Sunday shows preview: Trump COVID-19 diagnosis rocks Washington, 2020 election

President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and questions surrounding its potential impact on the 2020 election are expected to dominate this weekend’s Sunday talk shows. 

The president remains at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after his hospitalization Friday. The president was hospitalized less than 24 hours after the announcement that he and first lady Melania Trump had contracted the virus. 

White House physician Sean Conley said at a press conference early in the afternoon Saturday that Trump was doing “very well,” while also avoiding some questions about the president’s diagnosis. 

A source familiar with the president’s health told reporters that the president’s vitals over the past 24 hours were “very concerning” and described the next 48 hours as “critical in terms of his care.” 

Conley also raised new questions when he said that the president was “72 hours” into his diagnosis. However, the White House reported Trump’s positive test in the early hours of Friday morning, which was less than 48 hours ago.

Several top Republican officials in Trump’s orbit have also tested positive for the virus, including senior White House adviser Hope Hicks and former special assistant to the president Kellyanne Conway. Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) have also tested positive for the disease. Johnson was the latest GOP senator to do so.  

Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien was diagnosed with coronavirus on Saturday after traveling with the president to Tuesday’s debate. 

Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced Friday that he and his wife Jill Biden had tested negative, adding that he wished the president and first lady a speedy recovery. Biden had appeared in his first presidential debate with Trump on Tuesday, although the two stood several feet apart throughout the evening and did not shake hands. 

Biden’s campaign adviser Symone Sanders is scheduled to make an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. 

The new diagnoses of top officials comes as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country, with more than 7.3 million confirmed cases and 208,118 recorded deaths as of Saturday. 

Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is set to appear on “Fox News Sunday.” In August, Inglesby raised questions on the progress of coronavirus vaccine testing, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” at the time that a 50 percent effective coronavirus vaccine would be “better than what we have now.” 

Trump’s diagnosis has also created more pressure on congressional leadership to pass a new coronavirus stimulus bill, with Trump tweeting Saturday afternoon, “OUR GREAT USA WANTS & NEEDS STIMULUS. WORK TOGETHER AND GET IT DONE. Thank you!”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on MSNBC on Friday that Trump’s positive test “kind of changes the dynamic because here they see the reality of what we have been saying all along: This is a vicious virus, and it spreads.” 

Pelosi is scheduled to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday. 

Below is the full list of guests who will appear on this weekend’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — To be announced.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — To be announced.

CBS’s “Face the Nation” — Pelosi; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, (D-Mich.); former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb; Adam H. Schechter, president and CEO LabCorp.

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Sanders; Whitmer; Richard Gates, deputy chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“Fox News Sunday” — Inglesby. 

Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ariz.), Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Intelligence Committee; Ric Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence; Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. 

“America This Week” with Eric Bolling — Megyn Kelly; Peter Navarro, an adviser to the president on U.S. trade; Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.); Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network; Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager; David Bossie, president and chairman of Citizens United.