October 2: Trump's Covid diagnosis

Pressed by CNN’s Joe Johns on the timing of when the White House learned Hope Hicks had tested positive, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows conceded that people knew of her positive diagnosis before Marine One took off for New Jersey on Thursday afternoon for a fundraiser.

Some staffers, he said, were pulled from Marine One, raising further questions about why the trip proceeded, the President coming into contact with numerous supporters at his Bedminster club.

"I’m not going to get into the tick tock. I can tell you, in terms of Hope Hicks, we discovered that right as the Marine One was taking off yesterday," Meadows said. "We actually pulled some of the people that have been traveling and in close contact. The reason why it was reported out, just frankly, is that we had already started to contact tracing just prior to that event,” he said.

Multiple senior staffers told CNN's Kaitlan Collins they did not learn of Hicks' diagnosis until Thursday night, shortly before it was reported by Bloomberg News.

Meadows claimed that the White House acted quickly to inform the public of the President’s diagnosis.

“As you know, last night, even in the early hours of this morning, the minute we got a confirmatory test on the President, we felt like it was important to get the news out there at that time, and so that's why we sent out a tweet late, late or early this morning,” he said.

Meadows said the White House has "protocols in place" to mitigate risks and make it easier for people to social distance, but regardless, the virus is still contagious.

"I can tell you that what we're doing is focusing on the therapeutics, the vaccines, continuing to do that, and that doesn't change," Meadows added.

Meadows declined to say whether President Trump, who tested positive for coronavirus, is taking hydroxychloroquine, a treatment he repeatedly touted despite questionable benefits. Trump, he reiterated, has “mild symptoms.

“Well, I'm not going to get into any particular treatment that he may or may not have but he has mild symptoms as we look at that the doctor will continue to provide expertise in the residence. He's in the residence now, and in a true fashion he's probably critiquing the way that I'm answering these questions,” Meadows said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he recently wrapped a phone call with President Trump and that he is in “good spirits,” adding that the pair "talked business." 

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar deflected pointed questions about the safety of President Trump holding rallies during the Covid-19 pandemic during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Friday. 

Rep. Maxine Waters asked Azar if he thought if the President’s rallies “contributed to the increase” of Covid-19 cases?  

Azar didn’t answer the question. Instead he said:

Waters followed up, saying that rallies where the audience is not wearing masks or socially distanced “certainly adds to the increase the possibility of these infections – is that correct?

Azar once again, “our advice has always been the same, the three Ws.”  

Waters asked if Azar had “ever interacted with the President about him being a possible role model in this country?” 

“I'm not going to discuss my discussions with the President,” Azar responded.  

Waters asked Azar to name areas of the country that were seeing an increase in cases, and he named a handful of states in the Midwest and West. When asked to give specifics about the numbers, Azar said those were available at https://www.coronavirus.gov/.  

Joe Biden has received his coronavirus test, and they are waiting on the results to determine whether or not he will still travel to Michigan today as planned, a source familiar tells CNN.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is speaking to the press now from the White House about President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis.

He said the doctors continue to monitor the President and first lady's health.

Meadows added that Trump is "staying committed to working very hard on behalf of the American people"

"We have a president that is not only on the job, will remain on the job, and I’m optimistic that he’ll have a very quick and speedy recovery," Meadows added.

People who test positive for Covid-19 are actually most contagious in the few days before they develop symptoms, according to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and adviser Hope Hicks all tested positive for the virus.

“If this is the point where he started to develop symptoms, it probably meant that you were doing most of … what they call the viral shedding in the couple three days before that. OK, so today is Friday, symptoms Thursday, so now you're going back to Tuesday or Monday in terms of contagiousness. It also makes a difference on the back side in terms of when someone might be cleared from isolation,” he said. 

Contact tracers would focus on that earlier time frame, Gupta explains. 

President Trump has “mild symptoms” from the coronavirus, a White House official told CNN.

A spokeswoman for Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and President Trump’s lawyer, said he will be getting tested for Covid-19 today.

“In the meantime he has begun the quarantine process,” said spokeswoman Christianné Allen. 

She confirmed Giuliani is currently in New York and quarantining there.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow declined to make any generalizations on the economic impact of the President’s coronavirus diagnosis, but said there was continuity of government and President Donald Trump sounds “good.” 

Kudlow said he received a negative test Friday morning. 

“I myself personally tested this morning negatively, I’ve been tested every day,” he said. 

“We’re all praying for the first family,” he added. 

The administration sees “no need to shut down again,” he later added, noting that coronavirus stimulus talks would “probably” continue Friday.

After President Trump tested positive for Covid-19, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN she hopes that this will be a “lesson learned” by the rest of the country “that you have to wear your mask.”

“That is not what the White House was engaged in. Now, hopefully they will send a different message to the country or even if they don't, that it will be a lesson learned by the rest of the country,” she added.

Pelosi said she was also tested this morning out of an abundance of caution since she had meetings with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who also announced that he tested negative this morning. Pelosi is still awaiting results.

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