of the united states remains at walter reed hospital where he's being treated for the coronavirus. we as a nation are no closer now to knowing the truth about his health. what we know is his doctors and closest aides can't seem to get the stories straight. mark meadows this morning, that angered the president by telling reporters that there were concerns symptoms, gave us this update. >> his health continues to improve. the doctors will 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. >> i want to bring in kaitlan cot lynn, coveri

collins, we know that staff has been sent home to work remotely. this must be a different scene. >> reporter: yes. they have been short-sighted on relying on these rapid tests instead of taking the measures medical experts saying you should take. there are empty offices basically in the upper and lower press areas right now, because the staffers are sent home. the white house won't tell us how many people are quarantining after coming into contact with kayleigh mcenany, in that she continued to show up after having contact with hope hicks. she only spoke briefly yesterday with reporters, but during that brief period, she removed her mask, which is not the point of wearing a mask, to take it off just because you're speaking. so, of course, the questions here is how many more people in the west wing will test

positive. kayleigh mcenany and her two deputies, who tested positive, are joining a growing list that started yesterday when we found out that hope hicks had tested positive. it's raising question about the safety of people working in the west wing and they precautions, or laugh thereo or lack thereof. we reported earlier they were not wearing masks or social distancing, either. >> dana bash is reporting that sources say the president is telling people on the phone that he needs to, quote, get out of here, he wants to be out of the hospital. any word on what doctors want him to do? >> reporter: clearly they did not think yesterday was a good day for the president to leave the hospital. we were told that he was angling to get out of there and settled for the brief ride, which of course has raised other questions about whether he's putting his secret service at risk, but today could be the day

he leaves the hospital. today is his fourth day being there. the chief of staff signaled pretty strong lly that that was the way they are leaning, but an evaluation still needed to be done. they took reporters over there from the white house to walter reed earlier this morning, sitting there no several hours, which we thought would be an update from the doctors, but we have not gotten an update in over 24 hours from the medical team. instead, there's a trash bag over the electrlectern, but we' continue to wait to see if the president will come back to the white house and whether or not they decide that is the right decision. the concern is something could happen with the president's health, he gets sent back, and then people are talking about the optics of that, so we'll have to wait and see the determination, but right now we

do not know. >> we'll be waiting with you. kaitlan, thank you so much. i want to bring in dr. sanjay gupta to talk about this and, you know, sanjay, first when asked about the results of x-rays and ct scans, his physician was quite vague. i wonder what stood out to you as you were watching his answers. >> what stood out is it's clearly somebody who was told this is what you can and can't say. i felt like he was in a difficult spot, bending into pretzels. it was ridiculous. i felt a bit for him, but the point is if you're going to come out and brief people about the patient's condition, you have to have the ability to be forthright about this, and sins of omission are still sins. i think it's hard to get a clear

picture still. the president is entitled to his privacy, as i've heard you and other guests say, but if you're going to send the doctors out, i think you have to say, look, you're allowed to be transparent and honest. >> so he's received these different drugs and treatments. that should tell us something, right? who do what does that tell us about what he's going through and what's ahead for him? >> i think it does tell us something. clearly if you look at the medications and the trajectory of when he received the medication, first he received this monoclonal antibody, the first medication he received. that's not a medication that even has emergency use authorization. it's typically given very early. the sense is, okay, now we know we have this disease, we've been infected, can we give something to try to prevent symptoms from ever occurring?

we know that, despite that, he developed symptoms, was essential medevaced to the hospital and went on remdesivir, a five-day course. so that's an antiviral. it's the last one, brianna, that i think has raised a lot of eyebroweye eyebrows. so now ear basically saying there's concern about inflammation occurring that we're going to give this steroid medication. the indication is it also suppresses your immune system a bit. that may allow the virus to replicate more easily. the steroids, the antivirals, it seems like a kitchen sink mentality being thrown ought him. why? to your question, it's hard to know. maybe the president is getting more aggressive care, it's a vip

sort of treatment. it's not always the best, but a lot of people weighing in, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. or it could be, and this is a serious consideration, he's far sicker than we realize or we've been told. >> look, there's a lot we just don't know, and it's being kept from us. this is based on when symptoms appeared, and i think a lot of people will look at, say boris johnson, as a more typically case. he was diagnosed, about ten days before he went into the hospital, and several days is more the expectations. so what do you think about president trump? >> he got diagnosed, immediately got symptomatic enough that you needed to go to the hospital. it means one of two things -- that in fact he had been infected much longer and had that more typically sort of time period where the virus is

replicating in the body and eventually gets to an amount high enough to produce symptoms. it's an average of five days and can be longer. that seems the most likely scenario. it is possible that, you know, at some point he had such a huge exposure to the virus, right, just a huge exposure for some reason, that he got infected and started developing symptoms much more closely together. something about this graft is the last time, the purple line. before someone becomes symptomatic, the few days before that are when they are typically most contagious. that would then back up the calendar to wednesday, tuesday, maybe even monday.

>> and i want to ask you about something. the cdc has updated the virus to say that covid is more likely to spread through the air. i think we sort of knew this. what does that tell you? >> well, you know, you may remember that the cdc will put this on the website that a airborne transmission, and then they took it down and there was a back and forth and confusing. now it's back up. essentially what this means, we know it can spread through droplets, people touching contaminated surfaces. this airborne transmission is more this idea, as one of our analysts put it, think of it as a campfire, smoke, something gets in the air and it gets

suspended, it lingers longer, can drift further than six feet. what this is really about, it's about mask. even if you're further than six feet away, if you're indoors, especially in a poorly ventilated space, you need to wear a mask. this was of it traveling through the air like smoke. if that visual helps you, that's what this guidance is about. respiratory droplets, contaminated surfaces, airborne transmission. >> sanjay, thank you. >> you got it. still ahead, the white house correspondents association responds to the diagnosis. one doctor at walter reed calls the parade insanity. i will speak to a former secret service agent next. the owner of regal cinema says it's about to suspend

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this just in. president trump's condition will be updated live next hour from walter reed, so we will be keeping an eye trained on that as the hour approached. another doctor who works there at walter reed, says it's insanity that the president was allowed to a drive-by photo op. it was tweeted in part it's not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed. the risk is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures.

the irresponsibility is astounding. you can see the secret service is wearing full ppe, including a visor, a mask, a gown in an effort to protect himself, and one secret service agent that works on the presidential detail told cnn, quote, that should never have happened. i want to bring in charles moreno, charles, what was your reaction? even if it flies in the face of reasonable comprehensive medical and risk management suggestions here, you know, what i would like to see, brianna is more of a strategic review of how his decisions can impact.

>> -- i would hope those decisions would be made based on the things that are deemed essential, where he needs to move during this time, and not for any other purpose. now two agents are out of mix for 14 days. other agents have to step up and cover for them. there's a secret service agent who told cnn, quote, you can't say no. is that true? even if they feel like they're being put at risk unnecessarily? >> that's a great question. this is not the first time that

politics meets the secret service mission here. typically the secret service will offer a counsel when there's an overwhelming outside threat of the overall safety and security of the president. in this situation with covid-19, it's more medical consultation. in terms of the people i spoke to, the way the situation involved, the medical staff consulted with the secret service, who basically said, listen, we can get this done, there's no overwhelming outside threat in terms of why we can't take the president in the car, so they did what they were asked. you know, at any point in time you are serving as counsel to the president. we saw with this president bush, where the secret service decision was not to go back to the white house on the evening of september 11th, and chairman overruled that decision, went back to the white house. so this is not the first time, but here, especially during a pandemic, this is spreading like

wildfire right now. it will direct lly impact our national security here, based on the people going down with the symptoms and having to quarantine at any one time. >> thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks, brianna. vice president mike pence is still planning to travel to utah next hour, despite several people he was in contact with testing positive for coronavirus. we have new details about another person who is now infected who was at the rose garden ceremony. does scrubbing grease feel like a workout?

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the white house correspondents association is now responding to the breaking news about press secretary mcenany and two of her staffers testing positive. this is the statement the association tweeted out -- we wish kayleigh, the president and others well who are struggling with the virus. we strongly encourage or members to continue following cdc guidance on mask wearing and distancing, especially when at the white house and urge journalists to seek testing if they were potentially exposed. olivia is the washington

correspondent for the new york magazine. what is your thoughts? >> i'm glad i haven't been there. i was dismayed by the statement. i'm a member of the association. i think it is the association's job to defend journalists, and those at the white house who do not wear masks, they put each other as risk, as we're seeing, and they also put reporters at risk. it was yesterday that kayleigh mcenany was talking to reporters without a mask on, and now we know she's positive and possibly has exposed reporters and others around her. so i think it's the association's job to defend journalists when they're at risk, and i don't think the statement was strong enough. >> why not have a stronger statement in on the one hand, of course, anyone with coronavirus, you wish them a speedy recovery. you can't ignore the fact that

they put people at risk. >> i understand perhaps the impulse to want to be diplomatic, wish her well, but we can wish her well and a speedy recovery, as well as everyone else at the white house, while still noting she put others at direct risk. i think it's totally reckless and irresponsible. >> she must have known -- she knew she was exposed, but she must have known, even if she was testing negative one day, she could test positive the next day as the virus potentially in her system progresses, and yet she still briefed reporters without a mask. can you explain this mindset for, you know, just folks out there who are trying to understand why the white house is not following common-sense guidance? >> i can't. i mean, there seems to be this

attitude that we are invincible at the white house. as we now know, nobody is invincib invincible. it can touch you if you're the president of the united states. obviously he was ignore the guidelines from his own medical professionals in the government, but no one is invincible, and i don't really understand why anyone seeing what this virus does to people that they love, to 200,000 americans who have died, why they would behave recklessly and ignore guidance from the cdc. it makes no sense to me. >> i also want your reaction to something the trump campaign is now suggesting, which is that former vice president joe biden is incapable of handling a pandemic response, because unlike the president, he has not contracted coronavirus. actually, olivia, hold on, let's play this. this is one of the campaign representatives. let's listen and then we're going to talk about it. >> firsthand experience will

always help. the president is battling it as toughly as only president trump can. listen, of course that's going to change the way that he speaks of it. it will be a firsthand experience, that experience of not only coronavirus, but being president of the united states, that's why you just see a different tone overall from him. listen, he has experiences as commander in chief. he has experience as a businessman. he has experience now fighting the coronavirus as an individual. those firsthand experiences, joe biden, he doesn't have those. >> she's saying he has this experience as an individual who has had coronavirus, and joe biden doesn't have that experience, as if it is a negative attribute, to have not been able to deal with this virus. >> i guess he's going to go out

and get the virus to now compete. i don't know what to say. it's pretty typically for insane spin, another word for lying, from campaign officials, specifically the trump campaign. this is another level to suggest that somehow it's a virtue that the president has accepted with this disease. i point out that joe biden is on the campaign trail. joe biden is continuing to run for president, and to focus on the election, it seems, while the president unfortunately is dealing with his illness. it seems like if there's a candidate benefiting right now, it's probably joe biden. >> also, i want to -- you've done some great reporting where you confirmed just yet another person at the rose garden event, which seems to be the super-spreader event, has tested positive, this is someone with the vice president at a separate event. tell us the details here. >> so before the amy coney

barrett event, there was a prayer march on them mall attended by thousands of people. it occurred just a couple hours prior to this event. several people at the prayer march then went to the amy coney barrett event including vice president pence, pastor po glory, which i have confirmed he's tested positive. this was several people at the event in the rose garden who came through the white house, and some of them attended an indoor event afterwards, who have now tested positive, including kellieanne conway. >> chris christie, mike lee, right? it's a long list. >> yeah. it's really unfortunate, but i think it was mark meadows who said they were going to expect more positive cases coming out of the white house after we learned about hope hicks and

after we learned about the president. it seems like that's on track to happen. i'm sure we don't yet know the extent of this. >> no, we don't. olivia, thank you so much for helping us to wrap our heads around it. it's a continuing problem. thank you. president trump's doctor is getting a lot of scrutiny, he's getting a lot of vicriticism, a he's set to give another briefing next hour. it's not just what dr. conley is saying, but what he's not saying. according to him, he had a fever. he won't tell us how high. he won't say when trump last tested negative. we only learned on sunday that the president had been given a steroid usually reserved for people with severe cases of covid. while he finally disclosed that the president's oxygen levels dropped on two occasions, he did not reveal right away that the president was actually given

supplemental oxygen at least once. here's how he explained that omission. >> reporter: -- until today to disclose that the president had been administered oxygen. >> good question. >> reporter: thank you. >> i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team, the president, through his course of illness has had. i didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, came off as if we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true. >> it wasn't necessarily untrue, either. carl bernstein joins us now to talk about this. his own doctor's admission -- >> let 'bess clear, this is the ultimate trump coronavirus

cover-up, in using his doctors shamelessly to perpetuate a cover-up. we have to call it what it is. this is the second big cover-up. the first cover-up was you have the seriousness of the pandemic itself, as he told my colleague bob woodward. he didn't want the country to panic, and that was the reason not to give the country the real science underneath. he's ignored masks. he's ignored his scientists. he's ignored the safety of the american people, and now at the most critical moment of a national security emergency, in generations, in really the modern history of the presidency in some ways, he is directing a cover-up so we know almost nothing about his real condition, when he contracted the virus -- whether or not he really is capable of executing the duties of the presidency, as

he goes through this experience. we are this the da-- in the dar because he wants us in the dark. >> we still don't know when he had the last negative test. listen to what the press secretary has said about this. >> reporter: what was the date of the president's last negative test? >> i won't go into testing going back, but he and all the staff are routinely tested. >> i won't give you the details. he teis tested regularly, and ts was the first negative test. >> they don't want to answer that question why? >> because this president is guilty of homicidal negligence through the pandemic. first, we have hundreds of

thousands of americans dead in large measure, because he did not do what was required of a real leader in this country. the he ignored the scientists, and he chose for political reasons to perpetuate his own presidency and win reelection, not to deal with this pandemic in a way that would serve the health and national interests and the interests of our citizens. this is part of the same thing. we are -- what you just heard there really is dr. trump's traveling medicine show. he's the con man once again. why republicans on capitol hill, who are falling like flies, some of them because of the president's negligence, will not get up and demand we have some tra tra transparency here, is really more negligence on the part of our leaders. we need to look at the danger of this situation. we don't know whether or not, quite honestly, the vice

president mike pence has gotten an honest accounting of what's going on. i'm going to hope and presume he has, but he would be about the only person we know who got such a thing, if indeed he has. i've talked to republicans on the hill. certainly leader mcconnell up there does not have a clue about the president's actual condition, from everything i've been told, nor do others. >> but, carl, you mentioned the vice president. i want to ask you about that. he's still on the trail. he's headed to salt lake city next hour for the debate. he's tested negative, but kayleigh mcenany tested negat e negative, then positive. why hasn't the vice president quarantined? >> you would have to ask the vice president of that. what comes to mind is the politics of this and winning

radio he reelection by any means necessary are all important, again, the national security being the well-being of its people and now the well-being of its leaders. we have a government in quarantine right now. as a result, once again, of the president's negligence at that super-spreader event, that show that was put on. rather than a safe venue, rather than a safe ceremony at which his nominee for the supreme court could be introduced, he put on a show with a statement once again that masks don't count, that health doesn't count, that spacing and distance between people doesn't count. so as a result, we have a continuation not only of the cover-up that we've had throughout this pandemic, but the cavalier recklessness of a

president of the united states taking a joyride yesterday, more of the same attitude, exposing the secret service agents to the danger of this terrible, terrible pathogen. look, let's be simple about this. it's back to covering donald trump by the press in a way it's always needed to be -- he's always needed to be covered. follow the money, follow the lies, and now following the silence. what we are now getting, the science has once again been suppressed. we have no idea -- can you imagine this? we have no real idea of his medical condition, the severity of his illness. >> no, we don't know. carl bernstein, great to see you. joe biden weighs in on

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we have breaking news. the president says he's going to be leaving the hospital. this is what hetweeted. i will be leaving today at 6:30 p.m. he said don't be afraid of covid. we have developed some really great drugs and knowledge. i feel better than i did 20 years ago. i want to get to jeremy diamond. i have a hard time believing that he feels better than he did 20 years ago. we have seen how he's doing. we know his oxygen in recent days has dipped. this just seems like a complete fabrication. also the for a can't he's saying not to let covid dominate your

life is very respectful. almost 200,000 deaths here in america alone. >> reporter: this is the president doing what he wants to do. this is the president taking control, taking the while here and deciding that the pr aspect of this is certainly more important, that he does not want to be viewed as being in the hospital for more of a period of time than he's already been here. we know the president has been agitating both his doctors and his political advisers, telling them he wants to be out of the hospital. in fact while the president was tweeting this, i was on the phone with a source close to the president, who was saying the president has pushing to get out, but the concern among many of the advisers is what happens if the president's condition, which now seems to have gotten better, what seems happened if worsens again? we know that complications can

arise from the three drugs he's now on, or simply complications from the disease itself. we know there's a risk of significant inflammation that can develop at that five to seven-day period. we'll hear from the doctors in the next hour or so, brianna, but this is likely not a decision that the doctors encouraged. i'm sure they would see the president of the united states to stay in the hospital, at least to be monitored. this is the president taking control, deciding he wants to manage the message here, but the big risk, if the president goes back to the white house and then has to be helicoptered back to the hospital, those won't be the optics that the president wants. >> he's on a five-day course of his drugs. he won't even have completed that. i think you're on fair ground,

jeremy, to say this is over the advice of doctors. we've had doctor after doctor say today, this is not the day to leave. i want to bring in kaitlan collins. the it it's hard to believe that he would be coming back to the white house without a setup. he is president, but he also is a human being. no doctor -- no decent doctor would recommend that a patient -- we've had heard this from doctors today -- leave the hospital at this point in time, considering what the president's condition is. it's hard to imagine that contingency has not been set up. do we know anything about that? >> reporter: no, that's still to be determined. of course, we do no they have medical options at the white house. they're not they level as they are at walter reed. that was the justification to

take him there a friday. there's still a lot of unanswered questions, brianna, from the president's doctors. he announced this about 20 minutes before the president's doctor is supposed to be briefing reporters. they still have not said when his last negative test was. the they haven't revealed any lung damage or pulmonary issues that may have shown up. so they have left a lot to be desired. they're going to have to come out in 20 minutes and make the case why they decided it was a good idea to leave the hospital. of course he's the president, and he's been advocating for leaving. hopefully they will find a way to justify it or be more for forthcoming than the last two briefings, but the message he is

sending, not to let covid dominate your lives. but most don't have a helicopter to go to walter reed where they can get the best doctors in the world, and get a combination of drugs, one of which is not widely distributed to covid patients. understandably the conditions are different because he's the president, but sending the message that getting covid is no big deal is stunning, given the fact he has access to different care than a regular american would. we haven't heard from a medical professional in over 24 hours on what the president is up to, so they're going to come out shortly. hopefully they will provide many more answers than in the last 48 hours about the president's condition. >> we have so many questions.

i want to bring dr. gupta into this conversation. should he be leaving is the question. i know kaitlan is saying he has so many medical resources. he's still 74, obese, >> well, and then you add on to that where it sounded like he had a period of time where his vital signs were unstable. that's, again, according to this report from mark meadows. he had his oxygenation drop, he's been on these medications, one of which he hasn't completed the course. it's a medication typically given in the hospital, the remdesivir via iv. no, these are all the things that make it pretty obvious he should stay in the hospital, not the least of which this is the sort of illness we know people can do sort of okay for a period of time. he has shown us based on his low oxygenation levels it has done

negative things to his lungs, and it could have a contamination load in the body, which is very concerning. we'll see what the doctors say, as caitlyn pointed out, but i think this is his decision and him saying, i'm going to do this. i don't think the doctors, if you're looking at his data, you're paying attention to risk factors, you're paying attention to how sick he has been, you would advocate for this at all. obviously he has more resources at the white house, but will everyone be wearing protective equipment when they come in contact with him, is he truly going to isolate? these are all important issues. we'll see what happens, but i don't think this is a good medical decision. >> yeah. it's hard to imagine someone who goes on a joyride on the streets outside of walter reed medical center agreeing to just stick to their bedroom, right? i mean, in the white house.

that raises serious questions about whether he can do that and keep other people safe. i want to talk to you about the human part of this, because his tweet here, he said, don't be afraid of covid. don't let it dominate your life. and i'm looking at the screen, sanjay, and i see almost 210,000 deaths in america. when you think of the monumental loss and the family members who are satellites of that number, and it just vastly expands to show you how many people have had the worst year of their lives this year, and things will never be the same for them. i don't know, i would say -- i find this tweet to be incredibly disrespectful and just totally missing what's going on. what's your reaction to it? >> yeah, agree with you, brianna, and i've talked to a lot of these families. i continue to stay in touch with families that lost people from covid. they just lean on each other and

keep talking. i always think of how they perceive this sort of stuff, and it's hard. i think it's very disrespectful. it also sounds like, in some ways if you read that, don't be afraid of covid. is he advocating for herd immunity again? how many times have we been through this, right, where herd immunity could lead to more than a million people, maybe 2 million people dying, hospitals becoming overwhelmed, so many people becoming infected. what does don't be afraid of covid mean? it's a contagious disease that can kill people. it's something that we can be, you know, protected against to a large degree, but we haven't even done that. so it's disrespectful, but also in some ways, i worry that he's, again, sort of empowering this dangerous approach of herd immunity, which we know dr. scott atlas has talked about in the past, someone who has the president's ear. i think he shouldn't be going, i think he shouldn't be advocating this approach, and he has the

resources that most people in this country don't have in case he does get sick again, which we want him to get well, but this is not the message to send to the american people. >> no, and he also is indicating that he thinks he's out of the woods, and he's not. that's what covid has taught us, that this is a long-term -- this can be a long-term issue, and here he is just a few days in, right, a few days in? he's not out of the woods here. i wonder, sanjay, given what we've seen from the president's doctor, if -- look, any physician, i hear it from you, you're thinking that no doctor would really recommend he would leave right now. if the doctor disagrees with him leaving, will he admit that in the news conference, do you think? >> i doubt it. there's no indication from the two news conferences that he's given so far that he would be willing to admit something like that. he skirts around this, and he's been obviously put in a very uncomfortable position for him. he's really bending himself into

bre pretzels trying to answer these questions. i doubt that he would answer that, but i think the doctors who are caring for him at walter reed, many of whom are just impeccably credentialed, i just wonder what those conversations are like right now. are they basically being told, look, he can get good care at the white house, don't worry about it, are they really thinking he's out of the woods? it's really a few days from now that may be the most concerning time period for anybody, whether it's the president or anybody else, who has already shown they have developed significant symptoms from covid. a lot of people say, well, maybe he won't develop symptoms. he already has developed symptoms. that but him on a different trajectory in terms of the risk factors. we talked about this medication, decks a me-- dexamethasone, the

stero steroid. people have been treated with that, but it doesn't mean the underlying disease goes away, and when it comes back, it can come back with a vengeance. i know i'm not telling the doctors anything they don't already know, it's just the question of whether they'll apply the most basic evidence-based science and medicine to the president like they would any patient, and right now it doesn't seem like they are. >> yeah, and in the end, he's the president, right? you talk about those conversations, i imagine those conversations are not like anything they've ever had when it comes to treating a patient. i want to bring in dbrian steltr in this conversation. the words we heard mirror what we heard on fox news.

>> right, the thought that covid is not that bad. he's saying, i feel better than i did 20 years ago. he's acting like he's drinking from the fountain of youth, and thanks to covid he's better. it's like he's denying covid when he still has the disease. first he didn't want to go to walter reed, then when he was there he wanted to get back to the white house. now he says he's leaving. the newscasts aren't as big as they were, but i think he wants that shot with marine one that he had when he left. he's going home to the first lady, which is actually the more responsible one. she's the one showing leadership. she is being a role model by isolating himself in the white house. the president is showing worst practices and the first lady is showing best practices. >> when he goes back there, brian, it's worth pointing out, this is going to be a west wing that's shut down. right now if you walk up into the west wing area that the

press has access to, there aren't the people there that are normally there. they've gone home because they've been exposed to people who are positive for coronavirus. they could have it themselves. >> yes, and this is something that people are still actively being tested, awaiting test results. there are longer than usual lines in washington, d.c. today because there are so many people in the city that are worried they've become sick because of this white house outbreak, and he's going right back into the middle of that? it would seem to me from a purely cynical political conversation, how would this actually help him win over voters? maybe that's not what he's thinking about, maybe he's standing with what he said for eight months about downplaying the disease. >> it's too late. we've been awake all weekend watching what's going on, so good luck with that. sanj sanjay, i do want to ask you about if the president is returning to the white house, what would have been prudent to put in place in terms of medical equipment or even additional expertise to make sure that they could be prepared if things do

go south? >> yep. well, part of this is to isolate the president, the patient in this case, because he has coronavirus, so he needs to be isolated within the white house. anybody that comes in contact with him is going to need to be in personal protective equipment, and that's going to be a bit of a risk, obviously, there. the white house has got all kinds of different resources, they have a white house medical unit there, but are they going to have -- dr. conley, i'm sure, will be there. will they have other experts, pulmonologists, doctors that are going to be at the white house that are going to be on very close standby? as far as machinery goes, one of the reasons you have someone like the president in a hospital is that you also have proximity to the intensive care unit should he need to be in the intensive care unit. they don't have those kinds of facilities there. they don't have advanced imaging there, things like that. i don't know what they can put in place to make it as good as it needs to be.

that's, i'm sure, what drove the decision making on friday when they sent him to the hospital in the first place. again, they're pulling him back out of the hospital, i'm sure, because of his own sort of desire to do that and really pushing for it, but, you know, this might be a situation where he comes home and then may have to go back to the hospital again if he worsens, because as good as the white house medical unit is, it can't take care of all the things he may need. >> if they need to do some imaging to check his lungs again, and we know when it comes to covid patients, that is something that can change over time, they wouldn't be able to do that? >> well, they could probably do chest x-ray and things like that. i don't know that they can do a ct scan. i don't think they have that kind of imaging. but i think it's more the question of what are you going to do about it? they could probably give him supplemental oxygen, if he needs high flow oxygen, if he needs to be proned, his position needs to be changed. i guess with lots of -- bringing in lots of manpower, essentially creating a unit within the white

house, they could do that. but you know what would be a lot easier is to do it at the hospital where they already have those reresources. it's going to create a lot of work and resources to do this in the white house. possible, praerhaps, but very challenging. >> thank you, sanjay. jake tapper will pick up this very special coverage right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper and we begin with breaking news. president trump has just tweeted to the world that he will be leaving walter reed medical center a short time from now, at 6:30 p.m. eastern, he says. the president in his twitter announcement writing, quote, don't be afraid of covid. don't let it dominate your life. we have developed under the trump administration some really great drugs and knowledge. i feel better than i did 20 years ago, unquote. president trump there still downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. don't be afraid