good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports." i'm chris jansing in new york continuing our breaking news coverage of the stunning announcement a few hours ago that president biden has tested positive for covid. white house coronavirus response coordinator dr. shaw says the president is feeling tired with a runny nose and a dry cough. he is taking paxlovid while in isolation at the residence. he is participating in planned meetings today via zoom.

the first lady will travel to delaware after events today in michigan and georgia. this morning outside of an event in detroit, she gave reporters an update on her husband's condition. >> my husband tested positive for covid. i talked to him just a few minutes ago. he is doing fine. he is feeling good. i tested negative this morning. i am going to keep my schedule. i am, according to cdc guidelines, i'm keeping masked. >> kamala harris landing in charlotte minutes ago. a white house official says she tested negative this morning and was last with the president on tuesday. today at 2:00 eastern, we expect to hear from dr. shaw and white house press secretary for a briefing on the president's condition. let's go to the host of this show, andrea mitchell at the aspen security forum in colorado, peter alexander and

kristin welker, yamiche alcindor and dr. zeke emanuel, a member of the president's covid advisory board during the transition. thank you for being here. zeke, let's start with the concerns for the president's condition, especially as a 79-year-old, and what impact paxlovid should have on him. >> he should feel better within 24 hours. that's what most patients appreciate. he has got vaccinated, double boosted in may. or in march, i think. he is getting paxlovid. i think he will be fine. it's a very different situation than when president trump got sick and the treatments were very different. also, he was much sicker than

president biden. president biden is nowhere near needing oxygen, being admitted to an icu. >> to put a fine point on it, if the president's symptoms were to get worse, would they have already -- what are the chances, given the fact that you say he is fully vaccinated, double boosted and getting paxlovid, that it won't get any worse? >> the chances are low that it will get worse. i think that's -- i think he is going to be fine. there are two worries going forward. one worry is a rebound after the paxlovid stops. we have seen this. tony fauci experienced that. the other is long covid. those are the two big risks. the thing i would monitor is his level of energy. >> peter alexander, what are you hearing from white house officials about the president's symptoms? we got that brief comment from the first lady who had spoken to

her husband. what are you hearing from the officials in the building behind you? >> reporter: as it relates to the first lady, she's the only individual identified as a close contact to that point. she's continuing with her schedule. she's in michigan. will travel to georgia later today before heading to wilmington, delaware, where the two of them were supposed to be going. she will go there. the president will stay here. as for his situation, we did hear from the president's physician, the white house physician a short time ago in a letter telling us about his symptoms that started yesterday. the running nose, the dry cough and the fatigue. in simple terms, he is tired right now. moments ago, we received a tweet from the press secretary saying that she just hung up with president biden. she says he is doing fine and he continues to work from the residence. in terms of how long this isolation will last, the white house said the president will continue to conduct his duties fully, they say, throughout the course of this in isolation

until he tests negative. they say it's not until he tests negative that he will leave that isolation. when you take paxlovid, it's possible that that window is abbreviated. nonetheless, it could take a period of time. sometimes it can take beyond five days and could take days longer. the white house behind closed doors is updating those close contacts, whoever they were, they were around the president and are identified as a close contact so they will mask and distance. the president's last public event, the last interactions that we know of, publically, was in massachusetts yesterday. he flew aboard a force 1 with some of the massachusetts delegation. they include democratic senators from that state, elizabeth warren, and ed markey. the national covid coordinator will speak from the podium here at the white house.

the press secretary will be there as well. quickly to pull the curtain back on the situation here, i was just upstairs in the west wing where the staff that i saw, everybody was wearing a mask. masks have not been required unless you are around the president where they are worn. those who are visiting with the president are required to be tested on that same day. that includes members of the press who are required to get tested and wear a band to indicate we are negative. no indication if anybody else has tested positive at this point. they are trying to downplay the seriousness, describing these as very mild symptoms at this time. >> peter, while you were speaking and talking about that 2:00 briefing we will get, we learned that we are expecting to hear from vice president can a kamala harris at 1:30. she has experience with covid. a few member of the president's staff have gotten covid. he has held out longer than

most. right, peter? >> reporter: that's right. the white house from the very beginning was concerned about this. you remember before there was even a vaccine, how careful the president's campaign, former vice president's campaign was, how he did so many public events via zoom from his home in delaware. then even here at the white house, they maintained some of the precautions. the vice president tested positive in april. her husband got covid first. he got it in march. she tested negative earlier today. we will look forward to hearing from her at 1:30. one thing i will watch for over the course of the day, obviously, is what the white house does to demonstrate the president is in charge, he is well and able to conduct the duties of his office at this time. we will get daily briefings they say, going forward, for as long as this is an issue, for as long as he is testing positive certainly. i wouldn't be surprised if at some point today we hear from

the president in the form of some written statement, a tweet perhaps, maybe a photograph released by the white house. >> andrea, to that point of how the president is doing and feeling and what's happening with him, you participated in a briefing with top public health officials. what can you tell us from that? >> as you know, the president was double boosted. he was boosted in march, most recently. so he is within that very good window of a high immunity. with the paxlovid, he should be doing really well. the problem is the ba.5 variant. the problem with that is it's so transmissible. it's so difficult to avoid infection. the real concern as well is that the specific vaccine for this ba.5 variant is not ready until september. by then, this current surge is likely to be over. we are three months behind in producing a vaccine specific for

the variants that keep popping up. it could be that the public health community, the vaccine makers get lucky and the next variant is susceptible to the ba.5 variant vaccine, when it is produced in september and more widely distributed. that is just a matter of luck. they won't know that until the next variant does appear. what they know about covid -- they are learning things all the time about it -- is that it is going to continue to mutate. it just replicates. as it replicates, there are going to be variant after variant. they believe until there's a nasal vaccine and other kinds of medications, they are not going to be out of the woods. we will be living with this even though it's reduced hospitalizations and death, it is interrupting life and it is creating problems on the -- in

the workplace as much as americans have tried to adjust to it. the president's adjustment, of course, has other implications of his age and of the politics of it. the immediate cost today is he was supposed to go to pennsylvania where he is -- his polls are really of concern. i was talking the other night to a prominent democratic elected official who said they are worried about the situation there. the fact he was going to western pa or central western pa to wilkes-barre, near his hometown, was very targeted because his poll numbers are down to near 30. they have some really tough races now for the governor and senate races. >> one of the big concerns, as you know, kristin welker, among democrats is the poll numbers. the president wanting to present he is out there, vital, involved. now he is down for at least five days. talk a little more about the political implications of that.

>> there's no doubt there are political implications. as andrea mapped out, this was a visit to a critical battleground state which resonates for president biden given that scranton is his hometown. look, this is a state that democrats see as a potential pickup in the senate. there's going to be a lot of focus on pennsylvania. take a step back and look at this week broadly. he is coming off the heels of a trip to the middle east. he was in massachusetts yesterday as peter was just talking about. then he had this travel to pennsylvania. this is all a part of really what white house officials have said will be a more robust schedule by this president, particularly as the midterms approach. the white house has been signaling for quite some time that they were bracing for this moment. they said several months ago, it is possible that president biden will test positive for covid.

it really at the time was notable, because, of course, they had consistently said he was not a close contact whenever anyone who was around him tested positive. a number of officials within his administration, within the west wing, have tested positive for covid in recent months. his past press secretary tested positive twice, his current press secretary has tested positive. this is a moment that the white house was bracing for. i think it bears repeating, this is a different moment than when former president trump tested positive. remember after that first debate before vaccines had even been developed and approved, at this point in time, this is a president who has been vaccinated, he has been boosted. of course, the medical community understands a lot more about covid, even though there's a lot more to learn. in the case of former president trump, this speaks to the point that you are making, he was hospitalized for a period of time. he was unable to participate in

the events of that campaign cycle. here we are yet again against the backdrop of critical midterm elections, which are looming large. again, in talking to white house officials and everything that has been put out publically at this point in time, president biden's symptoms seem to be mild based on everything we are hearing. i spoke to a white house official and said, what is your level of concern? this official said, very, very low because his symptoms are quite mild. >> he is getting that treatment and has some of the best medical care in the world. but we saw that "new york times" poll that a big concern among a lot of voters is the president's age. i suppose that plays into the politics of this as well. maybe people will say, he is older, he is more susceptible to things like covid. if he comes through it quickly and comes through it well, maybe that's a positive. >> there's concern about his age, both politically just people saying whether or not he will be up to doing another four years on the job, but also medically.

we heard medical professionals on our air in the last hour say just being 79 puts him at high risk. that being said, i've been talking to white house officials. i have been hearing the same thing. white house officials were bracing for him to get covid, understanding so many other people around him got covid, including dr. fauci, who is older than him, but who got through covid. there is this plan in the white house to really figure out how to deal with this and to have him continuing to be working full-time as he continues to feel mild symptoms here. that being said, i think it's important to note that the president has been boosted, has really telegraphed over and over again that he is mirroring the behavior he thinks all americans, including senior citizen americans, should be doing. i go back to march 30th and his second booster shot. he said, because of testing, treatments and more, we are in a new moment in this pandemic. it does not mean it's over. it means it no longer control ours lives. that was his message to

americans. he got that second booster just a day after the fda had authorized the second booster shot for pfizer and moderna for adults over 50. he got it because he was trying to telegraph to his age group that this is something that they should also be doing. especially in a moment where vaccines and boosters can be exhausting for americans or polarizing because we know it's politicalized. bennie thompson is 74. he will chair the january 6 committee hearings remotely tonight. a primetime hearing. supposed to be the season finale of the hearing where lawmakers are making the case former president trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. that tells you that not only is president biden telegraphing he can do his job as the most powerful person in america, but

also bennie thompson is saying, i'm going to continue to do my job. that tells you where we are in this moment in the pandemic where a lot of americans have had covid, have had mild symptoms and have been able to go on with their lives and their work. >> the pictures we are seeing of vice president harris are live from charlotte, north carolina, which brings me to former obama deputy national security advisor ben rhodes. you know the president. you know the white house apparatus well. tell us how the white house is set up to handle a situation like this. >> consider that in general, chris, the white house is set up to have an enormous infrastructure around the president to make sure that he can do his job wherever he is. the president is traveling, secure communications travels with him. his capacity to communicate with aides or people around the world travels with him as well. when you are inside the actual residence, that's obviously even more amplified. his capacity to communicate with staff, to review paperwork, to get on the phone with foreign leaders, to engage in classified

communications, he can do that from the white house residence as well as he could do it from the oval office. beyond his capacity to travel, chris, this should really not have any disruptive impact on white house and presidential operations. >> if i can go to you, zeke. is there any concern -- the president just came off of a foreign trip. what are the protocols right now? who would the white house be notified? we heard it's just the first lady who has been considered technically a close contact. those definitions have changed. where are they now? >> the first thing i would say is, if you look at the pictures that you are getting live, people are wearing surgical masks. they should be wearing n95 masks. the surgical masks are not as good as the n95 at protecting you. we need -- the president's sickness suggests we need an upgrade around the president, in

the white house and wearing them indoors. i don't think surgical masks cut it in this day and age given all we know. on the close contact issue, as i understand it, he was negative on tuesday. you would ask, since tuesday, since his test, who has he been in contact with in a room where they were nearby? he flew on air force 1. were they masking? even if they were, all of those people need to be tested over the next few days to make sure they didn't contract it. the same thing for the people who were around him in massachusetts, the people who were driving the cars and the aides who went with him. i think that's the group you want to be clear doesn't have -- doesn't get covid from him. >> i think this is a natural question. you don't have many people who i think -- as far as we can see -- have been as careful as the

president has been. most people don't work in a place with the kind of protocols that are enforced the way they are at the white house. yet, he got it anyway. i was looking earlier today, right before this announcement, at "the new york times." they update all the time their covid information. they quoted a doctor from the university of california talking about the subvariant spreading around the globe, saying it looks as if we are unable to control it. i guess if you are the average person out there and you are looking at the president who has been so careful, has all of the protocols in place, what's the message? >> i think the message is, take precautions for yourself. i will tell you what i do. i know that much of the public is beyond this. i'm not going to do anything. indoors i wear my n95. we have a filter going. when we go indoors, outside for

a grocery store, wear the n95. i don't dine in restaurants. outdoors where there are crowded venues, farmers' markets or large groups of people, i wear an n95. is it inconvenient? yes. is it impossible to wear? no. if i'm going to dine out with someone else or have someone over to the house, sit outside where the chance of contracting it is less. there are things you can do to protect yourself. does it guarantee not getting covid with this ba.5, highly contagious variant? no, obviously. can you reduce your chances. the answer is yes. if you get symptoms and you test, get on paxlovid as soon as possible. don't wait. that's not the right answer. the right answer is, immediately get the medication. >> ben rhodes, you can mitigate the risks. you can't completely eliminate

it. fair to say, two points, that with technology there's nothing that the president pretty much can't do besides meeting people in person to carry out the duties of his office if he is feeling fine and he can work, he can do the work he needs to do without necessarily being in the oval with other people, number one? peter is raising his hand. go ahead. >> reporter: i hate to interrupt you. i want to tell you, we are receiving a statement from the president via twitter. it includes a photograph. our team will put that up as they gather it. just posted as we have been having this conversation. president biden writes, folks, i'm doing great. thanks for your concern. just called senator casey, congressman cartwright for missing our event today. keeping busy. those are the words of president biden. our first message from him since it became public he tested positive. there is a photo. we will have this for you

momentarily. a photo of the president working from a desk that appears to be in the residence. clearly, if this was taken today, it was taken by an aide in there briefly and i'm sure ushered out quickly. to be clear, we are hearing from president biden. this is part of what ben is a member of the white house team in the past and other aides speaking on air a short time ago has indicated is a priority to demonstrate, not with their words but with his and the photographic evidence as well that he continues to conduct his full duties, even if he is doing them via isolation from the residence. >> ben rhodes, making the point that i was making with you, you know him well. you worked in the white house with him.xpectation, in five da we will see the president running around the country again? >> i think so. i think that in those five days,

what you will see from the white house ispeter's point -- if he feeling well and mild symptoms, i think it's a good idea for them to be putting out consistent information from the president for us to hear from the president, for people to see him conducting the duties of the job within the confines of his recovery. when he hits the ground running, there's not a significant interruption to his job duties or to him projecting to americans and around the world that he is fine. we have had many other foreign leaders get this disease. some get it gravely, particularly before the vaccines. boris johnson was in the icu. this is much milder. i think that, fingers crossed, he will be back out there. the main disruptive thing is the inability to travel at a time when i think they want the president out there, particularly before everybody takes off for august.

as you know. this is a couple of weeks period where i'm sure he will want to get back out on the road. >> we have that picture up with the president saying, i'm doing great, thanks for your concern. keeping busy. to ben's point, i have a list here of the foreign leaders who have contracted covid, uk, france, italy, israel, new zealand, south africa, turkey, poland. of course, donald trump. kristin welker, i'm told you had something to add. >> yes. senior administration official tells kelly o'donnell in addition to all of the calls that the president says he has been making, he is talking to top officials within his administration. he has reached out to the vice president, his chief of staff, his national security advisor and others. i think this underscores the point that peter was making about the optics. the optics are going to be so critical right now. the white house continues to

show to the public that his symptoms are mild, he is able to carry out the duties of his office. i go back again to former president trump. you recall how powerful the optics were when he tested positive for covid, when he went to the hospital. the fact that he walked to marine 1 and reporting told us officials essentially had to push him to go to the hospital at that point so that he could walk on to marine 1. when he left the hospital, you will recall he walked into the residence himself. walked up the steps of the residence himself. stood and sort of posed for the cameras to show people that he was able to still function. i think the optics are going to be critically important in this case. will the president get back on the road? we will have to wait and see. i anticipate if he is feeling up to it, he will try to get before the cameras as soon as possible.

>> it's a great point. what the american public sees from now until the next few days is really important. we talk so much about what former president trump thought about his image. here is president biden at a challenging moment with people questioning whether or not he should run again, even though there are years before he has to make that decision. there are challenges that he is balancing between abortion politics, democracy and inflation. he really wants to continue to tell the american people that he is in the job, that he is fully capable of doing it. that's why you see him biking on the weekends. you see him out doing all of these things. it's striking he took to twitter. this will hold him over for a bit. i imagine we might see moving video of the president. some sort of video that he could release to talk to the american people. we know that on the other side, the republican side, one of the biggest things they have been trying to argue is that president biden is not up to the job. he is someone who shouldn't be in this job.

he doesn't have the capacity to do it. you have white house officials and president biden pushing back. this pictures goes to that argument that they are having with republicans outside of the covid diagnosis. it's striking to me he was able to put out this tweet. he was able to say, i'm doing great. i'm calling folks, including i'm told he was calling jim clyburn to talk to him, a good friend who was critical to him getting this job. all of that shows you that president biden is thinking about sort of how american people view him in this moment. >> i want to bring in ashley parker, "washington post" senior national political correspondent. we just touched on this. we have throughout this morning. it's hard, except for the fact they tried to put photos out there, to not make comparisons about how different this white house is handling this versus what happened when donald trump, frankly, was much sicker, at least as we know at this point, because he went to the hospital.

>> that's right. the moments are totally different. yes, as yamiche and others have said, the biden administration and team does have to deal with the optics, because he is a 79-year-old president. republicans and his rivals will make an issue out of this. let's go back to when former president trump got covid. he public announced he tested positive on october 1, a month before the presidential election. this is before the first vaccines had come on the market. that would be two months later in december. this is before paxlovid, which president biden will take. the trump administration handled this in a very non-transparent way. a bungling and inept way. right? they basically rushed then president trump to walter reed medical in marine 1. they told us as a precaution. it turned out it's because they

thought they had to bring him there then when he could walk on his own. his blood oxygen was plummeting. there was a belief he would need to be placed on a ventilator. over that weekend, there was this moment where the white house doctor came out and said, trump is doing great. he is fine. then mark meadows, his chief of staff, who has a reputation for dishonesty, came out and briefed the press, what he called off the record, but everyone could see him in full view on the cameras, and said, he is not out of the woods. these next 24 hours will be critical. in that moment, for trump when people really were taking all of these precautions, it served as a sign of the recklessness and mishandling of the virus itself in a way it likely will not for president biden. >> we have to take a break. i want to ask you this quickly, zeke. if you had one question to ask at this 2:00 p.m. briefing of your friend, what would it be?

>> what are the backup precautions that they have in place? i would say, re-emphasize what ashley said, which is that they have been totally transparent, the administration. they released his medical record and the last examination and the history. it actually looks like he is pretty healthy, frankly. he has some aches and pains that all of us have, a little back pain, a little toe tingling. i was actually impressed by how transparent they were and the fact that they are letting everyone know exactly what they are doing and how they are treating him. >> we are waiting for that 2:00. we have the 1:30 we will hear from vice president kamala harris. thank you to my panel. we appreciate all of your insights. we have more ahead on this breaking news from the white house. we also have an nbc news exclusive. andrea mitchell's interview with cia director bill burns.

the last u.s. official to speak with vladimir putin before the invasion of ukraine. what he says about the war, about putin's health and wnba star brittney griner. you are watching msnbc. to finally lose 80 pounds and keep it off with golo

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now to an nbc news exclusive. the host of this hour, andrea mitchell, had a wide ranging sitdown with cia director bill burns at the aspen security forum. let me tell you, there are a lot of major headlines coming out of this. we should mention, nbc universal news group is the media partner of the aspen security forum. andrea joins us. what did he tell you? >> it was an interesting interview. thank you, chris. the cia director, william burns, former u.s. ambassador to russia, is one of the world's top experts on vladimir putin. he is the last u.s. official to meet face to face with the russian leader before he invaded ukraine. i spoke with director burns about putin's state of mind and the implications of moscow turning to iran this week for armed drones. >> i must admit that watching

the images of president putin and iran's supreme leader meeting yesterday in tehran did not exactly fill me with nostalgia. most of the gray hair on top of my head came from negotiating with russia and iranians over the years. beneath the images that we saw, the reality is that russians and iranians need each other right now. both heavily sanctioned countries. both looking to break out of political isolation as well. if they need each other, they don't really trust each other in the sense that they are energy rivals and historical rivals. >> we know what russia's original strategy was, to take ukraine, and that the u.s. does not believe he will be able to do that because of the resistance and the effectiveness of the ukrainian force. but the persistence and john kirby saying he wants to go beyond donbas and go south and

go west and approach odesa. what do you think his current strategic aspirations are? >> i have watched him stew in what is a very combustible mix of grievance and ambition and insecurity. he is professionally trained to be a cynic about human nature. he is relentlessly suspicious, always attune to vulnerabilities he can take advantage of. he is not a big believer in the better angels, in the human spirit. he is a big believer in control and intimidation and getting even. he is an apostle at payback. in my view, all of those qualities have hardened over the course of the last decade, as his grip on power has tightened, as his circle of advisers has narrowed. his personal sense of destiny and his appetite for risk has

grown significantly over that time. nowhere is that -- i guess what i would say on the issue of his narrowing circle of advisers, the reason i mention that is when i was ambassador more than a decade ago, there were still fairly wide circles of people who putin would listen to. some would disagree with him sometimes. there's virtually none of that now. he is constrained in his circle of advisers. they either agree with him or has harder views. many are professionally trained like he was to have those views. or they have discovered a long time ago it's not career enhancing to question his judgment. i say that because nowhere are those views harder than on ukraine. that's how i think we need to understand putin's decision making in the run-up to the war. >> you were the last american official that we know of who sat across the table from putin in

november of last year, warning him against an invasion. tell me about that, the dynamic there. >> the president asked me to go to moscow and lay out our serious concerns about that in an unusual amount of detail to president putin and some of his closest advisors and then to lay out the serious consequences that would unfold if he chose to execute that plan. i must admit, i came away from those conversations more troubled than when i arrived. putin himself made no effort to deny the planning. while my impression i conveyed to the president when i got home was that putin hadn't yet made an irreversible decision to launch that invasion, he was clearly leaning hard in that direction at that point, too. my further impression was he had convinced himself strategically that the window was closing for his ability to control ukraine

and its choices. >> would you describe him as unstable? unhealthy? >> no. there are lots of rumors about president putin's health. as far as we can tell, he is entirely too healthy. [ laughter ] it's not a formal intelligence judgment. [ laughter ] he has his own -- as i said, his views have hardened in my experience over the years. but he has his own way of looking at reality. as we could see in the first stages of this war, it was based on some profoundly flawed assumptions and real illusions, as well as about ukraine and the will to resist in ukraine. he helped to create in many ways by aggression now over a period of at least the eight years since 2014. >> is the big picture you think russia is planning to dig in, keep hammering ukraine and

believe that when winter comes and the fuel costs are so high on europe that nato solidarity will weaken? >> i would say several things. first, after those catastrophic failures in the first phase of the war, the russians and russian military have adapted. one of my recent conversations with one of my ukrainian counterparts, he pointed out that the dumb russians are all dead. i think what he meant by that, what i took away, is that in terms of the small unit tactics in the donbas and elsewhere, the russians have adapted. certainly, their leadership. putin's bed, as you said, is that he can succeed in a grinding war of attrition. they can wear down the ukrainian military. winter is coming. he can strangle the ukrainian economy. he can wear down european publics and leaderships and wear down the united states. putin's view of americans is

that we always suffer from attention deficit disorder and we will get distracted by something else. i think my own strong view is that putin was wrong in his assumptions about breaking the alliance and breaking ukrainian will before the war began. and i think he is just as wrong now. >> i want to ask you about brittney griner and the other wrongful detainees and the families complaining that the administration is not doing enough to try to do prisoner swaps. you have been involved in these negotiations in the past. what are the obstacles to prisoner swaps not just in russia? obviously in iran, wrongful detainees in a number of these countrys. >> i say this for brittney griner and trevor reed released and paul whelan who is being wrongfully detained by the russians. these are awful and shameful

steps to hold american citizens for political leverage as well. in brittney griner's case, my heart goes out to her wife and her family as well. i've been through these kind of ka cases in my life in my old life as a diplomat. it's very painful as well. the russians are quite cold blooded about this right now as well. in the case of brittney griner, when i was ambassador in moscow, i remember going with my family to watch russian women's professional basketball games. there were a number of wnba stars, best american players in the world, who in the off season would compete there. these incredible women were very popular figures in russia, which makes it all the more awful and shameful to see this today. i know that the white house is working very hard to secure her release and working very hard on the paul whelan case as well. >> why does putin want victor

boot back? >> he's a creep. >> do you see a good outcome despite the fact we are involved in this war and relations with russia are at the worst since the cold war? >> i hope so. trevor reed case gives you a little bit of faith that's possible. it won't be for a lack of serious effort on the part of the white house or the state department or anyone else. >> the cia director said that he thinks that china's president xi is determined to control taiwan. no time frame for that that he could or will predict. he thinks the lesson that president xi has taken from what happened with putin and ukraine is, do not attempt to take another country by force quickly and have a decisive victory if you have under whelming force.

>> fascinating interview. thank you so much. beauty it will backdrop as well. we are waiting for an update from the white house on the president's condition after he tested positive pore covid. there you see the podium at the briefing room. that will happen at 2:00. before that, in this next hour, we are expecting to hear from vice president kamala harris. we will continue our coverage right here on msnbc. coverag don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. age right here on msnbc. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. new aste allergy. now available without boos a prescription.also has key nutrients astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in 30 minutes.

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we want to get back to breaking news in washington. president biden testing positive for covid this morning and sending a tweet earlier this hour with a photo as you can see it and saying he is doing great and keeping busy. we expect to hear more details on his condition from the white house coronavirus response coordinator during a briefing at 2:00 eastern time. we will hear from vice president harris from charlotte in our next hour. joining me now, mike memoli, michael beschloss, and dr. peter hotez. dr. hotez, we got a note from the white house saying this is day zero, not day one.

for those not versed in covid protocol, what does that mean for him and people who may have been around him? >> in terms of the number of days of isolation and when to think about repeat testing, you would start counting from day zero. that's the significance of this. i'm optimistic he will do well given the fact that he has had two boosts. he maxed out his vaccinations. he is on paxlovid. the fact he is sitting up, looking well, those are good

monitor. we have to be careful about ensuring this is not a slam dunk and assuming he is totally out of the woods yet. >> if you remember the white house medical team, if you are the president's doctor, the stakes obviously go up pretty high. what would they beof monitoringg an eye on him? what would have to happen before someone on the medical team would say, it's no longer okay for him to be at the white house? >> if he is having oxygen if he becomes lethargic and extremely fatigued, overall clinical deterioration, i think i would have a low threshold for bringing him to walter reed for further monitoring. at this point, i'm optimistic we won't have to do that. i think it's also a good idea to lower expectations and to not feel too profoundly disappointed

if that actually has to happen. >> a lower threshold because he is the president, because of his age? >> both. he is the president of the united states, and we take extra precautions. but also he is 79 years old. we is lower among people my unders is he only got the second boost in march. he is about four months out or

so. the white house and the federal government and the fda have not really come to terms about when they are going to start asking americans to possibly do a third boost. that may be in the cards as well. for the american people. he is pretty far out after his second booster. >> we were showing the tweet from the president. i had to say, i chuckled a little bit, because it started withwith we want to present that he is doing well and contrast that with some of the ways that were handled during the previous administration. what would you expect to get, both from the vice president, in the brief not to:00? >> i really struck. it was at 10:20 this morning where the white house announced the president's diagnosis. since then we have seen a steady stream of information, both from white house officials, from the first lady herself, from the office of the vice president. all projecting abnormal tea. reflecting the urgency of the moment. there trying to model that kind of behavior.

and that they want ordinary americans to do in this situation. we want to take this seriously. we are in a different place, but with this verse of treatments available, even though the age, like the president is at 79 years old, and i'm often struck by the fact that you will remember we had a number of outbreaks in washington with covid around some of those sinners that happen, including the white house correspondents dinner. around the time i spoke with officials very close to the president about this very moment. if they were prepared for what would happen when the president tested positive. they themselves acknowledged what is likely to happen at some point. we are seeing the kind of rhythm of information publicly being shared that they laid out to me at the time. we will see the vice president in about a half an hour or so continuing with her schedule as planned in north carolina, the first lady as well continuing with her schedule. it reminds me, from the inside

i have covered it as a reporter from the outside of being that kind of approach that the biden campaign spoke of. i was in grand rapids, michigan the day that president trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus. the biden campaign made the decision that day to continue with candidate biden's events. he spoke about the urgency of where the state of the virus was. a very different place than before we had vaccines. he carried out his schedule as planned. the two campaigns had very different approaches to handling it. president trump at the time continuing with those big rallies out in the country. even at the white house. then candidate biden inventing these drive-in rallies, socially distanced events, virtual events. it was a contrast that, i think, the biden campaign felt ultimately serve them well for a country that was dealing with the virus as well. >> i want to speak to that. you were in the white house where covid protocols and testing are so prevalent. also, i'm assuming, it was pretty well known what would

happen in case somebody around you and particularly around the vice president tested positive:absolutely. there are protocols in place. i would note, the president's positive case comes after an international trip. anyone who has ever traveled with the president knows this very well, there is a robust testing cadence for the president, first lady, and second gentlemen. after an international trip, especially, everyone on that trip, in addition to regular testing protocols, has extra testing. folks want to be sure. the reason we know the president of the united states of america today tested positive is because white house was prepared. because there are protocols in place. because the white house is being transparent. so, i have heard a lot today, talking to my former colleagues, and folks out in washington, who are saying, what is going to happen? what about the vice president? what about this? i think people should pause for

a second and not be panicked. this is something the white house has planned for. the president can work from anywhere. luckily, the president of the united states, his residence is right above the office. is joining calls and meetings today. you will hear from the vice president shortly, who is in north carolina, highlighting the administration's internet affordability and connectivity program. she is going to speak to the fact that we are prepared, but also i think you can expect the vice president to say something to the effect of the pandemic is not over. people should still be vigilant and continue to test. if you're not feeling well go ahead and take that test and isolate just as the president of the united states currently is doing. >> we have had presence who have dealt with temporary illnesses. when you look at this unique period in our history, the fact that no president biden, in addition to the previous president, have tested positive for covid. talk about that situation. >> right.

everyone, every american, everyone in the world has no tested positive. the fact that we are in a terrible pandemic that has not ended. we know, just as you say, there have been enough a lot of president to have become sick. there's one lesson that comes from all of them. both negative and positive. that is, if your president and you get sick be candid with the public. be honest about your condition and your treatment. read what wilson in 1919 had a stroke and went upstairs and his wife tried to conceal his condition while decisions were made in his absence but what eisenhower, 1956 got a serious bowel obstruction, eisenhower said, put everything out about my condition, so americans the first time had the spectacle of being told when there president had a bowel movement and diagrams of what his intestines looked like. people were used to it. that is a classic example of what a president should do.

there is everything a president biden and his circle are following that example today. >> thank you all. appreciated. that will do it for this special edition of andrea mitchell reports. i will be back next hour with more as we went from that update from the white house and from vice president kamala harris as well. stay with m. asam d special coverage as well at nice dinner six hearing. rachel maddow core joy reid, lawrence o'donnell, and stephanie ruhle kicking it off at 7:00 eastern time right here on msnbc and on peacock. we will be right back. right ba. saw clear or almost-clear skin while some saw up to 100% clear skin. plus, they felt fast itch relief some as early as 2 days. that's rinvoq relief.

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will will wil good afternoon right now we are standing by for a white house briefing an hour from now