Graham: Trump doing everything he can to stop spread of coronavirus

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Graham: Trump doing everything he can to stop spread of coronavirus

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham reacts to President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 11, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."

This is a Fox News alert.

It is 9:00 on the East Coast, 6:00 on the West Coast, and in just a few moments, President Trump will be addressing the nation from the Oval Office about the coronavirus. The president is expected to be making big important news about how to protect all Americans during this pandemic.

Now, as soon as the president begins speaking, we will bring it to you all live. But first, joining us now is FOX News's chief White House correspondent John Roberts -- John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Sean, good evening to you.

We're expecting, according to White House sources, that the president's address tonight about 10 or 12 minutes in length, will be calming in tonight. The president wants to assure the nation that the federal government in conjunction with the private sector has things well in hand. The president will also say that we are at an inflection point and how this goes, going forward, will depend on what we do right now.

One of the things the president is expected to address tonight, new possible travel restrictions or advisories particularly for European countries. He will also say that getting ahead of it as he did by restricting travel from China bought valuable time for America in comparison to what some European nations did, who are having a much more difficult time with this right now, but the local communities need to take far more aggressive action than they are taking now.

Sean, tonight, in addition to having a calming tonight the president will call for unity and optimism to fight the coronavirus.

HANNITY: Joining -- all right, thank you, chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

We now go to the Oval Office where the president is now prepared to address the nation.

(TRUMP REMARKS)

Joining us now, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.

First of all, your overall -- overall reaction, it's very hard, I guess, everything for the next 237 days, Lindsey, it's going to be viewed through the prism --

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Right.

HANNITY: -- of politics in a presidential election. That is the nature of politics.

This should be something that's not political but it has been politicized. Let's be honest.

No president ever acted faster. The president was criticized for the travel ban, criticized for the quarantined. Criticized, no matter what he did on this particular thing, immediately gave us $8.3 million, set up the task force. I gave a rundown, a timeline of all things, and he's still getting hit.

GRAHAM: Well, if you want to play the criticism game, almost every Democrat came out hard against President Trump when he shut down travel from China. The probably strongest decision he's made, the most important decision, was to act early when he saw what was happening in China.

What the president said tonight, this is about us as a nation, not as a president, not my party, it's about all of us.

So, he gave an economic vaccine. If we will follow his lead, I'm not so sure about the payroll tax yet, but everything else he said made sense to me to stabilize the economy and prevent the spread of the virus.

I think the president was incredibly presidential tonight. He was reassuring. He's doing everything he can, in my view, to stop the spread of the virus. We're taking it serious but we're not going to go crazy.

HANNITY: All right. Let's go through what the president has been saying tonight. He'll always put the well-being of the people first. If we are vigilant, we will significantly impede the transmission of the virus. No nation is better prepared than the U.S. We're all in this together. Put politics aside, which would be good for once.

He put the travel ban into place for Europe for 30 days with the exception of the U.K. Emergency actions providing financial relief for businesses directly impacted. I guess the cruise industry --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- the airline industry, and workers -- by the way, hourly paid workers so they won't lose their jobs and will have some financial relief if they have to stay out for caution.

Anything else he should be doing in your view?

GRAHAM: I can't really think of anything. I know this -- if President Obama had given this same speech, they would be applauding all over the country for decisive leadership, clear-eyed view of the problem, taking action, preventative action, trying to bring about economic stability before it gets worse, trying to prevent the spread of the virus.

I hope that everybody listening tonight saw a president who was in command of the issue, in charge, ready to do whatever is necessary to stabilize the economy, and protect the American people.

And I would just say this, of all the economies in the world, we're the strongest, and of all the places in the world to provide quality healthcare, America is the premier spot on the planet and we're going to stay that way.

HANNITY: Let's talk about -- there is a need for some prospective. I've been trying to get it. For example, in a year, 12,000 Americans with H1N1, this is 2009 and ‘10.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: This isn't about politics what I'm saying here.

But 12,000 Americans died, 20,000 contracted the disease. There was never a travel ban. There was never any type of quarantine put into place. There was not this level of alarmism, even the markets didn't react this particular way. I've never seen a president instinctively put a ban in place and take a lot of heat for it.

Why, if the flu is --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- pure numbers, much more dangerous, why do you think there is this reaction that we see everywhere? Which we -- we've got to take everything seriously. I want a cure for cancer and heart disease, for the flu, for the common cold and for corona. Of course, we've got to be careful.

GRAHAM: I think the exotic nature of it. It came out of China, it came from left field. Nobody really understands exactly what it's all about yet. A coronavirus case is like an airplane crash. The flu is like a car wreck.

We have a lot of car wrecks. People die in car wrecks, but it doesn't get much coverage. Every time somebody gets infected with the coronavirus, it's like an airplane crash.

And that's the way the media has treated this. They treat the coronavirus like a series of airplane crashes.

And all I can say about the president -- if you've got a better idea come forward. And what I hope what he will do is not sign it off as some Democratic package coming out of the House tomorrow, that's not going to grow the economy but will grow the size of the government.

We don't need economic stimulus for the federal government. We need economic stimulus for the federal -- for the American people, and they are going to want to grow government and what the president wants to do is help the economy.

HANNITY: And I think this is an important thing.

Now, the president is right. I mean, bringing all these bankers in, Wall Street guys in, I think --

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: Executive people.

HANNITY: Listen, we've had the greatest economic growth we've had. We see the jittery markets reacting day by day to what's going on there. There's the added factor of an oil battle, if you will, between Russia --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- and the Saudis and OPEC. That does not help things. But at the end of the day, we've had unprecedented economic growth.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Now, the question is, if we can keep these numbers low, local cities, local states, municipalities doing their thing, schools closing as they deem necessary, people taking precautions they can take, at the end of the day, what we have is a virus that's very scary, like every other virus, but --

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: -- it is unlike H1N1, that impacted younger people. This seems to really be impacting or putting at real risk only the elderly with underlying health issues and some type of immune disorders, how do you interpret that data?

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: Well, what I understand is that this is targeted to the people suffered the most are older people, people with pre-existing conditions. I don't think we've had anybody in the world died under 30. Let's take it serious.

But the president is meeting with the private sector. He's asking banks to be involved. He wants to increase the amount of money the Small Business Administration can loan to people to get back on their feet.

Look and see what Democrats do tomorrow. I think they're going to grow government programs. They haven't talked to anybody in the private sector about what we can do to stabilize the economy. Their reaction unfortunately is going to be to grow the government.

The president's action is to try to create a partnership between the government and the private sector to stabilize the economy, and he realized more than anybody -- any president in my lifetime that the strength of the American economy and American people is in the private sector, not our government.

HANNITY: All right. Senator Lindsey Graham, thank you tonight.

Now, tonight, the president made major announcements, including the suspension of travel from Europe in the next 30 days, excluding the U.K. This is on top of the previous travel restrictions ordered against China, Iran, and South Korea, and Italy. And the president also ordered Small Business Administration to provide the economic loans to small businesses that are impacted by this virus, and, by the way, his tax deadline has been pushed back for those that are impacted.

The president also calling on Democrats to support a payroll tax relief bill that he's putting forward.

Here now with reaction is the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Kevin, is there any appetite here at all for the benefit of the American people, any Democrats to say these are good things to do for the American people, maybe we shouldn't politicize the virus that impacts everybody?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF.: I hope so, Sean. What we watched tonight was the exact type of leader that we need in the White House. His tone, his leadership, his action -- as you said, that action that he took early on that people would criticize by -- walling off China. Had Italy done that, they would be in a different position today.

Talking to Dr. Fauci and the vice president tonight, the reason why he's taking this action, you could almost directly correlate any case inside America that has - a case directly from Europe. So, that's why he's taking that action there.

But he's also looking at the economy and I hope the American public trusts him because we have the strongest economy in the world based upon the policies for the last three years that he led on.

Now, if the Democrats try to move what they're trying to do, I don't know that that will help the economy. It will just cost us so much more money.

Remember what the Democrats just passed today. They passed a rule, Sean, to bring a bill up tomorrow that says no ban. Meaning, it would make the president even weaker in his ability to -- to do what he asked tonight, that he was going to ban from China coming in and now, Europe, to keep us safe.

This is what they are bringing up. That is the contrast of where we are today.

HANNITY: Yes. You know, I want, Kevin, to just go again over the timeline here. Within three weeks of identifying the virus, three weeks, the president put the travel ban and quarantine into effect, that he was widely panned and criticized. Bernie Sanders said he never would have done that and Joe Biden said the president was xenophobic.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

HANNITY: Then we see unprecedented monies being spent, $8.3 billion. That's a lot of money.

Then we see the president expanded the travel ban as necessary for the protection of Americans. At this point now, the president is doing it even further.

I get criticized for pointing out, we lose tens of thousands of Americans every year from the flu.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

HANNITY: I wish we didn't lose anybody. I want every American to be safe and secure, but perspective does count and perspective matters, if you can compare H1N1, we lost --

MCCARTHY: Yes.

HANNITY: -- in a year 12,500 people. Worldwide, we lost nearly half a million people according to estimates, and there was not this level of panic that we're now seeing, if that's the right word, but among some sectors. And I'm wondering why.

I'm trying to understand it. Certainly, when you look at those that are at risk of really dying from this virus in particular, it's very clear right now that it's people that are older, underlying health issues, and those that have immune issues to deal with. Very clear at this point.

MCCARTHY: Yes. If you're over 70 and you have -- you're a smoker, you have lung problems, you should keep yourself inside. Don't go to big gatherings or others.

But remember what this president did as well. This is something that no one is really talking about. In 2019, you know what he created? The Infectious Disease Rapid Response Fund, the national stockpile. He's increased CDC and NIH funding.

We are better prepared today, and that's not the president's saying. That's a study by John Hopkins telling us where we are.

The president, what he also is doing, he's been briefing Congress. They have been bringing everybody together. In one of the first briefings down on the Capitol, no one heard about it because the Democrats were impeaching the president at the time while he was leading this nation.

Had China allowed this president what he requested, was send our scientists, our researchers, our doctors, we could have contained this in China just like what we did with Ebola in Africa. The ingenuity of America is going to overcome this and that's what I heard from this president. He's uplifting.

Remember who's been coming in to this White House, he's at Gilead and others that actually have a treatment today to how -- a therapy, how to treat it. But you've got Johnson and Johnson and others that are looking to create a vaccine. He's streamlining the process to create a vaccine.

Regardless of all the politics the Democrats have been doing, this president has been leading, first, to keep us safe, to prepare us for the future, and, yes, economically, this is hurting the world based upon China's actions. Their denial of what was going on as early as November, not allowing us in there to help because we have the very best.

But what he's doing now is not only to protect us, make this as small as it can be and contain it as well as we can, but get a vaccine for it if it comes back, but make sure our economy continues to grow. And what did he do? He looked to small business, because this is a man who's built jobs before, he understands what it takes in the economy, and that is why we have the strongest economy in the world and we will continue and we will get through this.

HANNITY: All right. Thank you, Kevin McCarthy -- Congressman, we appreciate it.

The House minority leader, Dr. Anthony Fauci, did confirm on this program even last night that the outbreak of this Wuhan, China, province coronavirus, would have been far worse, we'll not be able to calculate the number of Americans that did not contract this disease because the president acted in unprecedented ways and literally within three weeks.

Now, we do have some breaking news moments ago. Actor Tom Hanks, his wife, Rita Wilson, they have tested positive for coronavirus. By the way, they are in our prayers tonight.

Trace Gallagher, he's in the West Coast newsroom with the very latest -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: -- about maybe two or three minutes ago, and what's happening here is Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were down in Australia. They are filming Baz Luhrmann's new movie about Elvis Presley, and Tom Hanks is playing the part of the famous colonel who took care of Elvis for many years, and we were kind of working this story earlier.

Well, now, Tom Hanks has just tweeted, just moments ago, quoting here, he says: Hello, folks, Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired. Like we had colds and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went, slight fevers, too.

To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for coronavirus, and were found to be positive.

The question now is, what happens to them down there?

Well, the answer appears to be for medical officials, they will have to follow all the protocols meaning they'll be tested, they'll be observed and isolated for as long as the Australian public officials want them to be. It's unclear if they will continue to actually work down there and what the process, and the days that they will actually be under isolation or quarantined in Australia, and what this means.

As far as their health, Sean, and how they are right now, that's also unclear. But because of the tweet and from the tone and tenor of it, it appears that they are upbeat and we're still looking for more information on this.

I just want to continue with the breaking news here, the NBA is now suspending the season because of coronavirus, following tonight's game, and this comes, and I'm quoting, NBA announced that a player on the Utah Jazz has preliminary tested positive for COVID-19, coronavirus. The test result was reported shortly prior to the tip-off of tonight's game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City.

We had heard earlier that the Oklahoma City game was canceled, and the NBA wouldn't give us any explanation as to why it was canceled. They just cut the game off. Well, now we know that one of the jazz players has preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19.

It goes on to say the jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena at that time, tonight's game was canceled. The affected player was not in the arena at the time. The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight's schedule of games until further notice.

So, it's unclear if they are cancelling the season or until further notice. The NBA has about 12, 13, 14 games left in the season. The playoffs could be lengthy. It goes all the way until June, late June, mid-June, so we're talking about several months.

The question now becomes, is the rest of the season canceled? Are they just going to take a break for two weeks, or, we just don't know the answers to that, Sean. A lot of breaking news on coronavirus.

HANNITY: A lot of breaking news. Thoughts and prayers for anybody who gets the virus.

There are some medical truths that we now know. If you are otherwise healthy, if you don't have underlying conditions, if you don't have a compromised immune system, the vast majority of cases we're seeing people recover. Of the 81,000 cases in China that we know that have been identified, we know that the overwhelming majority of people recover, as it would be a flu virus.

But, out of an abundance of caution, the president within three weeks, he took the added effort. Now, he's put money behind those industries, those specific industries impacted by the coronavirus. That would be the airline industry, that would be the cruise line industry, also taking care of hourly workers so that they are not going to be negatively impacted if they stay home.

The fear over coronavirus, it's having wide-ranging impacts across the U.S. We now see universities moving to video classes. Major music festivals have been postponed, and even the upcoming NCAA March Madness tournament will be played with no fans as of now.

Joining with us reaction to the president's address, and for the very latest analysis on the coronavirus threat, Dr. Marc Siegel with us, our medical A-team, and Nicole Saphier, also part of our medical A team, and former White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson is also with us.

Good to see you all.

Dr. Jackson, let me start with you.

We've never seen anybody put a ban into effect more quickly. We've never have witnessed a quarantine this quickly. I don't think we could ever really calculate in any way how many people probably did not get the virus as a result of those quick actions. Let's talk specifically, for those Americans who are fearful, because I think, we're just -- just giving truth to people is important, perspective is important.

I don't think most people, for example, know tens of thousands of Americans yearly die just from influenza, the average flu virus. I don't think most Americans know that when we face a pandemic known as swine flu, H1N1, 2009 and ‘10, within a year, 12,500 Americans died and tens of thousands had contracted that disease in a year. We ended up worldwide losing according to some estimates well over 500,000 people worldwide.

We're not seeing those numbers here but out of an abundance of caution, the president has taken even more unprecedented steps.

Your reaction, big picture, talk to the people at home, bringing in your medical expertise, and tell people what they need to know.

DR. RONNY JACKSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: Well, i can tell you, Sean, just to start with, you're right. This is not the first time we've been tested with something like this. I watched the president tonight and that's what leadership looks like.

The president, his leadership on this didn't start when we found out about this. I've been at the White House for the last three years. We've had a robust pandemic planning team in place since this administration started, led by the national security staff. We've had infectious disease experts and other physicians that are on that team and as soon as something comes up like this new novel coronavirus, everything goes into action on what we're going to do.

The president, he's been quick, he's been decisive. He's reacted appropriately according to what the situation dictated and he saved lives in this country, and he's kept the spread of this from getting out of control. And we see what happens --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: What are we seeing, especially those that might contract this virus, very fearful about contracting the virus.

JACKSON: Right.

HANNITY: What would you say if you are otherwise healthy, with no other underlying health issues, if you don't have a compromised immune system in any way, tell us what the likely -- what will likely happen to you? What are the odds?

JACKSON: Well, first off, the likelihood that you're actually going to contract the virus is pretty small, very small, right? If you fit into the category you just described, where you're otherwise young and healthy, you go about your life for the most part.

You need to be more cautious about washing your hands and using hand sanitizer, things of that nature, covering your cough but those are things we should do anyway in colder and flu season.

HANNITY: If you're healthy with no underlying health issues and you don't have a compromised immune system, odds are pretty strong you're going to be healthy and survive --

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: There's a good chance -- there is a good chance you're not -- well, there's a good chance you're not going to know that you have it, right? Some people will be completely asymptomatic and go on and develop some type of immunity to it.

Some people will get it and get mild symptoms like a cold or the mild flu or whatever and they're going to recover completely from it. That's going to be the vast majority of the young healthy folks. It's really the elderly, really elderly people, they need to take these extra precautions. But, you know, I think that --

HANNITY: Let me -- I'm sorry, finish your thoughts, sir.

JACKSON: No, I was just saying, I think we're doing everything that we need to do as nation. I think we're going above and beyond. You know, I heard you talking earlier, it's a shame that this was, used as a political tool early on. I hope we're getting past that. I feel like may be we are.

But I think the president is doing everything he needs to and everything he can to keep our country safe. And I think people need to not worry. This is going to be OK.

HANNITY: All right. Dr. Siegel, maybe as a point of comparison, you have written extensively on H1N1, and that was a pandemic in 2009 and ‘10, and America's response then and the total number of Americans that have died. Why don't we -- why don't we compare and contrast what we did, how quickly we reacted, what didn't we do, what did we do?

Because I see what the president has done tonight and what the president has done heretofore has never happened before.

DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sean, in a swine flu outbreak in 2009 and ‘10, we had 60 million Americans infected, and almost 300,000 were hospitalized. And as you mentioned, at least 13,000 deaths. Sixty million people were affected and the response to it wasn't as quick as this. We didn't have any travel bans.

Cutting off travel to China was a huge move. I was absolutely -- I was so affected by what the president did tonight. Note this: over 9,000 cases in Italy, and not under control at all. Everything is shut down. Only the pharmacies are open.

Spain, over 2,000 cases. France over 2,000 cases. We're talking 13,000 cases and our public health officials have been studying this and seeing that a lot of our cases are coming from there. So it's spreading now in our communities because of that.

This travel ban to Europe is bold and it's very presidential and it's leadership. That's number one.

Number two, with tom hanks getting this, I want to say. This he's 63 years old. He's probably in very good health, and I bet he's going to be a role model here for actually recovering from this.

And last point, the NBA, I want people out there to know, this isn't about fear, this is about the fact that locker rooms are very close together and players are very close together. It would be impossible to sanitize a locker room. That's why they are doing it. That's why they are suspending play because the risk when you're that close together in a gym or a locker room, with all the sweating, that's a risk. So that's why they are doing it.

We can't keep spreading fear messages here.

HANNITY: Yes.

And, Dr. Nicole Saphier, let's talk about the average American tonight, watching all of this, and there is always a natural fear of the flu, natural fear of any new pandemic. They do pop up from time to time. I have been criticized for saying, it does happen. But the truth is, it does, and we know Dr. Siegel is pretty much an expert on H1N1 and swine flu.

But I think the very specific question is for the individual family, the American family, our family, we don't want our family members sick.

What are the things that people on their own can do? We see states acting, municipalities acting and some schools cancelling and the NBA, and the NCAA, and -- from what I just heard from Dr. Siegel, they will probably suspend that tournament, what should they be doing themselves to protect maybe elderly members of their family and themselves, and their children?

DR. NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: This is a great question and it's exactly what President Trump actually addressed tonight. In addition to some of the measures we've already discussed, he called on personal responsibility, in an attempt to thwart off the draconian message that had been used elsewhere. He's saying individual responsibility is going to help us change the course of the pandemic, and what that's going to take is, you'll have to have aggressive testing, we have to isolate the sick, and we have to find their contacts so we can make sure that those people get tested.

But from an individual standpoint, that means that you should not be going to crowded arenas. You should not be going to big gatherings, whether it's a family gathering, a church gathering, a school gathering.

You know, take some social responsibility, and it's going to be a little bit of self-sacrifice. This can be very deadly for elderly people and Tom Hanks, he's 63 years old, but do I believe he actually has type II diabetes, which puts him in a high-risk category especially from the data that we've seen from China.

So he may seem healthy right now but this actually can affect him in the long run. So, a lot of Americans are living with chronic disease and whether you, yourself, are healthy, you'll likely have contact with someone with a chronic illness.

So, the important thing is continue to live your life. Do not live in fear but practice good hand hygiene, try to avoid big heavy crowds right now. Don't stop living your life. Don't become paralyzed in fear.

If you have elderly or if you have someone immuno-compromised in your life, perhaps you don't go visit them. Make sure that that they're OK, you check in on them, check in via phone, don't go see them, OK, and make sure they have the medications that they need.

HANNITY: Why is this impacting Dr. Saphier, for example H1N1, there's a very -- this proves I am not a doctor and won't play one on TV. Why did H1N1 seem to impact younger people and this one seems to go after and impact much -- at a much higher rate the older people? Why did -- I guess every virus is individual?

SAPHIER: Well, there are a lot of parameters we don't know about this virus right now. The influenza virus that usually has a U-shaped curve where it affects the very young and it affects very old. With this current coronavirus, we're just seeing half of that U.

The U, for whatever reason, are being protected. There are a lot of theories as to why. Whether it's because they are constantly around coronavirus and rhinoviruses, as you know children have colds all the time, so do they have built up community. Is it the older population because their lungs have been living in years and decades of pollution that's weakening the immune systems, we don't exactly know right now.

But it is certain that it is absolutely significantly more severe in the elderly population. Children do not seem to be the vectors. So, although w have a lot of school closings right now, we do that with the flu mostly because children are absolutely vectors when it comes to the flu, the reason to close schools right now is to protect those around them. Not necessarily the children because our children are seemingly healthy through this.

HANNITY: All right. Very helpful information, all of three of you. Doctors, thank you for being with us.

All right. Joining us to discuss the efforts on Capitol Hill to combat the impact of the virus, Republican Senator John Kennedy.

One of the things, I know, has a lot of people nervous, Senator, is also the impact on the economy, and there will be, obviously, some short term ramifications, a lot of monies will be going out, some medical research to protecting Americans. You see a jittery stock market, or we've witnessed that somewhat. The president addressing the overall strength of our economy, which we now know, we've had unprecedented growth for three years.

How do you see that aspect of it playing out?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY, R-LA.: Sean, I have watched the administration over the past three weeks. I talked to the president yesterday. I listened to the president's speech tonight.

Here's my conclusion: he's on it. He's on this like wet on water. He's on it in terms of public safety. And he's on it in terms of the economy.

Let me answer your question about the economy first. We're going to have a slowdown in our economy. It will be temporary.

The president is addressing it. He's addressing it in income tax relief in terms of delays in paying your taxes. He's addressing it in terms of SBA loans. He's addressing it in terms of payroll tax cut.

As I said, it will be temporary. The economics of this economy, the fundamentals are sound. This is the strongest economy in all of human history. It will be OK.

In terms of the public health side, I know people are scared. It's OK to be scared. It's human nature, the fear of the unknown.

But you know how Americans deal with their fears? We face them.

And here's what we know. Here's what the doctors have told us. Number one, we're not all going to die. Number two, most Americans are not going to get the virus. Some will.

Of those who get the virus, 99 percent of them are going to be fine. Of those who get the virus, 80 percent of them are not even going to know they have the virus, or aren't going to be sick enough to have to go to the hospital.

If you do get sick enough and have to go to the hospital, we've got the finest healthcare delivery system in the Milky Way. This is not China. This is not Iran.

Congress has already appropriated $8.3 billion at the president's request to fight the coronavirus. A third of that is being devoted to developing a vaccine and medicine to treat people who get the virus. Already, there is one drug that's being used. It's called Remdesivir by Gilead that's being used on Americans who are sick and it seems to be helping.

The final point I would make -- excuse me -- there are some politicians, not all, but some politicians who earn their living by playing on people's fears. Ignore them. Listen to Dr. Fauci, listen to the doctors, use your head. We're going to be OK.

HANNITY: All right. Senator, thank you for your help and insight. We appreciate it.

Again, breaking just moments ago, actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, they did announce they tested positive for the coronavirus. The NBA announced it's suspending its season after one NBA player tested positive for the virus.

We go back to Trace Gallagher from our West Coast newsroom with the very latest on that tonight.

Busy night, Trace.

GALLAGHER: Very busy, Sean.

And to give you more context, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were down in Australia for the production of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley film. The film is so far untitled.

Tom Hanks plays Presley's long time manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and, as you said he just confirmed this in a tweet. And I want to put this up.

Quoting here: Hello, folks, Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired like we had colds and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers, too. To play things right, as is needed in the world, we were tested for coronavirus and were found to be positive.

Hanks goes on to say: Well, now what to do next? The medical officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks will be tested, observed and isolated for as long as public officials and safety requires. Not much more to it than one day at a time approach, no. We'll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves, and then he signs it, Hanks.

Tom Hanks, of course, Rita Wilson, down there in Australia. We do not yet know, Sean, what their health is. They seem upbeat but we haven't gotten word on that.

And as you said, the NBA is now suspending regular season games following tonight's game, and this all comes after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for coronavirus before they played the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight.

We were all told the game had been canceled. The NBA wouldn't say why. Now we know why. We're told the player who tested positive for coronavirus was not in the arena at the time which should give the people in Oklahoma City a little bit of comfort, but the NBA, after tonight, canceling in, we think, in perpetuity at least for the next several weeks, the NBA season.

It's unclear if they will pick that back up when the virus ends -- Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Trace Gallagher, with the updates from our West Coast newsroom.

Joining us now with reaction, Congressman Jim Jordan from the great state of Ohio, Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce.

You know, I see the president, Jim, taking unprecedented steps --

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: Yes.

HANNITY: -- frankly, in retrospect, the fact that the president was willing to be called a xenophobe and being accused of stigmatizing China with his travel ban and quarantine, amazing lightning speed that's never happened before.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: Unprecedented amounts of money also being supported by the president. Now, he's taken it to another step, up to tonight, which was other travel bans.

Now, European travel ban with the exception of Great Britain.

And, when you look at it, why is it that we lose tens of thousands of Americans to the flu every year and H1N1, you know, over 500,000 estimated died there and you heard the numbers from Dr. Siegel, the number of Americans impacted and the number of Americans that died in this country. I don't remember this reaction. What is the difference?

JORDAN: Right. No, well, I think you're right, Sean. That this president has taken the right steps when it comes to the travel ban. He's taken the right steps of reaching out to the health insurance companies and reaching out to the pharmaceutical industry, doing the things that make sense.

What I also liked about his speech tonight was the tone he took. I learned a long time ago, you want to accomplish anything of meaning or significance, any worthwhile goal, it takes work, it takes effort, it takes sacrifice and frankly, it takes some time and he conveyed that to the American people.

But he also conveyed an important concept. America and Americans always rise to the challenge, and we get things done and we get to the goal in the end. That's the message I think he communicated and he demonstrated that by the actions he and the vice president and his administration has taken to deal with this issue and I think the American people appreciate all of that.

HANNITY: Tammy, your take?

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look, this is what leadership is. Americans should be incredibly crowd. Just like for us as individuals, physically healthy, or if we have to get healthy to be able to ward off something like this, that becomes a surprise for the last three years, Donald Trump has gotten this nation back on her feet, has made her healthy, specifically, not only so that we can live the good life and offer the good life to humanity around the world, but so that we can -- not just survive a black swan like this dynamic -- but even thrive, become the vector for the vaccine, become the example about what's possible, how you can survive it and overcome it even stronger.

That's what leadership is. And at the time perhaps you don't understand why it would be necessary, but always it is better to be healthier. It's always, as the president noted in his address tonight, the fact is, we are -- we've never been stronger economically, and what perfect timing to be able to have that strength physically with us as a nation so that we can deal with this.

And then there is leadership in the midst of a crisis, in the moment, being able to handle the pressure, being able to deal with Congress -- you know, reach across the aisle, request nonpartisanship participation, and cooperation because that's what leadership does, and Americans appreciate that and it is going to make a difference. It already has.

HANNITY: When the president took these unprecedented steps, almost immediately, Jim Jordan, Democrats were in the middle of impeaching him.

JORDAN: Yes.

HANNITY: Now, the president said, and I would agree this ought to be something we work on together. We don't want anybody to get sick and die.

But, do you think Congress is capable of that? We're 237 days away from a presidential election. Do you think the media is capable of that when all we've seen for three years is just rage and hatred towards this president? We have less than a minute.

JORDAN: No, they're not. And we saw that today in the hearing we had in the oversight committee. They want to criticize the president. They want to criticize the administration, instead of pointing out what we talked about in this show tonight, and the actions this president has taken and the further actions he talked about this evening that he's going to take on behalf of the American people.

Tammy is exactly right. We appreciate the president's leadership, the American people do, and we're going to get through this because as I said before, Americans know how to rise to the challenge and get things done.

HANNITY: Last 15 seconds, Tammy.

BRUCE: Well, this is, again, for the American people, they are seeing leadership -- with Representative Jordan, with the president, with all the pushback and all the anger that these men and women in Washington who are patriots, who care about the country, this is when it matters. This is the time when leadership matters.

And it's exciting to watch. And we stick together and we'll get through it.

HANNITY: It's the greatest medical team on earth. We took unprecedented steps to keep the American people safe.

Our prayer is, everybody, stay safe, and do the things you can do for your own family, and take care of the elderly, grandma, grandpa, mom and dad.

That's all of the time we have left. We'll never be the media mob.

Let not your heart be troubled. Laura is next. See you tomorrow night.

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