Dr. Sanjay Gupta Alarmed by Trump’s Hannity Interview Coughing: ‘I Hadn’t Heard That Before … He Sounds Sick’

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta heard President Donald Trump’s cough-interrupted interview with Sean Hannity for the first time, live on CNN’s New Day, and did not like what he heard.

On Friday morning, co-anchor John Berman played a clip from Thursday night’s Hannity interview during which, as Berman described it, Trump “stops, coughs, catches his breath.”

After the clip, Berman asked, “What do you hear there Sanjay?”

“Well, he sounds congested still,” Dr. Gupta said, then with slight surprise and alarm in his voice, said, “Yeah, I hadn’t heard that before.”

“It’s interesting because he’s obviously still just, what, 7 days out, 8 days out from when he first developed symptoms, so he’d still be in that period for sure,” Gupta said.

He then explained that  Trump is “still on the steroid medication, which usually acts as a very potent anti-inflammatory. So that could be masking whatever symptoms he does have, so as you start to take him off steroids, it’s worse. He still sounds sick.”

Dr. Gupta went on to say that “I am really worried about these steroids,” and explained that “the steroids don’t treat the virus, they treat the inflammation in the body. But once you take the steroids off … that inflammation may come back. It just may be that he’s masking symptoms right now.”

“So they’ve got to keep a close eye on him. I mean this is, this isn’t political intrigue, this is just decent humanity at this point. He sounds sick. And he’s 74 years and this is a serious disease,” Gupta concluded.

Watch the clip above via CNN.