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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  October 5, 2020 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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who said the need there has doubled since the pandemic has started. good news about people doing great things in this chaotic world. >> welcome help. >> yes. we're glad you were with us this morning. we'll see you tomorrow i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm jim sciutto. "newsroom" with john king starts now. president trump tweeting up a trump this morning, agitating to leave the hospital and get back to the white house. his chief of staff says things look like they're on track for today. >> obviously he continued to improve overnight and his health continues to improve. the doctors will actually have an evaluation sometime late morning and then the president, in consultation with the doctors, will make a decision on whether to discharge him later today. >> we could hear from the president's doctors any time
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now. doctors familiar with covid-19 say that would seem an early release for an 74-year-old patient we know is getting two experimental treatments, at least twice has needed oxygen to help him breathe and is generally taking a steroid reserved for covid cases. but the president saying he needs to get back to work and the campaign. he tweeted a video saying being infected is like going to covid school. maybe, but the president is again learning the wrong lessons. he insisted the secret service take him for this joyride sunday. secret service agents locked inside a sealed suv with a covid patient. dr. anthony fauci tells cnn today he's not involved in the president's treatment but his doctors are excellent. the president's sunday drive was four or five days into his symptoms. way too soon. >> when is it safe for the
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person to go out from the time they get symptoms is probably 10 days from the onset of symptoms. you usually have no virus and in the studies done, those people are generally not at all inif he cannive to other people. >> we all know the president's coronavirus rule breaking is constant. new jersey's governor among those furious the president held a fund-raiser after being told a top aide tested positive and he had been exposed. >> this borders on reckless in terms of exposing people not just in new jersey, but it looks like for folks around the country who have now scattered, by the way. the folks at the top, beginning with the president, have to set an example. >> the president, though, knows he is losing the election right now. he knows joe biden is out campaigning while he was hospitalized with the virus he told us would disappear six months ago. stock markets high, vote, the
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president's tweets. law and order, vote. you see them so on. here's the tough reality 29 days to election day. the national coronavirus case count is headed up. 22 states headed in the wrong direction. that means more new infections now compared to last week. the count is usually down on sundays, 35,000 cases yesterday more than 300 americans dying from covid-19. the president is proof anyone can get coronavirus but he and his team are also proof, stunning all at once proof that reckless behavior makes it more likely you'll get coronavirus. the list so far, the president, first lady, head of the trump campaign, head of the republican party, the president's personal assistant and three top confidants. two republican senators who attended the packed white house supreme court rollout. look at that list. word from melania trump today she will not be leaving the white house while covid positive
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because that would endanger others. is that shade at her husband for his sunday joyride? well, we report. you decide. lives in chaos are nothing new at the white house with the president. but with an outbreak in the west wing the confusion has more significance plus tension is running high because those working for the president say they get little information about what's happened and what's being done to make it safer. masks are now required in the national security council work area and aids are told it is okay to stay home if they are not feeling well. john we'll hear from the president's doctors any moment now it's possible he could be back to a white house tonight where there's a lot of tension. >> there's a lot of apprehension in that building behind me because of the lack of information that staff members have gotten. even though they, of course, have been people exposed to the virus. there's so much damage, wreckage
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around the president, close family members, close aides, political allies all having been infected. we got word in a tweet from melania trump she's feeling better, resting at the white house. and good news as mark meadows indicated for the president himself, he wants to get out of the hospital today. the president is trying to convert this into a political advantage, political argument in that campaign he is losing to joe biden, as you mentioned. with mark meadows telling fox news earlier today that now he understands better what the entire country has been going through. take a listen. >> this president, just like he just said, is really not only understanding what millions of americans have had to face as they've come in contact with this disease, but more
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importantly, the fact that we need to continue to work other p -- on therapeutics. his treatment has been remarkable. his strength is incredible. >> obviously therapeutics are important and the improved use of them has led to a decline in mortality over time. what the president has not learned, however, is how to model the kind of leadership that you need to take the country through this crisis. that information from the doctors, which by all accounts has been directed by the president's wishes himself, and that reckless ride in his armored limousine, exposing members of the secret service to additional risk. the president may have learned some lessons but not all of them that he needs to, john. >> you can make the argument he's learning the wrong lessons. grateful for the reporting from the white house. with us is the cnn medical analyst, and white house
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reporter. doctor, i want to start with you. the president went to the hospital friday evening so he's been there less than 72 hours and they're talking about releasing him. we all hope the president is well and can be released i want to get your sense of whether it seems quick. we know he's taking remdesivir, and a treatment antibodies he's on a steroid, dexamethasone, and several other medications there. some more routine medications. i know there's a lot we don't know, and i know his doctors have said things that are misleading. we know he's needed oxygen, at least twice. does that lead you to believe -- if that were me, if i was the covid patient, would my doctors tell me less than 72 hours in, you can go home. >> assuming we have the time line right, that he got six wednesday or thursday, you would want to wait between seven and ten days after symptom onset for two reasons. one as dr. fauci noted it's not until about 10 days out that somebody is no longer infectious
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to others, from a public health control perspective, you would want to keep him in the hospital until then. but secondly you have two phases of the virus infection. you have the initial week or ten days or so, and starting around seven to ten days is where you can have a dysfunctional, hyper inflammatory immune system response that can occur. so you really, especially in somebody like the president, who's older, male, who's obese, all of which are risk factors for this hyper inflammatory immune response you would want to keep them under observation in the hospital until then to make sure they don't have an acute decompensation, which occurs 7 to 10 days. >> they do have a mini clinic at the white house, the president does have access to some medical facility but nowhere near as sophisticated as walter reed. i'll come back to you in a second doctor. you heard mark meadows say the
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president is learning. the president said it last night in a twitter video he put out. >> it's been an interesting journey. i learned a lot about covid. i learned it by really going to school. this is the real school. this isn't the let's read the book school and i get it and understand it. >> the president thinks this helps him, he's standing there and looking better than the day before. but the school part. i find it rich for a guy that we know doesn't go to most coronavirus task force briefings, meetings, mocks his own doctors. >> he has not attended many of the covid task force briefings. his main dictations to aides has been to reopen the country as soon as possible and do whatever it takes to get the country reopened. the president is now saying that because of his own personal experience he's more qualified
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to lead on this virus, he can now take the message to the country. but critics noted last night, john, minutes after he said he learned about the virus and knew better about the procedures and how to handle it he got into a car with others, closed the windows, in close poroximity an went on a car ride to greet his supporters. there are other aides i've spoken to in the white house that said masks are encouraged but still not required. it's still a work place the former head of the domestic policy council told me it was the most dangerous and unsafe he had worked in, it was dangerous and unhealthy, people were getting sick all the time. you have close quarters in the west wing, people in small offices. people have this idea of a huge sprawling west wing it's not that. most people have limited space and they're all on top of each other. that's just how the west wing works. but that leads to dangerous
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conditions. what we see here, one person gets it and all of a sudden you have a major outbreak. >> right. and whatever people watching think of the president, whatever your politics at home, secret service agents, military aides, the president's staff, these are young people trying to do the right thing, serve their government and the president and they're in tight quarters. doctor, you gave us an example of a covid patient chart. the president of the united states his doctors are there now, we understand. they called the press pool to walter reed, the president we knows wants to be released. you gave us this chart. if the president were your patient with the symptoms he has, what would you go through to decide how severe of a case is this, what's my next course of treatment, can he go home less than 72 hours after checking into the hospital. >> the short answer to that, john, is the president has severe covid and i would not release him 72 hours into hospitalization. now in terms of the chart of vital signs and labs and other
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findings we look at. we look at the patient's fever curve, whether that fever was on medication, such as tylenol or steroids, which can decline a fever. we would be looking at his oxygen saturation, whether that's with supplemental oxygen or not. whether that's at rest or walking. we would be looking at labs like his white cell count, p inflammatory markers, clotting tests and finally his imaging, chest x-rays, ct scans. one thing that stuck out to me over the weekend is dr. conley's and dr. julie's comment about his liver and kidney function testing. dr. conley said they were normal. dr. julie said they remained normal or were improving. he included cardiac testing in that list. i am concerned the ultrasound he
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had was the heart and we have not gotten any reports as to what that workup was. >> that's part of the frustration. the president like any patient deserves some privacy but he's the president of the united states, 29 days to election, countries around the world, friend and foe, watching this. this is a question of the president needing oxygen, dr. conley's answer here. >> why were you so reluctant until today to disclose that the president had been administered oxygen? >> that's a good question. >> thank you. >> so i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, this course of illness has had. didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. >> we just lost josh so we'll continue that conversation
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another day. doctor before we go how important is that? just public transparency. if you don't want to say something, don't say it, but don't mislead? >> i agree with that. if he wants to say doctor-patient confidently that's one thing but it's unprofessional to mislead the question. just say you don't want to answer it if you don't want to. >> we'll see. we'll hear from the doctor's medical team later today. up next how cases on capitol hill could side track the confirmation plan for the president's supreme court nominee. ♪ honey lemon ahh woo vicks vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow.
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democrats say new coronavirus infections among
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senate republicans make it unwise and unsafe to stick to the gop's fast track confirmation plan. but senators ron johnson, thom tillis and mike lee are all covid-19 positive. tillis and lee are on the judiciary committee to hear the nomination of amy coney barrett. chuck schumer wants a continuation. >> if it's not safe for the senate to meet, it's not safe for the hearings to go forward. i asked that all senators get tested and all staff get tested and so far mitch mcconnell has not gone along with it and i think he's wrong. >> joining us is dick durbin, a member of the judiciary committee. grateful for your time today. let's start with the confirmation process. i want you to listen here. this is senator lindsey graham, the chairman of the judiciary committee in his debate over the
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weekend in south carolina saying full speed ahead. >> the one thing i want to people to know is that the virus is serious, but we have to move on as a nation. when a military member gets infected you don't shutdown the whole unit. we're going to have a hearing for amy barrett, the nominee for the supreme court. it will be done safely but i've got a job to do and i'm pressing on. >> r i know you think it should wait until after election but the republicans have to votes and you disagree. i know you think it's unwise with the infections but the republicans have the votes, senator and they disagree. >> if this were a baseball or football team, three of the players tested positive, any responsible caring manager would say enough. we're going to postpone the game until everyone is well. we're not going to endanger the health from anyone. that should be what we hear from mitch mcconnell, but not at all. this notion of everyone being tested is basic common sense
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when you're dealing with a deadly virus. i like lindsey graham, he's my friend, but come hell or high water covid-19 or no covid-19 finish this so the supreme court will have the new supreme court justice. >> republicans, i heard senator marshall blackburn making the case, hopefully the senators are recovered by the time we have to have a vote but we can have the hearings hybrid if necessary. what's wrong with that plan? >> they are cutting every corner. we have never, in the hurricane irma -- in the history of the united states considered a supreme court nominee after july 1st of an election year. they are moving this as quickly as possible. as little time as ever when it comes to reviewing the background of the nominee seeking the highest appointment to the land. now we're going to do it by
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remote? we may check in, check out. if you are not in the room with the nominee or in close proximity you lose a lot in terms of responding to her answers and coming up with the questions that really get to the truth. >> i heard the democratic leader there, chuck schumer, calling on leader mcconnell to have a better testing plan for the senate. democrats run the house and you have the same complaints there directed at the speaker, saying this is nuts. the president of the united states is hospitalized. the head of the republican party, the head of the trump campaign, three colleagues in the senate, three close councils to the president have tested positive for covid. at least at the white house they have the testing we can talk about the politics at another time. does there need to be a testing regiment and proposal for the members of the house and the staff, and does that need to be put in place yesterday? why are we still having this conversation? >> absolutely we need a testing protocol. i have been talking to them for
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months about this. it is a major undertaking. there's many people working in the capitol hill building in a scaled down staff system. many who want to return can't because we don't have a situation in place. we need to take this deadly virus seriously, even if the president does not. i wish him the best in his recovery, the first lady too. but to say nine months into this he's starting to realize how serious it is and then he hops in a car and exposes the men and women guarding his life to his own infection to go out and wave to the crowds, this president is not in touch with reality, congress should be and we should have regular testing done as well. >> the testing part seems nuts for major government institutions should have testing seven months in. senator grateful for your time today. i hope you get the testing and the safety. we'll deal with the court pick, the republicans say they're not going to change. coming up, coronavirus spiking in some neighborhoods in
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and switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. with the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction. call, click, or visit your local xfinity store today. the president says he's learning a lot about covid as he
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is hospitalized himself with the coronavirus. if the president is learning, looking at the data, he knows the country at the moment headed in the wrong direction. 23 states right now, 23 states headed in the wrong direction. that means more new infections now compared to a week ago. most in the northern half of the country where temperatures are getting colder. you see it, 23 states headed in the wrong direction. 23 holding steady, only five states reporting fewer new infections now compared to a week ago. the death trend also going up in the states. the count is lower but 23 states reporting more deaths this week compared to the data last week. we know this is a lagging indicator we need to keep an eye on it. 10 states holding steady in terms of the fatality, 17 trending down. often cases go down over the weekend, the reporting goes down over the weekend. saturday was a big number,
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50,000 cases. sunday 35,000 lower than 50 but still a high number. this is the summer peak we came down some, dipped below 40 now the seven day average of cases, trending back up, 40,000 new infections a day, that is a high number as it gets colder especially. the death trend has been coming down below 687 on saturday, 337 reported yesterday. we need to watch this, with the states reporting more cases, sadly most of the projections say the death counts will trend back up and trend back up soon. six states have set records for new cases, case high, new infections. again, smaller states not big populous states but it adds up over time as you get the new cases. on the positivity map some might see mississippi at 43%, they're reporting data differently so that's a high number, wisconsin
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23%, idaho 22. you want the positivity rate around 5% and shove it lower. these double digits in a lot of places across the northern part of the country a danger sign, including new york city this is low compared to many states but notice an uptick in the state of new york, especially in the city. just an up tick, above 1%. it has been a remarkable success story in recent weeks and months in new york state and city, but listen to dr. anthony fauci here, he looks at the trends, a slight uptick here and he says everybody needs to be careful. >> if if you look at the test positivity rate in certain areas in the midwest and northwest and now we're starting to see a bit of the up tick in new york. you have to pay attention to that and you've got to jump all over that, because if you don't do that, then what happens is you're going to see the surges that we've seen in different parts of the country where parts
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come down and part go up. we've got to stop that trend and get everything going down as a country all together, working together. >> want to go straight to the white house, live breaking news. another one of the president's aides testing positive for the coronavirus. john hardwood has the details. >> reporter: the west wing outbreak, which has had the president test positive, melania trump, the first lady, hope hicks close aide to the president testing positive and now the press secretary, kayleigh mcennay any. she tweeted out, i tested positive for covid-19 on monday, while experiencing no symptoms. more over i had no knowledge of hope hicks' diagnosis prior to holding a white house press briefing on thursday. as an essential worker i worked diligently to provide needed
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information to the american people at this time. with my recent positive test i will begin the quarantine process and continue working on behalf of the american people remotely. that reference to the thursday briefing was because she got a considerable amount of criticism for briefing reporters without a mask as the events developed toward the disclosure that evening that hope hicks had tropical sto tested positive and then later the president had. this underscores the inability of the white house to control the outbreak, even in the white house. and that tells you something about why it's so bad, given the numbers you were reciting across the country, john. >> it also tells us, we've learned this in the public health experts, the way they flout the safety guidelines, testing negative today or yesterday can mean nothing if you've been exposed. i know this is breaking news, i
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might be putting you in a bad spot. do you know if this is an instant test? we know the president had one that came back positive and he didn't tell us until he had the more thorough pcr test. do you know with her test what we're dealing? >> the white house usually does the abbott test, which is a pcr test but we do not know the method with which she was tested. >> we'll look for more details on that. we wish kayleigh mcenany the best. still ahead for us. what new details we're learning about the conditions of the president including questions about covid's impact on his lungs. to save you up to 60%. these are all great. and when you get a big deal... ♪ ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. want a hamburger, some fries, a drink, nuggets? - got a taste for a deal?
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robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. word the president's coronavirus treatment includes supplemental oxygen and a powerful steroids raises questions about possible lung damage, the president's doctor not offering many details. >> what do the x-rays and ct scans show? are there signs of pneumonia? are there signs of lung
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involvement? or any damage to the lungs? >> we're tracking all of that. there's some expected findings but nothing of any major clinical concern. >> dr. bruce levy is the chief of pulmonary care in boston. can you give us a translation as the layperson that dr. conley says nothing to be alarmed by that's my translation, not the word he used. what did you take away from that? >> thank you, john. pleasure to be with you. so typically covid-19 causes a bilateral viral pneumonia. so the cat scan or chest x-rays typically reveal bilateral, what we would call infiltrates, cloud like ones aties on the lungs and they usually cause it in the periphery or posterior sections of the lungs. and it is a typical appearance so i think that's probably what
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the doctor was referring to. >> another episode in the questions and answers with dr. conley, initially they would not disclose it and we can listen here, we know at least twice the president has needed supplemental oxygen. let's listen. >> over the course of his illness, the president has experienced two episodes of drops in his oxygen saturation. we debated the reasons for this and whether we would intervene. it was the determination on the team based on the timeline from the initial diagnosis that we initiate dexamethasone. >> how serious is it that twice the president had his oxygen level drops and the prescription of the steroid the doctor mentioned there, dr. conley, a lot of people said that's usually prescribed in more severe cases although they're perhaps being more aggressive here because it's the president. >> the very large clinical studies done with the steroids in the setting of covid-19 suggested that the people who benefitted the most from them
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were the most critically ill, most severely ill. so in moderate to severe cases we typically would consider giving steroids. and it could be that they're being quite aggressive with a more moderate severity. we typically would use criteria such as severe lung disease requiring supplemental oxygen. so the fact that he was requiring supplemental oxygen, at least periodically, would suggest that he might be a good candidate for the steroid. that's probably why dexamethasone was started. >> in closing, if you tribe required supplemental oxygen, on two experimental treatments plus a steroid, would you recommend that patient be released less than 72 hours after they came to the hospital? >> that would not be typical if they were requiring intermittent supplemental oxygen. but that would be a recommendation to the general public. >> dr. lee have yvy grateful fo
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time today. when we come back more on more dramatic news of a covid outbreak in the west wing. the members of the president's team now positive with coronavirus now includes the press secretary. (♪ )
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back now to important breaking news. the white house press secretary, kayleigh mcenany says she tested positive for coronavirus this morning. she said she has no symptoms but will begin, quote, the quarantine process. our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta joins me. she should begin the isolation process because she is covid positive you quarantine if you come in contact somebody and you don't believe you're positive
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for safety. this is yet another member of the president's team. the president is covid, positive, the first lady, hope hicks, kellyanne conway, governor chris christie and now kayleigh mcenany she said after testing consistently every day since thursday i tested positive for covid-19 on monday while experiencing no symptoms. i want to stop there for now. it's another reminder that testing is great because you find out if you're positive but it did not protect you from this virus. >> that's right. i mean, that's a -- i hope that she is does okay. she doesn't have any symptoms now and i can -- i know it's jarring to hear this news when you first test positive. i talked to lots of patients who received the news. i hope she's okay. but you're right, john, when you think about the test. it's really valuable if it comes back and tells you that you are positive because then you know as you point out that you need to isolate, your contacts need to be traced and potentially
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quarantined depending on the nature of the contact. if it's negative, it's only negative at that point in time. if you take kayleigh mcenany, for example, if she tested negative for a few days and then suddenly test positive, it doesn't tell you for certain when she had the exposure. you can be exposed and then it takes some time for the virus to replicate to a detectable level in the body, several days perhaps. so then you have to retrace your whereabouts to figure out where you may have been exposed. >> i want to read more of her statement. this gets to the idea, you hear a lot of republicans now saying if the president can get coronavirus, if the coronavirus can get into the safest house, most protected house in maameri, anyone can get coronavirus. yes, but if you behave recklessly, you are more likely to get coronavirus. kayleigh mcenany works at the white house, she knows the
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president is positive, the first lady is positive, hope hicks is positive. we have video of her coming up the steps taking off her mcenan. no reporters, producers, members of the press are listed as close contacts by the white house medical unit. that's an important term in terms of contact tracing. who else might have been exposed to kayleigh mcenany. she briefs without a mask. was around the president during debate prep, around for the supreme court nomination pick. this is just yesterday. what are the steps now that must be taken for people she's come in contact with, her staff, and so on? >> well, you know, first of all, to your point, john, there's still lack of seriousness about this virus certainly within the white house complex. i mean, it is clear the white house is now a hot bed of viral activity, as much as public health precautions have always been necessary, they're especially important now. you point out, outside, away
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from people like that, it is probably less of a concern. i couldn't see how far apart people were in the clip you just showed. you're inside and briefing, i mean, the concern is that in a smaller room, the virus can become aerial solized and you can propel it in the small space. put people at increased risk. it is one of these risk mitigation things. everyone wants hard and fast rules on this. do you take it seriously or not? do you believe you could carry the virus in your nose and mouth, and if you do believe that which you should at the white house now, there's a lot of spread happening, you have to do everything you can to be careful. why unnecessarily subject people to risk. maybe this will make a difference in terms of how people behave. clearly now at the white house there's a lot of spread going on and people need to be especially cautious. >> another point about that, she
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says i definitively had no knowledge of hope hicks' diagnosis prior to the white house briefing thursday. she came into the briefing room and briefed reporters, this is not kayleigh mcenany's fault. this tells you about the culture at the white house, that the president's secretary of state, in close quarters with him and with hope hicks was not told when hope hicks had a positive test and she went in a briefing room. talk about not taking it seriously, people from the top, the president, his chief of staff and others are not telling people that may have been exposed. now we know she was exposed about threats in their own workplace. >> that's completely irresponsible and unacceptable. the way it should happen and frankly does happen not just at the white house but in countries around the world when you do this, at the time someone is tested, even before they leave the testing facility, if they come back positive, their contacts are traced at that time. that's the way it should work. who have you been in touch with the last few days. they write down the list.
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people are contact traced at that moment. whether or not hope hicks was asked about who her contacts were, we don't know. if she was asked, then names of people she had close contact with, they should have been contacted, identified and quarantined. this is not happening and now you're seeing firsthand the ramifications of not doing this sort of contact tracing. we're seeing it because of this high profile event at the white house, but the exact same thing has been happening in the country over and over again over the last several months which is why we still have tens of thousands of people becoming newly infected. if you just contact trace like this, you can quickly suppress the trajectory of the pandemic. >> let's hope they figure that out at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, sanjay gupta, appreciate the hustle in this breaking news. joe biden headed to florida today as the trump campaign deals with more covid-19 in the white house.
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joe biden is campaigning in florida today, says he will continue to campaign but do so safely. two events in miami and a televised town hall tonight. on his way talking to reporters saying he would be willing to keep the debate schedule with president trump, scheduled less than two weeks from now if doctors can certify the president is safe to be at the debate. the president is still hospitalized with covid-19. joe biden on the trail, on the trail with a lead. new nbc "the wall street journal" survey released yesterday shows a 14 point national lead, four weeks to election day. "new york times" sienna college poll found a five point lead in the state of florida. talk it over with matt viser. it is important that he is trying to stay on the trail. the president mocked him for weeks and months about his mask and socially distant events. joe biden is campaigning while
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the president is in the hospital. interesting also that he is still open to the debate. >> a fascinating reversal from a week or so ago. biden's campaign has been virtual for months. with 29 days to go, it is biden who's out. he's on the campaign trail. it is being done in dramatically different way than trump has been on the campaign trail, but president trump now is hospitalized. with 29 days left, you're seeing two very different campaigns right now and what they can do, where they can go. biden's campaign announced last week they're also door knocking. there's much more activity on the biden campaign side at the moment. >> if you look deep in polling, the 14 point national lead in nbc and "the wall street journal" poll, they say that's a shock poll. the president had a bad debate performance after the stories about his taxes. they expect that to bounce back some. as we often say at this time of the campaign, stop watching national polls. if you have a 14 point lead,
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even if it bounces back to 8 or 10, an 8 or 10 point national lead is a biden victory. >> it is hard to find a good result for the trump campaign anywhere in that poll. 32 point advantage for biden on which temperament you want as your president, there's result after result in there, even if it is somewhat of an outlier immediately after the debate, there's nothing good in there for the trump campaign to point to at the moment. really, i mean, biden even in states as you point out, five points ahead in florida, everywhere at this point, biden seems to be ahead in polls. >> they believe they can do this as long as they stay safe, right? stay on the trail? >> yeah. they're testing as sanjay gupta mentioned in the prior testing, there's a several day lag for this. so the result for the biden campaign has to be nervous about, he was in close proximity to president trump tuesday
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night. they believe it is at a safe distance, podiums were 12 feet away. but you sort of, if you're a biden supporter or internally in the biden campaign, you want a couple more negative results for joe biden. >> the former vice president saying he would debate if doctors say it is okay. thank you. >> thanks, john. hello to viewers in the united states and around the world. john king in washington. thank you for sharing an important breaking news day with us. another member of the president's inner circle now testing positive for coronavirus. this time it is the press secretary, kayleigh mcenany. the covid positive list in the west wing so far, the president, first lady, head of trump campaign, head of republican party, president's personal assistant, three top presidential confidants, hope hicks, kellyanne conway, and chris christie, and two republican senators that attended