10/02/20 10/02/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! president trump reveals he and the first lady have both tested positive for covid-19 and are entering 14 days of quarantine. this comes just days after trump mocked his presidential rubble joe biden for wear a mask. pres. trump: i don't wear masks like him. he could be speaking to hundred feet away and he shows up with

the biggest mask i have ever seen. amy: for months, president trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic which has killed over 206,000 americans. prpres. trump: i think it is unr control. dying0 americans are today. pres. trumump: that is true. it is what it is. but that d doesn't m mean we a e doing everything we can. it i is under control as much as you can control it. this is a horrible plague that beset us. amy: we will speak to two leading doctors and look at how the news could reshape the presidential race. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy nowow!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump has announced he and first lady melania trump have covid-19, joining 7.3 million people across the united states who've

tested positive for the novel coronavirus since the first recorded u.s. case in january. just before 1:00 a.m. friday, trump tweeted -- "tonight, @flotus and i tested positive for covid-19. we will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. we will get through this together!" the stunning announcement rattled world capitals and set off fears that the president of the united states may be at the center of a super-spreader event in the halls of power in washington, d.c., and at several recent gatherings headlined by trump. those include a campaign fundraiser at trump's bedminster golf club on thursday, a campaign rally in duluth, minnesota, on wednesday attended by thousands of trump supporters, and tuesday night's presidential debate with joe biden in cleveland, ohio.

cnn reports joe biden is being tested for coronavirus this morning over fears that president trump may have infected him at the debate, where the candidates stood about 10 feet apart, not wearing masks. president trump spoke loudly and incessantly through most of the 90 minute event, interrupting biden 128 times. pres. trump: i don't wear masks like him. he could be speaking to hundred feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. amy: tuesday's indoor debate was attended by former second lady jill biden, who wore a mask throughout the evening. first lady melania trump and all four of president trump's adult children removed their masks after they were seated. a bloomberg reporter at the debate says trump's family members refused when a member of -- when a doctor at the cleveland clinic offered them masks. trump's announcement early friday that he has covid-19 came

only after bloomberg news reported that hope hicks, one of trump's closest advisers, became ill during trump's wednesday night rally in duluth, minnesota, and had to be quarantined aboard air force one on the return flight to washington. hope hicks went on to test positive for coronavirus early on thursday, though the white house did not report her illness. a number of reporters who were with hks and the president on the flight say no one from the white house reached out to them to perform contact tracing or to inform them of their risk of covid-19. one huffpost reporter was visibly shaken after learning of hicks' positive e test resulultm news reports. on thursday afafternoon, presidt trumump proceeded to h his golf resort in bedminster, new jersey, for a campaign fundraiser where he delivered a speech while wearing no mask, coming in close contact with dozens of staffers and campaign supporters.

"the new york times'" mamaggie haberman r reports aides who wod normally travel with the president did not go with h himo bedminster bececause they alreay already knew about hope hicks' positive test result. among those aides was white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany, who made no mention of hicks's illness or her recent close contact with hicks as she spoke to reporters for 25 minutes from the white house press briefing room podium while wearing no mask. trump's positive result has raised concerns about the line of succession. vice president mike pence met with trump at a white house coronavirus task force briefing on monday. president trump is 74 years old, has elevated blood pressure, and is over the threshold for obesity -- three factors linked to higher morbidity and mortality among covid-19 patients. early in the pandemic, trump

publicly downplayed the severity of covid-19 -- publicly claiming the virus would go away "like a miracle," even as he privately told journalist bob woodward it was airborne and far deadlier than the flu. pres. trump: this thing is a killer. if you are the wrong person, you don't have a chance. scourge.s a pres. trump: it is the plate. amy: the u.s. rerecorded another 46,00000 caseses of coronavirus thursday andnd nearly 850, d des raising the official u.s. death totoll to more than 208,000. on thursday, before the president announced he'd tested positive for coronavirus, the trump campaign said it was moving ahead with two rallies this weekend in wisconsin, even though the white house coronavirus task force has labeled wisconsin a red zone with a high rate of community spread.

those plans are now in disarray, and trump's campaign has canceled plans for tonight's rally in orlando, florida. in new hampshire, former south carolina governor and trump campaign surrogate nikki haley hosted an event thursday for 99 republican women running for office. haley tweeted a photo of herself posing with the women, packed indoors, shoulder-to-shoulder, none of them wearing masks. here in new york, the john f. kennedy jr. school in queens sent students home for two weeks after staff members tested positive for coronavirus. this came on first day of in-person classes for many of new york city's 500,000 students, even as 10 zip codes in brooklyn and queens reported alarming spikes in coronavirus cases. amazon thursday released data showing nearly 20,000 of its rkers haveve tested positive or were presumed to have covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

in sports news, the tennessee titans canceled sunday's game with the pittsburgh steelers after the team's total number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 11. in texas, rerepublican governor greg abbott issued a proclamation thursday limiting absentee ballot drop-off locations to just one per county in the latest effort by texas republicans to make it harder -- more difficult fofor people o vote, especially in urban areas home to a greater proportion of democrats. abbott's proclamation leaves 4.5 million residents of harris county w with just a s single location to drop off their completed ballots. this is myrna perez, director of the brennan center's voting righghts program. >> we're obviouslylyoncerned that any a additional b barriert the balallot box willll hurt the members of o ouromommunity ttt haveeenn t traditiononally

disesenfranchihised -- poor fol, pepeople of cocolor, studentntss who traditionally havave had a haharder time overcoming the e d of barrierers that have been placed in front of ththem systematically. amy: in michigan, conservative hoaxers and conspiracy theorists jacob wohl and jack burkman face four felony charges over robocalls targeting black voters in detroit and other cities. the recorded messages falsely claim that voting by mail could subject voters to arrest, debt collection, and forced vaccination. in pennsylvania, republican lawmakers have advanced a state resolution that would create a so-called select committee on election integrity that democrats warn could be used to disrupt the november 3 election by giving republicans the power to subpoena elections officials, even before all the votes are counted. on wednesday, democratic state representative malcolm kenyatta blasted republican plans at a committee meeting in harrisburg.

>> this -- i guess we're calling it committee on election integrity -- has no integrity. has none. and what it would do -- and you can laugh, representative. but what it would do is allow people, allow the folks on this committee that are actively up for reelection to subpoena ballots. to subpoena election officials during an election of which they are participants. nothing about that screams of integrity. amy:y: last week, the "atlantic magazine" revealed republican party officials are lolooking at waysys to subvert the election process to ensure trump stays in power, including a plan to have republican-led state legislatures claim the results of the election to be fraudulent, then choose a slate of republican electors to vote in the electoral college regardless of the outcome of the actual vote.

president trtrump on thursday yd he disavowed thehe ku klux klan and white supremacy in an interview with fox news's sean hannity. pres. trump: i condemn the kkk, i condemn all white supremacists, i condemn the proud boys. i don't know much about the proud boys come almost nothing, but i condemn that. amy: trump's commencacame t daysfterer tsday''s debate where he td d the r-ririgh prprouboys o oanization -- which isescrcrib by ththsouthern poverty law center as a hate group p -- to "stand by." pres. trump: give me a name. give me a name. what would you like me to condemn? proud boys? stand back and stand by. amy: the proud boys are now selling t-shirts with the president's words "stand back and stand by." on proud boys leaderer told cnn thursday, a he's also the leader of the grassroots group latinos for trump. the trump administration h has

ordered fefederal law enforcemet officials to publicly defend kyle rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with fatally shooting two protesters in kenosha, wisconsin, during black lives matter protests in august according to internal department of homeland security talking points obtained by nbc news. the documents instruct federal agents to say rittenhouse took a gun to kenosha to "help defend small business owners." lastly, rittenhouse's mother, who drove her son across state lines with an assault rifle to the protest, received a standing ovation at republican party event in wisconsin. if convicted of first-degree murder charges, rittenhouse faces up to life in prison. vice news reports police in pearland, texas, requested the presence of border patrol snipers at george floyd's burial on and gave them permission to june 9 use deadly force as members of the militarized tactical unit known as bortac

surveilled funeral attendees. records obtained by vice also reveal an fbi surveillance aircraft was flown over the burial to monitor for so-called violent agitators. that day, at least six sniper teams were in place on rooftops and authorized to open fire. a secretive reliligious group hs scrubbed its website of all references to president trump's nominee to replace the late justice ruth bader ginsburg on the supreme court. amy coney barrett is a long-time member of the catholic group people of praise, whose members pledge a lifelong loyalty oath assigning each member a personal adviser known as "heads" for men and, until recently, "handmaids" for women. people of praise has a strictly patriarchal structure in which men are the heads of household with power over their wives and families. senate republicans have promised a swift confirmation process for amy coney barrett.

on thursday, white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany was pressed by reporters after she falsely claimed barrett was a recipient of a prestigious rhodes scholarship from oxford university. >> you said judge barrett was a rhododes scholar. i'm not sure that is true. >> that is what i have written here. my bad. amy: house democrats on thursday passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, sending the slimmed-down aid package to the senate more than four months after they passed the $3.4 trillion heroes act. senate republicans refused to vote on the previous bill and majority leader mitch mcconnell has signaled he will not vote on the revised heroes act, either. this comes as the census bureau show 10% of u.s. households report they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat within the past seven days, with nearly 1-in-5 black and latino households affected.

meanwhile, anti-hunger activists around the united states are denouncing a letter written in english and spanish and signed by president trump, placed in food assistance boxes doled out to food banks nationwide. they're denouncing the letter as a violation of the hatch act which prohibits federal employees from using government property for partisan politicacl gagain. in new york, over a dozezen housing activists were arrested thursday as hundreds of protesters took to the streets demanding local lawmakers take action on a full eviction moratorium and tenant protection during the pandemic. new york governor andrew cuomo has failed to extend a pandemic eviction ban, which expired yesterday as rent came due. in immigrationon news,s, over 30 people fled honduras yesterday in a caravan with the hopes of reaching the united states. this comes just days after the region reopened its borders

after months of a strict coronavirus like down that left -- lockdown that left thousands without jobs sinking further into poverty. the caravan made it to guatemala yesterday afternoon, where they headed north to the border with mexico. guatemalan president alejandro giammattei announced he had ordered the immediate apprehension of caravan members. meanwhile, the mexican government threatened asylum seekers with prison time if they enter mexico without following proper health protocols, citing alleged concerns due to the pandemic. cnn has released audio recordings of first lady melania trump in 2018 dismissing the harm of separating asylum -seeking families at the u.s.-mexico border stephanie winston wolkoff recorded the commentnts while working on her book "melania and me" about her relationship with the first lady. >> who gives a [bleep] >> 100% -- you had no choice. -- theyhen i do it

said, what about the children that were separated? break. a [bleep] amy: in colombia, renowned historian and leftist leader campo elias galindo was found shot to death in his apartment in the city of medellin. galindo long advocated for social justice and peace in colombia. he was 69 years old. and "the new yorkrker" magazine reports former fox news and reports they paid $4 million. in july 2018 guilfoyle abruptly left her position as co-host of fox news' "the five."

she now serves as president trump's campaign finance chair and is a partner of donald trump,. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we will speak to two leading doctors about president trump testing positive for covid-19 and all that means. we will also be joined by naomi klein. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman.n. president donald trump has anannounced he and first lady melania trump have covid-19, just before 1:00 a.m. eastern time friday. trump tweeted -- "tonight, @flotus and i tested positive for covid-19. we will begin our quarantine and

recovery process immediately. we will get through this together!" for months, trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic, which has killed over 200-8000 americans. cnn reports joe biden is being tested for coronavirus this morning over fears that trump may have infected him at tuesday's debate, where the candidates stood about 10 feet apart, not wearing masks. during the debate, trump mocked biden for wearing masks. pres. trump: i don't wear masks like him. he could be speaking to hundred feet away and shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. amy: trump's announcement early friday that he has covid-19 comes hours after bloomberg news reported that hope hicks, one of trump's closest and longtime advisers, became ill during trump's wednesday night rally in duluth, minnesota, and had to be quarantined aboard air force one

on the return flight to washington. hicks went on to test positive for coronavirus early on thursday, though the white house did not report her illness. a number of reporters who were sayhe air force one flight no one has reached out to them to perform contact tracing or to inform them of their risk of covid-19. on thursday afternoon, president trump flew to his golf resort in bedminster, new jersey, for a campaign fundraiser where he delivered a speech while wearing no mask, coming in close contact with scores of staffers and campaign supporters and major donors. trump's positive result has raised concerns about the line of succession. the white house has just announced vice president mike pence and his wife have both tested negative. pin tenant with trump at a -- pence met with trump at a white house coronavirus task force

briefing on monday. sometimes it takes days before person test positive. president trump is 74 years old. he has elevated blood pressure. he is over the threshold for obesity. factors linked to higher three morbidity and mortality among covid-19 patients. we're going to begin today's show with two doctors. is abdul el-sayed physician, epidemiologist, former director of the detroit health department. author of the book "healing politics: a doctor's journey into the heart of our political epidemic." andd we're joioined by dr. monia gandhi professor of medicine and , a associate division chief of the division of hiv, infectious diseases, and global medicine at ucsf/ san francisco general hospital. we welcome you both to democracy now!w! beginnica gandhi, let's with you. you're known as one of the countries leading mask experts.

start off by responding to this news that both the president and his wife, the first lady, have tested positive for covid and are going into 14 days of quarantine. >> when i first heard this news, mymy biggest concern w was thats particular president and many around him had not been following basic public health guidelines that would prevent acquisitition of covid-19 virus, so i was waiting for this to happen. and what concerns me iss t that ththis partiticular week has ben really heavy with the campaigning and him being around a lot of people and then he yelled nonstop at another candidate for 90 minutes on tuesday in an indoor space without a mask, so i am worried about the impact on all this contact tracing that needs to happen now. so public health principles have

to be followed. amy: let's talk about the app, but the the tick t of how this went out and what we know. ock went staffers test positive -- sometimes the white house announces that. this time that is not how it went down. you had the isolation of hope hicks, one of president trump's closest aides, in the air force one plane coming back from the duluth rally. many reporters did not know this was the case. they were not told the next day that she had been sick in the plane. she tested positive. and then, apparently, the press secretary was slated to fly with president trump to bedminster come his golf resort, for fundraiser yesterday, on thursday. she did not go. she knew of hope hicks positive result but she did hold a press

briefing without a mask and getting in heated debates with reporters in the white house press briefing room -- still, most people did not know. and then the reporters learning about hope hicks who have been on the air force one plane, learning in the media, not from the white house, not from contact tracers, that they might have been exposed. not only do hope hicks -- we have to be clear here, whilele e has tested positive, so has the president and the first lady. can you explain how this works? we actually don't know who possibly is the super spreader or if there are a number of people at the white hououse, but thesese are very" orders -- very close quarteters there. >> the concern about whahat you laid out is this is not at alall how w it is supposed to go.. if someone feels symptomatic or someone has been at risk, there has to be an immediate contact tracing episode where everyone around this person stops doing

what they're doing and we figure out how to isolate people from each other. so the fact that all of these , sole have been put at risk hope hicks is ththe first examp, some if she fell ill on wednesday, there are people between wednesday and when we got the news late last night/early this morning that should have been informed that she was feeling ill. beyond that, all of those people on the plane -- air force one is full of people. there was a lot of people in both desoto and new jersey that were in contact with everyone. this is not how it is supposed to go. we can't be above rules of contact tracing. the reason we do this, we know to isolate the people who have it -- the correct word is "isolate." that means presisident trump i s nott quarantining, he isis isold because he has the e infection. and quarantine people who have been around them, meaning that the stay way from everyone just

in case they get it posted anyone who hasas been out is now exposed, this person and this person, and this is not how an ordinary citizen would have been allowed to go about their business. dr. gandhi, talk about how you found out late last night -- our time it was about 1:00 a.m. in new york, you're in california -- where you were and also about your latest study around masks. we recently had you on because your known as the mask expert. the significance of this when you hear the debate with joe biden on t tuesday night with president trump once againin mockcking him for wearing a mas? >> it is actually this mask issue that is really concerning me. i think there has probably y --i know personally i have seen this president twice in public with a mask. it is the same footage. it is very rare.

beyond that, there is this devastating mockery of the concept of one of the most important pillars of pandemic control, which is facial masking. what we have been looking at, the follow-up to a prospective that we published is -- unmasking, is this idea we wanted to look at mask mandates across the united states in various counties and the severity of illness before and after mask mandates. mask mandates are variable. we did not have a national mask mandate, which all most every other country did. instead, one county would do a mask mandate depending on their politics and surging cases and another would do it depending on their politics and surging cases, instead of national blanket best mandate. after mask mandate, the study should the severity of disease and a 34% of the counties around this country went down

massively. and the reason that is important is our theory is the inoculum or the amount of virus you get in is related to your severity of illness. so showing that decrease in severity of illness is hopeful. the issue with the president is, like you mentioned, he has obesity, and he is elderly. those two factors together put him at risk. and so does possibly the viral inoculum, that he has not been putting something that would protect him, let alone protect other people. and hope hicks being symptomatic, there is data that someone who is symptomatic has a higher viral load, so she may have exposed him to more. let's see out plays out in terms of his degree of illness. he will get great care, but these are very concerning features for him not protecting himselff and absbsolutely not protecting others around him

most of let's bring ann dr. abdul el-sayed. you are both an epidemiologist and her head of detroit's health department and also ran for governor of michigan. you know how the kind of pressure president trump has put on michigan. not to have the kind of precautions that doctors like you have been advocating. this is not the first time a staffer at the white house got sick. this is now not just a staffer, but the president himself. can you talk about thehe culture at the white house? sometimes people wear a mask in the helicopter to air force one but on air force one people do not wear masks and it is frowned upon? also at the white house as well, which puts enormous pressure on reporters and in the white house because they are wearing masks. >> that's right. speaks tole situation the treatment of the covid-19 pandemic not as a serious,

contagious illness that hahas taken hold an infected millions of people around the country, killed 200,000 people, instead, it has been treated as a nuisancece to politicizeze. the white house in keeping w wih that framing of covid-19 has sought to downplay any of the interventions that you can use to keeeep viral transmission do, whether that is vilifying governors and city officials who either support mask mandates or lockdowns when transmission gets high enough, o or it is modeling the peper behavior that we saw become such anan issue just nono just as dr. gandhi spoke to, we don't know how far this is going to go because the upper reaches of government are highly interconnenected. you are talking g about people meeting with the other in the white house or masking is limimited and potentially taking that to capitol hihill, engaging with othther folks -- who do respect masks a little more --

but all of t this pretense poory for the function of our government, let alone what it is said to the american people about masks come about lockdowns, about this pandemic for the past several months. amy: i want to talk about the various people at the white house that president trump has been with. we have learned the pences have tested negative. sometimes it takes days before you are to test positive w when you have been exposesed to someoeone with covid-19. it president trump and the first lady have tested positive. then you have the big events of this week. president trump nominated amy coney barrett. there was a major event at the white house outside. hundreds of people were there. most, including amy coney barrett's whole family -- her seven children and others in the trump family -- were not wearing masks.

now judge amy coney barrett has day going to congress every to meet with mainly republican senators, one after another after another. and she isis shepherded around y white house staff. among the white house staff members are president trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, who goes back and forth ash whether he is negotiating on the coronavirus bill or dealing with judge barrett -- to the white house. all of these potential super ing situations. if reporters were not cocontactd -- they're are not that many on air force one -- and told in situation it was clearly a very closed environment, they were not told of what have been known many, many hours before that they were on a flight with at least one covid-infected person

-- now we know it was at least three because president trump and his wife tested positive. if you canan talk about the significance o of this? >> that's right. but step back and appreciate the natural history of how this works. from that time that you get infected, the virus has to replicate in your body to the point where you're goingng to he enough in your nasopharynx that will show up on a test. that can be anywhere from two days to five days. fi days s is the average time whenen someone might get symptp. we don't actually know how the chain of transmission works. we are assuming the president and his wife may hahave been infected by hope hicks. it is s possible they were infected by the same individual, someone else. we do not know how the chain is working. the point you're making is important -- amy: or that the president might have infected hope hicks. >> we just don't know how this works. frankly, it will take some really, really thoughtful contact tracing. that requires transparency.

there hasn't been any transpararency. their reports out of the white house the peoplele were hoping that hope hicks' diagnoses would not become public and they could hide it from everyryone else. contact tracing requires an hohonest degree ofof transpareny such t that everybody knows if they came in contact w with somebody who may have infected them so that they can do what they need to do to protect themseselves and others. that is clearly not haening here. it is good investigative journalist at work forcing a lot of this informrmation out. but you're right, there is a network of transmission, people like amy coney barrett jumping from senate office to senate office trying to get confirmed, people like mark meadows whose job is to liaise with congress all the time on legislation pending, and all of the super spreader event you just talked about, all of the travel that donald trump and his entourage have beeeen taking over the coue of this campaign. all the while, trying to make a

point a aut this pandemic being less than what we all know it is. a very serious public health tragedy that requires certain steps to protect yourself and protect others. and those that haven't been followed almost at a point of trend or bring it down. now we see -- t to problem with science, if you try toto mess wh science, science always wins. this is what is happening now. wewe wish everyone a speedy recovery, but t the community it takes to say that was not shown by this president or the people around him. unfofortunately, we e are seeing what the consequences are right now. amy: i i want to turn toto prest trtrump speaking at a campaign rally in ohio in september. pres. trump: it affects elderly people. elderly people with heart problems and other problems come if they have other problems that is what it really affects. in some states, thousands of people, nobody young. below the age of 18, likeke,

nobody. they have a strong immune system. who knows?s? take your hat off to the young because they have a hell of an immune system. it affects virtually nobody. amy: if you can respond to that, dr. el-sayed? and now president trump has canceled his campaign rallies, for example, and it was constant -- and we will talk to the reporter john nichols in wisconsin. he was going had despite the fact the positivity rate in wisconsin is going up and up. but what has not been canceled is this one phone conversation that president trump was going to hold today on covid-vulnerable seniors. talk about president trump. he is a senior. he i is 74. he is obese. talk about what are known as comorbidities.

>> you talk about this virus, we know the virus it's the people, not abstract people. real people have other things going onon. as you get older, the number of things that may be going on at effect the way the virirus overl changes yoyour health,h, theyy increase. this is, to use his words,s, hes an elderly person with other problems coming putting hypertension, high blood pressure, and his obesity. both of those things portend poorlyly. not n nobody.le are i would imagine the president himself would agree he is not nobody, but he is saying the consequences of the politicization of this virus. now he, and his family, are dealing with what this looks like to be infected and have to watch your whole life come to a stop. we don't even know the long-term course of his illness may be. then the statistics and

epidemiology of what we have seen in the past, it does not pretend well for him. we wish everyone who is sick with this disease and any disease a speedy recovery, but it requires us to step back and look at the inconsistency of what he has had and the inconsistency of how him and his party have behaved around this, then step back and say, look, if it can happen to him, what does that mean about how we have been dealing with this all along and what we should have beeeen doing for all of these people who have both become sick and died and all these people who have lost livelihoods because of it? tweweet of to go to a a bloomberg reporter. this is really interesting. it was tweeted by jennifer jacobs. she broke the bloomberg story on hope hicks. this is veryry importatant. the e white house did not revevl this. so they did notot reveal that se was sick with covid-19 on the plane at night wednenesday and thursday m morning before president trump flew to

bedminster. so the people who met him at bedminster, his high donors and a closed event of about 100 people, they did not know -- the people on the plane, and so often the coconcern about staffs thaterve him, did not know he had been exposed to covid. but it is not just hope hicks. jennifer jacobs tweets, "some of trump's closest aides sensesed n wednesday that the preresident s feeling poorly. the president seemed exhausted, i'm m told. someme talked it up t to 15 fron intense campaign schedule and others began to worry he had the coronavirus." this was on wednesday. as he flew in a plane, knowing that hope hicks,s, one of his closest aides, had tested positive for covid-19. what does that mean to fly i ina plane when you know you have been exposed to someone w with active coronavirus, not to

mention may not be feeling g wel themseselves? >> franknkly, it is unethicall behavior. the minute you think you may be a conduit for someone else's illness, you have a responsibility to declare that. to fly on a p plane, all of the people, all of the aides on the plane with you, thinking it is a safe place to be, you knonowing you potentially could d be ill d making them ill cocome in that s innanate unethical thing to do t also k keeping with the way this president has dealalt with this virus all alonong. has a aets off the plane meeting in a closed-dooror area potentially exposing a whole bunch of s suppororters to this, all of this speaks to an unwillingness s and frarankly a moral failure are not engagingg this virus for what it is, keeping the people he has sworn to serve safe, and recognizing how the science workss around transmting thihis disease among people. it is unethical. frankly, it is immoral.

we are seeing with the consequences are. amy: i wanted to ask dr. gandhi, in july, herman cain, the former republican presidential candidate and co-chair of black voices for trump, died at the age ofof 74 after a month-long battle with covid-19. let's go back a month. cain's last public appearance 20 when he tweeted a photo of himself at a trump rally in tulsa, oklahoma. cain wore no mask at the event, which featured thousands of people packed tightly together. he tested positive for the coronavirus 11 days after trump's rally, where campaign officials discouraged mask use and were filmed removing social distancing stickers inside the arena. yet you have president trump tuesday night saying no one has gotten sick at his rallies, as died.knonows -- herman cain a a terrible thining.

it was a tererrible tragedy because since e we know how to prevent trtransmission and mitigate the impact of the illness, while we're waiting for a v vaccine, all of thihis prprinciples should be i in pla. social distancing, hand hygygie, ventilation if you can, universal masking. so since none of that was at play, anan older man who was a supporter did get sick at h his rally and subsequently died -- which is the worst part about this, the people die. i think that was a tragedy. so now we have another situation where people could get very sick because they are older, they have comorbidities, and people were not being told people were at risk and then they are in close quarters and then there is no mask. we are all going to be watching with concern.

how many people geget tested, hw many for appropriate contact tracing, and how many people are treated now. it is going to be -- i would absolutely not hold this debate on october 15. the next debate. that would not be right. president may not be infectious by then, but still good practice. there needs to be a a lot of f k riright n now just fofocused one illness. amy: i want to thank you, dr. monica gandhi, professor of memedicine at ucsf/ / san franco general hospital. and dr. abdul el- sayed, former director of the detroit health department. author of the new book "healing politics: a doctor's journey into the heart of our political epidemic." when we come bacack, we will be joined by neil mclean in british -- naomi klein in british colombia, and john nichols about

how this deuce will impact the presidential race. also talk about the line of secession. do you know who is in light of a president cannot perform their functions from president to vice president t to house speaker --n this case, nancy pelosi -- to senator chuck grassley. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. this continue to look at breaking news, president trump and the first lady testing positive for covid-19, announcing they will be quarantined for the next 14 days, canceling his campaign events. we ended today show looking get healthy development will impact the presidential race. we're going tststart withth naoi klein, senior correrespondent at the intercept and a professor at ruruers univerersity.

of new shortducer video called "a message from the future ii: the years of repair." klein's latest book is now out in paperback, "on fire: the case for a green new deal." naomi, i assume you went to sleep not knowing this news and you wake up looking down from british columbia and you see what has taken place. you cover leaders around the world. we know that president bolsonaro tested positive for covid-19 -- at least he announced something like three times. then you have boris johnson, the prime minister britain who said both of them, like trump, who have so seriously downplayed the pandemic, risking not clear how many lives, boris johnson, the prime minister said he was going to work through this. he ended up in the intensive care unit. naomi, if you can talk about this link of the denial of t the

pandemic to o authoritaria leleaders? >> sure. amy, it is good to be with you. absolutely. when you look at these figures, trump, bolsonaro, johnson -- these are e the figures s who believe e they can bully this virus and they belilieve they cn bubully science in all kikinds f ways. ofof course, the p pandemic doet bend to their will. so they have all been under this reality avalanche. trump is a reality television star. he is used to being able to cut and paste reality to his liking. began and pandemic his denials made it so much worse and is bullying of scientists made it worse, he has finally confronted some physical reality that he can't bully in the same when he frankly bullies the stock market and has a lot of success and a reality, but there are some reality that does not confirm -- does not cononfo.

i also h have spent a lot of my writing career researching moments of shock and how t they are e exploited by thee powerfu. that is the thesis behind "thehe shock doctrine." i find myself thinking a lot about that this mornining becaue as we speak, there is no doubt that trump is meeting with his advisers and has been since they know about this, since they know about hope hicks, trying to figure out how to exploit this, including i am afraid, using it as an excuse to do what they have been trying to do relentlessly, which is discredit elections that trump is terrified he is going g to lose. as we think about what this means, we need to be prepared for the president u using the ft he is having to cancel hisis

cacampaign evevents for two weeo try to furthther delelegitimize elections that he vevery likely will lose. rememember thatd to this president has been campaigning for reelection since the day after he was inaugururad and d since he startrted circulg ralliesphotogrgraphs of the that s supposedly greeted him. he has had plenty o of time t to campaign. he has done nothing but campaign for reelection since he became president. democratsng a lot of sendnding thououghts and p prays this morning. i think what we should seek trump getting covovered as the epidememiologicacal equivalenena mass shoototing where the shootr opened firire on the crowd andne tuturns gugun on himself. this is not a tragic accident. it is a crime scene and should be treated as such. coming back to those leaders he

that theed, i t think reckless endangering of the country,y, but alsoo himself, ia result of f the facact he truly believes-- i think hee in white supremacy to be honest. omar tweeted yesterday the president is a white supremacist. i think she is r right. he talks about h his good genes all the titime and this kind of coded language. i i think he has such faith in s own genetic supremacy that he has engaged in this reckless behavior despite all of the health risks that we have heard from medical experts earlier in the show because he believed himself to be supreme. he is not. he is fallible. he is mortal. amy: we're also joined by john nichols, naomi speaking to us from british columbia, john

nichols is speaking to us from wisconsin. "the new page piece in york times" because when they put out their print edition, did not know about the l latest announcement, president trump and the first lady have covid, it is "covered and campaigns collide and battlegrounds of wisconsin." john, we are talking to you and you wisconsinn whehere "the tims writes, three of the four major areas in the united d states wih the mostst cases per capita were in northeast wisconsin. one a hospital in green bay, t e third-largest of you in the state, w was n nearly f full ths week. daily statewide g gifts this wek because the coronavirus had a record wins and when officials reported 26 people had succumbed to the virus, and it goes on from there. that did not stop president trump from going to wisconsin but what did stop it is he himself and the first lady getting sick. at least one staffer, if not

more, testingg positive for covid-19. your thoughts? last has been a remarkable 2424 hours i in wisconsin. while what has happened with the lead newsis of couourse now comeme over the last 24 hou, had a circumstance in wisconsin where the mayor of the city of la crosse was pleading with thee president and with the white house and wiwith the campaign nt to come. the campaigign finally decided t to come stuffed and they decided they would go to janesville. officials in janesville pleaded with the campaign not to come to janesville. we h had this remarkable play ot in wisconsin of a very serious andck in coronavirus cases in deaths. official saying, look, this is not the time to come and campaign and yet up until this diagnosisis, full intent to try and come i in.

we really have seen the intersection of the campaign. and the president's denial of seriousness of these events come of having these events without masks, without social distancing, come in to clash with reality at this time i think is something every wisconsinite. is going to notice amy: can you explain the 20 for the movement and the line of succession if president trump were too sick to function as president, it goes to vice president pence and then to the house speaker nancy pelosi, then to chuck grassley in the senate. the significance of this and what this means now? understandportant to the president and the people around him say he is not expensing sysymptoms at this pot and that he will continue to govern. ist we do know is that if he incapacitated -- that is to say

if he is physically in a situation where it is determined he can't govern or he determines he can't do so, it moves to mike pence. if pence is incapacitated in some way, he moves to nancy pelosi and to grassley. that is the standard system. it has come to this before. we have had circumstances in the password the presidents have gone into surgery, where president reagan was shot, where the 20 for the moment came into play -- 20 for them, came into play. what i would for size is i doubt very much this president wilill want that to h happen and so evn if he does have minor symptoms, i suspect he will continue to try and govern. what is significant is the impact on campaigning is very, very significant. because if you follow the cdc protocols, president trump can't

-- just because of the diagnosis -- should not go out for at least 10 days and joe biden also is someone who has come into contact with someone who has now been diagnosed also has to follow cdc protocols -- amy: he is testing this morning. >> he is. amy: the biden campaign put off a reporter on their plane. we will see if he goes to michigan because he event on air force one where hope hicks was in the president was. >> so this becomes a reallyy turbulent moment in the last month of the campaign. you u have thehe potential as mh as a third or half of the last month of campaign may be redefined by the abilityty of te candidates to physically go out and campaign. arere n now in this era virtrtual campaigning, so that becomes a factor. one thing, the president particularly has not wanted to do virtualal campaigning. he has beeeen very committtted o these in person events.

biden has been much more inclined toward it. the final thing we have to be conscious of, we have a number of debates scheduled. it is hard to imagine how those debates go forward in any kind of traditional model -- although, you could in fact start talking about the idea of virtual debates most of amy: which is interesting bececause next week is the vice president told debate and while they're saying pence and his wife have een negative, have been in contact with people, the president. naomi klein, then you have the hearings, possibly, who knows if they will continue for the supreme court justice amy coney barrett as she goes from one republican senator's office to another with white house staffers, white house staffers going back and forth who have been with president trump numerous times, what this could mean? and the oldest member of the senate is the second in command of the judiciary committee, dianne feinstein. will these hearings be put off?

what about amy coney barrett's on family who did not wear masks when presidentnt trump introducd her last week? >> therere's been huge amount of reckless endangerment, no doubt. i think if we were followiwing e proper protocols, the senate would not be ablble to meet, ththereforore, the confirmationn would not be able e to happen. i think we should be thinking also of the working people who have been exposed by this administration recklessly in the past f few days -- the drivers, the caterers, so many people without her consent t have been exposed. in the c country, think about tt thousands of meat processing plant workers who were ordered to work under extrememely unsafe conditions by this president bebecause he believed bacacon wn essential service.e. so many pepeople have been endangerered by his policies. amy: we have to end it there and

we will continue to cover the story. "the miami herald" reporting chris wallace, members of the first family waved off the offer of masks from members of the cleveland clinic once they sat down in the hall to watch the debate. ÷é÷é÷élédddddd@"@"@"