Room because he is so sensitive about being perceived as weak. Well, real strength begins with telling the truth. So let me tell you who we have standing by to talk about this. David gergen, Susan Glasser and many more. This is a critical moment. Its day three of the president s hospital stay and there is a lot we dont know. We have seen the president in the past 24 hours. Our two photos. This video and a handful of tweets. We have also heard from many Trump Campaign staffers but we are not hearing from Trump White House officials. They are declining interview requests this sunday morning. There is an information vacuum right now. You know what they say about nature and vacuums . Whats filling the void is guesswork and speculation and even conspiracy theory. But all of that should be resisted. Lets stick to what we know as seen on the front pages from across the country today. Lets assess the information the best we can. This conflicting information that we have been receiving. It is clear now that the president was much sicker than the white house admitted on friday. His aides misled the public on friday. On friday morning chief of staff mark meadows told reporters trump was experiencing mild symptoms after testing positive, but by saturday sources told cnn and other news outlets that trump had received supplemental oxygen on friday and then meadows told fox something closer to the truth. Meadows saying, quote, he has made unbelievable improvement from yesterday morning when i know a number of us were very concerned. Meadows essentially admitting what he said on friday was untrue. So who can we believe right now . What can we believe . Obviously, this administration does not have credibility. Lying is a central tenant of the trump story. The American People can handle the truth. First we need to hear it. Second, we need to have reason to believe it. Credibility has to be earned. Team trump keeps giving everyone reasons to disbelieve what they are saying and that is destabilizing. This crisis is bigger than President Trump. Everyone wishes him well. Its about the institution of the presidency. Its about american leadership. So as we stand by for this press conference, let me bring in my first set of guests. Columnist for the washington post, margaret sullivan, Susan Glasser, former chief Political Correspondent for fox news, karl cameron, and staff writer for the new yorker and author of surviving you a talksy. What do you see happening in america with a country unable to know what to believe with the president s health . Well, you know, brian, there have been a lot of comparisons to the soviet union the last couple of days. I think they are not unwarranted. The particular period i am thinking about is something i have written about a lot. The some days of stalins death watch when the foreign correspondents and the domestic correspondents such as they were all knew what was going on. Nobody was giving them information. Everybody was expecting the final call, right, and the planet filled with rumor. The thing is, its not so much what we are being told by white house officials or by the doctors. You could actually create a reasonable narrative from all of the things that they have put out there. It is the palpable sense that people are not speaking, that they are withholding information. Of course, the sense of total lack of credibility that has been established the last four years. Right. And thats the backdrop for all of this. Margaret sullivan, much of what we have learned is from leaks. We learned about hope hicks testing positive from a leak to bloomberg. There have been many leaks since then. Is that a good or bad sign that there are so many leaks coming from the administration . Brian, thank you. Leaks are what we have right now because we are not getting any credible information from the white house itself. And thank goodness we have these leaks. Thank goodness that Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News broke the news that hope hicks was sick. I wonder when we would have found out about President Trump being ill and all of these other things that have come to pass since then. So, yes, i think at this point leaks are very good, but i also think they have to be handled with care, and i worry about the kind of anonymous sourcing that allows government officials to say a lot of things off the record or on background that then turn out not to be the case. Right. Susan glasser, lets play the sound bite if we can of what the president said on thursday before his diagnosis was announced. This is a comment that he made in a prerecorded speech that he was giving. I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight. Thursday. Thats what he said on thursday. Cases are rising across the country. Tens of thousands of people are getting sick every day. Many are being hospitalized every day. This pandemic, we are heading into a winter that is quite frightening and now its quite frightening that the president is one of the many affected. Susan, do you think this looking back at a past, playing the president s denialism is that appropriate or inappropriate at this time . Absolutely. You know, accountability doesnt, you know, check out when the president checks into the hospital, but quite the opposite. This is a situation, in fact, where his personal and political disinformation have converged, and in fact he has been running that campaign against his own government and Public Health measures and endangering his own safety as well as that of the American People for the last six months. So, obviously, the convergence between his lies to the American People and his own personal health now suffering as a consequence of that. I mean, we used to joke in college, but its not really a joke. You are really in trouble when you start lying to yourself and believing it. Did donald trump believe these things that he was saying to the American People about the pandemic . Because now there are 200,000 dead. I do believe its very important to keep that in mind. Plet President Trump is one person who has the best medical care that america can give him. He is being very aggressively treated. The doctors are helping us to understand what that means. But there are millions of americans who have been infected with this, and they dont have that privilege. Many of them have died. So, yes, we have to keep on the story and the accountability. Yeah. Lets, as we talk about this, and we await this next briefing, i dont want to lose sight of what happened the last seven days. Its felt like a year. Lets go back to mondays front page of the new york sometimes. President s taxes chronic losses, major income tax avoidance. Then the debate. Yes, the debate was this week. Thursdays front page of the new york times, trump escalating his push to erode trust in the election. Saturdays headline about the president in the hospital. This mornings front page says confusion and concern while the president ails at walter reed. The question here is, do you have any advice for the journalists trying to keep up with all these stories . Any advice for the public trying to keep up with all of this news . Yeah, we have to take a close look at whats happening today and then just rewind it to the campaign of 2015 and 2016 in which most republicans voted for somebody else during the republican nomination race in the various different states up until the very last moment where trump won a plurality of republicans for the republican nomination. And what we have now is a prima facie evidence of a person who became president by gaslighting the public, hiding his own failures, his lack of capacity and ability, and now finds himself in Walter Reed Hospital with a virus that he essentially convinced a good portion of the country was not a threat to their lives. This is the collapse of a democratic republic because of its leadership and dishonesty. The media has plenty of problems, but journalism and news hinges on facts, and too often the media, whether its on the internet or in entertainment, is considered actual news. And in that way people get misled. So reporters, journalists and the news has a responsibility to lay bare all of the problems of any politician. And pat them on the back with had they get it right. We just havent had a lot of that lately, brian. No, we have not. Karl, you used to be at fox news for many years. Your former colleagues now getting tested for covid because they were there at the debate tuesday night. Chris wallace, many others as well. It goes further than that. This apparent superspreader event at the white house saturday before last, the Supreme Court announcement, pete was there, Laura Ingraham was there. All these fox personalities and executives who have to get tested because they dont know if they have been infected as well. Its a small example of how widespread this virus is and how h this white house outbreak is affecting so many people, corporations, families. Go ahead. I think that the journalists need to remind everybody its entirely possible this began at that Supreme Court announcement. As a consequence of that, Public Policy has been corrupted by the failures of personal Health Policy at the white house. Karl, thank you. Everybody, please stand by. Its a fluid show as we await this medical briefing at walter reed. We dont know the exact time, but we believe it will take place this hour. We have the president of the White House Correspondents Association standing by as well as the man who briefed the press after the assassination attempt on ronald reagan. Thats right, david gergen is next. Stay with us. Smarter ways to do things. Find a smarter way to learn with flexpath from capella university. You might even earn your masters degree in 12 months for under 11,500. Capella unversity. Dont just learn. Learn smarter. Dont just learn. brad well, its because were willing to scout them out no matter how far away. Kevin anything to report . kevin nothing. brad thats interesting. Exactly like the last nine hundred eightythree days. kevin hey, can i come home . brad kevin, kevin, kevin. What a dedicated intern. Hes just one of the reasons why more people find their place on apartmentsdotcom than any other website. employee sir, we have an incoming call. brad send it to voicemail. employee done. brad apartmentsdotcom. The most popular place to find a place. Are you managing. Using fingersticks . With the new freestyle libre 2 system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose with a painless, onesecond scan. And now with optional alarms, you can choose to be notified if you go too high or too low. And for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 2 system is now covered by medicare. Ask your doctor for a prescription. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestyle libre 2 dot u. S. Welcome back to reliable sources. Checking my email, we have an update on this briefing. We are standing by at walter reed for a briefing from the president s medical team. We are told now we are expecting to hear from dr. Sean conley and the president s medical team. I think that indicates we will see multiple doctors coming out the same way we did yesterday. The press pool is in place getting set up. We expect this briefing later this hour and we will bring it to you live as soon as it starts. What we saw yesterday from the medical teams briefing is a muddled message. To put this in perspective, the last time we had a president ial Health Crisis of this nature it was the attempt on Ronald Reagans life on march 30th, 1981. Reagans doctors, acting press secretary, secretary of state and Vice President george h. W. Bush briefed the nation. It marked the era of important transparency about the president s health. Whats happening now . Why afternoon we seeing that now. Cnn senior political analyst and former president ial advisor to reagan and Clinton David gergen. He briefed the public at the podium on the day reagan was shot. Also mark weinberg. David, what should be applied today in 2020 . Most important lesson is to tell the public the hard truths, unvarnished truths, and do it in a competent way so that before you go out [ inaudible ]. Yesterday there was statements that caused confusion and undermined the credibility of the white house yet once again. So most americans are confused about exactly where we are today, and thats not healthy for a democracisy, not healthy heading into a major election. Mark and the president s medical team, can they regain credibility . Tell the truth and dont play games. If they are not disingenuous, if they dont play a mother may i approach to questions. When a Reporter Asks a question, they should answer straightforward, give them the facts. Do you think this is like a malicious thing thats gone wrong or incompetence . Do you have any guess why the message has been so muddled . Yes to both. I think they have something to hide. And i think that they are under extreme pressure from President Trump to not say anything that would cost him votes in the campaign for reelection. I think thats what this is all about, his vulnerability in the campaign. As a result, they are being not forthcoming, dishonest, they are being disinbeginious and not servi serve the country or the president. David, isnt this all stemming from the president not wanting details about his health to be disclosed . He presents this image absolutely. Of a strong man, right . That is the brand. Absolutely. He doesnt want to taint the brand . Yeah, if there is anything consistent about donald trump these last four years is his obsession with appearing strong. Whether he is weak or strong, he wants to come out looking strong. He thinks that gives him more political leverage. What it does instead over time is undercuts his credibility. And i think over time makes him look weak. You know, a strong person like reagan and what happened, what happened in the past and historically, we have had two major president s that have had big, big health problems. One was dwight eisenhower, the other ronald reagan. They started out uncertain. Ike didnt want anything disclosed about his heart attacks. Over time he gained confidence and told his press secretary when i get ill let everything be known to the public. So much so, people were comparing his stools, and you could imagine how uncomfortable and distasteful he found that, but he did it just as reagan did when he became so open and transparent about colon cancer. It was a courageous thing to do. It takes people of courage to give you the truth. It does not you know, weak people are the ones who hide. Great point about courage. Let me tell the viewers what we are seeing on the screen here. We are w awaiting a medical briefing at walter reed. Th there are Trump Supporters gathered, making noise, hoping the president can hear him inside his hospital room. We expect this briefing in the next ten minutes. We will see if it starts on time. Thats what you see on the other side of the screen. I interviewed dr. Anthony fauci earlier this week before the president tested positive and i asked fauci, i said, sometimes i see you on Big Television shows. You were on Good Morning America this week. A lot of times i see you on webcasts and podcasts and niche programs where you are reaching a small audience and not millions of people. I said, is the white house muzzling you, keep you off tv . Let me play what fauci said because its now newly relevant. Its a mixed bag, brian. Its erratic. Sometimes they let me out on some of the big shows, and then i could go multiple, multiple requests and they are not granted. You know, its a mixed bag. Sometimes its go ahead and get out there at the major shows, and sometimes its no. Now, isnt that interesting . Given that we are not seeing fauci this weekend, not seeing other members of the White House Coronavirus task force. Of course, the interviews requests are being made. Jake tapper pointed out this morning he put in the requests for for the white house, but they are not speaking, not giving interviews for the most part. For the most part they are not speaking. That does seem to be led by the president. Mark weinberg, your reaction as they sh we show this live shot outs of walter reed. Whats is your reaction to faucis comment, sometimes they let me out, sometimes they dont. You have to tell all the truth all the time. Seeing that setup there reminds me of when president reagan had colon cancer and we set up a press Briefing Room right there. Brought out the leading Cancer National expert who declared to the country the president has cancer. As a result, thousands of lives were saved because of the attention that was called to procedures that screened for cancer. There is a great Public Service the president could be performing here if he werent so selfish. Thank you. Please stay with me. I want to squeeze in a break as we await this briefing. I have the White House Correspondents Association zeke miller standing by. Numerous reporters have tested positive in recent days. We will get an update from zeke in a moment. Ened. burke this . 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