Secretary Ben Carson praises President Trump's leadership on coronavirus crisis

close

Video

Secretary Ben Carson praises President Trump's leadership on coronavirus crisis

Coronavirus task force member Dr. Ben Carson, Housing and Urban Development secretary, joins Sean Hannity on 'Hannity.'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 16, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

Tonight, there's been way too much blame, way too much finger-pointing, way too much politicizing and fear and panic and hysteria on the coronavirus. A ton of fake news, misinformation going around once again.

We on this program, we are going to be dedicated to bringing you facts without fear. We are Americans. We start this program every night with the facts first without fear. We'll call out those that are so corrupt that have nothing but a political agenda. That would include the media mob, many of them.

And we can sum it up, by the way, at the very beginning of the virus, New York Times headline "the Trump virus." If you feel awful, you know who to blame.

Now, other multiple outlets calling it Trump's Katrina, Trump's Chernobyl. We're going to analyze the destructive, irresponsible behavior of the mob and the Democratic Party.

But first, we're going to start with the facts without fear. Why? To help keep your family, our American family safe and healthy. I hope, one day, we get rid of cancer and heart disease that people -- we lose tens of thousands of people to flu every year. We want everybody safe and healthy and sound.

We start tonight with breaking news. I spent a considerable amount of time now speaking with leaders all weekend and today from the president's task force. Here's where we are. This very moment is a critical time for everybody in the country.

My sources are very clear tonight. We are now entering what will be the crucial, defining 15-day period as it relates to this virus where we must slow the spread of coronavirus. And if we all joined as Americans, the virus doesn't discriminate against Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, does it? If we can do this for 15 days, thousands of American lives will be saved.

Look at your screen. These are the recommendations from the task force and the administration for all Americans.

If you feel sick, stay at home. If your kids feel sick, don't send them to school or day care. If someone in your household has tested positive for coronavirus, please self-quarantine your entire household. Keep them at home.

If you are an older person or an individual with underlying medical conditions, a compromised immune system, maybe you are receiving chemotherapy, radiation, have autoimmune issues, whatever the underlying diseases are, please stay away, almost quarantine yourself from other people. It is critically important we heed these guidelines, especially in this 15-day period starting today.

If everybody does their part in the next two weeks, we know for a fact lives will be saved. Don't be afraid to be vigilant. If you need more information, there's the website, Coronavirus.gov. We'll put it up later in the program.

As the president said earlier today, our key main focus must be slowing the spread of this disease. And now, for the 15-day period, the president is asking all Americans, even those that -- well, don't like a single thing he's done, let's all join together in this effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: My administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel, and avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts.

If everyone makes this change or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus. And we're going to have a big celebration altogether.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: The president's right. We are fighting an invisible enemy, and now, slowing the spread is crucial. It is key.

Luckily, in this case, some pretty basic steps by all of us together will go a very long way. For example, many Americans are now working remotely. Thank God for technology. Numerous schools, universities, they are utilizing online learning.

Another great progress. Thousands of bars, restaurants across the country are now limiting service to takeout and delivery.

I want these guys to keep staying in business, so I'm trying -- I'm trying to patronize all the businesses I know.

Anyway, tonight -- especially local business. It's critically important that you practice great hygiene and what we call social distancing. And according to the studies, this virus is three times more contagious than the flu.

From the beginning, if you remember our coverage, we were telling you, we noticed that people with virtually no symptoms or none whatsoever, they were capable of unknowingly pass it -- passing it on to others.

Now, while most young people, unlike H1N1 -- well, they don't experience, sometimes no symptoms are not severe symptoms, mild symptoms. They can spread this disease like wildfire.

And the overwhelming people that do contract the disease, again, no symptoms, mild symptoms or you will get the flu but fully recover. And if they, by the way, around those with those underlying conditions, compromised immune systems, and they pass on this virus, we risk losing those lives. That's why this is important.

As I've been saying, let's protect our grandmothers, our grandparents, our older moms and dads. That's what this 15-day period is all about. Look, we are the land of the free in the home of the brave. These are not just words in an anthem. That is who we are as a people. It's in our DNA.

I always say, let not your hearts be troubled. We're going to get through this. During his first inaugural address, you may remember, President Roosevelt reassuring Americans during a time of rate uncertainty, saying the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Fear is not helping here. Those advancing political agendas, they are not helping either.

Eighty-six years later, those words, they still ring true today. In a few short decades, this country defeated, let's see, Nazism, fascism, communism, Imperial Japan, we made it through the Great Depression, the Great Recession, 9/11, the Cold War.

We are the American people. We face our problems head-on, rise to the occasion. Overcome our challenges no matter what with the greatest last medical researchers, scientists, doctors and the entire world.

The coronavirus is no different. So far, there've been under 200,000 confirmed cases worldwide, 181,377. I have an updated number right there. Anyway, and more than 7,000 deaths.

The goal is to save as many lives here in America and worldwide as possible. At home in America, 3,800 Americans of tested positive for the disease. Again, facts without fear. Less than 100 have died. Those numbers will rise likely dramatically with more testing. Well, the numbers that have contracted the disease.

It's then expected if everybody does their part, it will level off, the sooner the better. And for context, a lot of people don't seem to know this. This is why the fearmongering and the panic and the hype and hysteria is so unhelpful.

Last year, over 35 million Americans contracted the flu. Over 490,000 Americans hospitalized for the flu, 34,000 Americans died of the flu right here in the United States over the course of just one year. And that's pretty typical.

Now, thankfully, the toll surrounding coronavirus is lower. However, facts without fear, if we take all the necessary precautions, the stats will level off and ultimately begin a decline and hopefully four to six weeks max and we can get back to life as normal.

Tonight, we all must do whatever is necessary to stop the spread of the disease. Protect our older fellow Americans, flatten that curve and more importantly save lives.

We can say this tonight without a doubt. The president's China and European travel ban I predict will go down as the single most consequential decision in history. That's not political. It brought us time. It bought hospital's time to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

It bought the federal government time to the source ventilators and other medical supplies. It bought doctors, scientists, researchers time to develop either treatments and eventually hopefully a vaccine. It bought the pharmaceutical industry time so they can do what they do best.

In fact, the very first experimental vaccine in the U.S. was tested today, earlier today. And let's not forget it also bought enough time for an unprecedented public-private partnership to form as the president announced Friday. I would say between, within three weeks of us identifying the virus, then the travel ban quarantine, this unprecedented public-private partnership where were go to parking lots of Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, I don't want to forget the great companies helping and we are going to be able to do something we've never been able to do before in record speed -- a groundbreaking new system, new paradigm drive through testing sites, is in the works now all across the country, with many locations already open in record time.

Today, even the media mob, they showed, maybe they were sick today, slight signs of moderate restraint. It wasn't all gotcha questions and personal attacks. However, sadly, there are those who will always be more interested in bludgeoning the president politically than actually solving a problem. In this case, a pandemic.

Sadly, pandemics happened. I wish they never happen -- which brings us to the politics of this virus. Context is important in life. So, take a look at this time line. This is different and put together by Joel Pollock.

Look at this. January 21st, the very first person with coronavirus arrived in the U.S. from China. That's not long ago. The same time, Democrats, what were they doing? They were in the throes of an all-consuming, what has been the culmination of a three year quest to impeach and throw Donald Trump out of office, undo an election. They never accepted the results of in the beginning.

January 23rd, House impeachment managers, what were they doing? Oh, they were doing their opening arguments and impeachment. Same day, China completely sealed off the entire province of Wuhan.

Then on January 31st, look at this. The president then declared that national health emergency, ordered mandatory two week quarantines. He issued the travel ban on all travel to and from China.

On that same day, what were the Democrats doing? They were busy with impeaching the president. They weren't caring.

January 31st, Senate Democrats desperately pushing for more impeachment witnesses, the day that Donald Trump put the travel ban quarantine in effect. Wow. It wasn't until February 5th that the impeachment charade was officially over and even then, many were plotting future impeachment investigations. The next one.

Meanwhile, other top Democrats, they were calling the president's travel ban racist. On January 31st, the day of the travel ban, what did quid pro quo Joe say about the president's actions? He said they were xenophobic, they were hysterical in the president was fearmongering.

No, Joe. You're wrong. Democrat House members, they were worried that the ban would stoke racial determination.

Look at your screen, no president has done more or acted quicker to stop the spread of a pandemic or a disease and yet, the president has been trashed every step of the way by Democrats and, of course, their state-run TV and the media mob.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are working very strongly with China on the coronavirus.

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia.

ALEX AZAR, HHS SECRETARY: I have today declared that the coronavirus presents a public health emergency in the United States.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: We have a crisis of coronavirus and President Trump has no plan.

TRUMP: We have stopped non-U.S. citizens from coming in to America from China. That was done very early on. We're screening people and we have been at a very high level.

We're working very hard to expedite the longer process of developing a vaccine.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: We have to just stipulate to fact. We have to dispel some of the misinformation that has been put out there.

TRUMP: To unleash the full power of the federal government in this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To shut this president up right now because he is undermining the doctors and scientists who are trying to help the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And at last night's dull, boring debate, you had Doctor Quid Pro Quo Joe and Dr. Bolshevik Bernie Sanders making it abundantly clear they would never have enacted the travel ban to stop the spread of coronavirus. That would've been the single biggest mistake that would have resulted in thousands of Americans contracting the disease and untold numbers dying. They want completely open borders, even still, unchecked immigration. They both walked government-run free health care for all, including illegal immigrants.

Yes, this is going to be very expensive at the end of the day. Those two bozos, they didn't quite get it and it's likely thousands of Americans would have contracted the virus and many other Americans died from it. America's borders as we've been saying have got to be safe.

Testing, screening those who have come into our country, that's one aspect of it. Also, we don't want people with radical agendas. We want people able to take care of themselves if we do invite them into our country to be part of our American people. We don't care where you come from. Let us vet you.

Our health care system while not perfect produces the best doctors, medicine, research anywhere in the world.

But Dr. Quid Pro Quo Joe is now telling voters that he would have done a much better job as president, that his socialist ideas of, oh, he wants to expand Obamacare, millions lost their doctors, millions lost their plans, and on average, you're paying 200 percent more, and 37 percent of Americans have one Obama-Biden care exchange option.

This is the same guy who can't get through a digital town hall on Saturday without turning it into a complete and total disaster and Schiff show. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The whole point is we can do a lot to deal with a dangerous species. And one of the things I would like to raise is that we have to deal with this in international basis. Right now for example, we have a thing, you know, Brazil has -- the Amazon is burning. I'm sorry this has been such a disjointed effort here because of the connections. But there's a lot more to say, but I've already probably said too much to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Now, in 232 days, you the American people -- oh, I'm sorry for the cameras over here. It doesn't say Hannity for president or anything to cover it, a disaster. They started like two and a half hours late.

Two hundred and thirty-two days, you will decide whether that man holds the keys to the most powerful job in the world, a critical decision. We are witnessing the president's actions can have major and massive ramifications.

This new paradigm, let's see, oh, public-private partnership, travel ban, quarantines, acting in unprecedented -- with unprecedented quickness. This will change how we deal with future pandemics and save lives. The regulation cutting is helping speed the development of a vaccine. The emergency declaration enabled an unprecedented public-private partnership with all the money that will be needed to fund it.

And going forward, the president's commitment to helping American businesses will have, well, lasting effects. Got to help our fellow businesses that are in trouble -- airline industry, cruise industry, those workers, hourly workers that fear taking a day or a couple days off because they're not feeling well. They are all handled under the president's plan already.

Listen to Joe, I have a plan. Well, the president did all the things you're talking about and then some. Now is not the time for Washington to play games. All hands on deck. Governors, mayors, the federal government, must now work together, get hospitals what they need, the equipment that might be needed, the supplies that they may -- it need in the future.

Newt Gingrich had a great idea. Use the floating naval vessels that we already have. We already have floating hospitals. We can use those. Maybe we can even commandeer or rent or buy temporarily maybe these cruise ships, rather than just a bailout. We can house people that need help.

Of course, we're not at that point. We don't want to get to that point. We need to prepare for the worse case scenario. The president and his task force confirmed they are.

Now, as it stands, our health care system has adequate ventilators, ICU beds, medical professionals and ultimately like I said we must prepare for the worst, pray for the best. In the meantime, wash your hands, stay at home.

Here now with a full report of the very latest, our own Trace Gallagher -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And, Sean, let's begin with the very latest numbers from the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 global map, which showed the case numbers and death toll continuing to rise. There are now more than 181,000 cases worldwide with more than 7,100 deaths. It's also notable that more than 78,000 people have fully recovered from the virus.

Here in the U.S., there are now more than 4,600 cases and 81 deaths. Experts say because testing is increasing, they fully expect the number of cases will also increase.

Meantime, in San Francisco, there's a massive shelter in place mandate that affects some 7 million people. Residents being told to stay home and only go outside to get food, medicine, and absolute essentials.

France and Canada, also essentially on lock down with the French president ordering people to stay home for 15 days. And the Canadian PM closing his country's borders to foreigners except U.S. citizens.

Meantime, 47-year-old actor Idris Elba has tested positive for coronavirus today on social media. Elba said he has no symptoms but is keeping himself in isolation. He says he got tested because he was exposed to somebody who had the disease.

It appears Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are on the mend five days after announcing they had coronavirus. The couple left a hospital in Australia and are now continuing their quarantine at a house they rented.

After self-quarantining for several days, South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham has now tested negative for coronavirus. Graham put himself in quarantine after visiting Mar-a-Lago and coming in contact with a member of the Brazilian government who tested positive -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. And I can confirm I sent Lindsey Graham whole steak so he could eat well while he was waiting in his self-imposed quarantine.

Thank you, Trace Gallagher.

GALLAGHER: Sure.

HANNITY: We begin now with much more. Starting tonight, all bars, restaurants in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut are only available for takeout service as the states work to limit the number of coronaviruses.

For me, personally, I know a lot of people that run small businesses. The fact that they have offered takeout, I'm in. You know what, I want to make sure that they are up and running and don't take that big a financial hit and are able to keep many of their workers working during this time.

Joining us now live with New York City, from the very latest there, Rick Leventhal -- Rick.

RICK LEVENTHAL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And, Sean, we are definitely seen the impact of this shutdown already, far less traffic on the streets of Manhattan and far less people on the sidewalks of Manhattan, in large part because there's not a whole lot to do out here now. It's very cold out but it's also now the rule here on the streets in the city that you cannot get a drink or eat food inside any one of the 21,000 bars and restaurants here in Manhattan and the five boroughs.

You cannot eat or drink inside the establishments. You can order takeout. You can have deliveries here to your home but these restaurants will no longer served to the public until further notice, and that's true in at least 19 other states across the country, and Puerto Rico as well. We have others being added to the list tonight, including Colorado, Rhode Island, and Oregon, joining Connecticut and New Jersey and Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and many, many more. All these states now saying you can order takeout, you can get deliveries from restaurants but you cannot eat in those restaurants and a major effort to try to cut down on the person-to-person spread of coronavirus.

Sean, I can tell you that here in New York City, close to 150,000 people work in or depend on the business from bars and restaurants. So, we don't know yet what kind of impact it will have, but it certainly will have a major impact until we get through these hard times -- Sean.

HANNITY: I hope people will patronize those businesses. We know government help and monies have already been allocated and that will be forthcoming hopefully sooner than later.

Rick Leventhal, thank you.

Stocks, another grisly day on Wall Street after emergency Federal Reserve action failed to quell larger economic fears about the impact that corona. While it still anyone's guess what's going to happen in the short term, the fundamentals are strong, the Trump administration moving forward on more bold action to provide relief to those most affected by the massive disruption of daily business and mitigate some of the -- well, longer and larger term risks.

Now more than ever, it's time for calm, bold, decisive action. Time for facts without fear and sound policy, preparation. Not the politics of hysteria and panic.

Here with more the reaction in the business community, "Outnumbered" -- co- host of "Outnumbered", co-host of "After the Bell", Melissa Francis.

I know I watched the rate cut. You know, it's interesting, I'm not a big stock market guy. I never use that as my biggest barometer. We're watching it fall. When we get through this which we will, I expect the market will rise.

But it's interesting because I talked my friends, they love this. They're into this. I'm not. They're like oh, no. We're kidding -- this is some of the best deals you're ever going to get. Buy now.

What did Warren Buffett once say, right? When everyone's afraid, buy.

MELISSA FRANCIS, FOX NEWS CO-HOST, "OUTNUMBERED": Right, when everyone is panicked, that's your opportunity.

HANNITY: I'm not offering that as advice, by the way. Don't listen to Hannity.

FRANCIS: Yes.

HANNITY: Yes.

FRANCIS: No, I mean, so you saw what happened, the Federal Reserve last night lowered the rates to almost zero, but, Sean, as you noticed, the market tanked again today. We saw it closed down almost 3,000 points. It was a massive move.

And it is because of the scene that you just saw there with Rick Leventhal. See, when we all go inside and hibernate, when we come back out when this is over, we want those bars and restaurants to still be there. And the restaurants that shuttered, yes, they can do delivery and take out, but you can see the folks inside, the waiters and waitresses -- they're not working. They're not getting their wages. They're not getting their tips.

And that business has to be able to make payroll. And that's what everyone's worried about now. And the moves that the Fed makes, that's not going to get to these restaurant and bar owners and small business owners for a long time.

And, you know, anything that they're doing in Washington, if you put Congress in the middle of it, it's going to take forever and that's why some people are arguing that the Federal Reserve needs to set up a line of credit right away to these very businesses that you're looking out on camera. If you can't make payroll this week, if you're not going to be able to pay your rent, whatever it is, so that you can go and not get a bailout. But get a line of credit, get a loan at a very low interest rate so that you can pay your people and not go out of business in the meantime.

And that's the biggest concern. That's one of the things that's really scaring the markets. The government has to get on top of that. I'm going to give you one thing to be optimistic about, though, Sean. Larry Kudlow, OK, I sat next to him until anchored with him to the last financial crisis, he was always frustrated that there weren't enough creative pro-growth programs in place so that when you see this big move down in economics, they call it a V-shaped recovery, you pop right back up. You can really explode and grow on the other side, but you have to have the right people in place making the right decisions.

And this administration, this president is surrounded by those people. If they are let loose to do the kind of creative things we need. They need to think outside the box and do more than what's going on right now, because I tell you all those empty places, how are they going to make payroll? How are they going to pay their people? How are they going to pay their rent, how are they going to stay in business to be on the other side?

And the ramifications of that are huge for this economy. They need to get on that, Sean, right now. You know who to call. Call them.

HANNITY: Yes.

FRANCIS: Get them in line. Tell them what to do. What do you think?

HANNITY: OK. I love all that and I'm a big believer in Kudlow. I've always been a fan of his and he's understood Reaganomics, lowering taxes, increasing revenues to the government, opportunities.

In the short term, I like the idea. Like I have four restaurants, I'm a loser. I only go to like four places. Let's see, Al Fresco's (ph), everyone knows I go there.

FRANCIS: Yes.

HANNITY: Chris and Tony's where I live, Rothman's (ph), and La Peseta (ph).

All of them now are delivering.

FRANCIS: Yes.

HANNITY: I tweeted out, oh, so happy. Things are getting better. At least to keep these businesses, small business owners. You know what, everybody goes a little above and beyond, want to patronize your favorite restaurants and they deliver it, all the better. The, you know --

FRANCIS: What about the tips for the guys inside? That's one of the problems for the waiters and waitresses that have been working there --

HANNITY: I tip them the same anyway. Whether they bring it or -- it doesn't matter. Tip them the same. That's what I do.

FRANCIS: Well, that's just makes you one person to beat, Sean. There you go.

HANNITY: Even if it's just your local pizza place, whatever it happens to be, it doesn't have to be expensive. Even McDonald's delivers. You can have Uber Eats or somebody send it.

All right. Melissa, thank you.

FRANCIS: Thank you.

HANNITY: And joining us now, Housing and Urban Development secretary, member of the White House corona force task force, and only happens to be a really good doctor, an amazing brain surgeon and a close friend, Dr. Ben Carson is with us.

Dr. Carson, good to see you.

DR. BEN CARSON, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: Good to see you.

HANNITY: I see three very historic, groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting moves that the president has made.

First one, I cannot -- how the president had the insight to put that travel ban in effect in three weeks, amazing. He took a lot of heat. Hysteria, xenophobic, stigmatizing, racist -- all those names called.

The second was this -- you know, we saw all these business leaders come in and out of the White House, culminating what we saw Friday which is these public-private partnerships, for testing in the parking lots of Walmart and Target and CVS and Walgreens -- I wish I could mention them all.

And the third thing now is this 15-day period that the president laid out today and we can put that back up on the screen -- and these are the things that the American people understand we're going to save -- we're really looking to save the lives of grandmas and grandpas and those with autoimmune diseases and immune deficiency --

CARSON: Absolutely.

HANNITY: -- and moms and dads that are older. They are the most at risk of dying from this. Not young people.

CARSON: Yes. Well, the president has excellent perspective. And, you know, early on when a lot of people were saying, no, you can't impose a travel ban, you know, he stood largely alone, courageously, recognizing what the consequences would be if we had all these vectors of disease transfer to our country. And then the same argument, you know, occurred when it came to Europe.

And there will be other tough decisions. He's willing to make those decisions and that makes a huge difference. And as far as bringing the business community in, understanding that the real power in this country lies with our people.

We have innovative people, entrepreneurial people. But we also have people who care. And if you go back to the early days of our country when we were getting criticized by a lot of people in Europe, because we had rich people and we have poor people, they didn't realize that our rich people were a little bit different than the ones in other countries that just hoarded money and passed it down from generation to generation.

Our rich people built the Transcontinental Railroad and the seaports and the textile mills and the factories which allowed us to produce the most dynamic middle-class the world has ever known. They went further than that. They built schools and museums and universities and all the things that help to create the American Dream.

And the president recognizes that bringing these people in and they are volunteering to help, we're getting calls all the time from companies, what can I do to help? We need to understand that this is not a time for class warfare. This is time for us to work together.

The American people are amazing when they're willing to work together.

HANNITY: Do you agree -- Newt Gingrich was on my radio show earlier today and he said if not for the president's travel ban, quarantining thousands of Americans would probably be dying as a result, more Americans. And Newt Gingrich saying, I'm in Italy and the -- amid the coronavirus there which has been very extreme, the breakout, good luck with national health care but -- and single-payer. But America must act now, must act big.

CARSON: Absolutely.

HANNITY: Explain to this audience, if you can, why is it with this virus - - my understanding is, we had pandemics. We got a lot -- look at H1N1, we had, what, 16 million Americans impacted by this, 5 -- up to 575,000 dead worldwide. In a year, we lost 12,469 Americans.

Obama didn't have a travel ban and Biden didn't have one. They didn't have a quarantine. They themselves, their HHS secretary said it was an emergency early like 11 days in, but they didn't declare an emergency until six months later, 1,000 Americans dead. Tens of thousands contracted that virus.

CARSON: Yes. Well, this particular virus is extraordinarily contagious. It's probably two or three times more contagious than the average flu virus that we encounter. And that's why we have to be very aggressive toward it.

And the task force looked every day of the data, the data that comes from all the other countries and analyzes this and then uses that information to make recommendations to the president, to the vice president, and, you know, to all the various agencies around the country. And that's one of the reasons that -- you know, every death is horrible but it's much smaller than it could have been.

And we can't relax and we can't rest on our laurels. We have to continue to use scientific evidence to make the recommendations. And this means that all the people have to be involved. They have to understand, even if you are feeling great, you still need to follow the recommendations about keeping your hands clean, watching about your clothing, particularly if you're coming in and mingling with the people who fit into the high risk categories.

If you don't learn those things and do those things, then you're creating part of the problem. But the good thing is I think next year that the death rate from influenza will probably be a lot smaller because a lot more people now understand what happens when you don't take the appropriate precautions.

HANNITY: I'm all in favor -- I'm all for the elbows, you know, going forward. I'm all for elbows. It's healthier, we've known this forever. But I do agree with you.

All right. Dr. Carson, thank you. We appreciate it.

CARSON: All right.

HANNITY: Now, the National Institutes of Health today announcing groundbreaking news, coronavirus vaccine trials, they're now beginning right now in Seattle.

Here to give us, well, much-needed facts about the pandemic, former White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Mark Mulligan.

Good to see you both.

Dr. Jackson, let me start with you.

The ban, the public-private partnership and then this crucial 15 days.

DR. RONNY JACKSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: Hey, Sean.

HANNITY: Give us what your perspective is in terms of Italy and Iran then what we've seen in China and South Korea.

JACKSON: Well, I think, Sean, the president and he's done everything he needed to do in this case. He's acted quickly and decisively. You know, he did what he always has done. He put together a top-notch team and he was criticized and ridiculed as he usually is and tried to be torn down by the far left and by the liberal press.

And despite that, he just carried. He did what he needed to do for our country. He put the travel ban in place. He protected us.

And, you know, what we see going on in Italy right now and Iran I think is not going to happen here because of the president's quick and decisive actions. I think we're going to be more in line with what's going on in South Korea and things of that nature. We are going to see that we got on it early in the president stopped it quickly and it's going to save countless American lives. And I'm just -- I'm proud that he's acted so quickly and decisively in all of this.

HANNITY: Dr. Mulligan, this is what you do. You are an infectious disease specialist. I know more about pandemics, viruses than I ever wanted to know, ever cared to know.

But it is fascinating the -- apparently, they were able to break down the sequence of this virus faster than any other one in history and why is that important? And how do you see the overall picture of things?

MARK MULLIGAN, MD, NYU LANGONE INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION DIRECTOR: Yes, it really has been amazing, the speed at which science has jumped on this virus which first appeared in December and by early January, the virus was identified. On January 10th, the sequence was made available by the Chinese and that was a wonderful thing.

Very quickly, the NIH took that virus sequence and created a vaccine candidate which as you have said on your show went into the first human clinical trial today. So, here we are, just three months roughly, after this virus --

HANNITY: And that's record-breaking, sir.

MULLIGAN: That is -- yes, absolutely. That's the quickest that's ever been done. You know, it's not -- we are in a real challenge and we would like it to be even faster but that is amazing.

HANNITY: What impact is this public-private partnership going to have? I would argue, number one, I don't like to go to hospitals even to visit. But I do what I have sick friends unfortunately.

But I go there. It's like they are Petri dishes, right?

MULLIGAN: You know --

HANNITY: If you could drive up and contested, it's much safer. My thought.

MULLIGAN: That's right. No, I agree completely. Hospital is a good place to be if you're sick, really sick. If you are mildly ill, we don't want people going there right now.

And so, having these public-private partnerships is huge. Particularly huge is the number of tests will go way up with industry involved in providing test kits. So, it's very important.

HANNITY: Dr. Ronny Jackson, we'll give you the last word.

JACKSON: Yes, sir, Sean, I just think, you know, we just have to follow the president's lead on this. He's got -- he's got the team in place to lead us out of this successfully. And I think we just follow his instructions. And we're going to be -- we're going to be OK in this.

HANNITY: Is there anything else quickly both of you that the president could have done sooner? Dr. Jackson first?

JACKSON: No, I don't think so. I think he did everything he needed to do as quickly as possible. I think we're seeing -- we're seeing evidence of that now. I mean, I know that we have 70 deaths right now and I know, you know, that's a lot, you know, for the people that are impacted by this.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We expect it's going to increase with the testing -- Dr. Mulligan, anything the president should have done earlier or should be doing now that you see he's not doing?

MULLIGAN: You know, the one thing that's not gone as well as we would like would be the rollout of a test very widely. So, of course, retrospect is 100 percent. But if we -- if we could have maybe involved industry even earlier to start rolling out large numbers of tests, that would've been helpful, because we are really still not testing as many people.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: They never did before.

MULLIGAN: Right.

HANNITY: I mean, that's the thing, this is a new paradigm. We -- why did we never --

JACKSON: Sean, also --

HANNITY: But I've got to roll. Yes, go ahead, real quick. Real quick, Ronny.

JACKSON: Sean, I was going to say this is just an example of some of the regulations and government that the president has been getting rid of since day, and so, here, we had some in the medical community that impacted us early on, but we'll take care of --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Look at how quick they partnered with these companies, amazing. Roche, oh. And why do some people demonized the Walmarts and big pharmaceutical? They kind of help save our lives.

Thank you both.

When we come back, U.S. officials say a, quote, foreign disinformation campaign trying to spread fear in this country about coronavirus. We'll explain why China looks like they're to blame. They did not serve the world community well. We don't need lectures from China or Dr. Bolshevik Bernie Sanders or Dr. Quid Pro Quo either. They wouldn't have had a travel ban, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Right now, the virus outbreak is also shining a bright light on a massive disinformation campaign coming from of all places China, you know, where this all originated. Remember, a Chinese diplomat summoned by the U.S. State Department for spreading a bogus conspiracy theory about the virus coming from the U.S. Army. Yes, that's a lie.

Now, the Trump administration sounding the alarm, warning of more foreign interference campaigns and also pushing back against the false report about a mandatory national quarantine. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services was reportedly hit with a cyber attack on Saturday.

Joining us now with reaction, Congressman Devin Nunes, along with Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz, cyber security analyst, Morgan Wright.

Let me start with you, Congressman Nunes. I know you got hammered because you said you wanted to support a local restaurant. The good news is, I can tell you these restaurants are delivering, taking care of their customers in other ways. But I spoke to you earlier. You support the president's decision.

(CROSSTALK)

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.: Well, Sean -- it's actually even -- these media freaks don't have a clue what's going on out in the real world.

HANNITY: The mob. Yes.

NUNES: We have a problem out here because we have people standing in line for 45 minutes at Costco. And so, what I was saying is you have empty restaurants. You can go through the drive-thru, you can do take-out. It's a great place to go.

The media freaks can do that they want, but, you know, they're endangering lives here by continuing this panic when we have no food shortage in this country. The farmers of America produce an abundant food supply. We have more food than we can eat in this country. And we have to stop panicking and ensure that people know they don't have to wait in a line at Costco for 30, 45 minutes. They need to stay calm.

HANNITY: Yes.

And, Jason, Congressman, I don't know what to call you -- Jason. You're a colleague. You're no longer insulted by the name congressman.

(CROSSTALK)

JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Jason is fine, yes.

HANNITY: You know, the president got on the phone with the heads of these food chains. They are killing it to fill -- restock the aisles.

I went shopping twice this weekend. No prob -- the only thing I couldn't get was toilet paper and paper towels or Purell. Everything else was there.

And I'm at the grocery store and I'm looking at everybody and they're putting in extra stuff. And I talked to the guys that stock the shelves, they said, no, we just put it right back in. They've got -- they've expedited, they're putting stuff in.

Why does everyone want toilet paper and paper towels? I don't get it.

CHAFFETZ: Well, listen, hats off to the people who are -- the blue-collar people who get it done in this country. Think of the truckers that are working overtime. People who are up early at 4:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning, restocking those shelves, making sure that we have everything that we have. The people that grow the food, the people that pack the materials, the people that put it on the trucks, the people that deliver, and the people that at the register to check you out -- all of that is happening. We're (ph) going to have this massive surge in place.

There's no place like America, Sean. We are resilient. We will answer this call and the men and women that get that done, even in the face of a pandemic and people, you know, their kids at home, they still get it done. That's why you've got to love this country.

HANNITY: And I went to restaurants all weekend, picked up food, said hello to my friends that run these businesses, and, you know, just telling them that I am offering their support. We appreciate it.

What about, you're a cyber security analyst, Morgan Wright, and what about these attacks? China, propaganda, misinformation?

Devin Nunes, the guy that's on the screen to your right at the end --

MORGAN WRIGHT, CYBER SECURITY ANALYST: Right.

HANNITY: -- that guy warned about Russian election interference in 2014. Biden-Obama did nothing about it. The only person that was really involved in that ends up being Hillary Clinton with her dirty Russian dossier.

But we know that these hits happen all the time. My social media has been compromised numerous times.

WRIGHT: Yes.

HANNITY: Multiple attempts to hack into my Website daily, like 1,500 a day at least. So, this does not surprise me.

And can we stop it? That's the question.

WRIGHT: You know, stopping it, Sean, that's a good question. Can we really stop it? No, but what we can do is get it to a point to where we make them pay a price if they want to run these maligned influence operations, if they want to compromise our network, steal our intellectual property.

Look, China is the biggest thief of intellectual property. The U.S. trade representative put out a report. They are responsible for the loss of over $5 billion a year in our intellectual property. So, nothing's going to stop China except sanctions, except hitting back really hard, which they've loosened the rules.

U.S. Cyber Command, the president has said, hey, guys, let's take the gloves off. Let's start hitting back a little bit.

So, I think -- I don't know that you will see it around this because there's so much to work with, unfortunately. When you have an incident like a virus, a pandemic, a natural disaster, scammers, criminals, thieves, even nation-state actors use this as a way to spread fear and uncertainty and doubt to do phishing and spear phishing emails and to try and compromise accounts.

So, will it?

HANNITY: Yes.

WRIGHT: It'll go away like the virus but it's going to take time.

HANNITY: And, Devin, you know, all -- this extradition issue going on with Julian Assange in Great Britain. And I'm like, at some point after decades, and this has gone on forever, if you don't put in the proper defense to prevent hackers, at some point, you ought to look at yourself and blame yourself.

(CROSSTALK)

NUNES: And, Sean --

HANNITY: If are going to extradite anybody from Great Britain, I want Christopher Steele.

NUNES: I -- I knew you were going to say that about Christopher Steele. But one of the things that I will remind people, while the media freaks and mob were chasing around the Russia hoax and the impeachment hoax, House Republicans have actually been -- on the Intelligence Committee -- been looking into China, investigating China.

And we've come up with two important solutions. One, we need to stop letting people come in here and steal our secrets, and, two, if you're a Chinese company and Americans are investing in there, you needed to use the same accounting rules that we use here in the United States. So, we've identified this --

HANNITY: Yes, all right.

NUNES: -- and we're working on this to solve the problem.

HANNITY: Thank you all for being with us. We appreciate it.

Coming up, voters in several states slated to head to the polls tomorrow. Some primaries are being delayed. We'll explain.

And also, later, huge news about Michael Flynn, a great injustice and we have the evidence, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the primary elections are in upheaval. Louisiana, Georgia, Puerto all moving their primaries. Breaking tonight, a judge rejected the request for Ohio to delay its primary.

Here with reaction, Michael Best Law president, Reince Priebus, Fox News contributor, Tammy Bruce.

You know, I think the thing that stands out to me, Reince, more than anything else, I saw this debate last night. You got Dr. Quid Pro Quo Joe and Dr. Bolshevik Bernie.

Now, neither would institute a travel ban. Neither would have quarantines. They both want open borders. They both want us to pay for everybody's health care, even those that don't respect our laws, sovereignty and borders. And I'm like yes, that's not going to work. Maybe Americans are waking up to the fact that we've got to control our borders for a lot of reasons.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, you're 100 percent right, Sean. The contest couldn't be more stark. And it's this ridiculous decision-making on display.

While Canada is shutting down its border, you have Joe and Bernie debating about open borders. You know, it's like, you know, the Trojans accepting the gift of Odysseus and the Trojan horse. It couldn't be more ridiculous.

The president has an incredible responsibility right now with hundreds of perhaps, God forbid, thousands of people in line -- their lives on the line, depending on the decisions that local and government authorities are making. The decisions they are making in the American people are making, the decision to Trump administration is making. All of this is going to be judged by the American people. The president knows it.

This is really no time for punditry and all of the things that are out there right now, these crazy editorials, these comment made by people like Jennifer Rubin talking about more Republicans dying. It's crazy.

HANNITY: Let me go to Tammy, because they wouldn't have support of the travel ban. How many thousands likely would've contracted this disease and died had they not done that? They still stand by that stupidity.

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it's remarkable, even saying what happened here. I thank God everyday that President Trump is the president.

Part of why he was elected was because Americans were worried and wondering, what kind of person do we need at the helm if something very wrong happens, right? Some kind of unexpected dynamic where you have someone who was a leader who also understands that this bureaucratic establishment is killing us and we will not be able to respond in time with something serious occurs.

That is Trump's bailiwick, is the understanding of the importance of public-private partnership and the problem with big government which he is trying to, of course, reverse here. But when it comes to what Bernie Sanders wants, you're looking at Italy, when it comes universal health care and so-called free education.

HANNITY: All right. I got to roll. But --

BRUCE: You see the cost.

HANNITY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

When we come back, huge news. Michael Flynn, wow, how they this mistreated this 33-year vet, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: The president this weekend announced on Twitter he strongly considering a full pardon for Michael Flynn. Now, Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, telling Sara Carter that he would wear this pardon is a badge of honor. John Solomon reporting just late tonight that Obama DOJ officials privately told Mueller they were alarmed by the horrible FBI treatment of Flynn -- Sara Carter.

SARA CARTER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Sean. This is very significant, particularly with John Solomon's report, where there was a memo disclosing that senior-level officials from the Obama administration basically had concerns about how the FBI handled Michael Flynn, how they handled his interview, what they were attempting to charge him with, because according to the memo, all those senior officials, including Sally Yates who was the acting at that time attorney general of the United States, all believed Michael Flynn was actually telling the truth.

Now, remember, this is something that Sidney Powell has argued intensively.

There's also evidence and I did speak with Sidney Powell today, that there is documentation that they actually have not received yet from the DOJ. So, we are going to have to wait and see --

HANNITY: All right, Sara.

CARTER: -- on General Flynn.

HANNITY: Thank you, Sara.

We'll always be fair and balanced. Let not your heart be troubled.

Laura Ingraham?

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.