Mike Huckabee

I have a theory about why so many “experts,” politicians, media people and government bureaucrats are trying to discourage the use of hydroxycloroquine, in combination with azithromycin and zinc, to treat COVID-19. It’s not just that they oppose anything President Trump has expressed approval for, although that’s part of it. Here’s a thought: what if it’s not because this therapy won’t work, but because it WILL?

In other words: if we do have an effective treatment and/or preventative, the pandemic might be over too soon to be used as an excuse to make all the societal changes some want to impose.

This really hit me when I heard Dr. Anthony Fauci say that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to have in-person elections by November of this year. How many Democrats would LOVE to see mail-in voting for the entire country? How conveeeeeeenient. And don’t listen when they say mail-in ballots don’t encourage election fraud. That’s a crock, as you’ll see from the story linked to here.

Those who want power –- during this pandemic and ever after –- are full of ideas for controlling the population. Steve Hilton, host of THE NEXT REVOLUTION on FOX NEWS, calls it “technocratic hubris...a technocrat’s dream and America’s nightmare.” As he reported on Sunday, former head of the Food & Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb is pushing a plan for “contract tracing,” which “can be achieved through strengthened public health case investigation augmented by technology and community-level collaborations.” It’s a very complicated program of mass virus testing (not antibody testing) to (quoting Dr. Fauci) “identify, isolate, contact-trace” everyone who gets the virus. This is preposterous, when an unknown number, into the millions, have already been or will be exposed to the virus, and the test won’t identify those. But Apple and Google are ready to step up and be a part of this monstrous program to track what in the end could be virtually everyone.

Here’s one alternative (in addition to drug therapy): a science-based “Re-open America Safely, But Soon” proposal that gives specifics on how to do just that, starting as soon as May 1. You’ll want to watch the segment on Steve Hilton’s show, linked here, but in short, the steps are as follows:

STEP 1. Get accurate infection data. We still don’t know how widespread and deadly this virus even is. Based on a Stanford University study done in the San Francisco Bay area, the actual number of infections could be much, much higher than official testing results have shown. If that is true, it means the virus is VERY highly contagious but much less deadly than has been assumed. (It might turn out that the actual mortality rate is more like 1 in 1,000.) To get the data, we need representative-sample community antibody sampling –- as opposed to government antibody surveillance –- to tell us what fraction of a given community has been exposed. Importantly, this kind of sampling is much less expensive than just relentlessly testing every last person; they think it can reasonably be done in every community in the country. And it won’t take long.

STEP 2. Get accurate risk data. The suppositions we have on risk factors (age, underlying conditions, etc.) are too vague at present. We don’t need so much focus on people who will get the virus but will be fine, and the vast majority will. Rather, we need to know why some people who are young and seemingly healthy are getting sick and dying anyway, but Hilton reports that, believe it or not, hospitals have not been collecting data on their medical history. The White House should mandate the collection of this information, called “co-morbidity data.”

STEP 3. Use the information from Steps 1 and 2 to quarantine and protect the truly vulnerable. If we can do this, we don’t have to re-open the economy bit by bit or wait until a vaccine comes out (in a year-and-a-half?) The whole country doesn’t need to stay shut down if millions have already been exposed but have never gotten sick or have recovered.

On Sunday, Hilton interviewed three of the people who put this plan together, including Stanford University Professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, biophysicist Dr. Andrew Bogan, and JetBlue founder David Neeleman. Dr. Bhattacharya added an important point: that most casualties are happening in hospitals that have been overwhelmed, so the “opening up” may be delayed in areas in which those hospitals are located. (I would point out that starting drug therapy sooner might help with that, too.)

Neeleman noted that the reason we’re shut down is that we haven’t figured out who the people are who are at risk of grave illness and how to protect not everyone, but THOSE people. The idea is to save the economy AND those at risk. “I think we can do both if we do it right,” Neeleman said.

Hilton is hoping that those who like the “Safely, But Soon” idea will TELL THE PRESIDENT and/or your governor. You can follow Hilton on Twitter @SteveHiltonx or @NextRevFNC.

Their overview of the plan didn’t even touch on hydroxychloroquine as a promising treatment or even a preventative. But the “anecdotes” just keep coming; here’s the first-hand account in TOWNHALL from coronavirus patient Charles Vavruska, who ended up with double pneumonia and a dreaded trip to the ER at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, New York. (Queens is pretty much the epicenter of the pandemic.) The bright spot in this is that after being admitted to the hospital, he could be put on hydroxychloroquine and zinc. “The Trump Treatment?” he asked the nurse. “Yes, the Trump Treatment,” she replied.

Nineteen hours after his first dose, he was already feeling better. After three days, his fever and aches were gone, and his energy and appetite were back. He was still on oxygen, but at a low level. (Note: that is not the same as being on a ventilator; fortunately, he got the drugs before needing one of those.) He’s home now and credits “the Trump Treatment” for his recovery.

But he notes with great consternation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has banned this therapy EXCEPT in hospitals. “Why not treat COVID-positive individuals BEFORE they deteriorate sufficiently to require hospitalization?” he asks. This would prevent more serious illness and relieve overburdened hospitals.

He’s right; Cuomo shouldn’t be “playing doctor,” and his arbitrary restriction on this is ridiculous. Drug companies have donated 100 million doses of HCQ to the federal government, and more are coming. Everyone who has come down with respiratory symptoms from COVID-19 should be able to receive this drug. Just think how many more “anecdotes” we would have from which to collect data. But, no, that might be too easy a solution, and we might be able to get back to normal too quickly for some.

Here’s his story in the NEW YORK POST.

HUCKABEE researcher/writer Laura Ainsworth has more to say, personally, on this issue, in a “from the trenches” installment from her home in the Dallas area. You see, it’s not just at the federal level that some people have a desire to control and are resisting a treatment that might possibly end the shut-down. It happens locally, too. But you can bet that if she gets the virus, she will move heaven and earth to get “The Trump Treatment,” BEFORE having to be admitted to a hospital!

RELATED READING: Ainsworth: In Dallas, how much "emergency" control is too much?

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

There’s a meme going around that reads, “How are you enjoying your 30-day free trial of socialism?” But I never thought that would be true in a place like Greenville, Mississippi.

Mississippi’s Governor encouraged churches not to hold services in person to combat the coronavirus, but he refused to ban them from doing so, saying, “Mississippi is not China, and never will be.” But someone needs to get that message to Greenville’s Democrat Mayor Errick Simmons, who not only ordered churches closed, he even banned drive-in services.

Last Sunday, members of Temple Baptist Church gathered in about 25 cars in the church parking lot to listen to pastor Arthur Scott preaching over the radio. Police came and handed $500 tickets to each driver, even though they were all inside separate closed cars. The only time they violated “social distancing” was when they had to roll down their windows to take the tickets from the cops.

Scott said police told him he might go to jail, and he said if that’s what it takes to keep preaching, he’ll gladly go to jail, and he will see them at the church next Sunday.

The religious freedom law firm First Liberty sent a letter to Simmons demanding that the ban be lifted, and stating that “religious liberty is not suspended during a pandemic” and Americans should not “tolerate churchgoers being ticketed by the police for following CDC guidelines at church.”

Once again, it’s very instructive to see how quickly tolerant, compassionate liberals turn into ironfisted authoritarians when given just a little power. It’s yet another reason why you should never believe the claim that socialism would work great, it’s just that the “right people” have never been in charge of it. If you even want to be in charge of a socialist government, then you’re the wrong people to be in charge of the government.

Mike Huckabee

The lying I spoke of in yesterday’s installment was just the tip of the iceberg. It’s hard enough to assess the danger of this pandemic without people deliberately lying. Here are just a few more examples, not from China but from right here in the U.S.A.

The health care workers risking their own health to fight this virus deserve nothing but praise. But in New York, a nurse who claimed in an apparently phony video that she had quit her job after being made to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask fooled CBS News into posting it, complete with background music and captions added to highlight the supposed danger.

In the video, this Instagram “influencer” gets emotional and says, “America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected.” But on Facebook, she had admitted she left her job at the hospital over a year ago and wasn’t sure she was ready to return to work, as she has anxiety and bi-polar depression and was “triggered” by the growing volume of information on COVID-19.

Note the irony in what she posted: “The information overload can be hard for me to sift through as far as what is credible and what is not, it triggers me.” This, when her own words blur the line between truth and fiction.

Not only CBS, but now-former-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was misled by the video. He retweeted the fraudulent CBS NEWS story, adding, “It is insane that our nurses are being forced to care for the sick without masks and respirators. The Department of Labor must immediately issue emergency workplace standards to protect our health workers, their families, and their patients.”

https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/06/cbs-news-posts-fraudulent-video-icu-nurse-crying-over-poor-working-conditions/

Finding out how New York hospitals are currently doing regarding PPE (personal protective equipment) is challenging. We went back to CBS NEWS to see what they’re saying right now. For one thing, they’re still maintaining the fiction that Trump “dissolved” the White House pandemic response office in 2018; my understanding is that Trump did not get rid of it but consolidated it with other offices. Beth Cameron, who ran it under Obama (and then under Trump until he reorganized), is quoted at length about what keeps her up at night right now –- mostly competition between states for supplies. She says that “without a unified federal plan, states don’t have any choice but to be prepared for their constituents.” She’d like to see a federal-level “logistics czar.”

Recall that just this week, I complimented President Trump on his ability to delegate, to give governors the very responsibility Cameron is worried about them having. When I was governor of Arkansas and dealing with emergencies, I saw that being closer to my constituents made me better able to determine my state’s unique needs, as opposed to having to depend on a “one-size-fits-all” federal bureaucracy. As she is one of those bureaucrats herself, she might not get that.

Yes, we've had challenges getting supplies to hospitals, notably because so many of them have been made in China for years. The CBS story does acknowledge this problem, with Prashant Yardav, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and “an expert on supply chain management,” saying that of all the N95 respirators we might use, half or more come from China. The same goes for protective gear such as masks, gloves and gowns. So, given the startling number of cases predicted, the Department of Health and Human Services warned there wouldn't be enough.

But the CBS story never says that medical professionals caring for coronavirus patients in New York hospitals are going without respirators. I have read elsewhere that in their uncertainty about the supply chain, they have been re-using them, but that’s very different.

The problem as I see it, whether supplies are allocated at the federal level or not, is that most of this stuff is coming from China. That has to change NOW, and Trump has been coordinating with private companies to make it happen. Still, it doesn’t help us determine the severity of the problem when CBS NEWS, Bernie Sanders and others post a fake video by someone who doesn’t even work at a hospital.

https://news.yahoo.com/why-links-ppe-supply-chain-153800387.html

Much of the anxiety about demand is based on computer models that turned out to be wildly wrong, dramatically inflating the numbers of people who would require hospitalization. In other words, computer models can “lie,” too, at least in the sense that the predictions they’ve given us to work with are false. Though Tuesday was, nationwide, the deadliest day we’ve had, “the curve” of new cases seems to be flattening in places where infection has been worst, such as New York, New Jersey and the Seattle area, and the need for beds and ventilators is not nearly what was anticipated, thank God. Projections are being revised downward.

https://q13fox.com/2020/04/08/army-field-hospital-at-centurylink-field-event-center-moving-to-another-state/

Of course, some of the most damaging lies are those told “by omission.” For example, we had the story a couple of days ago about Michigan state Rep. Karen Whitsett and her swift recovery after literally begging the medical bureaucracy to let her have a prescription for hydroxychloroquine. (Recall that Michigan is the state in which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer temporarily called for doctors in her state not to prescribe the drug for coronavirus.) Over just a few hours, Whitsett's condition had deteriorated greatly, with shortness of breath and fluid-filled lungs, and she was terrified. But later that night after taking the medication, she was already on the mend. And even though she’s a Democrat politician, she credited President Trump’s publicizing of the drug with her treatment and amazing recovery.

On Tuesday night, she and her doctor appeared on Tucker Carlson’s FOX NEWS show. Carlson has been an outspoken critic of Democrat politicians, fanatical anti-Trump media people and some government bureaucrats who are trying to get between patients and their doctors by discouraging the use of this therapy, in most cases only because President Trump has been touting it as a possible remedy. You’d think that to offer their audience hope for a treatment in the coming weeks, some other media outlets might pick up Rep. Whitsett’s story, right?

Wrong. No other major media outlet has picked it up. Nothing about Rep. Whitsett’s recovery was seen on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS or NPR. The DETROIT FREE PRESS had the story on Tuesday, but even though USA TODAY is under ownership of the same publisher, Gannett, the story did not “go national."  Except for the people who watch FOX NEWS –- and perhaps listen to Hannity and other conservative radio hosts –- the story was effectively buried. This is a textbook example of “lying by omission.”

That’s why, when a witness is sworn in to testify, the person is required to tell not just the truth, but the WHOLE truth. With anything concerning President Trump, the mainstream media can never be trusted to get it right.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2020/04/08/spiked-only-fox-talks-democrat-saying-she-was-saved-trump-and-his

As I've said before, in the news business it used to be, "If if bleeds it leads," but now, it's "If it makes Trump bleed, it leads."  Here’s how ridiculous the lying about Trump and hydroxychloroquine has gotten.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/08/snopes-new-york-times-hydroxychloroquine-trump-finances-stake-investment/

If you doubt what I’m saying, I’ll let Attorney General William Barr have the last word.

William Barr: Media on ‘jihad’ to discredit hydroxychloroquine

Mike Huckabee

I said a few days ago that China’s attempt to swoop in and save the day for other countries infected with the Wuhan virus is like an arsonist who runs into the building he set on fire to make himself look like the hero. It seems that this analogy may be even more descriptive than I thought.

Obviously, we can’t trust numbers coming out of China. On April 7, NBC NEWS tweeted that in a 24-hour period, the U.S. reported 1,264 deaths from coronavirus while China reported “not a single new coronavirus death.” Technically, that’s correct: China REPORTED not a single new death. But why is NBC willingly serving as China’s propaganda microphone? That’s not to pick on NBC; they’re not the only ones doing this.

Steven W. Mosher, author of the extremely timely book “BULLY OF ASIA: Why China’s Dream Is The New Threat To World Order,” appeared Tuesday on Laura Ingraham’s show to talk about this. He opened by saying what we already know: that from the beginning, China has lied outrageously. “They don’t just fudge the numbers,” he said; “they make them up out of whole cloth.”

Mosher thinks at least 50,000 have died in Wuhan since the beginning of the outbreak. To get that number, he noted that the Wuhan crematoria that were going full-on for 60 days, and they process about 1,000 bodies per day. After that, they began handing out funeral urns to grieving relatives, 500 of them a day, from 7 crematoria, times 14 days. Do the math.

He reminds us that this is the same Communist Party that told us no one died in Tienanmen Square when we later found out that around 10,000 lost their lives. It’s the same Communist Party that said no one died after The Great Leap Forward famine, when it turned out that 42.5 million perished. I’d say their numbers were a little off.

"So, I don’t know why anyone would take numbers out of China seriously,” he said. “I mean, why would anyone try to make China look good in this way –- it couldn’t just be just to make America look bad.”

Or...could it?

According to a March 26 story in PROPUBLICA, China has been using thousands of fake Twitter accounts to coordinate a disinformation campaign “about the coronavirus outbreak, the Hong Kong protests and other topics of state interest.” While Democrats were crying “Russia Russia Russia,” it appears China was gearing up for some serious “meddling” of its own. They’ve spent $10 billion on their campaign; this is much more massive than anything the Russians, with their few Twitter accounts, did. Most media ignored this story.

When you have time, take a look at it –- pretty scary.

And if you saw Monday’s press briefing with President Trump, you saw a young woman representing Phoenix TV of Hong Kong, which Trump called out as being owned by the Chinese (good for you, Mr. President!). Obviously, the Chinese media are here, putting together their own narratives for their own propaganda pieces. The Chinese embassies and media outlets are touting their success in controlling the virus, when they did nothing of the sort. Thousands of Chinese died, and the virus spread around the world.

The latest thing China is lying about is the reliability of coronavirus tests they’ve sent around the world. If anything needs to be accurate, it’s a test for this virus, but according to Mosher, the tests are “junk” that will “kill people.” The Department of Health had said that coronavirus test kits sent by China were only 40 percent accurate, but apparently Beijing bullied them into recanting that statement. On April 1, Mosher said that China is providing Europe with defective tests, masks that leak and protective gear that doesn’t protect. Some of the supplies have actually been sent back. (It occurs to me that if the workers in the Wuhan biolab weren’t protected by their gear, that alone doesn’t say much for the label “Made In China.”)

Mosher calls the World Health Organization “the Chinese Health Organization” and rightly criticizes them for not holding up Taiwan as an example for how to handle the pandemic. Taiwan was the first country to close its borders to Wuhan and as a result of this quick action had very few infections and deaths. But Taiwan isn’t even recognized as a country by China, so W.H.O. was intimidated into not recognizing their efforts. President Trump said Tuesday that he’s going to be looking into the World Health Organization, noting that the U.S. is their major source of funds. I have a feeling their funding from America may be drying up soon.

The article at the link includes more details as well as a Mosher’s historical perspective on China’s totalitarianism. Highly recommended…

As for our own media lying about coronavirus, what makes me the maddest right now is their insistence that Trump is wrong about the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin/zinc drug therapy, when all signs point to a success here.

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci raises my blood pressure (an especially bad thing right now) when he says we may not ever get back to normal. For him, a vaccine is the Holy Grail, and until we find that, there are no long-term studies to give him confidence in any treatment. Never mind that an approved vaccine is likely 12-18 months away. I’m not accusing Dr. Fauci of bad intentions, just of thinking like a single-minded researcher and perhaps not seeing the big picture.

Zeke Emanuel, brother of Rahm “NEVER LET A SERIOUS CRISIS GO TO WASTE” Emanuel, said on MSNBC Monday night that America will probably be shut down for at least 18 months. Amplifying Dr. Fauci, he said, “We will not be able to return to normalcy...I know that’s dreadful news to hear...Conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner at a restaurant, none of that will resume until we find a vaccine, a treatment or a cure.” What a lovely “serious crisis” this would create for leftists.

The vaccine won't come till later, but we may be on the verge of a treatment or cure, possibly a preventative, plus the very important antibody test. New studies are encouraging, but the mainstream media aren’t about to let Trump have a win on this, even if it means the end of the American economy as we know it, and that’s just plain evil. They seem to be actively rooting for him to be wrong. Trump’s optimism about hydroxychloroquine has been called “false hope,” “lies,” and “fake science.” Some have even speculated that Trump is touting this drug because he has a financial interest in it.

Mainstream media have definitely noticed the conservative critics of naysayers such as Dr. Fauci. Here’s what THE GUARDIAN had to say about us. Not super-slanted until the last several paragraphs…

This issue needs to be about health, not politics. I’ll leave you with a powerful “anecdote” about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine from Dr. Marc Siegel. Anecdotal evidence has its place. And so does any treatment that’s known to be safe and that might very well do some good.

Mike Huckabee

Even though the Wuhan virus pandemic continues to suck up virtually all the news coverage, Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) got distracted long enough to slam President Trump for something different: the firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson.

If you’ve followed ICIG Atkinson’s story in my newsletter and have read the linked-to reports from Sean Davis, John Solomon, Sara Carter and Margot Cleveland, among others, you know Atkinson richly deserved the boot. Of course, Democrats described his unceremonious canning as Trump’s payback for Atkinson passing along the bogus report of “whistleblower” ERIC CIARAMELLA to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s office and kicking off the impeachment. What they don’t mention is all the reasons his actions were flagrantly wrong and termination-worthy.

Margot Cleveland has another great piece in THE FEDERALIST that will refresh your memory on the details, which I’m sure have been fresh in President Trump’s mind for a long time. Recall that when Atkinson received the complaint from CIA official CIARAMELLA concerning a phone conversation Trump had had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he accepted the nine unsubstantiated pages as worthy of forwarding to the then-acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire, maintaining to the DNI that this complaint fell within the statutory provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act.

Under the act, the complaint was supposed to be forwarded within seven days to the House and Senate Intel committees and the complainant was supposed to have whistleblower protection. But this complaint doesn't fall under the act, and that’s why I refuse to pretend it does and will specify the name ERIC CIARAMELLA any time I want, typically using capital letters just to make the point. CIARAMELLA was “outed” long ago; everyone knows his identity and I won’t play the we-don’t-know-who-the-whistleblower-is game.

When Maguire received the complaint from Atkinson, he didn’t think it fit the whistleblower statute and consulted the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. They issued a detailed opinion stating that the complaint indeed did not fit the statute. To fit, the complaint needed to accuse the President of misconduct relating “to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity,” and that’s not what this was at all. Also, the Director of National Intelligence does not have “responsibility and authority” over Trump. The DOJ lawyers ruled that the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Act did not apply.

They also said that Atkinson should refer his complaint to the Department of Justice, not give it to the intelligence committees. Atkinson ignored this, went around Maguire and the DOJ and sent a letter to Adam Schiff telling him about the complaint. Schiff responded by going to Maguire and demanding he provide the House Intel Committee with the complaint, though doing so would violate executive privilege because it involved presidential communications. Maguire said he couldn’t do that.

Schiff had a big schiff-fit about that and implied that the President was behind Maguire’s refusal to turn over the complaint. Trump responded by declassifying not only the complaint but the transcript of the phone call that prompted it, showing the complaint to be a huge pack of lies.

But they impeached him, anyway.

Oh, there’s much more. To cite just one more example, recall that it was discovered there had been some “stealth editing” of the whistleblower complaint form by someone in Atkinson’s office to delete the stated requirement that for a complaint to be considered “credible,” the whistleblower must possess “first-hand information.” CIARAMELLA had not one speck of first-hand information, as he was not even on the phone call he was complaining about. But the altered complaint form paved the way for him to submit his complaint anyhow. Atkinson knew the rules; unless he were in on the scheme, how could he not determine that a hearsay complaint such as this one would not be considered credible?

Perhaps we could find out more about what Atkinson was doing to coordinate with Schiff’s office and otherwise set up Trump for a phony impeachment, but according to Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton he was “evasive to the point of being insolent and obstructive” in front of the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. And in the House, Schiff continues to block release of the transcript for “Witness 18,” who is Atkinson. That’s right, even after all this time and the release of all 17 of the other transcripts, this one is still being held back. (And, of course, CIARAMELLA, with his bogus “whistleblower” protection, never had to come forward and testify at all.)

It seems that President Trump could declassify Atkinson’s testimony and call for it to be released. Perhaps he will, but that will probably come later. I understand he’s got a lot on his plate right now.

Mike Huckabee

A week from now, we’ll celebrate Easter—to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ. One of the best Easter sermons I ever heard was titled, “It’s Friday, But Don’t Worry, Because Sunday is Coming!” It was a reminder that on the day Jesus was crucified, everything was dark, evil, and appeared hopeless. Those closest to Jesus were in fear for their own lives, and felt that all they had devoted themselves to for 3 years died on that cross. They saw their Master and their hopes and faith buried in a borrowed tomb. That was Friday. But then came Sunday. It was the day that 3 women went to the tomb to honor a man who was dead. Instead they were the first to know that what they had witnessed on Friday WASN’T the last chapter. We all have a lot of Fridays in our lives. Bad doctor reports; financial problems just to pay rent or buy groceries; a sick child; broken relationships. Yes, it’s Friday, but don’t worry because Sunday is coming. The coronavirus and what it’s done to us individually and as a nation is truly a Friday. Even if you’re never afflicted with the VIRUS, you HAVE been affected by complete shutdown of our economy, culture, and even our recreational activities. It’s definitely Friday. But don’t worry, because Sunday is coming. As we observe Palm Sunday this weekend, remember that the same crowd who screamed “crucify him!” was shouting his praise and screaming “Hosannah!” the week before. Let’s not get lost in our Fridays, because Sunday is coming. God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. From all of us here at the Huckabee Show, thanks for joining us, stay safe, and remember that Sunday IS coming!

Mike Huckabee

Here is the link to Friday’s daily press briefing on the coronavirus by President Trump and the Task Force.

Just FYI: If you want to avoid blood pressure spikes, you can safely skip over the part when Jim Acosta of CNN tries to act like a bullying sexist jerk.

Speaking of Jim Acosta, an argument could be made that Trump Derangement Syndrome is nearly as dangerous to the public health as the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Because much of the media hate the fact that Donald Trump is President with the raging heat of a thousand suns, they have decided that their job is not to report what he says accurately or objectively, but to take every word and examine it like a bug under a microscope, trying to find any way to declare it wrong, false, racist, etc.

But now, when we’re facing a national health emergency and the public needs the latest and best information from the White House to protect themselves and their families, the anti-Trump press just cannot rein in their rageaholism and admit that maybe the President of the United States knows more about what’s going on than they do. And that stubborn refusal to put the good of the nation before their personal political grudges may be increasing infection rates and deaths.

Think that’s an unfair accusation? When Trump shut down travel from China back in January, he was called a racist and xenophobe. Where would America be now if the kneejerk Trump haters had prevailed and thousands of people from China had been allowed to keep coming into the US? For the answer, look at Italy, where many people from Wuhan work in the fashion industry and kept coming and going for weeks.

Another example: when President Trump said there had been encouraging results treating the virus with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the media reflexively launched into attack mode. The Bad Orange Man was pushing “false hope.” No, worse, he was peddling “unsubstantiated hope in dark times.” He was even to blame somehow when a man died after eating fish tank cleaner with an ingredient that sounded like the drug Trump mentioned.

So after doing everything in their power to convince the public that the drug Trump mentioned was useless, dangerous quackery, the media are now having to backtrack amid all the reports of doctors having success with it.

Of course, it reportedly works best early on in the disease, so I hope you didn’t refuse treatment early on because you actually listened to reporters who got a bigger thrill out of attacking Trump than out of looking into the possibility of a cure for the pandemic.

Just wondering: if it had been Trump who discouraged people from trying a drug that it later turned out might have cured them of a potentially deadly disease, what are the chances these same reporters would savage him and say he has “blood on his hands”? I put them at 100%.

Mike Huckabee

There’s no update yet on legendary songwriter John Prine, who was reported to be in critical care on a respirator with the COVID-19 coronavirus. But the disease has now claimed the lives of two other highly-respected musicians.

Jazz pianist and teacher Ellis Marsalis Jr. has died in New Orleans at 85 after being hospitalized with symptoms of the disease, although it has yet to be confirmed. Marsalis was not only a legendary New Orleans jazz man in his own right, he was the teacher and mentor to generations of star players, such as Harry Connick Jr. and Irvin Mayfield, as well as his famous sons, Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis. To show how much he helped advance the art of jazz, his sons now play with symphony orchestras. But he once recalled that during his youth studying classical piano at Dillard University, "you could get expelled for playing jazz. The dean would get a report that we were over there ruining pianos playing jazz on them.”

And the deadliness of the virus is not limited to the elderly, the sick or those with poor health care. The rock music world was shocked Wednesday at news that singer/songwriter Adam Schlesinger had died of COVID-19 complications at 52. Schlesinger was one of the rare talents who nearly earned “EGOT” status: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. He was an Emmy winner for his music for the TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend;” a Grammy winner with his ‘90s pop/rock band Fountains of Wayne; Tony nominee for his score for the musical “Cry-Baby;” and Oscar nominee for the early Beatles-style theme song of Tom Hanks’ 1997 directorial debut, “That Thing You Do.”

Our prayers for their families and condolences to their many fans.

Mike Huckabee

Yesterday, I wrote about the pressing need for data --- not the long-term data some medical researchers insist on seeing before they advise us to start returning to some semblance of normal, but what we can learn NOW to help us know how to respond. Today, we have more of that.

Of course, we have this piece of data to consider: 6.6 million unemployment claims. In a flash, we’ve gone from virtually full employment in the last year of Trump’s first term to this staggering statistic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, coming from the point of view of a researcher, has said the fight will continue until there is absolutely no new case of COVID-19; of course, he’s looking ahead to a vaccine. Well, a vaccine will be just super, but a proven-safe and effective vaccine for the population at large could be 12 to 18 months away –- though one trial with mice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is already looking promising –- and we cannot shut America down that long. We can’t shut America down for 12 to 18 more WEEKS. So let’s look at what we can reasonably do in the meantime.

Alex Berenson, a former NEW YORK TIMES reporter who has been looking hard at available numbers, said as a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show Thursday that the computer models predicting apocalyptic effects of this virus in terms of serious illness and death are turning out to be wildly wrong. “In some cases,” Berenson said, “these epidemiological models are extremely new. They’ve gone extremely ‘south’ in a matter of days." He’s daring to ask if there might be some other strategy that would do just as well and might be less damaging to the economy. “We’ve done it [put millions out of work] on the basis of models that don’t seem to line up with reality in real time.”

He cited the University of Washington model, “which was created and released only a week ago.” In other words, its accuracy has never been tested. It predicted that as of now, about 50,000 people in the state of New York would be hospitalized with COVID-19. The real number is about 12-13,000. It’s as I said yesterday, these models really have no predictive value. Garbage in, garbage out.

Berenson contrasted this with the prediction of another model, from the Oregon state government, that was revised on Monday to show that “if Oregon did nothing, ended the lockdown...there would be 90 people in ICU beds at the beginning of May...If the lockdown continued, there would be 30 people.” And so the question becomes, are we going to lock the state of Oregon down, with all the societal disruption that will cause? He’s concerned about other serious problems such as escalating domestic abuse and other deaths, by suicide.

"Do these massive lockdowns make sense,” he asks, “when we can’t even necessarily figure out how they’re working?”

For a case study in how a less-strict approach to containing the virus would work, we can look at Sweden. (Surprising, isn’t it, that a safety-net country like Sweden would decide to take their chances?) People are being trusted to take basic precautions –- keep a distance, wash hands, etc. –- and use their own judgment on the rest. They didn’t take what they consider drastic measures such as closing all schools (they did close high schools and universities) and restaurants. Gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed, but many are choosing to avoid crowds and work from home if they can. Only people over age 70 are specifically being asked to stay isolated.

Sweden’s death rate from coronavirus has been compared to that caused by “a bad winter flu.” Out of a population of 10 million, 308 have died according to Johns Hopkins University. Of course, Swedish society has some differences that might contribute to the relatively low number; for example, many more people in Sweden live alone, so it’s easier to isolate. Still, this gives us something to think about as we contemplate months of a shut-down economy.

It seems to me that the only way a “lockdown” is even feasible for more than a few more weeks is if there could just be a “pause” button everyone could hit. No one pays anyone. Your business doesn’t pay the rent, say, and the mortgage-holder on the building doesn’t pay the bank, either. It would be like a “holiday” for everyone up and down the line. (This might leave the huge financial institutions holding the bag, but considering how they cleaned up during the bailouts of 2008-2009, it’s hard to cry too much.) Of course, this sort of cooperative effort has never happened; Melissa Francis of FOX BUSINESS NEWS actually brought up the possibility of doing it but noted that it would take “the best financial minds” to figure out exactly how it could be achieved.

Barring something like that, it’s hard to imagine how we can keep so much activity shut down. And some of the rules are getting downright crazy. As I reported yesterday, the state of Vermont has put in place new rules that “non-essential” items can’t be bought in big-box stories, even by people who are already there to buy essentials. This is reportedly happening in some other states as well, such as Massachusetts. (If social media reports are correct, even vegetable seeds can’t be sold --- at a time when people are trying to stay home and be more self-sufficient --- because the garden section is considered “non-essential.”)

The idea is to discourage “wandering” in the store. This is idiocy. It’s definitely the leftist mindset at work: the reflexive micromanaging of every aspect of life.

Some other bureaucratic restrictions absolutely defy common sense. For example, in New York, at least at this writing, a patient can’t be prescribed hydroxychloroquine without being admitted to a hospital. Again, insanity. I understand that the intention is to make sure patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis can still get their medication. But New York hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed; if a coronavirus patient can be helped without going to one, it needs to happen. (Plus, it's better to get the treatment before becoming that sick.) Doctors around the world are increasingly using the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin combination drug therapy with good results.

It’s downright criminal that people might be denied such a promising treatment, for whatever reason. One reason, of course, is shameless politics, with some like the WASHINGTON POST accusing the President of offering “false hope” and peddling “snake oil.” But the President has been right. Some in the anti-Trump media have finally, reluctantly, had to admit that there’s something to it.

If we’re going to survive this mess and get back on track, it won’t be through months of government-imposed quarantine but through identifying those who have immunity --- the definitive antibody test is reportedly 1-2 weeks away --- and the quick, effective treatment of those who contract the virus. This drug therapy, if given early enough, seems to be doing a very effective job of keeping people off ventilators (and only about half of patients, once they’re put on a ventilator, will recover). As has been said, you go to war with the army you have. So praise the Lord and pass the hydroxychloroquine.

Mike Huckabee

I wrote yesterday about the frustration of hearing scientists in charge of the COVID-19 response call incessantly for DATA, no matter how long it takes to get it. Well, Americans sitting at home with no work for the foreseeable future want data, too –- but a lot sooner.

For example, we want to know the real infection rates, recovery rates and “negative outcome” rates. (Everybody knows what doctors mean when they employ the euphemism “negative outcome.”) We need these to assess how necessary it is for us to grind the U.S. economy to a halt for months and possibly create global economic collapse, with all the disaster and hopelessness that would bring.

For many, the seriousness of this –- the full impact –- is just now really starting to hit. We hear it in President Trump’s voice, now that he’s had to extend the stay-at-home guidelines. The kids want to go outside and visit friends. People worry if they’ll have jobs to go back to. The rent was due on the 1st. Speaking of that, one way we know it’s bad is because April Fool’s Day came and went with precious few April Fool’s jokes.

Anyway, right now it’s impossible to know what the reality is, because we have no idea how many have been infected. That means “experts” are flying blind, too. An undetermined number of those who pick up the virus are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms that mimic some little respiratory thing and they don’t even get tested. That’s why estimates and predictions have been all over the map. Fancy charts and graphs mean NOTHING. You know how it is with computer models (including those for predicting “climate change”): garbage in, garbage out. Any infection rate we plug into these models is guesswork. Garbage.

The way to get more people back to living their lives is to let them have the blood test for COVID-19 antibodies. That’s especially true, of course, for healthcare workers, who could benefit incredibly from knowing they have immunity. As of last week, an antibody test considered reliable by researchers has become available. But, as Laura Ingraham pointed out on her Wednesday FOX NEWS show, Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that antibodies testing is not a priority right now. It will be important, “ultimately,” to “get a feel” for how far the virus penetrated society, to have an idea of “the herd immunity,” but that this is not their “immediate problem.”

Say what? I’m sorry, but that makes no sense. We need data on this NOW. Dr. Birx gets the importance of this test, at least for health care workers. She’s calling on universities to help and says they’ll be ready by this Friday. She says the test is fast and easy --- fantastic news for health care workers and all those on the front lines, but we also need this done on a larger scale to get the true picture of what this virus does. If the infection rate turns out to be a lot higher than we thought, then the “bad outcome” rate is far smaller than current guesses suggest.

On a positive note, six pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, are working on a vaccine. The company Moderna has already started human testing. Even big tobacco has joined the effort, with Lucky Strike saying they can quickly grow tobacco containing antigens to the virus. That is incredible. Still, the vaccine is a long-term answer; even an optimistic estimate for this to be ready is 12-18 months.

The President wants us all to be able SOON to go back to work and get back to normal. The old normal, the good normal. But be warned: there are many who aren’t focused so much on that. Researchers want their data. Doctors want a high percentage of “good outcomes.” China wants us weak. And leftist politicians in our own country want a “new normal” of limitless spending and control over our lives, forever and ever amen. If we’re not vigilant, the threat of contagion could easily become a permanent excuse for tracking us all with GPS, monitoring social activities and confiscating guns. Fun times.

Oh, and now Adam Schiff wants to investigate President Trump’s response to the pandemic.

But let's get back to talking about the legitimate, worthwhile pursuit of data. Here’s the biggest one of all: We sitting at home desperately want to see data on the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, both as a protective measure and, in combination with azithromycin and zinc, as a treatment for respiratory symptoms. I don’t mean the large controlled studies that take months or years, because we don’t have that kind of time, but smaller studies that reinforce the “anecdotal” reports we’ve been getting. Some doctors now are routinely treating coronavirus patients with the combination hydroxychloroquine therapy, though they have to monitor closely for possible adverse cardiological effects. (Note: this is why I advised against using “pop-up tents” outside hospitals to hand out mass quantities of the drugs.) In fact, eminent infectious disease specialist Dr. Stephen Smith reports that of all his patients, no one receiving at least five days of the drug therapy has had to go on a ventilator. This supports the results of that early French study that some “experts” were dismissing. The odds of these results happening by chance are, in effect, zero.

He called this “a game-changer.” In fact, he told Laura Ingraham, “I think this is the beginning of the end. Of the pandemic. I’m very serious.”

Here’s another preliminary report of a different treatment that also looks very promising.

If that weren’t enough, here’s another piece of useful data: The more patients they treat, the more doctors are seeing that the ones far more likely to experience “negative outcomes” are those who are overweight or obese and/or diabetic or pre-diabetic. Sure, the gyms are closed for now, but I can’t think of a better reason to start some kind of diet and fitness program at home. Step it up when the gyms re-open. And toss away the cigarettes for good! Save the tobacco for antigen-growing.

Finally, again, we want data from China. And China is actually giving us some, in spite of its leaders’ efforts to keep the lid on. I’ve been commenting this week on the possibility that the COVID-19 virus originated not in the Wuhan live animal market but inside a nearby biotech lab. That’s not just speculation: scientists from the South China University of Technology have put together a compelling case that one of two labs in Wuhan Province researching coronavirus in the “intermediate Horseshoe Bat” is the likely source of the contagion.

Their paper has been online for two months but our media have virtually ignored it. (That Australian 60 MINUTES report I linked to yesterday talks about it.) Tucker Carlson and a few others have reported on it. But the director of the National Institutes of Health has, inadvertently or not, run interference for the Chinese government by dismissing the idea as “outrageous.” No, it isn’t.

Maria Bartiromo brought up the subject, with Ted Cruz.

And Jim Treacher at PJ Media has an excellent commentary on this.

Mike Huckabee

From Bonnie:

Just thought you might enjoy a little history - I remember my great aunt, Amelia Johnson, who was a head nurse at Cincinnati General Hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic, telling me about the 18-hour shifts, the patients lined out in the hallways and the fact that they could only make them comfortable, NOT do anything to really help them. She contracted the virus herself and nearly died. Her fever went up to 107 degrees and she lost all her hair. Both she and I found it incredible that she survived that.

She said she was one of the "lucky ones" because she lived, even though she was basically bald for the rest of her life. I was 16-18 when I knew her, and some of the girls at our college made fun of the fact that she wore a hairpiece. I would never have asked her about it, but one day when I was staying with her, she volunteered the information about how she lost her hair. I was incredulous!

The 1918 pandemic has never been just another story for me since then. I was a history and English major, and firsthand stories make it so much more than just an event. When I see the pictures of the crowded wards, I can picture her working there and paying a terrible price for her dedication. Her attitude was one of blessing though, as one of the "lucky ones."

When we are just asked to stay home a while, it's not so much by comparison. One of my sons works in an ER and I pray for him and them every day. God bless our healthcare workers and keep them safe.

From the Gov:

Thank you so much, Bonnie, for offering this perspective. Your great aunt truly was great, courageously offering comfort at a time when she knew little could be done to help her if she herself became ill. How wonderful that she chose to share her story with you...and ultimately with us.

Mike Huckabee

1. U.S. # CONFIRMED CASES (As of 6:30 AM): 216,722   DEATHS: 5,137  RECOVERIES: 8,672

TESTS GIVEN:  1,168,997

2.  CDC RECOMMENDATIONS: How to protect yourself  |  What to do if you are sick

3.  POLITICAL FALLOUT:  Cancel the Democrat and Republican conventions?  Maybe.  

4.  MEDIA BIAS:  Hume: TDS Media can't be trusted.

5.  CHINA LIES:  The Australian Media isn't buying them.

Mike Huckabee

It’s frustrating to listen to the “official” scientists when it comes to treating COVID-19 with promising drugs. Researchers want data –- YES, WE KNOW –- and they typically answer any question on the need for new treatments with the same spiel about controlled, double-blind, long-term studies.

Those studies take time. (Aside: in the meantime, we simply must go ahead and treat with medications that are safe and show promise.) And much of the data we need will have to come from far-flung places around the world. A few controlled studies are already going on, but we must wait for the results. Of course, in an ideal world, we would be getting solid data from China, everything they have, which would be especially useful because Wuhan Province is Ground Zero for this infection. But this is not an ideal world, and that is NOT happening and will never happen.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve written about the lack of truthful information from Chinese leaders. It’s worse than that: they’ve created a bogus narrative about their effective handling of the spread of the disease that many in the American media love to perpetuate because it makes President Trump look bad by comparison. They hate him so much that I’m not sure it matters to them that the story out of China is a big lie.

One big eye-opener is a recent report from the Australian version of 60 MINUTES. Australia, being much closer geographically to China and the Asian Pacific, takes a warier approach than the American media do to anything China does or says, and this report is no exception. When the Chinese government claimed that only about 2500 people died, Australians weren’t buying it, in part because of the huge increase in the number of cremations. That’s right; it seems that if you want to “earn” money in China right now, you should definitely go into the urn business. There was also a corresponding decrease in the number of cell phones

According to “emerging diseases” expert Laurie Garrett, who has witnessed outbreaks of Ebola and SARS, the virus “festered” in the live animal market in Wuhan for at least a month and a half before the world was told. At least at the time of this interview, she believed the virus “jumped” from some animal species, such as a bat, to human as has happened with other viruses (Note: as we’ve discussed, at least one study has suggested the market was not the original source of infection, and a Level 4 biolab is suspiciously close by; so is the Wuhan Institute of Virology.)

Garrett takes us through the timeline that started in mid-November, when cases of “a strange new flu” began to surface. In early December, they determined that it wasn’t SARS or anything like it, and that it had been spread from that market. Anyone who suggested otherwise was “suppressed,” she says. An official announcement didn’t come until New Year’s Eve; they said they had closed the market and stopped the spread, and also that there was no human-to-human transmission. She says this was a deliberate lie, that by then they were seeing cases they knew had no connection with the market.

Garrett goes on to talk about the physician who tried to warn the world and has since died of the virus. He was among a group of eight doctors who were called in and forced to sign statements declaring themselves liars. Isn’t totalitarianism great?

The report also features an interview with Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He has been outspoken in accusing China of a criminal act, “the worst cover-up in human history.” From reports out of Beijing, we know that a lab had sequenced the new coronavirus by December 27 but was ordered to hand over or destroy its samples.

McCaul says that if the Chinese had done the right thing and notified the World Health Organization, an estimated 95 percent of the worldwide contagion could have been stopped. I would add that it’s ironic, in light of this, how much the World Health Organization is going along with China’s narrative now. Tucker Carlson had a good segment on WHO Tuesday night; he also references the Australian 60 MINUTES report.

The report goes on with the shocking timeline, contrasting China’s official statements with what they really knew about the virus. The culmination was the Chinese president’s decision to allow 5 million people, with no health screening, to leave Wuhan for points unknown around the world. Since then, another doctor, the head of emergency at Wuhan Central Hospital, who tried to expose the deception has “disappeared.”

I’m linking to this piece with one caveat: the interviewee (a New Yorker) interjects politics and engages in some extremely undeserved Trump-bashing towards the end. Unbelievably, she blames both President Xi AND President Trump, “the two most powerful men on earth,” for the pandemic. She wrongly accuses Trump of “downplaying the significance” of COVID-19, never mentioning his early efforts to contain it by stopping travel from China. She notes instead his tweets praising China, not understanding the “big picture” and the diplomatic and practical reasons why he might do so. Anyway, if that part sickens you as it did me, you can skip over to the rest of the interview with McCaul, whose defense of the President –- believe it or not –- actually made it in.

Whistleblowers silenced by China could have stopped global coronavirus spread | 60 Minutes Australia

According to Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party in the UK, Radio Free Asia says the number of deaths in China from COVID-19 is more like 40,000. “But the one thing I do know,” he told Martha MacCallum on Monday evening, “absolutely for certain, is we cannot believe a word that Communist China says.”

He said that from the beginning, they hid the truth. “The doctor that exposed what was really happening was written off as a mad conspiracy theorist...and now we see China using its influence, using its money; we particularly see Huawei, the telecoms company, donating face masks, hand gel, donations in some cases, and even the state offering to sell ventilators to countries like Italy that are having serious problems. The country that caused this problem is now trying to present itself to much of the Western world as being its savior, and is trying to make a massive, massive power grab.”

Reminds me of the arsonist who plays “hero” and rushes in to save the family.

Farage says it’s time the Chinese government “owned up” and took some responsibility. Fat chance. I’d say it’s time our own media got a reality check and realized this is a totalitarian state, one that keeps people in line with prison camps and executions and will use the pandemic they caused to hurt us in any way possible, short-term and long-term, so they can eventually replace us as the leading world power. THAT is what President Trump has to deal with. Is there anything to convince our partisan media that the Chinese state is America’s enemy, and the one person they spend all their energy hating and abusing, President Trump, is really America’s dearest friend?

Farage, for one, understands Trump having to pay lip service to the Chinese president right now. “The truth of it is, we’ve become much too dependent on China for much of our supply chains in manufacturing...this needs a radical rethink. It is globalization that has caused this crisis.”

Mike Huckabee

I wrote briefly yesterday about the Tampa-area pastor who was arrested for holding a Sunday church service in defiance of an order against large gatherings, and asked for your responses. Since then, that story has exploded into other very important areas. Last night, I was on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News to discuss this story…

…which has taken on new meaning in light of rising infringements on Constitutional rights. Local authorities say they support freedom of religion, but the church service endangered the public health in violation of quarantine. However, the church claims the service was conducted with great care, including social distancing of attendees and other strict health precautions. My friends at the Liberty Counsel are defending the pastor. And a Pennsylvania pastor wants by holding an "outdoor Easter blowout service" a la Woodstock to show solidarity.

Both the defiance of the lockdown orders and the draconian measures some political office holders are using to enforce them have given rise to a serious debate about whether we are in danger of losing our Constitutional rights, not just during the current health emergency, but from now on. Personally, I believe that for the safety of me, my family and my community, it’s best to do whatever is necessary to stop the spread of this disease, and that can include innovative ways to worship, such as streaming services online or even this.

The bigger issue, though, is the swiftness with which our elected leaders, particularly mayors and governors of deep blue areas, have rushed right past “leadership” directly to “dictatorship.” While it might or might not be within their powers to curtail some freedoms during a deadly pandemic, their lack of concern for how that impacts individual rights is a warning sign that either they don’t understand those rights or hold them in contempt. Neither quality is acceptable in someone who holds powerful office.

For instance, it is one thing to order people to stay inside during an emergency. You might even justify arresting someone for defying that order. But in New York City, Mayor Bill DeBlasio threatened to “permanently” close any church or synagogue that violated it (tellingly, he didn’t threaten mosques, but that’s another issue.) By what possible right does he claim power to take away people’s right to freedom of religion and freedom of assembly “permanently”?

Some of these officials seem to be winging it without even thinking about it. For example, they’ll release all the criminals from jail, because they might catch the virus there. Then they try to deprive citizens of their Second Amendment right to defend themselves from the criminals they released by closing gun stores. The Mayor of Washington, DC, even threatened to arrest and jail people who go outside. So to recap: they’d empty the jails to protect criminals from getting the virus, then put citizens into the virus-ridden jails they just let the criminals out of, just for leaving their homes, because that might give someone the virus. If you can follow that circuitous reasoning, please send me the directions.

This is a time when it’s important for our officials to keep the public informed and alert, to show leadership and lead by example, and to impress on everyone the importance of voluntary compliance with guidelines to save lives. Draconian enforcement should be a last resort, not a first resort, and never should it be allowed to become commonplace after this passes.

Just as the public needs stern, sober reminders of why their cooperation is a matter of life and death, so do some political figures need a remedial lesson in Constitutional rights. Lesson one: the Bill of Rights is not a list of things that the state allows us to do, if we’re good and use them only the way they want. It’s a list of rights granted to us by God that the state cannot take away, except by tyranny.

Mike Huckabee

Not that her comments are actually worth mentioning, but since some poor deluded souls on the left continue to think of MSNBC Russian Collusion conspiracy monger Rachel Maddow as an actual journalist, I should include this: Maddow, who recently (and hilariously) suggested that networks shouldn’t air the President’s daily updates because HE dispenses misinformation (!), said this to her viewers exactly one week before the USNS Comfort arrived in New York harbor:

“In terms of the happy talk we’ve had on this front from the federal government, there is no sign that the Navy hospital ships that the president made such a big deal of, the Comfort and the Mercy, there’s no sign that they`ll be anywhere on-site helping out anywhere in the country for weeks yet. The President said when he announced that those ships would be put into action against the COVID-19 epidemic. He said one of those ships would be operational in New York harbor by next week. That`s nonsense. It will not be there next week.”

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/363149/

In fact, President Trump made good on his promise to dispatch the 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort to New York harbor, and it could be ready to start taking in patients as soon as today. Here are some photos of it arriving under the watchful eye of the Statue of Liberty that will send a patriotic thrill up your spine, if you're not an MSNBC viewer. I can assure Ms. Maddow that these pictures were not created in Photoshop by Russians.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/iconic-photos-of-the-usns-comfort-arriving-in-new-york-provides-a-glimmer-of-hope.html

Mike Huckabee

Fake News Tuesday, COVID-19 Edition, Part 2

As part of the media’s tireless (and ever-more-tiresome) attempts to gin up as much divisive rage and fear over President Trump as possible, on Monday, “CBS This Morning” aired footage of an overcrowded hospital room in coronavirus-raged Italy and claimed it was a hospital in New York City.

https://www.westernjournal.com/cbs-used-fake-covid-video-ny-hospital-footage-italys-hardest-hit-city/

When called on it, CBS News removed the video from all its shows and web platforms, and blamed it on an “editing mistake.”

It’s nice to know that with so many things we take for granted uprooted due to the CHINESE coronavirus pandemic, there are still some reliable touchstones that remain as solid and unchanging as Mount Rushmore:

1. Never believe anything you hear on Rachel Maddow’s show.

2. When Trump makes a mistake, he’s a LYING LIAR WHO LIES, but when the media lie, it’s always just a mistake.

Mike Huckabee

One day, we’re going to know not just how the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) came to be a pandemic but how it came to "be" in the first place. Right now, though, it’s tough to find reliable information. Politics, not science, informs (infects?) most media commentary, and that applies not just to what’s being said but what is not said. (Aside: This is especially true with the promise of hydroxychloroquine/zithromycin/zinc therapy that we've been staying on top of.)

It’s amazing how, with 24/7 coronavirus coverage, so much information can be ignored in favor of the same fake stories over and over. CNN, MSNBC and other outlets are so loaded with misinformation --- which we often debunk here --- that one might as well be listening to Nancy Pelosi. Or the Chinese Communist Party.

We see that when public officials contradict President Trump or say things that otherwise further the anti-Trump narrative, they get love and kisses from the media. But as soon as they find reason to temper their comments or even (yikes!) agree with him, the media turn on them and try to shut them down, sometimes not bothering to air their reports.

"Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci are not political people,” former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz said Sunday evening on Steve Hilton’s show. “They worked in the administration when it was the Obama administration. These are serious scientists who have the lead; there’s a reason why the President, time after time, brings them out...and for the American people not to see these...health care professionals giving advice, telling them what needs to be done, advising the President, does a total disservice to the American public. But I think the American public, fortunately, figures that out.”

I would add that just as these researchers aren’t politicians, neither is President Trump, really. It’s refreshing to have someone in office who doesn’t just talk in focus-grouped politi-speak and is candid with us. On the rare occasions when something he says doesn’t ring true --- such as a positive word he might say about Chinese leadership --- we know he has solid diplomatic reasons for putting it out there.

Anyway, certain scientists and elected representatives have been trying for months to uncover the real source of the virus and what China did in the early weeks of their epidemic that allowed it to become a raging pandemic that has killed over 2,000 Americans. The Chinese Communist regime has been very cloak-and-dagger about it by hiding evidence, refusing to admit American scientists from the Centers of Disease Control, “disappearing” doctors and researchers, and expelling American journalists who might sneak the truth out to the rest of the world.

Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton, appearing on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES with Maria Bartiromo, referred to a study published in THE LANCET that concluded the virus did not originally come from the “wet market” in Wuhan. Cotton was really the first elected official to express serious concern about the emerging virus; he nailed it back on January 30, when he called it “the biggest and most important story in the world” and asserted that China was lying about it. He could see it didn’t make sense that China was downplaying the virus while “locking 75 million people into their homes and apartment buildings,” he told Maria.

And they’re still lying. “You see it again today,” Cotton said. China announced they had no new cases, no more deaths, but they've just re-closed the movie theaters nationwide after having them open for a few days. Certainly they wouldn’t do that unless what they’re telling us about the end of the contagion is false. Cotton also noted that a single mortuary in Wuhan has just ordered more than 5,000 urns. The Chinese Communist Party lies because it’s the Chinese Communist Party, just as a scorpion stings because it’s a scorpion. They’re behaving exactly as one would expect the Chi-Coms to behave when trying to cover up the biggest story in the world.

You can bet that when Trump says something gracious about the president of China, he’s well aware of that deception. There are many elements at play, such as the reality that much of our basic productive capacity for making medicines was outsourced to China long ago. As Cotton said, “I think most Americans have been shocked to learn that we depend upon China for things like penicillin, antibiotics, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, to say nothing of dozens of basic pharmaceutical ingredients.” That will have to change, but it can’t happen overnight. Cotton is sponsoring legislation to use tax incentives and the government’s purchasing power to bring this manufacturing back to the U.S. and eventually halt the importation of all Chinese drugs.

A month ago, Cotton was saying we didn’t know where the virus originated but that we had to get to the bottom of it. He pointed out that just a few miles from the wild-animal “food” market where they’d said the virus broke out is China’s one-and-only biosafety Level 4 superlaboratory that researches human infectious diseases. “Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there,” he said at the time, “[but] because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question, to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.”

We don’t know much more than we did a month ago, Cotton said on Sunday, and that is very little. But we now KNOW the virus did not originate in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market as China claimed. That’s right: It didn’t “jump” from one of the live delicacies they sell there such as badgers and koala bears (kid you not) to a human host, and even the Chi-Coms can’t continue to claim that it did. They had to ‘fess up in February. But as early as December, this was known; THE LANCET published a study showing that of the first 40 cases of coronavirus, 14 of them had no contact with that infamous market.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/22/beijing-admits-coronavirus-didnt-start-in-wuhan-food-market-senator-cotton-tweets-vindication/

So, the virus had to have been brought by someone into that market, which became an “accelerant” for its spread. The market is crowded and dirty, with animals crammed into filthy cages to await their fate. Customers reportedly prefer to watch their future meal being slaughtered. Isn’t multiculturalism great?

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/02/24/study-china-lied-wuhan-virus-did-not-originate-in-meat-market/

Rep. Cotton said we still don’t know what they do in this lab. It sure would be interesting to know if even one of those first 14 cases not having any connection to the market did have a connection to the LAB. Is it possible that any of these infections can somehow be traced back there? Inquiring minds want to know.

It should be said that the study of this particular virus wasn’t necessarily sinister. It’s their failure to contain the outbreak and then lying about it that led to many thousands dying around the world –- THAT’S sinister. This Level 4 biolab has apparently researched coronaviruses before, and there are legitimate reasons for doing so. I would strongly suggest, however, that in the future they might want to think about doing it at Level 5.

……………….

A postcript: China has taken the “highly unusual move” of exonerating 33-year-old Dr. Li Wenliang, whom they “reprimanded” for spreading the word about the outbreak and who later died of the disease himself. In other words, he was exonerated posthumously. Wasn’t that nice of them?

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/china-outbreak-doctor-vindicated/2020/03/19/id/959141/

Mike Huckabee

President Trump and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are exchanging accusations over who is responsible for problems her state is having in obtaining supplies to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. You can read the details here if you want, but frankly, I think most Americans aren’t in the mood for partisan fingerpointing. If there are problems, they need to be solved now, and you can argue over blame later.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fires-back-at-michigans-whitmer-claims-dem-governor-doesnt-have-a-clue

On a related subject, Gov. Whitmer is not filling her constituents with confidence that she’s putting their best interests ahead of politics by following Nevada Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in playing doctor without a license. Both Governors have issued orders banning doctors from the off-label use of hydroxychloroquine, particularly in combination with the drug Azithromycin, which has shown promise in early use in several nations, but which has been under attack by the left as a “fake cure” because President Trump spoke of it positively.

Whitmer’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issued a letter threatening action against the medical licenses of any doctors who prescribe it for the coronavirus, requiring health care providers who learn of a doctor prescribing it to report them to the state, and banning pharmacists from filling prescriptions for it.

Yes, it’s true that we haven’t had years of clinical trials of this drug, but when you’re in a situation where nothing else is working, death may be near and you don’t have years to spend on clinical trials, the decision about what last-ditch drug to try should rest with the doctor and patient, not state or federal bureaucrats. This is why Trump pushed for and signed the “Right To Try Law,” to stop the FDA from “protecting” terminal patients into the grave by denying them experimental treatments until after they’re long dead.

At this link is a first-hand account by a Michigan COVID-19 patient, Jim Santilli, who believes he was hours just away from death when his doctor gave him this treatment, and he began a rapid recovery. You can imagine how he feels about his Governor banning doctors from even trying it:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/michigan-man-with-coronavirus-has-near-death-experience-is-saved-by-hydroxychloroquine-z-pak-then-unloads-on-liberal-gov-for-denying-life-saving-drug/

Santilli writes, “This is unacceptable and I’m confident Governor Whitmer, and her administration, will be responsible for many deaths and much suffering. I highly recommend she stop the politics, and not discourage doctors from using treatment they believe may work.”

While some early studies of the drug have shown great promise, there’s no proof that it’s a magic bullet. There are flaws in the studies, conflicting results, and potential side effects. You can read more about them in this article:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/27/we-dont-know-hydroxychloroquine/

And here’s the latest, released just last night: French professor Dr. Didier Reoult released the results of a second study that repeated the positive findings of his first trial use of Hydroxychloroquine (plaquenil) and Azithromycin on 36 COVID-19 patients. The latest study of 80 patients found “significant” clinical improvement in all but one 74-year-old still in intensive care and one patient who died who had an advanced, irreversible case and was 86 years old.

https://techstartups.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-cure-new-results-french-study-shows-combination-hydroxychloroquine-plaquenil-azithromycin-successfully-treated-80-coronavirus-patients-significant-dr/

The bottom line, as that story states in its headline, is, “What if hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work? What if it does? Right now, we don’t know.” It quotes a health data analyst as saying, “When dealing with a pandemic, listen to experts who are used to grappling with these problems.”

I assume that would mean doctors, not Governors.

Mike Huckabee

Today could be a high drama day in the House, as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is reportedly threatening to “go rogue” and hold up passage of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill. He and some other conservatives are angry that the Democrats managed to stuff so much irrelevant leftwing pork and government expansion into what is supposed to be a rescue bill for idled American workers and businesses. There are worries on both sides that Massie will prevent a quick voice vote and demand a full vote that would require members who are absent to travel back to Washington to form a quorum and cast votes.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/extreme-precautions-ordered-in-house-ahead-of-historic-vote-on-largest-stimulus-package-in-us-history

Democrats are furious over the tactics and many Republicans are upset that their golden issue of Pelosi holding up the bill for a week while Americans suffered will now be overshadowed by one lone Republican holding it up. Look, I agree that there are many things in this bill that shouldn’t be there. Democrats tried to stuff it as full of leftist goodies as a piñata. Here’s just one example of the kind of irrelevant issues it lavishes money on that we’ll be discovering for months:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-relief-package-contains-over-11-billion-international-development

It’s precisely the type of bill that makes you lament that the President doesn’t have a line-item veto. But if there were ever an example of letting the perfect become the enemy of the good, the rumored Massie stall may be it. It’s time for Washington to end the political games and help the rest of the country, which is already acting heroically without their help under incredibly difficult conditions.

Speaking of that, check out this lengthy Facebook comment by Bart Hall, reeling off all the ways that Americans are stepping up to deal with the crisis, help each other and create innovative solutions to problems in record time, either without Washington’s help or in direct defiance of pointless federal regulations. He also speculates on the possible positive effects of so many people learning just how useless, and even obstructive of progress and innovation, all those nanny state regulations are. Warning: a bit of profanity, forgivable under the circumstances.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/362781

And as always, the Christian conservative site The Babylon Bee nailed the useless grandstanding of Washington politicians perfectly with this headline: “Government Accidentally Shuts Itself Down With Ban On Non-Essential Businesses.”

https://babylonbee.com/news/government-accidentally-shuts-itself-down-with-ban-on-non-essential-businesses

While you’re at that site, you should read some more stories for great laughs to help ease your homebound boredom and anxiety. This may be my recent favorite: “Quarantined Journalist Really Starting To Annoy Family By Calling Them Racists All Day.”

https://babylonbee.com/news/quarantined-journalist-reduced-to-only-calling-their-household-members-racist

Mike Huckabee

Joe Biden, still struggling to appear relevant despite being about as easily overlooked as the star of that new “Invisible Man” movie, is continuing his embarrassing and barely coherent “competing coronavirus briefings” against President Trump from his house. In his latest dispatch from Cloud Cuckooland, Biden said Trump should “stop talking” and let medical experts speak. He mocked Trump’s hopes of getting the economy reopened by Easter and said, “This curve is going up and up and up because we did not act when we should have acted.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-blasts-trumps-coronavirus-response-sidelines-stop-talking/

Boy, where to begin? Obviously, with the fact that when Trump cut off travel from China back in January, acting quickly when he should have, Biden attacked him as a fearmonger and xenophobe. When Biden released a “plan” for dealing better with the crisis than Trump, most of it was stuff Trump had already done. In case Biden hasn’t noticed, Trump has assembled a team of the best doctors in America, and they are present and speak at all his press conferences. The leading voice among them, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has debunked the idea that Trump isn’t listening to them (apparently, Joe doesn’t keep up with the news; he’s also still repeating the debunked “fake news” that Trump called the virus a “hoax.” He was talking about the false media narrative parroted by Biden that he didn't take it seriously.)

And as for Trump’s Easter comment, it was just an expressed hope, not an ironclad policy directive. You’d think Biden would recognize what a “hope” is, since that’s what he and Obama got elected on. Maybe that’s why he assumes all hopes are meaningless.

Incidentally, Biden has also called for another “stimulus” bill that would somehow save us from the coronavirus by including the “Green New Deal,” thereby accomplishing the neat trick of saving the economy by passing a law that most sane economists believe would kill the economy.

Instead of telling Trump to stop talking, Joe should trying to talk. He’s become the living embodiment of Mark Twain’s rule that “it’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than open it and remove all doubt.”

Mike Huckabee

Just before midnight Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, the biggest in US history. Details of who gets what are here:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/final-vote-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-now-imminent-amid-tensions-over-provisions

It’s a compromise bill, meaning that it removed most of the leftist goodies Democrats tried to stuff into it, but not all. Republican did remove the demands for CO2 limits on airlines that can’t even fly at the moment, diversity hiring quotas and other irrelevant “progressive” pipe dreams. But here’s what survives: in addition to banning large companies that take out loans from fighting union organizing efforts (a boost to the Democrats’ electoral base), it contains such “emergency” funding as $75 million for the notoriously liberal Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $25 million for House staff and salaries, $350 million to resettle more immigrants and migrants at a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs, and $150 million to the National Endowment for the Arts.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-coronavirus-bill-75m-corporation-for-public-broadcasting-npr-big-bird

As I said last night on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, it’s as if President Trump were a fireman, rushing around to put out fires at every business in America, and instead of helping, the Democrats are backing trucks up to the back doors and looting them. This irresponsible and unconscionable opportunism in exploiting the pain of American workers and businesses to promote their own political interests is one more reason why this November, voters must show up at the polls and remove them from power in the House, reduce their power in the Senate, and keep them far, far away from the White House.

The bill now goes to the House, where Nancy Pelosi and Republican leaders say they hope also to get a unanimous vote to fast-track it so they don’t have to delay it with more debate, especially with some members absent due to the coronavirus.

Oh, but wait: look who’s talking about delaying all that desperately-needed help for American workers because she cares so much about American workers!

https://www.westernjournal.com/ocasio-cortez-warns-open-single-handedly-delaying-coronavirus-bill-necessary/

This news is especially ironic, considering AOC’s own former chief of staff who helped write the “Green New Deal” called Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to block aid to working people while she tried to stuff the Senate relief bill with leftist political issues such as carbon emission limits “ridiculous.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-ridiculous-aocs-ex-top-aide-torches-pelosi-for-coronavirus-stimulus-games/

FYI, this is the aide who was often referred to as “AOC’s brain.” You’ll notice that he no longer holds that position.

Laura Ainsworth, Staff Writer

What a pleasant surprise to see one of my favorite medical experts as a guest on THE INGRAHAM ANGLE Tuesday night. Most of all, it was gratifying to see he thinks the same way I do about hydroxychloroquine/zithromycin therapy, even though he is a world-famous physician and entrepreneur and I am not.

Oh, by the way, Gov. Huckabee was on the show, too. More about that below.

Dr. Nicholas Perricone, MD, is widely known for his groundbreaking series of books on nutrition and aging, starting with THE WRINKLE CURE and THE PERRICONE PRESCRIPTION. I think I’ve read every one of them. He also developed a line of skin care that I have used over the years as my budget would allow. But perhaps he is best known for “the Perricone Diet,” a regimen based mostly on wild salmon and vegetables, designed to provide the right nutrients for skin (and brain) and to avoid the damaging blood sugar spikes that high-carb diets cause. I’ve followed it for a long time –- no endless pasta bowl and breadsticks for me –- and even wrote and performed an operatic song parody about it in a one-person comedy show about the pursuit of beauty called MY SHIP HAS SAILED. The song: “O Worship Dr. Perricone.”

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/CtSWkUscZ74 

When I performed this in larger venues, he appeared behind me on screen in a stained glass window…

Anyway, I’ve always considered Dr. Perricone to be way ahead of his time, so it doesn’t surprise me that he would be looking into this experimental treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Apparently, he’s been prescribing hydroxychloroquine for his patients with autoimmune diseases and getting results. And though as a physician he considers himself “risk-averse,” he said he's very surprised at the reluctance of the medical community to move forward with the off-label use of this FDA-approved medication to treat COVID-19.

He advised looking at the “risk-benefit ratio.” This antimalarial drug came out in 1945 (!), he explained, and there are about a million patients every year taking it for autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. “There’s nothing better, as far as I’m concerned, in terms of safety of a drug [than] to have it being used a long time,” he said, “and 70 years is a very long time.”

Ideally, he said, we’d love to have some really compelling studies, lots of data, “but we don’t have time for that.” We have to move fast. And this is a short, five-to-seven-day regimen, for which “the side-effect profile is extremely, extremely low.” So, looking at the risk-benefit ratio, we have a drug that’s been “tried and true” for 70 years (low risk), combined with good data coming in (high benefit).

Given the severity of the disease, “it makes no sense to me whatsoever,” he said, “to hesitate distributing this drug.” Of course, it’s important to be under a doctor’s care, he added, to make sure it won’t interact badly with some other drug the patient is taking or if there are “any underlying problems.”

We need to move very quickly on this, he concluded. Every day counts in terms of saving lives. He went even further, to say that anyone hesitating now is doing this country “a huge disservice.”

I completely agree with Dr. Perricone (dare I say, “worship” him?), and would add that my main concern is that much of the reluctance to go all-in on this drug therapy is because if it worked, it would prove President Trump right and help him win re-election. That decision should be based not on any political considerations whatsoever but on the kind of analysis Dr. Perricone has offered. I don’t know how he votes; perhaps he’s apolitical. Anyway, the discussion should be shaped not by pro- and anti-Trump forces but by what has been shown to help people get well. There are some who hate Trump so irrationally that they would actually deny him this accomplishment.

Personally, as someone who is in the “red zone” on the risk scale (due to previous lung damage as a complication from H1N1 flu in 2009), if I somehow get sick with this in spite of working from home and careful “social distancing,” I have looked at costs and benefits just as Dr. Perricone has and have made up my mind...I am getting that treatment.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6144520387001

As mentioned, Gov. Huckabee was on Laura Ingraham’s show as well, with Byron York, to discuss the chatter surrounding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a possible bid for the White House.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6144521360001

Obviously, this is happening because the Democrats have to find SOMEBODY more on-the-ball mentally than Joe Biden, who is showing himself to be less than worthless in a crisis. Byron York pointed out --- though he hardly had to --- that Democrats are looking at Biden and see someone who’s really struggling.

The Governor noted that Biden, in doing those bizarre shadow-commentaries following the President’s press briefings, is doing a lot of damage, not only to his own prospects but to the country by trying to pretend that “he’s really gonna be the President.” The more Biden talks, the less confident people are in his ability to handle something like the current situation. In contrast, Huckabee gave Gov. Cuomo credit for the way he’s been handling the role of a governor in managing such a crisis.

"Governors tend to be good presidential candidates most of the time,” Huckabee said, “because, frankly, they’ve managed a microcosm of the federal government. Every single thing you have at the federal level you have at the state level, just with fewer zeroes on the end of your budget.” But, having been in those shoes himself, he really doesn’t think Cuomo is thinking about the presidency. “When you’re dealing with a major crisis,” he told Laura, “you’re trying to stay ahead of it and manage it and deal with it, and the thought that you’re gonna try to figure out how this is gonna advantage you politically, to be honest with you, you just don’t have time for that.

"There WILL be time for that, and I’m sure he’ll, maybe, consider it, because of the way he’s managed [this], but right now, I’d cut him some slack, give him a break and say I think he’s legitimately trying to lead his state through a very difficult crisis, and, frankly, I’d give him a passing grade in the way he’s doing it.”

The Gov. also praised President Trump for trying to strike a balance between the “science” of medicine and the “art” of politics. Decisions have to be made with the understanding of what’s possible in the political environment. Democrats in Congress are interested in scoring “political points,” not in helping their enemy get the American people back to work and earning paychecks. Trump’s also got Wall Street concerns, and –- mostly –- he’s got millions of Americans who are scared.

"I think this President is handling it in exactly the executive way that he was hired to do,” the Governor said. “Thank God he’s in that chair right now and not Hillary Clinton, as could have happened.”

Now THAT would’ve been something to be scared about.

Mike Huckabee

President Trump is hoping for a target date of “reopening America” on Easter Sunday, which is April 12th. He hopes that by that time, the emergency measures will have flattened the spread of the virus, that we’ll have enough supplies to deal with it and Americans will have adopted safe practices to avoid contracting it (and will keep them up as the weather warms and the virus abates.) Naturally, the media attacked him for spreading “false hope” (he’s only supposed to spread gloom-and-doom, so they can attack him for that.) But he didn’t say Easter was definite, only that he hoped it would be an achievable target date. And I think Easter Sunday is certainly the best date you could possibly set for renewing everyone’s hope.

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-sets-target-date-re-open-america-love-open-easter/

I appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show last night to talk about the delicate balancing act that Trump has to perform between the hard facts of science and the art of politics, which determines what it’s possible to do with those scientific knowns and unknowns, and all the decisions an executive has to make to insure that the “cure” isn’t worse than the disease. You can see it here:

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6144521360001

(On the topic of getting America back to normal as quickly as possible, Ronald Bailey at Reason.com has an interesting suggestion: immediate, universal testing for the virus, so we can identify those who are carrying it and should self-quarantine, those who are healthy and safe to go back to work, those who have had it and are immune so they can work in hospitals, and those at high risk such as the elderly, so they can be isolated for their safety.)

https://reason.com/2020/03/24/massive-coronavirus-testing-is-the-way-to-help-save-the-economy/

I think Trump is doing an extraordinary job (and for no pay!), and it shows how valuable having high-level, international executive and management experience is for a President. It’s why we used to elect Governors to the White House: because Governors deal with almost every issue Presidents do, only on a smaller scale. Lately, we’ve started electing Senators, who are one of 100 DC insiders who can build decades-long careers without ever running anything other than their mouths (Looking at you, Bernie.)

If you really want to know what an incredible job Trump is doing, imagine if we had (Heaven forbid!) Hillary “Put the phone on hold during the Benghazi raid” Clinton in the White House when millions of Americans need swift, decisive action to save them.

Mike Huckabee

Warning to everyone with a scientific background: We’re going to be talking about “anecdotal” evidence here. I realize that researchers tend not to count that and instead hang their hats on large double-blind peer-reviewed studies, but considering the Wuhan coronavirus has been in the population for only a few months (that we know of), there hasn’t been time to run those studies. We’ll get there; in fact –- thanks to the anecdotal evidence –- the kind of studies they need to generate the data they want are in the works right now. Those will guide us in the future. In the meantime, though, we’ve got to look at what a growing number of cases is telling us. And the picture that’s emerging is very positive.

Another warning: You will not get this view from the anti-Trump media, who are a complete waste of airtime and not worth anyone’s attention. They have thoroughly disgraced themselves and don’t have the sense to know it. From them, you will get stories designed to make you anxious and frustrated with President Trump and to make you think he’s being deceptive. To accomplish this, they go much further than expressing skepticism and mistrust –- they flat-out falsely accuse him of repeatedly lying about everything. These “journalists” must be working overtime to slant their stories, even with the help they get from Chinese propaganda.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/22/no-cnn-humanity-is-not-responsible-for-wuhan-virus-china-is/

Meanwhile, Trump, day by day, has been “the rock” we’ve needed, absolutely tireless, refreshingly agenda-free (unlike congressional Democrats, who never let a crisis go to waste), and single-mindedly devoted to steering the country through this with as little long-term damage to our way of life as possible. I doubt that anyone has ever seen energy like that in the White House. And much of Trump’s focus has to do with looking into medical treatments that can lessen the risk of being out and about and, especially, going to work.

Sara Carter, on Monday’s HANNITY show, related that she had talked with American intelligence and other Western intelligence officials, who told her they were “scrambling as much as they can to find out what happened in China and in Wuhan,” which was shut down by the Chinese government on January 23, seven weeks after the first known human transmission. By January 23, 5 million people (!) had left Wuhan for parts unknown. Perhaps the media would be looking at this if they weren’t trying so hard to give the President a bad rap and second-guess everything he says and does. They don’t even seem that concerned about the Chinese government’s treatment of journalists who have been trying to report this story. If we ever find out what really happened, it will be no thanks to them.

On Monday, I related Scott Adams’ view that doctors are more optimistic about treatments with existing, FDA-approved drugs than they've let on, and the reasons why they might be keeping that opinion close to the vest for now. Later that day, Sean Hannity (on both radio and TV) featured the story of New York family practitioner Vladimir Zelenko, MD, who's had a success rate of 100 percent (success defined as not needing hospital admission) with an aggressive treatment consisting of 200 mg of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, twice a day for 5 days, combined with azithromycin, 500 mg once a day for 5 days, and zinc sulfate, 220 mg once a day for 5 days. One major symptom, shortness of breath, typically resolves in four to six hours, he said. “Since last Thursday,” he wrote, “my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients...we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations.”

RELATED READING: “One of the scariest things in the world is called ‘the unknown.’”

We’ve already seen the results of the preliminary French study that showed a combination of hydroxychloroquine and zythromycin relieved symptoms and shortened the course of the virus. As for the critical supply chain, Israel has already stepped up by donating 6 million doses of hydroxychloroquine.

In Trump’s Monday press briefing, the way forward that he endorsed sounded much like Scott Adams’ “prescription” for dealing with the virus and the economic fallout from a prolonged nationwide quarantine. The President is optimistic about this drug regimen. While bigger studies are underway, doctors will be able to prescribe these medications as needed.

"Our country wasn’t built to be shut down,” he said. “We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.” When the 15-day “shutdown” ends next week, he’ll assess how we move forward, but he’s not looking to keep the country stuck in neutral. “America will be again and soon be open for business, very soon,” he stressed. “This is a medical problem. We are not going to let it turn into a long-lasting financial problem.” He called the emerging drug therapy “a gift from God, a real game-changer.” And he talked about gradually getting people back out and in their jobs, just as Adams described.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/pandemic-economy-doctors-white-house/2020/03/23/id/959605/

As long as we’re talking about anecdotal evidence, here’s a look at one pattern a reader has noticed, and my response.

From Gil:

An item on Fox News revealed that approximately TWO-THIRDS OF DEATHS in China due to the Wuhan virus (covid-19) WERE MALES. And three-fourths or so of the deaths in Italy were males. If true, why would this be? Is it related to something such as smoking? For instance, do male smokers in China represent two-thirds of the smokers population? Three-fourths in Italy? We know that long time smokers have damaged lungs. Is it smoking and not longevity that is the harbinger of being invaded by the China Wuhan Virus? Potential victims want to know.

From the Gov:

It’s hard to know the reliability of the numbers coming out of China regarding this virus. But nearly 30 percent of all Chinese adults smoke, including 53 percent of men. So, yes, presumably many more Chinese men than women have lung damage from smoking. But ALL Chinese people who dwell in large cities have lung damage from the severe air pollution, which is the worst in the world. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of the soupy, mustard-colored sludge hanging over Shanghai. (Whoever thinks communists and other authoritarian regimes take care of the environment better than capitalist countries do has apparently never seen it.)

In Italy, more men than women smoke, but smoking is popular among both men and women, particularly young adults. The virus has really been killing older people. I don’t have the stats but would imagine older Italians smoke, too. Inconclusive!

To my knowledge, there are no stats about smoking and COVID-19 in America; perhaps a study will be done. But any disease that hits the respiratory system is going to be harder on lungs that are already damaged, from whatever cause. It might be smoking, air particles, or previous damage from pneumonia or another illness. I’m not a doctor, but surely “potential victims” (everybody) should be aware that taking care of your lungs will help you recover no matter what respiratory illness you get. I think you know what I’m very strongly suggesting you do.

Mike Huckabee

Joe Biden has receded into the background so fast, he’s desperate to get back into the headlines, especially now that Democrats whose eyes are glazed over about him as their candidate are now talking about drafting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. So Biden announced that he will begin competing with President Trump by holding his own daily press conferences on the COVID-19 (Chinese) coronavirus.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-coronavirus-briefings

This announcement was accompanied by the usual attacks on how Trump is dealing with the crisis, ending with the tagline, “This moment calls for a President.” Okay, I try to be a nice guy, but I’m about to hit a 77-year-old man with a hard bag of truth:

This moment HAS a President, Joe, and it ain’t you. All you will do by holding daily news conferences to contradict what the President says is confuse and mislead Americans at a time when getting the best-sourced information is literally a matter of life and death, both for people and the US economy. You have already demonstrated that you do not have access to the type of information that Trump does when you blasted him as xenophobic for shutting down travel from China early on, a move that bought us weeks of time and likely saved thousands of American lives. You would have let infected people just come pouring in. This either shows you have terrible judgement, or no access to the kind of information the President has, or (and this is my guess) both.

America has a President. What it needs now are statesmen. Those are people who put petty political squabbles aside during a crisis, rally around America’s elected leader, and do whatever they can to bring Americans together so that we can overcome this danger.

With this latest reprehensibly selfish, divisive and irresponsible move, you have not only embarrassed yourself, you have proved you are no statesman, and you are certainly not worthy of ever being President.

Mike Huckabee

Many media outlets and Twitter twits went on a rage against President Trump, accusing him of pushing false hope by declaring a combination of drugs including hydroxychlorophine to be a miracle cure for the Wuhan flu (see what I did there?) Or as Mediaite put it, “Trump Touts Unproven Coronavirus Drug Cocktail As 'One Of The Biggest Game Changers In The History Of Medicine.'”

https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1241380476222418944

No, he did not say that. They left out his preceding qualifiers, including saying that “if it works,” it could be a game-changer, “and maybe not.”

What does it tell us about the mindset of our current “news” media that they can hear the President say there’s a possibility we might have a cure for a deadly pandemic that’s shut down the US economy, and they think that the most newsworthy part of that statement is that if you edit and twist it enough, you can use it to make the President sound like a liar?

It’s incredible that something so serious and frightening still hasn’t been able to penetrate the media’s terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and shock or shame them into acting like responsible professionals. They have seemingly learned nothing, certainly not humility or the limits of their expertise, since the earliest days of this crisis, when they attacked Trump as a racist and xenophobe for shutting down travel from China.

https://www.westernjournal.com/list-medias-original-take-travel-bans-abandoned-common-sense-trump-hate/

I assume they would prefer Trump had reacted the way the PC mayor of Florence, Italy, did, by showing defiance of “xenophobia” by encouraging Italians to “hug a stranger.” That worked out well, didn’t it?

https://pjmedia.com/trending/dr-fauci-trumps-travel-bans-may-prevent-u-s-from-becoming-another-italy/

And as recently as February 8th, the chairman of the New York City Council Health Committee was tweeting for everyone to turn out for the Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown, to show “defiance of (the) coronavirus scare.”

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/362309/

So when any of these people attack the way Trump is dealing with this unprecedented crisis, ask them: “Why should we listen to anything you have to say? Have you gotten ANYTHING right so far?”

On that subject, here are “10 Ways the Left Has Politicized the Coronavirus Pandemic.” But this article is a week old, so there are a lot more by now.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/10-ways-the-left-has-politicized-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

And on a similar subject, as tough as it is to choose who should be Miss Universe out of all those contenders, or which movie out of a whole year’s worth of releases is the “Best Picture,” imagine how hard it must be to narrow it down to only the “Top 10 Lies About President Trump’s Response to the Coronavirus.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-top-10-lies-about-president-trumps-response-to-the-coronavirus/

Mike Huckabee

The Gov. felt compelled to answer this letter from Tavane:

Governor, I was with you right up until you said "Goodness knows, that’s a more productive use of funds than just passing out money to everyone." Though it may not make a difference to you, I know many, many families who are in dire straights right now because, like many Americans, they live from paycheck to paycheck and have no reserve funds set aside to buy extras to get them through the shutdown of this country. If they do have a 401k or other savings/retirement accounts you can't just get money out of them when you want to as they have special governing rules to them highly inaccessible and also bear steep penalties if withdrawals are made. These citizens also have children who are not going to school now and they also have jobs that need them there so now have to pay for daycare of some sort so they can keep their jobs. I usually find your comments uplifting but to negate the fact that American's need financial help right now to make it through is very negative and unworthy of a man of your stature.

From the Gov:

Good heavens, Tavane, I never said or even meant to imply that the government shouldn’t offer financial assistance to people who are hurting. I said “JUST passing out money to everyone.” People in many industries are devastated right now and need help. To cite just one example, my staff and I know many in the music business (most of whom struggle to stay afloat during normal conditions) who have lost ALL their work for the foreseeable future and are at a complete loss as to what to do and how to survive. I share all of your concerns. You are right about all of this --- except the part where you say I “negate” the fact that people need help.

What I was saying is that we have to find a medical solution to this because we can’t JUST pass out money forever. That alone is a terrible long-term plan, because if we just print billions and even trillions of dollars while everyone stays home indefinitely, we surely will end up like Venezuela. But, yes, of course, we must help Americans who are hurting right now.

Still, we have to find a cure and/or a vaccine that will allow us to get back to work --- and to stay at work with no threat of a "second wave." The longer that takes, the bigger the pit we'll have to dig out of. In the meantime, though, we certainly have to help each other get through this and come out the other side.

Mike Huckabee

I wrote recently that I seem to live in a very different America from the dog-eat-dog Zombie Apocalypse described by the media. In the America where I live, people are dealing with the current pandemic scare by trying their best to stay calm, keep on keeping on, and helping each other as much as possible.

One great example of a Huck’s Hero in this situation is Kurt Kruczek, owner of Naples Pizza in West Hartford, Connecticut. His business is down 50%, he had to close one location, and he’s struggling to keep paying all his workers. But when he saw the doctors at the local hospital on TV in their “space suits,” working so hard to deal with the coronavirus, he knew he had to help. So he called and asked if they’d like some free pizzas. The gift was greatly appreciated by the overworked staffers and worried patient family members. So he’s now making a weekly delivery of free pizzas to the hospital, one during the daytime and another at night, for the night shift people who tend to be forgotten.

Kruczek appeared Wednesday on “Fox & Friends,” where he urged people to please support their local restaurants that are struggling to survive by ordering good to go or to be delivered. And here’s a great idea: he said if you can afford it, consider buying gift cards and either using them when the pandemic is over, or else donate them as thank-you gifts to your local hospital, police or firefighters.

There’s even a website now that can help you find a restaurant near you that’s offering gift cards, to help your local businesses survive. To learn more, go to www.RallyForRestaurants.com.

Mike Huckabee

In Friday’s developments around the COVID-19 coronavirus (or more accurately, “Wuhan virus”) pandemic, cases continued to rise, with New York City experiencing an average of one death per hour from it. But efforts to combat it are moving swiftly, such as making ventilators from 3D printers...

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/19/open-source-project-spins-up-3d-printed-ventilator-validation-prototype-in-just-one-week/

...And some treatments are showing early positive results.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/malaria-drugs-touted-by-trump-can-work-against-coronavirus-top-doc-tells-laura-ingraham

Both the federal government and New York State are taking actions to prevent people from having their homes foreclosed due to inability to make mortgage payments during the virus shutdown.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/some-homeowners-and-renters-will-get-a-break-from-the-coronavirus-financial-fallout-2020-03-18

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/coronavirus/banks-waive-mortgage-payments-90-days

President Trump announced that our southern border is being closed to nonessential trade. Also, he dismissed talk of a national lockdown and said that he’s suspended certain federal student loan payments for the next 60 days, and the Department of Education won’t enforce standardized test requirements for the current year. Also, the deadline for filing income taxes is being moved from April 15 to July 15.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/government-response-updates-white-house-briefing-expected-amid/story?id=69706088

I’m linking to that ABC News story because it actually contains info on all these important points and more. It wasn’t easy to find. When I Googled for news on this subject, the stories from other news outlets such as the New York Times, CNN and Vanity Fair were obsessed with calling Trump a “sociopath” who went on a “vicious rant” and dispensed “propaganda” because he lost patience with disrespectful reporters and dressed one down for asking a “question” that was a thinly-disguised accusation of giving people false hope.

To these anti-Trump media outlets, even in the middle of a worldwide deadly pandemic, the story is all about their feelings. Maybe that’s why the latest ABC/Ipsos poll shows that Americans’ approval of how Trump is handling the crisis has jumped 12 points in a week, from 43% to 55%. There was no similar jump in trust in the media.

Naturally, the media response to that was not introspection or reassessment of their own attitudes, but to attack Trump again, and list all the ways in which they think he’s handled this all wrong. They attack him for downplaying the threat if he tries to reassure Americans, and they attack him for frightening the nation and scaring stock markets if he delivers bad news frankly. They accuse him of racism for accurately calling it a “Chinese virus” while repeating bogus and vile talking points dispensed by the communist government of China. They badgered him to take a virus test, and when it came back negative, they assailed him for wasting a test. And now they’re baffled why the public is starting to trust Trump more than their reporting?

A reminder: Trump limited travel from China over this issue back in January, and the media called him xenophobic and racist, as did the Democrats when they weren't busy trying to impeach him. After he was proven correct, both later accused him of not acting soon enough to restrict travel from China.

Richard Fernandez at PJ Media made a good point: the media are lashing out in tantrums because not only have they been wrong about Trump’s handling of the virus, but the virus is exposing that they have been wrong about virtually everything they’ve been smugly preaching for years, from open borders to globalization to trusting China.