Pool Reports of May 12, 2020

In-town pool report 1 — testing

Good morning.

Your pooler has just taken a Covid test requiring a swab in each nostril for three to five seconds. The two men administering it in lower press said I would get the result in about 15 minutes. The results will be given to White House staff — I signed a waiver allowing this. The fact sheet they gave me indicates it is an Abbot NOW test.

Before taking samples, the men asked the standard set of questions about symptoms and exposure.

Other members of the pool waited in line e behind me, with distance between them.

Temperature checks were also done before I entered security gates.

Spokesman Judd Deere said:

Out of an abundance of caution and to further protect your health and safety as well as the entire complex, members of the restricted in-house pool should be ready in the briefing room at call time for a COVID-19 test to be administered in Lower Press by the White House Medical Unit. Moving forward, we expect to test members of the restricted in-house pool daily.

In-town pool #2 -- O'Brien gaggle and testing update

--Judd Deere says only people who test positive will be informed of their results and that no one in the press pool has tested positive today.

National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien spoke with reporters for about 7 ½ minutes on the driveway following a television interview. He hit on a number of topics including the health of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, the origins of the virus. Here are some highlights:

--On reports that Putin's spokesman has been hospitalized: "The President spoke to President Putin just recently, last week, and he seemed to be in good spirits and good health and we don't have any reason to suspect that it's otherwise. So, you know, look, this is a tough virus and people have been hit in the White House even … world leaders Boris Johnson, who actually came down with COVID and as another world leader, so something everyone's gonna watch carefully but we don't have any information other than that President Putin is doing just fine."

--On Kim Jong Un: "He seems to be out, cutting ribbons on a fertilizer factory so you know our thinking is that he's, he's probably doing well. This is a -- we call it the Hermit Kingdom. It's very difficult to get information out of North Korea, they're not very forthcoming with information but they did release photos of him being alive and well and we assume that he is."
He "can't say one way or the other" whether the U.S. has verified the photos "but those are the photos" that are "open source. And so we're seeing those same photos."

On the origins of the virus, he said he could not provide a timeframe on the investigation: "There's certainly the potential it came from the laboratory" in Wuhon. "There's speculation that it came from the wet market, and neither one is a good answer for the Chinese – right, it either came from a horrific wet market where animals are tortured and exotic animals are consumed on site, and the conditions are filthy. When you watch the videos on it, it's something to really behold and something terrible. Or it came out of a lab where there was improper safety protocols in place. So neither one's a good answer for China."Is it more speculation than evidence?
"I think we know it came from Wuhon, and I think there's circumstantial evidence that it could have come from the lab or the web market but again, if you're China, neither one's a good answer. We've had five plagues from China -- in the last 20 years."

--On his own practices. O'Brien and his assistant, John Ullyot, were not wearing masks. "I think we're all taking all the steps. I use hand sanitizer all the time. I'll be -- when I get done with this hit – I'll put my mask back on and we're doing a lot of calls, even within the White House -- we have meetings we have a meeting of principals this morning where most people call in on the phone. So we're doing what we can to socially distance and washing our hands. We're using hand sanitizer or you're using mask on a pretty regular basis so we're being as careful as possible."

--On Afghanistan and the breakdown between the government and the Taliban: "We want to bring the rule of law to Afghanistan, we want to bring liberty and democracy to Afghanistan, we want to bring basic human rights to Afghanistan. And a lot of American soldiers, sailors and Marines have faith that the ultimate sacrifice to do so…[it's now ] time for the Afghan people to get together to enter into a meaningful peace process and it's time for America to come home, we've got a lot to focus on here."

In-town pool 3 — lunch lid till 2

Lunch lid till 2.

in-town pool #4 -- two minute warning

Two minute warning was just given for press briefing.

In-town pool #5 -- Press secretary briefing begins

Kayleigh McEnany walked in at 2:18.

In-town pool #6 -- briefing ends

The briefing ended at 2:41. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was not wearing a mask. Chad Gilmartin and Alyssa Farah were seated in masks with one vacant seat between them. Reporters in the briefing seats were all wearing masks. The only question that was not from one of the pool reporters came from an OANN reporter – who took off her mask to ask a question -- standing in the back of the room, where there was tape marked "guest."

In-town pool #7 — Lid

Travel photo lid was just called.