Not only remdesivir but experimental antibody cocktail and a steroid typically reserved for severely ill coronavirus patients. The president has been tweeting up a storm today. Vice president pence and his wife say they have tested negative today. Later the Vice President will be heading to Salt Lake City to prepare for wednesdays debate with senator Kamala Harris amid some criticism about pences plans to hit the campaign trail later in the week after the debate. Joe biden will be in miami today, will take part in a town hall with Nbcs Lester Holt. Live right here at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. In a moment ill speak with former secretary of defense leon panetta, also served as white house chief of staff to president clinton. Lets gyp with carol lee outside walter reed hospital. Associated press white house repo reporter. Carol, what are white house senior staffers now saying now that the press secretary has tested positive with coronavirus and so youve got top campaign officials, top prep team as well as three republican senators just over the weekend and 2011 them dating back potentially to that rose garden ceremony and the indoor ceremonies that followed that day at the white house just a week ago saturday for, of course, the nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Thats right, andrea, Kayleigh Mcenany, white house secretary said she tested positive for coronavirus making her the ninth person at that event that you just mentioned. Its worth noting that Kayleigh Mcenany said she tested negative every day since thursday and today is testing positive, which is a cautionary tale, even if officials are testing negative, it doesnt mean they are in the clear. She has been at the white house in recent days. She was there yesterday. She spoke with reporters removing her mask to take a few questions. They were outdoors. Now, her statement says she had no close contact with the press, meaning the white house 911 unit has not deemed any reporters as being a close contact. But still, its a cautionary tale as we progress through this. Just because an official tests negative one day does not mean the next day they are also going to test negative. Now, as for the president s health, were hearing from the chief of staff this morning, really projecting a lot of optimism saying that hes getting better, the trajectory of his health is moving in a positive direction. Also saying the earliest the president could be discharged would be this afternoon. Thats a consultation that the president and his doctors will have, and then hell make a decision. Its notable also, andrea, that the White House Press pool, the group of reporters that follows the president has arrived here at walter reed. Were expecting some sort of update on the president s health. We dont know, however, if that will take form of inperson briefing with the president s doctors as weve seen in recent day, andrea. Jonathan, you were at walter reed during the weekend as well. I want to focus on, of course, the conflicting advice, medical advice, from the white house physician sean conley refusing to give factual information about the president s condition, whether or not initially he had had a drop in his blood oxygen and what medications he was on and when, the high fever he had on friday, the conflict that the chief of staff would brophy afterwards to apparently try to correct the record. How can you sort through all of this. Also, he is the white house physician who wrote the prescription for hydroxychloroquine, very controversially a few months ago when the president took that drug, which was later withdrawn from experimental use by experimental authorization, i should say, emergency authorization, by the fda because it was determined that there was no risk than benefit. Andrea, quite simply, this is a white house with a credibility crisis. Whether its the doctors or white house officials offering such conflicting answers and conflicting painting such conflicting portraits of how the president is doing. It is hard for the nation and for the globe to know exactly what is going on. As you say, yes, the medical team has had some erroneous missteps in the past in terms of medication they have prescribed. Dr. Conley this weekend was simply not willing to provide straight answers on a number of questions. I was there as part of the press pool on saturday, really pressed him on the president s oxygen level, whether or not he required supplemental oxygen. He danced around that, leaned into semantics and we parsed his words and realized he had, indeed, left gaps in the story. We were able to confirm elsewhere through reporting that the president had received ox again on friday r dr. Conley yesterday offered a mea culpa for that saying he was in part boosting the president s spirits by projecting such a rosey outlook but statement still refused to answer questions about what the lung scans showed, when did the president have a second bout of oxygen, why was he prescribed such a highpowered steroid, one thats usually reserved for critical cases if, indeed, he was doing so well. Theres a lot we still dont know. Now with worry that the president could be discharged as early as this afternoon, its going to raise a lot of questions as to whether or not thats the medically responsible thing to do or whether simply the president , as we know, itching to get back to the white house, pushing doctors around and ordering them to sign off on his release. Im going to ask dr. Scharfstein about the medical side of it, what we saw last night when he went into the extraordinary motorcade and drove around to wave at the supporters outside walter reed. This seems, as well as videos that were treated understandably to reassure the world that the leader of the free world is okay, but it does more politically motivated, jonathan. That whole i was on the air Live Saturday morning as well, while you were all out there. Immediately that answer, the obfuscation as to the oxygen. Again, what the results of the scans had been on his lung function. No question, andrea, that they have at this point still evaded rather significant and frankly basic questions as to the president s health. I think that should be every so often take a moment to underscore, this isnt a private citizen. This isnt you or i entitled to a degree of privacy in terms of how were doing, this is the leader of the free world. Yes, of course, were going to project the idea ahead of the government. Made clear no suggestion his power should be transferred temporarily to Vice President pence but hard to know what to believe. Certainly yesterday to have the president appear in a video shot from walter reed and suggest he now gets it, he now understands what the coronavirus is all about now that hes had it, that raises two significant issues. First of all, were seven odd months into this pandemic. I think there are a lot of people around this country who probably are wondering why it took this long for the president to, quote, get it considering over 200,000 americans have died and millions more have lost their jobs. Even more than that, if the president does now, quote, get it, why would he then get into a motorcade with two secret Service Agents. Yes, they are wearing protection, masks and gloves and some ppe, but still, in extraordinarily close quarters, tightly sealed suv with donald trump who right now, of course, has the coronavirus and is shedding symptoms. Questions remain how much does he get it at all . Did he endanger others simply for a photoop trying to project vitality and strength simply because hes sidelined from the campaign trail less than a month before the election. To the point we dont know what his viral load is, we dont know what the scans show about his lung function, whether he has covid pneumonia. We know hes been given the steroid, which would seem to contradict the previous medication, therapeutic of having the antibody treatment. So doesnt one thing build up the immune system and the other take it down . Well, this is a very serious disease and its a very serious situation for the president. To be able to have a fever, low oxygen, coughing, needing these treatments, its a very serious situation. Hes not going to be out of the woods for a little while. And with that the case, we know that they have got quite a big medical unit at the white house, thats clear. If he needs to be put in an icu, if he has some sort of engage downturn, which can happen, we are told, within five to ten days of the initial on set, where would he be better off, at walter reed or in the white house . Well, that will be a question for his doctors. One of his doctors is from johns hopkins, terrific physician. They will have to figure out the best place for him if thats what he needs. He certainly can get a lot of care at the white house, so they may be thinking they can turn the white house into a bit of a hospital for him. But if he needs intensive care unit, hes going to have to go someplace with a great team. Its a very, very serious disease, and theres so many Different Things that can go wrong. In someone his age, his condition, you really dont want to take chances. And just one more thing, youve got a doctor who is a Navy Commander, works for the president , the chain of command and all the rest, is his primary obligation to tell his patient whats best for him or to be following the advice of the patient as to what the patient wants to do . Well, i think its important to realize hes under the care of a Hospital Team. I think the Hospital Team should be doing the briefings, not the private physician who is trained in emergency medicine. I think it should be along the lines weve seen a lot of really good briefings over the years, people just telling the facts and being straightforward. Then that will have credibility and you wont have complete confusion about whats going on. But to your question, lets say the president gets the advice that he really needs to be in the hospital or hes in danger, and he says forget it, i want to go back to the white house, thats what i want to do, the president gets to decide. Any patient can decide that. People arent held against their will and in the hospital in the United States just because they are sick. But it does mean that he will be a greater risk if he were to do that. Well, i take your point that dr. Conley should not be the one conducting these briefings because hes only added to the confusion, and this is fundamentally an issue for the American People as well and a National Security issue. Dr. Scharfstein, thank you very much, carol lee and jonathan. Well hope we get more word from the white house as to what their plans were. Joining me now leon panetta, secretary of defense in the Obama Administration and former white house chief of staff in the clinton administration. You understand the military hierarchy as well as the political hierarchy, what is going on here as far as what is best for the people of the United States from their leader in terms of how they are being informed about his health . Well, im very concerned about the approach thats being taken, because its very chaotic. Of course, you know, weve had four years of chaos with this administration in many ways. But this involves the health of the president of the United States, which is a National Security issue as well. It would seem to me that some order has to be established here in order to convey to the American People that the president is continuing to discharge the duties of being president. Frankly, there should be regular briefings with regards to the status of the president , not hitandmiss briefings. So they ought to have regular times where they come out and brief the public as to what the status of the president s health is. Secondly, i think they really do need to have individuals that are trained in epidemiology lead that briefing. While the president s doctor may be his doctor, he is an osteopath, and hes not trained in internal medicine the way others have been trained to deal with covid19. And thirdly, there should be a command headquarters at walter reed that involves the chief of staff and others who are ensuring the president is fully informed and that they are dealing with the issues facing the country. The white house staff are dropping like flies. There is probably no staff operating effectively at the white house right now. So there needs to be a sense of order here. In order to make sure we are sending the right message not just to the American People but to the rest of the world. To that point, should the Vice President even if he does the debate in salt lake this week, should he be out and about on the campaign trail after that, potentially exposing himself to infection . Well, again, i think as Vice President he is the individual who is next in charge, and it is up to the Vice President to be able to make clear to the American People that the business of the nation is being focused on first and foremost. Now, i know they are in the middle of a campaign, i know hes got obligations. Obviously hes going to have to do the debate. There are other appearances hes going to have to make. But it would be, i think, an important signal to send that the Vice President is in touch with the chief of staff on a regular basis updating on the condition of the president. But more importantly, updating on the issues that are confronting the white house at this time. It would be, i think, a message that the white house is truly in control of the situation rather than all of these mixed messages that are taking place at the present time. And my colleague Peter Alexander is now reporting that Kayleigh Mcenany, the press secretary, was pulled from the bedminster trip on thursday but was not told that hope hicks had tested positive. She was not told why. Now shes tested positive herself. But the lack of communication internally has become an issue. The chief of staff to mike pence has been having conference calls, telling people to work from home, being well organized on mike pences behalf but were not seeing the same from mark meadows. The tlz a real sense of being without a leader on the staff. The responsibility of the chief of staff is to take charge of the white house staff. They should be fully informed as to the situation. There should be clear indications as to what their responsibilities are in this moment of crisis. The chief of staff, as chief of staff, should be providing the public with an indication as to what the situation is, what are the issues that are being dealt with, and the fact that the United States is still in control of its fate and the issues that have to be dealt with. I mean, this is a critical moment. We are very vulnerable as a country at this point. Were facing a lot of crisis, covid19. Were facing a recession. Were facing issues with regards to the integrity of the election, this is a serious moment. To have the president of the United States ill with covid19 only adds to the vulnerability of our country. And in terms of our adversaries, russia, iran, north korea, any of the other bad actors around the world, what are they taking away from all of this . Well, these are adversaries whose principle goal is to undermine the strength of the United States. Russias primary goal is to weaken the United States. When they now see a situation where the president of the United States is ill and somewhat incapacitated as a result of that. Theres no question in my mind they are going to look for opportunities to take advantage of that. Thats what adversaries are all about. Thats why its extremely important to send a clear signal to the world that the president and his staff are fully in charge of the responsibilities not only to deal with domestic issues but to deal with National Security issues. Those signals ought to be clear and they ought to be sent now. Leon panetta, as always, thank you very much, sir. Where is the task force three days after President Trumps diagnosis . Why havent we heard from the White House Team in charge of leading the Covid Response . Ill talk to a former Task Force Aide olivia troy ahead. First a tale of two candidates. As President Trump continues receiving treatment in the hospital, joe biden is back on the road today heading to that all important state of florida. Today for a town hall with lester holt tonight at 8 00 p. M. Right here on msnbc. The latest on where the race stands with Steve Kornacki at the big board coming up next. Ko the big board coming up next what if one stalk of broccoli could protect you from cancer . What if one pushup could prevent Heart Disease . One wishful thinking, right . But there is one step adults 65 or older can take to help prevent another serious disease pneumococcal pneumonia. One dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from this bacterial lung disease that may even put you in the hospital. Its not a yearly shot. Prevnar 13® is used in adults to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. Dont get prevnar 13® if youve had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. 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