Karl Rove blasts New York Times over report on Trump's illness

Oct. 2, 2020 – This is a rush transcript from “Hannity" October 2, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: We begin this Friday night at 9:00 in the East, 6:00 on the West Coast with a FOX News alert. Thank you for being with FOX News.

Welcome to "Hannity."

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, the first lady, Melania Trump, they are experiencing some symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19. Our sources tell us that it is mild.

Earlier, out of abundance of caution, the president traveled to Walter Reed Medical Center and also received a cutting-edge antibody treatment. We'll explain what that is in a few minutes.

The president is expected to work out of his designated office at Walter Reed for the next few days while being monitored by America's top health experts. But before he left, the president did tweet out this video thanking everyone for their support.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support.

I'm going to Walter Reed Hospital. I think I'm doing very well. But we're going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well.

So thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will never forget it. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And today, the president's COVID-19 adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, he predicted a full, complete, rapid recovery.

Tonight, our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Trump family and first lady, along with top White House aide, Hope Hicks, Utah Senator Mike Lee, who are also diagnosed with COVID-19.

We will continue to monitor this developing story all throughout the night.

You have pretty much, by the way -- make sure you have everything you need to know about the latest COVID-19 statistics, developments, therapeutics, and where we are with the vaccine.

Our medical A-team, including Dr. Oz, will be here. Also, White House -- former White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson.

But, first tonight, we do start with an important observation. During what is a contentious election year, 32 days, you're the ultimate jury. We sometimes do lose sight of the fact that this country is filled with some great, incredible, decent, hardworking people.

You look at where we have come, first case identified in this country of coronavirus was January 21st. Travel ban was January 31st.

You think of all the medical professionals that have worked around the clock to save lives, all of the scientists, all of the medical researchers.

They have spent every waking moment in the hopes of Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine. We now have numerous candidates in final stage, human trials, which is unprecedented.

And, by the way, everyone doing all of this to keep us safe and healthy and, of course, the country open. No shortage of great hard-working American people. They all get it. It's the worst pandemic since 1917 and `18.

Now, unfortunately, of course, predictably, there's some notable exceptions. Now, today, there were many vile individuals and even media outlets showing their true colors. They're nonstop, never-ending, psychotic anti-Trump rage knows no bounds, every second, minute of every day.

You have one former Hillary spokesperson wishing for the president's death.

One MSDNC host floating a conspiracy theory that he didn't really have COVID. And "The New York Times" suggesting that he be removed from the ballot.

And a Democratic senator proudly stating that Vladimir Putin is now in charge of the president's campaign.

Sadly, just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight, we're going to show you the worst of the worst. That's coming up.

But, first, joining us now from the White House with the very latest is our own John Roberts.

John, what's the latest there?

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sean, good to see you tonight. It's unclear, there's no way to know really right now how long the president is going to be at the Walter Reed National Medical Center.

But it was going to be a few days at least, at least until the end of the weekend, probably into next week depending how he does with the treatment.

You know, because the president, because of his age, he's in a high risk category. Really as a precaution, it's a dramatic precaution, they decided, the White House physician and the White House staff to take him over there because there's a suite of offices at Walter Reed that he can work out of, have all the facility he needs to be the president of the United States and be only moments away from some of the world's best medical care if needed.

You saw the video that you played there of the president just before he left the residence. We saw the video of the president walking out to the helicopter. There you can see it in the lower screen, him walking off of the helicopter at Walter Reed.

He was ambulatory. He didn't seem to be dragging at all. He gave a couple of thumbs up, pretty much the president we've gotten used to except now we know he has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Another reason why they wanted to take him to Walter Reed, Sean, is because the earlier and more aggressively you get treatment, the better your outcome. Don't forget, most people don't go to the hospital until they get really sick.

Also, as Dr. Sean Conley has been taking some aggressive steps to treat the president, to make sure that they keep the viral load down low. He got a dose of Regeneron's new antibody therapy, which suppresses viral replication, tries to keep the viral load down.

Some of the other drugs he's on was just a mineral zinc, which is known to inhibit viral replication, also boost your immune system. Vitamin D, he's on melatonin to help him sleep. He's on a daily aspirin, to thin his blood a little bit, because we know blood clotting can be a factor.

And this one I thought was particularly interesting, Sean. He's on a daily dose of Pepcid. And you say, what does a stomach medication had to do with coronavirus? Apparently, it inhibits an immune inflammatory response.

A study by Columbia University found that people that take a daily dose of Pepcid and had coronavirus were 48 percent less likely to have to go on a ventilator and 45 percent less likely to die. So, Sean Conley has got the president on all of these medications, hoping to keep the viral load low, hoping to keep him from progressing to severe coronavirus disease, because the president is very concerned about this.

And a quick little story to share, a couple of months ago, I was on Air Force One. He invited me to the office in the front. He told me a story about a guy he knew in the New York real estate business, a guy named Stanley Chera who back in April, President Trump heard that he had coronavirus.

The next day, President Trump heard that he was in the hospital. The next day, he checked, he was on a ventilator. And the next day, he had passed away.

So, the president knows, Sean, very well through experiences like this that you've got to treat this seriously when you get it. And that's why even though I think as Don Jr. was saying earlier tonight, he's never seen in president in the hospital other than for maybe a checkup.

He may be reluctantly went there but he said to the doctors, you know better than me, I'll go there and try to fight this thing because he wants to get back out on the campaign trail with what time is left between now and the election -- Sean.

HANNITY: John, we're going to keep you as our chief White House correspondent but I think we're going to add you after that incredibly informative report to our medical A-team, amazing amount of knowledge and information.

ROBERTS: That's a former life for me, Sean.

HANNITY: Well, but honestly, very informative. Thank you very much. John Roberts at the White House tonight.

ROBERTS: Thanks. Good to see you.

HANNITY: All right. We check in now, Walter Reed Medical Center where the president is currently receiving treatment. Kevin Corke is standing by on that location.

And, Kevin, as John pointed out, the president does have a suite there prepared where he can also do work. My sources telling me tonight that, in fact, he did do some work when he got there earlier today.

KEVIN CORKE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no question about that, Sean.

Keep in mind the business of the American people continues regardless of what is happening as long as the president feels capable and is able to do so. And, in fact, just before I went on the air, about an hour and a half ago, he actually issued an emergency declaration for the state of New York.

Just to give you an example of what happens as he continues to do the work here.

He's resting comfortably according to our sources. In fact, some of us were making a little bet that he might even call in to your program tonight.

I do also want to let you know, Sean, that we've been monitoring responses from all over the globe. We've seen world leaders from Bibi Netanyahu, to Boris Johnson and others express their well-wishes for the president of the United States. We're not sure how long he'll be here at Walter Reed. It could be two days, it could be four days. We simply don't flow.

We do know that they're telling us this is all out of an abundance of caution as he continues to get testing and treatment -- Sean.

HANNITY: And he's welcome to call if he's watching tonight. We would love to have him call in, making sure he's doing well.

And anybody that has had this, we always said our thoughts and prayers are with them. As he said, the invisible enemy.

Kevin, thanks for that report. We appreciate it.

Now, so what can we expect from the president's treatment at Walter Reed?

Joining us with more, former White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson with us. He served under President Trump and President Barack Obama.

I want to go over, John Roberts mentioned this, and this is Regeneron and this antibody cocktail that is fairly new, but it's funny because earlier in the week -- not funny, but earlier in the week, they talked about moving this -- fast-tracking this with the FDA.

What do we know about it, Dr. Jackson?

DR. RONNY JACKSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN: Well, we know it's close, Sean. It's in phase three clinical trials right now. It's human testing.

We already know it's got some really incredible promising results. You know, it's going to be close to FDA approval, and that should be coming fairly soon.

So, the president was able to reach out to the FDA and to the company and they were able to get authorization to use it in a compassionate use for the president. So he's using that.

It's monoclonal antibody. So, they're going through thousands of human antibodies and they expose them to the coronavirus and they find the ones that are most effective in killing or locking up the virus so it can't cause infection.

And they found these two particular antibodies that are very good. They mixed them up in a cocktail, and that's what this drug is. It's a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that are very effective at binding the spot protein and preventing the virus from infecting cells in the body, allows the body to clear the cells, keeps the viral load down and allows the patient to recover much quicker.

So, that's the hope for the president, even though he's very -- he's very asymptomatic for the most part and has a few minor symptoms. But he's really in a good spot right now to start with.

But Dr. Conley is being super aggressive about this, making sure that he stays on top of this. And I think that's the right thing to do.

HANNITY: We have made the biggest strides in therapeutics. Remdesivir now is widely accepted as having shown a lot of success.

If we look over and go through between this new Regeneron treatment that the president receives, also people struggled even more so, convalescent plasma. But the president having a run of Regeneron, zinc, vitamin D, Pepcid, as John Roberts pointed out, melatonin, daily aspirin.

No word on whether or not remdesivir or hydroxychloroquine are being used by the president.

Your thoughts on all of these because we definitely have greatly -- tell me where I'm wrong here -- improved all therapeutics and a combination thereof.

Do any of them counteract each other in any way?

JACKSON: No, not at all. Not that we're aware of. I mean, they've all got their own special thing that they bring to the fight. They're all tools in the tool box.

And, you know, I think we've gone a long way. The president invested a lot from the very beginning in making sure that we developed pharmaceuticals that were having the impact on the morbidity and mortality of this disease.

And that's what we're seeing.

And so, we're developing quite, you know, the package of pharmaceuticals to fight coronavirus, in addition to doing the other things like developing a vaccine and things. These monoclonal antibodies are awesome because they provide a bridge between those two. You know, we can treat with the other medications and while we're waiting the final approval of a vaccine, we can use these monoclonal antibodies to really make a lot of progress.

So yeah, we've got a lot going on. A lot has happened and a lot of really exciting developments that are already happening and more on the way.

HANNITY: Do you have a therapeutic of choice for yourself? What would you do god forbid you got this virus?

JACKSON: I think currently this is the best one right now. I mean, you know, they use remdesivir for patients that are more critically ill, that are in the ICU, that are having other issues. Not necessarily being used in the past in patients that have very minor symptoms like the president has, or patients that are asymptomatic.

But these monoclonal antibodies can be used in patients that don't have symptoms to keep them from developing symptoms. They can be used theoretically, prophylactically to keep people that don't have it from getting it. They can be used to treat minor symptoms like the president has.

So I think this is the best option right now. And I think, you know, that they looked at all of these options, went over everything Conley gave with experts all over the country to figure out what the best options were.

HANNITY: Yeah.

JACKSON: And I think they settled on the right one.

And it's another reason why he's at Walter Reed. Walter Reed is an incredible facility. I helped build that facility over the last few years, and the president can do everything he needs to do that he would normally do in the White House and get outstanding care with unbelievable access to the world's, you know, leading specialists.

You know, they bring people from Hopkins and NIH and everywhere else, to talk to him, to make sure they're not missing something. And then they have all the facilities there to do anything that they might need to do, with X- rays and lab work and things of that nature.

So, he's in the right place. He's getting the right medication. And they're doing it quickly, which I think is going to pay off.

HANNITY: Dr. Ronny Jackson, thank you for that insight tonight. We appreciate it.

Joining us now to help break all of this down, the host -- he just started I believe his 12th or 13th season, Dr. Oz of "The Dr. Oz Show".

Sir, good to see you.

We spent an hour on radio. We talked a lot about the different treatments that are out there and available. One that you seem very intrigued on is this new Regeneron antibody cocktail that apparently the president has taken.

Your thoughts on what they have announced, that, zinc, vitamin D, Pepcid, melatonin, daily aspirin. Your thoughts on the chosen course of treatment for the president?

DR. MEHMET OZ, HOST, THE DR. OZ SHOW: So, let's start at the top. This is the solutions that I think Americans right now can be using in their own lives.

Zinc helps lymphocytes function better. It's associated with better outcomes of COVID-19. Doesn't mean it causes better outcomes. It's just in populations with more zinc, it seemed to do better. When studied it at NYU, given the patients, all of them is treated had improved results.

You would take a low dose at home prophylactically. But you would take a higher dose if you're ill with COVID-19, which is what I suspect is what the president is receiving.

Vitamin D is actually a hormone. It implodes your immune response. Also again, high levels of vitamin D associated in some studies with better outcomes from COVID-19. Again, something you can get from the sun or take a supplement if you wish.

I just want to point out a couple of things that John mentioned earlier.

Famotidine blocks histamine and COVID probably uses histamine in the way it hurts us. Blocking it may be beneficial.

Some hospitals demonstrated benefit. Again, not enough data to conclusively say anything, but it's a repurposing of an older drug that has been demonstrated to be relatively safe.

Melatonin is not about sleep. Melatonin actually mediates the chemical messengers that our body uses to protect itself and the virus uses to attack us. So, melatonin may be much more impactful, besides a circadian rhythm benefit.

But you asked about Regeneron. And I called Dr. Ian Lipkin, who's the famous virus hunter. He's the person that has done a lot of the convalescent plasma work at Columbia University. The president of Regeneron is a Columbia alum.

So, he has a lot of insights that he shared with me. Again, this is a very old approach, hundreds of years old roughly. The idea to take serum, the watery part of blood from people that already survived an infection, caught with any virus, but in this case COVID-19 and give it to someone who is struggling, and giving convalescent plasma gives you antibodies and other chemicals in the blood which is why it's promising.

And again, the FDA has given the emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma. That's why we ask people to donate blood if they recovered from COVID-19.

While Regeneron and Eli Lilly did as well, harvest a few monoclonal antibodies, very precise antibodies directed against the spike proteins of the COVID virus so that they can prevent them from reproducing and growing in your body.

So, let's say the president has an immune system that is slowly starting to catch up to the virus but hasn't got there yet. By jumpstarting the whole process, by attacking the virus before his immune system is ready, you buy him time for his own immune system to get stronger.

The only data that I've seen is supportive, it seems to have the time for recovery from two weeks to one week, roughly. Didn't have a lot of side effects. It was a reasonable choice.

Again, it's not widely available in this country yet, although convalescent plasma is relatively widespread.

HANNITY: Let's talk about, Dr. Oz, you know, again, the first case in this country of COVID-19 was January 21. Here we are on October 2nd. And we're in final -- numerous final stage human trials for a vaccine.

Standing back, that in and of itself is incredible. Great testament to the medical researchers and scientists and advancements that we have made. As you look at -- I don't care if it's Moderna or AstraZeneca or Pfizer, whoever it happens to be and you look at the vaccines available, everything I've read is telling me the same thing that they saw in stage two trials.

Number one, I believe that sounds to me like they found the optimal dose.

Whether it'd be one application or two of the vaccine, because they're working on both, they're seeing antibodies produced in almost every case that they're using. Side effects are minimal. People are not dying.

Am I reading this right? That these trials otherwise wouldn't be continuing. Some of them started in late July.

OZ: I think it's a good assessment, Sean. You have data safety monitoring boards that make sure there's no damage being done to the patients in the trial. When you do have a complication, it's quickly reviewed.

And I think across the board, we're pretty encouraged by the number of people enrolled in these trials. They should be finishing their enrollment this week -- next week, 30,000, large trials.

And so, if you give it six weeks (AUDIO GAP) complications and also to see if it's effective. Now, we can't demonstrate efficacy because you have to wait for the final data to come in, but it is encouraging the trials have reached a conclusion and more heading that way.

We've got a bunch of trials around the world, different countries have their best shots as well. I'm optimistic we'll have at least one or two vaccines that are effective enough that will be able to start helping people first responders initially and then those most vulnerable who would have complications if they got COVID-19.

But I think most Americans are going to have to wait a few months before the vaccine is more widely available. That stated, it's a big light at the end of the tunnel. But the first bit of good news, one of trials to come back positive.

HANNITY: All right, Dr. Oz.

And for those that don't know, Dr. Oz, literally, night and day, day and night, from the very beginning has talked to doctors daily all around the world. I don't think -- I think he sleeps less than me, which is pretty hard to do. Melatonin won't put me to sleep, Dr. Oz. But, anyway, thank you, sir.

We're only 32 days away from a tipping point election as I call it. So what do we expect moving forward as the president is now battling COVID-19? At least in the short term.

Joining us now, he's the host of "Special Report" here on the FOX News Channel, Bret Baier.

There's always the political implications, Bret, on any issue. To the Biden's campaign, a certain amount of graciousness by former Vice President Biden and his wife. That has not been the case with some of our media colleagues and some others, which I will get to in the next segment.

But there's a point here that everybody has to see we're dealing with the worst pandemic since 1917 and `18.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR, "SPECIAL REPORT": Yeah. It's a big factor now, Sean. Good evening.

I think the president obviously will be off the trail. And that's a tough thing for the Trump campaign. But they have surrogates.

He may have the ability to do some things remotely. They'll look at that.

Depending on how his recovery goes and we hope and pray it goes very quickly. He may be able to have the three negative tests and be able to go to the next debate in Miami. We don't know that time frame as of yet.

The other politics things, Sean, is about the Senate Judiciary Committee.

You now have Senator Mike Lee, who has tested positive for COVID-19 and Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina. Both of them, Republicans, on the Senate judiciary committee.

Well, that has prompted Senator Chuck Schumer to say you can't go forward with the confirmation hearing of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. And now, there's a scramble. McConnell and Lindsey Graham are saying we're going forward no matter what.

But you're seeing a lot of Democrats piped up, saying this has to be delayed because of COVID-19.

HANNITY: But the reality is, they're talking about beginning those committee hearings in 10 days from now. So, that would give people time to obviously have a full recovery?

BAIER: Yeah. And you would think it's the same thing as the president. If the full recovery happens and they have the negative tests, they could -- they could start those hearings.

You also don't need a quorum to start. They would need to be there to vote.

So they could attend remotely.

But the fact that that is even factoring in shows you how much COVID-19 is a part of this election and has changed the dynamic.

HANNITY: Yeah, no doubt about it.

All right. Bret Baier, host of "Special Report", thank you for staying up late with us tonight.

All right. Coming up, well, there are deranged people. Every second, minute, hour, 24 hour day, deranged Trump haters spending today celebrating the president's COVID-19 diagnosis. Others actually open -- openly wishing that he die.

We will call out these truly despicable people after the break. We'll check in with Dan Bongino, Geraldo Rivera, and other news will be breaking on this busy Friday news night.

Thank you for being with us tonight on "Hannity."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Many people, both sides of the aisle, on other words, good decent Americans actually put politics aside to wish the president, the first lady and the family well following the diagnosis. But, unfortunately, but predictably, there are some notable exceptions who instead use the illness and diagnosis as a line of attack against the president.

For example, unhinged far left Senator Chris Murphy actually used today's news as an excuse to rehash, believe it or not, the Russia, Russia, Russia lie hoax and conspiracy theory. Pretty repulsive, pretty sickening.

But take a look for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): You have to be much more serious about the Russian threat given today's news. If the president can't be out there on the campaign trail for two weeks, then he is going to rely on his surrogates. Unfortunately one of them is Vladimir Putin. So, you're likely going to see this campaign ramped up by Russia over the next few weeks to try to substitute for the president's absence on the campaign trail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And it gets even worse.

"The New York Times" actually published an opinion piece entitled "Defiant, now infected: Trump is a morality tale."

"The L.A. Times" following that up with an even more despicable headline.

It reads, quote: When Reagan was shot, the country rallied around, but he hadn't spent months downplaying assassins.

"The Washington Post" tweeting, quote, well -- imagine what it will look like to have to think about Trump following the diagnosis. They deleted that.

Yeah, don't forget, it was "The Washington Post" -- they have their own history and timeline that we have gone over. "The New York Times" says who says it's not safe to travel to China? And other dumb things these media outlets reported early on.

CNN's Don Lemon, he's losing it, suggesting the infection was some sort of a payback for calling the virus a hoax, something the president never did or said.

And former Hillary Clinton's campaign spokesperson and Obama White House staffer, Zara Rahim, actually said that she was hoping that the president drops dead.

Former director of progressive partnerships for Elizabeth Warren, a guy named Max Burger, tweeting that the president deserves none of our sympathy.

Deranged "Washington Post" columnist Jennifer Rubin had yet another complete meltdown that included smears against the first lady, even attacked the president for being flown to Walter Reed instead of driven.

CNN's fake news Acosta tweeting: Trump did not stop for questions after the president walked out of the White House to Marine One earlier this evening.

Liberal commentator Toure also said he would take a hard pass on praying for the president.

Deranged Hollywood actor Tom Arnold, oh, nice guy that he is, he actually posted Hope Hicks' phone number.

MSDNC host Joy Reid, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, yeah, they're out there floating conspiracy theories that the president was faking having the virus altogether to garner sympathy.

Speaker Pelosi claiming the president's attitude towards the virus was, quote, brazen and brazen invitation to become infected.

Hold on a second. Wasn't she the person telling us to go to Chinatown?

Wasn't she the one that broke protocol and the laws and the rules out in San Francisco? Didn't we have video of her literally in a salon that was supposed to be closed, not even wearing a mask? Having it open so she can get her hair done and then attacking the owner of the salon?

And "The New York Times" suggesting that the president might not be able to remain on the ballot.

Let me be clear -- now, well, you'd think it's not a time for divisive politics. Certainly isn't a time for bizarre conspiracy theories and endless speculation. It might be a time to actually be somewhat decent.

Here with reaction, FOX News contributor Dan Bongino, along with FOX News correspondent-at-large, Geraldo Rivera.

You know, this is the worst pandemic since 1917 and '18, Geraldo. This is what it is. Americans understand that part.

Now, the fact that president put the travel ban in effect, the subsequent travel bans, he's the one that acted faster than anybody, you know, downplayed -- he up-played the part with his actions and he explained that but people don't want to take that part of what he done seriously.

You know, it shows that he took it seriously. Built out the PPE, he was praised by the likes of Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo at the time when they most needed him. But I guess this is who people are. You just have to accept it.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: You know, Sean, let me just say that Zara person and that Max person, they are disgusting, beneath contempt and they makes me want to spit. It is absolutely horrifying, but in a way we have come to expect it from the Trump haters. They know no bounds.

What bothers me, just as much but in a much different way, 180 degrees away and I send our thoughts and prayers to the president and the first lady, I hate when I hear that B.S. cliche' and abundance of caution. The headline here is that the president of the United States and the first lady of the United States have been diagnosed with COVID disease. The president has been hospitalized for COVID disease, a wicked, dangerous, deadly disease that is already claimed 208,000 American lives, a million worldwide.

It's so dangerous that doctors are prescribing an experimental drug. We have to understand that this is an awesome, serious matter that we all have to really take a deep breath.

And as we send our thoughts and prayers to our friend, we have to understand and appreciate what is going on here. When you start hearing people talking about the 25th Amendment and the president himself describing to John Roberts how that mogul friend of his went in four days from bare symptoms to death, God forbid, but let's understand what we're dealing with here.

Those people who are so low-minded that they are using this as an opportunity to stab this man in the back, they should be ashamed of themselves. It is horrifying.

And they should all look in the mirror and say what the hell? Are we all Americans here? How many presidents do we have at a time?

So, we just hope for the best, but let's understand what is at stake here, Sean.

HANNITY: But, you know, and I really do -- from the very beginning, one thing I was very consistent, I said in early February, late January that I believe Dan Bongino in our medical scientists, our researchers, they are the best in the world.

You stand back, you look where we were. First case January 21 of this year.

We're now in final stage trials for vaccines, multiple trials, with all of the things. The therapeutics have greatly improved.

Nobody likes it, nobody wants it. I don't want a risk in life and I don't want anybody to die, period, end of sentence. Even people that hate me, I want them to live forever so they can hate me more.

But the reality is, what it is, and that is that you -- Dr. Oz would always say it on my radio show as he was on every day for a while, during this -- the height of this, you go to fight with the army you have, not with the one you wish you had. It was never perfect but you do the best you can.

Our medical scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses -- they've done an amazing job for this country and we should applaud all of them.

DANA BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, they have, Sean. There's a better understanding of the cytokine storm, which is a result of the infection, which is probably a secondary cause of death other than the infection itself. There's obviously better understanding of therapeutics, antivirals, the use of vitamin D and zinc and other things. You've heard tonight from the medical professionals.

But just in regards to the opening of your segment, you know, first, I want to obviously ask the Lord to give the president and the first lady the strength to deal with this tremendous obstacle in front of them.

And I do want to sincerely thank some of the Democrats and liberals out there on social media who did the right thing. I mean, people like Tulsi Gabbard who came out early this morning with a very wonderful statement of support for the president and the first lady. It was nice. It was really good to see.

But, Sean, the good news ends there unfortunately. I mean, to the others out there, the death wishers, the want-to-be Charlie Bronsons out there, the bizzaro Charlie Bronsons, you know, you're ghouls. You're disgraceful people. You disgraced yourselves, your families, the people you work for, this country.

I mean, you're not going to find in this network when you had tragic incidents like the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, people celebrating it.

You'd be fired tomorrow. I can't speak from management, I can speak from there, I'm telling you right now. You'd be out of this place and rightfully so.

I'm not trying to virtue signal anyone. I'm just suggesting, this is a human being. You may not like his tweets, you may not like his policies, this is a human being and his wife and Geraldo is right, infected with a serious virus.

You know what? You can do the report card later. Can you just wish the man the best for now and hope he gets better.

HANNITY: Well-said, both of you. All right. Geraldo, Dan Bongino, thank you.

When we come back, the architect Karl Rove, he's here with the insight into how the White House is handling the president's diagnosis.

Also, later, we're going to show how some Democrats trying to capitalize on the president's illness in order to stall Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation.

Why would you ever take a break from politics? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. The president is now currently at Walter Reed hospital.

He has an office wing inside of the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. The White House saying it's an abundance of caution.

Joining us now to weight in on how this impacts the 2020 race, what the White House is probably going through tonight, FOX News contributor, former deputy chief of staff of George Bush 43, Karl Rove is with us.

All right. We're 32 days out. Obviously, we're at the height of a political campaign. Not an ideal team I guess or a convenient time for anybody to ever get a positive COVID result.

You know Walter Reed really well. You know the office that exists for a president. Your thoughts overall and the campaign and maybe on the media mob like "The New York Times"?

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Well, first of all, I think the White House is smart to adopt a transparent attitude. As soon as they knew, which was apparently late last night, they let people know in a presidential tweet.

And then today, Mark Meadows, chief of staff, went out to brief. I think that was very good. Speaks of an attitude that we're going to be transparent about this and tell you everything that we can tell you about it. I think that's good.

I think moving the president to Walter Reed was a very good move. There's a medical unit inside the old Executive Office Building, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the West Executive Drive from the White House. It's the big sort of ornate building directly west of the White House. There's a medical unit there. But it really is not designed to constantly monitor.

And so, why not move the president to the Walter Reed Hospital where there's a suite for the president and where there are skilled technicians who can monitor him around the clock and out of an abundance of caution really smart to do.

I also thought interesting enough to the president's remarks in the diplomatic room, where I thought they were very good and very smart to do.

The American people want to hear from him. They want to see him, and that he said, I think I'm doing good. You had a sense of, you know, I've got a challenge, I'm going to take care of it.

The first lady is doing well. There was a sense of empathy there that I think was appealing, and I'm glad the president did it. I hope as this goes forward, it's appropriate that he speaks out.

But yeah, the campaign is going to upend it. In a way, it's sort of weird but it may work to the president's advantage that rather than going giving a speech to 70,000 people in some place or 10,000 people there, 7,000 people or 10,000 people there, and saying something that the press picks up on and runs with, now he can very for the next few days, carefully style his message and send it out there either by tweet, or calling in to a program like yours or by calling in to "FOX and Friends" or by calling -- you know, by maybe doing a teletown hall.

It now gives him a chance to sort of be very focused and discipline in his message here for the next few weeks. And people understand if he's not out on the campaign trail.

HANNITY: All right. Let's talk about the treatment of the media, the mob.

Karl, you've been following this. More particularly, "The New York Times", I know you had some pretty harsh comments to say earlier.

ROVE: Yeah, I was taken aback by, because, look, we want our newspapers to be things that are sharing information and the facts, and describing things. This wasn't a news story in "The New York Times" today by two journalists that I have a respect for but they and their editor did something wrong.

If he's sick -- referring to the president -- or becomes ill, it could raise questions about whether he should remain on the ballot. Really?

The guy is going in out of an abundance of caution to be checked out. He's got mild symptoms at this point. His wife is seemingly doing even better than he is.

But we're already raising questions whether he should remain on the ballot,

32 days from the election.

This was not a news story. This was an opinion piece or maybe -- maybe it was a journalist hoping against hope that he might actually disappear from the ballot if they wrote about it. I thought it was entirely inappropriate, but indicative of the mindset of many of the people in the press.

HANNITY: All right. Karl Rove, the architect, thank you for being with us.

When we come back, a lot more breaking news. Capitol Hill Democrats, they are wasting no time trying to use the president's diagnosis for cheap political gain. Now, they are trying to use it as a stall tactic against the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. The White House and Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are not giving in to this.

Ari Fleischer and Jason Chaffetz are next.

Glad you're with us this Friday. Thanks for being with FOX.

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HANNITY: All right. We're learning tonight, Senate Judiciary Committee members Senator Mike Lee, Thom Tillis from North Carolina did test positive for the coronavirus. Some Democrats are actually trying to use that news for political gain as yet the latest excuse to delay Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation process, which is supposed to start in, oh, 10 days.

Schumer tonight tweeting out, quote: It's irresponsible and dangerous to move forward with a hearing.

Now, Senator McConnell announced earlier that Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation process will move, quote, full steam ahead.

Joining us now with more, former White House press secretary, FOX News contributor Ari Fleischer, FOX News contributor Jason Chaffetz.

Ari, start with you tonight.

You're -- OK, they politicize everything. They've not -- they've not wanted the president to do what 29 presidents have done in election years when there's a vacancy on the Supreme Court. I get it.

Hearings are not supposed to start for ten days. They don't need a quorum.

They can't stop it. Mitch McConnell and Senator Graham are not going to stop it.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Just have to ask yourself, what's different? Why now? Because, Sean, when -- since COVID began, 18 members of Congress have come down with COVID.

When these other members of Congress came down with COVID, did that stop the Democrats? Did they ground Congress to a halt? Did they stop legislating? Did they stop attacking Donald Trump? No.

Should they stop over the weekend on negotiations over the stimulus package? Of course, they shouldn't. They should continue.

We have a constitution and constitutional obligations and they should be upheld and that includes the naming of a Supreme Court justice especially.

There's no reason not to proceed.

HANNITY: You know, I said this at the time, Jason. I said, you know, if at the height of this -- the medical manufacturers of gowns and gloves and PPE and ventilators, they didn't work -- New York and other states were done.

If the farmers didn't farm and the packers didn't pack, and the truckers didn't truck, guess what, we would have starved to death in New York.

All of these Americans work and they actually all hands on deck to help their fellow Americans, including all the medical professionals that didn't stay in their basement bunkers and hide.

So Congress I guess is above the farmers, the packers, the medical manufacturers?

JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: This is just Chuck Schumer playing disaster liberalism to its -- to its nth degree. This is how Democrats and socialists think. They just think that they never want to let a crisis go to waste. They want to use it to their political advantage even though we're a couple of hours since Senator Tillis said he tested positive.

Senator Mike Lee tested positive.

By the way, these are the same Democrats that argued that they don't need to meet with Amy Coney Barrett. They don't think it's legitimate. They don't even want to meet with her.

And now, they suddenly want to delay things. They're going to throw anything and everything at the wall trying to confuse people. It's how they operate, it's sickening, it's disgusting, it doesn't work. People see right through it.

But this is how Chuck Schumer thinks. He's not oozing with, you know, credibility on this issue.

HANNITY: What about all things on the table, Ari? Court packing is on the table and ending the legislative filibuster is on the table. We're going to make D.C. and Puerto Rico states without any input from the other 50 states and have a Senate majority of Democrats in perpetuity and Joe won't answer that question either.

Does he get away with going through the rest of the campaign ignoring these important issues?

FLEISCHER: Well, I think he's going to be under some level of pressure. But as we all know, most people in the mainstream media don't hold him accountable. They don't hold his feet to the fire and endless follow-ups and point out how he's dodging and pound him on it. They don't. They give him a pass.

But, Sean, it's not that these issues are on the table. They're about to be shoved down our throat. They're about to leave the table.

And reason I say that is when you listen to Senator Schumer who wants to be majority leader talk about how he didn't wait to become the majority leader this long to do nothing, he's implying he's going to abolish the filibuster. And if they pass packing the courts, do you think Joe Biden is going to veto it?

So, I have no doubt in my mind if the Democrats win and if they take back the Senate, they're going to pack the court, they're going to abolish the filibuster. One of the first things they'll do is create new states. D.C.

will become a state. Puerto Rico will become a state.

HANNITY: Yeah.

FLEISCHER: They'll pack the Supreme Court, and pack the United States Senate. It's a power move.

HANNITY: How will that go over, Jason Chaffetz? We have about 30 seconds

CHAFFETZ: I think this country will become unrecognizable. People need to show up. They need to vote. They have no excuses. They need to talk to their friends. They've got to do everything they can.

Don't let anybody in the media scare you, intimidate you, try to cancel you. Get out there and vote because these changes that Ari is talking about, they're very, very real.

HANNITY: What they're really talking about, I mean, the fact that Joe won't answer -- I'm not falling for Trump's trick --

CHAFFETZ: Yeah.

HANNITY: It's not a trick question. Do you want to pack the court or not?

Tell us ahead of time, Joe.

Pretty fundamental. Anyway, thank you both, Ari Fleischer, former Congressman Chaffetz.

All right. On this busy news breaking Friday night, more "Hannity" after this.

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HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately these all the time we have left this evening. Once again, I want to send our best thoughts and prayers to the president, the first lady and every person that has had to deal with this.

What China did to this country, they put the travel ban in effect. You couldn't travel out of Wuhan to the rest of China, couldn't travel from the rest of China into Wuhan. But they allowed travel out to Wuhan to the rest of the world. Speaks volumes about what they did to the world here, and they should pay a price in the end for what they've done.

We wish everybody a quick recovery, but we are close to a -- closer to a vaccine and better therapeutics than we've ever had, which is good news for every American, every American family and we will always share what we find with the world.

All right. Please set your DVR and never miss an episode. Thank you for being with us.

Let not your heart be troubled. Laura is next. Have a great weekend.

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