Sean Hannity says his level of concern ahead of November's presidential election is a '5-alarm fire'
Everything that made America great is riding on the contest between President Trump and Joe Biden, Sean Hannity, host of 'Hannity' and author of the new book 'Live Free or Die,' tells Mark Levin.
This is a rush transcript from "Life, Liberty & Levin," August 2, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MARK LEVIN, HOST: Hello, America. I'm Mark Levin. This is "Life, Liberty & Levin." I have a great guest. You may have heard of him before. His name is Sean Hannity, one of my best closest longtime friends. It's a pleasure to have you.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF "HANNITY": It's mutual and there's a reason I call you The Great One.
LEVIN: This is a very, very important program. I've known you a long time and you and I talk a lot about what's going on in this country.
We talk about the virus. We talk about the riots. We talk about the language that some of these Democrats are using and how they're encouraging the violence.
We talk about the impeachment and the coup efforts against the President of the United States who from day one, really never had a chance with the media and the opposition and we worry about the future of this country.
You and I have known each other 25 years?
HANNITY: Yes. Well --
LEVIN: Probably.
HANNITY: Yes, probably. Yes, maybe 25 to 26 years, yes.
LEVIN: And we've never been more concerned in our lives like our audience is.
HANNITY: Yes.
LEVIN: Your book is called "Live Free or Die: America and the World on the Brink." You have not written a book in 10 years.
HANNITY: I've not.
LEVIN: Tell America what motivated you and why you wrote this book.
HANNITY: It's the moment, you know, actually in Latin, I have at the bottom of the book "Live free or American dies."
I actually talked to you about this when I was thinking about it. This goes back almost a year ago. I could see this coming. I could see this moment coming and that was even before the impeachment. This was after the Russia hoax and everything we've been through.
What a year this has been already and, you know, we're just 90 some odd days out of this election.
If I had to describe the level of urgency I feel about what I believe is the single best greatest country God gave man, it is I have a five-alarm fire in my heart, my mind and my soul right now for this country.
The level of concern that I have. The stated policies in this election of - - well, this very feeble, very confused, seemingly very weak, Joe Biden, his stated policies. If they are ever implemented, Mark Levin and you know this because you've written the books on statism. You have written books on liberty and tyranny, that is another way to put it because whenever you have socialism, radicalism, statism, that is usually what follows thereafter.
I think everything that has made this country great, everything that has made us the shining city on the hill, and I'm not being cliche here, is riding on this election. And we can get into the very specific details of it all.
But I see now that the urgency I felt a year ago when I began this process, and I've been in your house when you were writing your books. Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to see it. It is literally entire rooms, stacks, stacks, stacks and stacks of papers, and I've watched you write your books over the years. I don't like writing, it's too much work. It's too hard.
I like talking. I like throwing it out and I don't have to polish, sand, prime and paint it.
Here's what's at stake. Joe Biden now has stated policies of what he will do to America. He's adopted -- I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime -- Bolshevik Bernie's entire economic agenda. He has actually plagiarized them, taking it word for word.
He is pledging trillions, not billions, trillions of dollars to AOC's New Green Deal. His guns czar will be Beto O'Rourke -- Bozo, I call him, and then you got Schumer, Pelosi and Biden. What have they done -- I'll ask every American watching "Life, Liberty & Levin," what has Schumer, Pelosi and Joe Biden accomplished? Because combined, they've been in the swamp in Washington, Mark for 125 years.
Now, here's the danger. If these plans are implemented, you don't need an M.I.T. degree. You don't need a Harvard degree to figure out mathematically it's impossible.
You know, I have a whole chapter in the book and we can get into in detail if you want and that is "Socialism: A history of failure," because everything that has been promised in every other socialist experiment no matter what form it has taken, be it you know, Mao or the Bolsheviks or let's say -- how's Cuba working out? How's Venezuela working out today?
Wherever it has been implemented and is tried, it has resulted -- the results have been catastrophic.
Let me bring it on a more simple level. There is a psychological -- and I'm giving you the underpinnings of this election -- there is a psychological appeal when politicians or bureaucrats want to take away all the natural stress in one's life.
And the way they're going to do that is they're going to promise you, oh, your school will be taken care of. Pre-K will be taken care of. Daycare will be taken care of. A guaranteed government job, guaranteed government wage. We're going to guarantee a government vacation. We're going to guarantee government healthy food. We're going to guarantee government healthcare. We're going to guarantee our government retirement.
Well, okay, let's look at the history of how government in this country alone is now working. You know, we see the anarchy. We see the violence. New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles -- it's unfolding right before our very eyes.
What do all of those cities have in common? They've all been run by Liberal Democrats now for decades. And if you can't provide the most fundamental role the government should provide, which is law and order and safety and security. How are you capable of doing anything else?
Now let's go to the next part of that equation. You look at all these liberal cities, and these blue states run by Democrats for decades. How is their educational system doing compared to other cities and other states that have not been run by Liberal Democrats?
In almost all of the cases, you're looking at an educational system in ruins. You love Ronald Reagan. You were Ed Meese's Chief of Staff. There was a landmark study "A Nation at Risk." What they said in that study was, if this were done to our educational system by an outside entity or force, it would be tantamount to an act of war.
Okay, look at Baltimore. I'll pick one city. Baltimore third highest per capita --
LEVIN: Anyway, this is all in your book.
HANNITY: Oh, yes.
LEVIN: Third highest per capita spending in the entire country for education, for their children. Mark, 13 public schools -- high schools -- what percent -- this is not a test. It's not a question. What percentage of those students in those 13 public high schools do you believe are proficient in Math?
LEVIN: Forty? Thirty?
HANNITY: Zero. There's not one child proficient in Math. Very few in reading. Now, they fail on safety and security, law and order. They fail on education.
Okay, let's go to Medicare and let's go to Social Security. How -- what are we projecting out in the future? They're headed to bankruptcy. Both of them. Can't talk about it. We call it the third rail of politics.
How did Obamacare work out? What was it? The Biden Obamacare promise? Because they said. It was, you know, their talking point. They sold it to you, America, as you keep your doctor, you keep your plan, and you're all going to save money, on average $2,500.00 per family per year.
Millions lost their doctors. Millions lost their plans. On average, every American is now paying 200 percent more for healthcare. And the worst part is, almost 40 percent of the country, Mark, now has one Obama-Biden care exchange option. They don't even have any choice.
Here's your plan. You want it, you take it or you're not getting anything else. An unmitigated disaster.
So what this election is about is, now, if they want to -- if they failed in all of the areas we have entrusted them with and all these blue states and blue cities who are run again by Liberal Democrats for decades, now they want to tell us that they're going to do everything for us, and that it'll take away every fear you have in life.
Well, that's not what this country was founded on. This is where your books are a great, you know, primer if you will, a primer for this entire endeavor, because you talk about our founders and our framers.
LEVIN: But so do you.
HANNITY: I do.
LEVIN: In the first chapter -- and I can see you sitting at your desk, writing this book moving from chapter to chapter almost because the first chapter is the heavy chapter.
HANNITY: The hardest one. Well, that and socialism were the tough --
LEVIN: Okay, yes, that's a soon to be thereafter chapter. But you really look at the founding and the perspective of an average American, a patriot, and you go through the magnificence of the founding of this country.
And unlike the 1619 Project, you actually tell the truth about the founding of this country in a very understandable way. And in a way, I think most Americans who love this country think, then I can see how your mind is working as you're writing it, and you're moving --
HANNITY: You know me too well.
LEVIN: And then you're moving into socialism, which is sort of the evil opposite of capitalism and freedom. Socialism smothers liberty. You explain all of these things in your book.
HANNITY: I do.
LEVIN: And then you also bring us to modern times, the war on Trump. So basically, the way I see your book, and it's a fascinating book, the way I see it is, you build to a crescendo.
Here's our history. Here's their history. Now, we're in the Trump period and then you have the final part where you're talking about what's going on to the country all the way up to the coronavirus.
And this is what I want to talk to you a little bit about. The Trump period.
Here's a man who was not interested in politics. He decides he wants to run. People laugh at it. He turns out to be a very shrewd candidate. So they try and destroy him.
The Republican Party tries to destroy him. The Obama administration tries to destroy him. The F.B.I. and the Intelligence Agencies try to destroy him. The media tries to destroy him.
You have done enormous work on this on your Fox program, enormous second to none. Without getting into all of the specifics, as you sit back and look at this, is this not one of the most appalling episodes in American history?
HANNITY: Yes. I often wonder, no President in our lifetime, Mark Levin has ever had to go through what this President has gone through and I view him as a transformational historical figure. A second term would be critical because the second term would cement in all the great success that he has built already built upon.
And it now we're talking about the Supreme Court. Now we're talking about ending a lot of bureaucracy. Now we're talking about locking in changes to our economy, now being the largest producer of oil in the world and energy independent.
But to get into the more direct answer to your question, is it has been the most unrelenting, mean-spirited, hateful. I mean, between the media mob which is 99 percent of people that say they're objective journalists, they're liars. They smear, slander, besmirch, they libel, the character assassination.
They wake up every second, minute and hour of every day, I often say, hating Donald Trump. What did Donald Trump do? He did everything he said he was going to do as president.
Nobody has cut the bureaucracy like he has. Nobody kept his promise on taxes on the Judiciary. He even gave us the names of the nominees he would appoint to the Supreme Court.
LEVIN: Which Biden won't do.
HANNITY: He found a way to get the money to build the wall because nobody else was going to help him, and by Election Day, we'll have over 400 new miles of wall, and then he's going to continue it from there.
His new Trade Deals. You and I actually went back and forth on this a lot. I kept saying he's not a protectionist, I said, Mark, he's a nonstop negotiator. And he knew that they had to believe what he said. That there would be punitive action, not a trade war.
He never wanted protectionism. He wanted a better deal for America.
He got it with China and Japan. He got it with our Western European allies, Mexico and Canada. And what is the result then? I like to look at results because we, as conservatives, we really believe conservatism works. Lower taxes, less bureaucracy, limited government.
You know, Thomas Paine, the great pamphleteer said, where the guides in dictates of conscience irresistibly be obeyed there'd be no need for other law givers. That not being the case, government in its best state, a necessary evil; worst state, an intolerable evil.
Well, Democrats are offering us that intolerable evil.
LEVIN: It is a fascinating brand new book.
HANNITY: Thank you.
LEVIN: "Live Free or Die" comes out on Tuesday. You can get on amazon.com. You can get on our Mark Levin Show. Facebook, Mark Levin Show, Twitter.
This is a serious book, folks. This is not -- this is not a joke. And I want to make sure we take the time to really show the public what is in this book because it is -- we're not going to have enough time to get into all the aspects of it.
But I can see how your thinking goes. I can see where you want to go in this book and you've done a tremendous job.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back. The book is "Live Free or Die: America and the World on the Brink." It is a remarkably prescient book, and I know from our talks that you worked with the publisher to get it out as fast as possible.
HANNITY: We did.
LEVIN: You even have a full chapter on the coronavirus. But I want to circle back here, because it ties in to what Donald Trump is doing and what Obama did and what Biden wants to do.
People talk about socialism like they talk about brushing their teeth. They're socialists or whatever.
HANNITY: Right.
LEVIN: We've been talking about Marxism now, in many respects, and how they're embracing it. The point of Marxism and socialism is to destroy the individual. It's to destroy liberty. It's where the government makes decisions, the masterminds, the social engineers, redistribute wealth, redistribute rights, have a war on the suburbs.
They can use race. They can use the environment. You spend a lot of time explaining this in your book isn't -- don't you think -- and I think you've said this before and you certainly say in the book.
One of the reasons they have such a hate on for Trump is they just figured Hillary Clinton would get that third term and they'd be off to the races for the rest of the time. Isn't that a big part of it?
HANNITY: A big part of it. You lay it out perfectly and you laid it out in your books. Again, there is a psychological component to this. There's an appeal, oh, we'll all put our money in one big pot and we'll spread it around equally and we'll all live happily ever after.
The problem is -- and I go through chapter and verse, the Bolsheviks, China, more modern day. You could talk about any of these socialist experiments. The promises are lofty. They are great.
Cuba, the revolution there or Venezuela. Venezuela should be the richest country on the face of this Earth considering all the oil reserves they have. It always ends up in what though, Mark? A powerful government elite that nationalized industry, destroy incentive and innovation.
Let me go a little deeper here. Things that I don't usually talk about.
So we have this belief, and I can actually -- while we hold these truths to be self-evident -- this is our founding document, our Declaration.
LEVIN: Or as Biden said, "You know the thing."
HANNITY: The thing -- that all men are created equal, endowed by -- oh, the thing, you know the thing, okay? The thing being God from above, the Creator of everything. So that talks about natural rights
This is now -- I am getting into a little Levin territory here -- natural rights. They are God-given rights, okay? They're not government given rights and those natural rights-- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, right?
Okay, what has made -- why is America as Barry Farber once said, a great pioneer of talk radio, our other jobs, you know, no country in the history of mankind that accumulated more power and abused it less and I advanced that. I say, no country in the history of mankind that has accumulated more power and used it to advance the human condition, the entire human, the worldwide condition than this country.
What is it about this country that is great and exceptional? I'm not saying perfect. I am saying what is it that has allowed us to do it? It is the antithesis of statism, socialism, nationalizing industry. It is free market, individualism, risk and reward.
Look, if you believe in natural rights, Mark, you believe that -- and I will go to my Latin background in the seminary in high school, education from the Latin, to bring forth from within, natural rights endowed by our Creator. God gives you talents. Good educational system -- we are not giving most of our kids, we're giving a lot of them indoctrination.
We then bring those talents to fruition and whatever the desire, the creativity, the brilliance in each human soul, if we would only nurture them in a safe environment with a good educational background. Here's the thing -- that is advanced Science. That is advanced Math. That is advanced technology.
You know, they said at the turn of the last century, they were thinking about closing the patent office because everything that could be created was created. No. American ingenuity and genius has transformed the entire lives of the world.
Even the poorest Americans, usually if they can -- if they have even a little apartment, they will have a stove, they will have a refrigerator, likely a microwave, and a television set, maybe a radio, stereo system of some kind. I mean, that's the poorest in our country and we don't want anybody to be poor.
The idea is that you take your natural rights, your God-given talent in a free country and you work hard, you produce goods and services that others want, need and desire, and in pursuit -- while you're serving other people with your gifts, you're also making money in the process.
My point is this is. It is only freedom that allows that to happen. Freedom is under attack here and what they're not telling you is that every single program that they're providing psychologically, to put you at ease that you'll never have to worry again for the rest of your life, every one of those promises which are unsustainable financially, when they are broken, it'll be like Obamacare and like the lack of law and order and the lack of education. You're giving up that freedom.
And you're putting your faith, your hope, your trust in people that say, trust us. Look at their track record. Why would we double down on what is a guaranteed failure?
The history of socialism, a history of failure or "Socialism: A History of Failures," the chapter, because I don't care if it's the Bolsheviks. I don't care if it's Venezuela. I don't care if it's Mao and China and the revolution. I don't care if it's Cuba. Even all the western -- even the European allies.
The reason I outlined the book the way that it did. First, what has made us great? And what did Reagan say? He said, freedom is always but one generation away from extinction.
I tell the story of Ben Franklin. Is it a monarchy or is it a Republic? A Republic, if you can keep it. Well, this generation's fight is right now.
This election is all on the line, and what was fascinating because you picked this up, as I wrote the book, I purposely put it in there the rise of radicals. I purposely put it in there, the Democratic Fantasyland, I call 2020 Agenda. And I led into the fourth chapter, "Socialism: The History of Failure" because I wanted people to hear what the promises were, that what they just read, the Democrats were promising was all said almost verbatim before.
There was a method to my madness.
LEVIN: No, it's beautifully laid out. It's very, very substantive, and the point you just mentioned here, we're going to have to take a break.
HANNITY: You're bringing stuff out of me that --
LEVIN: It's in your book, the point that you just mentioned here that's so important. They always fail.
HANNITY: Always.
LEVIN: Because it's not that their programs are impracticable. They're impossible. And so when they fail, what do they say? Give me more of your liberty, more of your money.
HANNITY: And what do you get, Mark?
LEVIN: You get more iron fisted police state.
HANNITY: Okay. There was a great book I read once by a really dear friend of mine. It's called "Liberty and Tyranny," live free or die.
The urgency -- I want to say this, I mentioned it earlier, I have in my brain, my mind, my heart and my soul that this moment is the tipping point. If their plans are implemented, that is Bolshevik Bernie's economic plan, that is AOC's New Green Deal, Bozo's gun confiscation and all the false promises along with it and eliminating the lifeblood of the world's economy -- we're done. It's over.
LEVIN: We're going to take a little break. I just want the audience to know, this discussion we're having, we have all the time.
HANNITY: You and I talk about this all the time, we do.
LEVIN: And you lay it out beautifully in your new book, "Live Free or Die." I strongly encourage you to get a copy.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHLEY STROHMIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Live from "America's News Headquarters," I'm Ashley Strohmier.
Isaias is drenching Florida's East Coast with heavy rain and battering residents with strong winds. The tropical storm has weakened from a hurricane, but officials are still urging people to be careful and take precautions.
Isaias is expected to follow the eastern seaboard north potentially making landfall in South Carolina around Myrtle Beach.
And welcome home to Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. The NASA astronauts returned to Earth with a retro-style splashdown carried down by Elon Musk's SpaceX's company.
The two men left Earth's atmosphere two months ago to spend time on the International Space Station and their successful journey marks a turning point for American space travel using private companies for Interstellar trips. Pretty cool there.
I'm Ashley Strohmier. Now back to "Life, Liberty & Levin." For all of your headlines, log on to foxnews.com.
LEVIN: Welcome back, America. A great new book, "Live Free or Die: America and the World on the Brink." Truer words have never been spoken. This is a very prescient book. It is very timely.
And look, I know the economy is very, very bad right now. Thanks to the coronavirus and these Democratic governors who won't open up the damn economy. But that said, those of you who are in a position to really inform yourselves about what's going on, this is the book to get, "Live Free or Die."
As you can hear, we're only able to touch on two percent of it to be quite frank. We talk about the media a lot. I wrote an entire book on the media.
We can trash them all we want, but the truth is, the First Amendment is so crucial. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, in part, that's what the American Revolution was fought over. And they're part of the Bill of Rights.
Now, they don't much care for the rest of the Bill of Rights and I would remind the Antifa and Black Lives Matter and the Democrats that we have a Bill of Rights thanks to the founders of the country, some of whom were slave owners, some of whom weren't, but they created the foundational basis for a free country.
What is it with the media and their hate for free speech for people they disagree with? And what is it with the media that really is not a free press, but it's become a propaganda machine for the Democratic Party?
How do you think we got here?
HANNITY: You know, all of these years, believe it or not, I first got behind a radio microphone 33 years ago. You would have told me when I started at Fox, I'm in my 25th year, I wouldn't have believed you and I feel very blessed. This audience with this channel has been phenomenal.
Our radio audiences. We have the Levinites as we call them. How did we get here? It is amazing. Let me just say this, we, as conservatives, we are the defenders of free speech. I don't boycott anybody. I never will.
I like the buy-cot idea. I thought that was pretty cool actually with Goya beans and Goya Foods. I don't demand anybody get fired. I believe in freedom and that means I'm actually very pro-choice and if you want to tune in to Bill Maher, I can't stand the guy, I didn't want him fired. I don't like what he says, but I don't want anybody fired.
LEVIN: But we have this whole cancel culture now.
HANNITY: The whole -- listen, it's now gotten to the point where you don't even know what's going to be -- you know, what's the next level of cancel? How about this? How about we have freedom -- we put on the radio shows we want to listen to. We put on the TV shows we want to watch.
And if you don't like it, how about your turn the channel? If you're so offended, if it -- you know, if you're so woke that it just you get the vapors, and you know, you're about to pass out.
LEVIN: But the Democratic Party today, liberty and tyranny has a very broad, totalitarian streak in it. They've come after radio.
HANNITY: All of us.
LEVIN: They've come after Fox. They have cable channels that's been -- that have hosts that spend their entire time coming after Fox.
HANNITY: By the way, I'm fine with that.
LEVIN: Okay.
HANNITY: You want to attack me?
LEVIN: Go ahead. But here's where it really bothers me, a presidential press conference. I call these journalists sort of Kamikaze journalists. They go in there for the reason of disrupting the press conference, asking inane questions that don't provide the American people with any information.
Why aren't you wearing a mask? Are you going to wear a mask tomorrow? I go, oh, my God.
HANNITY: Everyday.
LEVIN: Is this ever going to stop?
HANNITY: The other two people in the country that don't need to wear a mask, President Trump and Joe Biden because you can't get around them unless you're tested.
Let me tell you what they are, Mark. They -- the media, the 99 percent, it's not even 98, it's 99. They are the propaganda wing of everything radical, extreme, Democratic socialists. That's it.
They're so anti-Trump that if Donald Trump, I always say cured cancer, they wouldn't -- they want to impeach him for it.
LEVIN: So you're saying they are part of the movement? They are part of this leftist movement.
HANNITY: And they're also the ones that want to cancel shows they don't like. They're the ones that want to silence conservatives.
We began to see signs of this years and decades ago when conservatives would try and speak on a college campus to try to shut them down. They're still doing it to the likes of Charlie Kirk -- I saw your interview with him -- on a daily basis.
I mean, it is courageous that he and Turning Point and all of these other groups that they're willing to go into the war zone there and battle and offer new ideas.
Here's the problem, Mark. That is fundamental and basic. Is it really -- are you really that offended? I think they feign outrage. It's phony manufactured outrage.
Do they really hate Donald Trump that much? They do. You can hear it. You can see it. You can feel it.
Those press conferences you're discussing. You know what that is? That's oh, this network, this network, this network. They want their one moment where they get to run it over and over again on their network.
LEVIN: But isn't also an attack on the free press and an attack on the American people?
HANNITY: Of course, it is. Listen, this whole -- anybody that supports Donald Trump, Mark Levin, let's be very clear here. We're smelly Walmart shoppers, by the way, guilty. I go to Walmart. You know why? You can get everything at a great price.
LEVIN: I do, too, but I'm not smelly.
HANNITY: Yes, exactly. Well, you know, on any given day, right? If I work out or not. Now, we are irredeemable deplorables. What does Biden say? He wants to transform America. What did he say? Fifteen percent of the Trump people, he goes off on them. He had his own irredeemable moment. We are bitter people clinging to God.
Guilty. I cling to God. My Second Amendment rights, my Bible and my religion. The country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and it has made us great.
We're a moral people. We're good people. Freedom has made us a better people. The media is so corrupt they lie to this country. For four straight years, they lied about Russia. They lied about collusion. They are state run propaganda TV.
LEVIN: And they are a Praetorian Guard for Biden who spent half of his life as a bigot.
We'll be right back
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back. Fantastic book, "Live Free or Die." Sean Hannity. First book in 10 years. You say it might be your last book.
HANNITY: Oh, it's my last book.
LEVIN: It's hard to write books.
HANNITY: It's too hard. Yes.
LEVIN: All right.
HANNITY: Yes.
LEVIN: Virus, flu. The swine flu under Biden. The virus and how Trump is handling it? What say you?
HANNITY: Okay, number one, it turned out -- now, interestingly, swine flu impacted younger people more than older people. They did basically nothing for six months before they actually even declared, yes, this is a real serious problem -- Biden and Obama.
But let me answer your question this way because I'm tired of the lie -- this is the worst pandemics since 1917 and 1918 and the Spanish flu, it just is.
China lied to the world. They allowed it to spread. They could have gotten in the world's experts. We could have contained this and all these lives could have been saved and this could have been stopped. So that's a big problem. But let's stop right there.
Let's look at Donald Trump's response. Donald Trump. We had the first identified case of coronavirus January 21st this year, right? January 31st, 10 days later, Donald Trump against the advice of even all of his medical team did something extraordinary, put the travel ban in effect. Then he had subsequent travel bans. Then he had what was it -- the first quarantine in what -- 50 or 60 years?
Nobody had done that ever before, immediately moving forward. Now all the experts, all the doctors, everybody in the mob in the media. What were they doing? Well, Biden was calling the travel ban hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering. The Democrats in Congress, they weren't talking about coronavirus or paying any intention at all because they were too busy impeaching and with their latest hoax.
And then, you know, I love all the Monday morning quarterbacks. Then we begin to find out the scientists are wrong, the scientists are wrong. The model predictions are wrong. At one point, it was like two and a half million dead Americans. It won't be anywhere near that in the end.
And I watch and I compare what the Democrats did and what Donald Trump did, and the President gets no credit as always, because what he did ultimately became the biggest, largest, fastest medical mobilization in history.
And I watched the President, what did he do? We got the Comfort ship in New York Harbor. We got the ship, the Mercy out in California. Then the President built hospitals all over New York, 3,000-bed hospital, the largest in the country.
He manned all of those hospitals. He converted those hospitals to COVID-19 capability. Every bit of PPE. Governor Cuomo says, I need 40,000 ventilators. Well his own health Taskforce told him to buy 15,783 and he didn't.
Trump built the hospitals, manned the hospitals, converted them to COVID-19 capability, and then he provided all the PPE, shields and masks and gowns.
LEVIN: Let me ask you this --
HANNITY: And last thing, they left them empty and they put an Executive Order of Cuomo and all of these other governors, they put them into nursing homes.
LEVIN: Going forward, isn't what's happening now, a first in American history? The development of therapies and vaccines on the fastest, safest, most efficient schedule in American history? We may actually have a vaccine or more than one vaccine in a nine-month period. Can you name another time when that's happened in American history?
HANNITY: Operation Warp Speed.
LEVIN: And what else? Not only have a vaccine because he is a businessman and he thinks like a businessman --
HANNITY: How do I get it out?
LEVIN: Manufacturing? Who is going to manufacture it? They've already let contracts. How are we going to distribute it? They've already let contracts.
Biden-Obama, 2009. Vaccine was late. They said to be 100 million, then they said to be six million. They got to 12 million. Ron Klain, right? Ron Klain was the Chief of Staff who said we made mistakes all over the place.
HANNITY: Without the travel ban, without the quarantine, without the subsequent travel bans, ten days after the first case, it is incalculable how many more Americans would have gotten this virus. I would argue probably hundreds of thousands and how many thousands of Americans would be dead?
And Biden as President would have not put it in because it was xenophobic.
LEVIN: And we know where Nancy Pelosi was. She was in Chinatown, San Francisco inviting the whole world.
HANNITY: Oh, yes, come on in.
LEVIN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back. Tuesday, a brand new book, "Live Free or Die" by Sean Hannity, his first book in 10 years. A fantastic book, a substantive book. I want to strongly encourage you to get it. We're just touching on two percent of it maybe.
You talk often -- and you're right in this book that this is a crucially important choice election. Explain.
HANNITY: All hands on deck. Tipping point. You know, we've talked about this in the past with presidential elections. It's never been more clear cut, Mark. Their stated policies, they're telling you, they're going to raise your taxes.
Biden is going to raise it. Trump will cut them. They're telling you they will put activists on the Supreme Court. They are telling you they will implement amnesty. It will become the United Sanctuary States of America.
By the way, with that, the cost of healthcare, education for everybody, they are telling you that, oh, the police have now become the enemy. They're telling you, they're showing you that they will not restore law and order.
LEVIN: And the war on the suburbs.
HANNITY: And the war -- okay. They are explaining to you that if you like -- if you like energy independence, which we've gotten to for the first time in 75 years, that is wiped up. Fracking in Pennsylvania, fracking in Ohio, fracking in Texas, oil production, coal production -- it will be over.
He has already pledged, Biden, with this New Green Deal czar, AOC, that trillions of taxpayer dollars, this unsustainable madness that they have all bought into.
Donald Trump will cut your taxes. He will put originalist and constitutionalists on the Supreme Court. He is going to secure your borders. He is going to keep America energy independent.
How many millions of jobs -- high-paying career jobs exist in the oil and gas industry? Look, if somebody wants to come up with a new invention, about how we're going to have new energy, go do it. You'll be a multi billionaire --
LEVIN: It won't be a liberal, I can tell you that.
HANNITY: It probably won't be. Exactly. But we don't have it now. And the fact that we're now energy independent, less reliant on foreign countries for the base of our economy.
Remember Biden-Obama said those manufacturing jobs aren't coming back. Now, they are coming back and now that we are taking a lot, for example, those agents for pharmaceuticals that China was providing to us. That will be wiped out.
You want to talk about foreign policy. You want to talk about trade policy.
LEVIN: What about -- let's --
HANNITY: Appeasement versus --
LEVIN: What about Israel? How would Biden treat Israel if he is the President of the United States?
HANNITY: There's never been a more hostile President towards Israel than Obama. There's never been a greater friend to Israel than Donald J. Trump. There's never been a person that has stood up for faith and Christianity and Christian values than Donald Trump and religious freedom on top of it.
There's never been a President that has cut back the bureaucracy as much as this one.
LEVIN: Biden keeps talking about a Muslim immigration ban. Is there a Muslim immigration ban?
HANNITY: No, not at all.
LEVIN: In fact, wasn't Obama the first one to put in the ban and the President added a couple more countries that were terrorist countries?
HANNITY: Correct. And vetting people that come into our country. That's a simple commonsense. You might want to vet him for health issues now. If I want to vet people that have terror ties now, I think that you know, because so many in the world would love to come here, there has got to be some standards. Other countries do the exact same thing.
Look, this is it. If you love this country, if you love liberty and freedom, there's never been a bigger choice.
LEVIN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVIN: Welcome back, America. Obviously, I'm here with Sean Hannity. The book is "Live Free or Die." Now, I've read this book. I read a lot of books. People say what do you do for a hobby? I read. I research. That's what I do.
This is what I do, and I read a lot of books. This is a fantastic book. Honestly, you should not only read it, you should make sure your friends and your colleagues, and family members read it.
This is the book for this election. This is the book for this time. Because Sean covers history. He goes into current events. He ties it all together.
You can see how his brain is working, as he works through all these different issues. It's crucially important. This to me, is the primer for the election, and as Sean says over and over and over again, this is it, because they mean to fundamentally transform America and the President is the only person who stands between us and them. What do you think?
HANNITY: I say that on the cover of the book. Let me say this and I'll turn to your audience. If you love your children, and you love your grandchildren, and you like liberty, and you believe in freedom.
We all stand on the shoulders of our parents, and grandparents. They sacrificed so much for us.
Liberty has advanced the world's condition. That is on the ballot -- safety, freedom security -- on the ballot.
I choose freedom. I choose capitalism.
I hope everyone else will do so as well for our kids and grandkids' sake, and just for the fun of it, to watch the media mob crumble when they have to say these magical words on November 3rd, we can now project Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th President of the United States.
LEVIN: Great job, my friend. "Live Free or Die." Sean Hannity. It comes out Tuesday. Grab a copy.
See you next time on "Life, Liberty & Levin."
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