melissa: grady, i love it. she said do it at your own risk. yeah, that's pretty much life. yeah, go at your own risk. well, thank you all for watching us. we will be back here tomorrow. "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. ♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. we begin with breaking news as we have learned more details of president trump's intention to hold communist china and the world health organization accountable for the deadly pandemic that has spread farther this evening, infecting and killing more people. president trump will punish china for releasing and lying about the severe few of the deadly wuhan virus, and mr. trump clearly means to end involvement and financial support of the world health organization because of its alignment with china and the unequivocal lies about the virus

when it should have been warning the world. sources tell fox news the trump administration's national security team is now considering the creation of a new global health organization, one that would be heavily influenced by the united states. the trump administration is considering a bold step that would be aimed at both china and the w.h.o. simultaneously. we are told the trump administration is also circulating a draft proposal that would bring taiwan into the new world health organization. one source says that move if would be seen as a, quote, finger in the eye of china as the chinese communist party does not consider taiwan an independent nation. the idea already has the support of australia and could soon have the support of germany, france and the united king.com. these -- kingdom. these developments mean that president trump will in no way

tolerate communist china's conduct, there are the fatal consequences of its global spread of the deadly virus. this new approach by the trump administration is part of an all-of-government effort to punish china and to end china's influence over the w.h.o. or simply end the w.h.o. altogether. president trump this weekend once again called out the organization for helping china deceive and end danger the entire -- endanger the entire world. >> the world health organization has been a disaster. everything they said was wrong, and they're china-centric. all they do is they agree with china, whatever china wants to do. so our country, perhaps foolishly in retrospect, has been paying $450 million a year to the world health organization. and china's been paying $38 million a year. but they were more political than all of our leaders previous, so we'll see what i do

about it. i'm going to have to make a decision on it, but we're not happy because what they did, what world health did, they missed every single call. lou: president trump has been expressing both husband anger and disappointment -- his anger and disappointment that president xi and his communist government have betrayed the world. president trump says he has no doubt that communist china and its leaders misif led the world about the virus. mr. trump and his administration singling out the wuhan institute of virology as the source of the deadly contagion. a senior u.s. intelligence official telling fox over the weekend that as many as three-quarters of the country's 17 intelligence agencies now believe that virus originated in that laboratory. president trump says there will soon be a report about all that. he speculated about china's motive for releasing the virus. >> we're going to be given a

very strong report as to exactly what we think happened, and i think it'll be very conclusive. they knew they had a problem. i think they were embarrassed by the problem, very embarrassed. and, you know, the case could be made they said, hey, look, this is going to have a huge impact on china, and we might as well let the rest of the world -- because the last people they want, we've had a great year against china prior to the virus. 67 or so years, the worst economy they've had. worst almost on record that they've ever had because of my negotiations and because i taxed them on the product that they brought in. lou: a new report from the department of homeland security also concluding the communist chinese government likely covered up the severity of the wuhan virus outbreak from the very outset so it would have time which to hoard critical medical supplies. that report supporting the conclusion with stunning

statistics, finding in january beijing dramatically raised its purchases of medical protective gear. look at these numbers. china increased imports of surgical face masks by 278%, increased um morts of surge call -- imports of surgical gowns by 72%. increased the import of surgical gloves by 32%. as for its exports, china slashed global exports of face masks by 48%, gowns by 71%, gloves by 48%. white house trade adviser peter-and-a-half row today said an executive order will soon require all federal agencies to buy u.s.-made medical products and end dependency on china. >> buy american is going to be the law of the land, i believe, soon at hhs and dod and the veterans administration.

but wal these to deregulate so so it's easier for our pharmaceutical manufacturers to be here, and we need to innovate. the secret is what's called advanced manufacturing, able to have the starter materials go to the active pharmaceutical ingredients, go to the finished to dosage form so we have the whole chain here so it's not all around the world and holding america hostage. lou: holding us hostage, but much must be done if we are to be independent, producing our own pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. president trump working to decouple u.s. business from communist china. multi-national corporations, wall street, globalist organizations all pushing for exactly the opposite. the managing director of the george w. bush center recently, astonishingly, wrote this, quote: when the crisis is over,

we must be ready to come together around a new strategy for globalization that secures its benefits and cures its ills. end quote. the group's economic director said this about immigration: >> we know immigrants are good for the economy, we know they're good for our culture, we know they're in this fight with us together, and we're going to need them working with us side by side in any recovery after the pandemic is over. lou: the bush center is, obviously, one of the most screwball organizations out there, releasing this weekend a message from former president george w. bush. listen to this. he calls for americans to unite. president trump quickly responded on twitter. he criticized the former president for failing to support him during his impeachment fight with the radical dems. he wrote this, quote: bush was

nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatestest hoax in american history. president trump also took a swipe today at congressional leaders nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell for turning down the white house offer to implement rapid coronavirus testing at the capitol. the president tweeted this in part, quote: interesting? by congress not wanting the special 5-minute testing apparatus, they are saying that they are not essential. the president's tweet came as the u.s. senate returned to work today. chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel in washington with what they plan to work on now. mike? >> reporter: hi, lou. the full senate's back for the first time in more than a month. some of this week will be taking a closer look at the covid-19 response, perhaps next steps, and there will be work on nominations. texas republican congressman john ratcliffe is due to have a

confirmation hearing tomorrow, nominee to be the next director of national intelligence. the senate floor opened up this afternoon, you can expect to see social distancing, face masks and other precautions. as for policy, you can expect discussion about the next coronavirus relief package and some democrats are expected to demand significant money to help state and local governments, for example, speaker nancy pelosi saying it could be up to $1 trillion. some prominent republicans worry this will be about bailing out states that were already in financial troublement. >> it's one thing for the federal government to provide relief to the states and local government for additional health care expenses, law enforcement expenses that have come out of this pandemic. it's another thing for nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and the democrats to try to just shovel trillions of dollars to the states. >> reporter: lawmakers have authorized nearly $3 trillion in emergency relief. some want to give it more time to see the impact of all that spending before authorizing much

more. lou? lou: mike, thank you very much. mike emmanuel from washington. well, the treasury letting it be known that they're going to need to borrow $3 trillion in the second quarter to deal with the coronavirus rescue efforts. that is double the treasury's borrowings for all of last year. during his town hall last night, president trump warned that as many as 100,000 americans could die from the wuhan virus. president trump's comments come as at least 15 states today began lifting restrictions and roping their economies. reopening their economies. new york governor andrew cuomo today says his state, the epicenter of the virus in this country, begins to reopen may 15th. fox's david lee miller with the late from new york. >> reporter: lou, according to the latest statistics, the one-day death toll in new york

state is now at its lowest point in little more than a month. nevertheless, 226 people statewide have lost their life to the virus in just 24 hours. but the virus infection if rate is on the decline, and starting today the temporary field hospital set up here in central park by a charity group to provide additional beds stop accepting new patients. mount sinai set a drop in hospital cases says the charity is no longer needed. the field hospital will continue treating those still in need of care for the next two week before the tents here are dismantled. governor andrew cuomo, as you mentioned, released new details on the reopening of the economy different phases, starting with construction, manufacturing, wholesalers and some retail stores with curbside pick-up. the restart won't be statewide but, rather, on a regional basis. the governor gave a list of requirements regions must meet, among them a two week drop in

deaths and hospitalizations, at least 30 tests per 1,000 area residents and at least 30% available hospital capacity. when things reopen, it won't be business as usual. >> and then we need businesses to also reimagine how they're going to do business and get ready to protect their work force, to change their physical environment to the exe tent they need to -- extent they need to and to change their processes to make sure people can socially distance. >> reporter: and an investigation is underway into how a melee erupted while officers were enforcing rules on social distancing. the incident was caught on cell phone video. new york mayor de blasio called it very disturbing. the police commissioner says three people were taken into custody, cops found a taser, a small amount of marijuana and $3,000 in cash. the district attorney here says

they are going to defer prosecution in the matter. the investigation, though, will continue. lou? lou: david, thank you very much. david lee miller reporting. still ahead here tonight, we have more from capitol hill. house minority leader kevin mccarthy the joins us. he has his own plan on how to bring lawmakers back to d.c. he joins us later this hour. up next, judicial watch wants to know more about dr. anthony fauci's contact with the world health organization in the early days of the wuhan virus contagion. its president, tom fitton, joins us here next. stay with us. ♪ adversity came to town and said, "show me what you're made of."

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♪ ♪ lou: breaking news now, top house republicans including congressman andy biggs and congressman jim jordan losing their patience with fbi director christopher wray. biggs telling john solomon of "just the news" he's been waiting for for a year for the fbi to declassify fbi interview report -- so-called 302s -- related to spygate. congressman jordan says director wray needs to explain the fbi's

misconduct against general michael flynn. wray has been silent throughout and resisted all efforts to be transparent. he's been silent for months as evidence of fbi political corruption piled up. judicial watch today filed a lawsuit on behalf of the daily caller for records per taping to dr. anthony fauci and the world health organization. the department of health and human services failed to respond to an april 1st foia request, freedom of information request, for communications fauci had with w.h.o. officials about the w.h.o. in the early days of the wuhan virus pandemic. joining us tonight to take all of that up, tom fitton, he is the president of judicial watch. tom, great to see you -- >> hi, lou. lou: and why do we need to know what fauci was saying to the w.h.o.? >> well, there are lots of

reasons. first of all, it's a crisis that shut the country down, so we need to know the detail of how it was handled by the government initially. but more importantly, what that corrupt agency, w.h.o., was telling our senior officials like dr. fauci not only about coronavirus, but about china's connections to it. so we can't foia w.h.o., at least i don't think we can directly, but we can talk to or try to get documents from agencies that were talking to w.h.o., and that's why our client, daily caller news foundation, was so smart to ask nih for the terms. and what -- for the materials. and what's troubling is they haven't given us the records. transparency is urgent. the laws on transparency don't get revoked when an agency's busy. they need to follow the law here, and that's why we're in court. lou: well, there are other agencies that have taken exactly

that route and declared that they are too busy to follow the law. which is stunning position for any government agency whether it's the nih or the justice department or fbi. you're experiencing, i guess, both at this particular point. what do you expect to find? >> we're going to find w.h.o. was probably playing defense for china early on. mimicking or pushing out the narrative that china was pushing out early on. and if it misled fauci, if it misled our top agency officials, there's got to be accountability for what went on, and we want to find the evidence here. you know, we know what publicly was said. my guess is it was even worse with privately. lou: yeah. on this broadcast, in fact, dr. a few in january/february was, if not being a of great

assistance to the w.h.o., he was certainly being supportive of their efforts. and, certainly, not wanting to press too hard the need to use, for american doctors to be able to go into wuhan and visit that laboratory. he was very, i would say, accommodating at that point. we knew we were to learn later all that had transpired between the w.h.o. and the communist government of china. it's a troubling tale, indeed, what the w.h.o. did to align itself with the communist chinese government. >> well, fauci, like the head of w.h.o., you have to remember at this level all of these folks are colleagues. so you need a second set of eyes to look at the communications. dr. fauci was hearing it from his colleagues about what was

going on with coronavirus, and he may not be the best judge to tell us what he was learning and what he should have known and what we should have known generally and acted upon. we need to do an audit of what happened with our u.s. government and what we're hearing from w.h.o. on behalf of china. it looks like they were a cutout for china, and i think these documents are going to show it. and dr. fauci admits, he says, look, i didn't recognize initially how susceptible, how transmit if bl this was and how it could be spread so easily. did that come because of lies out of china? it looks that way, and with w.h.o. involved in pushing those lies. it it looks that way too. lou: the president's made it clear he has seen evidence to exactly that point. and tell us, let's talk about christopher wray. he's under some considerable heat. congressman andy biggs, congressman jim jordan, they

mean to find out what in the hell he is doing, but, you know, frankly, i've watched him throughoutstonewall every agency -- throughout stonewall every agency, congress and do so with an arrogant smirk on his face as he did. and now, now the questions about general flynn make it absolutely critical that he be investigated. >> the worst corruption in the fbi's history, arguably, has been around the abuse of trump, people like general flynn and others. and fbi director wray just gives it a shrug of his shoulders saying we'll actually -- we'll is have better training of our fbi agents who really had nothing to do with it in the sense that it was the fbi leadership at the top levels in d.c. that were pushing this corruption, the corrupt fisa process. he knew or should have known about what went on with flynn. right now there's 8,000 documents, 8,000 pages of

records that are still sitting on between page and strzok e-mails. the fbi under wray has taken the position that no text messages that page sent out, strzok sent out, mccabe sent out, anyone else sent out is subject to foia. the cover-up is continuing under director wray. to me, it's unacceptable. attorney general barr needs to step in and just take the documents. i mean, this is just ought not to be -- if there's a criminal investigation going on, why does the fbi have any flexibility here? we wouldn't if we were under investigation. is the fbi under investigation for this criminal conduct or not? if so, then why haven't the agency's servers been taken from the agency e by the prosecutor, mr. durham? that's the way a criminal investigation is done, but i don't think we're seeing a criminal investigation. i think we're seeing an administrative review that may result in a crime here or there being prosecuted, but nothing serious. i'm tired of it, lou.

we've got to call it as it is. lou: well, absolutely. and, tom, i do think this just may be the fbi's view of some kind ofs are processty. they -- view of reciprocity. they didn't want to disturb the dnc and actually look at their servers directly, so perhaps they feel that no one should look at their servers. i guess it's some sort of weird swap arrangement. but as you say, not one worth putting up with, not for another minute. tom fitton, great to have you with us. president of judicial watch. we'd like to hear your thoughts, follow me on twitter @loudobbs like me on facebook and follow me on u.s. frame @loudobbs tonight. in a programming note, dr. michael pillsbury, dr. ian lipken among our guests tomorrow evening. we hope you will be with us for that. coming right up, kevin

mccarthy says congress needs to get back to work and now to support the american people in this crisis. the house minority leader tells us what he wants the speaker of the house to do straight away. he's my guest here next. also president trump making a bold prediction about the development of a vaccine against the wuhan virus are. that story, much more as we continue. please stay with us. ♪ they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident. cut! is that good? no you were talking about allstate and... i just... when i... accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today. from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

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in the american economy. and helping hundreds of local organizations provide food and other critical needs... when you need us, wells fargo is here to help. lou: at last night's fnc virtual town hall, president trump echoed the optimism for a vaccine for the wuhan virus saying he believes we will have such a vaccine by the end of this year. >> we are very confident we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year, have a vaccine. the doctors will say, well, you shouldn't say that.

i'll say a what i think. i've met with the heads of the great companies, big companies, yeah, i think we're going to have a vaccine much sooner rather than later. i think that will be done. look, a vaccine has never gone -- we're so far ahead of any vaccine ever in history, you know, these things would take 2, 4, 5, 6, years, 10 years. i think we're going to have a vaccine. lou: well, joining us tonight to take up this very issue is dr. david weiner, cofounder if of one of the lead researchers conducting human clinical trials for that vaccine that president trump says could be ready by the end of this year. doctor, great to have you with us. let's -- give us your assessment of when that vaccine will be ready, and it's good to have you with us. >> thank you, lou. it's very good to be here. we're part of, my group is part of the innovio team right here in pennsylvania, a pennsylvania

company, and we're on the campus of the university of pennsylvania. and we're working and moved into the clinic in just ten weeks on the second vaccine produced by an american group. and that vaccine is now fully enrolled the first group of patients, of volunteers, and now we're looking at that group of studies and pivoting towards trials which we believe should start this summer. lou: the efficacy trial, we know that oxford has announced that it is very optimistic and positive about the effect iness of the vaccine they're working on -- effectiveness. there are numbers, as you well know, a number of companies working simultaneously on this, taking various channels, many innovative responses, and i know that your firm and group are among those. give us, give us your judgment

about what is the best we could possibly look for, the very best case in the development of a vaccine that could be applied to this virus, if you would. >> well, i think that's a very important question, lou. basically, right now this is the fastest vaccines have been advance ised as a clinic in history -- advanced as a clinic in history. lou: right. >> inovio is poised to move forward to efficacy and then rapidly continue to expand those studies through production. and so we should likely see outcomeses from these studies sooner than at any other time. i think i would agree with the statement from the white house. and we should start to see, if we're lucky, you know, by the fall, towards the end of the

year. and, of course, if we're also producing the vaccines at that time, then we'll really have a wide advantage over priest vaccines -- previous vaccines which were done linearly rather than consecutively like that in parallel. lou: well, it is innovative, it is american innovation and adaptive, adaptiveness at its best, and we thank you for being a big part of that, and and we wish you all the success in the world. and we appreciate your time here tonight. thank you, doctor. good to have you with us. up next, red storm rising. china increasing its aggression each day, it seems. we'll take up the latest hostility. china experts gordon chang and bill gertz among our guests. the senate is back in session

while speaker nancy pelosi keeps the radical dems back in their home districts as they refuse to return to work in the midst of this national crisis. house minority leader kevin mccarthy has a few thoughts about that, and he joins us next. please stay with us. ♪ ♪ your insurance, so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

♪ ♪ lou: breaking news, republican congressman jim jordan and mike johnson demanding an interview

with a mysterious fbi agent. his name is joe pitka. he's believed to have interviewed lieutenant general michael flynn who was the national security adviser for president trump at the white house in january 2017. the other fbi agent, peter strzok. fox news has determined that pientka was also involved with spying on former trump campaign aid carter page. his biography was removed from the fbi web site after fox news contacted the fbi to question his extensive role in those fisa matters. sources say pientka remains in the agency's field office in san francisco where he has a senior position. president trump's approval rating climbing again to record heights over the past couple of

weeks according to the latest gallup survey. the president has tied his record high approval rating, up suggestion points in just the past -- up six points in just the past two weeks. the president's support, well, reflecting his handling of the wuhan virus pandemic. his record high approval if among independents. it's all going the president's way. his approval rating soaring 19 points ahead of congress. congress registering an approval rating of 30% in the latest gallup poll. well, joining us tonight, the republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy. congressman, great to have you with us, and it is strange to see the senate back in the nation's capital but the house not. >> yeah. the house should be working. i mean, with the house not working, that only gives nancy pelosi more power and gives china a pass. you know, when you do not plan, you actually plan to fail, and that's what's happening here.

that's why we laid out, as republicans, a plan to open congress back up. it's more than just opening a campus. this is restoring the voice of every american that their government needs to be working during this critical time. we could bring committees back to do that critical work on those bills that can be bicameral, could actually become law, not political like national defense, the water resources bill. we should be doing appropriations and oversight should be studying the world health organization because of what they have been able to do and harm the rest of the world in this process. lou: well, i presume that you've talked with pelosi. i presume that there are negotiations underway, but can you in any way explain why she would not want to have the house of representatives in session? >> well, she's -- if they're not in session, it gives her a great amount of power where she can ride a $1 trillion, $2 trillion bill and then bring everybody

back, and that's all they can vote on. so the american public does not have have a voice in it. that's why committees should start coming back. committees, you could bring a few at a time. you don't open all congress at once. they can meet in bigger rooms so they have social distancing. once you pass the bill and it's worked through, then you can take it up on the floor, bring people back to vote. but right now it provides for more power by not having people here. but one thing that it does do, lou, it takes away the voice of all the american public. last time she came back, she wanted to change the voting rights on the floor. she wanted to be able to collect those 200 proxies so she could cast one vote for the rest of the nation. lou: amazing. let's take a look at the plan. we have a graphic for your plan to reopen congress, and let's assume that speaker pelosi is watching "lou dobbs tonight." i'm sure she does every

evening -- >> she should. lou: here we go. absolutely. [laughter] mccarthy's four stage plan, let's begin with strategy one, to modify existing practices and structures and to employ a phased return we committees. explain the first, the first two. >> well, the first thing you do is change the policy on the floor. so you wouldn't get 15 minutes to vote. what we proved before, we bring people in by the alphabet so there was not more than 50 people on the floor so you have social distancing. i would start with committees. those committees that are most critical of bills we have to get done; appropriations, bring the subcommittees in,, give them a bigger room so they can deal with the funding of government. the armed services for national defense, we need to have that done. let them meet inside the chambers for social distancing. don't bring political amendments up. once those bills are done, then

you would go to the third mechanism, then you would schedule for the entire congress to come back and to vote on that. now, i believe there's ability to have hybrid, that you can have conversations, but you should not have the markup of the bill until you're all together. you know, we get attacked by 1.6 billion times a month, people coming into our technology. that's with a b, billion. and we know that people think, oh, technology is okay to move through. but could you imagine the intel committee to be dealing with this and having the technology and people hacking into what's going on with congress? that would be a problem. but we can do this in a safe manner. the democrats control california, and the speaker of the house calling them back to work this week even though that's california, that's a democrat speaker, the governor's shutting down california, but he's calling people back. we are essential, and we should be working. you know, the doctors, the delivery drivers, the dispatchers, they're working to

help america get through this pandemic. i think congress should as well. lou: the president, i'm curious what your thoughts are, i'm not sure that he would entirely miss speaker pelosi -- [laughter] nor be too excited about her return. give us your sensing of that. >> well, you know, i was talking to the president today. he realizes congress needs to do their job, and he thinks we should be working. you know, the one thing that the speaker did set up is some tube of impeachment -- type of impeachment committee. she has the time to do that instead of spending the time for the voice of the american public. we need to make sure that congress does the essential work. now, i was this home depot and lowe's this weekend. they put pup plexiglas with the cashiers. we can put up plexiglas in areas that you have heavy traffic. the public is still not coming in, but you can do this in a safe manner, and you can start with committees, bring three, four committees back first, do

their work, then bring it to the floor for a vote. have the vote last longer so everybody's not on the floor at the same time, and you could do it in a safe manner but have the essential work of congress getting done. lou: congressman kevin mccarthy, always good to have you with us. thanks so much for joining us. up next, china's military planning to unveil a new weapon in the skies that could reach some of america's largest cities on the west coast. we take it up with china experts gordon chang, bill gertz after these quick messages. stay with us, we'll be right back. because our way works great for us! but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those.

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♪ ♪ lou: china's communist party leaders expect a global backlash from the wuhan virus contagion not seen since the deadly tiananmen square crackdown in 1989. an internal report from the ccp's state security department warns to prepare for the worst case, an armed confrontation with the united states. joining us to i assess all of this, gordon chang, columnist, author, senior fellow at the gatestone institute and washington times national security columnist bill gertz

who has a new book available online tomorrow. good to have you both with us. let me start, gordon, with you. the idea that they are preparing for armed conflict with the united states at least in this report, your reaction to that. >> well, we've seen since the middle of february china increase the tempo of provocations in the south china sea and the east china sea. and they're not only going after adversaries like japan and taiwan, they're also going after their friends such as a malaysia. but also we've seen problems with vietnam, indonesia and the philippines. and this increased series of incidents really is troubling because right now you have voices in china saying that they should attack taiwan. so we've got to be very concerned that we've got to deter china, because this could be where history's next great conflict starts. lou: the national security team,

gentlemen, is preparing the possibility of creating a new agency, international agency to replace the world health organization and considering, amongst other things, making taiwan a member of the new global health organization to be formed by the trump administration. what would be your best assessment as to what china's reaction would be? bill, first. >> yeah. china -- right now china's engaged in information warfare against the united states. they're stepping up their propaganda, and certainly taiwan is front and center. the taiwan ease were very early to the game in understanding and recognizing the human-to-human spread of the coronavirus, and yet because they were not part of the world health organization, their warnings to that organization went unanswered. so it's clearly time that the united states should either back out of organizations that are

dominated by china like w.h.o. or create new ones that are, works with democratic countries. lou: your assessment, gordon, as to chinese reaction to doing just that. >> well, we know what they're going to say, they've said it already. i mean, they've used the strongest terms, american official ifs over taiwan. and this is something that we should just ignore them, because they throw these tantrums, and the united states should say, we don't care. we've got to cut the chinese down to size. they're really arrogant. and every time that we play into them, that just feeds this overweaning sense of entitlement that they have. so i think it's really great that the administration is saying, look, we're going to start our own organization, we're going to include taiwan, and, china, we don't care what you think. that is really a powerful message, lou. lou: and i'm -- we're going to return with bill gertz and

gordon chang right after this quick commercial message. if you will, stay with us. we'll be back in just, just shortly. thank you. ♪ ♪ in my line of work, i come face to face with a lot of behinds. so i know there's a big need for gas-x maximum strength. it works fast. relieving pressure, bloating, and discomfort before you know it. so no one needs to know you've got gas. gas-x so no one needs to know you've got gas. their medicare options...ere people go to learn about before they're on medicare. come on in. you're turning 65 soon? yep. and you're retiring at 67? that's the plan! well, you've come to the right place. it's also a great time to learn about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by

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♪ lou: we're back with gordon chang and bill gurtz, a new on line book about china making the world sick. bill, congratulations on the new

online book. i want to get a sense from both of you why china is being so reckless and arrogant as gordon was referring to the chinese? because the state still has immense superiority in every kind of weaponry known to man. and, china is some distance behind the united states in all of it. why would they be so provocative and foolish? bill? >> i will take that on, sure. right now, china is under fire from the entire world. the entire world is angry at china for basically mishandling the pandemic and allowing the virus to leave the country and trash the international economy and kill tens of thousands of people. that's a very dangerous situation for a communist regime that is under fire. there is always the tendency among the generals, they have got a lot of new weapon systems

they like to test out and they could start something. they could provoke a conflict. they could seize a couple islands off the coast of taiwan. lou: with the united states? >> with the united states or taiwan or one of our allies -- [inaudible] lou: that would be one hell of an expensive test, wouldn't it, gordon? >> certainly would be. you know, lou i think the chinese see a small window of opportunity. i mean the question why are they so arrogant right now? you have the two carrier groups in the region are out of action. the ronald reagan is in port in japan for scheduled maintenance. the theodore roosevelt is in guam stricken with coronavirus. more than 800 crewmembers have gotten the disease. that leaves the region fairly open. if we have on burke destroyers and around the rest of it. right now china sees absence of the u.s. navy. lou: that is stunning stuff.

and at this point it is, it is something we're going to watch very carefully. gordon, we appreciate you being with us. bill, we thank you. that's it for us tonight. good night from. elizabeth: i'm elizabeth macdonald. welcome to "the evening edit. tonight we're trend spot agroing phenomenon. despite the lockdown, despite the threats to ticket and imprison people america is slowly opening up without government permission. it is happening from coast to coast. we saw that this weekend. texas beaches jam-packed. they were jam-packed in california. parks in new york city packed. florida beaches, in the northeast, vermont, maine, people are coming out, people coming out in the midwest, people coming out in the northwest. they're coming out in the south too. they're not waiting for the state orders to stay in to expire. it is