White House claims Trump’s condition has not deteriorated from virus

This is a rush transcript from “The Five” October 2, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I’m Dana Perino along with Dagen McDowell, Juan Williams, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It’s 5 o’clock in New York City, and this is The Five.

President Trump and the first lady in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. Now the news upending an already chaotic campaign season with the election just 32 days away. The president and first lady experiencing mild symptoms but they are said to be in good spirits. The White House doctor just releasing a statement on their condition.

So, we want to go to John Roberts, he’s at the White House with more on all of that. Hi, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dana, good afternoon. Yes, the president’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, releasing a statement just a short time ago giving us an update of what the president’s situation here is.

Let’s put it on the screen so you can follow along here. Dr. Conley writing, following PCR confirmation of the president’s diagnosis, and this is the test where they stick that swab way, way up your nose. As a precautionary measure he received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibodies, this is an experimental drug that has not received FDA approval. They are just finishing up phase three trials.

The president has been taking zinc, vitamin D which boosts his immune system, famotidine, which is a generic form of Pepcid, melatonin to help him sleep, and a daily aspirin. As of this afternoon the president remains fatigued but in good spirits. He’s being evaluated by a team of experts.

Today will be — together, rather, will be making recommendations to the president and first lady in regards to next best steps.

Nothing in there you’ll notice about taking hydroxychloroquine, as the president did preventively back in May along with azithromycin and zinc. In terms of the timeline, we know that the president was with Hope Hicks, a close advisor of his on several recent campaign events including one to Minnesota on Wednesday where Ms. Hicks became ill and was actually isolated aboard Air Force One on the way back.

The president testing positive for coronavirus later on Thursday. Hope Hicks had tested positive earlier in the day. But the president is still taking a trip to Bedminster, New Jersey. Here’s what Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, said about the timing of all of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: In terms of Hope Hicks, we discovered that right the Marine One was taking off yesterday. We actually pulled some of the people that had been traveling and in close contact. The reason why it was reported out just frankly is that we had already started the contact tracing just prior to that event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And Dana, we were talking about this earlier in the day, it’s kind of puzzling that the president, knowing he had exposure, close exposure to someone who had just tested positive for coronavirus would have taken that that trip. It was a fund-raising roundtable to his golf resort in Bedminster. Ask about that here’s what Kayleigh McEnany said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was deemed safe for the president to go. He socially distanced. It was an outdoor event and it was deemed safe by White House operations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kayleigh, who exactly assessed that it was safe for the president, even though he had exposure to travel to New Jersey. He was in Marine One, small space, Air Force One in that fundraiser. Who made that assessment?

MCENANY: White House operations made the assessment it was safe for the president in consultation with others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Now ae are waiting for those next steps as Dr. Sean Conley put it.

We don’t know what those are. We’re told that the president is still suffering from mild symptoms. But as you know, Dana, things can go downhill, you know, very, very quickly for anybody. And the president is in that risk area. He’s 73, 74 years old. He’s a little bit overweight.

So, you know, as a precaution I’m sure that they are watching him closely.

We’ll stand by and give you any update on developments as they occur.

PERINO: All right. Please do. Thank you, John.

So, Joe Biden is campaigning in Michigan today after testing negative for the virus this morning. The former vice president reacting to the latest developments just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Sending my prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and the President of the United States after they tested positive for COVID-19. We can save 100,000 lives in the next 100 days according to the head of the CDC if everyone wears a mask in public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO: OK. So, we are going to take it around the table here. You know, it was shocking news, Dagen. And we hope that he recovers very quickly. It sounds like they are all on top of it over at the White House.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS HOST: And I think about all the American people, clearly the country as a whole has a tough road to hoe with the virus and the economy. Those two inextricably linked. So, I always think about, what can we do? And what this country needs now financially is help from Congress.

PERINO: Yes.

MCDOWELL: And Nancy Pelosi is dragging her fancy feet on getting that out to people. We’ve recovered 52 percent of the jobs that were lost in March and April. But the jobs recovery is slowing. Incomes are falling. Permanent job losses are rising.

And literally it is a matter of $1.6 trillion versus Nancy Pelosi’s $2.2 trillion. And money will go out to people who are unemployed. Frankly, the Democrats filibustered the deal that was in front of the Senate. It was going to be help for the unemployed, for children in schools and small businesses. Where are they? Are they looking at the situation as an opportunity for them to wait until after the election to gain more power rather than doing what is right for Americans?

PERINO: I think that there — it looks like there had been some forward movement to get that bill done. I think if they get it to the president, he will sign it and I think that would be a really good thing. It includes money for testing for schools as well as some businesses.

Greg, any thoughts? I feel like I should open it up to whatever you’re feeling.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: It is — can 2020 get any more 2020? I feel like there is a bar somewhere. And 1349 A.D. is sitting on a barstool and just bragging about how the plague wiped out half of European politicians and there is another year, 2020, sitting in the corner saying, yes, hold my beer.

PERINO: Watch this.

GUTFELD: You know? Because this is like, this is more than on October surprise. It’s like an October asteroid hit. And it’s another first that we are all experiencing together in a year first. We’ve experienced essentially a pandemic together. And there’s times when we come together, whether it’s hurricanes or pandemics or terror — terror things like 9/11.

The only thing that wedges us apart is politics and social media and media, these variables tend to get us to quarrel. And I’m trying to stay off social media and limit my intake of media in general because I just want to think about us as Americans as not as left or right.

My question is, what happens to us if we don’t hear from Trump for a few days? Because will we get the shakes? Right? It’s like, if the media doesn’t get their morning cup of Trump, you know, we are going to really start missing him. We’re going, you know, we kind of got used to having the big guy around. And you know, it’s like, you get five or six tweets a day, the producers like it and we get to put
it into segments. We are going to be really, really hungry for him when he gets well.

PERINO: I think that we’re going to get — I’m hoping that we get some tweets. I never wanted tweets so much in my life. Juan, there’s a, you know, it feels like a month ago that we were in Cleveland. It was two days ago. And on the day afterwards, that’s when all of this unfolded.

JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS HOST: Right. In fact, now a point of controversy, what happened in Cleveland the failure to wear a mask especially among the Trump family. But you know, I think we all should say we wish them a speedy recovery right off the bat. It’s not easy.

And from what we hear, he has a fever, a little fever, he has a cough. Some congestion and the fatigue that you’ve heard referred to. So, I mean, it’s going to be a — it’s going to be a struggle for him. And you just hope that, you know, he’s got the best protection in terms of the best medical facilities —

PERINO: Yes.

WILLIAMS: — the best medical care. All that’s good. But to me it’s a reminder that anyone can get sick if the president can get sick. And when you think about that, to my mind, you know, it’s not only that he has the best medical care available. It’s also he has health insurance. Right? He’s not going to get into trouble because an insurer is going to say yes, you have a pre-existing condition. You had COVID. That’s not going to happen for him.

And so, we have to think about how we as a country can come together to defeat this virus. Because it is not only an illness that threatens us all but of course it’s having this terrible impact on our economy. And we can see it’s ongoing. I mean, it’s just, it hasn’t stopped. And in fact, now we have more states with rising rates of infection.

So, to me, we’ve got to figure out a way to crush this virus and for that we need national leadership. I think everybody has got to take this more seriously, stop with the politics for a second. Just in the way that we want him to get well, I think we got to say we got to get well as a country.

PERINO: And you know, it’s not just some of the states, but you Europe of which we lagged, Jesse, just like two or three months behind of their rates are going up too. So, we have some time to think about things either, you know, getting the bill passed and remembering all the things that worked, the social distancing, hand washing and masks when you need it.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes. I also with Juan, like to wish the president and the first lady a full recovery. And I think they will recover. I know he is 74 years old and that’s a very high-risk situation. I think 95 percent of people at that age do recover. So, we wish him well.

I think so far, the White House has done a good job explaining that the government is still functioning. He is still in command from the residence.

The Defense Department, treasury, secretary of state, have all talk to our allies and calm the capital markets to say this thing is going to get better and we are fully in charge.

The Chinese Communist Party newspaper came out and mocked the president.

That’s not a good idea.

PERINO: No.

WATTERS: They’ll pay a very big price for that. The president still can campaign digitally from the White House. No one does a better job than the Trump campaign with that so you’re going to see his surrogates out there as well.

But this is a big test. I mean, I’m not going to sugarcoat this. This is a, you know, we had the Access Hollywood situation, we’ve had impeachment, we’ve had racial unrest. The president has to meet this thing head-on.

PERINO: All right.

WATTERS: He needs to confront it. He needs to get over it and I think he will.

PERINO: All right, good comments, everybody. Up next, Dr. Siegel he will join us with the latest on President Trump’s COVID diagnosis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS: Welcome back to The Five. The President of the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus. And we have some breaking news with our John Roberts. John, what do you have?

ROBERTS: Jesse, good afternoon to you. We have known that this was going to happen for some time but it’s just now, we’re just now able to report it.

The president is expected to depart the White House soon to go up to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for an evaluation and a series of tests. Just to have a baseline, if you will, of where he is with the coronavirus.

Obviously as you mentioned, Jesse, earlier at the age of 74 and a little bit overweight, the president is in a risk category for the development of his severe coronavirus disease. So, doctors out there at Walter Reed just want to get a sense of where the president is.

Again, as we reported at the top of the hour, Dr. Sean Conley, who is the president’s personal physician here at the White House, gave the president a dose of a still experimental not yet FDA approved drug. It’s called a polyclonal antibody made by a company called Regeneron which in phase one, two, and three human trials has shown very good effectiveness at reducing the viral load of people who are not in the hospital.

The president obviously has been at the White House here all day. Hopefully he will be able to return to the White House later on tonight. I imagine that doctors there will also get some sort of idea of what his viral load is. Clearly, there are much more sophisticated machines up there at Walter Reed than there are here at the White House. Though he quality of care he gets here at the White House is top-notch.

So, we expect that a helicopter will be landing soon to take the president up there. There are already cameras in place for the president’s arrival.

We have not again been able to report this until now but the president is expected very soon to be headed up to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and of course our thoughts and prayers are with him and the first lady as they battle through this virus.

Nobody wants to get coronavirus. A lot of people get it mildly but as the president has stated in interviews and at some of his campaign rallies, he knows some people who one day were barely sick with it in the next day they were in the hospital, the day after that they are on a ventilator and then seemingly a day after that they have expired.

So, the president wants to make sure that he gets the very, very best of care, that his physicians want him to get which is why he’ll be traveling up to Walter Reed in just a little while. Jesse?

WATTERS: John, thanks for the update. Let’s bring in Bret Baier, host of Special Report. So, Bret, this is pretty serious, now going to Walter Reed.

Obviously, it’s precautionary. But they are taking it very seriously, as they should.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, we’re told that he’s going to remain there for a few days actually, Jesse. So it’s not just fly up there, get a test and come home. This is going to world-renowned medical facility right up the road in Bethesda. But he’s being transported there at an abundance of caution.

He, we’re told, is having mild symptoms, a light fever, some mild symptoms of coronavirus. He’s a bit fatigued according to his physician. But he is going to be making that Marine One trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and there are amazing facilities there and doctors who are on top of this. But it’s serious.

WATTERS: What does it tell you that they are going to have him there for a few days?

BAIER: Well, it tells you that it’s not just a routine in and out. You’re not just getting tested. I mean, they want to make sure that he is getting everything he needs. And perhaps it’s more of this treatment that he’s already received, as mentioned by the White House doctor, the Regeneron that John just mentioned. Perhaps it’s something else. But they will be able to monitor him a lot better, a lot more sophisticated as far as the equipment there Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

WATTERS: Al
l right, Bret. Stay with us. Dana, I want to ask you a quick question about the communications aspect of all of it. The White House and the physician had been very transparent about the experimental treatments that the president has been getting and been very forthright with the American people. Do you see what they are doing so far as being the way to go?

PERINO: I think — I think that what Kayleigh was able to do today to address some of the questions before. I mean, there is a question I think, how they allow the president to travel to Bedminster. And she — and she’s very careful. You notice in the driveway there, she was asked a couple times, how could she — how could he possibly traveled. And she said White House operations made the call. They deemed it safe.

WATTERS: Tell me about White House operations. Who would that be and what’s their word?

PERINO: Well, I’m not exactly sure how the Trump White House is set up but that would typically include, basically it’s like your chief operating officer of a company. So, they would make sure that you are cleared to fly.

Or, for example, they report to — the Secret Service reports up to them.

They’ll say there’s too much turbulence in the air, they’ll say we got to have Air Force One on the ground. The president might say actually I’m going. And they can overrule him.

Because I think the thing that’s interesting about this is the historic nature of it. Now what John said is that the helicopter is coming. One of the reasons the helicopter is coming, I would say don’t be alarmed. It’s not because he has to be rushed up there. It’s because it’s quite away from the White House to Bethesda. You are talking rush-hour traffic. And nobody needs that right now.

And a quick flight for him in comfort, it will take about 10 or 15 minutes for him to get up there. But I wonder, John said the cameras are there ready to may be see the president.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: I wonderful to see that.

WATTERS: Maybe he will say something.

WATTERS: Wow, that would be amazing.

PERINO: And I think that would be good. Now if he doesn’t say something, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

WATTERS: Right.

PERINO: But I know that there is an anxiousness. Americans are like, are you OK? Can you tell me you’re OK?

WATTERS: Right.

PERINO: So, I would say that they’ve done a pretty good job so far but they got some clearing up to do on the other thing.

WATTERS: And we do have a statement from Kayleigh, from the White House, the press secretary said President Trump remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms and has been working throughout the day. Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days. President Trump appreciates the outpouring of support for both he and the first lady.

PERINO: I know you’re going to go to Greg. Can I just mention one thing?

WATTERS: Yes.

PERINO: When you say that he’s going to be working, when you think that the president is going to go and stay at Walter Reed for four days, it’s not in a hospital bed.

GUTFELD; Right.

PERINO: OK. Like there is an entire suite there for the president that looks like an apartment. So, I just don’t want people to get alarmed.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I thought he’s going to share a room.

PERINO: Yes. I mean, you want to be like America.

GUTFELD: Yes. Share a room.

PERINO: Right? It would be just like them.

WATTERS: Let’s take it to Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday. Chris, tell us your thoughts. We have the experimental cocktail the president is receiving. He’s going to Walter Reed they say for a few days now. What are you thinking?

WALLACE: Well, I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV but this strikes me as not a good development. Obviously, there are people who get sick and they are able to stay at home and rest and recuperate. And we have been told, I have become a little bit of an expert on this in the last 12 hours, because I’m going to have to get a COVID test since I was on that debate stage as well.

That usually if you’re going to get serious symptoms from this virus, it’s about four to seven days after you get the infection. And the fact that so quickly after he test positive the president is going to go up there and not protest, as was suggested, but to spend several days up there.

I mean, let’s put it bluntly. The president is being hospitalized for the coronavirus. We all hope and we all pray that this is a quick and dramatic recovery. But this is not good news. You’ve got to know that everybody at that White House realizes they are 32 days away from an election and that the president going to the hospital as opposed to being able to recuperate at home is going to have a political impact.

That they wouldn’t be doing this out of an abundance of caution. They are doing this because they think this is the right way to treat the president in this current situation.

WATTERS: Yes, and we’re all praying for the president for a speedy recovery. Please stand by, Chris. Let’s go to John Roberts who is at the White House. There may be some action with Marine One. John?

ROBERTS: Yes. Jesse, good afternoon to you and to everybody there on The Five. Marine One has just landed on the South Lawn of the White House. It usually takes a few minutes for the president to get out there. It’ll be interesting to see if the president walks out to the helicopter which imagine he probably will give the description of his symptoms from Sean Conley, his doctor.

And perhaps he’ll stop and he’ll talk with the press pool that’s there for all of the helicopter departures. Maybe he wants to let us know that he’s doing all right.

But again, out of an abundance of caution, according to the statement from press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. And Dana was talking to you about this, she’s been to Walter Reed more often than I have by virtue of her position with the Bush administration.

There was an entire suite of offices up there to support the President of the United States and he’ll be working out of that suite for the next few days. I mean, it’s clearly an indication, Jesse, that they want to make sure that they stay on top of this.

Again, great facilities here at the White House. There is a dedicated medical office here at the White House. The president has got a dedicated physician. There are personnel who are here 24/7.

But when the leader of the free world comes down with coronavirus, you want to make sure that you’ve got that person in a place where care can be administered at the highest level and immediately as well. So that if the president were to begin, you know, to go downhill which we hope and pray that he won’t, they have the facility there to immediately treat that.

Again, I thought I found it very interesting today that the president has been treated with this experimental, what’s called polyclonal antibody.

We’ve heard of monoclonal antibodies. This is the polyclonal antibody which is design and has been shown effective in reducing viral load.

So that’s the one thing that you want to make sure that you do here. Not to play amateur physician. But I know a little bit about this by virtue of former physician as chief medical correspondent from another network. That the viral load can increase with this coronavirus very rapidly within hours of onset of symptoms. So, they want to try to make sure that they keep that down so that they stay ahead of the game here.

The president is also taking zinc which is known to be, you know, a good thing to stimulate the immune system and also prevent viral replication, as well as vitamin D. They have discovered through research that people who succumb to coronavirus often have a deficit of vitamin D. So, they want to make sure that the president keeps up on that as well.

So we’ve got cameras, I believe out on
the South Lawn that will get the departure. We will show you that on tape when the Marine One has lifted off for Walter Reed. So, Jesse, at all, stay tuned.

WATTERS: All right. Thank you, John. We’ll get back to you I’m sure momentarily if the president —

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: You know what struck me? Real quick.

WATTERS: Yes, Juan.

WILLIAMS: Boris Johnson, the prime minister of Britain, when he got this, everybody said it’s mild. He’ll be OK. Boris Johnson is I think in his mid- 50s. So, he’s about 20 years younger than our president. And Boris Johnson ended up not only in a hospital but on a ventilator and was in bad shape.

Now he has recovered thankfully. But I think it’s a reminder of how things can start out looking pretty mild and then develop badly. And I think that’s why, you know, we’re talking to Dana about the messaging from the White House. I think trying to brush this off or downplay is not the right thing to do.

WATTERS: Yes, I don’t think anybody is doing that right now.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I don’t think anybody is downplaying this. Let’s slow the alarm ball down a little bit, OK? When you have mild symptoms, of course you can recuperate at home, unless you are the fricking President of the United States. He’s not like me. He’s not like you. He’s not like any of us. He has this at his, you know, at his fingertips.

He’s got the best treatment. He’s the President of the United States, they’re going to take him to the White House. So that — I mean, take him hospital, Walter Reed. They are not going to, keep him in the White House.

So, the idea that he’s just like everybody else and going to recuperate at home. No, not really. What I’m interested in. And I go, when they say he’s got good spirits. I keep thinking he’s got to hate this. Because he doesn’t strike me as a guy that is good at being sick. I don’t see him agreeing to bed rest and chicken soup. I mean, we kind of know this already about his psyche. That he likes to get up and he likes to fight. And that’s one thing I’d like to hear more about is like, because I would sense that this is probably driving him more crazy than it is, you know, hindering his health.

WATTERS: And we might actually hear from the president as the Marine One has touched down there at the White House. And he is being taken to Walter Reed for some examinations.

Let’s bring in Martha MacCallum, host of The Story. Martha, you were in Cleveland covering the presidential debates. And so, you’ve kind of seen this develop from over the last couple of days. What are your thoughts as things are breaking pretty quickly here on Friday?

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes. Well, yes, I spoke to someone at the White House about 25 minutes ago who gave us a heads up that they were about to announce that the president would indeed be going to Walter Reed Medical Center, that he would be leaving on Marine One. They expect he will walk out to Marine One and likely at least waved everybody. I don’t know if he’s going to take any questions there or not but this sort of accomplishes a couple goals, the first and most important one as it gets him in environment where he will have access to the best medical care.

Because as Greg rightly points out, he is the leader of the free world, the President of the United States of America. And we need to take all abilities and precautions to make sure that we can get him healthy and get him through this as quickly as possible so that he can carry on with the business of running the country.

It also achieves another goal, which is that everybody wants to get their eyes on the president right now, wants to see him walk across and wave to everybody and give the country some assurance that the symptoms are indeed mild.

The other point I would make is one that has also been discussed here, this is serious. He has coronavirus, he’s, you know, in his 70s, and they don’t want this to go in a bad direction. So, he’s in the early stages, it can take five to seven days for these symptoms to onset. So, I think we’re going to sort of be tracing this back to a number of events over the past week or so that — when he may have first contracted this.

So, the idea that he’s probably had it for a while is something that I think goes along with everything that we’ve learned about this virus. But obviously, we’ve got all eyes here on Marine One watching this very closely and waiting for the President to emerge. He’s going to be there for at least a few days, I was told, working from the office is there and doing his job as best he can.

WATTERS: Thanks, Martha. Let’s bring back Bret Baier host of “SPECIAL REPORT.” Bret, as Martha said, you’re going to see the president momentarily going over to the chopper. That image of the president who has been diagnosed with Coronavirus going to Walter Reed for examinations, that will be an image that will be seen by our allies, by our enemies, by the entire country in real-time probably. This is going to be a very, very powerful image.

BAIER: It is, and it’s important. I agree with Dana, if the President could say something, I think it would be beneficial. If he doesn’t, and he just seen, that’s also beneficial from their perspective, I think. ABC News is reporting that he’s going out of an abundance of caution. But they’re citing sources saying that he had a spiking fever and chills and a cough.

We haven’t confirmed that independently, but that is the symptoms of Coronavirus in the early stages.

And Greg is right. We need to take a breath. This is him going to the hospital, the best hospital in our area, Walter Reed National Medical Military Center where he will have an office and access to the best doctors in this in this field. So, I agree, it’s a big moment just to see him at this time.

WATTERS: Thanks, Brett. And we have Kristin Fisher, who’s at Walter Reed Medical Center right now. Kristin, tell us what you are hearing and seeing.

KRISTIN FISHER, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now there is a whole bunch of press lined up down the street, just outside Walter Reed Medical Center, which is about a 20-minute drive north from the White House. And we are waiting for Marine One to touchdown and for President Trump to go inside.

And you know, we heard the White House Press Secretary say in this statement that the reason President Trump is coming here is out of an abundance of caution. I’ve talked to quite a few folks within the White House, and they say that, you know, we all know that things can go downhill very quickly for anybody who has COVID-19.

And so the thinking here is that they want President Trump to be here, out of an abundance of caution, because one of the hallmarks of COVID-19 is that things can go downhill fairly quickly, in no way saying that that is what’s happening to President Trump here, but it is very significant that he is being brought here because as you know, Jesse, there are pretty significant medical facilities inside the White House.

There is a doctor there that is staffed full time just in case there is any sort of medical emergency with the president or any members of his senior staff. So, the fact that that that is not enough, that they want to bring President Trump here to this state of the art medical facility with an assortment of different tests and more robust options available to the leader of the free world, that is a significant development indeed.

And so now we’re starting to see some onlookers show up here as the media gathers and as the crowd gathers, starting to wonder what exactly is going on and truly just a remarkable 24 hours here, as we all wait to see and hope to see a very healthy President Trump walking out to Marine One, moments from now.

We know that he has been quite fatigued today, according to the Press Secretary, but the world, our adversaries, and our allies will be watching when President Trump makes his way right here to Walter Reed any minute now. Jesse?

WATTERS: Thanks, Kristin
. Yes, we have to see the president walking in good spirits to Marine One momentarily. Let’s bring in Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News Medical Contributor, NYU. Dr. Siegel, you’ve heard from the President’s doctor and you obviously understand the cocktail that he’s going to be administered. It’s an experimental cocktail, and what do you think about what’s the regime, the medical regime that’s being administered to the President of the United States?

MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Jesse, I want to talk about that, and then I want to talk about what he’s going to face in the hospital in real medical terms here, which we haven’t done that yet. But the cocktail actually makes a lot of sense. Aspirin, because we’ve seen a lot of blood clots with COVID-19, and I’m going to talk about that with Walter Reed, we don’t know if aspirin works. It may help.

Vitamin D deficiency, if you don’t have enough vitamin D, there’s been studies that have shown that patients with — that are deficient don’t do as well. Pepcid, a simple stomach drug, it’s been shown that with that stomach drug, they do better. And maybe the acidity of the stomach has to do with how much of the virus is absorbed. Using the polyclonal antibodies from Regeneron, that’s a very bold move, because new studies out looking at

250 people seem to show that it helps you boost your immune response, and as former medical correspondent John Roberts said, lowers your viral load.

We’re at the stage now with the president with COVID-19 where we want to get the viral load down so we don’t end up in the second phase of the virus. What is the second phase? That’s what we’ve been talking about for months, where you see the inflammation, where you see the blood clotting.

What would that look like at Walter Reed and what would they look out for?

They’re going to measure his oxygen level because we have found out that the damage to the lung that occurs, sometimes people are breathing quite easily, Jesse, but their oxygen levels go low. We want to monitor that. We want to monitor his heart, because we’ve seen some arrhythmias occur with COVID-19.

We want to do a simple blood test to make sure that he’s not had a blood clot, and obviously, his temperature, and we want to keep a close eye on him, but that’s the key. Is he developing any lung problems, any signs of damage to any other organs, any blood clots in the body? And what is his heart doing? That’s what you look at when you’re in a hospital like Walter Reed.

WATTERS: All right, thank you, Dr. Siegel. We’ll be back with you momentarily. Let’s bring in Chris Wallace again, host the “FOX NEWS SUNDAY.” Chris, you’ve been covering politics for many, many years, and I don’t think anything like this has happened to a president, or any nominee this close to an election. This is uncharted waters. Your thoughts?

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, it is. And you know it, whatever you think of Donald Trump, he is the Energizer Bunny. I mean, this is a man of boundless energy, boundless enthusiasm. He’s a couple of years older than I am. And when I’ve been with him off-camera and a couple of situations, I’ve asked him about, you know, his extraordinary energy and the fact that he’s able to, you know, do a full day’s work, and then it goes out and holds an eight or 9:00 p.m. rally, you know, somewhere in the Midwest and then flies home, because he does — he likes to sleep in his own bed and gets back at midnight to the White House, and then goes back out the next day, and does it all over again.

So this is a guy — and when we’ve talked about it, he says, well, I have good genes, Chris. You know, my father and mother lived a long time, and I just have a lot of energy. And, you know, so this is alarming and upsetting, frankly, when the President of the United States and a man that, you know, has such extraordinary energy and vigor is suddenly, you know, facing this virus.

And we hope it’s a mild case, and we hope he recovers quickly, but this isn’t the way we’re used to seeing Donald Trump. He comes in, I remember, on Tuesday in the debate stage, he comes in and he kind of owns the room.

You know, this Jesse. And so, the idea that in any way he has been laid low by this is distressing on a personal level.

WATTERS: Thank you, Chris. We’re just now going to pause for a few seconds to let our Fox News affiliates join us.

We’re looking live at the White House as Marine One has touched down. The President has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and will be taken to medical — Reed Medical Center to be evaluated by doctors for several days, we’re told, after an abundance of caution.

Dagen McDowell, let’s bring in you. We had — the market went down a little bit today after this was reported overnight and then rallied back. This is going to be happening over the weekend, so there’s going to be some time for the markets to catch their breath. But this is pretty serious as the president goes in for medical evaluation and has been administered some experimental drug cocktails.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And just watching this develop, it does seem to have gotten very serious very quickly. I want to bring up something about Boris Johnson that he — after he was released from the hospital and recovered. He said that he basically worked — he didn’t — he worked too long at home or you know at 10 Downing Street and kind of didn’t take the virus serious enough in the beginning, and that ultimately resulted in his hospital stay.

I don’t think he was ever on a ventilator. They used oxygen on him, but I think that that is a very good indication of why the President is going to Walter Reed so quickly is because you want to have all your doctors and the facilities there at the ready. But to Greg’s point is something that that he was talking about earlier, the President has such an outsized personality, but he’s had such a constant presence in front of all of us all day long every day.

He would — he would be up in the morning before most of us were getting out of bed. And he would be tweeting at 6:00 a.m. at 6:30. And so, to now have this vacuum —

GUTFELD: Right.

MCDOWELL: This afternoon, I looked, and I thought, and I did get that feeling in my stomach of he hasn’t tweeted since the announcement last early in the morning about he and the First Lady have in the COVID — the Coronavirus, I just think that you’re going to see a coming together of the entire country, I hope, not just with prayers and blessings, but just everybody joining together to wish him well.

GUTFELD: I wanted to ask Dr. Siegel a question, but since he’s not here, I want to ask Dana because she’s almost like a doctor.

PERINO: Oh, no.

GUTFELD: No, OK, so we both were asking ourselves why they were giving him melatonin to sleep better? Is it because if you’re the commander in chief, you can’t take a sleeping pill that actually works or sleeping — like it’s got to be something —

PERINO: Oh, no, you can.

GUTFELD: You can. Oh, I was wondering because like if you have to be — melatonin doesn’t really affect.

PERINO: Yes, you can. You can.

GUTFELD: Oh, OK.

PERINO: I think that presidents would want to use it sparingly, because you never know what could happen in the middle of the night. And especially on foreign trips, right, so if you’re dealing with a big-time difference, and you have — the President is going to be negotiating on behalf of the country the next morning with other world leaders and he needs to have a good night’s sleep, then yes, I think the doctors would prescribe something to help sleep.

GUTFELD: I could never be president.

PERINO: And it’s not melatonin because I’m telling you, I just have never felt that that works.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MCDOWELL: I don’t know if they would want to put them on a bigger sedative because of the breathing.

GUTFELD: Right, that’s a good point. Yes.

WATTERS: All right, so now we have the White House shot up with Marine One as we await
the president to walk across the lawn, perhaps give us a thumbs up.

GUTFELD: Do we know anything about Melania? Has anybody have any —

WATTERS: We’re looking live at the White House. Marine One is there waiting to take the President of the United States to Walter Reed Medical Center.

He’s been diagnosed with the Coronavirus and he will be undergoing testing for several days there. And he’s been administered an experimental cocktail, and he is fatigued, slight fever.

And the first lady is also been infected with COVID-19. She remains at the White House residence where she is resting. Let’s bring in Bret Baier.

Bret, what are your thoughts right now? We’ve heard from several of our medical contributors as we await the president to possibly go over there and say something to reporters or maybe just give the signature thumbs-up as he walk across the lawn.

BAIER: Now, let’s just set the scene here, Jesse. Marine One there is on the South Lawn of the White House. If you look at the — you could see behind the tail there, the reporters and photographers gathered there by the steps. This is you remember the place where the President delivered the speech for the Republican National Convention on this very lawn. To the left is the Rose Garden and it would be to the left side of the screen, the Oval Office, the residence obviously straight up above.

The President will be walking out here. We don’t know if he’ll talk to reporters or not. But this is a moment for America because it was a surprise overnight when that positive test came in. It is a different time when the commander in chief of our country is facing a serious illness.

We’re told his mild symptoms so far, but the fact that he’s gone to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for several days is a serious thing.

And obviously, the thoughts and prayers of everyone is with the First Family. It also Jesse effects where we are in this nation as we get ready for a national election just about a month away. And obviously, all of these factors in but the biggest concern now is for the President and the First Lady.

WATTERS: Yes. Let’s bring in Martha McCallum. Martha, Bret mentioned the political ramifications of this. Obviously, the President is not going to be doing any sort of political activity, no rallies for at least two weeks as he quarantines, and we have a debate in about 15 days. You know, if the president recovers and his tests come back negative after two weeks, then we assume he gets on that debate stage. But at this point, I think it’s too early to tell.

MACCALLUM: I mean, that’s the fast forward wish that that is where we will be 14, 15 days from now, Jesse. I think that all of the country, even though the country is very divided, and there has been, I would mention a lot of really nasty things, as we see on social media pretty much every day. So, I guess that’s really no big surprise. But even in this situation, that’s some of what we’re seeing.

But you can’t ignore the dichotomy of how this script has flipped here. We had Joe Biden, who was in his basement in Delaware through the course of most of this campaign. Now, he is out on the road. He’s in Michigan today and had comments. He really went after the president after making some very kind comments about hoping that he gets better quickly and sending all of his good thoughts and wishes to him and to the first family.

He said, look, you know, this is the Trump economy he got into, especially talking about women and how women have underperformed in this economy, and in the jobs numbers that we just saw today. So, the campaign good continues, and it continues in earnest. And the dynamic is changed in a big way by this moment that we’re looking at.

And my question is, how does this experience change President Trump, you know, and what will we see on the other side of this when President Trump has been through this experience? And we expect, you know, more than 99 percent of people in his age group, survive this and, and recover, so we fully expect that that’s what will happen. But what’s the impact going to be on him of this when he does get the opportunity to come out and speak to the people whether it’s at that debate, or sooner than that, Jesse?

WATTERS: Yes, I wonder, Dana, for the president to be affected like this.

You know, millions of Americans have been affected by this and he’d be going through it. He has an opportunity potentially, to document how he’s feeling, how he’s progressing to the country one way or the other through social media, through video, perhaps. I wonder if this does change the way the country feels about the Coronavirus depending on how quickly the President can overcome it and get back out there. It could potentially be a very inspiring story for the President to get better, and then show the country this is what we can do and safely recover and beat it.

PERINO: Yes. I do think it will also renew the calls for people to wear masks when they need to, socially distance, wash your hands, do the right thing. I think all Americans have been affected by that at some point or another. I just want to point out — so we’re looking at this shot of the White House. This is the Marine One. They’re on the north lawn — the south lawn, excuse me, South Lawn of the White House. But you know, you usually are — you’re used to seeing a different shot.

And that’s why I’m wondering if we will not actually see the president because the way the shot is right now, and maybe John Roberts can tell us if I’m wrong, and maybe they have the pool setup. It’s usually near the Rose Garden, you know, when the President gives comments. So the pool is set up somewhere else, so maybe we’ll we will get a different shot at that point. Maybe they’re allowing the president the option to decide if he wants to say something.

GUTFELD: He’s watching THE FIVE. He’s watching right now.

PERINO: He might be. I hope he’s watching THE FIVE. I hope he’s watching and I hope he’s feeling better. But — so, that shot is a little interesting to me. So Walter Reed Medical Center, it is the preeminent place. If you are going to get medical care from anyone, that is the place to be.

I also think, Jesse, just to your point, I think it’s a good one. I think it will renew people’s sense of taking precautions early. Like, if you have any symptoms, self-isolate, try to get a test, and then take — you know, follow doctor’s orders. Now, not everybody in America has access to Walter Reed, but the President of the United States is not just any average American. He is the commander in chief and the leader of the free world.

WILLIAMS: So, I used to — my neighborhood is where the old Walter Reed was.

WATTERS: And before we get to you, Juan, the Biden campaign is now removing all negative ads. That just came in. They’re removing all negative ads on the Internet, at Facebook, also on air. All right, Juan, so —

WILLIAMS: I just — let me just finished my thought there.

WATTERS: Please.

WILLIAMS: So, Walter Reed used to be in my neighborhood in Washington, now it’s over in Bethesda, as Bret Baier was explaining. And I’ve been there, you know, to sign books and to greet people, soldiers and the like, but I recently was right across at the National Institute for Health, NIH. And I got to tell you, that is just an amazing, it looks like something out of a different world in terms of the medical facility, possibility that exists there.

The other thing to say is the last time the President was at Walter Reed became a mystery. We don’t know why he was there. And it’s never been disclosed, why he was there. And there’s been all kinds of gossip conspiracy, but we don’t know. And that’s part of the thing about this President is he’s been very private about his medical history, medical records, and the like.

And what’s different about this moment is that now, there’s going to have to be a degree of openness, that you can’t just brush this off. As you rightly said, the President has COVID a
nd he’s being taken to a hospital.

And as he goes through this experience, I think that the whole notion of taking Coronavirus seriously and wearing the mask and the like is something that he now I think is in position to speak to with power.

And I think it really can make a difference as we go into the colder months. And as I mentioned, we see this uptick in the infection rate. It’s just an important opportunity for him as a role model to speak out and to be clear about this.

WATTERS: Right. And just so everybody is aware, there’s been no mention of invoking the 25th Amendment at all. Let’s go to Chris Wallace, host of “FOX NEWS SUNDAY.” Chris, you’ve heard now the Biden campaign removing all negative ads from the airwaves. That sends a very classy signal, obviously, but it does send kind of a more serious signal that the Biden campaign recognizes the seriousness of what’s going on and taking the necessary action politically.

WALLACE: Yes. It’s interesting that we’re told that the decision and the Biden campaign wanted to put out the fact that the decision to pull the negative ads was made before word came that the President was going to be flown to Walter Reed Medical Center. They wanted to emphasize that.

I will say, I think that the Biden campaign is handled this just right today. And I would expect them to do that. There has been no piling on, no second-guessing of what the President has done in his handling of the virus. They — we saw the vice president making his speech in Grand Rapids and wishing the First Family the best. He went on with a campaign as well, he should. There’s no reason for the campaign to stop at this point, but making an affirmative case for why he thinks he should be elected.

But obviously, it’s a delicate moment. And you don’t want to do anything that is seen as criticizing the president or, you know, kicking him, hitting him at a time when obviously, he’s got a disease, and now, we find out is headed to off to the Walter Reed Medical Center. So, I think that it’s a delicate situation and they so far at least have played it just about right, which is what I would expect from them.

WATTERS: Yes. I guess over the weekend, Biden campaign needs to continue campaigning. You’d expect them to maintain the level of activity that they had been in the past. And I guess they’d have to probably watch their tone a little bit, maybe dulls some of the sharper partisan attacks, especially on the Coronavirus when it comes to going after the President.

And the Biden campaign, maybe, I think, campaigning unopposed for the next week or two as the president remains, quarantined and taking the medical necessary precautions.

WALLACE: And, and that’s what’s, you know, so interesting and it’s why we all got into the news business is because truth is stranger than fiction.

And as was been pointed out earlier in this hour, for so many weeks and months, Joe Biden was off the trail and, you know, we talked about him in his basement, and the President was out doing rallies and talking to thousands of people and appearing in person.

And now it’s going to flip. And obviously, this isn’t a political or a strategic move by the President. It’s a medical move. He’s doing it to protect his health and the people around him. But the result is he’s going to be off the trail, and to the degree, he’s able to campaign, it will be virtually the way Joe Biden did. And instead, Joe Biden has come a little bit out of his shell. He’s got a new plane with his name emblazoned on the side of it. And while not a conventional campaign, we saw him in Grand Rapids today. We’re going to see him on the trail more.

And although I think we’re going to see him very much wearing a mask and very much observing all of the safety rules that we hear about social distancing, and all of that, but the script has completely flipped in just the course of 24 hours. As I said to my wife when I woke up this morning and I saw the, you know, the sad news about the President, I said, it’s 2020. You know, this is just the year of unforeseen and unfortunately, usually bad news.

WATTERS: Thank you, Chris. Let’s go to Martha McCallum who has an update for us. Martha?

MCDOWELL: Well, just a little bit of an update. They do expect that he’s going to walk out any minute. They’re preparing to get him out of the building. There is the assumption that he’s not going to answer any questions, although with President Trump, you never quite know. I’m told that he will address the pool in some way, a wave or something along those lines.

But I am also told that even though this camera shot looks unusual, we don’t usually see it from this angle. As Dana pointed out, we’re seeing sort of the broad side of marine one. I’m told that the cameras will have a shot of him in front of the resonance when he does come out and that that’s going to happen momentarily.

WATTERS: Thanks, Martha. Let’s go to Bret Baier, host of “SPECIAL REPORT.”

BAIER: Hey, Jesse, a senior administration official just telling me in the past couple of minutes, the President’s health condition, I’m quoting here, is monitored constantly. And his relocation to Walter Reed Hospital should not — should not be viewed through a new prognosis lens. In other words, that he’s somehow deteriorating.

This is from a senior administration official who is very well aware of the situation saying that this is not — this is abundance of caution. Yes, he is going to the hospital. Yes, he is going to be there for several days and we can infer from that whatever we want. But this administration official is saying it’s not because the symptoms have somehow rapidly increased or he’s deteriorating in any way. And that’s one of the reasons we’re going to see him in a matter of moments, address the pool cameras in some way, as Martha mentioned, likely a wave, and not talking to reporters.

WATTERS: Thanks, Bret. Well, that’s a very nice reminder. I think you mentioned that earlier that maybe we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.

GUTFELD: Yes. And I think, you know, to the point about the script being flipped, the reason why it flipped — and maybe it’s a flaw of Trump, is that he didn’t hide from the virus. And the reason why he didn’t hide from the virus is he didn’t want America to hide from the virus, if he was going to ask America to get back to work, right, to get back to work and experience a risk. He was going to do the same thing. He was going to walk out there on that battlefield with you, and not sit somewhere in a basement and tell you how, you know, how you got to get back to work but not go out himself.

So, I think he put himself on a line — on the line. And the flaw being that as an optimist, as somebody who’s trying to convey a message that we’re going to get through this and things are going to be better, he had to walk that walk. He had to do that. He could have scared the crap out of everybody, but he refused. And it goes back to his original point about trying to make sure the positive attitude is maintained, along with a sense of concern. So he took the risk, he got the virus. But it’s because he was

—

WILLIAMS: But I think — but Greg, Greg, Greg, this is a difficult moment, and we just want to, you know, again, reiterate our best wishes to him. But he —

GUTFELD: I did.

WILLIAMS: He is a man who was very clear in saying that this was going to disappear magically. He’s a guy who was mocking at times former Vice President Biden for wearing a mask even recently. He’s the guy who says what’s with these big social circles? He’s the guy that went ahead —

GUTFELD: So he deserves it?

WILLIAMS: No, I’m not saying that.

GUTFELD: Yes, I thought we’re going to go down this road, Juan.

WILLIAMS: I’m saying, he held rallies — held rallies in defiance of the advice of public health officials. So, the flip of the script is one in which he now is clearly in position to be the national leader in saying, I understand the seriousness of this virus and I
want us as an American people to get through this. And here are steps we can take, the masks, the social distancing, and the like.

GUTFELD: None of the ha-ha, told you so audience ever disagreed with the experts when they said don’t get masks because they were hoarding. None of the ha-ha, I told you so experts ever agreed with Trump about the travel ban. None of the ha-ha, I told you so experts said anything with DeBlasio or Pelosi said live life is normal.

So, I think you people don’t deserve the price of Aha, I told you so if you didn’t share the risk and make a statement at the start.

WATTERS: And I think just putting politics aside just for one moment, this is a reminder that this could have been prevented if it had been addressed early on in China. The Chinese Communist government lied to the world about this. They covered it up and they let it escape throughout the world. And now we are dealing with the repercussions of that. It shouldn’t be about Republican or Democrat. Let’s remember how and where this all got started.

Dana?

PERINO: So, we have Marine One there to take the president up to Walter Reed Medical Center. It’s not a long helicopter ride. It can be a very long car ride because of traffic and also disruption to the city which I think that the Trumps have been very respectful of the people in the city and not trying to make their commutes even more difficult in these times.

It is a historic moment. And I you know, you have to go way back in history to see, you know, when this would have occurred. And I don’t know if it’s ever occurred this close to an election. But I do think it’s good that the Biden team took down all the negative ads. They said that they had made this decision even before this announcement about the Walter Reed trip had been decided.

WATTERS: And I — and I do agree with Juan that this is going to change how the president digests the Coronavirus pandemic here in this country, how he expresses his feelings about it. And in a way, it kind of forges a stronger bond with the American people over the virus. He’s experiencing it. He will communicate how he’s experiencing it and we hope he recovers, he recovers quickly, and he can lead the country out of the pandemic.

Again, we are watching Marine One awaiting the president to walk out from the residence where he’ll be examined at Medical Reed after testing positive for coronavirus. Let’s go to Bret Baier. SPECIAL REPORT starts now.

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