I have to be back. The virus now spreading among those two attended white house events. How serious is the president s condition . Can we trust anything from the white house . My guests this morning, Senior Adviser to the Trump Campaign jason miller. Dr. Nahid va della from Boston University. Plus debate fallout vote now. Make sure you in fact let people know, were senators. Im not going to answer that question. Why would you not answer that question . The radical left will you shut up, man . The president s relentless of joe biden. He graduated the lowest or Second Lowest in the class. Dont ever use the word smart for me. And struggle to make up ground. Unbalanced. And big shift towards biden in our new the wall street journal poll. Joining me now former Homeland Security jay johnson, journalist peggy noon an e. Rich lawrie from the National Review and former White House Communications director jennifer kaymer. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. If theres any good news to come from the un settling news the president of the United States has been infected with the coronavirus, it is this, perhaps the americans who have flouted this advice to take the virus seriously and wear a mask may now take this seriously. This happening that with Colder Weather will lead to another deadly wave of the pandemic. Yesterday the white house offered a far less upbeat report on mr. Trumps condition than his doctors did, creating public confusion and further doubts about whether we can trust what this administration ever tells us. There are still many questions to be answered, can and should Vice President campaign while mr. Trump is hospitalized . Will there be more president ial debates, and if so, will they be in person . Could Senate Republican plans for Amy Coney Barretts fast track confirmation get derald . The news came after a debate performance thats roundly criticized after the president s behavior. Our nbc news the wall street journal poll shows an election dramatic free until now. Joe biden leads registered voters by a shocking 15 points, 5349, by far the biggest lead in our poll so far. Word of caution, this poll was taken right after a consequential and extraordinarily unsettling event, that debate. Translation these numbers could be quite volatile. So were going to wait to see if this biden surge is a shortterm thing or part of a trend. We have the news covered from all angles and begin with our own Kelly Odonnell and Walter Reed Medical Center. Kelly, what is the latest on the president s condition . I guess i have to qualify it, whos telling us the latest on the president s condition . Good morning, chuck. The president s physician has given us the most recent snapshot saying the president is making progress but making clear he still faces serious risk. Now, the issue of transparency with the president s health is critical. What weve had so far has been conflicting, contradictory information, even corrections coming from the white house. One example on friday, when we first learned of the diagnosis, the official line from the white house was, mild symptoms. Now we know from the chief of staff that at the same time the president s doctors were worried, and they were still, the president s physician is now saying publicly if he ever received supplemental oxygen, and yet put out a memo that said the president no longer has a fever and is off supplemental oxygen. So theres been this kind of confusion about who is providing information and how clear that information is. We also know the president doesnt want to leave the messaging to others, not his doctors, not his chief of staff, not the white house staff. So he put out a fourminute video that we know was recorded inside the hospital in part of the president ial suite, which includes office space for the president , in addition to the medical treatment like remdesivir, which he is getting over the course of several days. And in that he talked about his own condition, acknowledged that there are still difficult days ahead when his condition will need to be monitored carefully but also talked about wanting to get back on the campaign trail. Its so clear that the mostwatched patient in the world wants to have some control over the message and how the public perceives his condition. Chuck . Kelly odonnell getting us started right outside Walter Reed Medical Center in bethesda, maryland. Kelly, thank you very much. Those mixed messages that we heard yesterday unfortunately were not surprising given this white houses history of being less than candid with the public. I came here, wasnt feeling so well. I feel much better now. President trump now hospitalizes at walter reed. About 48 hours ago the president received a special antibody therapy. Yesterday evening he received his first dose of remdesivir. Yesterday the white houses doctors offered contradictory updates, his doctors debating key questions about the president s condition. Hes not received supplemental oxygen . Hes not on oxygen right now. You keep saying right now, you but should we read into that he was . Yesterday or today, hes not on oxygen. And the New York Times reporting that not true, the president did receive supplemental oxygen on the white house. His chief of staff contradicting doctors on fox news. Yesterday we were concerned with that, he had a fever and blood oxygen level that dropped rapidly. The white house also created confusion on the time line. 72 hours into the diagnosis now. The white house forced to release a statement clarifying the president was diagnosed thursday, not wednesday as he said. The president part of a growing cluster of cases including republican chair ronna mcdaniel, Senior Adviser hope hicks and bill stefan, all who traveled with him in recent days. Is there any clarity on how he became ininfected . Im not going to go into that. As far as his care, its irrelevant. Or when he became infected . Yes, not going to go into that. And first lady and five roll out of the Amy Coney Barrett, senators mike lee and tom tillis and governor chris christie, who himself was hospitalized yesterday. On tuesday the president flew to the cleveland debate with an entourage. His family entering the hall Wearing Masks but quickly took them off as the president minimized mask wearing. I dont wear masks like him. Every time he speaks, he has a mask. He could be standing 200 feet away and shows up with the biggest mask i have ever seen. On thursday attended a multimillion dollar fundraiser before hope hicks took off. It was an outdoor event and he was being safe. Already on the campaign trail, biden who said he has two negative tests on friday, is suspending negative tv advertising for now but sending a pointed message its not going away with automatically. We have to do our part to be responsible. It means following the science. It means having masking mandates nationwide. Joining me now is trump Senior Adviser jason m doctor o white house official to offer an update on the president s condition. Jason, i hope youre prepared to do that. Let me start with this, have you spoken with the president in the last 24 hours . And if so, what is his condition . I swhave, chuck. Good morning and thank you for having me on. I spoke with the with president yesterday afternoon and hes in very good spirits. Bell stebic, the Campaign Manager and i, spent a few minutes with the president. He said number one were going to defeat have virus, this nation is going to defeat this virus. And the campaign will devote the virus. He is ready to get out of the hospital and pretty energetic. And he said Something Else too, be careful, watch folks to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer, make sure if you cant socially distance to wear a mask. I thought that was a pretty Important Message to send and reminder to the rest of bit of and iw some of this is staff, but can you say for certain when the president started feeling ill . Was it tuesday . Was it wednesday . Was it thursday . I cant speak to that, chuck, but what i can speak to is what we received from the reports that the president received his positive test thursday evening. Thats when i know for sure and saw the report from dr. Conley and dr. Julie in front of Walter Reed Hospital and having spoken directly to the president saying he felt very well and he was very animated in our half hour conversation, ready to get back out on the campaign trail. I think theyre doing the smart thing here. Theyre taking this very serious. Hes the president of the United States. When you think about the west wing, the west wing operates to support the president of the United States. By having him at walter reed, i think thats smart, i think thats a good, cautionary move since he is the president. Again, we have to get him healthy and the rest of the country healthy and defeat this virus. If he was diagnosed thursday and hospitalized less than 24 hours later, that doesnt happen with many covid patients. How muc it is hes having a tougher bout than most people . I think theyre taking a very precautionary move on this. Again, i cant speak to the exact symptoms or exactly what transpired on friday, just as im not part of white house operations and im not part of the white house medical unit, but i do think it was smart they moved him to Walter Reed Hospital. Again, hes the president of the United States. Even though we have a very strong structure thats built around the president and Vice President pence is ready to help out whenever need be. The good thing is President Trump is able to be in control and be in charge the entire time. Going back to my conversation with him again yesterday, number one, he expressed thanks and gratitude to everyone at walter reed. He was appreciative for the folks who showed up outside to cheer him on. Again, its that spirit that we have to go take this head on. And thats one of the things, chuck, as president of the United States, look, he could have stayed upstairs at the white house the entire time. But that wouldnt have been the responsible thing to do. If the doctor recommendation was to go to walter reed. Whether its upstairs or down in the basement, youve got to take this seriously, and i think theyre doing the smart thing. We are trying to figure out who we should take seriously, the doctor or chief of staff . Mark meadows said he wasnt good friday and ended up on oxygen the doctor said Something Else and youre saying Something Else. Youre painting a picture sort of that things were not that serious friday and mark meadows did. You understand theres so much confusion about the president s condition right now . Chuck, i dont think im painting any sort of picture with regard to friday, because, again, im not part of the white house medical unit. I cant speak to friday. What i can speak to is having spoken with the president directly at length yesterday on saturday, getting an update on his condition. How hes feeling. How hes looking forward to getting back out. Hes excited we came up with our operation maga to get all of the Vice President and first family and people out there and he welcomes forward to getting back out. Thats what i can speak to. And like Many Americans i saw the press conference yesterday with dr. Conley and dr. Dually updating us to the president s condition. Thats what i can speak to. Friday i cant. The good news is the president is feeling better and anxious to get back out there. Can you explain why the president did not quarantine the second he heard about the hope hicks diagnosis and why you guys went on for a fundraiser in new jersey thursday night . Clearly that was against cdc guidelines. Well, its important to keep in mind anybody around the president is tested, and not only tested for covid with the rapid tests but they also have their temperatures checked. At any of these events, folks are kept back by six feet, the update the fundraiser had. So people are not getting that close to the president. But, again, the president did not have a positive test yet. As soon as he did have a positive test, of course, went to a different level of protocol and they put the precautionary measure to take him to walter reed and now hes doing much better, and thats the important thing. What youre saying is the white house does not follow cdc guidelines . The cdc guidelines would have meant no, he would have quarantined. Somebody has close aide as hope hicks testing positive, he should be quarantining, thats the cdc guideline. It sounds like what youre saying is the white house does not abide by cdc guidelines . What im saying is i will let the white house, both white house operations and white house medical unit speak to the exact particulars but what i do know is Anyone Around the president is tested. They have their temperature taken. They keep back. Im never within six feet of the president wherever im around him. So they take a lot of serious it are you upset, by the way . Are you upset you were exposed in a way that was maybe lax protocols . I talked to other people, by the way, close to this white house who are not happy about the lack of information and are n basica them was a safe place turned out not to be. No, not at all. I know that every time im around the president , that i have a test taken, everybody around me has a test taken. Your temperature checked. We take this very seriously. I always keep at least six feet away from the president. We keep a certain level of distance. So i feel like the white house does a very good job of protecting folks and going above and beyond. Heres the important thing, chuck. Theres a lot about this virus we dont know. President trump is arguably the single most protected person on the entire planet and yet he got covid. Theres a lot about this we dont know. But what we cant do is just say whether its upstairs or downstairs in a basement, we have to take this virus head on. We have to go as weve seen from President Trump in developing therapeutics and getting to the vaccine and ventilators, we have to take this head on. We cant stay in our basement or shut down the economy indefinitely. We have to take it head on and i think thats the moment President Trump is doing right now. As far as the campaign, are you going to change protocols . You encourage people not to socially distance. You have events with no masks. We saw the Supreme Court rollout saturday turned out might end up being a superspreader event. Is the Campaign Going to change ts protocols . Wearing . Does the campaign regret that its own staffers and family didnt wear masks during the debate . Well, ill go back to what i said earlier, Anyone Around the president is always tested, not just with the rapid test, but also with the temperature check. And all of our events, we do temperature checks, we pass out masks, we pass out hand sanitizer, we encourage people to wear them. Everybody, if they and can the social distance, just like President Trump told me yesterday, chuck, jason, i want you to make sure you tell people two things, were going to defeat this virus and also be careful. If you cant socially distance, wear a mask, wash your hands, use hand sanitizer. These are the messages from President Trump. He wants to make sure Everybody Knows that. I saw Vice President pence will have a full Campaign Schedule this week. Why do you believe thats prudent with the president currently hospitalized with the virus, that for continuity of government reasons, should the Vice President be traveling . Shouldnt he be mitigating risks of getting this virus . Shouldnt you guys be asking for a remote debate for instance . Wouldnt that be whats best interest of continuity of government for the United States of america . No. Were in a campaign. We have a month to go. We see joe biden and Kamala Harris out there campaigning. Certainly theyre not asking for a remote debate. Vice president pence is following the debate for the Vice President ial candidates on wednesday. He will be hitting the trail. Will be in arizona, probably nevada, back here in d. C. And hes going to have a full aggressive schedule, as will the first family, don, eric, ivanka and a number of our supporters, coalitions, black voices for trump, latinos for trump, women for trump. The whole operation mega will be deploying anywhere. You have no concerns . No concerns at all. The Vice President takes very serious all of these measures. Anyone around the Vice President are tested. People are kept very safe. Again, we cant hide from this virus forever, chuck. We have to take it head on and develop this vaccine and defeat the virus. Very quickly, are those trump family members going to be campaigning before their 14day quarantining . Well initially start with virtual events. I believe were going to have a couple family members tomorrow night, monday, big event, our First Virtual rally. So make sure folks go to the website to check out when that will come on board. As soon as we check out in person, we will do so. I expect up to 50 folks around the country flooding the battle zone in the battleground states this week, truck. Jason miller with an update on the president of the United States. Jason miller, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. Thank you. Joining me now is professor of medicine at the Boston University school of medicine, dr. Nahid bhadelia. I cant shake this fact, dr. Bhadelia, the president gets diagnosed with the virus and in 24 hours is hospitalized. That is not the experience of most covid patients. Good morning, chuck. Yes, the president is currently one of 130,000 americans who are hospitalized and that raises the point this is not a silver bullet, the testing, its just acquired. Everybodys course in covid is different. And its hard for me to comment not knowing his case because hes high risk, the fact with his age and hes a male and with his obesity. But it is a bit generally the course we see is that its five to seven days after symptom onsets, is you generally have a median when people develop symptoms, might see a drop of oxygen. His course may have been faster or they may have moved him. Seems like there was an event friday, clearly there was an event friday that led to a decompensation. It was either he potentially needed supplemental oxygen that drove them to take him to the hospital. It may be a combination the fact hes a president , the fact moving him to the hospital gives him chances to give him more therapeutics and potentially that hes either having a longer course or potentially he may have had symptoms longer and not realize he had symptoms because theyre vague and may just have been fatigue. What should we be on the lookout for when we do get briefings from the president s physicians that while they may present something that seems very anodyne but actually will be very telling, what are some of the things you will be looking for in some of these updates to tell us more about his condition . Yes, thank you, chuck. The big things we look for in covid patients, its a 12 punch, the damage it will do and then revs up the immune system. Then you have a maladapted immune system that then starts attacking your own body. What were currently looking at, he received two medications. One thats under compassionate use, the antiviral remdesivir. Thats meant to bring the viral load down. Theyre looking to make sure they brought the virus level down enough so he doesnt have that harmful immune response. Theyre probably already doing imaging, if not have done it already, to look to make sure that the lung disease he may have had hasnt progressed. They will look to see if his body is responding from high inflammatory markers. The things i would be looking for, if he receive death mex zone, the steroid we were talking about. And we will look into that. You may have heard jason miller say they test all the time, they test all the time. Should this puncture the myth that just saying you conducted test doesnt replace the mask . Yeah, testing is a pillar of the part of the way we respond, as you and i previously talked about. In itself no one thing is a silver bullet. What the testing in this scenario did is it helped them pick up people earlier. However, all it does is a diagnostic. You need to follow it up by having all of those additional measures, that if someone turns out to be positive, others who may have been exposed dont get sick. When you put that mask on, when you keep that distance, it reduces the chance if you have a test that came back negative because it was early in their disease or false negative, you dont have this type of scenario where people get exposed and it becomes a bigger cluster. One thing i will say is the thing you may have heard in this situation that dose of virus you get exposed to may zietd your severity and not wearing a mask will lead to a larger dose. Doctor, we always appreciate having your experience and expertise on the show. Thank you. Thank you. When we come back, the contradictory reports from the my father always reminded me, a good education takes you many different horizons and that sticked to my mind. So, when 1 a day came out, i said, why not . Why not just utilize that resource. And walmart made that path open for me. Without the 1 a day program, i definitely dont think id be in school right now. Each week for me in school is just an accomplishment. I feel proud every step of the way. Im looking for my client. Im so sorry. Accountant. [ sighs ] hey hey man youre here. You dont trust me here is vegas, do you . Well. I thought we had a breakthrough with the volkswagen. We did. Yes. We broke through. Thats the volkswagen thats the cross sport. Wow. Seatbelts. Please, just tell me where were going. Welcome back. The panel is with us, former Homeland Security security jay johnson, the wall street journal journalist peggy noon an e. National review and the director of Hillary Clintons 2016. Welcome to all of you. Peggy noonan, i dont know if we needed more for this campaign to deal with. After that debate every time you think can you stack one more event on this Election Year and yet here we are, the president is in the hospital with the virus. Where are we . We are in unchartered waters. Weve been there more often i think in the past few years than we have been before that. Look, the president is hospitalized. We cannot be certain what his exact condition is, because we cannot be fully confident of the information given us by various white house sources. And also theres an impression that not everybody in the white house themselves has any sense of whats going on. It seems to me one of the most interesting things the doctor, who just appeared in an interview with you said, chuck, is it takes about five to ten days for this illness to fully present itself, for the dimensions of the severity to become clear. So it seems to me this is a delicate time. The white house should be trying to make sure, just forget perceptions in a realistic way, its not all ad hoc and shambolic in that hospital, that in fact the appropriate Strategic Military and National Security and diplomatic lines are up. On top of that, let me just say quickly, i really think this is a very important time for the American Government to assert its own presence, to be in washington, to show we have a fully functioning, fully ordered government. I do not think mike pence should be out there on the campaign trailed. Hes the Vice President of the United States in a crisis. He should be in washington. I think the cabinet members and head of agency should. So i just think the grownups here have to step forward and assert themselves in some new way. Jeh johnson, how much of a National Security risk situation are we in right now . Well, chuck, im going to give you an answer a little bit different than what you probably asked. The number one National Security threat right now, obviously, is covid. And the president the most protected man in america who reportedly is a germaphobe, if he can get it, no one is safe. Were seeing a resurgence in the country right now, in various parts of the country. And so what happened to President Trump should be a vivid example of the danger we face right now. Weve been letting down our guard. Weve been getting sloppy. And americans need to know this little tencent device here actually does save lives. And this is now not a time to be sloppy. And now im also concerned in this environment with the president having covid of, frankly, misinformation hysteria. Right. I believe that too is a National Security threat. We know there are foreign actors out there trying to meddle in our democracy right now who may be as we speak peddling misinformation to try to explode the anxiety americans are feeling in this situation. Those are the two National Security concerns that i really have quarantining or not, i believe he should, but are the current threats as i see them. Rich lowry, you heard jason miller there. Hes full speed ahead. They want to say the campaign is full speed away. They want to present nothing to see here yet. The president is in the hospital, but, hey, everything is fine. Are they handling this right . I think its a lot to ask to just give up weeks of a campaign, when there are only four weeks or so left. And its really hard, chuck, with so many unknowns to tell how this is going to bounce politically. At the very least theyre losing days at a time when they dont have days to puts greater emphasis on covid, which has been one of the biggest vulnerabilities for the president during this entire campaign. All of that said, at this point in 2016, access hollywood hadnt even happened yet. So theres still time for other october surprises. Jennifer palmeiro, i was interested to see the Biden Campaign, they decided theyre pulling negative right now. You can say, okay, thats appropriate. Its not like the other side is doing the same thing. It does seem as though the biden folks has a challenge how to navigate the next few days. He has to be thoughtful about it and he certainly has done that. The American People want to see, he took his negative ads down. He understands this is not a normal time in politics. He says hes praying for the president. Hes expressing a lot of empathy for the president and his family but at the same time youre holding the administration accountable. I know the Biden Campaign things the voters that are open through them view almost everything through the lens of covid. It is affecting their lives in dramatic and profound ways. Its affecting the economy in dramatic and profound ways. And theyre not going to stop arguing now that the present administration mishandled this. The other big argument they have with the Trump Administration is chaos. Chaos and recklessness. I know you saw that in the debate, joe biden im sure that wasnt really fun to go through, but for the voters to see that kind of chaos on the stage hurt trump. Your numbers reflect that. And recklessness, the week ends with the president getting this diagnose sk diagnosis, a lot of senior white house officials getting this diagnose skis, following the unsafe event in the rose garden last weekend. So it is still early. Its only october 4th. But this is not a great start. Rick lowery, do the republicans on the senate side, theres talk they still want to get through with the Amy Coney Barrett situation. Are they at that point it will look like theyre trying too hard to get her confirmed . Covid cases be darned . Theyre trying very hard to get her confirmed, chuck. Yeah, i would just be shocked if they put this off. I think it would have to get much more dire than it is now. The fact is all year long the Judiciary Committee held these hybridtype hearings, where you have some people in person and others remote. I imagine you would see some version of that. But theres an extreme commitment to get this done. Im going to pause the conversation there. All of you i know have a lot to say about the debate. Ive got an interesting debate package for you guys to take a look at and then well have a lot to talk about. That event we thought stasha vo when everything shut down, i thought,you know what . People have been asking for online classes for the longest it was amazing. Business kept growing and growing and growing. You make my heart sing wild thing i. Think i. You know what i think . I think you owe us 48. 50. Wild thing. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. Ore. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. I beat bernie sanders. Pocahontas wouldve left two days earlier, you would have lost what one word or phrase describes your reaction to the debate . Disparaging. Debacle. Insulting. Juvenile. Unfortunate. Disappointing. Lack of visions. Why wont you answer that question . The question is radical left. Will you shut up, man . Who is on your list, joe . Looking at this . Embarrassings an accurate description. It sent a message that in this country we dont know how to have a conversation. I was really disappointed for both candidates and for both parties. It painted a picture that we are unwilling to reach across the aisle and find commonality. I want to hear what the candidates have to say. And i didnt hear that. Trump didnt want to focus on truths or answering questions. Both candidates were just trying to take shots at each other. Impulsive. Corrupt. Showoff. Selfcentered. Ego maniac. Unethical. Incompetent. Unstable. Inconsistent. Good enough. Integrity. What was the high point for you, if anything, that donald trump said . Why now, why dont you do that when you were in office for 46 years . You had your chance. In 47 months ive done more than youve done in 47 years, joe. Whats his biggest failure as president . I dont feel like were hearing the truth out of our president s mouth more times than not. Creating this culture and this atmosphere of division. Was there a positive moment or a high point for joe biden . But i did like it that he was trying to talk directly to us. The American People should speak. You should go out and vote. What most irritates you about joe biden . He loses his tim per sometimes fairly easily. Well, hes just had a long time in congress and hasnt seem to have gotten over the hump. What one word would you use to describe this president ial election . Unprecedented. Insane. Crucial. Unsettling. About . I think inaction and derisive versus decisive. This election is about racial injustices, coronavirus, and wheres america going from here . You want to make your vote count, but both options, neither of them look especially great. And, peter and nicole, both joining me now, welcome to both of you. Let me start with this to the both of you, peter, ill start with you, which is what should we as viewers and as the audience right now take away from this . Well, obviously people were unhappy. And what the takeaway is that joe biden was good enough, and donald trump made people feel uneasy. And thats really what it was about as much as anything else. This is about getting things right in america, getting things back on track. You know, nicole, it didnt seem like anybody was reassured by either candidate at the debate, even if they were certainly thrown off, perhaps, by what the president did. What was surprising to me in this debate was the extent to which people were disappointed in both candidates. If they were looking for leadership for any kind of assurance for any direction for the country, they didnt get it from either one. That was one of the things coming out of the focus group that was pretty surprising to me that while the focus has been largely on the president s performance, i think people were disappointed a little bit in joe biden as well. We did so much qualitative and quantitative work this week with both of your firms, both doing regular polling and these focus groups. So we did these word clouds. We asked our polling respondents to just give us a word or phrase about the debate. And here was the biden word cloud of people that thought biden did better. What was interesting is how much its about trump. Trump avoided questions, trump unprofessional. It actually doesnt have a lot on biden himself. Well, exactly. This election is about donald trump, is it up or down . And when the president gets covid, what it says to everybody, nobodys safe. This election is really coming back around to the this is an nbc news special report. Here is kate snow. Good morning. We come on the air this morning because the president s medical team is about to provide an update on his condition. The president remains at Walter Reed Medical Center after arriving there on friday night. His doctor, sean conley speaking now. Over the course, particularly when a patient is being so closely watched 24 hours a day. We review and debate every finding compared to signs and literature and weighing the risks and benefit of every intervention. Its timing as well as any potential impacts that oever the course of his illness, the drops in oxygen saturation. We debated the reasons for this and whether we needed to intervene. Based on the timeline from the initial diagnosis. Id like to take this opportunity now and give it some speculation over the course of the illness over the last couple days. Update you on the course of his own illness. Thursday night into friday morning when i left the bedside, the president was doing well. With only mild symptoms and his oxygen was in the high 90s. Late friday morning when i returned to the bedside, president had a high fever and his oxygen saturation was transiently dipping below 94 . Given these two develoapid progression of the illness. I recommend the president try some supplemental oxygen and see how he responds. He was fairly adamant that he didnt need it, he was not short of breath. He was tired, had the fire and that was about it. After about a minute on only two liters, his saturation levels were back over 95 . Stayed on that for about an hour maybe. And was off and gone. Later that day, by the time the team here was at the bedside, the president had been up out of bed moving about the residence with only mild symptoms. Despite this, everyone agreed the best course of action was to move to walter reed for more thorough evaluation monitoring. I would like to invite up dr. Dooly to discuss the term plan. Thank you, dr. Conley. Before i begin a brief clinical update on the president s condition, i want to reiterate my comments from yesterday regarding how proud i am to be a part of this multiinstitutional team of Clinical Professionals behind me and what an honor it is to care for the president here at Walter Reed National military medical center. Regarding his clinical status, the patient continues to improve. He has remained without fever since friday morning. His vital signs are stable. From a pulmonary standpoint he is not complaining of shortness of breath or other significant respiratory symptoms. He is Walking Around the white house medical unit without limitation or disability. Our continued monitoring of his cardiac, liver and kidney function demonstrates normal findings or improving findings. Hopkins to talk about our tha therapeutics and our plan for the day. Thank you. Just want again to reiterate what an honor and privilege to take care of the president and to be such a part of a team here at walter reed. The president yesterday evening completed his second dose of remdesivir and tolerated that infusion well and weve been monitoring for any potential side effects and he has had none as we can tell. His liver and kidney function remain normal and we continue to plan to use a fiveday course of remdesivir. In response to transient low oxygen levels as dr. Conley did discuss. He received his first dose of that yesterday. And our plan is to continue that for the time being. Today he feels well. Hes been up and around and our plan for today is to have him eat and drink and be up out of bed as much as possible to be mobile and if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for discharge as early as tomorrow to the white house where he can continue his treatment course. Ill turn it over to dr. Conley for any questions. Just a moment, please. The president wanted me to share how proud he is of the group. What an honor it is for him to be receiving his care here by walter reed surrounded by incredible talent, department chairs, internationally renowned clinicians. Like to reiterate how pleased we are with the president s recovery and with that ill take your questions. You said there were two instances where he had dropped in oxygen. Can you walk us through the second one . I have a question for the lung specialist afterwards. Yesterday there was another episode where he dropped down 93 . He doesnt ever feel short of breath. We watched it and returned back up and we evaluate all of these and given the timeline where he is in the course of illness, you know, we are trying to maximize everything we can do for him and we debated whether we would start it and we decided in this case the potential benefits early on in the course probably outweighed any risks at this time. Did you give him a second round of supplemental oxygen yesterday . Id have to check with the nursing staff. I dont think if he did, it was very, very limited. But not on oxygen and the only oxygen that i ordered and that we provided was that friday morning initially. About what time was that yesterday . The second incident . Over the course of the day. Yesterday morning. Dr. Conley, the president s current blood oxygen level, that is my first question to you, dr. Conley. 98 . What do the xrays and ct scans show . Are there signs of pneumonia . Are there signs of lung involvement . Were any damage to the lungs . Yeah, so were tracking all of that. Theres some expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern. Ask if his oxygen level dips below 90 . We dont have any recordings here of that. Anything below 90 to follow up on her question . Below 94 . Not down into the low 80s or anything. The steroids yesterday you told us the president was in great shape and had been for 24 hours. Minutes after your press conference mark meadows said the president s vitals were very concerning over the last 24 hour question for the American People, whose statements should we believe . The chief and i work side by side and i think his statement was misconstrued. What he meant was 24 hours ago when he and i were checking on the president that there was that momentary episode of a high fever and that temporary drop in the saturation which prompted us to act expediently to move him up here. Fortunately, that was really a very transient, limited episode. Couple hours later he was back up again. Im not going to speculate what that limited episode was about so early in the course. What are the expected findings on his lungs and why is he not wearing a mask . The president wears a mask any time hes around us and were all wearing our n95s. Full ppe. Hes the patient and when we can, when hell move out about and around other people not in ppe, i assure you, as long as hes still under my care, hell wear a mask. The room is negative pressure sph. Im not going to get into the specifics of his care. The lung function question, can you tell us about that . Like every patient we perform lung on him and hes maxing it out. We told him, see what you can do. Its over 2,500 milliliters each time. Hes doing great. Disclose that the president had been administered oxygen sph. Thats a good question. Thank you. So, i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president , his course of illness has had. Didnt want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, you know, it came off that were trying to hide something which wasnt necessarily true. And he is, the fact of the matter is that hes doing really well. He is responding and as the team said, if everything continues to go well, were going to start discharge back to the white house. Thats it. Thank you, folks. Dr. Conley, his lung scans. You did this yesterday, can you explain what he found on his lungs . This is kate snow in new york. Lets go quickly to john torres. Dr. John, a lot to unpack right there. Lets start with what we just learned about what happened on friday. His physician telling us that he had an incident where his blood oxygen level dropped on friday morning to below 94 . Maybe you can explain to the audience what that means. I know because my husband was sick that thats a warning sign. That is a warning sign because if you remember this is a respiratory virus. It affects the lungs and thats when we start getting concerned, especially in the initial symptoms and the initial days of covid. The fact that his oxygen level dropped and, granted, it didnt drop that much. Usually get very nervous when it goes below 90. 94 isnt that big of a drop, but still a concerning drop. And then he had a second episode yesterday where they said his oxygen level dropped and it went back up. 93 yesterday. So, got down even lower. Again, his symptoms are going back and forth. To me one of the more concerning things and i talked about this yesterday to see if they start him because once they start him on, right now i want to read to you what the nih guidelines are. Patients mechanically ventilated who require supplemental oxygen but not ventilated. The panel against uses it for the treatment of covid19 in patients who do not require supplemental oxygen. The fact that they started him is flag that there is more going on than is talked about and affecting his lungs. We are not at the seven to ten day period yet. I want you to back up a step when you say dexamethasone is that a standard treatment for people who are perhaps not mildly ill . Its a treatment for patients who are, dexamethasone is a steroid and suppress the immune system. They want to make sure they dont get that storm and that immune function going into overload that can start attacking the body. Lets do th patients who are severely ill who are mechanically ventilated or on supplemental oxygen but do not, we recommend against giving it to patients who are not on supplemental oxygen or ventilated because in that case, it will suppress the immune system and wont be able to fight off covid in the early stages. The fact that he got dexamethasone throws up a red flag. He is worse off than what were hearing because i think they might be painting a bit of a rosy picture for everybody. To me, kate, out of everything that dr. Conely said, that is the most concerning part. Thank you, dr. John torres. Dr. Azar is with us. When you hear them say that his lung function, i believe they used the word doing great. Doing great was the quote in terms of his lung function but using a plastic device that people might be familiar with if theyve been in the hospital or surgery if you track this breathing into a tube. So, what does that tell us about his lung function . Well, a lot to unpack here, kate. So, yes, specifically to your question. You may recall we had conversations around positioning of patients in the hospital when theyre sick with covid19. That proning position because the concern is that there are areas of the young, the lung sacks collapse and that could inxwrei increase the risk for respiratory compromise. Basically keeping the air way and the air sacks open so that most of the lung could be ventilated and to echo what dr. Torres was very curious that they gave him dexamethasone this early. We think two phases to this illness. Where early on were really trying to get rid of that viral burden partially using the antibody to boost the patients immune response in a passive way and then the remdesivir which was initiated on the earlier side or that he was receiving supplemental oxygen that would be consistent with guidelines to prohibit viral replication. The dexaamethasone come tos play much later. Pardon. Okay. I have lost your audio. Im not sure if the audience can hear. But let me go to the political chuck todd. Chuck, we did hear good news and the doctor saying that the president may be well enough to be discharged soon. Potentially even tomorrow. Well, yeah, except not after i just listened to dr. Torres and azar and we had a doctor on meet the press earlier today who said be on the look out for if you hear that being used, dexamethasone, that is not necessarily a positive sign or a sign that he is going to be leaving any time soon. Look, kate, you and i arent the medical professionals here. I thought it was a better briefing than what we got yesterday. Some halting uncertainties and i do think the communication issue at the white house to the public on the president s conditions still has a lot more that can be improved upon. Because that, that ultimately is i think what was so frustrating to frankly white house staffers and members of the public that we did not have, we were getting these contradictory statements from the chief of staff and the president s physician. Look, i am empthetic to the president s in this respect. Patient, you want to have some privacy for your patients, you feel like you owe them that, doctor patient privilege and at the same time i think the public is owed a clear presentation of this, as well. All right, chuck todd, thank you. Much more on this tonight on nbc nightly news including a closer look at the president s doctor and who he is. For now, im kate snow. Snow. Well bring you more updates as we have them. Have a good day. This week on press here, smart cameras in schools will make sure students wear masks. Well talk to an entrepreneur about when or if hightech workers will return to work. And inside the unusual design of the allbalcony Movie Theater. Thats this week on press here. Good morning, everyone. Im scott mcgrew. I cant tell you the last time i was at a Movie Theater or what it is that i saw. I simply cannot recall because that was way back in february. And with the pandemic getting worse in the United States