Was only a precautionary measure. German chancellor Angela Merkel says they tried deal between the e. U. And britain is still possible thats despite the lack of a breakthrough during breaks it talks in brussels the comments followed a 2 day e. U. Summit on Foreign Relations during which the bloc agreed to impose sanctions on 40 leading officials in belarus. A media says it is ready to discuss a cease fire in the separatist region all of a buck which is seen heavy fighting between armenian and as a budge on the forces many military officials said that as a bush on carried out strikes on the regions capital steffen kit on friday dozens have been killed in the recent flare up in fighting. This is day w. News from berlin you can follow some twitter and instagram at d w news or visit our website at state w dot com. Just over 4 weeks to the us election and President Trump has tested positive for corona virus and is exhibiting symptoms in the 1st lady in the self isolation while the washington establishment on both sides of the aisle wonder what to do now well well see if we can provide some ounces over the next half hour im filled in and this is the day. The president the 1st lady. Scary to. Their. Political point. I think would be a huge mistake. In that it impacts his ability. To fire. Quick. Welcome to the day i want today it has begun with just 4 weeks until the u. S. Election the white house says President Trump is experiencing mild symptoms and that followed the announcement that he and 1st lady. Had tested positive for corona virus democratic rival joe bidens tested negative despite sharing a platform with mr trump in tuesdays president ial debate when the president s diagnosis was revealed hours after it became. No not that senior aide who had contracted the virus as youve been traveling all week with the president and seen here on the whens day throwing crap caps into a crowd of supporters at a Campaign Event mr trump tweeted that he and madonna are quarantining at the white house where he said to be continuing hes duties so what happens now well lets run through some of the potential synonymous with john hes a senior fellow at the Brookings Institutions Center for effective Public Management joins us from washington welcome to d w i see that youve written that a positive coverage test for the president is not in itself a cause for Emergency Action so when should people start worrying well as you said its not necessarily a cause urgency action millions of people who had obit and theyve. Either no symptoms or in the president s case so far mild symptoms and president s get sick from time to time and thats not as much of a problem but if the president s condition deteriorates and he is older he is obese and those are all. Conditions or situations which can make kovan symptoms worse it would be something that could become a real crisis in the United States if the president were to need a ventilator or to be sedated or to be hospitalized in a serious way ok so lets lets talk through some of those scenarios if for instance if the president if his condition takes a turn for the worst and he does become incapacitated and unable to govern the presumption is there is a system so talk us through what that system is. Theres really 2 parallel tracks that are laid out on the 25th amendment to the United States constitution so the 1st would be the president for seeing that he is going to be hospitalized for sedated or made in some way incapacitated and he can voluntarily transfer the powers of the office to the Vice President temporarily and the Vice President would then exercise the powers of the presidency until the president recover the alternative system is one in which the president is incapacitated in a very sudden way or in a way that he has not voluntarily turned over the powers of the office and in that case the Vice President along with the majority of the cabinet can notify the congress that the president is incapacitated at which point those powers automatically transferred to the Vice President and this is a well trodden path that they have been examples in the past of the 25th amendment being deployed. So there have been charts of the 25th amendment that have been deployed over the course of the past 30 to 35 years of president s have needed to undergo medical procedures president reagan needed some polyps removed president bush had a colon ostap during which time they were under either anesthesia or sedation and when that happened each of those president s bollen terribly transferred the power to the Vice President who served as acting president temporarily until the president came out from the drugs that you was under in could take the powers back over which is typically only a few hours the situation in which the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet force that transfer has never happened in American History ok so when we have a long way from that at the moment so how important that the president is now i think has been tweeting for about 13 hours which is the longest anyone can can remember how important is it for the president to remain visible during an airless like this and to keep the public a dated. Well i think visible is sort of in the eye of the beholder the president doesnt necessarily have to appear physically but he could give interviews over the phone he can tweet and he can do a variety of tasks that can communicate with the American Public that he is there that use doing well i do think if the president is well enough to make a Television Appearance or to speak directly to the people that would be important to settle some jitters and there are. A lot of americans right now about what the president s health actually is and certainly there are concerns im sure weve been his family and others as well as in american markets about what the future is going to hold and so i think is much is the president can he should communicate about his health and wellness to the American Public ok this is a fag and that its been speculating but its fascinating. Lets look at the president since situation deteriorating what happens if he is incapacitated come election day. If you say incapacitated on election day it would be the same as if you were incapacitated any other day. Would the powers of the office would transfer to the Vice President he would be not in holding the powers of the presidency of the Vice President would it could have political effects short of it but i think is long as the president s condition is seen as temporary that it will instill enough faith in the individuals going to the polls that they can continue to vote for him if they so choose if the president s condition is quite serious or quite grave i do think it raises some questions among voters about what theyre going to do now that said in the United States we vote for president and Vice President on the same ticket and so if youre supporting President Trump youre also supporting Vice President tents were of course will take over in the event of a president ial incapacitation or president ial death and so i think going into election day voters will have those types of thoughts on their mind particularly if the president is incapacitated. So the center of this story has a 74 year old man with a potentially life threatening condition the concerns of a bigger than the health of the man and they were talking about the office of the president. First of the presidency is a system of offices that help support the person who happens to be in power at that moment but of course there are contingencies in place to ensure not only that there is a line of succession but there is continuity and that succession and so while this sort of situation as you said and elderly president with a disease that has now killed more than 210000 americans is a very serious situation we do have a process in place for when these occurrences do happen. Want an acting president to penn. Gets to do his own thing in this in this next month and presumably if he got to elected all what hes job to just keep the show on the road and not invade anyone well if there had this is uncharted territory the Vice President s who have served as acting president s in the past it does so only for a couple of hours and because they knew that the president was under some sedation or some anesthesia that said if ice president pens were to become acting president he would wield all of the powers of the presidency and could do as he wished and now i think that for Vice President pence particularly given that he has a close relationship with the president he would see that role as a caretaker role with the hope of course that the president would recover and he would just essentially carry out the president s wishes during that time and not make many Major Political or policy moves that said if the president of work to resign from office or god forbid if he were to die in office the Vice President would elevate permanently to the president and then would likely do what predecessors who have succeeded a president to do and that is take the helm of the office and do as they wish fos i think falcon for your analysis from the Brookings Institution and give. So how will the president s illness affect the campaign with just over 4 weeks to go blue cross joins us from us and i should take welcome with him. The 2nd president ial debate he showed you will take place in just under 2 weeks the president is self isolating though i suppose this doesnt rule him out completely no i mean and we dont really know whats going to happen next but we keep hearing we we theres a reason we say this is an unprecedented moment in an unprecedented election that thats not just a word we use although it does get thrown around unfortunately a lot it does mean something here the next debate is within this quarantine time so donald trump depending on his recovery on how he feels if hes able to be tested negative may not actually going to be there in person we could be looking at a zoom debate which of course might fulfill a lot of peoples wishes and theyll be that mute button that i know the last debate a lot of people on both sides particularly donald trump who interrupted most would have liked to have seen Chris Wallace employ remember theres no legal basis for debates this is an informal tradition thats developed overboard over decades in the United States even the debates themselves are run by a private organization a privately funded organization its just tradition that the candidates be specific republican and Democratic Candidates 3rd Party Candidates tend to be excluded from this. Show up to have an a platform to present their ideas and go face to face with their candidate so that these debates can be postponed they could be canceled theres nothing that would throw the election off because of whatever happens to these debates ok so thats not such a big not such a big deal but suddenly the Vice President ial debate is how does that takes on a whole new significance yeah and weve seen this the last many months months ago knowing that we were going to election with 2 men of advanced age both joe biden and donald trump we knew that the Vice President s might take on a particularly Important Role and that voters might. Looking at who is in that 2nd seat which generally Vice President ial candidates for all the talk in our circles we might have about the role the Vice President ial candidate plays in balancing the ticket alternately doesnt play a huge role in voters decisions but in this case they might because youre looking at kaamelott harris a far younger woman and youre looking at mike pence a far younger man than donald trump who could seriously more seriously than in past president sees be looking to possibly for to step into the role of the president as we heard in the previous talk possibly immediately depending on how the coronavirus develops with donald trump but even over the course of the next term regardless of who wins both present both president s both candidates getting on in age we could be seeing the need for a Vice President ial candidate to step in as president. So heres the tricky thing i think joe biden do you would think that on paper the president being. Is a win for the democrats but i suppose biden has to be careful not to look like hes kicking a man when hes down Democratic Leaders have been very careful to not be gloating today to be extending their thoughts and prayers to saying all the boilerplate expressions of sympathy when anyone is sick regardless if they are ally or your opponent because of course you know we saw this in the eye came when Boris Johnson was fell ill of coronavirus he actually got a lot of sympathy even from from people who tended to not like him or as a political politically opposite in ideology to him so the democrats have to be careful how theyre going to use this opportunity for them politically and we see that already where theyre trying to shift focus from donald trump to the American People to broaden this to their number one issue this election which is health care and Health Insurance because donald trump as the president is going to get the absolute best care possible to fight and battle and defeat this virus which which Many Americans including many of the 200000. 00 plus americans who have died from this virus did not have the luxury couldnt afford Health Insurance that donald trump was going to be able to get ok so that elevates Health Insurance the political agenda but. This its important to somebody wins and of course. If. Joe biden. Thats what he has to sort of change his tone about how he goes about winning doesnt that its a make or break moment or could be a make or break moment for both candidates really i have been thinking all about 2007 also about this time in october just before the election and the financial crisis hit and the 1st banks and Insurance Companies started to go down the ones that were too big to fail and i remember back then we look back at it now and it seems like peanuts compared to what were dealing with now all the things coronavirus social unrest the economic problems that have come from that but at that time it felt like the world was ending but the United States very system was over and john mccain and barack obama both gave press conferences john mccain looked uncertain he looked out of place he looked like he could handle the situation can handle this crisis that he was sustained suspending his Campaign Going back to washington to fix this problem barack obama came out cool confident ready to take on the crisis and continue his campaign and while obama was already leading in the polls and probably would have still won it was a very decisive moment a very interesting moment where a lot of americans said this guy this guy knows how to do both how to be a politician to run for presidency and handle a major crisis and thats what we could see joe biden trying to come out to do in this case can you see any upside for the president getting ill like this. There is the the whole idea that maybe he turns around and comes back stronger than ever and says i beat this virus this virus is no big deal like ive always been telling you as well as the sympathy aspect like i mentioned earlier that people might swing towards him and just by having sympathy for for a sick man but i dont see a lot of upside for him i dont see a lot upside for anyone and no one should be gloating and no one regardless of where you come down should be should be happy about this turn of events if you are conservative if youre a republican a supporter of course you. You are looking at a big hit to your leader and if you are a democrat if you are someone who does not like trump you are looking at all d kinds of potential conspiracy theories that have just made this election a total mess and have made it really hard to separate fact from fiction to know what to truly believe in it makes the whole system that much more difficult to deal with and you have that would include from day 2 of the us elections. Well lets have a look at how President Trump has handled the greatest Public Health challenge for decades hes long been dismissive of coronavirus precautions recommended by his own experts from initial optimism in february looks like by april you know in theory when it gets a little warmer it miraculously goes away i hope thats true to a number up to about face in march this is the case today i am officially declaring a National Emergency us President Donald Trump has gone to extremes in his Public Attitude toward the coronavirus hes always saw a Silver Lining even as the death toll skyrocketed america will begin and soon be open for business very soon we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself were not going to let the cure be worse than the problem in the start seeing some real laid at the end of the tunnel but this is going to be a very painful. Very very painful 2 weeks that trump soon turned a medical problem into a political issue forcing the public to choose between him and the experts when government scientists recommended Wearing Masks he scoffed at the idea is the reward myself its a recommendation they recommended. I dont see it for myself i just i just maybe ill change my mind he didnt change his mind but as the pandemic refused to go away miraculously he mused in public about rather unorthodox treatments supposing we hit somebody with a tremendous whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful like when i said supposing it were the leg you can which you can do either through the skin or. In some other way right and then i see the disinfectant if not sit up in a minute. By june as testing ramped up along with case numbers he seemed exasperated if you dont test you dont have any cases that we stepped right now would have very few cases if any. And he started marking the virus making racist jokes and blaming the pandemic on chinas. Its a disease without question has more names than any disease an issue. I can name. Comes lou i could name i 90 different versions of the it says with the election looming he doubled down on mocking masks even during the president ial debate i dont have i dont wear masks like him every time you see hes got a mask you could be speaking 200 feet away from it he shows up with the biggest mask ive ever seen that attitude held up until the last minute at this rally in minnesota on wednesday trump threw souvenirs barehanded into a packed audience where few wore masks it remains to be seen how seriously trumps diehard supporters will now take the virus that has put their hero into quarantine and will well many journalists who cover the white house have noted the lack of masks and social distancing around the president so how surprise should we be by the Current Situation lawrence are gostin his University Professor at Georgetown University hes also director of the Oneill Institute for national and Global Health law welcome to day w. Were you surprised that this happened. Well i certainly wasnt shocked i mean the president is probably the most protected human being on earth you know hes been getting cold the test series is getting medical monitoring but hes been very lax in his behavior he he basically doesnt wear a mask he goes into the crowds he shakes hands he has big political rallies and so no i mean the virus is all around us and if youre not truly careful. You can easily contract a virus so were talking about a 74 year old mom 6 foot tall obese and exhibiting mild symptoms were told while doctors be looking for well you know hes in a very high risk group. Is age is ease is it is out of an old age hes got preexisting conditions like a prior history of cardiovascular risk and hes also. By c. D. C. s definition obese certainly well oh wait those are the for those are 3 major risk factors and so doctors will be looking to see whether or not he has breathing difficulties other signs of severity but hes hes make no mistake hes hes at risk of grave illness and remember Boris Johnson you case Prime Minister im usually didnt seem that bad but then ended up in hospital and then to Critical Care i mean i i hope and pray that doesnt happen but he could. Where about 7 months and service into this pandemic our treatments now do they differ significantly from the treatments back in march when we were just getting a grip. Yeah i mean weve made a lot i mean weve made a lot of progress we hear a lot of. Hype about the progress on vaccines and that has been quite remarkable weve also made some really Good Progress on treatments. Some of the treatments like cortisone treatments. Arent appropriate for the president and shellys hospitalized but others like that are investigational some of them like. Antibody treatments or immune therapy hes on they will be appropriate or not understand these doctors are considering you know may even have administered one of those treatments already. Were talking about a 74 year old as you say getting the best medical care but he is a stressful job one of the dangers of going back to work too early well you know eat it can be weak it can be fatigued and he could have mental acuity problems you know we dont know i mean one of the things about this corona virus called sars coli 2 days is that you know it can cause no symptoms whatsoever and that may not be a very mild disease for him we hope so but it can cause great disease it also can cause multisystem failures or deficits. And it can be long term so the truth is is that he needs to be really carefully monitored we shouldnt just assume this is like he said you know a little bit of the flu this is a really serious disease and he could incapacitate him is no question about it. Was it so much worse for over 60 fives. You know we dont know exactly but probably when you get older your youve got a less robust immune function and then your mean system really cant fight off the virus as well as a younger person can thats probably the most likely explanation but in addition to that the older you get the more comorbidities you have the more you know you might have diabetes or or hypertension which he does have or chronic other chronic conditions so for all of those reasons you know there is a you know a significant elevated risk for somebody thats all d and particularly if theyre theyre well overweight which the president is we thank you for joining us professor lawrence augustan from Georgetown University thanks good to be here. And not the day as ever the conversation continues online youll find us on twitter about w d n a well news of the top off a often novel. Its considered the 20th century the most ladies to s. L. Its not just the coming doors that have made the design so comic. 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