NYC Police Benevolent Association president blasts city's liberal leaders over spike in crime

close

Video

NYC Police Benevolent Association president blasts city's liberal leaders over spike in crime

Lawrence Jones interviews New York City Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch.

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," July 14, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right. Welcome to "Hannity."

Breaking big tonight, a lot of news. Big new promising developments from America's search for a coronavirus vaccine. Just had a talk with a very prominent medical doctor who is more than optimistic. We will share this good news with you tonight.

And, buckle up, we are now just 112 days away what has now merged into the single biggest choice election in modern American history. Not an exaggeration, not hyperbole.

If -- let's see, look at Joe's team. If Joe Biden wins, he has the strength and stamina and mental alertness to do the job, if he implements the extreme agenda that he's now embracing, let me be clear -- America as you know it, we know it, will be destroyed. Our entire way of life will be flushed down the drain.

If the issue of law and order security and safety, if that matters to you and to your family, if free-market capitalism matters to you and your family, if our Constitution, the rule of law matters to you, here's what you need to know -- in 112 days, you are the ultimate jury. Joe Biden doesn't, well, really have any original ideas. He never has.

He's been in the swamp 50-plus years. It's 50 years of elect me and I'll do this. I'll do this. The president says all talk, talk, talk, no action.

Schumer, Pelosi, and Biden alone, 125 combined years of elect me and I'll promise this, this, and this -- nothing but 125 years of meaningless promises and unmitigated failure.

Oh, and on Biden's part, lots of plagiarism. Remember he was accused of plagiarizing a paper in law school. 1980s, many of his speeches were plagiarized. He was accused of plagiarizing Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, British MP Neil Kinnock. We played that for you last week.

And the scary part is Biden has taken his cues from the most radical, the most extreme socialist, extremist that this party has ever embraced -- the Democratic, modern, socialist party.

Look at the corrupt forgetful Joe Biden team. You've got Biden, Schumer, Pelosi -- that's 125 years of, well, failure alone. Now add to that Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Beto Bozo O'Rourke, gun czar.

His latest policy proposals were literally authored by the devout socialist Bernie Sanders. And Joe even plagiarized Bernie's agenda literally in many instances word for word right out of Bolshevik Bernie's a socialist platform.

Now, keep in mind, Bernie wants the government to control all means of production. He wants to nationalize industries like they did in Venezuela and Cuba. He has praised those regimes. And, by the way, honeymoon and the former Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, socialist Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, she's in charge of Biden's climate task force and she wants to ban oil, gas, coal, air travel, and eventually even cows, says we have 12 years and it's all over. Her Green New Deal will cost $94 trillion over 10 years. That will turn America into a socialist bankrupt hellhole.

And then, of course, there's Biden's gun-control czar, Beto Bozo O'Rourke whose top priority is to literally take your guns away. This is what's at stake in 112 days. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE, FORMER CONGRESSMAN: Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm going to guarantee this is not the last you have seen of this guy. You're going to take care of the gun problem with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: OK. To recap, Biden has tapped Bolshevik Bernie, he's even plagiarizing him, to lead his economic policies. AOC will lead the Green New Deal climate task force. Beto Bozo, he's coming for your guns. And, by the way, he also has Schumer and Pelosi in Congress.

This is his team? Right there? Add Beto and add AOC. They win and you can start singing bye-bye Miss American pie because it's over.

What's next? Is he going to tap -- let's see -- the ever incompetent Cuomo to, what, lead his coronavirus task force? Is he going to tap Comrade de Blasio, mayor of New York, as his law and order czar?

After all, just last week, Biden in his own words, he agreed that yes, funds, should be diverted away from the police. In other words, he's embraced the "defund the police" movement. He's the guy that said last week, police have now become the enemy.

In New York City, Comrade de Blasio, already slash the NYPD budget by a billion dollars. He has disbanded the uncovered, the most effective anti- crime unit in the city. He's banned all stop and frisk.

Meanwhile, New York Governor Cuomo, while he's the genius that let thousands of violent criminals out of jail every single time with his idiotic zero dollar bail policy. And as a result, what are we seeing? Shootings in New York City and New York state, they have more than doubled over the last year. On Monday, at least 17 people shot, that includes three drive-by shootings.

At one point over the weekend, there was a shooting every single hour. And last night, we brought you Lawrence Jones' heart-wrenching interview with the family of their 1-year-old baby boy who was shot and killed. He was in a stroller. He was in a playground in Brooklyn.

Now, this violence is unacceptable. It comes as police all over the country now are under attack. Since May, 12 police officers have now been killed in the line of duty. Two were murdered over the weekend in Texas while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

Over 1,000 other police officers seriously injured, rocks, and bottles, and bricks, and Molotov cocktails, knives and guns being used against them. The chaos, the carnage in America's big liberal cities, it's out of control.

And, by the way, if you want a preview of coming attractions, that will be America with Biden, Pelosi, AOC, Schumer, and Beto. That's your choice. We can't make it anymore clear.

You are the ultimate jury. So do you want in 112 days law in order to be restored or do you wanted to get worse?

Because Biden wants to defund the police and abolish cash bail just like they did in New York. He's come a long way from calling people predators and, you know, while saying under incendiary things on racial issues, like he didn't want his kids in a racial jungle if we're talking about integration. He used those words.

Like I said at the top, this is now become the single biggest greatest choice election in our lifetime, on every single important issue that will impact your kids, your life, and your grandkids.

Do you want Biden's plans for open borders, for amnesty, the united sanctuary states of America? The minute you get into America, you get absolutely free health care, free, free, free -- free schools for every illegal immigrant and amnesty.

Or do you prefer border security? Four hundred miles of border wall will be built by Election Day. You get to decide.

Do you want Biden's tax increases that he is promising? Or do you prefer lower taxes that Donald Trump is promising?

Do you want Biden's Green New Deal madness or President Trump -- let's see, he's made this country energy independent for the first time in over 75 years. And he's also made it for the first time in 75 years, we are now the world's number one producer of energy. Do you want that or do you want to ban coal and fracking and oil production?

Do you want Biden's activist judges, legislating for the bench, do you want to stack the courts like, well, Democrats have been talking about, or do you prefer constitutionalist, those that believe that's the fundamental rule of law for the United States of America?

Do you want socialized health care? Do you want to keep your private health care? How did Obamacare/Bidencare work out for you?

Do you want Hunter Biden making sketchy billion-dollar deals with the Bank of China, lining his own pockets or do you want a president who will actually stand up to China as this president did earlier today? Do you want zero experience Hunter making millions more in Ukraine?

Quid pro quo Joe, zero experience Hunter, oh, it worked out perfectly, didn't it?

As president from said today, there's never been a time when two candidates were so different. Let's watch the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There's probably never been a time when candidates are so different. We want law and order. They don't want a lot order.

We want strong closed borders with people able to come in through merit, through a legal process. They don't want to have any borders at all. They're going to rip down the wall. It was hard to get that built and now, it's almost completed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Ultimately, I'm only one vote. My vote is probably not going to mean much in New York.

It comes down to you, you, the American people. You are the jury here.

Do you want America to become a place where working hard, doing the right thing is punished, mob rule, anarchy is rewarded? Because that's what Biden is now selling with his team of Pelosi, Schumer, AOC, Bernie and Bozo.

Well, that's -- those are the stakes in the 112 days. You're the ultimate jury. You get to shock the world again and you get to stop what they want to do to this country from happening.

You know, it would certainly be worthwhile just for the pure entertainment purposes to watch the fake news media mob in this country, I'm just thinking out loud. In 112 days, maybe early to 113 days, early in the morning, having to choke on the words "we can now project that Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th president of the United States."

How do you think that's going to go over when you get the call that they -- we get to watch them make that call? That would be pretty amazing. We survived eight years of Obama. I don't want to go back.

You know what, America was resilient. This plan is way beyond anything that's ever been proposed -- the most radical, extreme, socialist proposals in the history of this country. It will destroy the U.S. freedom that has created more wealth, more opportunity that we have used for human advancement around the world. That's all because of liberty and freedom. And every time you get a false promise of security, you give up your freedoms.

Here with more, Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones.

Lawrence, I got a lot of reaction. That was a heartbreaking interview last night. I thought about it all night and all day today.

Please come if you talk to that family again, please send our prayers and our love and our support.

I don't know how you recovered from that.

LAWRENCE JONES, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, brother, it was a tough interview. Good evening, Sean. Thank you so much for having me.

Yesterday when we brought that heartbreaking interview that the shootings had increased to 130 percent, based on the information I'm getting for my sources and the police department, shootings have now increased to 161 percent. Last night was a bloodbath, 18 people were shocked. A 17-year-old is now dead.

I went to East Harlem to talk to the residence to get their voice and here's what they had to say. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Mother, do you feel safe with your child?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. That's why we're going to (INAUDIBLE). That's why I've got my gun license. No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police (INAUDIBLE). So, now, everybody, it's like, it's like you're saying I've got to stand out here.

JONES: Do you think it was a bad move to take those cops?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, it was a bad move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel bad because, you know, they are killing innocent people, kids.

JONES: Do you feel safe in the community?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at all.

JONES: They cut a billion dollars from the police and it looks like crime is going up right now. Do you feel like that's the solution?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think what's happening right now is the people are policing themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Sean, it's not just the residents of New York that are saying this. The PBA president Pat Lynch says that the blame lies with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York. He lives in this house right behind me. He says it was the response to cutting $1 billion, as well as getting rid of the anti- crime unit.

Take a look at what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Pat, 18 people were shot last night. Why?

PATRICK LYNCH, NYC POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: Because the city has given our streets back. When I say the city -- our city council, our mayor's office, and the state legislature have handcuffed police officers and given the street back to the criminals.

Remember just a few short years ago, the city was out of control. Police officers literally took our street corners back block by block because our leadership asked us to and we presented these neighborhoods back to the good, hardworking people that were in them.

Well, this administration decided that's not good. They demonize police officers. They've changed the rules where it's impossible to do our job and the criminals take advantage of that.

When a criminal hears from city hall there's going to be a soft touch on crime, they know exactly what that means. It means it's a smorgasbord on the streets and we are going to take advantage of it and they have.

Where we have children being shot on the streets. How terrible can that be?

JONES: A 1-year-old was killed.

LYNCH: A 1-year-old on top of a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old, our aspiring basketball player in the Bronx who was going to announce to his mother what college he chose to go to. Before he can do that, he was gunned down. It's happening so often now.

We're forgetting the tragedies that happen before that. We are waking up in the morning and say, "How many last night?" It's crazy.

JONES: Is the mayor responsible? Tell me about him cutting one billion dollars from the police department and the impact it's going to have on the police department.

LYNCH: Well, it's not just one thing but saying that we are going to take one billion dollars from your budget because there was a slogan on a sign at a march, and then the mayor says, we're going to do that.

JONES: Defund the police.

LYNCH: Defund the police.

Now, I love it. As a person that has protested in my life, protesting the fairness of police officers and I have even marched, I like it because you say defund the police. The definition can mean something to you in something different to me, so they start yelling it.

And then you have the cowardice of our city council and the mayor's office trying to figure out what the protesters want.

JONES: Uh-huh.

LYNCH: They're not going to stop at a billion dollars. They don't want police officers on our streets. They don't want them taking the guns out of perps' belts. They don't us keeping our children safe in school.

What's next?

JONES: Uh-huh.

LYNCH: What's the next slogan we're going to chase?

JONES: Is there any hope of taking the city back?

LYNCH: You know what, I am a guy who always sees a path.

JONES: Uh-huh.

LYNCH: And I'm a guy that always sees the light at the end of the tunnel. But I'll be honest with you, I'm having a hard time even seeing the tunnel now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Sean, he also said in the interview that he's all for getting rid of all the bad apples that are in the police department. He doesn't want them part of the police department, but the way that the mayor is handling it is going to get people killed.

Back to you, Sean.

HANNITY: All right, Lawrence, thanks for that report.

Tonight, we are learning new details about Biden's very own Green New Deal and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's finger prints all over. This proposal, Biden will spend trillions of your hard-earned dollars to order literally in order to completely rebuild America's power grid with green energy, calling for a pollution-free power sector by 2035. Oh, that's only 15 years.

In other words, no more oil, no more gas, no more coal. That would all go away. None of it.

This comes as Hillary Clinton is pushing herself back in the spotlight with more insane conspiracy theories. She's come up with more lame excuses on why she lost than anybody in the history of politics. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is their party that's where the Donald Trump will be able to use any of those stories to try to undermine the entire election and say, you see, that one and that one, I don't think we should trust this election at all because that says I've lost.

HILLARY CLINTON, D-FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I think it's a fair point to raise as to whether or not if he loses, he's going to go quietly or not. And we have to be ready for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: OK, they floated that same conspiracy theory in 2016, she lost miserably.

Here with reaction, Fox News contributor, Dan Bongino. Also, Fox News correspondent at large, and "Fox & Friends" weekend, host, Pete Hegseth. Geraldo, thank you.

You know, Geraldo, they're not doing anything, Geraldo. There's no change, we've been talking about it for weeks. This has gone for decades.

All of these cities have one thing and comment. Your friends, your liberal Democratic friends, not friends like me and Dan and Pete, your other friends.

(LAUGHTER)

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT AT LARGE: My other friends and never the twain shall meet.

You know, I tell you, Sean, in the -- in the long term, that is -- there's not a long term. Just over three months to go. I get is -- I think as you get into October there's not a vaccine, I think the president is going to be in real trouble but in the short-term, this summer, this long hot summer, if the shootings continue, if New York continues to metastasize into becoming a south Chicago, people are going to be so worried that the neighborhood people will be so worried about their own health and well- being, their own safety, their children.

I mean, when a 1 1/2-year-old -- I mean, I love Lawrence Jones. He's brought relevance to our network that's really, we are seeing with the real story is, the real story is the people want law and order. They want to feel safe.

If they don't feel safe, the activists in the big mouths and they crazy conspiracy paranoia that the former secretary of state is experiencing, those things are irrelevant. If these folks feeling secure, I think the president has a clear path to reelection.

HANNITY: Let me go -- we have some news. The primary runoff in the great state of Alabama, I did live there two years. Tommy Tuberville has defeated Jeff Sessions, apparently, according to "The A.P.", pretty healthy margin at this point. That obviously, the president weighed heavily there.

Dan Bongino -- obviously, remember it was the day after that he got the job as attorney general that he recused himself. To me, that was a big mistake. He should've told the president that was his plans before he ever got to that point in my opinion.

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, that was a big mistake and I don't think that the MAGA crowd really ever got over it. Listen, let me be clear, I've never heard of that word personally about Jeff Sessions from any senators that I keep somewhat contact with.

But you just can't get past that, Sean. I mean, he recused himself. You have to remember, for really no good reason whatsoever.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: He gave the wrong -- wait a minute. He quoted the wrong law at the time. Our own Gregg Jarrett broke that story.

BONGINO: Yes, I don't mean to pile on the guy or anything but he recused himself and only the biggest case of a political conspiracy against a president in modern times where he could have done something to shut this disaster down and he didn't because of a question by Al Franken, and they were all wrong.

The question was, he misinterpreted the entire thing, and it was really a disaster. I don't think they ever got past that but it shows the power to might have a Trump endorsement. I mean, there's -- listen, the media will try to spin it six different ways from Sunday.

And again I don't mean to pile on Sessions. He's probably a good man personally but is a huge victory for Trump. There's just no way for the leftist media to spin it another way.

HANNITY: Pete, let's look on the horizon 112 days. And might surprise a lot of you I first started my radio journey when Ronald Reagan was president. I've seen Reagan, Bush 41, we lived to the Clinton years, then Bush obviously 43, Obama years. Those were kind of tough years.

Donald Trump, I've never seen one politician more successful in three and a half years in my entire lifetime. But 112 days, I've never seen a clear choice for the American people. How do you assess this race at this point?

PETE HEGSETH, "FOX & FRIENDS" WEEKEND CO-HOST: No president has had to take on what Donald Trump has had to take on. He's in a great place number one because of what he's done and what he stood for, the way he has taught Americans, Republicans, conservatives, his supporters, how to fight, how to expose the left-wing mob and how to be totally unapologetic with what he believes in.

The other benefit he has is that Joe Biden is a fundamentally unserious human being who is completely captured by left-wing interests who are driving his agenda, totally detached from the safety and security and economic prospects of average Americans.

The president needs to drive the narrative he talked about today. Where was Joe Biden when jobs were going to China? Where was Joe Biden when our border was wide open? Where -- all the things he says he represents that sound middle-of-the-road, he's making up and he had four years to do it if he wanted to.

Donald Trump did it in three, three and a half years. That's when he takes to the voters as a contrast, and you drive the contrast, pro-America, America first, versus the leftist mob that wants our streets to look like New York City. That's the consequence of their policies.

HANNITY: OK, let's go through predictions.

Geraldo, I will start with you. I don't have a crystal ball. My attitude is we don't know until the people show up. I think Donald Trump has not lost support from 2016. That's my -- my observation.

I believe that this president has had unprecedented economic success. I would think being the law and order candidate, the safety and security candidate. If we have a half of a recovery which I would expect heading into this election, that will be viewed as an enormous relief and success. We're going to going to break news the next segment about a possible coronavirus vaccine on the horizon, a real one, which is exciting because this invisible enemy can die.

If you had to guess, how do you see this shaping up in 112 days? Prediction.

RIVERA: Joe Biden may be a bumbling, incompetent candidate, Sean, but he's got a lot of money. They are going to hammer the president over 140,000 dead Americans. If that vaccine --

HANNITY: Is that Donald Trump's fault?

RIVERA: -- you're going to be reporting on a couple minutes doesn't come to fruition -- they will make it Donald Trump's fault.

HANNITY: You are going to blame the worst pandemic since 1917 and '18 on him?

RIVERA: However a big lie that is -- however big a lie -- however big a lie it is, they are going to pound it, pound it, pound it. If he doesn't have a vaccine by mid-October, I think he could lose, Sean.

HANNITY: Dan Bongino, if I recall, it was ten days after the first identified case Joe Biden called the travel ban xenophobic, hysteria, and racist, and fearmongering. Where was Joe when that one decision saved likely hundreds of thousands of lives?

BONGINO: Yes, Joe Biden has been on the wrong side and right on every issue on this, and listen, there's a lot of time left in this.

HANNITY: Prediction.

BONGINO: A ton of things could happen. But Biden is the chaos candidate. I think Trump stands a very good chance of reelection. He's the chaos candidate, economic chaos and street chaos, as simple as that.

HANNITY: Prediction, Pete.

HEGSETH: Sean, Sean, they still have to debate. My prediction, over 400 electoral votes for the president.

HANNITY: Wow.

HEGSETH: The contrast is clear.

HANNITY: I'm hoping Pete is right. No offense, Geraldo.

Anyway, thank you all for being with us.

When we come back, we have some good news to share, hope tonight as it relates to corona.

Also pretty unbelievable -- yes, the ever incompetent Andrew Cuomo was trying to sell a poster touting New York's COVID response. Yeah, a little sick.

Also, Texas Governor Greg Abbott will join us to give us an update. There've been hot spots in Texas. He'll tell us what's going on and how he's dealing with it, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. On the issue of COVID-19, we have some -- and this is cautious optimism -- but good news on the vaccine front. The company Moderna, their experimental coronavirus vaccine reportedly showing promising results. Their first human trial, 45 healthy volunteers as the vaccine apparently resulted in an immune response without major side effects. In other words it created antibodies for COVID-19 -- actually higher, it's according to Dr. Oz who I spoke to who will join us tomorrow, he is very encouraged by those results.

Moderna plans now to go to phase two trials later this month. That will be 500 people. We will keep you updated.

I've always believed in American exceptionalism, greatness, our scientific community, our medical community, amazing people and I know they got a lot wrong, the experts were wrong. The models were wrong. The predictions were wrong.

But they do get a lot of things right, too and we should be grateful to them for that.

Now, failed governor Andrew Cuomo actually has the audacity know, he's trying to take a victory lap despite his obvious, undeniable dereliction of duty, atrocious handling of the coronavirus crisis. Remember not only was Cuomo slow to act, we New Yorkers, it's not channel: 118 date: 07/14/2020 time started: 21:30 time ended: 21:35 comments: going to happen here what's happening elsewhere. Yeah, but he also put -- well, literally tens of thousands of sick patients in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in harm's way, and we lost -- well over 6,000 to be exact.

That's not stopping him, though, from releasing what is a tone-deaf, out of touch poster celebrating the city's coronavirus response efforts, along with a Monday appearance on Jimmy Fallon. Cuomo's behavior is even drawing rebuke from fake news CNN. I can't believe it. I'm actually going to say something nice about our old friend, fake Jake Tapper. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The poster includes references to his daughters and a boyfriend, little inside jokes. There are no illustrations however of the more than 32,000 dead New Yorkers, the highest death toll by far of any state. No rendering on that poster of criticism the Governor Cuomo ignored warnings, no depiction of the study that he could have saved thousands of lives had he and Mayor de Blasio acted sooner, no painting there on the poster of his since rescinded order that nursing homes take all infected patients in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Well, the Humpty Dumpty, Mr. Potato head network fake news CNN actually got something right. Tip of a hat.

Cuomo along with Governors Murphy and Wolf, and, of course, Michigan Governor Whitmer, you know, the worse those three states, executive orders forcing nursing homes to take COVID patients, and then, of course, lectures from Cuomo, I'm not responsible for your PPE. You wanted those patients for money and, by the way, people are going to die anyway. He actually said all of that.

They failed their residents. It was a disgrace.

Earlier tonight, the president laid out more of Cuomo's failures. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We did in New York, what we did in New York was one of the most incredible things. Two thousand eight hundred beds in Javits Center, but the governor used very few of them, unfortunately. Then we moved in our great hospital ship.

We could have used that for our senior citizens. We could have used that for other people. They could have used it instead of sending our seniors back into nursing homes that were infected where you lost thousands of people. Thousands of people in New York died because of poor management by the governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: By all the governors there. Now, unfortunately, Cuomo's not the only Democrat politicizing the virus. The far left has now shifted their outrage over the prospect of reopening schools in the fall.

Let me be clear: of course, the safety and security of our children is an important as anything. They are our American treasure. I say that often. There's increasing evidence that we can do this safely. "Wall Street Journal," I point out to their article and a new editorial pointing out that schools have reopened in most countries including Germany, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, Finland, they have not experienced outbreaks.

Remember, the cost of shutting down schools indefinitely are immense. American Pediatric Society has weighed in on the side of opening them. And the fact is we can't shut down and stay shut down forever and that will -- those with were words of Anthony Fauci. And medical expert seemed to agree.

Recent report, NBC Nightly News interviewed five pediatricians all said they would send their kids back to class. Democrats, the mob, the media, they would rather turn towards hysteria, rage, politicizing. For example, even as New York City sees an uptick in cases among young adults, city officials insisting there is no connection to mass protests that are taking place across the city. Blame the churches.

New York Times, others, that's what they did. They blamed the churches for the spike.

Also developing tonight, an investigation in Florida has found by FOX 35, numerous labs are misreporting their COVID results -- get this -- including a failure to report any negative cases. They're saying, oh, every single person that comes in has it. OK, that's not right.

Joining us now with reaction with the very latest of developments, Governor Greg Abbott.

Governor, let's go -- let's go put up some charts first. I love our friends in Texas. You've been very firm and I anecdotally have said -- I'm for masks. I'm for social distancing, use of plexiglass and opening stadiums.

I want it all. If I have to go to a baseball game, football game and wear a mask, I'll wear it, because I saw in New York at the height of this, I saw that it worked in my grocery store, and my drugstore. Nobody contracted it and they all had plexiglass and masks.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT, R-TEXAS: And that's exactly what Texas has adopted. We observed the same thing. Early on, we had some grocery stores, H-E-B, which was just ranked America's favorite grocery store, they had best practices in place to slow the spread. And that's exactly what we're doing in Texas.

Sean, know this -- we do not want to shut down business or Texas again. We cannot have that. But we can do, however, we can use these practices like will you just said and that is -- people can wear masks, we can use these other strategies to slow the spread while we are awaiting the time of when we do have these vaccines.

I do however want to add one thing because I heard on your show what I hear on every show, and that is people talk about the vaccines which will be coming. But before vaccines will come, we will have therapeutic drugs coming and maybe two or three months before vaccines will come, so that people will be treated who do contract COVID-19.

HANNITY: Well, Governor, you know, we do know that after all was said and done, it turns out the first real study on hydroxychloroquine, it turns out Donald Trump was right. Had very effective. Remdesivir is another drug showing promise.

Let me show -- I'm putting up on the screen, for example, the daily new cases in your great state of Texas, hospitalizations, positivity rate.

All right. Now, we're seeing this a lot in the Sun Belt. We have Governor DeSantis on. He pointed out something that I found, I -- very interesting, and as much as that a lot of the new cases are younger people. They are less at risk, but then they are at risk of may be infecting grandma or grandpa. That concerns me.

As you look at the charts and you been very outspoken, what do you make of it? What are you seeing, and what have we learned from the last time that you were implying?

ABBOTT: We are seeing two things. One is we are seeing a meaningful increase in hospitalizations and that's a very dangerous sign. We are seeing however, also, what you're pointing out and that is almost half of the people who are testing positive are under the age of 35.

As a result, it means that more people who are testing positive will not be going to the hospitals as before. But we do need to be very concerned about those who are hospitalized, but also we must emphasize exactly what he said that is for the young adults who do test positive, they can spread that with their parents, with their grandparents. And that can lead to the serious problem.

That's exactly why during this time period while we are waiting on medications, it's so important that people in Texas as elsewhere wear masks. Remember this also, Sean, this isn't just Texas and Florida. Remember -- see what's going on in California, in Louisiana, in Illinois, all of which have upticks in the number of cases.

My point is this: the coronavirus COVID is not blue. It's not red. It's not Democratic. It's not Republican. It's going to happen in any state and we all just need to respond in ways to contain it without crushing our economies and without killing jobs --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: We can't close the country down again. Yeah, let me just say this last word --

ABBOTT: We need to protect lives and protect our economy at the same time.

HANNITY: I lived in the epicenter of this. I went to that same grocery store. Every week I saw the same cashiers. I saw the same kids. I even interviewed one on my radio show. They all wore masks, not one person got it.

So why would I -- why do I say I'll wear it? Number one, it's short-term. It's not going to be long. We'll kill this thing.

Number two, I wear it for grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, and selfishly, I want to go to a baseball game and I want to go to football game. If I have to wear it to go, I'll wear the stupid thing. I don't like it but I'll do it for other people.

Governor, keep us updated. We're praying for the state of Texas, flatten again, go down and get this thing done with.

All right, when we come back, New York Times opinion columnist, wow, a powerful beat down an editor by the name, her name is Bari Weiss, resigned from the paper today and penned a scathing resignation letter where she was bullied by her New York toilet paper "Times" colleagues. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Breaking today, "New York Times" columnist, editor Bari Weiss, she resigned today. She published a scathing resignation letter writing, quote: Twitter is not on the masthead of "The New York Times." But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.

She added, quote: Stories are chosen and told in a way that satisfies the narrowest of audiences.

She shed light on the bullying she faced as a result of her views, stating her colleagues would call her, quote, "a Nazi" and a racist, and standing up for principle at the paper, puts a target on your back. Wow.

And it gets -- well, even worse from there.

Here now with reaction, former White House press secretary, Fox News contributor, Ari Fleischer, former Arkansas governor, Fox News contributor, Mike Huckabee.

I would imagine both you, Ari, and both you, Governor, you don't have a love of "The New York Times." we know how they treated you, Ari, and we know how they treated Sarah Huckabee who will be the governor one day in Arkansas. And I'll gladly supor that campaign.

Ari, this was a beat-down and very revealing.

ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: It's remarkable, Sean. You really don't see someone that articulate talk about from the inside how rotten things have become at "The New York Times" culturally. It's one thing.

We all know papers have been liberal for decades and networks have been liberal for decades, but this is an indictment of the internal intolerant culture led by the editors of "The New York Times" who have acquiesced to the younger journalists where she puts it have basically taken over because of the Twitter mentality, a collegiate landscape mentality.

It's not the newspaper I subscribed to for 40 years. It's hard to recognize these days as real journalism.

HANNITY: To me, it's just toilet paper. That really is. it's -- I mean, Governor, I won't spend a lot of time on it.

I want to ask both of you this question -- by the way, big, big huge lead, 56 percent or so reporting. This is a beat down in Alabama tonight by Tommy Tuberville over Sessions. What advice 112 days out, I consider you to of the smartest political guys in the country.

Governor, would your advice 112 days from this election be to the president and then we will ask Ari the same question.

MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I would agree, Ari is one of the smartest guys in the entire country. Your assessment of me like that, I would say you needs a better friends, Sean. Simple as that.

HANNITY: Underestimating your brilliance. And you're also a person of great cheer, which I credit you for.

HUCKABEE: My simple advice to the president if he were to ask is this: remember that people elected you to fight for them. What you got to remind the American people is that you fought for border security. You've fought for lower taxes, for less regulation that opened up business. You've fought to push China fact. You fought for the sanctity of life. You fought for our alliance with Israel.

Focus on the things that he has done that made a lot of people, even folks who didn't like his personality, vote for him and forget the slights that he gets from "The New York Times" and CNN. They don't matter. Thus people are never going to like him. He shouldn't want them to like him because if they did, it must be that he has compromised his core values.

So, stick to the fight that matters to the American people as they sit around talking about who they're going to vote for. And I think he will win in a landslide if he does that. I truly do.

HANNITY: Ari, as I ask you the same question. I put this out there as well, defund the police. The police have become the enemy. Bernie Sanders, AOC, Beto O'Rourke, now his advisors with Schumer and Pelosi, this race has changed my view.

FLEISCHER: It has, but there's a fundamental thing dragging Trump down right now and that's COVID, and people are still generally scared about it and the president's poll numbers were never higher than in March and April when the president talked about his friend who died of COVID, what advice he would give to Barron where he said, his son, how bad it is.

There was the empathy the president was showing as somebody who cared about COVID, protecting the American people. His job is to protect us from all enemies, including the COVID enemy.

He's got to talk about it. He's got to lead the country on it and show that he cares. He's a tough guy. We all know that.

He's also got to show he's a caring guy. I think he does care about the people of this country. So, he's got to show it, indeed, not just words.

HANNITY: He led the largest, fastest medical mobilization the history of mankind. He's done it and they're doing it behind the scenes, but I agree with you.

FLEISCHER: Keep showing it.

HANNITY: Great -- I think you two are the smartest advisors. If I was ever stupid enough to run for office, I would seek your counsel, but I'm not that stupid so far.

All right. Thank you, guys.

When we come -- when we come back, an update, remember the St. Louis couple who came under fire for defending their home from an angry mob of protesters? Remember now that they came to take their guns? We are now hearing tonight there is a possibility they may now be indicted.

Mark McCloskey will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: In an update tonight, this couple that -- remember this video went viral, defending their St. Louis' home. Mark, Patricia McCloskey back in the news. Local authorities actually confiscated that family's firearms that were used to ward off so-called demonstrators surrounding their home after breaking down the gate.

Tonight, Mark is saying come he's hearing that in fact he and his wife might soon be indicted.

He joins us now with more.

Mark, let me go through the facts quickly.

Police were warned that day before the gate was broken down and didn't show up, is that correct?

MARK MCCLOSKEY, GUARDED HOME FROM PROTESTERS: That's my understanding, Sean.

HANNITY: And is it correct that the police arrived with a search warrant and seized your semiautomatic rifle?

MCCLOSKEY: Last Friday evening, yes, sir.

HANNITY: And that rifle was legal?

MCCLOSKEY: Absolutely.

HANNITY: And that Missouri law says you can use physical force to stop stealing, property damage and tampering. And you can deadly force against the person someone who unlawfully enters and remains and enters your property, and there's no duty to retreat from your home?

MCCLOSKEY: That's my understanding, Sean.

HANNITY: And you're hearing you and your wife might be indicted?

MCCLOSKEY: You know, they want to indict me. The press has maligned me. And they are trying to socially intimidate us. But we did nothing wrong and we're not going to be intimidated. We're not subject to intimidation and we won't back down.

HANNITY: The night -- the second night that people came and the cops were there then, but again, they took your rifle, I had a source on the ground - - I have not been able to confirm it. Maybe you can.

Is it true that President Trump sent in people to defend your neighborhood and nobody knew about it?

MCCLOSKEY: That's the information we have come. I think that we got help from the very top. We had -- that night, we had cooperation I think from the federal government, from the state government, from the local police department.

That night, everybody stood up like champs but it came from the top down. I can't express my appreciation enough for everybody involved.

HANNITY: So, you have a lawful gun. You have Missouri law on your side. They showed up with a warrant anyway to take a legal weapon. They didn't show up on the night when you needed them, and now they might arrest you?

I don't think that's going to do very well, in court. You're a lawyer. Your assessment, objectively?

MCCLOSKEY: Well, you know, I don't do criminal law cases but I can tell you this -- it has been intimidation campaign and we're going to -- we're going to fight it.

HANNITY: We're not going to stop following this story. Where were the police? They should've been there the night it happened. Not there to take your legal gun and not out there to rescue. I think you have the law on your side.

We'll follow the story. Thank you, sir.

More "Hannity" after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Hannity.com, Amazon.com , three weeks from tonight, I spent a long time working on this book, "Live Free or Die: America and the World on the Brink". In Latin, it says at the bottom, "Live Free or America Dies".

What made America great? The failure of socialism, the Democrats 2020 radical extreme socialist agenda, Donald Trump's agenda, everything is on the line. Hannity.com.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Laura, how are you?

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.