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JUDY WOODRUFF: With
President Trump's return
to the White House,

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let's turn now to one his
reelection campaign's senior
adviser, Steve Cortes.

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Steve Cortes, welcome
to the "NewsHour."

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So, we heard the president's
doctors today say he
is not out of the woods

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yet. They are watching him
very closely. They say they
know he is still contagious.

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Given that, why is it a
good idea for him to go
back to the White House?

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STEVE CORTES, Trump
2020 Campaign Senior
Adviser: Well, listen,

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I'm not going to speak to
the medical side of things.

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That is obviously
up to his team.

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But we know that they
approved of this, and I
trust in their judgment.

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Dr. Conley is not only a
man of science, but he's
also a Naval officer,

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an incredible patriot who served
this country in Afghanistan.
So, between his -- both his

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patriotic service and his
professional credentials,
I'm going to defer to them.

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Of course, the president
prefers to be in the
White House. I think

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most patients of any kind
prefer to be at home.

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But he's not doing this without
the approval and cooperation
of his medical staff.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: It's
understandable he'd
want to be back there.

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But, as you know, again, he's
still contagious. We already
have at the White House

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not just the president. You
have the press secretary,
you have to press aides,

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you have other -- others on the
staff who have tested positive.

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And there's going to
have to be a duplicative,

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secure area around the president
because he's contagious.

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It just -- it just calls
into question why, and
whether this is being done
for political reasons.

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STEVE CORTES: Well, listen, no,
I can assure you it's not being
done for political reasons.

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I think that the --
again, I defer to the
medical authorities,

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I'm not a doctor. I'm going
to defer to them that they
think this is appropriate,

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and they believe they can
manage him, as well as protect
other folks at the White House.

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And then, secondly, I
will just tell you, from
a governmental standpoint,
although he does have an

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office suite, and a
considerable one, at Walter
Reed, it's, of course,
not quite the White House.

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And I think that the
president believes that he
will be more effective as our

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commander in chief in
the White House, and that
he can do so effectively

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while protecting other folks.
Clearly, he's not going
to be wandering the halls

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of the West Wing or next door at
the Executive Office Building.

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But, look, this is good
news. I mean, I think that
we all should celebrate
this, that our president,

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who everyone, I think even
people who don't support his
agenda, were very understandably

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worried when Marine One
took off from the White
House with our president
infected with this virus.

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He is now returning home in far,
far better condition already
in just a few short days.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Well,
let me ask you about the
state of the campaign.

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As we know, the campaign
manager is now down with
COVID. The chairman of the RNC

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is down with COVID. The
president is back in -
- behind Joe Biden by
anywhere from eight,

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nine or more points
in the polls.

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What is the shape? How far are
you behind in this campaign?

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STEVE CORTES: Well, let me
address that, please, on
polls, because I think -- and,

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look, I don't like to
play the game of just
cherry-picking polls.

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But, if we're going to do
that, yes, there are some
polls that have come out,

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national polls, which aren't
really all that relevant,
honestly, to how we elect

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the president of the
United States, but there
are some national polls

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lately that have shown us
sliding, that have shown
a retreat in our standing.

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However, there are also national
polls that show us gaining,

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and respectable ones. Ones
like Zogby and Investor's
Business Daily show

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Joe Biden with an
extremely narrow lead and
us gaining three points,
actually, since the debate.

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So, here's what I think. If you
look at battleground states,
polls are an important input

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for us, for those of us
here in the campaign, both
public polls, as well as
the internal ones we do.

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When you look at battleground
states, all of them
in the last couple of

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months have tightened
dramatically. And even
if we don't have a lead
in a lot of those states,

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we are very much within
striking distance.

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So, I view those -- and
I'm trying to be unbiased
as I can here. I really
view the battleground

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states as tossups. I
think even the Biden camp
would roughly agree that
either side is capable

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of winning these battleground
states, given what we know...

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me...

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STEVE CORTES: ... of
internal and public polling.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Very
quickly, Vice President
Pence, no concerns about
his exposure to COVID,

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having him travel the
country, as he is between
now and the election?

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STEVE CORTES: No, listen,
the chain of command is
well-established here,

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of course, in the United States.
I'm not talking politically
now. I'm talking governmentally.

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And neither the president,
nor Pence, nor anyone
on our campaign,

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we cannot cower and hide. We
simply will not do that. We can
take reasonable precautions. And

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we will. And -- we have
and we will. None of that
guarantees safety. We saw
that with the president,

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who, unfortunately, still got
infected, as the most protected
person probably in the world.

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But Vice President Pence is
going to be -- he is out there,
not going to be. He is out there

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traveling the country, heading
to the debate. This campaign is
charging forward. We're going

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to defeat the virus, and
we're going to convince the
American people to rehire

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Donald Trump as their CEO
for this economic revival
of the next four years.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Steve Cortes,
with the Trump campaign,
thank you very much.

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STEVE CORTES: Thank you.