participate in a town hall with us as well. that invitation still stands. there's a busy road ahead in the run up to election day, including the vice-presidential debate 48 hours from now with mike pence and kamala harris. i'm lester holt in miami. good night, everyone. [ applause ] [ applause ] good evening. happy to have you here with us tonight. um, it was a beautiful fall day in 1955. president dwight david eisenhower was on vacation. he was enjoying a game of golf in denver, actually, near downtown denver. and the day reportedly started out more than fine. the president's doctor would later say that the president had been in a, quote, exuberant mood that day. it was fantastic! but things would eventually take a dark turn that exuberant day in 1955. president eisenhower's golf game that day ended up getting

interrupted over and over and over again by phone calls, specifically, phone calls from the secretary of state, john foster dulles. every couple of holes, the president was dragged off the course to go take another call from dulles. now, even on a good day, president eisenhower was known to have a bit of a temper, but those interruptions of his golf game that day, which, apparently, the president considered quite unnecessary, they really just set him off, like, over the top set him off. according to one bystander, the president became so angry at one point that the veins, quote, stood out on his forehead like whipcords. in addition to being visibly spitting mad and upset, the president also started what he ng about described as indigestion. his stomach was upset. but at least that the president just chalked up to the fact that he had scarfed down a hamburger with bermuda onions at lunch. perhaps he had eaten too fast, and that's why he had the

indigestion. eisenhower's medical team would later agree that actually, what happened that afternoon at that golf course in denver was probably that president eisenhower suffered a heart attack out there. but he didn't seek help. nobody sought help for him. instead, the president went f t bed that night without having had any medical attention at all, only to wake up at 2:00 in the morning complaining of chest pains. presidentof eisenhower's wife, maimy, called the president's personal d physician, major general howard snyder. general snyder was a doctor -- he was a surgeon -- but he had no real experience in cardiovascular medicine. despite that, even though he was the physician to the president, and even though the president was suffering from chest pains, general snyder just decided that he would attend to the president that night himself. he went to the president's bedside. he didn't call for any other doctor or specialist to come help. with no cardiologist in sight or even on the phone, general snyder came in, this surgeon, and he justth decided that he

would treat president eisenhower then and there by himself. what he did was he gave president eisenhower a whole bunch of different medicines, including a healthy dose of morphine, which eventually put the presidenth to sleep. even though that doctor, that white house physician, general snyder, later said he was disturbed and alarmed and shaken by eisenhower's condition that night, he made no attempt to summon outsideo assistance or get advice from any other doctors. by 8:00 a.m. the next morning, president eisenhower's team was publicly passing off the whole episode as no big deal. the white house press secretary told usreporters, "the presiden suffered a digestive upset during the night. if he comes into his office today, it will not be until considerably nlater." just a little digestive upset. president eisenhower didn't wake up that day until around noon, and it wasn't until then that generalth snyder actually calle the nearbyer army hospital and asked for a a cardiac specialis to come immediately to take an

electrocardiogram. and what do you know, that electrocardiogram confirmed that president eisenhower had, in fact, suffered a massive heart attack. it was lucky he survived.ea nobody had sought help the previous day on the golf course. no evaluation of him at all until the president woke up in thel middle of the night complaining of chest pains, and then itst wasn't until more tha ten hoursnt after that, after t white house press secretary had assured dwleverybody that it wa fine, just ala tummy ache, less than 1 hou2 hours after the che pain episode that the doctor called forde help. presidents don't always get great health care. i lwmean, they often do, but no always. and when the president's care is inflected by an attempt to minimize the situation, to tell people it's nothing, s to not arouse too much worry, all right, to keep things seeming normal, even when they're not, i mean, that's bad in a whole bunchn of different ways. not being clear-eyed and honest and blunt about the president's

condition, especially if that's because they're trying to create a false reassurance to the public that everything's fine, that's just -- that's bad, right? it's bad practice for a democracy. we, the people, are supposed to be the ultimate authority of who's inim control of our government in this country, right? we should, therefore, known as a democracy, with confidence, whether the president is well enough to continue discharging the duties of being president. if they're trying to create a false impression that he is, but really, somebody else is discharging the duties of president, that's very serious in terms of our democracy. similarly, if senior white house staff are all put out of commissionpu by an infection sweeping through the west wing, the people of this democracy should know whether the top echelons of the government are in place to continue discharging the duties of governance, or are we creating a charade in which we are trying to pretend like everybody's in place, things are running as normal, but really, there are other people and other entities that we are not discussing who are really in charge, since all of the people who are purportedly in charge

are actually home sick. i mean, it is bad practice to have no clarity on what's really happening, in terms of our democracy, also in terms of national security. if our adversaries around the world are trying to assess if this might be a moment to hit us, if our adversaries around the world are trying to assess if this might be a moment to take advantage of us, if our adversaries around the world are tryingrs to assess whether or n the u.s. is at full strength and full focus in terms of leadership, and if they, our adversaries, like the american public, cease to believe the public assurances about the president's health because they are plainly bunk, i mean, that's bad on a whole bunch of different wlevels, in terms of what our adversaries might do to take advantage of this moment. but also, i mean, just at a basic human level, trying to maintain some kind of false front to the public that everything's fine with the president when youyt either don knowes it or it's not true, tha can also be bad for the president's health itself. eisenhower's heart can tell you that from experience.

president trump returned to the white houseed tonight after thr nights spent in the hospital at walter reed. he staged the kind of performative return that may have tried to beve a sort of triumphant, "i beat the virus" thing with marine one landing right next to the white house and the president then tromping up the stairs into the white house. this may havein tried to be a st of triumphant return impression, butan the real impression it created was something almost opposite to that. i mean, the president walking up the stairses to the south porti, but then turning out to face the cameras while he could be plainly seen really -- gasping air, while his chest sort of rose and fell with difficulty, looking out at the cameras. t if the idea was to show that he's all better, you know, he's got his hair done again, he's got his makeup done again, he's

himself, that was undercut seriously by the sort of unnerving spectacle of the president really, visibly appearing to struggle for breath. but spare a thought for the white house staff as well, for, you know, the military aides and the cooks andmi the gardeners a the security guards and the cleaners and the ushers and the butlerser and the valets and everybody in that complex. i mean, after the president did his thing, walking up those stairs, he ripped off his mask, right before he walked into the white house complex not wearing it, right? he getsin there wearing the mas takes it off, and then that's how he goes into the white house. this is a man who tested positive for covid-19 on thursday, who has had symptoms serious enough to require multiple days in the hospital and supplemental oxygen and all sorts of experimental therapies, who even tonight appears to be struggling to eabreathe. and he's insisting on being not just out of the hospital, but being back home in a house that is also a workplace for hundreds of people, and he is apparently not going to wear a mask there. he took off his mask before walking without it on into the

white house. the president also appears to have worn just a cloth mask, not an n-95 or anything, inside the hermitically sealed confines of the presidential limousine this weekend, right, in which he was accompanied by at least two secret serviced personnel, whoe had drive him around out his hospital room this weekend so he could wave at people holding trump signs. secret service agents sign up because, in part, they are willing to take a bullet for the president, they are willing to give up their lives to save his life, if somebody tries to assassinate the president. they are willing to get in the way of a bullet. but taking a bullet for him from an assassin is different than taking a viral bullet from him, because he expects you to drive him around in the big car with the windows that don't roll dowt so he can go wave at people while he has a super contagious, potentially lethal, infectious disease. i mean, god bless the secret service.

and all the people who work anywhere near this president at this insane time, given what risk he's apparently willing to take with their lives for not much reason at all. but we are also now in this fact-free, or at least gray zone in terms of what's really happening right now at the top t of the u.s. government. after a third round of bizarre and elliptical and not-credible briefing from the president's physician, dr. sean conley, it is hard to have confidence that dr. conley is telling the truth, lette alone the whole truth, abt the president's condition. i mean, a lot of what he has told us is odd. the president, for example, may be thet, only human being on eah who is taking this particular combination of therapies for covid, if we believe what dr. conley tells us about the president's treatment regime. the "washington post" spoke with the chief of infectious diseases at mass general and the "post"

reports trump may be the first patient, certainly among the first, to receive an unusual combination of three strong treatments, with a handful of supplements and an over-the-counter drug sprinkled in p.m. dr. mcginn says "suddenly, they're throwing the kitchen sink at him. itn raises a question, is he sickerti than we're hearing or being overly aggressive because he is the president?" and there is no data indicating how these treatments might react with each other, especially in an overweight 74-year-old man with a heart condition who is in a high-risk group for the coronavirus -rdisease. and the president took a dose of an experimental monoclonal therapy, that is not approved as a covid rotherapy, in which the president made a compassionate use application to the company. that's a typeus of access usual granted for people at the end oo their lives, people who have no other treatment options to try to save them. why did he go straight to that experimental therapy for which he required compassionate use

authorization? while we're talking about it, why did theyil give him the hig dose of that drug, instead of the low dose of that drug? again, it's only beenf tested small-scale clinical trials. why give that to him right off the bat? the president is also taking remdesivir. a five-day intravenous course of that ug i middle of a course of iv medication, but he went back to the white house tonight anyway. which can have serious cognitive and mood-related side effects. the president is also reportedly taking zinc and vitamin d and the drug that's the basis for pepcid and whoever knows what else. and that combination of drugs is a serious thing and an unusual one. and so, we are in uncharted territory here in terms of how these drugs might interact or whether they might be contra indicated in combination for any reason, including side effects.

this was the headline in that "washington post" article, speaking with specialists about how confused they were by the president's purported treatment regime. "trump's early hospital discharge mystifies doctors." subhead says "they say he's in a particularly vulnerable window for covid-19 patients and should be watched closely while taking an unusual combination of drugs." robert waechter, chairman of thw university of california at san francisco's department of medicine said any patient of his with trump's symptoms and treatment who wanted to be discharged from the hospital after three days would need to sign out against doctors' orders, because it would be so ill-advised. wachter says "for someone sick enough to have required remdesivir and dexamethasone, i can't think of a situation in which ain patient would be okayo leave on day three, even with the white house's medical capacity." william schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at vanderbilt university's medical school concurring, saying, "the idea of sending trump back to the white house today," that

idea, "absolutely not." but there he is, and taking off the mask right before he walks inside the white house, gasping for air. why is the president getting this treatment that dr. conley has described? do we believe that this is the treatment the president is getting? i ask because dr. conley's pronouncements have been hard to believe at times, often inconsistent, and they've requiredn repeated correction. why is the president's treatment being sioverseen and explained the american people by dr. sean conley in the first place? he's an osteopath. another against osteopaths, but you would expect this team to be led by an infectious disease se doctor, no? at least an internist? somebody who does something other than meosteopathy? why is he briefing the public after multiple misstatements, including on the timeline when

the president was first diagnosed and started receiving treatment. and even when dr. conley's written statement trying to clean up those 'smistakes was fl ofho errors, including misspellg at least one of the drugs that the president is taking. is someone who's an experienced covid clinician making top-level decisions on the president's care? is it dr. conley? is it possible that this is a case of what they call vip syndrome, in which the patient insists on what he wants to be treated with, even though that combination of treatments makes no sense from a clinical perspective, but everybody goes along with it anyway because the patient is a vip? why won't the white house release basic information on things like the president's vital signs and whether there were abnormalities in his lung scans, his blood oxygen levels, how much oxygen he received, how many times hehe received it, at whativ saturation and for what length of time? why is the white house specifically andis repeatedly insisting that we, the public, are not allowed to know when the last time was that the president tested negative?

they really don't want us to know. they reallywa insist on us not knowing about the window of time in whichth the president was potentially infected, the window offe time between his last negative test and his first positive test.n right. now, you don't always turn up positive immediately upon becoming infected. it may take a few days for the test to be able to register enough virus in your system to give you a positive result. but knowing the difference between the last negative test and the first positive test, knowing whatpo that window was, knowing aboutnd the progressionf the virus and how long it takes to actually potentially turn up a positive test result after infection, this would be a helpful. this would be n,helpful, maybe t to the president's care, but it would be helpful to a lot of people who have had contact with the president or contact with his close contacts in the time around his infection. i mean, what the white house says is that the president got his positive test result late on thursday night.

in the 48 hours before getting that positive test result,ho we know the president had his debate with vice president biden, thevi one where not only did the candidates not wear masks standing on stage, socially distanced, but there was a rulely in the hall where everybody attending the debate had to wear a mask. the trump family members decided to break that rule. they took off their masks and refused to wear them throughout the whole debate. in that same 48-hour period before the president's test result, the president held a rally in minnesota with thousands of people, where no one, including him -- basically no one, including him, wore masks. in that same 48-hour window, the president met with supporters at his golf club in bedminster. he traveled to bedminster, new jersey, right? he travels to cleveland, goes to the debate, travels to minnesota, does the rally, travels to bedminster to go do hisns fund-raiser thing, takes photos with everybody for the campaign fund-raiser that he holds there. i mean, he met and traveled over this 48-hour -- just that 48-hour window -- with dozens of white house staffers, and he didn't wear a mask for any of

it. was he infected that whole time? what's the earliest time he could be infected? asking for a friend. asking for the dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of people who may have been in proximity with the president over the time when he was first infected.ox we know he had symptoms by the time he first tested positive. when was the last time he got a negative test before then? knowing the window is not necessarily helpful for understanding the president's health. it is -- it would be very helpful -- it is important for figuring out who else the president potentially infected, because it could be legions. if they won't tell us when he got infected, if they will not clarify when his testing revealed his exposure and infection for the first time, we are left to wonder, like, how many things the president did where he potentially infected everyone near him, but also, how many things the president did while he might have known he had covid. were there multiple tests? did he do a rapid test before he

did a confirming pcr? what was the timeline of his testing? let us know as a matter of public health. "the new york times" is first to report tonight that the white house has decided not to do contact tracing for the saturday event before the president's formal diagnosis, at which a lot of now-infected people were on. the white house has decided -- this is from "the new york white tonight -- the house hasyo decided not to trac the contacts of guests and staff members at the rose garden celebration ten days ago for judgete amy coney barrett, wher at least eight people, including the p president, may have becom infected, according to a white house official familiar with the plans. they've just decided not to trace those contacts.s. the white house has also cut the cdc out of the contact tracing process. the cdc hasci the government's most extensive knowledge and resources for contacte tracing butac the white house has elect not to use them for this. they're just not tracing those infections. to the extent that tracing

efforts are being done for the 48 hours before the president got his positive test result on thursday night, those efforts are being run by the white house medical unit, headed by dr. sean conley, the white house physician, the osteopath who has been the public spokesman for mr. trump's doctors since he got sick. dr. siconley today explicitly denied to reporters that he had anything to do with contact tracing around this surgeoning cluster of infections surrounding the president. today, "i have nothing to do with the contact tracing." but according to the white house, dr. conley is, in fact, the person who is in charge ofthal contact tracing. when hope hicks first tested positive early on thursday, from that point forward, it's very simple -- everybody in the white house who had any contact with her in previous days should have gone into quarantine for at least two weeks. instead, they just carried on, including the president. and now they're just not bothering to track what appear

to be myriad infections that they have caused by this neglect, not that they've caused in some out of removed sense of, you know, mishandling the pandemic and undercutting public health authorities and mocking protections recommended by public health authorities to keep people from getting it, right, not just spreading misinformation, not providing ppe, not providing clear guidance, politicizing the science around these things. i don't mean -- i mean all of that -- but i mean, here, people, a lot of people may have literally been infected with covid by the president personally. like, his breath, other people infected, could have been lots of them.ot they should tell us that so those people who are in contact with the president, however many days are relevant here, can themselves, not only get tested, but instead, themselves start doing their own contact tracing in terms of who else they might have infected. the president himself appears to

be the source of a significant covid cluster. he's home now, though. at least 30 states have rising case numbers right now. they said this would happen in the colder weather. it's not much colder yet, but we're already heading back up. we're already back up to 50,000 new cases a day. the ellipse outside the white house this weekend was filled with 20,000 black chairs. look at that. that's a20,000, not 200,000. each of those chairs represents ten americans dead from this thing already this morning. they president today said nobo should be afraid of covid. yeah. everything's fine. he's infected. he's on multiple experimental therapies nobody has ever tried in this combination before. he's been in the hospital three days, and now, apparently, still sick, still s receiving

intravenous medication, among other things. there he is, out of the hospital, ripping off his mask so he can go inside the white house without it on, gasping for breath. this is such a mess. and nobody knows what's happening, even tonight, even to him. en even tonight, even to him.

it's totally normal to have constipation with belly pain, straining, and bloating, again and again. no way. more exercise. more water. and more fiber is the only way to manage it. is it? maybe you think... it's occasional constipation.

maybe it's not. it could be a chronic medical condition called linzess works differently than laxatives. it helps relieve belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than 18, it may harm them. do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. change your thinking to ibs-c. if your constipation and belly pain keeps coming back, tell your doctor and say yesss! to linzess. why remdesivir? >> so, remdesivir works a little bit differently than the antibodies. we are maximizing all aspects of

his care, attacking this virus, you know, multipronged approach. as the president, i didn't want to hold anything back. >> -- begin dexamethasone treatment? >> the potential risks and side effects we all discussed. we looked at the data and decided that we'd rather, you know, push ahead on it than hold and risk, you know, the opposite. i'm not going to go into all of our debates about specific medicines and therapies. he's on a routine regimen of covid therapy. i'm not going to go into specifics as to what he is and is not on. >> i'm not going to go into specifics. i'm not going to go into specifics. why would i? you figure it out yourselves. does this seem normal? trust me, this is routine. joining us is dr. vin gupta from the university of washington school of medicine, former pandemics consultant at the world bank. dr. gupta, i appreciate you making time to be here tonight. thanks.

>> thanks, rachel. >> when dr. conley there described what the president -- the way the president has been treated as a routine regimen of covid therapy, is that true? >> you know, rachel, it's a really important question, and it's very true, if we just admit to what's going on here, that the president rolls in, based on the information that we have, that he was short of breath. his oxygen levels, the ones that we know that have been reported, have been less than 94%. just those two points rule him in for w.h.o. criteria for severe covid-19 pneumonia. so, in that setting, for acknowledging that as fact, going to walter reed, immediately getting started on dexamethasone, that clinical presentation bought him dexamethasone. it's the one thing that we know could be effective. he ruled in for that. he ruled in for remdesivir. it makes sense that he would be treated that way.

but i want to know what does the ct or chest x-ray show? what are the basic labs showing? what about a blood gas? things that pulmonologists and infectious disease doctors across the country have asked for the 210,000 americans who have lost their lives because of covid-19 pneumonia. that's what the president has. he might have a milder version of it, but he still rules in technically for the definition of severe covid-19 pneumonia. >> in terms of the way that the information about the president's health has been conveyed to the public, it hasn't inspired confidence, both because of the lack of specificity from dr. conley, from the way that he's waved off certain questions without any explanation of why he's waving them off, but also because he's given some inconsistent information, including stuff that he's had to go back and revise. if you could wave a magic wand and invent a new spokesperson to give us meaningful information about the president's condition that you think the american people should have -- you just mentioned a few things there -- chest ct or chest stray, his basic labs, potential blood gas

reading. what are the things that you think that we should demand to know about the president's condition in order to better understand his level of illness? >> you bet, rachel. so, anybody that comes in with shortness of breath and we think they're high risk for covid-19 and they've proven, in the president's case, to actually have it, this is what we want to know, especially if they're gasping for breath, the way the president looked like he was actually audibly gasping for breath after he did what we call a modified stress test, walking up a flight of stairs. what i would want to know with somebody like that is i want to see a chest x-ray and a high-resolution ct scan of the chest. let me take a good look at his lungs and see if there is any type -- we use the term, this technical term, an infiltrate or a ground glass opacities. those are technical terms. what we want to know is, is there evidence of pneumonia, something filling his airways in his lungs? the answer probably is, yes, absolutely, because they gave him dexamethasone and

remdesivir. there would be no other reason to give those medications. there is no fda-approved reason to give those medications, unless it was for covid-19 pneumonia. i'd also want to get renal or kidney markers, because we know covid-19 can impact the kidneys. want to make sure the president's kidneys are doing okay, because a lot of patients that go into the icu for severe covid-19 pneumonia have kidney failure, need dialysis. let's see how he's doing there. what about something called a d-diametme d-dimer. it's a value that risk strategized the president for whor whether or not he's at risk for blood clotting. this has been talked about at length, covid-19 patients, and especially those in the icu or with severe illness are at risk of blood clots, so what does that look like? when asked the question, he was actually asked, is he on a blood thinner? dr. conley didn't even mention it. again, these are weird, just almost unnecessary things to try to hide. there's no reason to hide.

why they didn't report on the results of the ct scan or chest x-ray and these basic lab values? no reason to hide it. we're all understanding that covid-19's a difficult, multiorgan system disease. let's try to help them out. let's explain to the american people what's going on. they should be forthcoming with these details. >> dr. vin gupta, pulmonologisp, assistant professor at the university of washington medical school. thank you very much for helping us understand this tonight. your clarity's appreciated. >> thanks, rachel. we've got much more ahead. again, the president did come home tonight from walter reed hospital after spending three nights there. the circumstances of his arrival were unnerving. the president visibly gasping for air while standing outside the white house. the president then recording a video inside. he appears to have taken off his mask, even though he's just been diagnosed with covid-19 and has been very symptomatic. took off his mask in order to

enter the white house and then was not wearing a mask inside the white house. just as a reminder, the white house is a workplace for hundreds of americans, and the president has covid and he's apparently not wearing his mask inside the house. the white house. more to come tonight. stay with us. more to come tonight stay with us when i started cobra kai,

the lack of control over my business made me a little intense. but now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. and now i'm back on top... with koala kai. save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the services of the post office plus ups only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

tomorrow, this new book comes out by former cia director john brennan. and of course, it comes in the middle of this maelstrom of a news cycle. but any time somebody like john brennan writes a book, it's going to have news in it, just in terms of what he has been through. john brennan was deputy executive director of the cia during 9/11, was chief of staff to george tenet during the george w. bush administration. he was president obama's top adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security and became cia director after the david petraeus cia directorship blew

up because of the fbi investigating petraeus disclosing classified information to his mistress. remember that scandal? used to be that scandals in washington actually had consequences. there's lots of news, large and small, from the new brennan book. you can hear about the obama transition team leaving john brennan accidentally stranded at the chicago airport. you can read what john brennan's wife-to-be thought of him getting his ear pierced when he was in his 20s, also his whole motorcycle phase. you will learn about john brennan's belief that one former intelligence committee chairman from the republican party was profoundly lacking in actual intelligence himself. brennan describing him as neither, quote, genuinely interested in national security, nor smart. you can read some of the drama about how the obama administration kept secret the plans for the raid that killed osama bin laden. you can learn about how brennan, like lots of people, is aware

that part of the motivation for putin to interfere in the 2016 election was to hurt hillary clinton's chances of becoming president because he hated her. but brennan also has a unique vantage on putin's grudge against bill clinton as well, which could have been another reason putin went after president bill clinton's wife, hillary, when she became a candidate. i did not know that story at all. that's in the book. fascinating story. you will also get john brennan's lengthy, detailed, fairly furious take on the senate intelligence committee report on torture and secret cia prisons. dr. brennan does not call it torture and he is no fan of that report, and if you want to know why, here is his definitive and detailed take on his own terms, on his own role in all of that. but when it comes to the current president and the current presidency, there's a whole bunch of very interesting news here. here, for example, is director brennan's description of donald trump. this is during the

obama-to-trump transition, when john brennan was first briefing donald trump on what russia had done to help him win the election. "trump's demeanor as well as his questions strongly revealed that he was uninterested in finding out what the russians had done or in holding them to account. rather, he seemed most focused on challenging the intelligence and analysis underlying the judgment among the cia, fbi, nsa, and the office of the director of national intelligence that russia interfered in the election and that the interference was intended to enhance his election prospects." then brennan says this -- "it was also my clear impression, based on thousands of such briefings i have conducted over more than three decades, that trump was seeking most to learn what we knew and how we knew it. this deeply troubled me, as i worried about what he might do with the information he was being given. foreign intelligence services take much the same approach when they're briefed by the u.s. intelligence community on wrongdoing by their governments. they look for perceived weaknesses in the intelligence and analysis that could be

exploited as well as for clues that could help them uncover and then seek to eliminate the human or technical sources providing sensitive and damning information. during the briefing, trump posited his own theories about election interference and his skepticism that the culprit was russia, articulating what would become a well-honed attack strategy of seeking to discredit any suggestion that his election was fraudulent or in any way influenced by russian interference. "it could have been the chinese," he interjected several times during the briefing, seeking to deflect focus away from the unanimous assessment that the russians were responsible." also in brennan's new book, there's been lots of speculation, including by me, as to whether the intelligence agencies felt like it was safe to actually brief trump and his team on sensitive russian sources. i mean, here's brennan in this book saying he believed that when he was briefing trump about what russia did, it was his impression as an experienced briefer that trump was trying to figure out how much brennan knew about what russia had done, what

his sources were, how they had figured this all out. if they're worried that -- if they're worried about disclosing sensitive sources to president trump about how they have learned about what russia did, well, how do you deal with that, right? this is information that would get those sources burned, if not killed, if somebody on team trump actually told russia what the u.s. sources were that led to this information. well, now we learn in this new book that john brennan, in fact, had those worries, and he acted accordingly in his briefing with trump and his team. he says, "i had decided beforehand that i would share the full substance of cia intelligence and analysis on russian interference in the election without providing any specific details on the prove nance of our knowledge. the sensitive sources and methods related to counterintelligence and russia are among the nation's most-prized jewels, and i lacked confidence that all of the individuals in that conference room had the requisite

understanding of classification procedures and controls, not to mention the personal discipline and integrity, to avoid devastating disclosures, either inadvertent or willful. moreover, given his public praise of wikileaks, his strange object seequousness towards putin and disdain towards the u.s. intelligence community, i had serious doubts that donald trump would protect our nation's most vital secrets." and so, some of them he held back. john brennan also writes that he still to this day has worries about how exactly donald trump won election to the u.s. presidency. "did the russian interference that the intelligence community had warned about tilt the election in key swing states so that trump came out on top? those questions haunt me still." and even though john brennan retired from government at the very moment that donald trump became president, president trump has never been able to leave john brennan alone. he's obsessed with him. he's called john brennan myriad names, he's accused him of

myriad crimes. he claimed to have revoked his security clearance, even though he didn't. trump's attorney general ordered an ongoing investigation into the cia's actions under brennan in 2016. when john brennan went to access his records from his time as cia director to consult them so he could write this book, access that has been provided to all previous cia directors, he discovered that president trump had issued a directive specifically about him, blocking him from accessing those materials and, furthermore, forbidding anyone in the intelligence community from sharing classified information, specifically, with john brennan. imagine the president being so obsessed with you that he uses the powers of the presidency just to make your individual life more difficult, even after you have left government. trump's obsession with john brennan has practical consequences. but it's also on its fact -- on its face, you know, telling about the president and his obsessions. it also leads to the title of

the book, "undaunted: my fight against america's enemies at home and abroad." in the "at home" there, the emphasis is silent. former director of the cia, john brennan, joins us next. his book is out tomorrow. brennan, joins us next his book is out tomorrow

joining us now, i'm pleased to say, is former cia director john brennan. his new book is out tomorrow. it's called "undaunted: my fight against america's enemies at home and abroad." congratulations on the book, director brennan. it's nice to see you. >> thank you, rachel. thank you for having me on tonight. >> so, i read it cover to cover. i learned a lot. i'm also still a little bit surprised that you wrote it, because it is my sense that since leaving government, that sort of sigh of relief has never really ended, that you are happy to have left this part of your life behind you and that you might prefer to be sort of more

anonymous than you've ended up being in your retirement. >> well, i certainly wanted to be, but unfortunately, donald trump has not allowed me to be because i feel an obligation to speak up and speak out. but as i say in the book, one of the reasons why i wanted to write it was to give americans a sense of the world of intelligence and national security. and i'm really hoping that by doing this memoir, i'm going to convince some young americans to disregard the craziness of washington and the maelstrom, as you talk about, in terms of the political environment right now. this country faces enormous security challenges in the coming decades, and we need america's best and brightest to join the foreign service, to join the intelligence community and law enforcement, military and others, and to give back to this great country of ours. i was honored and privileged for over 30 years to serve in a number of positions and to witness history. and so, i wrote this book to give people a sense of exactly the types of challenges as well as opportunities there are to do something on behalf of your

fellow citizens. i'm quite proud of the fact that i was able to serve for so many years with some tremendously gifted, talented, and patriotic women and men. and so, this is my contribution to the public discourse about national security and again, encouraging young americans to really pursue their ambitions, if, in fact, they see that public service is something in their future. >> i have to ask you, just as somebody with the three decades plus of experience that you've got working in the white house at very senior levels, working for multiple presidents, being the daily briefer for presidents, serving as cia director, ultimately. this particular and unique crisis situation that we are living through as a country right now, not just the trump presidency, but this situation with the president's illness and the lack of clarity, and seemingly, the lack of candor around the president's condition, i have to ask if you feel that there are national

security implications of that, that we should be aware of or on the lookout for? >> i think there are very serious national security implications. as you point out, i don't think the american people could have any confidence that what they're hearing right now about donald trump's health is accurate. unfortunately, this administration has a very strong track record of deceit and dishonesty, and some of the confusion coming out as far as his medical status just adds to that uncertainty in terms of do we have somebody in the oval office right now who can discharge the duties and responsibilities of the office of the presidency? now, the 25th amendment makes -- provides a process, the legal basis in order to transfer power to a vice president, if that person who in the oval office is unable to discharge those duties, but i don't believe that donald trump is going to relinquish them, even if he goes toward, you know, a more serious illness and is incapacitated. and i think our adversaries around the world, whether it be russia, china, or others -- are they seeking to take advantage of this opportunity now when

there clearly is distraction within the national security hierarchy and that donald trump clearly is just focused on his medical condition and trying to present an image of being resilient? and we all hope that he recovers fully from this. we do. but i do think it is still quite uncertain, and it's quite disconcerting that we don't have confidence that what we hear from the highest levels of our government is, indeed, factual. >> one of the unique and very interesting chapters in the book is sort of world tour that you give, where you talk about your interactions with world leaders and what your impressions were of them. and you get a sense about your training and also your experience reading people. given that, i find it a little disturbing what you just said, that your read on president trump is that, even if he were quite severely incapacitated by illness, it's your impression of him that, even in that circumstance, he might not relinquish power.

that's a sobering -- that's a sobering assessment. >> yes. how does one determine that somebody is unable to discharge the duties of the office of the presidency? again, the 25th amendment provides a legal basis to do it, but i can see donald trump continuing to resist it, even if his mental acuity diminishes because of the illness or because of the treatment that he's being given, in terms of the impact of the medicines that he's had. so, i do believe that the intelligence collections systems of our adversaries are ramped up right now to try to get a better sense of exactly what's going on. and might chinese decide to do something, present in hong kong? might russia decide to do something in belarus? might other countries try to take advantage of this time when there is this lack of coherence within the national security structure as far as what the condition and the abilities of the president donald trump are?

and so, therefore, this is a time where i think it's very -- it's incumbent on those senior officials in the white house to keep the members of congress informed and to be as truthful and as forthcoming as possible about the ability of donald trump to carry out those duties or not. >> former cia director john brennan. the new book is called "undaunted: my fight against america's enemies at home and abroad." it is a fascinating look at the scope of his career, which is the modern history of american national security, a particularly unnerving window in terms of the russia investigation and this presidency and director brennan, what's been your life made a lot more difficult by this president, even after you left government service. thank you for your service to the country and thanks for helping us understand the book tonight. >> thank you so much, rachel, for having me on. i really appreciate it. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. we'll be right back. stay with us (brad) apartments-dot-com makes getting into a new home easier than ever.

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one last quick update for you tonight before we go. in the midst of everything else going on tonight, we have learned that president trump's son, eric -- the blond one who now runs the day-to-day operations of the trump administration -- was interviewed under the new york a.g.'s office, investigating whether the trump administration committed fraud by lying about the value of its assets for bank loans and tax purposes. eric trump had blown off the previously scheduled interview with the a.g. in july.

a state judge had ordered him to appear this week. we now know that eric trump did make that appearance today, under oath, by video. we know that the interview ended sometime after 5:00 this evening, but as for how long it lasted or what it was he said, we don't know now, but i bet we will some day. watch this space. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. "way too early" with kasie hunt is up next. i just left walter reed medical center, and it's really something very special. the doctors, the nurses, the first responders. and i learned so much about coronavirus. and one thing that's for certain, don't let it dominate you. don't be afraid of it. don't let it dominate. don't let it take over your lives. >> that was president trump's e