that the president of the united states and the first lady have tested positive for covid-19. only 32 days before the election, this stunning news announced by the president overnight in a tweet. both he and the first lady are isolating in the white house, in the residence, with what they describe as mild symptoms. chief of staff mark mode oweadoe out and tried to calm nerves, as well as in the markets. >> the president, as you all know, and the first lady have tested positive for covid-19. they remain in good spirits. the president does have mild symptoms. i'm not going to get into any particular treatment that he may or may not have. >> the news came only hours after reports that the president's closest adviser, hope hicks, had contracted the virus. hicks was with the president and the first lady tuesday in cleveland for the debate. when the first family did not wear masks like other members of the audience. this picture was taken wednesday

when hicks was boarding marine one for a trip to a minnesota rally with the president. it was after that rally that she began to show symptoms on the flight home. it's not clear why the president then took a trip to new jersey the next day for a fundraiser. this morning, the white house says vice president mike pence and karen pence both tested negative for the virus today. a white house staffer later tweeted that both jared kushner and ivanka trump were tested today and also are covid negative. moments ago utah republican senator mike lee, a member of the judiciary committee who recently met with judge amy coney barrett and had been at the white house saturday for a rollout, tweeted he has also tested positive for covid. democratic presidential nominee joe biden and his senior staff are all being tested today, they say. we will bring you any updates on covid test results for biden and any trump family members, senior white house staffers or campaign leaders as we get them. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent peter alexander, nbc political reporter monica alba, who is on air force one

with the president for the trip to the debate, first lady, and hope hicks as well on tuesday night and is voluntarily quarantining in florida today. nbc's mike memoli and "washington post" bureau chief phil rucker. welcome, all. peter, i know you've been up through the night, let's talk about you, the white house team, hallie jackson, of course, all night. tell us about what we heard from mark meadows today and the rest of the white house staff. you have the marine guards, the pilot on marine one, the pilot on air force one, others on the staff, the usher, the wait staff, there are a lot of white house staff and their families who all could be implicated. >> andrea, you're exactly right. it's best to describe this as a constellation of contacts, starting with hope hicks, the

president and first lady, and it goes out, the rings of folks they have have interactions with over the last 72 hours, perhaps more than that. let's start with the details about the president and first lady. i'm told they're both experiencing mild symptoms right now. they are in isolation here at the residence behind me. meadows saying that the president is in good spirits right now, an aide telling me it's business as usual, that the president has been speaking to some of his aides today and intends to continue his schedule from there. notably we really haven't heard from him on twitter since that tweet last night revealing his diagnosis. now, beyond that we're getting details from other individuals who have tested negative over the course of the day. mark meadows among them, ivanka trump and jared kushner testing negative as well. stephen miller, one of the president's top aides, his speechwriter, dan scavino, some of the individuals in close orbit with president trump and hope hicks. remember, andrea, this has spread out over a couple of days. they were at a rally in

pennsylvania on wednesday. on tuesday she was in an entourage with the president and rudy giuliani and others when they went to a debate site and back as our colleague monica alba will report. wednesday, just about 48 hours ago, that's when the minnesota rally took place. hicks, she was not having any symptoms that morning. she flew to minnesota. it was when they arrived in minnesota she began to experience symptoms. for the flight home wednesday night, she was quarantined aboard air force one. not until thursday was it determined she had tested positive. but i think this is where a lot of people are going to be drilling down today. finally meadows telling us the president, the white house was aware she had tested positive as she was departing on marine one yesterday. he continued with his travels to new jersey and back for a fundraiser raising millions of dollars. there's going to be a lot of scrutiny about that decision, andrea. >> peter, thank you so much. monica, you were part of the travel pool, the small group of reporters who went with the president.

you were on air force one. you went to cleveland, you were in the debate hall, then of course the return trip. i know you're in florida where we had expected the president to be going today, you were awaiting him there. you are isolating or quarantining yourself voluntarily in your hotel room. so let's talk about that. you saw a lot in the debate hall. that's the first thing that comes to mind. we talked the other day, you described how someone in a lab coat from the cleveland clinic there where they had advised people in the audience, not the candidates but the audience, to wear masks once they were on the way and inside, and the first family, their delegation, did not. and that they approached them or didn't quite get close to them, to ask them to wear the mask. exactly what went down? >> exactly, andrea. and it's so emblematic of this struggle. we've seen the trump campaign, the white house, resist the use of face coverings almost as a

stance they've taken, only wearing them in isolated situations, like we saw at the debate tuesday night. i thought it was so notable, when everybody was boarding air force one, it was this very large group of people, 20 to 30 high profile staffers and members of the president's family. he never has that many people around him. all of them boarding air force one without masks, feeling a sense of comfort and false complacency because they assume they're tested every day and they're negative so they can operate without a mask. when they got to the debate site, the cleveland clinic, the rules as set out by the commission were that everybody in the audience needed to be wearing a mask. but as we saw members of the trump family discarded that guidance. they walked in wearing masks but then when they took their seats they removed them, except notably the first lady, who kept hers on a little bit. but when she went up after the debate to greet the president, she didn't have her mask on.

we've seen this rage as a debate in the white house over the last few months, they've really resisted this. tuesday night, as we were getting off the plane in cleveland, again, the people posing for photos, the trump family, they do this as a sort of act of -- they want to be in defiance of the rules and the guidelines. that's really what it seemed like. and even at the cleveland clinic when people were urging them to wear masks, somebody simply said, it's all that we can do is essentially suggest it, but you can't really enforce it. and on that debate stage, andrea, we saw the president mock former vice president joe biden for wearing a mask. and the president continued to tout his giant rallies that sometimes have thousands of people still in this age of the pandemic, what he was supposed to be holding tonight, all of those future campaign event have been canceled, we understand. this is a president who wanted to break the rules and tout and really flaunt his own breaking of his own agencies' guidelines when it comes to health and

safety of himself and of his family, as we saw so clearly on tuesday night, andrea. >> and thanks, monica. you alluded to him taunting joe biden at that rally. let's play some of that, phil, and take a look at it again in retrospect. >> i wear masks when needed. when needed, i wear masks. >> let me ask -- >> i don't wear masks like him. every time you see him, he's got a mask. he could be speaking 200 feet away, he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. >> and so, phil, that's been his messaging. on rare occasions you'll see him in a mask. but that's what he's been saying despite the fact that dr. fauci and all the members of the white house task force repeatedly say to socially distance, to wear your mask, to wash your hands. >> including, andrea, the testimony a week or two ago from the centers for disease control and prevention director, who said if everybody just wore a mask, it would really help control the spread of this

virus. one fact-checking note, the president does not often wear a mask. we've only seen him in public wearing a mask, two, three, maybe four times. the idea that he wears a mask from time to time is just disingenuous, he doesn't wear one very often. it's also important to keep in mind how many places he has been in the last week and how many literally hundreds of people he may have come into contact with who could have either given him the virus or whom he may have given it to them, including the folks at that fundraiser in bedminster, new jersey. he's always interacting, as he travels, with his own staff, with the people on board the plane, with the military folks at the airports when he comes and goes, with the staff inside the residence who cook his meals and clean his rooms, and the secret service personnel, and we could go on and on. and so contact tracing is an extraordinary challenge at this hour for the white house to try to figure out exactly where this virus originated from, but also who else might have become infected.

>> and there are people, other people including jim jordan, of course, a ranking member of very important committees including judiciary on the house side, he was on air force one on tuesday. mike memoli, the president has mocked joe biden for the cautious way that he has mostly conducted a virtual campaign. the first time i saw him interacting with people in general was on the way back on wednesday, on train trip, along the rails, he sort of loosened up a bit on the amtrak. she going to revert to a much more cautious approach? what is he going to do about this michigan trip scheduled today? >> yeah, andrea, this is one of those days where i'll apologize for glancing down at my phone every few seconds, because we're waiting for updates, we may have some shortly from the former vice president and whether his campaign schedule will go ahead today. as we've reported all day, he has been tested along with dr. biden, also other biden campaign officials who were with him in cleveland for that debate on

tuesday night also being tested, as were the press corps who were going to be traveling with with him today and the rest of the staff who would have been with him. what have we seen from the biden campaign since the very earliest stages of this pandemic, andrea? in march he had barely built up a head of steam in the democratic nomination battle when the campaign essentially shut down. he didn't appear in public in any forum until memorial day. it was only after the convention in late august where he began traveling to battleground states in earnest. at every step of the way, andrea, the biden campaign has made sure whatever public events are doing are fully compliant with local ordinances. we're across the street where where he was scheduled to appear as soon as 1:00 this afternoon. obviously he hasn't even left delaware yet, so that campaign schedule is still on hold. it was an outdoor setting, it was socially distant. this is kind of campaigning he's going to be doing, andrea, and we'll see if it affects things going forward. >> and very briefly, phil, the president loves those rallies, that's been his signature, even

going to tulsa against all advice, an indoor rally, and one other indoor rally. what's going to happen going forward? we don't know how long he's going to be convalescing, and whether he can do things virtually. this is a big impact. and likely we don't even know what's going to happen with any other debates. >> it's a huge impact, andrea. the reality is at this hour we just don't know what form this campaign is going to take from the trump perspective in the days ahead. clearly if he's isolating in the white house residence, he cannot be doing these large scale rallies, although we don't have any information on how many days he's going to isolate for, whether he would honor that 14-day protocol by the cdc or not, or when if at all those rallies might resume. you're correct in saying he loves the large scale rallies. there's virtually no social distancing at them. masks are recommended but not required and many of his supporters choose not to wear them. >> and mike memoli, do you have

an update for us on michigan and the joe biden campaign? >> not on michigan, but andrea, some important news to share at this point, a senior biden campaign official tells me the former vice president has tested negative for the coronavirus, an important, important signal from the campaign at least that if there was any interaction with him, his team that was close to any members of the trump team that would have been exposed. at this point he has tested negative. >> thanks so much for that update, mike memoli. which brings us -- thankfully, to dr. zeke emanuel. we need a doctor, we need some advice. dr. emanuel of course is the global health adviser at the university of pennsylvania and a member of joe biden's health advisory team. first of all, dr. emanuel, we don't know -- there are tests and there are tests. and we can get into this later in the program, but we don't know what kind of tests any of these people have been having.

we presume the president had more than the rapid test that he takes every day when he ended up testing positive very late last night, early this morning. >> i think you're right, they wouldn't have gone out with a positive unless they are convinced that it was not a false positive. they did not want to repeat what governor dewine of ohio had where he had a test, went out that he was positive, then did a confirmatory pcr test, which is considered the gold standard, and it showed that in fact he was negative. i'm pretty convinced on the president's side this is not a false positive, this is a real positive. plus we now have confirmation that he's symptomatic. this isn't just asymptomatic experience. there was information that he was fatigued on wednesday, slept on air force one flight back. so this is a real positive. >> now, the risk level, the

comorbidities, he's 74 years old, he's our oldest president. he is, just, you know, visually, it's overweight, they have not been very careful about disclosing what his medical information is, i should say, as compared to other presidents who have given detailed medical reports both as candidates and as president. the reporting out of this white house, there was, you know, very little if any reporting before he became president and very little since. >> absolutely right, lack of transparency of the medical records, what exactly his health condition is, but also the lack of transparency about this whole episode. hope hicks' positivity did not come from the white house. and the fact that the president flew up to new jersey to do a fundraiser just seems irresponsible and totally unethical. exposing people. it reminds you of rand paul

going to the senate gym to exercise when he knew he was positive. and if the president was symptomatic, again, irresponsible. and not wearing a face mask. we don't even a lot about the president. we do know he's 74, which increases his risk for covid death if he's covid positive to about 11%, which itself is sky high. he's obese, borderline obese with a body mass index roundabout 30 to 30.5. we know that in the past he's had high cholesterol. exactly how that rates now, we don't even we don't know. he has a prediabetic situation. he is from health standpoint at increased risk. mark meadow dodged the question about what therapies they've started. things they may be considering or even have started, we just don't know because of that lack of transparency, did he get

remdesivir? did he get any of these monoclonals that are in advanced phase iii testing and looking positive? have they put him on an anticoagulant? because we know that blood clots are a serious complication of covid. we just don't know how they're managing him. again, speak to ing to the lack transparency in the whole health situation around the world's most important leader just doesn't seem quite responsible to the american public. >> dr. zeke emanuel, thanks so much for being with us, we really appreciate your expertise here. and next, how will the president's covid diagnosis impact the campaign and the halls of congress? democratic congresswoman debbie dingell joins me next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. msnbc. ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪

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this just in, democratic vice presidential candidate kamala harris has tested negative for covid-19. we're waiting to hear on vice president joe biden. he was scheduled to go to michigan today for a campaign event in grand rapids this afternoon. joining me now, democratic congresswoman debbie dingell of michigan, joining us from washington today where congress is in session. thank you very much, congresswoman, for being with us. the hill has been unsettled, there have been a lot of white house people interacting on the hill both on the republican and democratic side as negotiations continue for a covid-19 relief

bill, as well as on the senate side, bringing amy coney barrett around, who has tested negative, by the way. so there's just a lot of people who have gone to the white house, mostly republicans. and now we hear mike lee testing positive after having been there on saturday. we don't know if there's a connection, but it certainly has taken place. what are you hearing? >> so, i mean, andrea, first of all, all of us wish him good wishes, nobody wants anything bad to happen. i hope they have a mild case and that they do quickly recover. but having said that, i'm not going to -- many people have been -- it's secondhand, but that's what's called community spread. the speaker has been in many meetings with people from the white house this week. we've all been in many meetings with the speaker this week. several of my colleagues who

i've been very close to this week were at the debate on tuesday. most of my colleagues who were at the debate were at the doctor's office this morning being tested. he don't even if they've been given warnings to quarantine or not. there was some discussion of that. the rest of us have asked for guidance. i'm asymptomatic, let me make that clear. i take my temperature and my oxygen twice a day. we'll probably be tested next week so i'm not endangering anyone else. but yes, there is a level of discomfort. i'm going to go back to what the scientists and doctors have told us. wear your mask, keep physical distance, and wash your hands. that is effective right now as a vaccine. leadership need to wear the mask and hopefully those of us who have been wearing the mask will be okay. >> the president has really slammed joe biden for staying mostly on a virtual campaign and ridiculed him, including in the

debate, from wearing a mask. do you think that joe biden should still go out and come to michigan today as he's planned to and can he campaign effectively with this hanging over everyone's head? >> so he is still coming to michigan. i asked that question myself first thing this morning. i think that this is an opportunity to look at leadership. and the vice president has been very careful from the beginning, as he has gone out. i saw him when he was in michigan before. he is wearing a mask at all times, washing his hands, keeping physical distance. he does not have big crowds. he's been mocked for doing that, but he's been a leader. she he's showing people how you can connect with human beings but do it safely. they are regularly tested, as you just talked about. he is regularly tested. i think they're listening, which is very important here, to

scientists and doctors and taking their advice and following it. >> do you think, by the way, bring let you go, that there will be any breakthrough on the covid-19 relief bill? >> so i just left the there are to race over here to do this with you. steny talked to us on the floor. we are on notice to come back next week, it will likely be wednesday or thursday. i continue to believe we need to get something done for the american people. i'm hopeful and i know that nancy pelosi knows that and is doing everything she can to make that happen. and what i think many people don't realize is covid is real. it can impact anybody. and maybe the reality will hit home with people and they'll communicate with their senators and members about the importance of getting something done. >> congresswoman debbie dingell of michigan, thank you so much for staying with us, stay safe. thanks for coming today.

some breaking news from louisville, kentucky. the grand jury recordings in the breonna taylor case have been released on a judge's order. our team is listening to them, we'll bring you details as soon as we get them. first, how the president's covid diagnosis could have implications beyond the u.s. ay s ay s and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. the shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one disposable pad. i wanted more from my copd medicine that's why i've got the power of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved once-daily 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy ♪ the power of 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy ♪ 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy woman: with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works three ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation, for 24 hours of better breathing.

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tested positive for the coronavirus, he spoke out about his top aide hope hicks' diagnosis, suggesting she may have contracted covid-19 from the military. this was calling into fox sdmne and hannity. >> but it's very, very hard, uh, when you were with people from the military or from law enforcement and they come over to you and they -- they want to hug you and they want to kiss you, because we really have done a good job for them. and you get close and things happen. i was surprised to hear with hope but she's a very warm person with them. >> how did that strike you, jeremy? jeremy bash, i'm sorry, i should introduce you first. >> that's all right. >> former chief of staff to the cia and the pentagon. >> it struck me the same way it struck you, andrea. which is that it sounded like the president was telegraphing something maybe he was told in a briefing about hope hicks'

situation, trying to maybe throw the military under the bus. but it's possible that that's the explanation he was given and he sort of let it fly on hannity last night. andrea, look, i think that the question on everybody's mind this morning is, you know, what happens when the commander in chief gets ill? and obviously he has the ability to remain commander in chief even in isolation in the white house. he has the secure phones. he can continue to give orders to the military, to the intelligence community, and to the national security apparatus. however, if he takes a turn for the worse and he gets significantly sicker like boris johnson did in the uk where he went into intensive care, we may have to have a situation where mike pence becomes the acting president. >> and that has happened before. it happened in fact when george w. bush handed authority over when he had colonoscopies and he was under anesthesia, he would hand authority temporarily over

to vice president cheney and take it back when it was over. there have been instances such as that when the president was under anesthesia in the past, that under the 25th amendment. let's talk about what's happening overseas. what is the u.s. doing to guard against any aggressions, any chance by our adversaries that they might try to take advantage, russia, china, the south china sea, taiwan? what's happening overseas? >> to the first point, there has to be clarity in the chain of command. so you're right, under president reagan, and under president george w. bush, there have been three instances in which the vice president became the acting president. when the president knew that he was going under some medical procedure. here we have a little bit more of a gray zone, because when does the president become so incapacitated that he turns over the reins to mike pence? that's unclear, we'll need to see clarity when we get to that.

overseas, our intelligence community will have to keep their ear to the ground and watch closely to see if our adversaries will try to take advantage of this moment, whether a terrorist organization that could cause a national security crisis to escalate. our military, our intelligence community has to be on a heightened state of awareness. it's not a formal change in the alert designation, but they will have to be watching to see whether or not anybody tries to do anything during this perilous time. >> and it's so interesting, brazil's president bolsonaro, and of course in the uk, boris johnson, and president trump, all pretty much covid deniers, all came down with it, the irony there. take a look at vladimir putin. vladimir putin has been in isolation since march. he's -- the kremlin put out a picture even of putin doing a cabinet meeting virtually on the computer. and he's been in his residence,

he has not been seeing the press. he is absolutely -- here the former intelligence guy is really taking this seriously. >> he is taking it seriously. and of course as a leader, a national leader, you have to kind of go the extra mile and you have to set a leadership tone and tenor for the people that you are in charge of. i think we're probably seeing this in the military, at the defense department, where commanders and leaders are trying to set the right tone for the people that they command. it's vitally important that if you're in a leadership position, you go the extra mile to show that you're being careful. again, i'm not casting blame and saying trump was careless and this is why he got it, because it is of course an equal opportunity virus, it will take on anybody that it's in proximity to. but look, even at the debate on tuesday night, when the cleveland clinic professionals said to folks, you have to wear a mask in the hall, the biden team wore it, the trump family said no.

and everybody obviously has to tolerate their own risk. but of course the president can become sort of a super spreader because he is in touch with so many other people. he goes to a fundraiser in bedminster, new jersey. he goes to a rally in minnesota. he holds meetings in the white house. he travels on air force one. there are so many people that naturally have to be in contact with the president that it's a very dangerous situation when that president then is infected and can spread the disease. >> and we have to worry about the secret service details in both cities, and those who travel with him, as well as the fact that the white house is a really small place. the situation room, those corridors. so there are a lot of people who come in contact with him, as you know so well from your years there. jeremy bash, thanks so much, thanks for being with us. still to come, how the president's positive coronavirus test could disrupt capitol hill, including the confirmation hearings for amy coney barrett. plus the latest on the covid relief bill negotiations. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. to lock away debris

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let's turn to capitol hill and the ripple effects of president trump's positive coronavirus diagnosis. joining us now, nbc news congressional correspondent kasie hunt and msnbc medical contributor dr. vin gupta. kasie, first to you, what is the fallout on capitol hill? we've heard that mike lee, the senator from utah who had been at the white house on saturday and took i guess one of those rapid tests and tested negative saturday as he was going over there for the rollout of amy coney barrett, but now he's positive and is isolating at home. >> right, andrea, and that obviously underscoring some questions about this testing, since of course everyone did have to test negative to go to that white house event and also test negative to be inside the debate hall on tuesday night. yes, senator mike lee who also met with amy coney barrett on

capitol hill on tuesday, announcing he's tested positive and will be self-isolating. the reality is this is rippling across capitol hill. there were a number of other members of congress, senators who attended that event at the white house. there obviously have been 30 plus senators who have met with amy coney barrett, who has been in contact with mark meadows who of course has been in close contact with the president. even just trying to say it all out loud, you get a sense of just how complicated this web could potentially be. and the reality is there's been a sense of security around this testing regime. so i know i have seen mark meadows on capitol hill over the course of the past several weeks and months not necessarily wearing a mask because, of course, when you are tested all the time, there's this sense, well, okay, i'm not dangerous to other people and i don't have this virus myself. but as we are learning, this is not how the virus works. and so we've been in touch over

the course of the morning with a number of senate republicans and democrats who are concerned about this. a number of them, if they only had a brief meeting with amy coney barrett, for example, are being advised by the capital physician not to get tested or to self-isolate if they don't have symptoms. the guidelines have been a little bit dinnfferent for some others, mike lee among them. we're waiting to see what congressman jim jordan will ultimately do. he was on the plane to the debate with the president. so again, this is having so many effects across the government, not just inside the west wing or the oval office, andrea. >> and jim jordan, of course, prominent republican, not wearing a mask, at several house judiciary committee hearings a month or so ago, really upsetting some of the democratic members because the chairman of that committee has a wife who has a serious disease, he's

vulnerable, they thought it was very unfair for jim jordan to refuse to put a mask on repeatedly, not just when he was asking questions. there is a lot of tension over this as it's become so political. i'm always curious, why the house physician, why congress does not have testing for members. >> well, andrea, that has become a point of contention. chuck schumer, minority leader in the senate, came out this morning and said it's time for that to change. this to a certain extent was a policy that was put in place when it was much harder for average americans to get a test. we know testing is still difficult to find in some places. but it has become more widely available or quicker in other places. mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, and nancy pelosi, the house speaker, made a decision that they didn't want special treatment. they thought it would look bad and be the wrong policy to take advantage of having access to something that average americans

are struggling with. clearly we are at a point where this -- and we're having conversations about continuity of government, about making sure that everything is still able to function. there are national security implications, as you were talking about with jeremy bash. that's prompting some calls to change how this is done. whether it changes the politics of this, i don't know. that question is still out there. and the capital physician seems to have been -- or seems to have been taking an interesting approach in terms of recommending testing or not. he's been pretty conservative. there are situations where in many cases, i've spoken with aides who have personal physicians off capitol hill who have said those physicians have recommended getting tested. senator joe manchin, for example, met with amy coney barrett for over an hour last night. they both were wearing masks, according to his office, but the capitol physician has recommended against manchin getting a test unless he develops symptoms.

so it's an interesting message coming from the physician there, andrea. >> thanks so much, kasie, we really appreciate that. dr. vin gupta, i wanted to talk to you, thanks very much for being with us. let's talk about these tests, but first an update, unfortunately we understand that the president of the university of notre dame, the reverend john jenkins, has learned that he has -- that father jenkins has been tested and found to be positive also. father jenkins was at the white house on saturday because of course amy coney barrett had taught for 15 years at the notre dame law school so he was one of the honored guests there on saturday. and now he as well as mike lee who were in the rose garden for that event have tested positive. he says his symptoms are mild, he will continue to work from home. the positive test is a good reminder for how vigilant we need to be. notre dame was supposed to be one of the debate sites and decided, as a cautionary measure

for their students and faculty, not to host the debate there. so that debate was moved. so dr. gupta, we're learning just how unpredictable this is, and i still have these questions about these rapid tests, because the president has felt so confident about not wearing a mask because he's tested every day. but now we learn that he did test positive after testing negative, repeatedly testing negative. >> good morning, andrea, it's good to see you. so a lot to unpack. let's start with testing. right now, from what i understand, based on the reporting, the white house has the abbott i.d. now machinery. nothing against abbott, but that test has been independently assessed from scientists at nyu and other organizations, and their false negative rate, that means you actually have covid-19 but the test says you're negative, is three out of every ten, we think, maybe even

higher, according to some studies. so the fact that the executive branch of our government is relying on frankly a poorly performing rapid test does not inspire confidence. the fact that senator mike lee, you had referenced this, i'll move on to point two, is negative one day, positive the next, hope hicks same thing, could mean one of two things. either the test was falsely negative on day one and turned out positive on day two, or, potentially also likely, they were incubating covid-19 in their bodies so they were exposed, they were presymptomatic, they were incubating the virus, and then it took some time for the test to actually turn up positive, there was that lag, that window before they were exposed and truly infected, that incubation we refer to. unclear what was happening. here is the thing, on point number three, the capitol physician. that makes absolutely no sense, why amy coney barrett and why joe manchin and others are not

broadly tested. first of all, they should be tested, that makes absolutely no sense, i don't know what guidelines the capitol physician is operating with. >> let me just say, she -- we're told she has been tested and is negative. but you're absolutely right about the senators and congress members. >> and they should be. jim jordan -- jim jordan should go directly to quarantine. jim jordan was on air force one, around what is a very dangerous situation, because hope hicks was on board, and was symptomatic, so she is a high risk exposure for everybody on that flight. everybody on that flight must immediately or should immediately go into quarantine for at least ten to 14 days per cdc guidelines, irrespective of their covid test. i hope they do that. >> thank you so much, dr. vin gupta. thanks for all your work overnight and through the morning. we really appreciate it. and presidents and precedents. how is our government and our

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we don't know how serious it was. then of course the cancer, he had the colonel lon cancer. how have presidents managed? eisenhower one thinks of, and they weren't even very transparent about that, correct? >> right. presidents have not been historically transparent about their health. in fact, examples where there's been a free flow of information that the public is entitled to is very much the exception, not the rule. and it's a totally bipartisan phenomenon. you mentioned the most famous example which affected governance is woodrow wilson who had had a stroke, who suffered from some strain of influenza in the era of that pandemic. his wife, advisers were making decisions and it genuinely affected our public policy, the battle for the league of

nations. george herbert walker bush suffered from graves disease in ways that we didn't fully understand for a long time. and so there's a history of presidents who don't want to alarm the public, they don't want to appear weak. they are not transparent. and i'm afraid we don't know yet whether that will prove true here. but everyone should be vigilant and know that history tells you to treat medical reports from the white house as, at best, incomplete. and sometimes outright there are elements of it that can be manufactured to produce a certain political effect. >> and we don't know why this is, but we understand from our reporting that the president was supposed to lead a 12:15 call on

the covid-19 and it's effect on senior citizens and instead vice president pence pitched in. we don't know why, whether that was just more comfortable for him giving everything that's going on today. >> sure. >> the other instances that we think of are fdr where they really -- i mean, they didn't lie about his polio but they were downplaying the fact he was in a wheelchair. and also jfk and his disease where he had a fairly serious disease and he was so athletic with the touch football and all that they really never disclosed it. >> well, he suffered from addison's disease and, yes, in fact, he was the subject of a an anonymous -- the patient was anonymous in a medical review article. and one of the reasons president kennedy was as good looking as he was, as full faced, was because of cortisone that was being -- he was being treated with. again, there's a lot of history here. fdr, polio was kind of the least

of it, actually. by the end of his term in office, which was obviously the 12 years in office he had been re-elected in 1944, he was suffering from congestive heart failure, but that was not fully aired by any means for the voters to take account of in 1944. it's -- it's understandable if regrettable that the information we get on presidents -- the health of presidents is, again, often incomplete, if not manufactured in ways to make the president appear more invincible and healthier than he might otherwise -- that he might, in fact, be. and it's just a useful warning, a useful sense of skepticism that we should be armed with in these coming days. and particularly given, you know, we live in the most

complicated of global times. we're in the midst of the homestretch of an existential election, and we are dealing with, without prejudging it, a white house for whom straightforward reporting and straightforward transparent truth telling is not a defining characteristic. that's as politely as i can put it. that's not a partisan point, it's simply an observation based on the history of where we are. so what i think we have to do as an informed citizenry, as voters who are even now registering our will at the polls is please be, you know, keep an eye out, hope for transparency. >> thank you so much, jon meacham. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. and chuck todd will be next on msnbc. next on msnbc. like an "unjection™".

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deaf m . ♪ welcome to friday. it is "meet the press" daily i'm chuck todd. we're going to begin this hour with what we know. as this country faces a crisis that has political, financial, and medical ramifications and we're just 32 days until the election. the president and first lady in isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus. mark meadows says the p