that they recover and -- and that this is not a painful process for them. nobody should contract this disease and sincerely we pray for their speedy recovery. good morning, welcome to "a.m. joy," i'm maria teresa kumar. while the president remains at walter reed medical center after testing positive for covid-19, a key member of his debate prep team, chris christie, checked himself into the hospital after testing positive for the virus. christie is the eighth person to contract the virus after attending the super spreading event at the rose garden last weekend. for his part trump released a video on twitter from inside the hospital reassuring the public that he was feeling, quote, much better. but it came after mixed messages from his doctors and his chief of staff, mark meadows, earlier in the day. we will have more on that later. meanwhile, his presidential campaign is in full steam ahead by launching operation maga and announcing vice president pence's visit to swing states after his wednesday debate with

senator kamala harris. and now warning signs show trump's campaign can use all the help it can get. just an hour ago nbc news and the "wall street journal" released a poll showing biden with a staggering 14 points lead, this is up from an 8 point lead before the debate on tuesday. the poll was taken after the trump debate but before trump's diagnosis. another poll from "the new york times" draws a similar conclusion. that voters were turned off by trump's aggressive behavior at the debate. in that poll biden is ahead by a comfortable margin in both florida and pennsylvania, swing states for trump the last four years ago. joining me now is virginia senator and former democratic vice president presidential candidate tim kaine to break it all down for us. senator, thank you for joining us. >> absolutely, maria teresa. >> i want to talk to you because everybody right now is obviously talking and concerned about the president's health and talking about the importance that he may

be actually accessing different therapies than other individuals have even though they, too, are suffering from covid. what can you talk about the asymmetrical health care system that we live in that even chris christie can step in and check himself into the hospital with covid systems when we know that millions of americans are unable to do that. >> maria teresa, it shows as graphically as it can that we still have huge inequities in our health care system. look, we want the president to recover, we need him to recover from this because the last thing our country needs now is, you know, more chaos and uncertainty and we want him to get the best treatment possible so that's all good and we have such great practitioners and institutions like walter reed, but the problem is so many americans don't have that access and as fate would have it, right after the election in november, the supreme court is taking up the trump administration's efforts to destroy the affordable care

act, to take health insurance away from millions, to leave those tens of millions with preexisting conditions out in the cold and you just couldn't, you know, heighten in a more dramatic way the dangers of a policy that would strip more americans from their health care at a time of such suffering. let's pray the president recovers, but let's also pray for a realization now that we need to be giving more americans access to health care, not less. >> absolutely. and i also want to talk a little bit about how there was this confusion on what the president's doctor was saying and his chief of staff was saying. i used to be a congressional staffer. nothing was ever read without multiple eyeballs looking at a document. can you talk a little bit about that process because i think folks are genuinely confused. >> maria teresa, i'm confused. but this is just kind of part of the package with these guys, the mixed messages around covid, the mixed messages around so many

things. so yesterday the president's physician, you know, basically painted a very sunny picture about how the president was doing. that's great. but then there was a first and a main source and it was later revealed to be the chief of staff mark meadows who talked about the fact that there were really troubling signs with the president and particularly with respect to a drop in blood oxygen level, which is one of the most troubling aspects of coronavirus. there's also significant confusion over when the president realized he was sick and then that's relevant because he was doing all these public events at the golf course in bedminster, certainly the flights with staffers and others this week, and now we see all these senate colleagues of mine coming down with covid. so there's just a real significant level of confusion about exactly what went on, when the president knew he was sick and was he exposing others after

he should have been quarantining in the white house. >> i think the timeline is quite important but i want to talk about your colleagues in the senate right now that have been diagnosed with covid and others that are self-quarantining. that disproportionately make up the judiciary committee. we're now hearing from your colleague mitch mcconnell that he wants to actually undertake virtual committee hearings for processing the supreme court -- the potential supreme court justice. what's your take on that? >> well, to take your last question first, there is no way we should do a supreme court nomination hearing virtually, everybody should be there in person. this is the single most appointment that the senate makes in its advise and consent role as somebody to have life tenure on the supreme court and we shouldn't do this virtually and we also shouldn't do it until everybody can safely be in the room together. that's only fair. >> well, and i think a lot -- and i think a lot of these committee hearings folks don't

realize when you are in the room you get a different sense of something. you get a different sense of what the person is doing and in some cases you could actually disrupt it as we saw during kavanaugh's hearing of protesters and you lose those elements. are you concerned that by doing virtually that you would actually basically be red lining what the american people are actually seeing and actually experiencing? >> yes, and you also make the senators less able in their questioning because when we are in committee hearings live, we usually have staff members sitting right behind us who are reminding us, hey, here is what needs to had a.or you should ask this. as a former hill staffer -- >> we are your external hard drive. >> but in the virtual hearings that we do now, for example, i'm in a room by myself, my staff might send me a text that i may or may not get when i'm talking to a witness, plus you see somebody's credibility live in a way you don't in a virtual setting and the credibility and honesty and character of

somebody is much easier to assess when you're doing it live. so we need to do these live and we shouldn't do them live until we can safely do them live. >> and so i would be remiss if i did not ask you when you were prepping for -- against a debate with vice president pence, what is your suggestion for kamala harris? how can she prepare? we know that pete buttigieg is sitting in as mike pence, sweet jesus, is that not ironic, but i'd love to get your take on what advice you would give her. >> a hoosier sitting in for another hoosier. look, i think kamala is going to do very well but you have to remember the vice president he was a radio talk show host, he made his living as a -- you know, as a communicator before he was in politics and so she's got to prepare for that. she's very, very good, but here is a key thing, maria teresa, that's very different, in 2016 both tickets were -- neither were incumbents so the debates

were largely about here is what we will do if we get the chance. the trump/pence ticket is an incumbent ticket so it gives kamala harris the prosecutor the ability to argue evidence. 10 million jobs lost in the last year, 200,000 plus people dead, the deficit and debt exploding, social unrest unlike we've seen in the 1960s and she gets to look at a vice president and say you are the head of the coronavirus task force, are you going to apologize to the american public for how poorly this has been handled? she gets to argue evidence and that was a different feature four years ago when neither ticket was an incumbent. >> i think you're absolutely right. pence is going to have to answer to those lives lost as well. thank you, senator kaine, for joining me. and now joining the conversation tim owe brian, senior columnist for bloomberg opinion and author of trump nation and aaron haines.

tim and erin, thank you for joining me. what did you take, tim, on the advice that we just heard from senator kaine to kamala harris? >> well, i think he's right that she needs to be prepared for who mike pence is on a debate stage. you know, he is very calm on a debate stage, he knows how to talk soothingly into a microphone because he is a former radio host, and i think they shouldn't underestimate his presence on a debate stage. i think he was very effective against senator kaine in 2016. having said this -- having said that, he's also completely right that the entire nature of this debate is not only transformed by the fact that trump and pence have a record they have to defend and a lot of problems they have to defend, while mismanagement, racism, faulty leadership and trump's own personal lawlessness, this all now gets swept up into trump

coming down with covid, which only makes that an issue that they were trying to avoid and now gets highlighted. i think as long as harris has done her homework and is in command of the facts she's going to be in a very strong position against him, but she can't take him lightly. >> tim, that checklist you did was basically you could have a news story for each one just in the past week. so i want to bring erin into the conversation. we are finding now that the rnc and the white house are refusing to provide full disclosure for contact tracing purposes specifically in new jersey where at the fundraiser staff was exposed, staff that were highlighted that were living in multi-generational families. we know that this covid epidemic has sadly hit the latino and african-american communities disproportionately, most of the workers we could actually say were perhaps of immigrant families and that's why they were talking about the -- alluding to the multi-generational. how irresponsible is this of the president and is this just along

the lines of the disregard of what they have for the american people? >> well, maria, i think that -- maria, i think that the reason that transparency is so important here is because of this administration's complicated relationship with the truth, frankly, on a range of issues, including the pandemic. you have had people like senator kamala harris calling for that racial data on the pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus which we know is disproportionately affecting black americans, latino-americans and yet, you know, that was something that was not initially available having that proof so that resources could be appropriately delegated has been important in this moment. so, you know, i think that, you know, seeing that that information now is not coming out of new jersey, you have journalists doing better contact tracing frankly right now in the past 72 hours, you know, that is going to be very important for

people to kind of understand what is going on, not only with the president's health, but the people who also may have been impacted in the past several days who may have come into contact with him or others who may have been sick. but, yeah, i think this sets of stage for this debate, as tim was saying, you know, you had vice president pence as head of the coronavirus task force and yet we don't know -- i can't remember the last time there was a briefing from that task force and so he should be coming into this week touting, you know, what he did as head of the coronavirus task force, but instead we're talking about this administration which includes him and their handling of this pandemic whereas you have senator harris as somebody who has been really, you know, talking about the pandemic nonstop since she has become the nominee and even as a senator before that, pushing to address some of these disparities and the inequalities that have been laid bare by the virus. >> tim, picking up on that, what

advice do you have for vice president biden right now? we are hearing of course that he was going to pull back a lot of these ads because he wants to respect the health of the president until we learn a little bit more, but at the same time trump is going full force it sounds like, at least his campaign is, with a new maga. what do you say to the biden campaign given these developments? >> i thought it was in keeping with joe biden's character and optimism that when all of this stuff swamped trump around covid-19 over the last two days, biden pulled down his negative ads, he and jill biden sent well wishes to the president. and i think joe biden occupying a higher moral ground and a higher ethical ground than the president is a good place for him to be because i think people are worn out and tired of donald trump's caustic, chaotic and

destructive behavior day in and day out. i think another thing that biden has going for him is i don't think people doubt his authenticity or his sincerity. errin is not only smarter than i am, but she's also more polite than i am. i would not phrase it as a complicated relationship to the truth, i would just say that they lie repeatedly and, you know, this administration -- >> errin, i'm sorry, but i actually have to go with tim on that. >> you know, they spin, they lie in order to try to bury negative stories and the interesting thing about what's happened this past week is the tax issue on monday, it was in the numbers, it couldn't be denied, on a debate stage wednesday night he was asked to disavowed white supremacy, he couldn't, and then lo and behold on early friday morning a global pandemic that he has repeatedly called a hoax rolls not only into the white house but into his own body and

he can't deny those things anymore. joe biden is in a position to simply observe the facts, highlight trump's failed leadership and reassure americans that he's going to bring a team of adults into the white house instead of a group of rank amateurs who can't shoot straight. >> so, errin, you talk a lot about women voters and how they are perceiving this epidemic and how it's hitting the president disproportionately. what do you expect from kamala harris to persuade more women because she already has them, but more women to actually fall into the biden camp? >> well, i think, you know, the biden/harris ticket is one that is doing better with women voters, we're seeing that in poll after poll, this latest nbc wsj poll is showing a 27% gender gap. the gender gap is going to be the story in the home stretch. we are now less than 30 days out until this election and we are seeing in poll after poll that women are powering this election

and i think that the pandemic is absolutely political for them, not only from the public health perspective but from a economic perspective. we saw 865,000 women dropping out of the workforce in september, we just learned that news on friday, and, you know, we know that a lot of that is because they are working from home and homing from work, so they're viewing this pandemic as they're headed to the polls seeing the precautions that they are taking, navigating child care as they're trying to, you know, maintain a career, they are the essential workers, they are front-line workers and all of that, you know, is happening as they are finding out about this president's diagnosis and, you know, thinking about all the precautions that they are taking, you know, as he has not really followed guidelines and modeled the type of behavior that a lot of them are doing in their homes and trying to do for their own families. i do think that that absolutely is having an impact on this

election and will continue to do so in the final weeks. >> i absolutely agree and i think that errin, what you are highlighting is the fact that women are fed up and we always have to ask ourselves do we actually trust the president to take care of our families. thank you tim o'brien and erri. >> thank you. tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern lester holt will host a live town hall with joe biden live from miami right here on msnbc. wednesday don't miss our prime time coverage of the vice president presidential debate beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. coming up, we ask our doctors to separate fact from fiction about trump's diagnosis. fiction about trump's diagnosis. ♪

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i came here, wasn't feeling so well, i feel much better now, we're working hard to get me all the way back, and i will be back, i think i will be back soon, and i look forward to

finishing up the campaign. so i just want to tell you that i'm starting to feel good, you don't know over the next period of a few days, i guess that's the real test, so we will be seeing what happens over those next couple of days. donald trump remains hospitalized at walter reed where he is receiving treatment for covid-19. his optimistic tone last night added to the conflicting messages about his health from white house officials and doctors. chief of staff mark meadows admitted on fox news that on friday trump was much thicker than officials originally reported. >> yesterday morning we were real concerned by that. he had a fever and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly and yet in typical style this president was up and walking around and even as the experts from the medical facilities not

only at walter reed but also johns hopkins got there, they -- they looked at his situation, recommended that out of an abundance of caution that he come here to walter reed. >> meanwhile trump's physician dr. connelly reported, quote, the president continues to do well, having made substantial progress since diagnosis and while not out of the woods the team remains cautiously optimistic. we have not heard any updates on the president's condition this morning. joining me now is dr. bernard ashby cardiologist and member of the committee to protect medicare and dr. lippy roy msnbc medical contributor. dr. ashby, i will go to you first. if this was your patient, how concerned should the american people be based on what you're hearing now, recognizing that you have the same information that we do, but with a bit more technicality of understanding the process. >> so thanks for having me, first of all, and i appreciate

you pointing out the fact that we are operating on limited information, but i would like to say that evidence-based medicine has basically been losing all 20/20. we have been delegitimized as an institution, as physicians, as scientists the entire year, but this is the first time that we have actually got a win. evidence-based medicine applied to president trump's case, meaning that he got the top of the line care, he got the regeneron monoclonal antibody therapy based on two monoclonal jand bodies that prevent the virus from spreading. he got infused with remdesivir, also other therapies that have been shown to have some kind of impact on decreasing the poor outcomes in covid-19. i think the real story here is that the president got the benefit of evidence-based medicine. a lot of folks don't get that

benefit and when we call things disparities we're seeing a lot of folks didn't get access to the kind of care that our president received and that's the real headline here if you ask me. >> i couldn't agree more. i think that we have to talk about the fact that the supreme court right now is on the verge of deciding aca and we are going to have over 7 million more americans with preexisting conditions as a result of covid. so i want to bring in -- ask you specifically when we have 211,000 individuals sadly that have died of covid, there's very little attention paid to the individuals that survive. we do know that there is a lot of lingering indications of covid long after the person, quote/unquote, gets cured. can you talk a little bit about that, dr. roy? >> good morning, maria teresa. good to be with you. yeah, we know that the affordable care act under the -- president obama's administration, helped millions of people have access to insurance and, therefore, get

access to health care and, of course, my hope is always evidence-based health care. we also know that as you correctly pointed out, maria teresa, that the long haulers, in other words, patients who experience -- who gets infected with covid-19 experience weeks if not months of lingering symptoms. so we're already seeing evidence that covid-19 is not only not your typical acute respiratory infection, but rather a chronic illness. all of these individuals need long-term care, maria teresa. >> so i want to actually -- this is something that just popped into my line of sight and this is actually going to be talking about specifically the experimental antibody treatment that the president is receiving. it turns out, and this is quote, it turns out that according to the 2017 financial disclosure form filed with the u.s. office of government ethics on june 17th trump had a capital gain of $50,000 to $100,000 for

regeneron farm constitute sal's and $100,000 to $1 million for gilead sciences, the form notes the information was from april 15, 2017, the subsequently disclosure form including his 2020 form did not list regeneron or gilead. the reason i'm sharing this is because trump received a dose of the antibody cocktail as a precautionary measure. it's the first time that's being disclosed that it looks like the president had a stake in that cocktail that he received in that medicine he received. dr. ashby, what is your reaction to that? >> so politics aside, financial disclosure aside, the regeneron antibody that we're discussing is now in phase three, the data indicates that patients who get the medication have a lower viral load and actually have

decreased symptoms. so, yes, the regeneron-sponsored therapy is not available to the public, but if you're dealing with somebody like trump who is the commander in chief you want to give him everything possible to improve his outcome. i don't disagree with the fact that he received the therapy, i'm concerned about the fact that other folks who are part of the lay public, you know, the general joe's and, you know, regular folks, are not getting access to advanced therapy. so i can't speak to, you know, what his interests are, but when it came down to life and death he made a decisions that were best suited to improving his outcomes and what you did notice -- what you should notice is the fact that he's not getting any hydroxychloroquine, he's not getting any convalescent plasma. these are things that we argued with trump about. we are the physicians, we are the scientists and we were arguing with a novice about this very same issue and when it came

down to life and death he switched up real quick and depended on evidence-based medicine to get his therapy. >> doctor, how do you describe what dr. ashby is saying that there are a certain sectors of american who may be wanting to have access to this therapeutic but cannot. how do we address that more publicly? >> that's the crux. that's the massive issue right now. unfortunately this is not new. the truth is that these particular therapies, these highly specialized treatments, monoclonal antibodies in particular is one of the most expensive type of therapies that can be offered and the remdesivir by the way as well is costing about $3,000 for a five-day course. so this is not cheap. for the 7 point, what, 4 million americans who have been infected with covid-19, very few of them at least as of today will have

access to these medications, whether that's going to that i think and i hope it does moving forward, but i also want to highlight something that you said earlier, maria teresa, about the fact that there has actually been a lot of confusion about the president's -- the timing of his diagnosis as well as his treatment course and options. i mean, what you and i know and what we're talking about is based on what we are being told. the truth is we don't actually know what he's been receiving and when he's been getting it. we're going by what we're going told and there really is some confusion as to -- i mean, a part of us feel that they are kind of throwing the kitchen sink at him because there's different indications as to when the monoclonal antibody should be given as opposed to the remdesivir. so i would really want more transparency from the white house medical team. >> i hope they're tuning in because the american people would love more transparency on how their president is doing. our doctors will be back next in the next hour. coming up, the man who bought his own plexiglas to the

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how much you can save. "saturday night live" returned last night with comedian chris rock as the first host of the new season. opening sketch talking about the presidential debate. >> here is the deal -- >> no, it's not. >> excuse me, please, could you just -- >> no. whatever you're going to say, no. >> mr. president -- mr. president, please let him speak. he let you speak, now let him speak. >> but he's lying. i can't point out if he says a lie? >> i said two words, you son of a -- no. don't do t joe. >> i think if there's one thing we learned tonight it's that america needs a wop, woman as president.

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you know, sometimes listening to senator graham is like -- it reminds me of playing monopoly with my son, he changes the rules every time he gets. you know, senator, you said use my words against me and you said it after the kavanaugh meetings, not before the kavanaugh hearings, after the kavanaugh hearings and your words, your promise, was that no judicial nominee should be considered or approved or what have you in the last year of an election. my grandfather always taught me, jamie, a man is only as good as

his word. senator, how good is your word when you made a promise to the american people, even more you made a promise to the folks in south carolina that you wouldn't be doing what you're doing right now. >> in a heated debate saturday night south carolina senate candidate jamie harrison faced off against incumbent senator lindsey graham. some of the most fiery moments came when they were discussing the supreme court. and the covid-19 pandemic, harrison even brought his on plexiglas barrier to the debate. south carolina has become one of the most closely watched senate races in this -- in the country this year, with the latest polls showing jamie share son and lindsey graham in a dead heat. joining me now is democratic south carolina senate candidate jamie harrison. how are you recovering from last night or how is he recovering from last night, that's the question? >> i don't know, but, you know, the people of south carolina won last night. i was able to really make the case about the issues that are important to them. as i started that debate, maria,

i told folks that lindsey graham was going to try to scare them to vote for him and support him, but i was trying to inspire people to vote for me and i think we accomplished our goal last night. senator graham has been there for 23 years and sometimes you just have to know when it's time to hang your hat up. it's time for lindsey graham to leave washington, d.c. and let a new generation take over. >> there was so much to pull out of that debate yesterday but one thing that i found was most striking was lindsey graham saying we have moved on as a nation. take a listen. >> the virus is a problem that came out of china not trump tower that we're getting vaccines ready, i think any month now, hopefully even sooner, the drug therapies are working, the one thing i want people to know is that the virus is serious, but we have to move on as a nation. >> jamie, has the nation moved on now that we know that the

president, the commander in chief, is now in walter reed with covid. >> lindsey graham said that the virus is serious, but he's still not taking it seriously. i mean, even last night and, you know, in retrospect maybe i shouldn't have done, but this guy was exposed to one of the senators yet he should have quarantined himself. we really have to take these things seriously. it's not just about me, but it's about the people in that room and all those folks that we have to take care of as well. that's what leadership is all about is doing the right thing, not doing what's politically right, but doing the right thing and senator graham seems to lately continue to fail to do the right thing. the folks in south carolina as a result are the ones suffering because of it. >> you're referring to the plexiglas you brought. whose brilliant idea was that and should kamala carry a

plexiglas for her debate? >> my wife is stringent about these things. she's a law professor, probably one of the smartest people i know and she wants to make sure that i'm around for my boys. i also have a preexisting condition. it's important to be safe. no campaign is worth anybody's life, you know, mine or anybody else. so we're going to do our very best to show and demonstrate the type of leadership that is needed. even when our senator doesn't. >> so one of the things that lindsey graham was griping about last night was the fact that you are raking in much more money than he is, he has gone on fox news actually is asking individuals for more donations. take a listen to this. >> let's talk about money and politics. where the hell is all this money coming from? what is it about south carolina that's attracted almost $100 million into jamie harrison --

mr. harrison's coffers? >> they hate me. this is not about mr. harrelson. this is about liberals hating my guts when i stood up for kavanaugh when they tried to destroy his life. this is me trying to help mr. trump. the only good republican is the one that tries to undercut mr. trump. >> can you talk about what he's saying and why that doesn't make any sense simply because just by default he is the long-standing senator from south carolina and he has name recognition and he shouldn't have to be clawing his way from behind. talk about it. >> that's exactly right. lindsey graham is the senior senator from south carolina, he's the chairman of the judiciary committee, he's been in washington for 25 years. when he was outraising me at the beginning of this campaign he was crowing about t sending out press releases, historical moments. the moment in which more people have decided that lindsey was a part of our past and i'm part of the future and started giving us

contributions, you know, he has a problem. i'm going to demonstrate something to lindsey, you can do this -- senator graham. folks, if you want to help build a new generation go to jamieharrison.com. you don't have to cry about it, senator graham, you can actually do it with a smile. it's sad to see the desperation right now in the senator. in just a few weeks the folks in south carolina are going to speak and they're going to send senator graham home. >> can i ask you a question? >> yeah. >> everybody keeps saying that -- i'm going to ask you several, but what you just said made me realize something. everybody keeps saying where is the lindsey graham of the past and people said that it was a transformation of lindsey graham because he felt that his better pony pick was donald trump. is that the case right now? >> well, for senator graham his number one priority is senator graham. there was an article i think it was last year in the "new york times" in which martin leibowitz interviewed him and he said his two goals were to be reelected and to be relevant.

he never uttered the two words south carolina in the entire interview. and that gives you a sense of who this man is. it's about political power and political relevancy and not about addressing the issues that people are dealing with here in south carolina. and that's what the focus of a senator should be and has to be. particularly if you are in a state like south carolina that has so many problems, lack of broadband, hospitals closing, folks without health insurance and now dealing with the coronavirus. senator graham last night failed to address those issues and he continues to do the same thing. >> well, thank you, jamie harrison, for your public servitude and just running for office. super appreciative for you joining me today. >> thank you very much. take care. coming up, the 2020 race is looking more and more like 2000. more on that next. t.

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. it is just far too confusing. we're about to make an official call, it is just too confusing. the board has been in play all night and it has not been a sterling evening for vote projections in that state. originally nbc news and all the other networks projected that al

gore would win florida. and at 2:18 this morning, we projected -- all right. we're officially saying that florida is too close to call so we take florida away from george w. bush, so that means that he is short of the votes that he needs to win. >> welcome back to "a.m. joy." flashback to election night 2000, you know where you were. nbc and others wrongly declared al gore the winner of florida and then took it back and when fox news declared george w. bush the winner and therefore the entire election. within minutes other networks scrambled to follow suit. the problem, florida was actually still too close to call. but the leader of fox news division desk john ellis, who was bush's cousin, called the race with incomplete data, prompting the network to claire

a premature win. they retrankted tcted the annou and it would take five weeks before bush was named the winner. but that looks quaint to what could unfold in november. with a likely record setting number of mail-in ballots, a president who falsely claims that they lead to fraud and also making sure that the race may not be called until weeks after election day, it is critical that the media does not repeat its mistakes of 2000. joining me now to have a discussion is a panel of experts. author of once i was you, and erin hayes, and jonathan allen. so i want to start with you,

maria, because i know that that florida was the one that determined so many things, something that we are right now on the press sis cipice of sayi florida will decide possibly this election. where were you that night and what were you hearing as a journalist? >> i was like everybody else, i was getting ready to cover the story. i was a cnn correspondent at the time. i think that i was going to be scheduled to be doing reporting the next morning, so i saw what happened with florida and completely confused. and immediately the story that we started doing was how did this happen. how is it that network or several networks get this wrong. but you know, as i was thinking about this kind of long term conversation about where we are electorally, i started thinking about, i was born in mexico. so i understood what an anti democratic society looked like. as a little girl. i would hear my family say we don't vote. then all of a sudden there is watergate. and it is like wait, there is

corruption here. and then there is iran contragate. and then the weapons of mass destruction and all the lies around the iraq war. it was a warning. all of this was a warning. and frankly, the democrats failed to see it. and so the lesson is not only for the media that starts already saying how are we going to handle this, but also for the parties, how did this happen it what is considered to be the world's greatest democracy and now around the world the veil has been taken off. >> and erin, i think that the biggest concern that we saw specifically on the night of election night and maria mentioned it was the fact that how did the media not better prepare. and i'd like to take this moment with seasoned veterans to discuss, how can we prepare today. we already have the president basically telegraphing that if

it is not on his side, if the election is not called on his side, then it is completely a hoax. talk about how we can prepare for what we're seeing even from the in-dum consucumbent right n. >> and i was in college in 2000, so i'm somewhat seasoned, but not quite that seasoned just so you know. i don't want to misrepresent myself as being that seasoned. but no, i think that you know, i think that the media is doing a very good job of trying to condition people now that we're a month out from the election, the idea that what we're looking at on november 3 is the start, a lot of states will begin the counting of the mail-in ballots, and we know that voters are can

requesting the ballots in record numbers and may not have until a few days after november 3 for those ballots to come in, they have to be postmarked by november 3 in a lot of cases, but never some days to come in. so we know that all the ballots will not necessarily be in or even be counted on what we traditionally know as election night. so i think really trying to manage those expectations for voters, particularly as a count counterweight to the concerns and uncertainty that the president continues to raise around the mail-in balloting process, letting people know that that is still a safe and reliable way for people to participate in this democracy particularly in a pandemic, i do think that the media is trying to do a lot more to manage the expectations around the election results than they did, you know, in 2000. >> and dan rather is joining the

conversation, former news anchor and co-author of what unites us, reflection of patriotism. dan, let me ask you as a seasoned veteran, someone who was covering that election so quickly, what can we learn from the mistakes then that we can apply now as immediate organizations? >> well, the list is long. it begins with preparing the public at large, we need public patience. patience on vote day, that is number one. we can tell the public, look, you'll have to be patient this year, it is unlikely that you will know the winner of the vote for several days, perhaps several weeks. so that is number one. preach the gospel of public patience. number two is to drive home and have the public at large understand that the day that votes are cast, that is not the election day. stop referring to it as election day or even election night.

that is vote day. and so it won't be until days or weeks later. so vote on election day, vote election night, but it may take months, we simply don't know. but i would say beyond that, what we need to do is say to ourselves, you know, we as a people, we need to expect patience on what will be happening on vote day, but we have to change our expectations and we need to be steady, that parties need to be steady and the candidates need to be steady and the people of the network be steady. and you have to see what happens. and one more point, public patience will be key. and understanding that the day that the polls are open, vote day, not election day, it may take months. but you know, we are a stable

people, but worry about conspiracy theories. look, there are a lot of dire consequences can happen, but remember in politics what we most expect frequently does not occur. what we least occur frequently does happen. so those are the guide posts i would say. one other point, and that is that i was anchorage there in 2000 and a lot of good people in networks, a lot of experienced people who will do their best on vote day, these are very experienced people. and they are very experienced people with election day polling like peter hart, really dedicated people that adoing th best they can. in the old west texas town, there used to be a sign please don't shoot the piano player, he

is doing the best that he can. so keep that in mind on election night. a lot of people are doing the best they can. >> i think that what you are saying is right, we need to prepare the american public that election day is the deadline, but doesn't mean that we can count the millions of ballots voting by mail. and i want to talk about the contrast, if you can provide some insights. we're seeing right now again the president telegraphing what he wants to see the outcome of, what is the biden campaign doing to prepare for this misinformation that we're already seeing coming out of the white house? >> i think that they are looking at past history, maria. not only are they looking way back in history to 1876, that incredible election between hayes and tildon where four of the state's electoral votes were not able to be counted and there was sort of a cluster if you

will for several months before hayes was eventually declared the winner in exchange for ending reconstruction. they will look at those pre precedents for what to do with electors, what to do in the case that certain states aren't providing electors or slates or both. and in addition to that, there was a senate race in florida that was very close. you saw the democratic lawyer testing the legal theories and trying to push the boundaries a little bit farther for votes to be counted. he was countered by republican lawyers at the national republican senatorial committee, but that was basically a set of test cases for this election. so i think that they will be looking both deep into history beyond 2000 of course, 2000 being an important marker, and a lot closer in recent history in 2018. >> and i think what is

interesting too, what we don't want to be -- as the media, we don't want to be part of how difficult it will be to vote. we want everybody to be engaged. one of the things that the president is actively trying to do, he is trying to abilictivatd engage nearly 50,000 poll watchers. dunk th do you think we'll hear from the rnc encouraging people not to flood the polling booth, and if not, he will ask them at least to wear masks? >> look, i think that we're in the middle of this story right now. as you were saying that, i just had this image that, you know, assuming that he comes out of this as a survivor, he will say hey, it is beat only. everybody can beat this. and then he becomes kind of like used as some kind of super power. so i'm skre concevery concerned that. you should know there is an active conversation young voters

thinking about whether or not they should be poll watchers doing it safely, but that it is kind of their spicivic duty to this and in fact many ways i would say particularly for latinos and latinas for the second largest voting bloc that in a safe way if you can do it, become a bomb watpoll watcher y. in my family, decidwe decided te that day. i'll go at 4:00 in the morning and wait in line. but i want to make a comment about the issue of media and the responsibility. i think that is an interesting point and i wonder whether or not our colleagues would consider holding weekly briefings that are kind of broadcast on the networks in primetime where you have senior level executives of the highest and obviously more diverse than the presidential debate commissions, where we are talking as journalists about conscience and what to do and

having open conversations about we're talking about with the public that we can see as dan says most of the people who are doing this work are good people. but at the same time, we have to be better prepared. and finally, most of the people in this country want to save this democracy. they really, really do. and i think that we have to continue to say that, that democracy is a verb and that everybody is a part of what is going to happen. it is not just us. everybody is a part of this. >> i couldn't agree more. we will have an 1 11:30 update about what is happening with the president. but i want to talk about the idea of having more transparency in the process. i think oftentimes people don't start tuning in until the last throes of the election. but it is clear that that won't happen. we won't have those results.

is it holding weekly meetings that are far more transparent where people can actually ask questions, what is the role of media? >> i think that the media does have a role to communicate to voters and try to set expectations, which is certainly something that we are doing at the 19th because we know it that women are the majority of the electorate. so certainly as a news room that is named for the 19th amendment, that is what we're trying to do. but communication and clarity are the antidote to uncertainty. so that is what we have to focus on. i'm seeing a lot of outlets that are interviewing secretaries of state which i think is very important to hear from the local elected officials who will be carrying out these elections. you know, in 50 different places between now and november 3. hearing from them about what the

plan is, what -- the integrity of the election on the ground is very important, i think also for people. but i think for the press too, i think that the motto going forward has to be keep going and count the votes. and we have to remind voters that that is the job of this democracy and we're part of this process. >> and lastly, dan, i want to ask you, your tweet i think went around the world -- all your tweets go around the world. but right after the presidential debate, you said america felt like taking a shower. what do you expect of the vice presidential debates this week? >> not very much quite frankly. keep in mind historical context and perspective. there is yet to be a vice presidential candidate debate that really affected the campaign in any direction. i don't expect much out of the debate. it may be entertaining, it may

be informative, but i don't see it affecting the race in any direction except with the possibility if one of the two candidates makes horrendous mistake, it might own the margins. but by and large these vice presidential debates doesn't affe affect the race. if this one is different, i'm i'd be amazed and stunned. >> 2020, everything is different, so tune into the vice presidential debates because goodness knows who will happen. thank all. we want to remind you of some special programming coming up. tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern, lester holt will host a live town haum will with joe biden. and wednesday, don't miss our primetime coverage of the vice presidential debate. and coming up, more on the growing list of trump's orbit

infected by what now he is calling the playing. he is calling the playing.

we're expecting an 11:30 briefing from walter reed and we've just learned that president trump's bodyman has tested positive for covid. he is the latest member of the inner circle to contract the virus and travels frequently with the president. there is growing from us trace around the efforts to find and contact people who may have been exposed to covid-19. weighing post repor "washington post" reports that local health officials in three states say that they have not heard from the white house. this as several prominent

republicans have tested positive following the rose garden event last saturday. here is jeff bennett. >> reporter: chris christie hospitalized after announcing that he tested positive for coronavirus. he checked himself into a new jersey hospital as a r precautionary measure. while the source of transmission is unclear, he did attend the rose garden event a week ago that is coming under new scrutiny. last saturday, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate president trump's latest supreme court nominee amy coney barrett. guests mingled, hugged and kissed on the cheek, most without wearing masks. new photos of an indoor reception following the outdoor ceremony show the president in close contact with guests. no one wearing a mask. >> the optics of the event last saturday at the white house were terrible. we just had people next to each other, handshaking, every

possible opportunity to spread the coronavirus was visible. and that one short scene. >> reporter: and kellyanne conway tested positive. and utah republican senator mike lee, seen at the event hugging and kissing other guests and not wearing a mask. tom tillis of north carolina. and notre dame president jojenk. and the white house journalist who covered the ceremony also testing positive. in the days that followed, the president kept a packed schedule. on monday, he held another rose garden event with vice president mike pence and members of congress. an administration official says the pences tested negative. and tuesday, he traveled to the cleveland event surrounded by

family and survivors including hope hicks who tested positive. his family so far testing negative. during the debate they refused to wear masks as required even when reminded by a dlecleveland clinic doctor. also testing positive, bill stepien and ronnie mcdaniel. >> geoff, i want to talk about the folks that you have mentioned. basically it is all the leadership of the trump campaign that seem to be infected, we're talking about trump himself, the head of the rnc, and also about his campaign manager. so how does that impact the campaign do you think? >> reporter: it is extraordinary and it is good to see you this sunday morning. you have the leaders of president trump's entire reelect effort now testing positive for covid-19. his campaign manager and head of the rnc. and as we reported today, it also includes his so-called body man, his personal aide, sort of

person al have a lay, nick lieu who travels with the president. and to your point about how it affects the campaign, it is a great question. the campaign itself put out a statement a few days ago -- a couple days ago now saying that they would put on hold all of the president's campaign events and anything that was meant to be in person would be done virtually. you can understand that with the president now at walter reed. but the vice president mike pence as we understand it has an in-person event scheduled in the coming days, a rally event scheduled. and this is of course in addition to the fact that he will be at the debate in the coming week. and beyond all of that, you have so many people in the president's inner circle, the president position testing positive, the white house says that it has been conducting contact tracing. but according to our reporting,

and according to the governor of ohio today, mike dewine, of course that presidential debate was in ohio, the governor of ohio says that the white house has not contacted him about the president's positive covid diagnosis, the white house hasn't said anything about contact tracing. our team has reached out to the officials in new jersey, remember president went to that private fundraiser in bedminster and there are concerns and frustrations there because the officials in new jersey who would like to do proper contact traces s tracing say that they don't have the proper information to do it. and speaker of the house who is in line to the presidency has said on the record that she is getting information about the president's status through media reports, not from the white house directly. >> i think what is absurd and we should underscore the reason that these governors want the contact tracing, they want to make sure that any staff at any

events that the president was in, that they are safe. we're talking security guards, workers that may have been janitors or the wait staff. the list goes on. so that is important to figure out the contact tracing. correct? >> it is such a great point that you make. in part because a lot of people who do that work, the janitors, the engineer, staff who work, you know, in a venue where the president might be or even the folks who work physically at the white house, a lot of them fall into high risk groups and they don't have the luxury of working remotely, they don't have the luxury of working from home. they have to go in. and we've seen over the last seven months of the pandemic the reckless way in which the white house mass chas conducted itsel. and so it is a huge issue for these folks who need their paycheck, need the work and have to go in, have to expose

themselves frankly to this disease. >> geoff, thank you so much for joining me. we'll have much more on donald trump's condition next with a briefing from donald trump's doctors. - [narrator] the shark vacmop combines powerful suction

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good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. we're right now awaiting another update on this sunday from the president's condition from mihi physician, that being dr. conley. dr. conley reported last night that the president, quote, continues to to wedo well havine substantial progress since diagnosis. and while not out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic. and we heard from the president as well, let's take a listen to part of his video. >> i came here, wasn't feeling

so well, i feel much better now. we're working hard to get me all the way back. and i'll be back -- i think i will 00 be back soon and i look forward to finishing up the campaign. i just want to tell you that i'm starting to feel good, you don't know over the next few day, i guess that is the real test, so we'll see what happens over those next couple of days. >> and joining me now josh lederman. and i think another test is whether we get all the indisputable details from dr. sean conley which was not the case yesterday. >> reporter: that's right, we want to know how the president is doing right now, but there is a lot to clarify from yesterday as well. and any minute now, we do expect not only dr. sean conley, but the white house says that other members of the president's medical team will be briefing a small group of reporters here at

walter reed. if past is prologue, those doctors will come out, give an overview of his current condition and hopefully take some questions from reporters as well. perhaps no more burning question at the moment than to get more information on what we learned last night from mark meadows, the white house chief of staff, who disclosed in an interview that the president's oxygen levels on friday had dropped rapidly, that is something that had not been disclosed before. previously the white house had said that the president was having mild symptoms. but meadows said it was concerning to see what happened with his oxygen levels on friday. so we'll want to know how low those actually went and how the president's blood:00 again levels are doing right now. and we're also hearing today from robert o'brien, the president's national security adviser who has been in touch with the president while he has

been here at walter reed, ow o'brien who had coronavirus earlier this year himself, describing that the president is in good spirits. and other national security aides including secretary of state mike pompeo and joichbt chiefs of staff, they are expected to brief the president today via a secure video conference. o'brien also talking about the potential time line for the president's stay here in the hospital. o'brien saying that president trump is expected to stay here at walter reed for some time and knowing that day seven or eight of covid-19 episode are critical points in time, suggesting that the stay here could be several more days at least. >> indeed, that would be until maybe friday, saturday of next week end. and a couple things. i'm wondering if we're expecting the same dynamic force of experts of physicians there that we saw yesterday.

if i recall correctly, there were three pulmonary critical care physicians, two infectious disease physicians, a handful of navy nurses. and two others took to the podium, dr. conley definitely directed exactly what we were hearing there. so i guess that will remain to be seen unless you have heard any update on the specifics of who will be coming to the podium. have you so? >> reporter: all we know is conley and other members of the medical team. and yesterday we also saw a johns hopkins physician 4has devised a model used now to take covid-19 in-patients and try to predict their prognosis based on their metrics and characteristics. and that doctor was at the briefing yesterday. there is a clear desire by the white house to show the american people that the president is

getting absolutely the best and most comprehensive medical care that anybody can get. >> absolutely, that was definitely very apparent yesterday. josh, before i go to some of our physicians and ask the medical questions here, let me ask you about the scene behind you and that which you experienced all day. i was watching you throughout the day. and it seemed as if the crowds got larger, there was a sense of belligerence between the pro trump and anti-trump camps. we hear honking. this is very atypical for a scene outside of a hospital. >> reporter: it is. and it is not atypical for perhaps a political rally or for a protest, but it is not a situation that you often see playing out at a hospital. and i'll step out for a second so you can take a look at what is going on here. you have a lot of trump supporter, you have some anti-trump protestors as well. they have been honking their horn, occasionally saying prayers over a megaphone for the

president, driving back and forth and honking and trying to make a lot of noise to show that they are here supporting the president and wanting him inside to know that people are behind him and his recovery. >> all right. josh, we'll get back with you. and stay with us, we're awaiting for the physicians to take to that podium outside the military medical center there. but joining me now to discuss all things medical, dr. ashby, and also dr. ryoy. welcome to you both. what is it that you would like to hear from this update today? >> where do i start? there is so much information that we don't have, we make guesstimates. but besides the fact that he is commander in chief, if i were to

make some conclusions about what is going on, i would love to hear about vital signs first of all, his labs also. i also would like to know about what therapies he has received. and just to hear about his symptoms. i mean things like his oxygen saturation, his blood pressure, his heart rate, being also what labs were drawn. the cardiac enzyme in addition to other things as well as the inflammatory markers. so there is a ton of information i would like to know, but understanding that i'm not his physician, so i know that we won't get that information, but i'm definitely are interested in that information. >> and so what do you make of what we did learn? it was clarified and it came directly in fact from mark meadows, the president's chief of staff, yesterday after the briefing, we did not know until later that the president's oxygen levels while in the white

house friday afternoon dropped precipitously and that is very likely what made that critical decision to move him right away to walter reed. smart move clearly because something that would pose any sort of dangerous risk for the president needed to be treated in a place where anything that might happen could be effectively dealt with, but what did that mean? when oxygen levels drop like that precipitously, what does that mean? >> that is a great point that you bring up. it was allege lootew looted all earlier that they were looking at what factors portend a prognosis. and i can tell you that low oxygen saturation early on indicates a poor prognosis. so i don't need a study to guarantee that. if somebody gets diagnosed and gets very sick, meaning needs to

be oxygenated, that is a bad sign. but the difference here, president trump has received early therapy and they transferred him to walter reed for a reason. and i'm confident that our medical professionals will do everything to treat him, but this goes to the point that i made earlier that not everybody has access to this kind of advanced care. and that is unfortunate reality of the covid-19 pandemic and we see these quote/unquote disparities all over the place. butter ha i to take issue with disparities. la ttinos and blacks have not h access to quality care and this is really unfortunate. >> and i'll ask my director to put up what the president has thus far been treated with. the remdesivir, something is that we've heard about many times.experimental.

but that is to lessen the sev e severity of coronavirus and maybe reduce the time? >> good to be with you again. just as a reminder, remdesivir is an anti viral medication. it is designed to target the virus specifically directly. also just a reminder that this is not really fda approved for wide use. the fda issued an emergency use authorization for remdesivir. and the studies thus far have really been mostly in severely ill patients who are hospitalized. again, this gets back to what i told you yesterday about the need for transparency from the medical team and from the white house, that medical conference yesterday was really directed as you pointed out by the president's personal physician. i would like to hear this conference being led by the actual medical team that is taking care of him because i would like to know why he was getting the remdesivir, how low

were his oxygen saturations. because if that could be a rationale for why he got remdesivir. but yes, it can decrease the viral road and have some mortality benefit. but i just want to get more information are as to the exact clinical status right now. >> which we should get any minute now. and very quickly, throw back up that graphic. dr. roy, nowhere on this graphic does it select hydroxychloroquine. and i want to just make that point for those people who perhaps at the president's suggestion and suggestion of others, you know, invested in, took hydroxychloroquine, i penally know people who told me that they stockpiled hydroxychloroquine and that they have been taking it. has that been completely debunked, any reason to take hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 on any level? i mean, can it help a little,

can it help not at all, can it help a lot? >> i'm glad that you brought that up. and to the larger issue of what is actually considered evidence based. as you know, we are learning something new about this virus every day for the past eight months. the fact that hydroxychloroquine is not on that list is an indication -- reinforces fact that what multiple health officials and scientists including dr. fauci have said, which is that there is no evidence in terms of hydroxychloroquine improvings clinical outcomes. but what we do know works is prevention, including masks, and physical distancing. and the fact that we've seen multiple cases come out of that white house event from last weekend indicates that this is what happens when top officials, including the president, don't wear masks. you know, that is -- evidence is what we need to follow. >> and as we see the physicians

coming out, just anecdotally or statistically with all sorts of figures, because last saturday a super spreader event in your mind? very quickly. >> well, we're waiting on limited information, but there was some kind of super spreader event. i don't know if that was that actual event or when they went inside, but yes. >> thank you very much. everybody, dr. sean conley taking off his mask and addressing reporters. let's listen. >> since we spoke last, the president has continued to improve. as with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course. particularly when a patient is being so closely watched 24 hours a day. we review and debate every finding, weighing the risks and benefits of every intervention, its timing and as well as any impacts a delay may have. over the court of his illness, the president has experienced two episodes transient drops in

his oxygen saturation. we debated whether we would intervene. and it was the termination of the team that we initiate d adde that mexico. thursday night into friday morning, the president was doing well. with only mild symptoms and his oxygen was in the high 90s. late friday morning when i returned to the bed side, the president had a high fever and his oxygen saturation was transiently dipping below 94%. givens these two develop, i was concerned for possible rapid progression. i recommended the president try supplemental oxygen. he was fairlied a today mony ei

manhattan that he didn't need it, he was tired and that was about it. and after a about a minute with only 2 liters, they were back over 95%. stared on that for abostayed on about an hour and it was off and gone. later that day by the time the team here was at the bedside, the president had been out of bed and moving about the residence with only mild symptoms. but everyone agreed that the best course of action was to move to walter reed for more thorough evaluation and monitoring. and dr. dooley will discuss the current plan. >> thank you, dr. conley. before i begin, a brief clinical update on the president's condition, i want to reiterate my comments yesterday regarding how proud i am to be a proud of this multiinstitutional team of clinical professionals behind me and what an honor it is to care for the president here at walter reed national military center. regarding his clinical status,

the patient continues to improve. he has remained without fever since friday morning. his vital signs are stable. from a pulmonary standpoint, he remains on room air and is not complaining of shortness of breath or other significant respiratory symptoms. he is walking around the white house medical unit without limitation or disability. our continued monitoring of his cardiac, liver and kidney function gldemonstrates normal improving findings. and i'll now turn it over to dr. garaba lchlts bchl gar garabaldi to talk about our plan for the day. >> thank you. ander just wanted to again reiterate what an honor and privilege it is to take care of the president but to be part of

such a talented and multi disciplinary team here. the president yesterday evening completed a second dose of remdesivir and he tolerated the infusion well. we've been monitoring for any potential side effects and he has had none that we can till. kids a kidney and lung function remain normal. and in response to the transient low oxygen levels, we did initiate de initiate deks dexa methadone therapy. and we will continue that today. he has been up, address ond our for him to be up as much as possible and our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the white house. i'll stern turn it over to dr. for any questions.

>> the president wanted me to share how proud he is of the group, what and an more it is for him to be receiving his care here at walter reed surrounded by such incredible talent, academic leaders, department chair, researchers and which i nanyone clinicians. and we are all pleased with the president's recovery. and with that, i'll take your questions. >> you said that there were two instances where he had drops in oxygen. can you walk us through tsecond one? >> yesterday there was another accept so he h episode where he dropped down to about 9d3%. we watched it, and it returned back up. as we said, we evaluate all of these and given the time line where he is in the course of illness, you know, we are trying to maximize everything that we can do for him and we debated

whether we'd even start it, the dexamethadone and we decided that the potential benefits probably outweighed any experts. >> did you give him a second round of supplemental oxygen? >> i'd have to check with the nursing staff. if they did, it was very limited. but he is not on oxygen. the only oxygen that i ordered or that we provided was that friday morning initially. >> what time yesterday, the second incidence? >> oh, it was over the course of the day. >> what is the president's current blood oxygen level, my first question to you, and -- >> 98%. >> and what do the x-rays and ct scans show? are there signs of pneumonia, are there signs of lung involvement? were any damage to the lungs? >> we're tracking all of that.

there is expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern. >> i warradid his oxygen level p below 90? >> we don't have any recordings of that here. >> what about at the white house, anything below 90? >> no, it was below 94%, it wasn't down into the low 80s or anything. >> so yesterday you told us that the president was in great shape, that been in great shape and fever free for the past 24 hours. minutes after your police conference, mark meadows told reporters that the president's vitals were concerning over the past 24 hours. simple question for the american people. whose statements with the president's health should be believed? >> so the chief and i were side by side and i think that his statement was in misconstrued. what he meant is that 24 hours ago, when he and i were checking on the president, that there was

that moment takary episode of t high fever and the temporary drop in the oxygen saturation which prompted us to move him up here. fortunately that was really a very transient limited episode, a couple hours later he was back up mild again. and i won't speculate what that limited episode was about so early in the course, but he is doing well. >> what are the expected findings in his lungs and why is the president not wearing a mask in the videos that have been released? >> the president wears a mask anytime he is around us and we're all wearing our full n 59 95s, full ppe. he is the patient and when we move him about and around other people, that aren't in full ppe, i assure you as long as he is still under my care, we'll talk about him wearing a mask. >> the room is negative pressure? >> i won't get into the specifics of --

[ everybody talking at once ] >> the lung function question, can you talk about that? >> i will just share that like every patient, we perform lung maxing it out. we told him see what you can do and it's over 2500 milliliters each time. he's doing great. yeah. >> showing any irregularities of his lungs? >> to disclose that the president had been administered oxygen? >> it's a good question. >> thank you. >> i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, his course of illness, has had. didn't want the give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. and in doing so, you know, came off that we're trying to hid something, which wasn't

necessarily true, and so here i have it. he is, he's doing really well. that he is, he is responding and as the team said, if everything continues to go well, we're going to start discharge planning back to the white house. that's it. thank you, folks. >> can you please explain what you found on his lung scans? >> if you want to -- >> a couple of others very briefly, notably, the same two who took to the podium very quickly yesterday. let's go right now to dr. -- to josh letterman, our nbc white house correspondent. hey, josh, before we get to the dock torres and what we heard there, let's talk about the tenor of what we heard from dr. conley. you know, did it seem 100% forthcoming to you? something that really we were lacking yesterday from the

briefing. there were all sorts of misstatements and corrections that need to be made based on information that we have later. actually, i'm just told josh is not quite ready to go, so fortunately, i'm joined by dr. emanuel of whom i can ask this question. it's very good to see you and i hope that you were listening to all that. what do you make of just first the tenor before i get specifics of your expertise on what you heard. the tenor of that, it did not seem to be completely forthcoming. there were some questions that were not answered because he said dr. conley said he wanted to put out a very positive picture. is there reason to do that when we're dealing with something of this magnitude? >> i think the last question or second to last question, he pretty well admit ted that he hd the truth. didn't want to mention that he have a oxygen desaturation that require egiving him oxygen, tha he had a fever spike.

and you know, that's not what doctors are supposed to do. part of the oath is tell the truth and if you're telling the truth to the patient and you're representing it to the country, you've got to tell the truth. that's what keeps you know, people worrying that we're not getting the full picture here and then he also lighted the disagreement he had with mark meadows that the vitals weren't really great. now the president may have taken a turn for the better. let me just emphasize two points here about this disease. the first point is we know that patients can look great and then fall off a cliff. >> right. >> and it can be pretty bad. so, i would not go to the bank with oh, he's going home and back to the white house and everything's going to be hunky do dorry. we know there are lots of long-term complications from being covid infected that last. there's even a group of people that are long haulers that seem

to have serious physical and neurological complications long after and you know, we don't know whether the president will be one of them, but that is certainly a serious, worrisome thing to have the most powerful man in the country and a the leader of the free world having some serious complications and by the way, they're not infrequent. about a third of people take a long time to recover and again, have some lingering consequences. we don't know how long because this is a brand-new disease. >> there's a lot, but let me ask you about those blood oxygen levels. help to put into perspective so people understand the severity. it was a little bit muffled, the audio, but i think the doctor suggested the president was at 94. he denied whether the president had fallen into the low 80s. what's good? where is that bad? how do people understand what

this means? >> definitely should not be below 90 and he probably shouldn't be below, or healthy people definitely not below 90. and you want to see people above 95% and you know, 96, 97, 98%. i have a little ox em tor at home that i look at and it's typically 97, 98. >> what's 94? >> i have to say, depentding on what the president's doing, you have to, i wouldn't get alarmed by that. i would watch it very carefully. but i would say that if he's desaturating, so going from 94 down to below 90, that is worrisome and if he's short of breath at 94, that is also worrisome. so you need a whole picture. part of the problem with is we can't focus, the blood oxygen saturation is an important

number, but can't just focus on one number. one of the things doctors do is take all of the totality and it was very curious that he evaded the question about a chest ct and what damage there was. it did suggest that it's not perfectly normal. if it were, he would have said, but he didn't say that. suggesting that there's damage lungs. again, i'm just reading into what he didn't say. >> yeah. absolutely. and as a physician, you know what physicians are supposed to say, granted this is an interesting time as we're talking about the president of the united states and the lack of transparency which with this white house is known for. please stay where you are. we're going to have a panel of which you are an integral part, but for anybody just joining us, we begin with this breaking news as just moments ago, a group of dock torres giving an update on the president's condition. he remains hospitalized saying

despite who transient drops in oxygen over the course of the illness, the president's condition is improving. take a listen. actually, we don't have that sound, but all this as yet another member of the president's inner circle has tested positive. that being nicholas liuna. president trump's personal aide. a so-called body man. somebody who's the president and director of the, president's body man and director of oval office operations. he has contracted covid-19. that was announced lasting night. he accompanied the president to cleveland for the debate and to minnesota for his rally on wednesday. meantime, we have new polling today, which shows biden's national lead over the president nearly doubling after tuesday's presidential debate. the democratic nominee now ahead of president trump by 14 points. 53-39% and that is up eight points from the lead in the previous poll before the debate.

it was kugted before the president was hospitaled. as we begin this hour, we have a team of reporters and analysts with us this hour to go over all of the developments concerning the president. josh letterman outside walter reed once again. you were listening to the news conference there from the physicians. what did we learn? >> well, clearly, the headline that the white house was interested to have come out of this briefing was the fact the doctors now say the president could be discharged as early as tomorrow. we also heard the president's, some of the president's staff has been retweeting that and trying to spread that more broadly, but there were some concerning pieces of information that we learn ed today includin the fact that there was a second situation where the president's oxygen levels had dropped to a point that was very concerning to his doctors. one of the issues that's really going to come out of this briefing is the fact that the

president's medical team is still declining to be fully transparent about the state of his medical condition. either you're going to be transparent and tell people the situation or not. saying that he was on oxygen at least once, but are not disclose dropped to. they're kind of dancing around saying it didn't drop to the low 80s. it dropped below 93, 94, but won't put a number of on it and aren't willing to disclose that they found on chest scans. potentially there could be some inflammation of the lungs given the that could he's now been prescribed, as the doctors said, a steroid prescribed when you have that kind of inflammation. they're deklaclining to say wha on that. so more questions now about why the doctors are still declining

to sort of lay it out on the table even as they're providing some of this information, but again, some good news for the president's health that his doctors say that he could possibly be discharged and return back to the white house as early as tomorrow. >> yeah. we mentioned it. let's get to the new nbc news "wall street journal" poll, a big lead for biden. what else did we learn from those poll numbers? >> well, we certainly learned that he has nearly doubled his lead over donald trump in the days after that first presidential debate. now, we should point out this poll was in the field after the debate, but before the president's diagnosis with covid-19, so it's not totally clear how that latest development might have affected his numbers, the but the other thing we're watching closely out of this poll is the way that the president's numbers, to biden's numbers have increased specifically with male voters