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Monday, October 5, 2020
Live updates: President’s blood oxygen levels dropped twice in recent days, doctors say
White House physician Sean Conley explained his contradicting statements on President Trump’s covid-19 symptoms at Walter Reed hospital on Oct. 4. (The Washington Post)
By Derek Hawkins, Felicia Sonmez, Seung Min Kim and Oct. 4, 2020
Later Sunday, Trump made a surprise visit to supporters, waving to them from inside an SUV that slowly drove past the crowds gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In a video posted to Twitter, Trump said he has “learned a lot about covid” during his hospital stay.
In recent days, aides and doctors have caused a startling amount of confusion about Trump’s health status and the timeline of his treatment and diagnosis. The White House on Sunday falsely suggested that doctors did not previously disclose Trump’s use of supplemental oxygen because they lacked the information.
5:55 p.m.
Attorney General Barr again tests negative for the coronavirus, is ‘self-quarantining,’ spokeswoman says
By Matt Zapotosky
Attorney General William P. Barr again tested negative for the coronavirus on Sunday — his fourth negative test since Friday — and is “self-quarantining,” a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
Barr, who was without a mask and in the same room as Trump on Sept. 26 at a reception for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, went to a meeting at the Justice Department on Friday but stayed home over the weekend and plans to do so again Monday, said Kerri Kupec, the spokeswoman.
It was not immediately clear how long his self-quarantine would last.
5:33 p.m.
In surprise visit, Trump waves to supporters outside Walter Reed from inside vehicle
By Felicia Sonmez
Trump made a surprise visit to supporters outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., late Sunday afternoon, waving from inside a vehicle that drove by the crowd.
Footage on CNN showed the president, wearing a face mask and seated in the back of a black SUV, waving to supporters as the motorcade passed by the crowd.
Trump announced the move in a video posted to Twitter minutes earlier, hailing the “absolutely amazing” work of the doctors and staff at the hospital.
“I also think we’re going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street. And they’ve been out there for a long time, and they’ve got Trump flags, and they love our country. So, I’m not telling anybody but you, but I’m about to make a little surprise visit,” Trump said in the video.
“Perhaps I’ll get there before you get to see me,” he added. “But when I look at the enthusiasm … we have more enthusiasm than maybe anybody.”
In the video, Trump also referenced his time in the hospital, telling supporters, “It’s been a very interesting journey.”
“I learned a lot about covid,” he said. “I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the ‘let’s read the book’ school. And I get it, and I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing, and I’m going to be letting you know about it.”
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement that Trump “took a short, last-minute motorcade ride to wave to his supporters outside and has now returned to the Presidential Suite inside Walter Reed.”
The White House did not immediately provide any details on what, if any, precautions were taken to protect members of the Secret Service who were in the vehicle with Trump.
5:30 p.m.
Pence and second lady tested negative again Sunday, official says
By Seung Min Kim and Hannah Knowles
Vice President Pence and second lady Karen Pence tested negative for the coronavirus again on Sunday morning, an administration official said, days ahead of the vice-presidential debate and a campaign event that Pence plans to attend in Arizona.
The Trump campaign announced that Pence will hold the Arizona event in person on Thursday, even as coronavirus infections and exposures rattle the White House.
Pence is also set to debate Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, on Wednesday.
The Pences tested negative for the virus on Saturday as well, according to an administration official.
4:55 p.m.
White House gave more than 200 names to officials tracing attendees at Trump golf club event
By Hannah Knowles
The White House has given New Jersey officials the names of more than 200 people who were at Trump’s Bedminster golf club for a campaign fundraiser held hours before his coronavirus diagnosis became public, the New Jersey Department of Health said Sunday.
The department tweeted that it has reached out to these people “to make them aware of possible exposure and recommend that they self-monitor for symptoms and quarantine if they were in close contact with the President and his staff.” Authorities are interviewing club staff and giving guidance based on their level of interaction with Trump’s team, it said. Those who had been in close contact should quarantine for 14 days.
State officials have been told that the federal government is also doing contact tracing, the department said.
Health officials are advising attendees to “consider waiting” at least five to seven days past the event before getting tested for the coronavirus, because they could develop covid-19, the disease the virus causes, despite a negative test earlier on.
Officials in several states where Trump recently held events have said that they have not heard from the White House or have been doing contact tracing largely on their own following news of the president’s illness. In New Jersey, authorities previously got a guest list for Thursday’s event in Bedminster from the Republican National Committee.
Some attendees took pictures with the president and were indoors with him for a roundtable.
4:31 p.m.
Biden to hold events in Miami’s Little Haiti and Little Havana on Monday
By Felicia Sonmez
Joe Biden on Monday is traveling to Florida, where he and his wife, Jill, will hold events focused on Miami’s Haitian American and Cuban American communities.
The Bidens will first visit the Little Haiti Cultural Center, according to the campaign. They will then head to Little Havana, where the former vice president and his wife are expected to deliver remarks on “building back the economy better for the Hispanic community and working families.”
On Monday night, the presidential candidate will participate in an NBC News town hall in Miami, while Jill Biden will attend a Women for Biden drive-in rally in Boca Raton.
Senior Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders said Sunday that the former vice president is “being tested regularly” for the novel coronavirus. The campaign has not released additional information.
4:03 p.m.
Analysis: 5 big questions on the White House’s botched handling of Trump’s diagnosis
By Philip Bump
On Saturday, White House physician Sean Conley stepped forward ostensibly to provide some clarity on the condition of the coronavirus-stricken President Trump. As with the doctors who came before him, though, what we have gotten from him over the past 24 hours is decidedly not that.
Conley’s comments Saturday and at a follow-up briefing Sunday have combined with other conflicting signals to yet again provide a hazy and misleading picture of the president’s health. This time, we get it at a particularly precarious juncture in Trump’s presidency, when it’s literally a matter of national security.
As with previous flaps over Trump’s health, there is clearly tension between projecting the kind of strength he likes to see and providing actual, sober-minded details. As of Sunday afternoon, there are valid questions about whether anyone providing details of Trump’s health can be trusted.
2:52 p.m.
Analysis: Trump claims that he had no choice but to risk his own health. Americans disagree.
By Philip Bump
Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called his old friends at the New York Post to pass along a message from his most prominent legal client, President Trump.
“I am the president of the United States. I can’t lock myself in a room,” Trump told the world through his attorney Saturday. “I had to confront [the virus] so the American people stopped being afraid of it so we could deal with it responsibly.”
In a video message published on his personal Twitter account a few hours later, Trump offered a similar sentiment.
“I had no choice,” he said, “because I just didn’t want to stay in the White House. I was given that alternative. Stay in the White House. Lock yourself in. Don’t ever leave. Don’t even go to the Oval Office. Just stay upstairs and enjoy it. Don’t see people. Don’t talk to people. And just be done with it.”
2:15 p.m.
White House falsely suggests doctors didn’t disclose that Trump had taken oxygen because they lacked information
By Felicia Sonmez
Trump’s doctors knew Saturday — and declined to tell reporters — that the president had been given supplemental oxygen the previous day. But White House communications director Alyssa Farah suggested Sunday that the doctors didn’t inform the public because they didn’t have the information.
In a Fox News interview Sunday afternoon, Farah claimed the doctors were initially hesitant because accuracy is “more important than speed.”
“We’re committed to being transparent with the public, but what I’ve learned in these moments is that accuracy is, in fact, more important than speed,” Farah said. “We’d rather get you the fully accurate, full-picture information rather than rush out the door with facts when we don’t necessarily have all of that.”
When host Trace Gallagher pointed out that the doctors had the information but chose not to release it, Farah changed course.
“And to my second point, though, what I would say is, it’s a very — it’s a common medical practice that you want to convey confidence and you want to raise the spirits of the person you’re treating,” she said. “I know this president. I don’t know that he needs his spirits raised, but I think it’s actually a very common medical practice to do that. So if anything, the doctor was giving a really strong and confident viewpoint.”
Earlier Sunday, at a news briefing outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Conley, Trump’s doctor, said that in not initially disclosing that Trump had been on oxygen, he was “trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, over his course of illness, has had.”
“I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true,” Conley said.
Farah on Sunday also disputed reports that Trump is angry with chief of staff Mark Meadows for telling reporters his condition was concerning.
“No, absolutely not. Mark Meadows has barely left the president’s side,” Farah said. She added: “Honestly, if anything, I think the chief of staff’s comments reflect how close their relationship is. … They couldn’t be closer, working together throughout this.”
2:02 p.m.
Dexamethasone, the steroid Trump’s doctors say they administered, is recommended for severely ill patients
By Derek Hawkins
The steroid that Trump’s physicians say they administered to the president on Saturday is typically reserved only for severely ill coronavirus patients and may even pose dangers for people with relatively mild cases.
Recent research showed the drug, dexamethasone, reduced the risk of death by about a third for patients on ventilators and by a fifth for those who receive supplemental oxygen, as Trump did. The drug has not been shown to help less sick patients and could have negative effects if administered too early because of the way it suppresses the immune system.
In treatment guidelines, the National Institutes of Health recommends against using dexamethasone in patients who don’t require supplemental oxygen.
Mortality rates were "lower among patients who were randomized to receive dexamethasone than among those who received the standard of care,” according to NIH. “This benefit was observed in patients who required supplemental oxygen at enrollment. No benefit of dexamethasone was seen in patients who did not require supplemental oxygen at enrollment.”
The World Health Organization reached a similar conclusion in September, saying the drug should be given only to patients with “severe and critical” cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“We suggest not to use corticosteroids in the treatment of patients with non-severe COVID-19 as the treatment brought no benefits, and could even prove harmful,” the WHO’s guidelines read.
Conley said in Sunday morning’s news conference that Trump was given dexamethasone Saturday after his blood-oxygen levels dropped.
The inexpensive, widely available drug was the first medication shown to increase people’s chances of surviving covid-19 after a team from the University of Oxford released a report in June examining its effects on more than 2,000 severely ill patients.
1:31 p.m.
Trump’s personal assistant tests positive for coronavirus
By Josh Dawsey and Felicia Sonmez
Nick Luna, Trump’s personal assistant, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a senior administration official.
News of Luna’s diagnosis was first reported Saturday night by Bloomberg News.
Meanwhile, at least two White House residence staffers contracted the virus some weeks ago and were sent home. Administration officials do not believe those staffers directly gave the virus to the president, given the passage of time since their cases.
12:54 p.m.
Conley says Meadows’s comments on Trump’s health were ‘misconstrued’
By Felicia Sonmez
Conley said Sunday that Meadows’s comments about the president’s health the previous day were “misconstrued.”
The White House chief of staff had said Saturday that “the president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care.” But Conley had said in a statement Saturday that Trump was fever-free.
“A simple question for the American people: Whose statements about the president’s health should we believe?” a reporter asked Conley at Sunday’s briefing.
“So, the chief and I work side-by-side, and I think his statement was misconstrued,” Conley replied. “What he meant was that 24 hours ago, when he and I were checking on the president, that there was that momentary episode of a high fever and that temporary drop in the [oxygen] saturation, which prompted us to act expediently to move him up here.”
He added: “Fortunately, that was really a very transient, limited episode. A couple of hours later, he was back, mild again. I’m not going to speculate what that limited episode was about so early in the course, but he’s doing well.”
12:27 p.m.
Trump’s medical team says he could be discharged from Walter Reed as soon as Monday
By Felicia Sonmez
At a news briefing Sunday morning, Conley publicly acknowledged for the first time that the president was administered supplemental oxygen on Friday at the White House and had a “high” fever at the time.
Conley also said that the president’s oxygen level dropped Saturday for a period but that he wasn’t sure whether Trump was given supplemental oxygen a second time.
“I’d have to check with the nursing staff,” Conley told reporters outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. “I don’t think that — if he did, it was very, very limited. … And the only oxygen that I ordered, or that we provided, was that Friday morning, initially.”
The president’s doctor said he is being given dexamethasone, a steroid that is now considered the standard of care for someone needing oxygen.
Asked about his reluctance to disclose to the public on Saturday that Trump had been on oxygen, Conley said he had been trying not to cause alarm.
“I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, over his course of illness, has had,” the physician said. “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. … The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.”
Another doctor on the team, Brian Garibaldi, said Trump could be discharged from Walter Reed as soon as Monday if he continues to do well.
12:26 p.m.
National security adviser declines to say whether White House knows how Trump contracted coronavirus
By Tory Newmyer
National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday that Trump will remain at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for “at least another period of time.”
O’Brien said Trump’s doctors “want to make sure they are there for the president and he’s getting the best treatment. But he’s doing well.”
O’Brien, in an appearance on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” said the White House national security team hasn’t discussed temporarily transferring power to Vice President Pence while the president is hospitalized. But he said the administration is “prepared."
“We have a great vice president. We have a government that is steady,” O’Brien said, later adding, “We have plans for everything.”
O’Brien said he, along with Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, would be giving the president a national security briefing this afternoon via videoconference or a secure phone line.
O’Brien, who himself had a mild case of the coronavirus in July, did not directly answer questions about whether the administration has identified the source of Trump’s infection. “The White House Medical Unit and others in the White House are working very hard on contact tracing and doing all the things you do in these circumstances,” he said.
11:28 a.m.
Sen. Klobuchar says Democrats are ‘absolutely not’ seizing on coronavirus outbreak in effort to block Barrett confirmation
By Felicia Sonmez
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) argued Sunday that Democrats are “absolutely not” seizing on the coronavirus outbreak among Trump and other top Republicans in an effort to block the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked about the battle over Barrett’s confirmation during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” Host Chris Wallace noted that two Republicans on the Senate panel — Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) — have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in recent days.
“Are Democrats going to try to use this as a way to delay the confirmation hearing and the confirmation vote on Judge Barrett?” Wallace asked.
“It’s not a matter of using it, Chris,” Klobuchar replied. “It happened. And the first thing we know is that if you look at the precedent that [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell set, we should let the people decide. … Secondly, we’ve got the fact that now three senators have it. As you point out, two are on the Judiciary Committee. And Mitch McConnell has shut the Senate down for two weeks because of health concerns, because we don’t know how many other Republican senators had it.”
Klobuchar noted that “it’s very possible we’re going to have more senators, more staff” test positive in the days ahead, given that Republicans often “have a lunch together where they don’t have masks.”
“So, I don’t know why you would ram through this Supreme Court hearing, put people in danger. … I just think it’s wrong. We are suggesting that we wait,” she said.
Wallace noted that the Senate and the House have held virtual hearings in recent months and that the same could be done in Barrett’s case. He asked, again, whether Democrats are simply seeking to delay the confirmation.
“Absolutely not,” Klobuchar replied. “This is for the highest court of the land. … We believe you should have an in-person hearing."
The Minnesota Democrat also noted that Congress has yet to pass a new round of coronavirus relief funding.
“Why would you ram this through when we don’t even have a covid package done to make sure that people have health care, that we have the testing I just talked about, that we have the funding for that? … Why would we be doing this instead of actually … helping the American people?” she asked.
10:35 a.m.
Campaign will ‘vigorously proceed’ even while Trump is sidelined by virus, adviser says
By Tory Newmyer
Senior Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes said Sunday that campaign staff spoke to Trump by telephone on Saturday and that the president was “as upbeat and assertive as he’s ever been.”
“This president is going to recover. We are highly confident of that,” Cortes said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Cortes also said the campaign will continue apace while Trump is sidelined.
“We think it’s important that our campaign vigorously proceed,” he said. “The MAGA movement is bigger than just President Trump. He’s instrumental, of course, but he’s not the only key element of the MAGA movement.” MAGA refers to “Make America Great Again” — Trump’s slogan.
In the president’s absence, Cortes said, other surrogates, including Vice President Pence, “and millions of Americans need to step up and, to some degree, fill the void that is left because our champion, our main instrument, is not able at this moment to vigorously campaign and certainly campaign physically right now at all.”
Cortes said Pence “is going to continue to campaign, of course with an abundance of caution. That was already in place, but even more so now.”
10:30 a.m.
Majority of Americans say Trump hasn’t taken risk of infection seriously enough, poll finds
By Derek Hawkins
A majority of Americans — 72 percent — say Trump has not taken the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus seriously enough, according to an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday.
The poll, conducted Friday and Saturday after Trump disclosed his positive test result, found that an equal portion of respondents said the president didn’t take the appropriate precautions when it came to his health.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents said Trump had taken the risk of infection seriously enough and took the appropriate health precautions, according to the poll.
Trump remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he arrived Friday evening. For months before he fell ill, Trump downplayed the severity of the virus and mocked the mask-wearing, ridiculing Biden in last week’s debate for covering his mouth and nose in public.
The poll involved 506 general population adults older than 18 who made up a “nationally representative probability sample,” according to ABC News-Ipsos. It had a margin of error of five points.
Respondents were split down the middle on whether Trump’s infection will prevent him from effectively handling his duties as president if faced with a military or national security crisis.
Overall, Americans’ attitudes about Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic remained essentially unchanged since mid-September, the poll found, with 35 percent of respondents approving and 64 percent disapproving.
But the number of respondents who said they were concerned that they or someone they knew would be infected jumped from 72 percent to 81 percent in roughly the same period, according to the poll. Nineteen percent of respondents said they weren’t concerned about contracting the virus, the poll found, compared with 28 percent in mid-September.
10:24 a.m.
Biden campaign says it’s ‘looking forward’ to next debate, hopes Trump can participate
By Felicia Sonmez and Karen DeYoung
Senior Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders said Sunday that the Democratic presidential nominee is planning to attend the next debate and hopes Trump, who has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, will be able to participate, although she noted that the decision will be up to the president’s doctors.
“We are looking forward to the debate on October 15 in Miami,” Sanders said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” She added: “We are hoping that President Trump can participate. We are hoping he is medically able to participate.”
Sanders said the Biden campaign extends its thoughts and prayers to the president and hopes he makes a quick recovery. Neither the White House nor the Trump campaign has been in touch with the Biden team after Trump’s diagnosis, Sanders said, although she also maintained that the former vice president “was not exposed” since he remained more than six feet away from Trump during last week’s presidential debate in Cleveland.
“Vice President Biden has tested negative. Our traveling staff has tested negative,” Sanders said. She added that Biden is “being tested regularly” and will be tested again today.
In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said the campaign hopes the Commission on Presidential Debates is “going to put in place every adjustment necessary to ensure that it’s fully safe” at the next presidential debate.
“We send President Trump our best, and hope that he is well and able to debate. If he is, Joe Biden will certainly be there,” Bedingfield said. She also said she expects Wednesday’s vice-presidential debate to go forward, as well.
“We have every expectation that the debate commission will take all necessary precautions,” Bedingfield said, adding: “Provided that all of those expectations are met, yes, absolutely, we look forward to any opportunity for Senator Harris and the vice president to make their case to the American people.”
Bedingfield drew a contrast between the way the Biden campaign and the White House have responded to the coronavirus pandemic, noting that “the elections are a choice between two different styles of leadership.”
“Joe Biden has led by example. … I think that’s what the American people are looking for,” she said.
10:18 a.m.
‘He hasn’t been cavalier at all,’ campaign adviser Jason Miller says of Trump
By Karen DeYoung
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said Sunday that he spoke with the president “for a half-hour yesterday” and that he “sounded pretty good.”
“He said he was getting back on his feet; he was cracking jokes” and asking about the campaign, Miller said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Miller emphasized that Trump is “personally” going to defeat the coronavirus, “as is our country.” He said he and the president are urging Americans to “be careful — make sure people are washing their hands, wearing a mask.”
The Trump adviser said he disagreed with a new ABC News-Ipsos poll showing that 72 percent of respondents believe Trump didn’t take the risk of contracting the virus seriously enough and did not take necessary precautions. Trump “had to take this head on,” Miller said.
“He had to get out there, not just as the leader of the country, but of the free world,” Miller added. “He couldn’t just stay upstairs, hidden.”
When host George Stephanopoulos said that Trump “didn’t have to hold rallies” or “mock Biden for wearing masks,” Miller countered that Trump “is one of the most tested people in the entire country” and that “there’s a lot we still don’t know about the virus.”
“He hasn’t been cavalier at all,” Miller said of Trump.
9:55 a.m.
Gov. DeWine declines to criticize Trump for traveling to Ohio while potentially contagious with virus
By Felicia Sonmez
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Sunday declined to criticize Trump for traveling to Ohio for last week’s debate when the president may have been contagious with the coronavirus.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” DeWine also said the White House has not reached out to him in the wake of Trump’s positive diagnosis, even though DeWine briefly went aboard Air Force One to greet the president after his arrival in Dayton for a rally two weeks ago.
“Well, no, but I think the basic facts are pretty well-known, what happened,” DeWine said when asked whether the White House had been in touch with him. He added that he was not certain whether White House aides had been in contact with the Cleveland Clinic, the site of the debate last week.
DeWine, who has been among the governors most vocal in urging Americans to take steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus, also refrained from criticizing Trump for not wearing a mask during his campaign rallies in Ohio.
Asked repeatedly by host Jake Tapper how he felt about Trump and his supporters potentially endangering Ohioans by not enforcing social distancing or the use of masks, DeWine noted that “the president’s team recommended people wear masks at these rallies.”
“Do I wish the president had worn a mask all the time? Of course. Of course,” the governor said.
8:54 a.m.
‘If someone lies to you off the record, it is no longer off the record’
By Sarah Ellison
The dispatches began routinely enough for an out-of-the-ordinary day, with Pool Report #2 from Cheryl Bolen, Bloomberg News’s White House reporter on pool duty Saturday.
“Pool took vans over to Walter Reed, arriving at 10:31 a.m. We are attempting to learn the logistics of Dr. [Sean] Conley’s update on POTUS’s health, scheduled for 11:00 a.m., and will advise soonest.” The report, sent at 10:33 a.m., was a typical transmission from the email list that provides regular updates each day on the president’s activities and is, at the most basic level, the primary source for the press to communicate what is happening with the commander in chief.
But as the media continued to wait for the president’s medical team outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the next four hours of reports encapsulated the chaos that has been the defining feature of covering the Trump White House — this time on what might be the most consequential moment of his presidency.
8:45 a.m.
GOP now faces scientific realities of pandemic
By Robert Costa and Josh Dawsey
Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis shook Republicans like an earthquake. Then came the troubling aftershocks.
There was the positive test result for a prominent conservative GOP senator, Mike Lee of Utah. Then another for Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Then the same news from Trump’s campaign manager, the chairwoman of the Republican Party and his former White House counselor.
And then on Saturday, as the president remained hospitalized, came word of two more high-profile Republicans close to the president testing positive for the virus — Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who had helped Trump prepare for last week’s debate.
After months in which Trump and others in his party questioned the danger of the virus and refused to take precautions such as wearing masks, the Republican Party is now coming face to face with the scientific realities of the pandemic.
7:57 a.m.
Rose Garden ceremony may be one of D.C.’s biggest spreader events in months, official says
By David Nakamura and Fenit Nirappil
A mostly maskless White House event last weekend, now suspected at the center of the coronavirus outbreak that has afflicted Trump, was held in conflict with a D.C. government ban on gatherings of more than 50 people, alarming local officials and health experts who fear the potential of community spread.
The D.C. regulations do not cover federal property, meaning the White House was technically exempt; but the fallout has left city officials scrambling over how to respond. For now, they have deferred to the Trump administration for contact tracing efforts to contain the transmission of a disease that has killed more than 208,000 Americans.
Experts said contact tracing for an event with more than 150 people — who were on hand in the Rose Garden as Trump introduced his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett — would be extraordinarily difficult. At least seven people besides the president who were there have tested positive in recent days: first lady Melania Trump, former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R), University of Notre Dame President John Jenkins, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and an unnamed journalist.
6:06 a.m.
White House has not undertaken serious contact tracing effort
By Josh Dawsey, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Joel Achenbach
Hours before President Trump tested positive for the coronavirus and just one day before he was admitted to the hospital, he mingled with more than 200 people at his New Jersey golf club for a campaign fundraiser.
Less than a week before that, he welcomed 150 political allies and religious leaders — including several who are now infected — to the White House to meet the jurist he has nominated to the Supreme Court.
In between, the president met with dozens of aides without wearing a mask — even in close quarters and after top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. He appeared before thousands at a rally in Minnesota. And he held a nationally televised debate with former vice president Joe Biden after holing up with debate preppers.
But there was little evidence Saturday that the White House or the campaign had reached out to these potentially exposed people, or even circulated guidance to the rattled staffers within the White House complex.
4:38 a.m.
The president has access to care unavailable to just about everyone else
By Lenny Bernstein and Laurie McGinley
There was no missing the message when a phalanx of white-coated doctors and nurses stood in the bright sunshine outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a briefing on President Trump’s health Saturday, and White House physician Sean P. Conley ticked off 13 names on the president’s medical team.
Trump’s caregivers are sparing nothing in their attempt to treat his coronavirus infection.
From his team of providers to his helicopter flight to the hospital to the experimental drug that fewer than 10 others have received outside a clinical trial, Trump has access to care available to few of the other 7.3 million people in the United States infected so far by the coronavirus. Even with symptoms that Conley appeared to describe as moderate at worst, the 74-year-old president is the VIP of VIPs in his battle against covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
3:16 a.m.
How Trump supporters view the coronavirus after Trump’s diagnosis
By Jenna Johnson, Dan Morse, Amy B Wang and Brent Griffiths
As President Trump was being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, hundreds of maskless supporters gathered shoulder to shoulder for rallies on Staten Island and on the Mall. In Iowa, a bright red “Team Trump on Tour” bus traversed the state for events, including at least one indoor stop where few were masked.
On a weekend when it felt like so much had changed, Trump’s most fervid supporters across the country reacted to his illness with a fatalistic shrug about what that meant for him and for them.
“If the leader of the free world can get this, I think it’s kind of silly for the rest of us to pretend a $3 handkerchief from Walmart is going to protect us,” said Brian Westrate, the Wisconsin Republican Party treasurer who believes the coronavirus is a real threat and complies with a statewide mask mandate but is a “skeptic of the societal response.”
12:51 a.m.
Trump’s blood oxygen level Friday had officials ‘very concerned,’ chief of staff says
By Hannah Knowles
The president’s health has shown “unbelievable improvement” since Friday morning, when his blood oxygen level “dropped rapidly” and left officials seriously concerned, Trump’s chief of staff said Saturday night on Fox News.
Echoing a Saturday evening letter from Trump’s physician, Mark Meadows expressed optimism but said the president is “not out of the woods.” He reiterated the importance of the coming days, saying, “the next 48 hours … with the history of this virus, we know can be tough.”
Earlier in the day, Meadows told reporters that “the president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care."
Speaking to Jeanine Pirro, Meadows shared more about staff’s fears Friday morning. He said that was “when I know a number of us, the doctor and I, were very concerned” about the president’s health.
Trump had a fever and plummeting oxygen levels, Meadows said. But he said the president was soon “up and walking around” even as experts recommended that he go to a hospital out of caution.
A senior administration official confirmed that Trump was given oxygen at the White House on Friday before going to Walter Reed.
12:01 a.m.
Sen. Ron Johnson went to GOP fundraiser while awaiting positive test
By Hannah Knowles and Colby Itkowitz
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Saturday defended his decision to attend a GOP fundraiser while awaiting the results of his coronavirus test, which came back positive.
Johnson is the third Republican senator to test positive for the virus in the two days since Trump became sick. He said he remains symptom-free.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying home while waiting on a coronavirus test. But Johnson said at a Saturday news conference that he felt it was fine to go to the Republican Party of Ozaukee County’s Oktoberfest dinner Friday night because he was not sick and took precautions. He wore a face mask, stayed more than the advised six feet from others and left quickly, he said.
“This was strictly a precautionary test, as I have done multiple times over the last few weeks — going to the White House, going to the Oval Office, being in Air Force One,” Johnson said. “This is the exact same thing. I’ve never quarantined after a test, there’s no reason to do so, because I’m not sick.”
He said he got his positive result on the way home from the dinner. At the news conference, he said he still opposes a statewide mask mandate.
Johnson had been quarantining in Wisconsin since Sept. 14 after he found out he’d been exposed to someone who tested positive, the senator’s spokesman Ben Voelkel said in a statement. He tested negative twice and returned to Washington on Tuesday.
Not long after, Voelkel said, Johnson was “exposed to an individual who has since tested positive” and got tested after learning of the exposure.
The statement did not reveal the identity of the person from whom Johnson thinks he contracted the virus. Two of Johnson’s Republican Senate colleagues, Mike Lee (Utah) and Thom Tillis (N.C.), tested positive this week.
