ABC News’ White House correspondent Jonathan Karl paid a visit to “The View” Friday to weigh in on President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump testing positive for COVID-19, and he offered a grim outlook on the trustworthiness of information coming out of the White House regarding the president’s health.
When “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin pointed out that Trump “has not been transparent about his health” in the past, Karl shared his opinion that he’s not confident that the White House will be any more forthcoming now, based on his own personal experience throughout the Trump administration.
“The sad truth is we really can’t trust at face value what comes out of the White House on this,” he told Hostin. “I think we have to ask the questions and we will continue to do so. We will try to verify all the answers that we get. But there has been so much misinformation that has gone out, you know, about the virus, about the pandemic, about things like voter suppression — it’s really hard to know what to believe, and it’s a very distressing thing to say as a White House correspondent.”
He continued: “I’ve had the opportunity to cover four different presidents. I’ve been in that briefing room, I’ve been at the White House during some very tense moments, some moments when national security was at stake, and you had to depend on what was being told to you from the podium by White House officials or by the President. For this, again, we need to ask the question, and then we need to verify and double verify everything we are told.”
The Trumps were tested after one of his senior advisers, Hope Hicks, tested positive for the coronavirus. The President’s personal physician, Sean P. Conley, said Friday that the president and the first lady are “both well” and will stay at the White House during their “convalescence,” where they will be under “vigilant watch” by the White House medical team.
Watch the clip below.
“We are in for a period of real uncertainty.”@ABC News’ @jonkarl joins with the latest on the president and first lady’s COVID-19 diagnoses and how the White House is handling the situation. https://t.co/iSB5yj0grl pic.twitter.com/qzgk5LdABc
— The View (@TheView) October 2, 2020