This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," July 14, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, classes delayed in Los Angeles, in Sandra Diego, and in Atlanta, the push to reopen for in-person classes pushed back in those locales. Others considering it.
We're similarly following developments in North Carolina, where we're told that schools will reopen in the fall, but with some caveats, also following developments in a host of other states that are playing kind of loosey- goosey with this, a mix of in-person classes, virtual classes.
Bottom line, the president has said that he wants to see all schools reopen in the fall. It is now a given, at the very least, that some of the more populated school districts across the country will not heed his wishes.
Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. And this is YOUR WORLD.
Let's go to Jonathan Serrie with the latest on this, as well as the latest case count that has really spurred all this -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN SERRIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It has, indeed, Neil.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's announcement came just within the past hour. He says that all students, regardless of whether they're kindergarten or as old as 12th grade, they're going to have to wear masks and social distance if they return to physical school buildings in the hall -- in the fall.
As far as his plans for reopening, he really envisions a hybrid plan. Here's what he said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): Today, we announced that North Carolina schools will be open for both in-person and remote learning, with key safety precautions to protect the health of our students, teachers, staff, and families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERRIE: Later in the show, we will be hearing from the superintendent of the nation's second largest school district.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to stick with online instruction, as that city's positive test rate for coronavirus approaches 10 percent. That's twice the World Health Organization's maximum safe threshold for communities to reopen.
But in neighboring Orange County, the school board voted to recommend schools reopen in the fall without mandates for face coverings or social distancing.
And, in Detroit, protesters blocked school buses, as that city begins summer classes this week. New York City plans to offer a hybrid of both in- person and online learning in the fall.
Four former CDC directors are criticizing the Trump administration for undermining federal health officials' recommendations on reopening schools and the economy.
In a Washington Post op-ed today, they write: "These repeated efforts to subvert sound public health guidelines introduce chaos and uncertainty, while unnecessarily putting lives at risk."
Neil, you may recall, last week, President Trump tweeted that the CDC's guidance for school openings was -- quote -- "very tough and expensive" -- back to you.
CAVUTO: Thank you, my friend, very much, Jonathan Serrie.
We're going to be getting the read from the White House momentarily how the president is responding to this.
In the meantime, I want to go to Austin Beutner, the L.A. Unified District superintendent.
Superintendent, thank you for taking the time.
What are you going to do? How does the fall look to you right now?
AUSTIN BEUTNER, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: Thanks for having me.
We're going to start online, because that's where health and safety take us. As your colleague mentioned, the rate of infection in our community is twice the World Health Organization guidelines for opening a community. So we have got to start there.
And we know it's a struggle. We know we're balancing three sometimes conflicting objectives, the learning needs of students, the impact the virus is having on working families and the communities we serve, and the health and safety of all in the school community. We have to put health and safety first.
CAVUTO: So, when the president says that districts that are not doing this, or states or locales that are not opening up are doing it politically and it's all politically motivated, what do you want to tell him?
BEUTNER: We have got to get out of the politics and get into the realm of solving the solution, solving the problem, which is, we all want to be back in schools as soon as possible.
We know where that's the best learning occurs. Whether that's the White House or here in Los Angeles, I think we could all agree on that. Let's focus on where the federal government can help get us back to school quicker.
And if we look at examples around the world, they have done three things well. They have changed health practice in schools. They will spread the desks apart, wear the masks, put down the painter's tape, so people don't bump into each other in the hall, clean surfaces. That's been talked about a lot.
The other two pieces, the other two legs of the stool are testing and contact tracing. And we think, until that's done in schools, it's going to keep us from getting back. But, if we do it, we can get back safer and quicker.
CAVUTO: Superintendent, if the governor had not reimposed some restrictions on businesses and bars, indoor dining, on that sort of thing, would you have moved to delay the in-person school year?
BEUTNER: Yes, we arrived at our decision, actually, before he made that announcement.
We have been tracking the health factors for the last month or so. Back in May, it looked better. There was less incidence in the community. We were below the World Health Organization threshold. Since June, it's really skyrocketed, now being twice that threshold.
So we have known for a period of weeks we're headed towards this point. Now that we see clear data, we made the decision. But we actually made that before the governor imposed the further restrictions on businesses.
CAVUTO: Superintendent, we're learning today that New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina all plan to open for in-person classes. I believe the North Carolina governor did leave open the possibility that districts, municipalities that feel otherwise, are uncomfortable with that, or dealing -- I'm paraphrasing here, sir -- a spike in cases and the like, that they can go the virtual route.
But they are trying the in-person route first. You are not. Is it -- is it just a sense that the kids, it's a danger for them, it's a danger their exposure to teachers and administrators, the risk of them bringing it back home? What cinched it for you?
BEUTNER: Well, just a couple things to mention.
First is, this is a local disease that happens locally. So, the conditions in New Hampshire and North Carolina may be different than here in Los Angeles. If we were having this conversation in May or early June, I'd say, all systems go, we're going to be back in school facilities.
It's now July, mid-July, and that has changed. The facts and circumstances have changed here in Los Angeles.
The other thing that we're learning is more and more science and data becomes available to us. There was a study done on a village, a town in Italy; 15,000 people were all tested because they quarantined the whole village.
Of those who tested positive, half of them showed no symptoms. That's a wakeup call for all of us that we have got to get that testing in place, because, even if we were to reopen facilities in a congregant setting and bring back multiple generations, a 10-year-old student with a 30-year-old teacher and a 50-year-old bus driver, going home to a 7-year-old grandmother, before we do that, we got to make sure that we're keeping all who may have the virus out of the school community.
That includes those who show no symptoms, and testing is the only way to do that.
CAVUTO: Mr. Beutner, thank you very much for taking the time, Austin Beutner, the L.A. Unified School superintendent.
I want to go to the White House now in reaction to all of this. The president, as you know, has not been a fan of any school system that toys with the possibility of delaying the start of the in-person school year.
Now you have three very big ones in Atlanta and, of course, Los Angeles right now that are saying -- San Diego as well -- we're not so sure about that. We're going to push things back.
Kristin Fisher at the White House now with all the goings on there -- Kristin.
KRISTIN FISHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, despite those developments in California, the state's two largest school districts saying they are going to go online only in August, the White House is really continuing to push that all schools reopen for in-person classes this fall.
And, right now, the vice president, Mike Pence, is in Louisiana making that case. He did wear a mask today, as his did almost everybody else that he was with, except for when he was speaking, which is important, because cases of coronavirus are on the rise there.
And the point that the vice president was making is that, remember, New Orleans saw that really early surge in cases. It was one of the original hot spots. They were able to flatten or at least bend the curve. And the vice president said today that he believes that they will be able to bend it back down for a second time.
As for schools, the vice president said that the governor of Louisiana informed us today that the plan in that state is to reopen schools on time.
The vice president was joined by several members of the Coronavirus Task Force, the education secretary, Betsy DeVos. Dr. Birx was also there. But one key member of the Coronavirus Task Force was not there, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He is going to be speaking to students at Georgetown University in just a few minutes. And, yesterday, he was making the case that he believes an entire shutdown is not necessary, but he believes that, in order to reopen safely, there does need to be a little bit of a pullback.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: I am really confident we can, if we step back. You don't necessarily need to shut down again, but pull back a bit, and then proceed in a very prudent way of observing the guidelines of going from step to step.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FISHER: Meanwhile, you have the former Vice President and the president's 2020 opponent Joe Biden giving a big speech today on the economy.
But he also really pushed back on the president's plan for not just reopening the country, but reopening schools this fall. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. President, open everything now isn't a strategy for success. It's barely a slogan.
Quit pushing the false choice between protecting our health and protecting our economy. All it does is endanger our recovery on both fronts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FISHER: So, Neil, it's going to be very interesting to see if President Trump decides to respond to some of those attacks from the former Vice President Joe Biden when President Trump speaks in the Rose Garden.
That is set for 5:00 p.m., Neil.
CAVUTO: All right, Kristin, thank you very much, Kristin Fisher at the White House.
We will be monitoring those developments as well.
Just a quick peek give, before we take a break, corner of Wall and Broad. It wasn't this confusion over school reopenings that had folks buying today. It was the promise of vaccines and treatments, no fewer than at least 15 of them either paired with other companies or governments, one showing such promise that it could be available by the fall.
We're on that, also on top of the other big story gripping the nation, the continued violence in America's cities, two big ones on the West Coast that have a lot of folks wondering, will it ever end?
After this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: If you're a foreign student and here in the United States, and you're studying at colleges online, and you're worried about the president's directive issued a little more than a week ago that he might be inclined to kick you out, you can relax. He relented a little bit.
The president outlining his plan right now that he will not be doing that for international college students to leave the U.S. if they're still in the middle of their classes, whether they're online or not. He might detail that a little bit more when he addresses reporters in about 45 minutes.
Separately, we were telling you right now about the spike in cases, particularly in Florida, which, in a lot of people's eyes, has made Miami suddenly the new Wuhan. That might be a bit of a stretch.
But at Miami Beach, they're not taking any chances and, officially, as of today, prohibiting short-term rentals. Now, separately, we will have the mayor of the town of Miami, different from Miami Beach, what he makes of this and these other developments, where they're limiting beach access and social distancing amid these new waves of cases that are going on there.
So, it -- these are pretty powerful developments.
Then there's the issue of violence in this country, more an issue out West with what's been happening in Seattle and now in Portland.
Jonathan Hunt on some very big ones that have police concerned this is getting out of control -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN HUNT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, clashes between police and protesters in Portland last night came during what is the seventh consecutive week of demonstrations in the city.
Police said rocks, bottles and ball bearings were thrown at them. They threatened to use tear gas to disperse the crowd, but did not ultimately need to do so. In a separate incident northeast of Seattle, two police officers were involved in a traffic stop. When backup officers arrived, they found that two colleagues had both been shot.
One of those to die. The other was treated at a hospital and has now been released. Neither has been identified at this point. The suspect was arrested several hours later.
Now, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 70 officers have died in the line of duty in 2020, up to July 13. That's down 14 percent from the same period in 2019. Thirty of those killed this year died in firearms incidents, one more than the 29 killed over the same period in 2019. Twenty-seven died in traffic-related accidents, 13 due to other causes.
Now, it's worth noting, Neil, that the Officers Memorial Fund keeps a separate tally of those officers who've died as a result of exposure to COVID-19 in the line of duty. That number currently stands at 63, making coronavirus, according to the Memorial Fund, by far the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in 2020 -- Neil.
CAVUTO: Thank you, my friend, very, very much.
In the meantime, I want to go right now to Mike Solan. He's the Seattle Police Officers Guild president, joining us now via Skype.
Mike, it doesn't seem to ease up in your town. And I'm wondering now, efforts to cut the police budget, and maybe substantially, in Seattle, if that's really helping matters any.
MIKE SOLAN, PRESIDENT, SEATTLE POLICE OFFICERS GUILD: Hey, Neil. Thanks for having me on again.
No, it's absolutely making things worse.
And the socialist-leaning city council has our entire reasonable community, which I now referred to as the ignored majority of the citizens of Seattle, hostage by their unreasonable activism.
Now they're talking about removing funding 50 percent of us, which would remove two-thirds of the police jobs, which would make the CHOP or CHAZ, if you want to refer to that situation, basically child's play to what kind of crime would besiege our entire city.
And you could just imagine what we're all feeling at this point, due to our job security at this point. So it's a very troubling time. And I hope people across this nation realize that Seattle is leading the way as far as how public safety will be conducted coming to you.
It's very troubling.
CAVUTO: And it is playing out across the country, whether people are fond of the police or not. It's no coincidence there's been an uptick in more violence right now, as there's an all-out assault on police budgets.
I'm just wondering, in New York, where they have pared a billion from the police budget, now they're looking to pare more -- obviously, you're familiar with what's going on in Seattle. This is playing out in no fewer than 23 U.S. cities. What's going on?
SOLAN: And this has been -- yes, it's a national trend, and it's basically socialism on steroids. It's not at our doorstep anymore. They have breached the door and they're coming through.
And please understand that this must be stopped. America needs to wake up as to what is occurring. And if we lose 50 percent of our department, we're talking 1,100 officers gone. Who's left to answer the 911 call to investigate that child rape?
You can just imagine. So, please, I understand that if people -- people need to get involved. This ignored majority across our city, and, more importantly, across our nation need to rise up.
And if you want to get involved, please assist at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__SeattlePoliceOfficers.org&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=G82mI_V6clBF4ABc1fJX7kTAWQ4s0ctvumVc10gc2fs&s=4XYGFYIIvlfRFE04n7NUrobmHisY4_ZzDQNqKz8ji6E&e= . Please stand up to this unreasonable socialist activism.
CAVUTO: I don't know what's going on in Seattle. Mike.
I'm familiar with what's happening in New York City, where better than 400 officers have already requested retirement. Some of them are eligible for it, but had held off on it. Now they're flooding the system with such requests.
But we're similarly seeing new rookie classes being pared down, frustration over whether it's a good thing to even be a police officer these days. What do you make of all this?
SOLAN: Well, I make of it it's dividing us more than uniting us.
I mean, we're definitely having people that are retiring early here, looking for jobs elsewhere. But, more importantly, Neil, is that the defund movement is based upon how they view as law enforcement, which they do not respect anymore.
And, more importantly, there's a certain city council member that heads the public safety chair on our council that is looking at the possibility of, when officers are terminated or furloughed, based upon this 50 percent cut, they want to dictate those cuts based upon the person's race, which is astronomically, horrifically bad, which violates all laws and just common sense.
But that's where we are. That's the level of insanity that we're plagued with by this unreasonable, activist city council that has our ignored majority hostage. And it's very troubling.
And you can just imagine the mental health that's impacting our officers is at an all-time high. And you know that suicides by police officers are all -- at the highest level they have ever been.
And you can just imagine, with all the protests we have had to deal with, the assaults, the amount of vitriol that was plagued against our membership, now we're dealt with this defund movement, which is national now, which is all socialist-backed propaganda and well-funded, is now we have to deal with this as far as losing our jobs.
So, the hits just keep on coming. But I need America rise up here. The ignored majority needs to wake up as to what's occurring.
CAVUTO: Mike, thank you very, very much.
I always hate talking under these circumstances, but I learn a lot, Mike Solan, the Seattle Police Officers Guild president.
Just to keep you up, there are a lot of unintended consequences to the type of violence Mike was outlining, including innocent people caught in the crossfire, and the latest example in New York, a 1-year-old little boy -- after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't hear him calling me daddy no more. I can't kiss him no more. I can't play with him no more. I can't do nothing with him no more.
Like, I have got to put my -- I got to put my son in the ground now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, you might want to add Dr. Anthony Fauci to the list of those concerned about putting off kids being in person for school, saying in Georgetown that to keep children in school, because of the impact of keeping children out, that's what's important -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVELL GARDNER SR., FATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I got to put my son in the ground now. And he's only 1, his birthday, two months -- in two months. He didn't live to see 2. Like, he didn't live life.
And it's like I wanted to get him out this violence before something like this happened.
SAMANTHA GARDNER, GRANDMOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: For the cowards that did this, you should be ashamed of yourself because everybody talk about black lives matter. What about baby lives?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: Lawrence Jones has been talking about this for weeks now.
When it comes to black lives matter, which matter? Shouldn't they all matter?
He joins us right now.
Lawrence, this case is particularly shocking, because it's a 1-year-old boy caught up in the crossfire, both literally and figuratively, and now dead. For what, right? For what?
LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Neil, I reported last week about Chicago, what is happening in there.
And right now, we're seeing it hit right home here in New York City. Crime, when it comes to shooting, are up 130 percent. I just got some new numbers from the sources, and they say now it's up to 161 percent.
This kid was in a stroller when he was gunned down in the middle of a fight. And they still haven't been able to catch the suspects, because no one in the community is talking.
Neil, as I continue to say on the network -- and I have been very vocal when it comes to the state abusing its power -- when police get it wrong, I'm on the network reporting on it, getting all the facts.
But when an innocent young black life is taken from us, I have to report on that too. And the fact that you're not seeing outrage across the country is concerning to me. Just because this happened in the projects, just because these people were in a poor neighborhood does not mean they're not entitled to life and the same liberties that our audience and people that are in rich neighborhoods are entitled to.
CAVUTO: Now that dad to bury a little boy.
And I'm wondering. Given everything that's going on, does he blame anyone? Is he just overwhelmed? Does he just think, how did this get so bad so quickly? What?
JONES: Well, the dad and the grandmother blame the political leadership.
And it's not about a partisan issue. It's the fact that the elected leaders aren't doing anything to prevent this from happening. The AOCs of the world say that this crime is happening because of the coronavirus.
Well, that's just simply not true. The crime has been happening in these neighborhoods for a while. And people aren't doing anything about it. The elected leaders don't care about the death, poverty and destruction that have been happening in these communities for a long time.
Neil, I don't just talk about these cities, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, New York City. I go to these cities and I talk with the people. And they're begging -- they don't care what ideology you believe in -- for someone to stop the bleeding.
And you know what? Neither political party has been able to do it. You got the Democrats that run these neighborhoods. They have failed on it. And then you have the Republicans that don't show up to help solve the problem.
So, again, they don't want a political solution. They want a human solution. And I think everybody should care about all of these black lives.
CAVUTO: And, as you pointed out, Lawrence, the other day, I mean, this is not an isolated incident.
Violent crimes, homicides are up better than 118 percent just over the last six weeks in the New York metropolitan area, up about 70-plus percent in Chicago. It's playing out again and again. And it seems to be spreading. I just talked to a Seattle police chief, who is very concerned about budget cuts there, and how it's going to lead, and has already led to more violence there.
This does seem to be permeating the nation.
JONES: Well, I will tell you this, Neil.
You know me. I'm a libertarian. I'm not ashamed of my ideology. And I believe in cutting. But it doesn't make any sense to cut from the police department when crime is a problem. There's a bunch of other line items that they can cut from right now.
If they could point to results by cutting from the police department, then I would be for it. But, right now, it hasn't bared much fruit. You got a billion dollars that has been cut from the New York Police Department. And right now, crime is skyrocketing, especially when it comes to violent crime.
So, again, I asked the mayor, is there anything -- maybe look at your wife's proposals that she's gotten. And they're getting millions and millions of dollar. Cut from those areas. But don't come from a police department that is already underwhelmed -- overwhelmed by crime.
There are so many unsolved cases currently. Yesterday, just by the numbers, 18 people were shot, one person was killed in New York. Those crimes have not been solved.
So, again, does it make sense to continue to cut from a police department that is already begging for more help?
CAVUTO: Lawrence Jones, thank you, my friend. I appreciate it, and the insight.
JONES: Thanks, brother.
CAVUTO: We will keep track of this, because it is spreading everywhere, and the numbers are numbing.
All right, when we also come back, Senator Rand Paul will be joining us, talking about what's going on right now, the latest push for stimulus in Washington.
He's not a fan of some of the numbers he's been hearing -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, there is more stimulus coming.
We can tell you that. We don't know how much, but we do know that more is on the way. And maybe by the end of the summer, it will all be put together.
Here's the thing, though. We don't have any money to pay for it. In the most recent month of June, we were spending $864 billion more than we were taking in. In other words, the deficit for just one month was $864 billion.
It's a familiar theme in what is now increasingly looking like at least a $3 trillion annual deficit. And that might be conservative.
Blake Burman on what this could mean going forward.
Hey, Blake.
BLAKE BURMAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Neil.
On that one month of June, just to put that in perspective, more than some fiscal years in total, fiscal years in recent memory. In any event, that eye-popping numbers is not going to slow down the White House as it relates to putting out a phase four relief proposal here, if not in the upcoming days, certainly in the upcoming weeks.
The White House spokesperson, Judd Deere, sending me this statement this afternoon, saying -- quote -- "The White House is sensitive to the rising deficit, which certainly furthers the president's priority that any phase four package be targeted, and one that advances pro-growth policies and incentivizes reemployment."
The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee is Kevin Brady, spoke with you earlier today on "Cavuto Coast to Coast." He continued to tout this idea of a reemployment bonus, which is popular among many Republicans here in Washington. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN BRADY (R-TX): We know then when unemployment benefits end, the people tend to look for work pretty aggressively.
And, right now, we know mainstream businesses are having trouble getting their workers to come back. I do you think a return-to-work bonus or some economic incentive to reconnect those workers is important for both them and that business in a key way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURMAN: So that's what Republicans are talking about.
But Democrats here in Washington are pushing for an extension of that $600 unemployment insurance benefit, that federal plus-up that expires at the end of the month, certainly possible that both sides could meet in the middle.
The House speaker, Neil, by the way, Nancy Pelosi, said today that if there is not a deal before Congress takes its summer break in August, that traditional August recess, then she would be in favor of keeping the House here in Washington, before letting them skip town for the entirety of the month.
Bottom line here. Neil, both sides hoping to get a deal in the upcoming weeks -- Neil.
CAVUTO: All right. Thank you, my friend, Blake Burman, outside the White House reporting on all of that.
Let's go to Senator Rand Paul on this.
Of course, he's quite a fiscal hawk when it comes to such matters. And that generally gets the ire of even some in his party. So, it's a good time to ask him about this latest stimulus push.
What do you think, Senator? Are you for more stimulus?
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Well, we have no money, Neil.
There's no rainy day fund. There's no savings account. It's not like we go over to the Federal Reserve, open the safe, and we find out, oh, we have all this money we can give to people.
The $3 trillion we have already sent to people because of this government mandated depression has been borrowed. Where are they going to get another trillion dollars? They're going to borrow it.
And so I think it's a really, really rotten thing to do. What you have to do is look at the source. The source of the economic depression is the government and the government shutdown of the economy.
The government, and particularly the governors, need to get out of the way, let the economy open up, and let individuals assess their risk and act accordingly.
CAVUTO: So, when there's talk about extending unemployment benefits, which are very generous on the federal level, or what some of your Republican colleagues have come up with, an incentive to get people to go back to work, you're against both?
PAUL: Well, if you pay people not to work, they won't work. If you pay people more not to work than they get for working normally, they won't work. It's called institutional unemployment.
So, right now, the institutional unemployment, if you make less than about $50,000 a year, you have got no business working. Why work if the government will give you a free $50,000?
If the Democrats get their way, and unemployment goes on for months and months and months, if not years, what will happen is, nobody will work for less than $50,000 in this country, because you can get that for not working.
The Republicans' idea, only slightly less stupid. The Republicans are going to give you a bonus to go back to work. Well, where are they getting the money? They're going to borrow it from you. They're going to borrow it from your kids. They're going to borrow it from China. It's a ridiculous notion that we just keep passing out money.
Let's get rid of the root cause of this depression. Sometimes, we don't know exactly the cause of the depression. In this one, we do know the cause, the government. The government shut the economy down. The government needs to get the hell out of the way and let us all go back to work, and let each and every one of us assess the risk and make decisions accordingly.
CAVUTO: Senator, you're also a doctor.
And many school districts and municipalities, including some big ones, Los Angeles and San Diego and Atlanta, are among those saying, we're going to delay the school year because we don't like the spike in cases we're seeing. We think it's risky. So, we're going to put it off.
How do you feel about that?
PAUL: Well, the teachers union in California also said they won't go back to work until we defund the police and have Medicare for all. So, we have to put this into a bit of perspective.
But what I would say is, the media have been scaring people to death. The mortality for children 0 to 18 is one in a million or less. The mortality between 18 years of age and 45 is about 10 in 100,000.
So, we need to assess those risks and make decisions. The countries that have opened schools -- 22 countries have opened schools in Europe, and they're doing just fine. They haven't had a surge.
The other interesting thing is, when you do contact -- contact tracing, in China, the Netherlands, Britain and in Iceland, what you find is, kids not only rarely get this, rarely die from it, but they rarely transmit it. They're just not good transmitters.
And, in general, people who are asymptomatic are not good transmitters. So, the day cares stayed open in New York throughout this for doctors' kids, nurses' kids, hospital janitors' kids, anybody that was associated, firemen, police. The day care stayed open.
CAVUTO: Right.
PAUL: And guess what? Had very little coronavirus and very few staff members -- about 1 percent of staff members were infected.
And most of these staff members, if they're in a reasonable age group, are at very, very low risk of succumbing to this disease.
CAVUTO: Well, actually, that puts you kind of on the same page as Dr. Fauci. I know two had your disagreements. He is for opening schools in person.
But he did say this about , I guess, an answer to a question about whether he's being slighted by the White House. He said: "You can trust respected medical authorities. I believe I'm one of them. So, you can trust me. But you need to stick to the data, the science, medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth. The public can get mixed messages and get confused."
What do you think of that?
PAUL: Well, look, I think Dr. Fauci is well-intentioned. I don't think he's a bad person. I think he wants what's best for the country.
But his perspective is that of someone who's always worked for the government and never worked outside of government.
So, there's a Dr. Scott Atlas, who is a professor at Stanford, as part of the Hoover Institute, who has a much different and I think much more reasoned perspective.
So, what we do is, we listen to a lot of these people. But, ultimately, if we're going to live in a free country, none of these people should get to make a decision for us, for us individually. Each individual should assess the risks and make their choices.
Frankly, if you're 18 years old, the rules should be or the advice should be much different than if you're 80 years old, and if you're in a nursing home and you're 85 years old.
And so it isn't one-size-fits-all. We can't say, oh, everybody needs to stay at home because someone at the nursing home might get sick.
No, let's try to be careful and protect those in the nursing home, but let's open the economy, open the schools. There's a possibility -- and we don't know this yet -- but there's a possibility that this great spike in infections that we're seeing throughout the South, that it may well be enhancing immunity.
And it may well be that they reach what I think New York has already reached, a point at which the disease will begin to burn itself out.
Interestingly, no one's saying this, but it may not be herd immunity of 60 percent. It may be a break point for the disease that's much less than that. And there are mathematicians who look at this, and they say that the models of herd immunity are based on random behavior and random vaccination.
When you get herd immunity from the disease, it's not randomly distributed. And you have some who are very social and some who are less social. But the bottom line is, historically, diseases and viruses have burnout at 25 percent immunity, when you look back at our past.
No one knows what the future holds, but I tend to be optimistic that we might get to 20, 25 percent immunity, and the disease may be -- we may be well over -- may be able to overcome the disease at that point.
CAVUTO: Very quickly, we will be talking to the mayor of Miami.
Now, it's Miami Beach that has already put out a proviso no short-term rentals here, fearing that the thing is -- it's worsening. It's different from Miami, I grant you, but do you think that is an overreaction?
PAUL: I think we don't know until we see the death rate.
I think that infection rate and testing are complicated, whether things are going up or down.
CAVUTO: Right.
PAUL: I do believe they are going up and people are infected.
Even in my town here, Bowling Green in Kentucky, we meet people every day who are infected. And, to a person, they're all getting better. They're getting mild disease and getting better. So, if they're -- if this is a mild disease in Miami, don't shut it down.
If you have an increase in your death rate, and it's significant, maybe you should.
CAVUTO: All right.
PAUL: But, so far, Florida's doing way better than New York.
You wouldn't know that if you watch CNN, but Florida is doing way better than New York. New York had a disaster, a public policy disaster, public health disaster in their nursing homes, due to Democrat Governor Cuomo's decisions.
Florida is doing a lot better. But you won't get that from the media that has become so biased and cannot report any of this objectively.
CAVUTO: All right.
PAUL: It's a disaster.
CAVUTO: Senator Rand Paul, thank you very much.
I believe the senator was referring to total cases, total hospitalizations, total deaths.
Now, when we come back again, the move in Miami Beach right now, not only shut down those beaches, but also prevent people from coming down there for short-term vacation rentals.
The mayor of Miami, separate from the beach, on what he makes of that -- after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAVUTO: All right, first the beaches, and now Miami Beach is telling short-term renters, better luck next time. We really don't want any short- term rentals. So, if you're looking at it, cancel it now.
Francis Suarez is the mayor of Miami, again, separate from Miami Beach here. He joins us right now.
Mayor, always good to have you.
What do you think of this move? Is it justified?
FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MAYOR OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: I think the reason why they're doing it is because South Beach attracts a lot of tourists. And it's very, very difficult to control the crowds.
There's large crowds of people...
CAVUTO: Right.
SUAREZ: ... that are gathered together.
So, the whole idea of social distancing kind of goes out the window in South Beach. And I think that's what they're trying to get ahold of.
CAVUTO: Do you support a move like that?
It's a little different in your neck of the woods. Are you, as well, looking at those who might be coming to your city for a vacation, short- term rentals and the like, that you would consider the same?
SUAREZ: Yes, I think, for us, we're always looking at -- and one of the things we have in our city is sort of underground parties, where, basically, bars have been closed by order of the governor.
And we see people that basically try to create, recreate a bar in a warehouse. And so we shut down two of those this weekend. We shut down about 10 businesses over the weekend.
So, we have been trying to dramatically enforce or increase our enforcement to make sure that, you know, things don't get worse in the city, which is obviously seeing -- and in Dade County, which is obviously seeing record number of cases over the last few days.
CAVUTO: You know, Mayor, the greater Miami area has been compared to sort of like the new Wuhan, the new hotbed area of the virus.
Do you think that's fair?
SUAREZ: You know, that was one of the epidemiologists down here that said that. I think that was -- I don't know if she said that as an epidemiological opinion, expert opinion.
But I think -- I think there was 50,000 cases a day in Wuhan. We're nowhere near that, obviously. We're at 3,500.
CAVUTO: Right.
SUAREZ: I think, in New York, you had a death rate that was at 8 percent. Our death rate is somewhere in the 2 percent range, and our death rate has been stable.
We do have an issue with our hospitals very, very close to or very nearing capacity. And we are trying to create more capacity. And we do -- we may have to take some dramatic measures, if things don't improve over the next few weeks.
And that's something that we're hoping that we can all together -- we had the governor today. We just came from a meeting with the governor and with all the mayors -- or all the major mayors of major cities -- of many of the major cities in Dade County, so that we can at least communicate whatever we're going to do with one message, because I think it is very important for us to communicate clearly and coherently one message, so that people will follow it.
CAVUTO: Are you for kids going back to school in Miami this fall in person?
SUAREZ: You know, we had a big discussion about that just a few minutes ago.
Right now, obviously, we have a tremendously high amount of cases. I can tell you, personally, my daughter is still not school-ready. So she's not going to be going to school. And, actually, she could have been going into preschool. And my wife is thinking of holding her back.
My son, who's 6, will probably do virtual learning, if things don't get better. But there are many families in our community that are in lower income, and they may not have another choice to be able to not send their kids to school, if they want to work.
So, right now, what I have understood so far is that parents will be given an option as to whether their kids can go to school or not. That may change, given the circumstances. Obviously, schools are six weeks away from opening. And that's -- hopefully, we will see a significant improvement before that day comes.
CAVUTO: Because the governor, I believe, DeSantis, is still on board with schools reopening for in-person classes, as things stand now.
Do you support that?
SUAREZ: Yes, he definitely -- he definitely does feel that way. He reiterated that.
For me, it's more about the circumstances. I -- today, as of right now, with the cases the way they are, and the fact that we're still in phase one, under the CDC guidelines promulgated by the federal government, schools would not be open.
CAVUTO: Right.
SUAREZ: So, I think we have to see how things are going to evolve over the next six weeks.
I can tell you that, if things don't get better over the next week to four weeks, we're going to have a hospital problem, and we're going to have to potentially consider taking some very extreme measures.
So, we're trying to communicate to our residents that this is the time for them to take this seriously, to wear their mask in public, and to distance socially, and wash your hands.
And we also are seeing that a large percentage of the transmission is at home, people going back home, from a family member. So, we're also messaging that out, so that people are more careful when they get home, and don't just pretend like they didn't potentially get exposed from the outside.
CAVUTO: All right, Mayor, best of luck, and to your two little ones there, as you balance that. You're a parent, too, after all, so you have a lot to juggle.
Mayor Suarez, thank you very, very much.
SUAREZ: Thank you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Just focusing on the White House right now.
We're minutes away from a presidential press conference. China will be the big issue right now. We have been getting very in your face with the Chinese right now on a whole host of issues, from Hong Kong, to setting up military installations in islands all across the South China Sea.
Our Charlie Gasparino has been following all of this, because trade, I guess, Charlie, hangs in the balance, right?
CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, we're a long way from the phase one victory lap that the Trump administration had before the coronavirus.
It's -- we are now at a point where there is all-out trade war with China, and it's war on a number of levels. It's an economic war. It's preventing Chinese companies maybe from operating here, like the music app TikTok, as the Trump administration believes that that music app is taking information from its users, mainly kids, but also social influencers, and giving it to the surveillance part of the Chinese government.
The Trump administration really blames the Chinese for the coronavirus outbreak. They're on pretty good ground on that one. So, this is not a good time for Chinese-American relations.
I will say this. I find it fascinating that the Democrats are chiming in as well. Joe Biden, if you saw some of his economic plans, it's all about stopping trade with China or limiting trade with China.
There is a populist consensus in this country that China has done us wrong with the virus, with other -- with other measures. And I think you're going to see that play out through the election. Both sides see it as fertile ground for voters.
And to be honest with you, the Trump administration was the first real -- first time anybody -- any administration called out China so blatantly. No one else did in the past. They deserve credit for that. I'm not saying we should have gone the full tariff route.
But we -- but the Trump administration went out there and clearly labeled China as a bad player, as a menace to the world economy. Listen, if there's -- there's no better proof than the coronavirus outbreak, which emanated there.
So I think you're going to hear Donald Trump ramp up the rhetoric in this. I mean, clearly, from his economic aides, you could -- I have been speaking with them off the record, but Larry Kudlow has been saying it on the record. This is not a good time for the Chinese -- for Chinese-American relations.
I can't imagine they're going to is going to be phase two of a trade deal with them, given just how much animosity is out there.
So...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: And, by the way, Charlie, you're right on that.
Catherine Herridge from CBS was interviewing the president on that subject, and he ruled out a phase two trade deal right now, to your quick point here, because phase one just is going nowhere right now. We're waiting for them to deliver the goods, and they're not, right?
Real quick.
GASPARINO: Yes.
I mean, phase one wasn't that big of a deal anyway. It was supposed to be the setup for phase two. But it's the relationship between the two countries now, which has been totally soured by corona, by further talk of espionage.
I mean, all's you have to do is look at a music app TikTok, right?
CAVUTO: All right.
GASPARINO: It's young -- used by young kids. That may be banned because of this. That shows you how far they're going to go in this war -- Neil, back to you.
CAVUTO: Oh, it's out of control.
All right, thank you, buddy, Charlie Gasparino.
We are waiting to hear from the president on this. He will outline all of these plans. Might be an opportunity for him to respond to questions about all these school systems that are delaying their in-person opening.
Now, he said that would be a mistake. He no doubt could use this as an opportunity to emphasize that point.
Here comes "THE FIVE."
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