Live Updates
Our live coverage has ended. Read more about Trump’s diagnosis here and the 2020 election here.
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is in the process of resuming contrast and negative spots on TV and digital, a campaign aide confirms to CNN.
“Our campaign has always been about making the positive case for Joe Biden, but there’s a stark contrast between Vice President Biden and Donald Trump and their visions for our country. We’re going to continue to make a full throated case for Vice President Biden and we will forcefully correct the record when Trump attacks and lies,” spokesperson Mike Gwin said in a statement.
The campaign pulled negative advertising following President Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
Two White House officials conceded today that President Trump has not been tested daily for coronavirus.
One official drew a distinction between the frequency of Trump’s testing versus the testing of people around the President.
The official said Trump is tested “regularly” while people around the President are tested “daily.”
That runs counter to what White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany previously told reporters that Trump was tested sometimes more than once a day. Trump later suggested that was not the case.
A source familiar with tracing at the White House said administration officials are looking at two possible spreaders of the virus, the announcement of Amy Coney Barrett to be Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, and also Trump’s debate prep sessions.
It is safe for Vice President Mike Pence to participate in the vice presidential debate tonight, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said in a statement released Tuesday.
Redfield said the CDC had a consultation with Dr. Jesse Schonau, currently serving in the White House medical unit, and based on the descriptions, “the Vice President is not a close contact of any known person with Covid-19, including the President.”
For Covid-19, the CDC defines a close contact as a person who was within six feet of an infected person for 15 minutes or more, starting from two days before illness onset or positive specimen collection, until the patient is isolated.
President Trump is back in the Oval Office and is being briefed on stimulus talks and the hurricane, White House deputy communications director Brian Morgenstern told pool reporters.
Dr. Amy Cho, an ER doctor from Minneapolis, spoke out about the serious dangers of Covid-19 following President Trump’s messages downplaying the impacts of the virus.
“I want people to have a bit of fear about this, because it’s important. Fear helps you to be careful, it helps to motivate the actions and behaviors that help to reduce risk, and it will actually help to save lives,” Cho told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
In Twitter thread that went viral, Cho emphasized the serious risks coronavirus poses and how even medical professionals are fearful of the pandemic.
Cho tweeted:
“Please know that Covid-19 Please know that COVID-19 scares the doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers.
We are afraid.
Because we have witnessed what it can do if you or your loved ones get severe COVID. We know that money, power and fame can’t purchase a cure”
Watch more:
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital, says the White House and federal government are not following policies that people in infection control live by, as they try to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
Walensky noted that there are standard definitions and guidelines around quarantine, isolation and contact tracing.
“Some of those policies that we all live by in infection control as we’re trying to contain this pandemic have not, at least by appearance, been followed at the White House and in the federal government,” Walensky said during an Infectious Diseases Society of America webinar on Wednesday.
“Given the intermittent information that we’re getting, it’s very hard to understand a) whether people are being properly quarantined, b) whether people are being properly isolated and c) whether people are being properly contact traced,” she said about cases linked to the White House.
Aside from testing and contact-tracing efforts around well-known figures at the White House, there are other essential workers there who would likely need to be contacted and tested – and that’s a lesson for communities outside the White House, too.
“I really think it’s key that we make sure that all communities have access to contact tracing, treatments and vaccines,” she said.
Attorney General William Barr tested negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec.
Kupec said Barr, who tested negative for the sixth time, is at the Justice Department for meetings Wednesday afternoon.
The attorney general was among the guests at Trump’s Rose Garden event late last month introducing Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the US Supreme Court – an event which is now believed by many White House officials to be a nexus for contagion that led to the positive tests of at least seven attendees, including the President and first lady.
Barr was seen at the event without a mask, shaking hands and mingling with people in the crowd, including former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway who announced she had tested positive Friday. He also attended the private reception for Barrett afterward.
Sam Kass, former White House chef and adviser to first lady Michelle Obama, voiced his anger with the Trump administration’s handling of coronavirus as it relates to the White House residence staff.
In a four-minute Instagram video posted earlier Wednesday, Kass expressed his outrage following reports residence staff have been put in danger.
After a report from the New York Times that two housekeeping staffers had tested positive and were asked to use discretion, Kass raised the possibility that other potential close contacts were not informed internally.
“There were gaps in communication where people had no idea what was going on, and a lack of communication,” he said.
In his opinion, both President Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who were both diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, should not be at the White House around residence staff “unequipped” to deal with infectious disease, and, rather, in the care of trained medical professionals.
Kass outlined the potential for cross-contamination – even though the East Wing instituted a mask policy early in the pandemic, the West Wing did not. And residence staff are frequently around West Wing staff, setting up and breaking down events in the East Room and Rose Garden, among others. He said the dueling mask policies showed the administration’s “incompetence and hypocrisy.”
“It means they knew they should be in masks. That’s the policy in their home. They knew people should be testing frequently, if not daily. They let the rest of their staff be exposed without any rules, and how dare they,” he said.
Many of the workspaces used by residence staff are extremely small and have a potential for spread, including the pastry shop, which Kass said is “like a walk-in closet,” and “tiny little offices underground” including the engineers’ room, the carpentry shop, and the electricians’ office.
Kass said he was “horrified” by images of the President walking into the residence from the Truman Balcony without a mask after he returned from the hospital.
He said he felt compelled to speak out because residence staff, with a long history of discretion, would not speak for themselves.
“There’s a deep tradition in the residence of being credibly discreet and never speaking out, and I know they’re not going to,” he said. “The privacy of the first family, it’s tantamount. They would never violate that trust, even when their own lives are at risk.”
Watch more:
Regeneron, the company that makes the experimental treatment given to President Trump last week, told CNN their antibody treatment could have affected the blood test that shows Trump has antibodies to the coronavirus.
Earlier today the President’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, released a memo on the President’s health. In it, he said Trump had “detectable levels” of coronavirus antibodies as of Monday.
“Of note today, the President’s labs demonstrated detectable levels of SARS-Cov-2 IgG antibodies from labs drawn Monday, October 5th; initial IgG levels drawn late Thursday were undetectable,” the memo read.
Trump received a single infusion of Regeneron’s dual monoclonal antibody treatment on Friday. The company said the IgG antibody test would have detected the engineered antibodies that were administered to Trump.
Those antibodies – laboratory versions of immune system proteins designed to home in directly on specific parts of the coronavirus – would remain detectable in his system for several months.
In a statement to CNN, Regeneron said:
“Most of the standard assays for IgG would not distinguish between endogenous (self-made) antibodies and the ones delivered by our therapy. However, given the volume of IgG antibodies delivered in our therapy, and the timing of these tests, it is likely that the second test is detecting REGN-COV2 antibodies.
Our early data announced last week shows that the patients most likely to benefit from this treatment have a similar profile to President Trump, in that they had undetectable antibodies at baseline (‘seronegative’) and were early in the course of disease. Treatment with REGN-COV2 had the greatest impact in viral load reduction and time to symptom alleviation in this seronegative group. We also know by looking at the placebo groups that these seronegative patients were at a much higher risk of requiring further medical attention than ‘seropositive’ patients when untreated with therapeutic antibodies.”
The President’s physician Dr. Sean Conley has released a new memorandum on the President’s status, claiming President Trump has been “symptom-free for over 24 hours.”
Trump, Conley wrote, “has not needed nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalization,” and has been “fever-free for more than 4 days.”
Trump’s labs, Conley said, “demonstrated detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies from labs drawn Monday.”
Trump told him he feels “great!” Conley wrote, including an exclamation point.
Conley has not briefed reporters since Monday.
Read the memo:
Both Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence have tested negative for Covid-19 ahead of this evening’s debate, an administration official confirms.
The Commission on Presidential Debate is still planning for the second presidential debate, co-chair of Frank Fahrenkopf said Wednesday. However, it’s not without concern. Everything depends on the President’s health status and whether people around him, including the commission’s crew, will be safe, he told CNN.
“It’s going to depend on what the doctors say about his health, whether or not only will he be safe, but the people around him be safe,” he said. “We’re concerned about our staff and workers here. We have a crew of about 65 people who work on these things. So it’s going to depend on what the medical evidence is and what the advice we get whether or not it’s safe to go forward.”
“We’re going forward with our planning for both the second and final one in Nashville,” Fahrenkopf added. “We will make decisions and spend time after [the vice presidential debate] is in the can tonight as to what we’re going to do for the next one, once we get that advice.”
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Tuesday that the second presidential debate should not be held if President Donald Trump is still infected with coronavirus, but that he would base his participation in the debate upon recommendations from medical experts.
Watch:
While President Trump has been downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, Julia Jimenez, a health care worker who has been treating coronavirus patients since the pandemic began, has been strained at work and at home.
The coronavirus has affected 17 members of her family.
“I [looked] at my patients every day, like I would hate it if that was my family member, and now it is.”
Meanwhile, Jimenez said she has been living in hotels since March and isolating from her parents and her son to reduce their risk of exposure to the virus.
“I don’t sleep very well. I’m very, very stressed,” she told CNN’s Miguel Marquez.
The President’s message to Americans about the pandemic only adds to it.
“I think we’re in big trouble and that it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” she said. “I think our country is in bad shape right now and they’re getting really bad advice.”
With the President testing positive for the virus, she hopes that he will change his message.
Watch more:
Ahead of tonight’s Vice Presidential debate, Sen. Kamala Harris received a negative result after undergoing PCR testing for Covid-19 on Tuesday.
Polymerase chain reaction tests, known as PCR, are the most common and most accurate tests for determining whether someone is currently infected with the novel coronavirus.
A former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence says she’s concerned about him as the coronavirus outbreak in the White House continues to grow. Olivia Troye, who was a homeland security adviser to Pence and his lead staffer on the White House’s coronavirus task force, said:
“I hope that he has been, you know, isolated and is home and away from a lot of the staff and some of these people who just frankly don’t care. I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the behavior. It’s terrible and it’s terrible leadership exhibited by people in the White House who should be setting the example for all Americans on how to protect ourselves and protect each other from getting this virus. It’s tragic.”
Some background: Troye has previously slammed the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic and endorsed Joe Biden for president.
Her criticism of President Trump, accusing him of failing to protect Americans and only caring about his reelection, was particularly striking because of her role working on the coronavirus task force, which Pence leads.
Pence has dismissed her criticism, saying, “it reads to me like one more disgruntled employee who’s left the White House and now has decided to play politics during an election year.”
Troye told CNN staffers were acting “cavalier and negligent” during her time on the task force and did not take the virus seriously:
Seated 12 feet apart, Vice President Mike Pence and his Democratic rival, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, will meet in Utah tonight for the only vice presidential debate of the campaign.
Here’s what you need to know about the event:
Joe Biden will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday, his first trip to the state as the Democratic nominee, his campaign announced.
This will follow his trip to Arizona on Thursday.
Biden’s trip comes as President Trump continues to recover from coronavirus at the White House.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that Trump is “doing real well” and said he was briefed by Dr. Sean Conley last night and would be briefed again this morning. During the gaggle, he confirmed reports that Trump “wanted to go to the Oval yesterday.”
Asked if Trump would go today, he said Trump’s “schedule right now is fluid, we’re looking at his prognosis.”
“If he decides to go to the Oval, we’ve got safety protocols there,” he said, including personal protective equipment and ventilation.
Meadows himself continues to test negative as recently as this morning, but conceded, “At the same time we know this virus has a way of reaching out and getting people when they least expect it.”
On Stephen Miller’s positive diagnosis, Meadows said the White House “kind of had anticipated that,” noting that Miller had been working from home, so “the good news is the contact tracing for him was really zero.”
As he walked away from reporters, Meadows was asked when Trump last tested negative but did not provide a clear answer, saying he’s already answered that question.
Watch:
America’s top military personnel are continuing to work from home Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution,” after being exposed to Covid-19. They all remain negative so far but testing ‘is ongoing” a defense official tells CNN.
There is a growing sense they could remain in quarantine through early next week.
CNN reported yesterday that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and several members of the Pentagon’s senior leadership are quarantining after a top Coast Guard official tested positive for coronavirus.
As President Donald Trump’s top military adviser, Milley maintains a full classified communications suite in his house.
The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, Charles Brown, the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and the Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John Raymond, also are all working from home, according to several officials.
Additional officials who were also working from alternate locations or from home include:
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Tuesday that the second presidential debate should not be held if President Donald Trump is still infected with coronavirus, but that he would base his participation in the debate upon recommendations from medical experts.
“Well, I think if he still has Covid, we shouldn’t have a debate,” Biden told reporters in Maryland. “I think we’re gonna have to follow very strict guidelines. Too many people have been infected and it’s a very serious problem.”
He continued: “And so I’ll be guided by the guidelines of the Cleveland Clinic, and what the docs say is the right thing to do — if and when he shows up for debate.”
The former vice president also said he looks forward to the debate, which is set to take place next Thursday in Miami.
“I’m looking forward to being able to debate him. But I just hope all the protocols are followed, what’s necessary at the time,” he said.
Trump, who left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday after receiving treatment for the virus, is among more than a dozen people close to the administration or his reelection campaign who have contracted the virus in recent days.
The President tested positive last Thursday, but it’s unclear when he may have contracted the virus as officials — including his physician Dr. Sean Conley — have repeatedly refused to disclose when he last tested negative.
Tonight’s debate: night, Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, are set to face off in their only debate of the 2020 cycle this evening.
Pence, who has been near a number of people who have contracted the virus, has tested negative for the virus several times in the last few days.
Read more here.
President Trump’s aides were successful in keeping him out of the West Wing on Tuesday, but there are few who believe he’ll willingly confine himself to the residence for much longer.
Already, preparations have been made for his eventual return to the Oval Office, including positioning a so-called “Isolation Cart” stocked with yellow medical gowns, respirator masks and plastic goggles required for visitors just outside the office doors near where Trump’s assistants sit.
Trump made phone calls and spoke with aides mostly from his third floor residence on Tuesday, but did tape a video from downstairs where offices were set up for him next to the medical suite.
Any aide who comes near Trump is required to don the protective garb, according to a person familiar with the matter. It has given the White House residence the feeling of a sci-fi movie, one person said, as aides, staff and Secret Service personnel who need to come near Trump suit up to protect themselves.
He could make his way back to the West Wing as early as Wednesday if he has his way. He has raised the possibility of working from the Oval Office instead of the rooms that have been arranged for him on the lower level of the executive mansion, saying he feels ready to go back.
All except Trump’s senior-most aides are mostly in the dark about his health status beyond what his doctor released publicly. While he seemed short of breath at times on Monday night, people said he seemed somewhat better on Tuesday, though few actually saw him in person.
It also wasn’t clear what drugs the president continues to take. He was due to receive his final does of remdesivir on Tuesday night at the White House but it wasn’t known if he remains on a steroid, which some inside the building have openly speculated could be altering his mood.
Quarantined at home this week, the President’s adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump is making use of her time, participating in two lucrative fundraisers Tuesday.
She headlined two virtual fundraisers, raising $10 million for the campaign, bringing her 2020 fundraising total to $25 million over six events, a Trump political aide said.
“Ivanka remains the second most requested surrogate and fundraiser after the President,” the aide said.
Trump, who traveled multiple times in recent weeks as a campaign surrogate, was potentially exposed to one of the three White House journalists who later tested positive during a trip to North Carolina. Trump did not wear a mask during a socially distanced conversation with Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp, but did wear a mask when she visited a local restaurant. She was also present for the presidential debate in Cleveland and traveled with the President on Air Force One.
“Out of an abundance of caution, she intends to work from home this week and her robust schedule will be conducted in a virtual capacity,” White House spokesperson Carolina Hurley told CNN’s Kate Bennett Monday.
Trump and her husband Jared Kushner both tested negative for Covid-19 Monday morning, Hurley said.
CORRECTION: This post has been updated to reflect that Ivanka Trump wore a mask when she was unable to social distance.
Donald Trump, Jr. provided a brief update on his father’s health on Fox and Friends this morning, saying he’s doing “great” and that he had “never even seen him sick.”
He dismissed a report in Vanity Fair that he and his siblings tried to get their father to slow down, calling it a “hit piece,” swearing “on a stack of Bibles that it never happened.”
He continued, “I have never even seen him sick. I don’t think I have ever seen him have the flu or anything like that. I knew he was going to get through. This more importantly while he was getting through it he was still fighting for the American people which is pretty awesome to see.”
Asked about stimulus negotiations, Trump claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has “substance issues” after she said steroids could be influencing the President.
Awaking at home Tuesday after a weekend spent in hospital, President Trump offered no indication his serious bout with coronavirus had changed his perceptions of a disease that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.
Instead, Trump signaled he was itching for a return to the campaign trail — even though the virus is ripping through his staff — as he mulled delivering an address to the nation.
With the West Wing largely vacant because staffers keep testing positive, Trump was isolating in the White House residence, where temporary office facilities have been stood up adjacent to the building’s basement medical suite.
Just as he did inside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Trump has focused intently on the presidential campaign, which culminates less than a month. He received bad news on Tuesday when a CNN poll conducted by SSRS showed him trailing rival Joe Biden by 16 points, the widest margin of the race so far.
It remains unclear what Trump’s return to the trail might look like: the lingering effects of Covid can leave patients exhausted for months and it wasn’t clear what appetite remains for large mask-less rallies after Trump and his inner-circle all contracted the virus.
Doctors were continuing to monitor Trump’s vital signs and he was expected to receive an intravenous dose of the antiviral remdesivir on Tuesday evening. His physicians had revealed over the weekend that Trump’s oxygen levels dropped worrying low and that he had required supplemental oxygen.
The President met with a “team of physicians” at the residence on Tuesday morning after a “restful first night at home,” a statement from his physician Dr. Sean Conley read. “Vital signs and physical exam remain stable, with an ambulatory oxygen saturation level of 95-97%.”
“Overall he continues to do extremely well,” Conley added. “I will provide updates as we know more.”
Unlike the previous three days, were no briefings scheduled from Conley on Tuesday. He has repeatedly refused to answer questions about when Trump last tested negative, how high his fever became or the results of his lung scan, which he would only say were “expected.”
Read more here.
