesses or malaties. >> we had a baseline of truth, with regard to previous, modern chiefs -- chief executives. i mean, after all, we never knew the full story of john f. kennedy's chronic illnesses while he was president. but after kennedy, the level of -- of -- of truth, as opposed to misinformation, from presidential doctors has increased, with time. the problem here is that this is -- this is a fraught moment and a fraught moment like this is a moment when transparency is vital it's not just vital for domestic reasons. it's vital for the markets and it's vital for the way in which the world interacts with us. since there is no baseline about the truth of the president's

health before there period, it's harder for people to believe what they're learning now. so it's a time for this white house to really, really share information. >> tim neftali, steve, appreciate it. sorry, got to run. programming note for tomorrow. i will be anchoring a special saturday edition from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. the news continues right now with chris and "cuomo prime time." chris. >> all right. anderson, thank you very much. i will be seeing you tomorrow night. tonight, i'm on right now. welcome to prime time. i'm chris cuomo. will also be on midnight to 2:00 a.m. and on saturday night, from 10:00 until midnight. obviously, all hands on deck, as we try to get our hands around what's happening with the president, what it means for him, what it means for our government because it seems a lot of people getting sick and we are trying to figure out where and why and how that can be hemmed in. so the big headline is president trump, hospitalized for covid-19. we saw the president walking on his own two feet to marine one