The first lady and i are waiting four o for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process. Indeed, hope hicks has tested positive for coronavirus. Few aides are closer to the president. She was with him yesterday for his rally in duluth, minnesota, was unmasked at least when photos were taken of her. She flew out and back with him on air force one. Tonight trump talked about hope hicks during an interview with sean hannity on fox. She did test positive. I just heard about this. She tested positive. Shes a hard worker, a lot of masks. She wears masks a lot, but she tested positive, and i just went out with a test. You know, because we spend a lot of time, and the first lady just went out with a test also. So whether we quarantine or whether we have it, i dont know. You know, its very hard. When youre with soldiers, when youre with airmen, when youre with the marines, and the police offices, im with them so much. And when they come over to you, its very hard to say, stay back. A lot to decipher there and a lot of questions arising from the president s comments. Hes been bragging about the instant tests they have at the white house, so lets figure he was tested two hours ago, even one hour ago. One would presume those results are in. Are they having secondary testing under way . Hope hicks, for her part, has been traveling with the president throughout the campaign, again, in very close proximity and for several hours every day. Shes been a trump aide dating back to the 2016 campaign. Youll recall she did leave the white house to work for the Fox Corporation in l. A. Before coming back to service in the west wing. Meanwhile, trump has been under attack for two days for refusing to condemn White Supremacy in the political portion of our lives. Tonight during an interview, that same interview with sean hannity on fox, he went with a change in language. Ive said it many times, and loet me be clear again, i condemn the kkk. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the proud boys. I dont know much about the proud boys, almost nothing, but i condemn that. But he should condemn also antifa. Antifa is a horrible group of people. Its a different standard. Its total hypocrisy. Its a disgrace. But i think the people are wise to it, sean. I really do. The people are wise to it. Every time you do something, and Chris Wallace asked me almost the same question last time. And, you know, its a shame. Its a shame that they can get away with it. Today the white house was pressed, indeed, to detail trumps views on White Supremacy and Militia Groups operating within our country. What we heard earlier this same day was far less than definitive. As the person who speaks for the president , does the president denounce White Supremacism and groups that espouse it in all their forms . This has been answered yesterday by the president himself, the day before by the president himself. On the debate stage, the president was asked this. He said sure three times. Yesterday he was point blank asked, do you denounce White Supremacy, and he said, ive always denounced any form of that. Just to clear it up this morning, can you, naming it, make a deck lairtive statement that the president denounces it. I just did. The president has denounceds this repeatedly the president was asked this. Youre contriving a story line and a narrative. Im just asking you to put this to rest. I just did. You may recall that at the debate, trump was asked to denounce the proud boys Militia Group by name. Yesterday he said he didnt know who they were. The White House Defense and the president s words brought this reaction from john roberts of fox news, who you just saw there in that exchange with kayleigh mcenany. If the president didnt know who proud boys were and joe biden just threw out the name, if he didnt know who they were, why did he denounce them . Why didnt he say, well, i dont know who they are . Can you give me a little bit more information about them and make a decision about it. So this all remains very puzzling. And for all of you on twitter who are hammering me for answering that for asking that question, i dont care because its a question that needs to be asked, and clearly the president s republican colleagues a mile away from here are looking for an answer for it too. So stop deflecting, stop blaming the media. Im tired of it. And tonight trump, who misses very little on television and even less on fox news, had this to stay about john roberts. Kayleigh is this incredible person, and she was abused by john roberts. Amid all of this, nbc news has obtained department of Homeland Security internal talking points directing federal Law Enforcement officials to make public sympathetic comments about the young man named kyle rittenhouse. Hes the 17yearold who was charged with fatally shooting two protesters in kenosha, wisconsin, in august, with an ar15. Rittenhouse supported trump and police on his social media pages before he traveled from his home in illinois across the state line to wisconsin. Those Homeland Security documents suggested officials, quote, note that he took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend Small Business owners. Back in august, trump was asked if he condemned the actions by rittenhouse. He was trying to get away from them, i guess, it looks like. And he fell. And then they very violently attacked him. I guess he was in very big trouble. He would have been he probably would have been killed. Americans in several states are already voting. Here we are 33 days out even as the president escalates his unfounded attacks on mailin voting and the integrity of our election. One former fbi agent who has called trump a National Security threat says trumps words are weakening our democracy. When the president gets up there and says that he sees all these instances of fraud, which dont exist in reality, there is no data, there is no evidence to support his assertions, what he is doing is, one, undermining the faith of americans in their electoral process. Trump is also now lashing out at the possibility that the rules for his next debate with biden could change. Quote, why would i allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third debates when i easily won last time . Heres what trump said on this topic just a short time ago. Were dealing with very tricky people here, but i think you remember that very well. They modulated my mic, and they say i won all of the debates. So i was in 16, 17 debates. They say i won all of the debates. I like this for matd. He was the one that interrupted me. Along with the Vice President ial debate, remember there are two remaining president ial debates. Theres the calendar. We mention trump aide hope hicks testing positive for covid19. That makes her one of the more than 7. 3 million americans known to be infected. Her boss has been talking up the possibility of a vaccine perhaps even before election day. Tonight Jonathan Lemire of the associated press, who is indeed standing by to join us, reports that the ceo of pfizer, one of the Bigger Companies working on a vaccine, is now pushing back on the president s timeline and vowing not to bend to political pressure. But coronavirus in some form or fashion remains our lead story tonight, and with that as the backdrop, lets bring in our leadoff discussion on this thursday evening. Nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. The aforementioned Jonathan Lemire, White House Reporter with the associated press. And dr. Vin gupta, an e. R. Doc specializing in these kinds of illnesses, also is an affiliate assistant professor with the university of Washington Department of Health Metrics sciences. We have a lot to get to. Jonathan, i know you and nancy have been working the phones. When did the white house find out about hope hicks . And im asking specifically because she was on yesterdays trip, and you know the confines of the helicopter, the aircraft, and the tight group of people around the president on the road in Holding Rooms and the like. Brian, the white house realized last night, wednesday night got the diagnosis of hope hicks, who is indeed one of the president s very closest advisers. So theyve known from last night that she had tested positive for the coronavirus. And indeed lets walk through the chronology of the week. Tuesday night she accompanied the president to the first general Election Debate in cleveland. Yesterday she was in minnesota. She traveled with him for a couple stops in minnesota, including a rally, traveled with him on not just air force one but on marine one. It is protocol for staff to wear masks in the president ial helicopter, but it is extraordinarily close quarters. Hope, were told, Via White House aides, is one of the white house staffers who does wear masks from time to time. A lot never do. But her mask usage is not 100 . No one is. Its not clear when exactly she might have worn the mask on air force one the last couple of days. Its sort of extraordinary here. President s tweet a few moments ago suggested he and the first lady were in a quarantine process. Ill defer to the doctor as to exactly what that means. But typically cdc guidelines suggest quarantine could be up to 14 days, which would more or less be half of the time left before election day. Now, we believe were calling the white house and calling trump advisers as to exactly what he means. It could be that he is simply meaning waiting for the results of another test. But that in itself raises questions. They have rapid tests at the white house. Anyone who is going to come into contact with the president , and that includes members of the press pool, do get these avid rapid tests where results are usually known in about a half an hour. And that presumes the president would have had already. So it stands to reason he has had another test and theyre perhaps waiting for that result. One of the more accurate tests that takes longer, town a few hours, before they know what it is. At least for now, brian, as a final point, the white house schedule is still full tomorrow. The president is set to go to a fundraiser here in washington and then travel to a rally tomorrow night in florida. Ill be part of the press pool going on that trip. Those events are still on as of now, and it should be noted the white house knew of hope hicks diagnosis, wednesday night. Today, thursday, there is no sign of hope. But the president , who had been exposed to hope hicks, still traveled to a fundraiser in bedminster, new jersey. Okay, doctor. Youre on deck, and you know the questions already. What does it mean to you that he mentioned quarantine in this tweet tonight . And heres a subject you and i have talked about on this broadcast. The president in positively poe peelian terms has shilled for the abbott quick turnaround test. He has displayed the product and pushed it from the rose garden of the white house. We know it to be in use at the white house. Does this to you, this twohour delay, mean perhaps that the results on one test have come in and we are awaiting the more accurate results of another . Good evening, brian. Theres a lot to get through. Before i get there, i just want to say first of all, i hope hope hicks is doing okay. At the end of the day, shes covidpositive, and this virus, regardless of your age, can have devastating impacts, so i hope shes okay. To your question, this is where timing of exposure is vital. Vital information not just for the president s health, for the first lady and her circle, but frankly for the people of wisconsin because hes going to have a rally there regardless. I know he moved, but hes still going to have a rally. What theyre doing right now will be an example for Holiday Travel in just a few weeks. Here is the thing. Quarantining is actually the right move. He should cancel the wisconsin rally, and heres why quarantine matters. It depends on when he got exposed. Did he get exposed he definitely got exposed within the last 24 hours on air force one. We know that theres recirculated air in a plane, but its not perfect. Were they Wearing Masks . Im assuming their public behavior is probably indicative of their private behavior on an airplane cabin. Im assuming they were not masking. So the chance that he got exposed is relatively high. Heres the problem with the avid i. D. Now test or any test. The time between exposure and the testing positive depends on something called the incubation period. It can take 24 to 48 to 72 hours between exposure and when the test turns positive. So not only should he get a test today, he should get the best type of test. The avid i. D. Now is not a good test. Its false negative rate is anywhere from 30 to 50 . Its not a good test. What they should do is they should do the highest quality labbased test on the president , make sure that he is definitely negative today and then also in 72 hours, cancel the wisconsin rally. And, dr. Gupta, oh, by the way, im reminded Jonathan Lemire reminded us the president was feet away from joe biden, unmasked but distanced, spewing exhalations, both of them, for 90 minutes a couple of nights ago. Well, and brian, you nailed it there. Speaking without a mask can cause droplets, airborne particles to leave your mouth. Yelling like the president was yelling a lot can basically shower the entire audience, not just the Vice President , with droplets of covid19. So everybody should be tested. All his close contacts on air force one should be tested now. They should be tested again in 72 hours because of that incubation period. The wisconsin rally and all events should be canceled. This is not a political matter. This is a matter of urgent public health. He should not go to wisconsin, in any city in wisconsin, and have a rally when he could potentially be the vector of disease and unwittingly expose people. So thats really important. Okay, nancy. We recognize that during this conversation, this could all be moot. The president s public schedule for tomorrow came out about 15 minutes before our air time. It could all have changed. Travel schedule may have changed. What do you take from his mention of the q word, quarantine . I think someone told him probably that he had to say that. I mean hes been very blase about the coronavirus since the beginning and has repeatedly said, oh, its going to be over soon. Hope hicks is his closest aide to test positive, but there have been other people around the president who have also tested positive, including one of his personal military valets and the Vice President s top spokesperson, katie miller. So this is not the first time that President Trump has come in close contact with someone who has contacted covid19. I think hicks is just the latest example. But the president has never taken it that seriously. Hes never modeled the cdc recommended behavior to mask, to social distance. And i was on the trip yesterday with him to minnesota. He was traveling with hope hicks but also all of his top aides, and none of them, as i saw them get off the plane and on the plane, none of them were Wearing Masks. And really it was his whole inner circle that was with him, including the chief of staff, jared kushner, dan scavino, stephen miller, really his closest aides. So i will be really curious in the coming days to see if there is more widespread exposure among that inner circle and then what this potentially means, as jonathan said earlier, for the campaign. Theyre really under so much pressure now. The president has been consistently behind in the polls, and ill be curious to see if he has to cancel any political events or take time out of the campaign trail during the last 30something days to deal with this. Jonathan lemire, based on reporting and observation, would you agree with me that the employees like the valet and the aide to the Vice President were several degrees of magnitude less exposure than this one . It was joked about on television as recently as tonight that there are trump family members who wish they had the daily kind of face time, sustained exposure, and access to the president that hope hicks enjoys. There are few i can think of who are at that level. Hope hicks is one of the president s closest aides, and without question this is now the closest he has come to the coronavirus. Hope hicks was one of the original campaign staffers. She was there from the early days of 2015. Originally she had worked for ivanka trump, done some p. R. Work for her for her business and eventually moved over to Donald Trumps then fledgling president ial campaign and earned his trust. She rewarded him with loyalty, and she was there as press secretary for that campaign, one who didnt interact with reporters on the record all that much, but was a constant traveling companion and one of the president s closest allies. And in fact when she eventually departed the white house a year or so ago, you know, he really took it hard and had told aides that he really missed her. She then returned, moving into the senior role, and has been more of a behind the scenes presence, but she is still there certainly for all the biggest moments. I think whats happened certainly tonight, brian, it goes to show no matter how hard the president tries to wish this virus away, that it will disappear, that were rounding the corner, that he cant outrun it. This virus has shadowed his entire year. Its shadowed his presidency. Its put tens of millions out of work. It has changed the rhythms of day to day life, and it has become the defining issue of this campaign. As much as the president wants this to be a choice election between himself and joe biden, we saw him effort that on tuesday night with his loud interruptions and badgering of the former Vice President , it hasnt been. This election to this point has been this campaign has been a referendum on how the president has handled this virus. And the American Public in polling has made clear they dont think hes done a good job, which is why, as nancy said, he is facing these deficits in the polls, including in all these key battleground states with just over a month to go. And hes got an extraordinarily Aggressive Campaign schedule coming up. Hes supposed to be in florida tomorrow, wisconsin on saturday. Theres talks of a west coast swing next week, returning to florida, pennsylvania, which his team believes is the key state this election. If he were to be sidelined and certainly if he were to get sick, it is hard to even fathom what that does to the home stretch of this campaign. It would certainly be a devastating blow to the president , and one who would risk, if he were to continue out there, potentially infecting lots of others. He came in close p contact today with supporters at in bedminster, new jersey, after confirmed exposure to hope hicks. He cant outrun this virus, brian. This is the defining issue, and he may have just been delivered a devastating blow. Dr. Gupta, im going to read from our colleague Shannon Pettypiece on twitter. This stood out to me too during the fox news interview because whatever you think about the president and his utterances, he says little that is not planned. He says little by accident. Shannon writes, trump links hope getting covid to being around Service Members. Quote, it is very, very hard when you are with people from the military and they come over to you and they want to hug you and kiss you because we really have done a good job for them. You get close, and things happen. Im just wondering, that leads me to the question, dr. Gupta, who does Contact Tracing for the west wing, and who do we rely on for the real deal . All we know tonight is the president has told us on twitter theyre beginning the quarantine process. Weve had problems with the reliability of even the white house physician. Remember back to dr. Ronny jackson and his prognosis based on the president s health. Remember the still unexplained trip to walter reed on a weekend morning for the president , which various things have been denied but never a full explanation. So its a mess, but im wondering who actually is the Controlling Authority on this . Well, first of all, i just want to say, brian, since you brought it up, im an icu doc in the air force reserves, so im going to stick up for our people and what the dod has done for policies and procedures to keep Service Members safe. The notion that a Service Member was potentially the cause of this exposure and highlighting that is an affront to what the dod has done and what the various services have done to keep us all safe. So thats just not true. The implication is wrong. So thats number one. Number two, brian, you bring up an excellent point. The devil is in the details here, and americans need to know the circumstances and the parameters by which hope hicks became positive because it matters for all of us to understand, did hope hicks practice the best of procedures . Does she mask . Does she wear an n95, for example . I doubt it. Does she get a quick test before and after, what type of test . Understanding of the parameters of her exposure and why she turned out positive to the best of our abilities is key to informing the American Public on what is and is not safe when it comes to travel, what is and is not safe when it comes to hopping on a flight. Is everybody getting contact traced . Jonathan mentioned the president was out today. Everybody at that fundraiser frankly should be Touching Base with those individuals to make sure theyre doing okay, potentially even test them if it turns out that the president is positive. So the president needs to take this very seriously for his own sake, for his inner circles sake, but for the american people. And he absolutely needs to cancel the wisconsin rally. There is no questions about that. That needs to be canceled until we at least have two tests that are negative before he were to go out on any type of travel schedule, which of course we all frown upon anyway. Doctor, thank you for that. And our guests are going to stay with us. The headline at this hour remains the same. The president announcing on social media that he and the first lady are beginning the quarantine process after exposure to close white house aide hope hicks, who has tested positive for the coronavirus. Indeed, cnn is reporting tonight that she is symptomatic with the coronavirus. Were going to be joined by our own White House Correspondent. All of our guests are going to remain. Were going to fit in a break in our breaking news coverage, which continues after this. Your mission stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. And take. It. On. With rinvoq. Rinvoq a oncedaily pill. Can dramatically improve symptoms. Rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. And for some. Rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. Thats rinvoq relief. With ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. Rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. Rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred. As have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. Your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. Tell your doctor about any infections. And if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. Take on ra talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. Rinvoq. Make it your mission. If you cant afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. More dangerous and corrupt president than trump. Hes harming our basic values, giving rise to hate, and hes selling out america to big corporations. Im working to protect immigrants, women, communities of color, and lgbtq people. And im making corporations like pg e and Insurance Companies play by our rules. We need experienced leadership to wipe away trumps stain on america for good. Were back at 27 minutes after the hour, and as youve been following, as you can see at the bottom of the screen, the president has announced that he and the first lady have begun the quarantine process. Why . Because the president has been exposed to close aide hope hicks. Quoting, hope hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for covid19. Terrible . The first lady and i are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process. Thats what we know. We know that sometime in the 9 00 hour, it sounded like the president was headed to get a test. There is an elaborate White House Physicians Office oncampus to service the president , the family, and close aides as needed. We know the president has for months bragged on the idea that they have the abbott, brad name, quickturnaround test. We know that there is another circle of testing because of initial false negatives and positives that can happen. We also know na this could be a herculean job of Contact Tracing given the places the president has gone, i. E. , a closeddoor fundraiser today in new jersey, and the people who have been in contact with him. He foreshadowed members of the military interestingly in an interview earlier tonight. So for the latest, were joined by our own nbc news chief White House Correspondent hallie jackson. Hallie, presumably youve been following the coverage, what is known to us. I would love to know what is known to you and what youve been able to gather. And given this diagnosis, what in the world was anyone doing in and around the circle of hope hicks . So let me start with the first part of that question, brian. Ive obviously been on the phone tonight and just spoke with a source familiar who sheds a bit more light on the timeline. I want to share that with you here. Im going to look at my notes while were talking, that some of the details are still fluid. A couple of sources tell us hicks tested negative for the virus yesterday morning. That is before that trip to minnesota. By the way, was not showing symptoms at that time. She apparently began showing some minor symptoms sometime late yesterday evening, sometime around the time of the rally. Its not clear if it was before, during, but after the rally on the way home on air force one, she did, according to this source, quarantine on the plane. Her test came back positive. Were hearing this morning, and that is when Contact Tracing was done. Why is this timeline important, brian . That is the second part of your question, right, which is what are people around her circle doing . President trump today, later in the day, traveled on his plane. He went to bedminster. He went to new jersey. He held a fundraising event as you and your guests have been talking about here, and then came back home. Now, we need to be clear there is information that we do not know, right . We know the president says hes had a test. We dont know what specific kind of test that is. We know that rapid tests that the white house gives to, for example, me if im a member of the pool, other reporter whos are part of that pool, whomever, come back fairly quickly, right . It appears that may or may not be the case here since the president said he is waiting for a test tonight or tomorrow morning. We know that the president is talking about quarantining now. Hes going to do that with the first lady as he said in that tweet. And there are these sort of bread crumbs that are being dropped by the president himself. I imagine that at some point either in the wee hours of tonight or early tomorrow morning, we will find out more about this because it is obviously incredibly significant and affects a lot of the president s movements. You know, hed had this full schedule tomorrow. It looks as though that is not going to be the case. But there are some serious questions here about what happened from here. You have to remember and i know that your guests have talked about this, but just to underscore this. Ive covered donald trump for a long time, a number of years, and hope hicks has always been around. Even when she wasnt at the house, she was always a voice, always somebody who has had a presence in the trump orbit. That means not just with the president , but, brian, with practically all the senior staff in the white house. Our team has put together a list of all the people that were on the plane with hicks, for example on air force one headed to tuesdays nights debate, on marine one with her, on the plane traveling to the rally yesterday. It is a whos who of every single important person in Donald Trumps orbit. Its not clear what Contact Tracing means for some of these folks. We know talking to some aides and people near her that some of these people are not going to be quarantining. Theyve been advised that that is not necessary tempt because they didnt have sustained close contact with hicks. But there are some real question marks in this group. Were talking about members of the president s family. Brian, remember the president s whole family, all of his adult kids were with him for the debate on tuesday night along with hope hicks. They were traveling on the plane together. These are some questions were try toeg find some answers to. It is obviously a moment in which this is a reality check and a gut check for this white house. Its a president who just a actual couple of days ago mocked joe biden for wearing what he described as a big mask, has not done certainly distancing. His white house as recently as today defended that, talking about how Donald Trumps supporters have a right to go to a rally and not social disand not wear a mask 23 they choose not to to exercise their First Amendment right if you will. This is obviously a significant thing, and were working on reporting out more details, brian. All right. Hallie, if you should come into more possession of more information, you know the drill. Text us, call us, wave wildly into the camera. Thank you, though, for updating especially the timeline details that we didnt know. The points hallie raises bring us back to dr. Vin gupta. And, doctor, as hallie was speaking, were looking at the pictures of boarding air force one, and there indeed is hope hicks, dan scavino, the president s social media director is there. Miller is next to her when theyre walking to the chopper. But here she is talking to and breathing all over the president s soninlaw and senior white house aide jared kushner. Again, were living in an era where maskwearing has become politicized, no more so than those around the president , and this again brings up your comments on the clock, when people begin to present as positive, when people perhaps begin to present symptomatically, and how long Contact Tracing has to go on, how long it has to wait until after the suspected first contact. Brian, that was a great summary, and really those are the vital questions here. I have to say i am deeply concerned for the president s welfare, his inner circles welfare, those that they have exposed because of the finding that hope hicks is symptomatic. That is that is enormously important here. So theres a few things. If shes symptomatic, the risk that shes exposed someone else, especially the president , just given his role, but anybody on that flight is much higher than if she was, for example, say, asymptomatic or was presymptomatic. Theres a lot we just dont know, right, because we dont know when the clock started. The fact that she had an initial negative test speaks to one of two things. Number one was the test, if its the abbott i. D. Now test, nyu scientists studied that test. This is not my opinion. They studied that test a few months ago. They found that the false negative rate with that test is quite high, anywhere from 30 to 50 . Again, was that tuesday test before she hopped on the flight, was it a false negative, or was she incubating the virus and the test wasnt going to turn positive anyways, regardless of the type of test . Thats question one. Question two is everybody this notion, this nonsense that some people on that flight should not get quarantined and they shouldnt get [ no audio ] people that were exposed to the president today, they should they should get retested in 72 hours. Thats vital. Hey, doc, were getting a war be in your audio, and as we work to fix that, Jonathan Lemire, lets talk about the confines of the two aircraft that an aide as senior as hope hicks flies on when the president travels. You have the chopper marine one. You have air force one. Weve been watching them go through the front stairs. Usually the likes of you and i go in the back stairs. But in a pinch, we have used the front entrance. You take an immediate right. The president s bedroom is in the nose cone of the aircraft immediate left. If youre senior staff or connected to the president , youre usually approached by an air force steward. Perhaps they take your bag. Perhaps they take your coat. And then normally you work through a kind of narrow hallway on the right back to the conference room, back to staff seating, and its its a lovely aircraft, well appointed. The seats are kind of standard business class. But the confines in meeting areas are as tight as you can imagine. You are sharing each others airspace. And, brian, the seats dont lie flat, which is tough on a long flight to asia. But youre right. You described the iran sinside air force one completely accurately to no ones surprise. Lets walk through the chronology of how this happens. When the president leaves the oval office, he heads out to the south lawn. Then thats where marine one, the helicopter, is waiting for him. And he tends to travel with a few claes aides, usually some very senior staff. That could be the chief of staff like mark meadows. That can be sometimes dan scavino, and it can indeed be hope hicks. The helicopter only seats a few staffers along with the president , and then that is a short 10 to 15minute helo ride to joint base an drups just outside washington. At that point he boards air force one. But it is indeed, as you say, people are in there as close together as you would be in any sort of office building. And we should note here that the west wing, this is small space. This is not a gigantic Office Complex by any means. These are staffers that are sort of on top of each other. These are small offices and desks, often crammed in a couple into relatively small spaces. Its the same on air force one. The president has his own quarters, and he also has his own private office, but its an office this president in particular tends to have staffers in quite a bit. So it stands to reason whether it was tuesday heading to cleveland for the debate or wednesday to machiinnesota for couple of events including the rally, that hope hicks would have come into the president s office where she would have been a few feet from him addition to the time she went with him on marine one, the helicopter, perhaps backstage at the rally or any other number of holding areas. Youve seen the footage. She was not in a mask most of the day. She is a staffer, weve heard, who does wear them from time to time. Some never do. But she didnt at all times, certainly in the last couple of days where it seems she may have been carrying this virus and would have been contagious. That is why now we are anxiously awaiting the nation, the world is awaiting the further results of the next covid test the president is taking. We again presume hes taken a rapid test already because they are available at the white house and everyone who comes into contact with him, including the press, is given one. The sense is and were reporting this out is he would have been given the more Gold Standard test, the accurate test that takes a few hours to come back for result. Were all waiting on that. But it should be of course underscored even if that test comes back negative, its still a few more days in the incubation where he could eventually develop symptoms or come back positive, meaning he could be exposing any number of people in the days ahead if he does indeed have the virus. Hey, nancy, a quick question before i have to get to a break, but help me out here. Im seeing mentions on social media about a de facto disagreement between the president s posted schedule for tomorrow and beyond and his tweet tonight that he vaguely is entering the quarantine process with the first lady. Both can be true given the mechanics of the white house. An aide or an intern in the press office is to send out the public schedule at a certain hour when its locked down. The president , with his cell phone, is free to tweet out whatever he wants to, and lord knows weve seen that come true. And so there may be a public schedule posted for tomorrow that predates what he said about quarantine. Absolutely. And they do update the public schedule with some frequency either at night or in the morning, at briefings. Thats not unusual so while weve been talking i havent looked at my phone, but i do think we may see changes either later tonight or first thing in the morning because it would be hard for the president to be in quarantine and then get on a plane or go to an indoor fundraiser tomorrow. All right. As we mentioned, lets take a break in our live coverage. You see the breaking news at the bottom of your screen. The president announcing he and the first lady have begun the quarantine process. We have nothing to add to that as of now. Based on our assumption, questions that that may change, that we may learn more. Fit a break in now. Come back and continue our live coverage. Youve still got game. At aetna, we find that inspiring. But to stay on top of your game takes a plan. Thats why at aetna, we take a total, connected approach to your health and wellness. Our Medicare Advantage plans are designed to surround you with the care you need every day to give you the confidence to age actively. We offer hospital, medical and Prescription Drug coverage in one simple plan. With monthly plan premiums starting at 0. Wide provider networks, including doctors and hospitals you know and trust. Plus dental, vision and hearing. And telehealth so you can see a primary care doctor remotely, from the comfort and safety of home. Because while your reverse dunk days may be behind you, your coaching days are just beginning. Aetna Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare annual enrollment ends december 7th. Call today to learn more and well send you a 10 visa reward card with no obligation to enroll. We are back, and now at 45 minutes after the hour, all we have to refer to as far as a medical statement from the white house is a tweet from the president , using a rather vague phrase that he and the first lady have entered the quarantine process. Usually the word quarantine is taken quite literally. It takes you out of circulation. Industry standard these days has been for a period of on or about 14 days. We dont have anything more to tell you. There is a perfectly good White House Physicians Office that is also capable of putting out a more Detailed Health statement for the president. All we know is he was tested, we think, in the 9 00 p. M. Eastern hour. There is every likelihood it was the first of multiples given the chance for false positives and negatives. So its a lot to talk about. Lets bring in two of our other guests for this evening, who have been very patient with us. Jason johnsons with us. Hes a campaign veteran. Hes a contributor to the grio, and hes a professor of politics at morgan state university. Tim miller also returns to the broadcast. Hes a contributor to the bulwark, the former Communications Director for jeb bush, former top adviser to the antitrump pac our principles. And having just hung out with the cool kids like bill maher in l. A. , hes ready to come back and join those of us who are members of the a. V. Club in cable. So. Tim, im going to begin with you. Your reaction to where this leaves us politically. This has been your lifes work is explaining the actions and words of politicians. Where does this leave us tonight . Glad to hear youre watching hbo last weekend, brian. Look, we said this would be the chaos president , and i just jotted down some quick notes. Hes embroiled in a scandal over the fact that he cannot condemn White Supremacy. That consumed his day today after the debates. His daughterinlaw is, according to the new yorker settled a serial Sexual Harassment suit from her time at fox. His top staffer has the coronavirus, and youve been sheing pictures of her Walking Around the white house grounds not wearing a mask. This whole white house has not taken this pandemic thats caused 200,000 deaths seriously, and that now has come inside the house. His wife was taped talking about how she didnt care about the kids being separated at the border, and she didnt care about the Christmas Setup she had to do at the white house. His Campaign Manager from 2020 is telling friends that he was under investigation and that hes despondent. I mean, brian, this is you couldnt even have predicted this kind of chaos, this level of chaos for the chaos presidency. And its almost all brought on by their own incompetence, by their own indifference. And yet, jason, im old enough to remember this afternoon when the lead story was the president s inability and his press secretarys inability to u, using clear language, denounce hate groups within our midst. Yeah, brian. I mean its interesting. We talk about october surprises, right . This is going to be like a nesting doll, russian nesting doll of surprises. This has been weve said this so many times over the last four years. This might be the worst 24 hours in the trump presidency. Hes not only because i think its important to mention its not just that he wouldnt condemn white nationalists, but if you ask the white nationalists themselves including the Patriot Prayer groups and the proud boys, he actually told them to stand by and be ready at his beck and call. So we have a president who has called for terrorists, a president who has mocked the coronavirus and its impact, a president who lied about it just two weeks ago. We were talking about, and a president who now is in what we know to be the quarantine process. Brian, i can tell you, ive always said i dont think theres many undecided voters yet. I think most people know what theyre going to do. Theyre going to either vote or not vote. But the think the chaos surrounding the president right now, the utter irony of a president who mocked mask wearing 48 hours ago possibly having to now go through the painful process that millions of americans have gone through, hopefully he survives, but if he has to go through the coronavirus process, this is almost a nail in the coffin of his incompetence in handling the virus. And if thats the most important issue to voters, and it seems to be right now, this could be the death knell. This is a terrible day for republicans across the board. Hey, tim, im reminded again earlier today in recorded remarks for the annual well, the semi regular Al Smith Dinner in new york, coronavirus has made for the exception, the president said that the end of the pandemic is in sight. As they say in washington, he might want to revise and extend his remarks. How many times has he said this, brian . You know, this is wish casting. In one of my hats, Republican Voters against trumps, weve had a couple of people from inside the white house come out and tape ads, talking about what their experience is, Elizabeth Newman and olivia troye, and what they said is internally this was a policy, to pretend like this wasnt a big deal because they didnt want it to hurt the president s reelection campaign. So it wasnt just that the president was spreading disinformation. He was preventing the people who are public servants, whose job it was to try to protect us, from doing their job. And so this is you know, we were going to open at easter. The think was going to go away when it was hot. He was going to say this all the way up to election day, and now, you know, theyve been so irresponsible and so obsessed with this perception that everything is fine that theyre all Walking Around the white house with somebody that has the virus and nobodys Wearing Masks, nobodys distancing. And its insane. Were just learning that former colleague of ours, vivian salama, is apparently reporting that the Biden Campaign has asked a journalist, a Pool Reporter covering politics who has covering the trump outing on wednesday, not to travel in their pool with the former Vice President. And, jason, i know this has turned us all into kind of amateur physicians. We now track the ins and outs of medicine as we all must do as consumers, as citizens in a pandemic. But imagine the job of Contact Tracing that i guess the cdc begins tonight. I mean, look, this Contract Tracing the Trump Campaign might be a scandal in and of itself. Theres probably tons of people who theyre meeting with that they dont want the public to know about. I mean this could be such a damaging series of investigations. This is like discovery in a court case because we dont have to just know that hope hicks has now shown symptoms. Who has hope hicks been speaking to . Where has she been speaking to people . How long was she with the president . Who else has the president s family been in contact with . All of these things, again, fly in stark contrast to an administration ha tried to pretend this is not a problem and not something we need to be concerned with. Heres where it gets really serious, brian. If the president is now in the quarantine process, and we dont know what that means, what it could also mean is will he stay off the campaign trail . This is where the rubber meets the road of how honest or dishonest is the Trump Administration . If he is found to have the coronavirus or Melania Trump has the coronavirus, like Boris Johnson in the uk or bolsonaro in brazil, will the president stop campaigning . Will he take the concerns of the public to be more important than his concern about being reelected . Thats where the real rubber is going to meet the road. We may not know that anytime soon because if he is positive, theyre not going to want to tell the public. Gentlemen, i cant thank you enough for weighing in on this. Again, to think we were going to talk about Voter Suppression in texas, a topic, by the way, that does not go away, is top of mind in that state and politically with the governors decision, and we will stay on were it not for tonights medical news. Jason johnson, tim miller, youre both very nice to hang out for us and with your patience. For viewers just joining us, and were going to crown over the top of the hour and keep our live coverage going, were waiting for something of a medical nature from some authority around this president. We are going only by his twitter remarks that he and the first lady are beginning the quarantine process. And heres the problem. This is why the diminution of institutions and truth is a problem. The physicians around the president going back to admiral Ronny Jackson, but continuing through present day, we have reason to believe they have been less than transparent. You may recall the briefing with Ronny Jackson when he talked about the president s stamina. It left reporters with reason to question things like weight and vitals and test results and Life Expectancy and heart health. Present day, the Current White House physician was deemed less than transparent in trying to explain a yet unexplained visit to walter reed. They have talked about what the visit was not about. We have never been told what the visit was about. So this is the problem. The White House Physicians Office, much to the frustration of sitting president s, has often been quite transparent with the president s health details. That has not been the case, i think its fair to say, over the past four years. So were at their mercy. These are military physicians, always have been, and presumably always will be. All that we know is that man has entered something called the quarantine process. More coverage after the top of the hour. Were all finding ways to keep moving. But how do we make sure the direction were headed is forward . At fidelity, youll get the planning and advice to prepare you for the future, without sacrificing the things that are important to you today. Well help you plan for healthcare costs, taxes and any other uncertainties along the way. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. And the veterans that never quit on their team. When being a fan gets tough, and stretching your budget gets even tougher. Our agents put in the time and legwork for you,. So saving on Auto Insurance is easy. Because saving a little extra goes a long way. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Evening, everybody. Midnight here on the east coast, 9 00 out west. And this is why our coverage looks a little different at this hour. If youve been out or away from a device or a television. The lead story is this. There is enough chance the president has had exposure to the coronavirus that the president himself has announced tonight that he and the first lady are, quote, beginning the quarantine process. This goes back, as all cases do, to a traea