On Friday night, we chose not to publish information we'd learned from well-placed sources who told us the president had experienced a fever and was worse than the White House was letting on.

We chose not to publish because we weren't certain enough it was correct, and it was no time to lower our editorial standards.

Today, when we saw the doctors line up outside Walter Reed in their white lab coats, we thought we might finally get clarity.

The picture painted by the White House physician, Navy Commander Dr. Sean Conley, was rosy: Trump was in good spirits -- so good, apparently, he had been fever-free for 24 hours, and felt he could have walked out of Walter Reed today.

The Q&A didn't engender confidence. Trump's doctor was repeatedly evasive on the question of whether he'd received supplemental oxygen. But the picture remained rosy.

Then, minutes after the doctors' press conference, something extraordinary happened that crystallized this White House's credibility gap, and made a mockery of any reporter trying to responsibly cover this president's condition.