Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - O’Reilly’s Coronavirus Special

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

O’Reilly hosted a special on WABC radio in New York Tuesday on the Coronavirus contagion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, New York. O'Reilly here, the host of the O'Reilly Update 720 each day on Talk Radio 77, W.A.B.C. during the Bernie and Sid Show. And you can hear me with the guys on Thursday, we kick it around. So I have a lot to tell you about in this coronavirus special. And for the rest of the evening, you just heard Bannon will be on at 5. And then Levin, his regular shift begins at, six. So New York State, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, New York City, of course, drives that. And that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. We are the biggest city in the country, by far, in the New York area, 16 million people in the five boroughs of New York, 8.5 million, many of them foreign-born, which means that visitors from all over the world pour into New York every day. And that drives the virus or did. And now we have a shutdown. So let me give you some stats to start off this coronavirus special. And once again, I am very pleased to be here on Talk Radio 77 WABC. I grew up at this station on Long Island in Levittown. Some of you know that.

And here we are. So New York's infection attack rate, they call it, is five times higher than the national average. All right, five times higher. And we are doubling our case count here every three days. I think that will level off soon, but it has not. Nearly seven percent of all the cases are in New York State. Okay, New York City. has about 15,000 cases right now. In the state, 210 people have died 125 and counting in the city. All right. So it's bad. And everybody knows it's bad. Now, the good news is that most of us are cooperating with the authorities. We are not defying them. We understand the danger. So why is in New York such a hot spot? Well, first of all, because we live very close to each other, especially in the city. All right? So you have apartment buildings, you have massive amounts of people who are close to each other in elevators and subways, on buses, even walking the streets, the streets are packed. And the virus, which began in China, Wuhan, China,

came in here unannounced and had probably two weeks before anybody knew what the heck was going on. It hit New Rochelle very hard, and then it migrated down to the city. And that's what we have now. But the local government, the state government, the federal government is now aware of the danger, and we're going to go over that. So let's take the New York experience first. Mayor de Blasio, ineffective. No surprise. He is not a problem solver.

He was elected by very few people in the city, I think 27% voted. He has not been a good mayor. In fact, he'll go down in history as one of the worst mayors the city has ever seen, right alongside Abe Beam, if you remember him. So, de Blasio is a cipher, and it was very interesting to see him not close the schools, and the teachers basically said, hey, Mayor, blank you, we're not coming in because there's danger in the schools from this epidemic. And therefore, Mayor de Blasio was forced to close the schools. He would not have done it.

On the state front, Governor Cuomo, interesting guy, he now sees a major opportunity. to be the leader in the fight against the virus, which might lead to the White House, which Andrew Cuomo wants very, very badly. Now, as all of you who listen to WABC talk radio know, Andrew Cuomo has moved sharply left over the years. He used to be kind of a moderate liberal. Now he is a far left guy. He cannot win the White House there. So he's coming. back a little bit to the center. And his pressers have been very effective. In fact, the networks take Andrew Cuomo, where they very rarely do that for any governor. And Mr. Cuomo has presented himself well. He is at odds right now with President Trump over ventilators. So the city and the

state do not have enough ventilators. Why would they? State governments do not stock ventilators. Nobody anticipates a pandemic. Respirators, ventilators are there for the current need. They are not stockpile. So Governor Cuomo has made a fairly significant deal out of the ventilators. They will come to New York, but they are late. There's no doubt about it. President Trump said today in his address, and we'll get to the national scene in a little while, that the governor turned down and offered a purchase ventilators a few years ago. I'm not going to get in the middle of this because I don't know the facts. And my presentation on the internet, on Bill O'Reilly.com, on Talk Radio 77, wherever I am,

is fact-based. If I say it, you can take it to the bank. Now, Governor Cuomo has put himself into contention for the White House. I don't think it's going to happen this year because Biden is the presumptive nominee and the mechanism to get Biden out and Cuomo in is very unwieldy. Could happen possible at the convention, but probably not. It'll probably next time around 2024. In that case, Andrew Cuomo, and this is just an aside, would have to root for Donald Trump to win re-election.

Because if Biden wins, Biden could have a second term. And whoever his vice president is going to be would be first in line to run if Biden declines. So Cuomo, it never admit it, but, you know, if Trump wins, not the worst thing in the world for Andrew. Getting back to the city. So I'm out on Long Island, and people out here are distressed, not many panic. When it's in the grocery store yesterday, and believe me, when I tell you, the young people working as clerks and checking people out in the grocery store out here, they're heroes. And if I own that store, I double their salaries for just coming in and interacting with people. There's no six-foot rule when you check out, and people need groceries.

They've got to keep the stores open. They need food. I get food to go from all my stores, all my people. I'm going to circulate as much money as I can locally here on Long Island. I'm not afraid. If I get the virus, then it's meant to be. That's how I look at it. However, and this is big, I do not put myself in jeopardy.

I do not take chances. I'm not going to ride the subway. I'm not going to go into a crowded building. Not going to do it. And I tell all my family and friends, that is the way we have to live. You want to take a walk? You want to go down to the beach and walk on the sand? Good.

Keep your distance. Six feet is the medical diagnosis, and that's fine with me. Most people don't want to hang around me anyway. So I don't have a real problem with that. You popular people out there, it's worse for you. Not for me. So my observation is that most New Yorkers are rising, as we always do. I went through 9-11. Many of you did. And you know how heroic the people of New York were. And I think that's happening

here. I am optimistic, and I'm going to get to that after the first break, that there will be a vaccine for this virus. And that will cripple it. And the panic will end once the vaccine. or a strong medicine is introduced. That is the solution. But I'm going to wait because Trump is on TV today and I'm going to analyze what he said and give you a realistic approach on what he's thinking. As some of you know, I have access to the president. I wrote a very strong best-selling book about him, the United States of Trump. If you want to know about Donald Trump, read that book. You'll know everything about him. And it's not a pro-Trump or an anti-Trump book. It's a history book. That's what I do. So summing up, New York is the epicenter. We don't know how

long it will last. Everyone is inconvenienced. Most people are helping in this pandemic, not hurting. There are a few irresponsible. There always will be. But I have to say, if you are a first responder in this city, if you're a cop and my grandfather was one, if you're a firefighter, EMS, anyone who has to be on the street, I am so proud of you, and I'm not pandering at all, because these folks have families. They have wives and husbands and children that they have to be responsible for. So we know that the first responders are people out on the street are brave, or they wouldn't be there. It would have quit a long time ago.

But now they have the added emotional burden of protecting their family. when they know their job is kind of risky, but they still have to do it, or all social order would break down. Remember, eight and a half million people live in this city. Nowhere else in this country comes close. Los Angeles is second with half that in a county that's humongous, not a closed-in island and then for other borough. So I have to tell you that out of this pandemic, if you are an observant person, you are seeing the best of humanity because we are still being served by our police, firefighters, medical people, medical people. Oh, my God, emergency rooms, all of those people, doctors, nurses, all of them, it's just amazing to watch it.

It's inspiring to me as a human being, not a person. as a journalist. And those are the things that we have to think about when our inconveniences pop up, when we're angry that we can't see a show or we can't meet with people or something like that. You know, think about the people who are really stepping up and there are legions of them in the New York area. We are the strongest people in the country, bar none.

So we're going to take a quick break. Then I'm going to come back with the national stuff, with President Trump and the opposition and Congress and all that. So I hope you'll stay tuned. This is Bill O'Reilly, and I am proud to be hosting this coronavirus special. We'll be back after these announcements. All right, we're back, and we're pleased to have Congress from Peter King coming up. He wants to take reprisals against China. on Bill O'Reilly.com, which is where I live, by the way. I do a podcast every night. Hundreds of thousands of people are coming in now to watch the podcast. That's unprecedented for a news program on the internet. I hope you will check out Bill O'Reilly.com and listen to the O'Reilly update right here on Talk Radio 77 W.A.B.C. 720 in the morning with Bernie and Sit every day. And I'll be with the boys on Thursday in the 8.30 hour. Anyway, Bannon's coming up at five, Levin at six, as the coronavirus special continues.

So let's go to the national deal. Stocks are up big time today. That's good, but be careful. Be careful. This is an up and down situation. If you have 401Ks, if you have college funds, if you have investments, do not do anything. Just stay in place. They will come back.

The stocks will come back. We don't know when, but if you sell now, you're going to get clocked. All right, I'm sure you've heard that advice before. It is good advice. President Trump today on Fox News channel, my old home, and basically it was a, they said a town hall. I didn't quite know what it was. But the headline is that Donald Trump wants business as usual in the United States of America by Easter. Is that possible?

Only if there's some kind of medical breakthrough, because this vicious virus, and I know a lot of people are going, oh, we have the flu, Spanish flu, the this, the that, okay. The problem here is it's so invisible, so mysterious, so fast-moving, that people are frightened. It's as psychological as well as a physical terror. and it's real. So in some parts of the country where you don't have big urban sprawl as we have here in New York, it's not that bad. And business can get back to you as usual. But New York City is the epicenter of business. Will it get back by Easter? I hope so. I pray, even though I can't go to church because the churches are closed down. I hope it does. But that is a very optimistic view.

but what else you want President Trump to do? He can't be the doom and gloom guy. Now, I tipped everybody on the virus on January 22nd. You can check it out on Bill O'Reilly.com. I knew this was going to be a problem. Not to this extent. Didn't know it was going to be a pandemic, but I knew it was going to be a problem. 11 days later, Donald Trump stopped the flights from China.

That is his big calling card. Now, here's the national deal. If President Trump and his administration can get the virus under control by the summer, he wins re-election. The press knows that. The press hates him. So the press is going to spin everything President Trump does negative. The Democrats in Congress will not pass the big $2 trillion relief bill because the $1,000, they don't want to give Trump momentum.

So they slap on all kinds of Green New Deal garbage, all kinds of what they call pork, so they know Republicans won't go for that. Stuff that's insane, like millions of dollars for the Kennedy Center. That's an entertainment venue. It has nothing to do with the virus. It's just crazy. Now, that bill will get passed. But I hope everybody is watching the behavior of the people in Congress.

You don't slap on billions and billions of dollars in pork on a relief bill for a pandemic. Now, Donald Trump is doing a decent job, in my opinion. The only problem we have with him is in precise language. He goes off. And I've suggested, respectfully, that not happened. That he's the president of the United States. His words matter. They move the markets.

They are the most important words in the world. Make them precise. Even today, when he's talking to the Fox News people, he's off in Syria and Turkey. I know he makes his points in an elongated way. I chronicle that in the United States of Trump. Again, you want to know about him, you read the book. But right now, if the Trump administration gets the virus under control by the summer, he wins. And everyone in power, in the political spectrum, and in the press knows it.

so therefore the people who despise Donald Trump for whatever reason will try to hurt that and hurt him the final point I want to make on the national front and remember Peter King congressman from Long Island coming up going to talk about China all right final point I want to make is for the first time in history and you guys know I write history books the killing series a political party has joined with the American press, the national media is aligned with the Democratic Party. They speak. And I've outlined that on Bill O'Reilly.com. We even know where they go through what organizations in Washington they use to communicate to one another. We're talking to New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC News. Those are the four main offenders.

offenders if you want fair coverage in the press, which I would like to have. All right. So when we come back, the aforementioned Peter King will be here. Bannon is up at five. Levin at six. Talk Radio W. ABC is presenting the coronavirus special throughout the country, not just in New York. Remember, on the Internet, people all over the country can hear this. And we will be back after these announcements of interest.

All right. We're rolling along here, and I want to remind you that the O'Reilly update is heard on W.A.B.C. Talk Radio 77. Every morning at 7.20 with Bernie and Sid, and I'll be on with the boys Thursday and the 8.30 half hour. Also, Bill O'Reilly.com has my new column, and the column is entitled The Contagion Chronicles. In That column, we investigated the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan. And we found in 2007, the University of Hong Kong had distributed a paper that warned people in southern China were eating horseshoe bats, horseshoe bats, which were infected. Way back then, the warning came and that they said this is a high risk for the world. So we don't believe that there was any kind of Chinese plan to drop biological warfare on the world. We do believe this contagion came out of fools eating bats in China. However, China didn't tell a truth about the extent of the virus, and the world

didn't know about it for close to a month and a half. So let's bring in Congressman Peter King from Long Island, who has been very outspoken that China needs to pay some kind of price for its irresponsibility. Now, before we get to that, Congressman, you're in Washington, right? Congressman on the line? Apparently he isn't. Somebody got to wake him up. Anyway, Congressman King was supposed to join us at 435, so we'll try to track him down.

But I wanted to ask him about this bill and whether the $2 trillion relief bill is finally going to be passed by the Senate, then goes to the House. If it isn't passed, I think the Democrats will lose the House in November. Now, all this is incumbent upon what happens to the virus. if the virus rages and we go into a depression, not a recession, that's a given. It will be an economic recession in this country because of the interruption in business. Everybody knows that's going to happen. But a recession can be eliminated fairly quickly, particularly if capital flows back into the markets. A depression, like we had in 1929, means that industries are out.

And if you have a pandemic that is killing millions of people all over the world, then you can have a depression. So let me give you some stats around the world. This is fascinating to me. Italy is the worst country for the pandemic. Right before airtime, I have my staff do the research on this. And there are about 7,000 deaths. 7,000 people in Italy have died from the coronavirus. virus. That's a rate per one million of 113 people dying per a million. In the United States,

it's less than two people per million dying. 650 deaths here. Again, 6,000, about 7,000, 7,000 in Italy, 650 here. Why? Three reasons. In Italy, they have porous borders. Now, think back to the open border policies of some Democrats. All right, think back on that. Would that have been a good thing to have open borders in the United States? I don't believe so. Italy has open borders. All the EU countries do. The second thing is communal living. Those of you of Italian descent know that in Italy, most people live in small homes and they're generational. Grandparents, parents, children, all live together. Somebody gets the virus. Bang. Everybody gets the virus. Okay? And the third thing is socialized medicine. Italy has it. It is not good.

Not good. Okay? So in Italy, confirmed cases of the virus approaching 75,000. In the United States, we're over 50,000. We have, obviously, five times as many people as Italy. Now, other countries, Spain, devastated for pretty much the same reasons as Italy, the same three reasons. Iran, country totally out of control. No good medical treatment there. They're getting hammered. China, we don't know because China doesn't give us accurate stats. The World Health Organization says the pandemic in China has leveled off.

If that is true, if that is true, that's good news for the world and the United States because that's a two-month cycle. But here's the difference in China. The army shut down the Wuhan area, and 80 million people were quarantined, not suggested they don't go to, you know, other gatherings. They weren't allowed out of their house. and there was a system in place if you needed food. If you had an emergency, you could leave, but you had to get permission.

And in China, if you disobey the totalitarian government, they hurt you. A lot. So we can't really know what the situation is in China. However, the World Health Organization, and I'm not back in forth on them. They say that there have only been seven new deaths in China in the past week, just seven, all told about 3,500 people the Chinese government says died. I think it's much, much more than that. Now, going forward, China's economy is wrecked, and that will help the United States. I hate to be mercenary about this, but China's economy,

with this virus, and they got 1.5 billion people over there. 1.5 billion, they got to feed them. Their economy is toast. That means the United States, when we roar back, which we will, once the medicine comes, all right, will dominate the world even more, much to the displeasure of the far left. Now, here's the irony of it all. In 1918, the United States saved Europe from the Kaiser, World War I. My grandfather was in World War I.

He was a hero. He was in the lost battalion. He came back, and those were all New Yorkers in the lost battalion. If you know anything about World War I, you know how hellacious that fighting was. Came back to Brooklyn and became a New York City police officer. In 1940s, we defeated Imperial Japan, that's Tojo, and Nazi Germany, that's Hitler. We, the United States, with the help of the Allies, did that. Save the world from fascism.

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, we defeated Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, save the world from communism. We, the people of the United States. United States did all that. And we defeated the jihad. All right? The Muslim terrorists. We did it. ISIS, al-Qaeda. We did it. Again, we had help, but we did it. Now, we are in a position where the United States of America could save the world from the coronavirus. Because our drug companies are Our biologists, our medical researchers are on the case. And I believe they will come up with a vaccine in medicine to get this vicious virus out of here. I believe it.

I believe it will happen. Now, think back. Who demonized the American drug companies and the corporations that deal, the medical industry. Who did that? Bernie Sanders did it. Elizabeth Warren did it. The Democratic Party did it. And Ocasio Cortez from the Bronx did it. Without the drug companies, the medical research corporations, we'd have no chance to get a virus vaccine. Because the federal and state governments are reactive. They react to what happens. They're not proactive. So they don't order test kits for an unknown virus from Wuhan or ventilators or respirators. Why? Because we're

$23 trillion in debt nationally. And I don't even know what the New York debt is, but it's billions of dollars. That's our debt in New York. And you can't tax. And you can't tax New Yorkers anymore, Andrew Cuomo. You're driving people out of their homes with the property taxes, the state tax, the city tax, the sales tax. You can't bleed them anymore. And the Democratic Party moving so far left into socialism, they basically offer people a trade that you give us all of your assets or most of your assets and will provide you cradle to grave entitlements, including medical care. But what kind of medical care? Italian, a medical care? Spanish medical care? If you live in Canada and you want an operation, you've got to wait. Same thing in Great

Britain and Ireland. You've got to wait. You want a hip replacement or a knee or whatever it may be, elective surgery, you're waiting a long, long time. And that idiot Sanders, Cuba, there aren't even doctors yet. I got free medical thing. You can't get a doctor. Why? The doctors are out of there. Because they won't pay them anything.

So they're all gone. It's just insane, this socialistic view. I don't want to politicize the virus, particularly during WABC special. I don't think that's the right way to go. but we need perspective here. Now, getting back to China, I wanted to ask Congressman King how come

that the government basically isn't making an issue out of China and what exactly could we do? What could you do to China? Powerful nation, we don't want a war with them or a trade war. We almost have it with the trade deal that President Trump is trying to get. He was close to getting it, by the,

way. And now with China's economy so weakened, I think he'll have a better shot at it if he's reelected. Get a decent trade deal with China. They'll cheat. We all know that. But how do you punish China? I mean, it's not like the Beijing government cares about their own people. They don't. So how do you do it? You can't boycott them. You can't do anything like that. How do you do it? I would, you know, that's why I want to. Peter King on. And I apologize because we had them booked. And I don't know what happened to them, but we'll get them next time, I hope. All right. Now, what about New York City? What about you? What about your life? Okay. How are you coping? How you handling it? If you're angry,

that's good. I'm Irish. I'm angry. That's good because I should be. It's in context. It's healthy. don't take the anger out on anyone. No one's fault. You might think President Trump's doing a bad job. That's fine. You think he's doing a bad job? Vote for Biden. Okay? That's fine. I don't have any beef with that at all. You're watching them. You evaluate. You don't think he's doing a good job? Vote against him. You think he's doing a good job, vote for him. Okay? It's not my job to promote a political party. But I know that most people are angry. And then those of us who aren't, you know, that kind of emotional, we're annoyed. But don't take it out on anybody. All right. Be nice. Be nice, sir. So I know some senior citizens. I call them up. You know, I said, what can I do for you?

That's not that I'm the greatest guy. It's just that I have a Catholic guilt, Irish Catholic guilt. You know, can I get you something? Can I drive something over? Can I take your car and gas it up for you? And I'm not charging anybody, all right? So that's something that we can all do. And that makes your anger constructive because your senses are, your senses are really there. And you're thinking.

You're thinking about the situation, other people, where you fit in. And in New York City, I just think you guys should get, I live in the suburbs. so there's plenty of room for me to go out I got a corgi the corgi is annoying I got to get the corgi out of the house I got to walk it's good exercise whatever get out get out get out don't associate

well get out is a beautiful day today take a long walk get some exercise don't go to the gym and by the way I want Cuomo to open one gym just one gym okay so de Blasio can go to the gym and stay there all day, all day.

Don't go. Just open a gym, lock him in. One gym. Please do that, Governor. But if you're in a city and you're in an apartment, come on, claustrophobia, you know what it is. Right? We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with a summation of the Corona Virus Special on Talk Radio 77W86.

All right, I want to run down what we're going to do tonight on talk radio 77 wabc we're going to have steve bannon at five and then mark levin will do his regular shift at six and obviously we're going to talk about the pandemic and this is what talk radio is all about all right fact driven analysis of stories that directly affect you and your family and friends so every morning on wabc we're doing uh the o're riley update at 720 a m with Bernie and Sid. As I mentioned, that's just started. I think you'll enjoy it. It's two minutes of Rockham Sockham, no spin, and you'll get information you can use. Also, I'll be with the boys on Thursday in the 830 half hour as I am every week. And that segment, really, I get a lot of

reaction from that. You know, I'm the Prince of Levittown, hometown guy, born in Manhattan, raised out in that famous suburb, went to Shamanaut High School, went to Maryland, College in New York, I know the city, as well as anyone knows the city. And I know that this pandemic has been brutal on all of us, particularly to people who have contracted the disease. We'll get through this. There will be casualties. That's life. There are always casualties. What really gets me, though, are people in power who do not do the right thing for you. And right now, I think that everybody in the United States should be calling up, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Charles Schumer from New York and saying,

knock it off. We need this $2 trillion rescue bill. Yes, it's going to raise the debt to $25 trillion. And that's going to have to be dealt with down the line. But boy, we need it now. knock off the BS with the Green New Deal and all of this stuff. If you want it, get it through legitimately. Don't attach it to a desperately needed bailout bill. Now, the stock market's up 2,000 points today because the market is sensing that the federal government is going to bring relief and that there is a chance a vaccine and medicine will be fast-tracked in time to defeat this contagion.

That's the hope, and that raises the market. And if President Trump gets everything back to normal by Easter, you talk about a resurrection, I don't want to be sacrilegious. And Trump knows, Trump knows his whole life has changed. And I don't want to get into the president's personal situation, but I know as much about it as anyone. And again, the United States of Trump is a book I've written on them. Huge bestseller.

I hope you will check that out. You got time to read. Everybody's got time to read. Right? And finally, Bill O'Reilly.com is the best resource for all news. You can't believe what you see on television or reading the newspapers these days. Because it isn't like it used to be. I worked at Channel 2 as a local reporter here in the city.

I know what it used to be. It's not like that anymore. It's all ideology masquerading as news. We do not do that. Bill O'Reilly.com, a tremendous resource for you and your family. And I want to thank all you guys for listening for this hour. I want to thank Talk Radio 77 W.A.B.C. for having me in. I grew up with W.A.B.C. Big Dan Ingram and the boys, spin in the 45s way back

when and now this is the most powerful radio station in the United States and a resource that you can use on a daily basis to enhance your life. So it's been really a pleasure for me to be here and we'll do it again. We'll track this virus. We'll kick this virus's butt. You can take that to the bank. I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for listening.