This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 17, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Welcome to "Hannity", this Friday night.

What happened to Roger Stone, by the way, is a travesty. That needs to be thrown out, like yesterday.

Breaking now as we come on, 9:00 in the East, 6:00 in the West Coast -- we can confirm, FOX News can confirm a full-scale federal investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is now underway. That means investigators are now focused on a biological testing lab in Wuhan, China. That's the province where according to our own Bret Baier and his exclusive reporting, patient zero apparently contracted that virus from a bat.

Officials do not at this time believe the outbreak was linked to any kind of manmade biological weapons program. They're saying they do not believe the contamination was intentional, and instead, what Bret sources are reporting is that China was so desperate to compete with American scientists that the Wuhan lab cut corners, relaxed safety measures, and as a result, one of their workers was apparently, accidentally, they say, infected and then spread the highly contagious disease all throughout the province of Wuhan.

Now, in the days and the weeks that followed, this is where it gets even worse, China's government engaged in what is now a deadly cover-up to -- that led to widespread carnage all over the world. That U.K. study said 95 percent of those could've been prevented.

What the Chinese Communist Party did is unforgivable. China erased data, doctors, scientists, they just disappeared, some frontline doctors tried to warn the world, they're dead from COVID-19. China shut down the city of Wuhan from all domestic travel. If you lived in China, you couldn't travel in and out of Wuhan. If you live in Wuhan, you couldn't travel anywhere else in China.

Think about this -- in what is a reckless, deadly act, China continued international flights to and from the city. They protected themselves, but not the rest of the world.

If these reports are all true, you know what that means? The Communist Chinese government has blood on their hands, and must pay for this vile, inhumane conduct.

Two Republican lawmakers have now unveiled legislation that would allow Americans to sue China's government.

Now, I'll take it a step further. The United States should now consider withholding all debt payments until we recoup our losses from China's deadly virus and reckless behavior. They protected themselves, nobody else. They knew how bad it was.

Now, of course, China will never be able to repay the colossal loss of life, the indescribable suffering, sickness, death all over the globe that their actions cause.

And the World Health Organization -- Health Organization, really? Well, they too have blood on their hands. It was a WHO, and its director general acting as a propaganda arm for the communist Chinese, and according to reports, actively, knowingly, helped China cover their tracks.

Now, the WHO might as well pack up and move to Beijing because it's not seeing another dime, should not see another dime from we, the American people. As long as President Trump is in office, I tend to think they won't.

Here now with his -- he's the host of "Special Report", Bret Baier.

All right. Bret, now, officials, what they are saying, they don't believe the outbreak was linked to any kind of manmade biological weapons program, according to your report. They don't believe the contamination was intentional.

Do we know this for certain, or is there a possibility that it was manufactured? Is there a possibility the spread was intentional? You confirmed in your recording they protected their country, but they left the rest of this world get this virus.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, Sean, good evening.

There is really zero confidence in people I've talked to, publicly that this was a man-made virus. It you heard it Tony Fauci ask this question in a way about the lab in the White House task force briefing tonight, he said there were a lot of studies that showed it was transmitted from animal to human and that it was not genetically altered. That match what our sources had said and what reported at the beginning, that they didn't think based on the structure of the genome of the virus that -- that it was man-made.

Now, there are -- the thing that is inconclusive is exactly about the lab. But more and more dots, both open source and classified, point right to the lab. That's why we are increasing in confidence.

What there is 100 percent confidence of, and we reported this, and now, more and more officials are saying it publicly, is the level and extent of the cover-up China went to, and part of those dots fit into why there is such a point at looking at this lab.

Secretary Pompeo talking about it publicly today with Hugh Hewitt on the radio.

HANNITY: Now, 98 percent -- we do know this from SARS, most people may not remember, SARS was also a coronavirus, and according to the scientists and doctors I interviewed, when they broke down the sequence in record time, which is why we are in stage one trials for the vaccine, there was a 98 percent similar sequence as SARS, again, another coronavirus which would lend itself to the theory that they didn't do this intentionally, meaning, create the virus. It was there.

What is the exact evidence that, you know, they are giving you? What are they saying specifically behind this report that proves this?

BAIER: On the manmade part. Yes, well, they believe that this doctor, Shi Zhengli, who was working in the Wuhan virology lab, was essentially working on antiviral immunization efforts. That's what our sources are saying. That's what matches some of the reports that were out from the University of South China and others, that there were author's to study the virus in the very lab.

And basically that the non-manmade part is pointing specifically to the genetic mapping of this virus right now. And that it hopped from an animal to human, and it was not altered in its genetic sequence. That's what we get (ph).

HANNITY: And just -- and just to be clear, in your reporting, you are saying that it was -- the Chinese knew it was dangerous enough that they weren't allowing flights in or out of Wuhan to any other part of China, but they were allowing it to the rest of the world, which would say they knew it was that dangerous?

BAIER: Well, then you look at other elements there, dots on the board, that is how much they went to scrub all of the data. The fact that you can't find some of these doctors, including Shi Zhengli, who was working on it. The fact that some of the samples were destroyed, the fact that just today, Sean, the Chinese government re-announced an increase in the dots total in Wuhan by 50 percent.

HANNITY: By 50 percent, what a joke. That's sick.

BAIER: And that's just today.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

All right. Bret Baier, great job, thank you for your reporting. Thanks for sharing with our viewers.

Now, during a time when we need the most America's intelligence apparatus is reportedly not operating at full strength inside of China. They are still hiding. Over the past decade, more than a dozen suspected American assets were jailed or killed, including one individual who was shot outside a government building.

Make no mistake: Donald Trump was right from the get-go. China is not controlled by the benevolent leaders. Instead, its people are ruled by a barbaric dictatorship that profits from their suffering.

Here now with reaction to that, FOX News contributor, former CIA station chief, Dan Hoffman, China expert Gordon Chang is with us.

Dan, look, you've been in some very hostile areas across the world, I don't want to let it be known everything I know about your back on. That wouldn't be fair. But you risk your life. So have many other in the brave intel community. They risk their lives, one of my buttons is for those 99 percent of people here that risk their lives for us.

DAN HOFFMAN, RETIRED CIA SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Yes, you know the Wuhan virology institute is the primary target right now for the intelligence community, it's not just the CIA, it's also the DIA as well as our overhead reconnaissance and signals intelligence. We want to know as much as we can about that lab.

We know that they have a maximum-security lab that conducts experiments with the most dangerous viruses. We need to know about their safety regulations. What we really need to know is something about patient zero who got this whole thing started. And I think that our country is getting a good lesson right now in Chinese propaganda.

It exists to obfuscate the truth. Their regime security depends on it. They want to whitewash China's reputation overseas and deny their citizens the truth. That's how they stay in power.

HANNITY: Gordon, let me go to you. I mean, you know a lot about this, let's go back to Bret Baier's reporting here. He says officials don't believe the outbreak links any kind of man-made bio weapons program. That might be provable because of the similarity sequence breakdown with SARS, also a coronavirus. And they don't believe it was intentional, but it certainly speaks volumes that they allowed no travel out of Wuhan into any other part of China, or no travel from China into Wuhan, but they let the travel out of Wuhan to the rest of the world.

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "THE COMING COLLAPSE OF CHINA": Yes, the story gets even worse, Sean, because China admitted for the first time that this disease was transmissible human to human, H2H, on January 20. But Doctors and Wuhan knew by the second week of December that it was H2H, which meant that Beijing knew about it just a few days later.

And, you know, when you start to think about this, if China had said nothing about H2H for those five and a half, six weeks, that would've been irresponsible. But Beijing deliberately tried to tell the world there was no H2H, and they enlisted the World Health Organization in that, which means, people around the world, health officials around the world were lulled into not taking precautions that they otherwise would have adopted because of the deliberate falsification from Beijing, which was amplified by the WHO.

HANNITY: Look, this is an area of expertise you have, could they be that evil? They know it was awful. They weren't letting anyone travel there or out of there to their country.

CHANG: Well, when you look at the facts, Sean, you have to conclude that the only explanation that fits the facts is that when Xi Jinping -- I'm not saying this is a bio weapon -- but when Xi Jinping saw what the coronavirus did to cripple this country, I think you wanted to level the playing field. And if, in fact, he wanted to deliberately spread this, he would have done exactly what in fact he did.

So, that's the only explanation that I can come up with.

HANNITY: Dan --

CHANG: You can say, for instance, it's reckless. But clearly, I think it's malicious.

HANNITY: Dan, you've seen a lot of people in the world. You've put yourself in dangerous, precarious situations all your -- your entire career, this is a pretty high scale of human evil.

HOFFFMAN: It is. Listen, you could go all the way to the dark side where Gordon is, I see that point. And probably, the kindest thing I could ever say is that this is Xi Jinping's Chernobyl.

HANNITY: Yes.

HOFFMAN: Very eerily similar to what the Soviets went through in 1986 were they purposely failed to disclose the worst nuclear accident in the history of the world and caused countless deaths in the region and beyond. And that is essentially the same thing China did.

They arrested individuals who tried to ring alarm bells as Gordon noted. They obfuscated the truth, lots of propaganda and disinformation, all designed to ensure that they would remain in power. And we need to hold China accountable for their treachery, for their corruption, I think that that's what the end game is for this investigation.

HANNITY: And the World Health Organization.

Gordon, Dan, thank you both.

If you don't think it can happen, think back to the last century alone. OK, Mao, China, communism, fascism, Nazism, and Imperial Japan, the killing fields, Cambodia, (INAUDIBLE) over 100 million humans killed in the last century.

You don't think evil happens? It does, sadly. It's sick, it's ugly. It is repulsive. We need to get the truth.

Now, some positive developments, if we can say anything is positive surrounding our country's fight against COVID-19. Researchers at Stanford University, they were combing the local population there to find residents with antibodies. Remember, two weeks ago, we didn't have the antibody tests. Now, we have millions of them thanks to Abbott.

Now, they discovered that the infection rate may be 85 times higher than reported. In other words, a significant amount of the population may have been exposed without getting sick enough to report symptoms. That would suggest, again, we are looking at the numbers here, exponentially the possibility that the death rate could be as low, or even lower than the seasonal flu. We'll continue to monitor, time will tell.

Now, the situation in New York continues, thankfully, to improve. Hospitalizations have now declined for the fourth straight day. That graph has been what we are hoping for, leveling, falling off, now we're looking for the precipitous drop.

Incubations are also on the decline, that continues. The death rate appears to have flattened, and thanks to the president's numerous actions, New York never ran data ventilators, never ran out of hospital beds. Received millions and millions of masks, and gloves, and gowns, and shields from the federal stockpile.

The USNS Comfort, the emergency 3,000-bed hospital at the Javits Center are still operational. Both were modified to accept COVID-19 patients, not an easy task to change the ventilation system. All workers in both the facilities were manned by our great military, at the request of the president, to help out New York and New Jersey. Also at the direction of the president, the federal government directed what amounted to a massive amount of resources to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.

And in spite of -- well, my efforts, I've been trying to bridge the gap between the governor of New York and the president, clearly it's not going to work. It's not happening.

Today, Governor Cuomo is complaining, I need, I need, I need. Why doesn't he make this call private? Governor Cuomo, make the calls request privately. You do that, he's given you all this stuff, you are provoking a fight. It's not good.

You got to save the people of New York. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): First of all, if he is sitting home watching TV, maybe he should be getting up and going to work.

I've said a number of times, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers? I said the one issue we need help with is testing. He said 11 times, I don't want to get involved in testing, it's too complicated, it's too hard.

No one can take the posture, we'll just say thank you for what I've done and I'm now out. I'm not doing anything else.

I don't think the president of the United States to read the Constitution for me. He should read the Constitution before he says he has the power to open the states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Why do you have to, Governor, why do have to keep asking publicly? I had Governor Cuomo, on my radio show yesterday. I want him to succeed, I want New York to recover, I don't want anyone else to die.

He's got to stop with the political theater. I need I need -- the president gave, gave, gave, gave, gave. Ask for help rightly, especially since he told me yesterday, he delivered it big time for New York.

If he keeps using these press sessions as public venting sessions and demand sessions from everything from the federal government, this relationship is not going to work. I'm trying to be a peacemaker here. Now, why couldn't he just say he's working with the federal government to get more testing and other resources? Because it's not as simple as snapping your fingers, I need 1,000 ventilators.

He said the president does respond quickly every single time, all the things he wanted, they've all asked for the decision to -- they want to make them themselves -- OK. The president gave it to you. Then you can't demand that the present do anything when you got what you wanted. You are in charge.

Governor Cuomo wants to be in charge of reopening his state. OK, do it. Instead of demands, call testing companies, call thermometer companies, it's not that hard.

I've already offered the Hannity plan what I think we should do to open New York City. That's the smallest geographical area, largest number of people, some days 11 plus million people there.

Now, masks, gloves, temperature checks to get into any building. Wearing a mask in the building, half the workforce should continue to work remotely, from home, so you have more social distancing in every New York City building.

Also, open -- let's think about reopening -- you see that, that's Yankee stadium. Yankees, I talked to Randy Levine, one of their top executives today. It they will do anything that is asked of them, anything. They want to do it, and do it safely.

They will work with the governor. They will work with the president. It they can open Citi Fields to the Mets. We can open the Meadowlands to the Jets and Giants. How do you do it?

Well, here's my idea. Test all the employees who serve the public at these events. That means the players, the coaches, the trainers, the ticket takers, all food handlers. They've got to a positive COVID ID test. We can do that, thanks to Abbott.

Now, Randy Levine rightly pointed out, I can report the Yankees will go all in and do whatever is needed to keep every fan safe. I'm sure every MLB team, every NFL team, every college team, they will do what's needed. They will do the right thing, they will follow the rules.

If it means, OK, I want to go to the game, you got to put on a mask. It's not ideal. You can eat popcorn, but you can probably go like this and eat a -- take a bite of your hot dog and chew it with your mask on, and then take a straw and drink your beer.

You'd probably do -- I would rather do that than stay home, myself. That's the Hannity plan.

Now, Governor Cuomo, you don't have to do any of this, you have your opportunity, you are the governor. It if it's a good plan, I will support you. It's doable, inconvenient, it's thankfully, only temporary.

Now, there are reports tonight of a group of liberal northeastern governors apparently working on a way to ignore the administration's reopening guidelines all while smearing the president who did more than anyone else. The biggest help, mobilization in the history of the world, that's what we are now living through. Now, by the way, got a lot of for say -- for having the travel ban quarantined, and then subsequent travel bans.

If they want to go the governors alone, OK, you are right. There's the 10th Amendment, good luck. Your bat, your ball, and as somebody said to me early in my career, you've got to decide, you can do it the way the experts or the researchers tell you, or you can do it your way, your bat, your ball, your ass. That's it. If you fail, at least fail in your terms.

Again, the anti-Trump politicization in this, not helping anybody. What thing that can happen is cities that were in debt, that were running deficits, before all of this, don't ask the American taxpayers to bail you out of your reckless and irresponsible spending.

And to Republicans in Washington, I have a message for you tonight. COVID- 19 spending bills only. That's it.

No more money for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kennedy Performing Arts Center, no changes in voting laws or immigration laws, health workers that need money. Hospitals that need whatever they need. Help small business and big business, that's it. That's a big enough task.

Also, for all of you in Washington, time to turn around and get your rear ends back in Washington, D.C. That means the House and the Senate, go to work.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are fed up with her governors. Look at Michigan, protests erupting against Governor Whitmer, because, why, issuing lockdown orders. You're preventing residents from visiting their own family members, cutting their own grass, buying seeds, fishing? You can't be any more socially distant than fishing.

So, how did Whitmer respond? Oh, she goes on conspiracy TV, Roswell Rachel Maddow show and it's sort of like an out-of-control tyrant vowing vengeance, how dare they protest against me. People should be allowed to cut the lawn and fish. It should be a rule.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): People came and converged together in Lansing and went back to their home across the state off Michigan. They're -- you know, the odds are very high that they are spreading COVID-19 along with it. And so, it's that kind of responsible action that puts us in this situation, or you might have to actually think about extending the stay-at- home orders, which is supposedly what they were protesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Minnesota, Kentucky, Michigan, all around the country, you governors, you are overstepping your authority. You have gone way over the line.

Joining us now, author of the bestseller "Guilt by Accusation", Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Also, the author of "Opportunity Knocks," this book is phenomenal. Senator Tim Scott's history is beyond inspiring. Thank you, Senator, for being with us.

By the way, you have to buy it at Amazon.com or Hannity.com because you can't get it at any bookstore. They're not open, but it's a great book.

All right. Let's start with you. Why are you guys are not in Washington? And I'm not saying, I know you'll be back in two seconds because I spoke with you today. And can we make every spending bill COVID-19-related only, please?

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): We should follow the Sean Hannity plan, that it should be temporary and targeted relief only as it relates to COVID-19. No more funding the Kennedy Center, no more conversations around humanities and arts and science.

Let's focus only on the one thing, the COVID-19 response. It should include zero for anything outside of that. And it should be temporary at the same time, Sean.

HANNITY: Nancy Pelosi, Professor Dershowitz, needs to stop eating her expensive ice cream, get out of her private jet, make a big private -- you know, get out of her gated multimillion dollar community and get on a private jet, a lot of carbon emissions. Get her tail back to Washington and do her job.

Why doesn't she do that?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL EMERITUS PROFESSOR: It's not clear, and you can do your job even not from Washington. We have technological means for reconvening the House and said, look --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: OK. The president is out there every day. They need to show that they're working, because they don't look like they're working with pictures of ice cream -- freezers full of ice cream, you know, that they're choosing every day.

DERSHOWITZ: Look, everybody -- everybody should be looking at the public health issues first. You mentioned land they'll make Randy Levine. By the way, as a Red Sox fan, I think Randy Levine and the Yankees are one of the great people in the world today and what he has offered the people of New York is sensational.

What we need to do is use him as a model. Private industry, governors, presidents work together. Manhattan project --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Hang on a second, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm a Yankee fan and a Mets fan, too.

DERSHOWITZ: Yes.

HANNITY: So, Yankees -- I'm going to agree with Alan Dershowitz, the Boston fan. That's really hard, the curse of the Babe.

Randy told me, he'll make masks with Yankee emblems on it. How cool is that? I should -- I probably shouldn't have said that.

DERSHOWITZ: That's the way we have to adapt. We have to make it fun to do the right thing.

HANNITY: Right.

DERSHOWITZ: We have to never compromise constitutional rights. The right to protest is a fundamental constitutional right. Now, the issue of staying home is a much more complicated issue. You mention books on technology.

My book, which you mentioned, thank you, of "Guilt By Accusation," I now made it available free on Kindle, because I want people to have something to do when they stay home.

HANNITY: It's a great book, I read it.

DERSHOWITZ: Thank you

(CROSSTALK)

DERSHOWITZ: You can protest from home as well. You can protest online.

HANNITY: Senator, we take the temperature. Everybody has to wear a mask. You have to sip your beer through a straw.

That's going to suck but I'll suck it up for a while. I'll drink beer. And he can cheer for the Red Sox. I'll cheer for the Yankees.

You have the last 20 seconds.

SCOTT: Suck it up, let's get back to work, let's go back to Washington and pass legislation. I'm happy to do it, whenever we can get back there.

HANNITY: All right,

SCOTT: I also agree with Alan. We can do it remotely if necessary.

HANNITY: All right. The book is phenomenal, both books.

(CROSSTALK)

DERSHOWITZ: Thanks.

HANNITY: When we come back -- I'll drink -- I'd rather drink the beer through the straw. I'd rather take the hot dog -- and chew it under the mask.

We need to start living again safely. Do it safely. I'm not the doctor.

All right. When we come back, China now admitting, yes, their coronavirus statistics underestimated by 50 percent at least. I still don't believe them.

Also, Rudy Giuliani will react. Much more, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Also developing this Friday night, Wuhan raising their death toll to about 50 percent. Really? Following overwhelming evidence Beijing consistently underreporting the true number of fatalities.

Here with more, our chief breaking news correspondent Trace Gallagher.

They are still lying, Trace. They didn't just find an additional 50 percent. They're lying.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And many believe, Sean, that China is now putting out these numbers as a show of contrived transparency or an effort to deflect from accusations that COVID- 19 accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan and that the Chinese government spent weeks trying to cover it up.

Either way, the city of Wuhan is now reporting that more than 3,800 people died from coronavirus. That is a sudden increase of nearly 1,300 people, or almost 50 percent of the previous number. Chinese estate media claim the reason for the big jump in numbers is because medical facilities were overwhelmed during the peak of the outbreak and made mistakes or missed a number of cases.

The news numbers might be a surprise to health agencies around the world but not to critics like Texas Senator John Cornyn who wrote, quoting here: Well, well, well, after repeatedly defending the accuracy of their data, Chinese officials revise the coronavirus death toll in Wuhan.

Even the head of infectious disease at the Chinese university of Hong Kong called the new numbers, quoting here, quite strange -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Trace Gallagher, thank you for that report.

And, by the way, don't forget, China restricted travel inside Wuhan. Yes, couldn't travel to or from Wuhan if you lived in China, not the rest of the world.

And remember, while the virus was spreading in China, multiple news outlets reporting in February, there was a video, actually a showing or appearing to show people in China being forcibly dragged from their homes and also quarantined. We haven't been able to independently verify that video.

But now, in light of Bret Baier's and all his exclusive reporting, we need answers if what is being reported by other people, in fact, is true.

I want to know if that video is accurate. And what did Washington do -- what can they now do to hold them accountable? What can major cities do to protect themselves from future pandemics?

Here to explain that and more, this is a guy who knows how to deal with tough times -- former New York City's mayor, America's mayor, Rudy Giuliani.

Mr. Mayor, you know, I tried to bring peace between Cuomo and the president. Cuomo goes out again, I need, I need. And I'm like I tried.

You know, I'm like, why don't you ask privately, especially when he told me yesterday the president delivered for New York. The president picks up the call.

How do we open Yankee Stadium? I have my plan, what would you do?

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Well, I like the idea of checking people who go in. Maybe you start with half of a stadium or a third of a stadium.

I opened Broadway four days after -- three days after September 11th. They didn't want to open. And I said to them, I will -- I'll protect everybody that comes in. I'll protect all the -- I'll protect all the actors, the actresses, the band, the whole thing.

The first night, there was maybe a third of an audience. Second night, about a third of an audience, and then by next week, it was full again.

So, maybe you start with 20,000 people in the stands. Spread them out. At least they'll be on television. I mean, if I can watch a game on television, I would be -- it would be like being in heaven, for me.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I mean, I love watching you, Sean, and Laura. I would really like to see Aaron Judge hit a home run.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: All right, I'm with you.

Now, I've had the pleasure of going to a game with you. You have the best seat in the house, right next to the Yankee dugout. Good for you, and you were nice enough to share with me once.

Now, here's the thing, can we --

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: Well, this time, we'd have to sit like six feet apart.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You will like that better, because I never shut up, I talk all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: So, here's -- so here's the deal. If people with underlying illness or compromised immune systems, they -- they've got to take the season off. I think we agree.

If everyone else gets a temperature check --

GIULIANI: Sure.

HANNITY: -- and everybody else wears a mask, and you drink beer through a straw, you eat hot dogs, but you can't eat peanuts or popcorn, I think most New Yorkers have the choices, you got to do that or you don't go, I vote to go. That's my vote.

GIULIANI: Yes, yes.

What we have to do is -- I've said this now for about a week -- we have to get something started. Whatever compromise we have to make to get it started, let's make it.

So, if we want to play a baseball game with only 20,000 people in the stands, maybe -- maybe nobody in the stands for a while. Just put it on television. And then we start bringing people in. But we've got start going back.

Let's do a Broadway play, and let's stream it -- live streaming. Just pay to watch it so that the actors come in, they can all be screened, so we're watching at home --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: But don't you think -- if everybody has -- if everyone gets a temperature check it, and I don't know all the answers, I'm just throwing my little "Hannity" ideas.

Same with New York City, if half the workforce stays home, now you have social distancing in every office. To get into an office, you get your temperature checked. Everyone in the office, for a while, I know it sucks, but you have to wear a mask, you have to wear gloves for a small period of time. That will all go away after the -- after the fall.

GIULIANI: Right.

HANNITY: You can open New York City, and you can open Yankee Stadium. Am I wrong?

GIULIANI: No, you're not wrong. And the plan should be incremental opening. It's like -- it's like it builds on itself. I've watched this with September 11th.

HANNITY: Right.

GIULIANI: First two or three nights, nobody showed up. Nothing happened, and then people showed up.

HANNITY: I'll go with you in the first game.

GIULIANI: By the third -- the first game, there might be 20 -- as I said, 10,000, 20,000 people.

HANNITY: I'll go with you, but you'd be lucky.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I won't be talking the whole time (INAUDIBLE) hear me.

GIULIANI: I'll be lucky because you'll be six -- you'll be six seats away.

HANNITY: Right. You get some peace, I never shut up. I mean --

GIULIANI: No, but the point -- the point -- the point that you're making that I'm making is, we've got to start moving things.

HANNITY: Right, safely.

GIULIANI: Get them started, maybe even -- maybe even in a small way. Just get them started. A couple of Broadway plays that are streamed.

HANNITY: Well, here's my question -- will New Yorkers accept that temperature thing before they go in? Will they accept --

GIULIANI: Yes.

HANNITY: -- just for a short period of time wearing a mask? I would. That's my -- I'm not -- I don't speak for all New Yorkers.

GIULIANI: Look, I will -- I will -- I will -- I will speak for 90 percent of them.

(LAUGHTER)

GIULIANI: During this lock-in, every -- every -- every -- every day or two, I go out to my car and I drive around. I've been to Brooklyn, I've been to Staten Island, I've been to Queens, I was all the way out to Coney Island.

I watched New Yorkers. They are complying.

HANNITY: They are.

GIULIANI: They're going to comply. They're -- they have been very good.

Let's -- I mean, a couple of mistakes, but very small in a city of 8.3 million people. They have been very disciplined. I'm very proud of them.

HANNITY: Can you please tell --

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: And they've very been discipline (ph) in a comeback, but let's come back. And De Blasio has got to stop this --

HANNITY: All right --

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: -- we're going to be closed down for another six months. That's ridiculous. You'll ruin our economy.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Can you please tell your friend, Governor Cuomo, when he wants more -- President Trump did everything for New York. When he wants more stuff --

GIULIANI: He'll really get it.

HANNITY: -- that he'd (ph) call him.

He doesn't have to do it publicly. Do it privately. Work together. Every time he goes "I need, I need," I mean, it drives me nuts.

GIULIANI: That's the way -- that's way I dealt with his father, he should deal with Trump that way.

HANNITY: All right.

GIULIANI: I called him up privately. I didn't embarrass him, right?

HANNITY: Exactly.

GIULIANI: It doesn't help to embarrass.

HANNITY: Especially after he delivered.

GIULIANI: And I never dealt with Governor Pataki that way either.

HANNITY: Yes.

All right. Mr. Mayor --

GIULIANI: We do it privately. All right.

HANNITY: -- I'll go to the first game with you, and you get the benefit of not hearing me chatting. I've got a mask on, and I'm six feet away, you're lucky.

It will be great. Perfect -- perfect scenario.

GIULIANI: Can I yell at the umpires -- can you yell at the umpires through the mask? That's the important thing.

HANNITY: I think I'm -- I can do that. I'll handle that for everybody.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The U.S. government is at war with coronavirus. Nancy Pelosi, yes, she's out eating $10 pints of ice cream. Reince Priebus, Jason Chaffetz are here.

Also, much more, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. The president has had enough of the do-nothing Democratic political games. Today, Trump slamming Nancy Pelosi, Chuckie Schumer holding up was desperately needed small business relief funds, tweeting they need to end their endless vacations.

He also blasted Pelosi at today's presser, rightly so. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, Nancy Pelosi, she's away on vacation or something, and she should come back, she should come back and get this done. I don't know why she's not coming back. The fact is she's not doing her job and there's nothing unusual about that for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining us now, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, FOX News contributor, Jason Chaffetz.

Reince, COVID-19 relief only. No immigration law changes, no voting law changes, no pork, no arts, clean bills.

Get her back to work on a little private jet. I'm sure it's a big one.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Yes, no kidding, Sean. I mean, 22 million people out of work. Over 20 million of those 22 million are working in small businesses, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and the president did, too, he made a promise, he's keeping it, but he made a promise to allow businesses to do two things -- number one, recover the cost of keeping people on the payroll during this time and just before. And number two, allow businesses to keep and rehire employees through June 30th.

This is the right thing to do. She is going to fold because she can't sustain this kind of insanity with 22 million people out of work. She claims she wants other things. She can take care of these employees and she can fight about other things, but I agree with you, those other things, if it's not COVID-19 shouldn't come into play.

HANNITY: You know, Jason, she has a big private jet, multimillion dollar mansion in her gated community. Apparently, the most expensive freezer for ice cream ever created in the history of man.

Go back to Washington, take your little private jet, or your big private jet, get back to work. Clean bills only peer that means Republicans, COVID- 19 relief or no deal. No more wasting any money. We can't afford it. We can't afford infrastructure either.

JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Only replenish the PPP. And you know what, the House is not scheduled to go back to session until May 8th, three weeks from now.

HANNITY: Good grief.

CHAFFETZ: Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise should call -- should call the Republicans back and be on the floor on Monday morning, giving their speeches, have the House position give everyone of them a test, get out there, demand that they vote on this.

And in the Senate, Mitch McConnell ought to have those Republican senators there on the floor voting, dare Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to vote no on it. The Republicans control the Senate. There's no reason why they can't hold the vote right away.

HANNITY: Vote c every single day.

CHAFFETZ: If they vote no, then vote again. Vote every hour on this.

HANNITY: Every single hour, every -- all day long. Stop blackmailing.

PRIEBUS: They want to open up the economy and then not go back to work.

HANNITY: They are holding relief money hostage to fund the National Endowment for the Arts. This has got to stop. Even in --

CHAFFETZ: If the postal workers --

HANNITY: Yes!

CHAFFETZ: If the postal workers can deliver the mail, the United States Senate can go in session and vote to put money back into the pockets of the American men and women who are working.

HANNITY: Farmers in Wisconsin are farming. They are packaging. The manufacturers of the gowns, the gloves, the shields, the masks, the ventilators, they are all working.

Washington, get your ass --

PRIEBUS: They're all working.

HANNITY: -- back to work. All of you.

PRIEBUS: And we have to get America back to work, too, and find a way to get us all back to work as soon as possible.

HANNITY: Amen.

PRIEBUS: And, you know, the senators can't hit the remote interviews talk about getting everybody back to work, but then not go back to work themselves. So, it's time to get going again and the Senate and House can lead by doing that.

HANNITY: I'll tell you what, I'll make a deal.

PRIEBUS: Just as Jason and you laid out.

HANNITY: I will buy Nancy Pelosi a big freezer and all the ice can she can heat for her office in Washington.

All right. And I'll even send some on her private jet so she can get back to work.

Thank you.

Another day, another disastrous interview for Biden. You can't make it up. Dan, Geraldo, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: The ever-confused Joe Biden on a streak of never-ending disastrous interviews, actually drifting off the total incoherence yet again, softball appearance on fake news CNN and conspiracy TV, state-run TV MSDNC. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, there's -- during World War II, Roosevelt came in with a thing that, you know, was totally different than a -- than the -- it's called -- he called it the -- you know, the World War II, he had the war -- the war production board.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: It's not just me. Everybody's doing the same thing.

JILL BIDEN, WIFE OF JOE BIDEN: Yes.

BIDEN: Everybody's doing the same thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really are.

BIDEN: We've got to -- it's just -- but you got -- I mean, we've got to -- we've got to reassure -- look. My message to everybody I've talked to is we're going to get through this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Dan Bongino, Geraldo Rivera.

Geraldo, we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal endowed by the thing. You know, the thing. The thing --

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: Don't make fun of us elderly citizens here, Mr. Hannity.

HANNITY: Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I read somewhere that 70 is the new 40, I don't know.

RIVERA: You know, no one as sharp as they once were.

HANNITY: OK, Geraldo, you're sharp.

(LAUGHTER)

RIVERA: I want the former vice president to join with the president of the United States right now and demand of China, when did China know that that virus was transmissible from human to human, when did they know it, did they tell the World Health Organization, is it true they waited six weeks to tell the world that this man killer was out there.

HANNITY: Geraldo, it's worse than that.

RIVERA: I want the vice president to speak in forceful terms about that.

HANNITY: OK.

Dan, one little problem for Joe in China, is that zero experience Hunter got a billion dollars and I think a half a billion later with the Bank of China with no experience that we can find whatsoever. I'm not really holding my breath for Geraldo's answer.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, this guy, Biden, he's got more baggage than a first class bin on a JetBlue flight, you know? I mean, he's got a world of trouble heading for him, Sean.

And watching him in the beginning, listen, I'm serious, I'm sincere, I'm not messing around. I really feel bad for this guy. He's in no shape for this. You know, I was a Secret Service agent, not a secret. We would work eight-hour day, Sean. We'd go home.

And the president, I worked for three presidents. The president is still there. These are 12 to 16-hour workdays.

Can you watch that video -- I mean, I'm asking you this sincerely. I'm not messing around. Can you watch that video and tell me with a straight face you want to give this guy the nuclear football. I mean, on a 16-hour workday?

Sean, it's not that he forgets what the specifics of what he's talking about in an interview, he forgets what --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: All right. Geraldo, let Geraldo answer your question. I think, Geraldo, answer Dan's question.

RIVERA: I think, well, I believe he really has to step up to the plate. I don't think things are going to get better. You know, things won't become more lucid. But if he focuses on issues like how China has made prostitutes at the behalf of Washington throwing their money, you know, buying compliance, I want him to step up to --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Seventy is not the new 30.

BONGINO: He's got to step up to the plate. He's got to figure out what stadium he's in first. Forget about stepping up to the plate, man! Come on.

HANNITY: We'll continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. That's all the time we have left this evening and we'll always speak the truth. We're not the rage, psychotic hate Trump media mob or the Democrats.

Hey, Nancy, go back to work. I'll buy you a freezer. I will send all the expensive ice cream you can eat.

Set your DVR so you never miss an episode. Have a great weekend. Pray for our country.

Let not your heart be troubled, here's Laura Ingraham.

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