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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A Gag order lifted: DOJ says informant can speak to Congress on Uranium One, Russia bribery case with Clinton links (Fox News) The Justice Department said Wednesday night that it had lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant involved in a high-profile Russia bribery case, clearing the individual to speak to Congress about Moscow’s Obama-era uranium deals in the U.S. market and other schemes. In a statement, the department said it had authorized the informant to speak to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in addition to select staffers. The department said the informant could provide “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” including Russian company Rosatom, subsidiary Tenex, Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One refers to the name of a Canada-based company with mines in the U.S. that was bought by Rosatom, a company backed by the Russian state. The State Department, then led by Hillary Clinton, was one of nine U.S. government agencies that had to approve the deal back in 2010.

5am – B/C INTERVIEW –  BRIAN KILMEADE – co-host of “Fox & Friends” author of “Andrew Jackson And The Miracle Of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny” 

• The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. In August 1814, British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country.
• Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.
• If the British could conquer New Orleans, they would control the mouth of the Mississippi River, cutting Americans off from that essential trade route and threatening the previous decade’s Louisiana Purchase. The new nation’s dreams of western expansion would be crushed before they really got off the ground. So Jackson faced three enormous challenges at the same time:
• In short, Jackson needed a miracle, and the local Ursuline nuns, whose convent was said to have miraculously warded off danger in the past, set to work praying for his outnumbered troops. And so, the Americans, driven by patriotism and protected by prayer, began the battle that would shape our young nation’s destiny.

5am – D/ E Second woman accuses George H.W. Bush of groping (The Hill) A second woman has accused former President George H.W. Bush of groping her. Jordan Grolnick, a New York actress, said that she has a similar story to the one Heather Lind shared about the former president fondling her during a photo op, according to Deadspin. Bush apologized through a spokesman in a statement earlier Wednesday. The statement said that “on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner” and routinely tells a joke. Deadspin reported that a source said the “joke” the statement refers to was Bush saying that his favorite magician was “David-Cop-A-Feel.”

“To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely,” the statement said. Lind wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post reported by The Daily Mail on Tuesday that Bush “assaulted me while posing for a… photo.” “When I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo. He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke,” Lind wrote.

6am – A/B/C Amazon Key is a new service that lets couriers unlock your front door (The Verge) – Would you Trust Amazon in your home? The service is called Amazon Key, and it relies on a Amazon’s new Cloud Cam and compatible smart lock. The camera is the hub, connected to the internet via your home Wi-Fi. The camera talks to the lock over Zigbee, a wireless protocol utilized by many smart home devices.

When a courier arrives with a package for in-home delivery, they scan the barcode, sending a request to Amazon’s cloud. If everything checks out, the cloud grants permission by sending a message back to the camera, which starts recording. The courier then gets a prompt on their app, swipes the screen, and voilà, your door unlocks. They drop off the package, relock the door with another swipe, and are on their way. The customer will get a notification that their delivery has arrived, along with a short video showing the drop-off to confirm everything was done properly.

6am – D/E     Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure. President Donald Trump wasn’t scheduled to talk to the press on Wednesday. He spent the morning at the White House and was set to jet off to a fundraiser in Dallas this evening. Except that as he walked to Marine One, which was idling on the White House lawn, Trump stopped to take a few shouted questions from reporters. Then a few more. And a few more. He spent better than 15 minutes talking about Niger, La David Johnson, Jeff Flake, Ivy League schools, his memory, standing ovations, “my generals,” uranium and Watergate.

6am – F Gillespie ahead of Northam in Hampton University Poll (NBC 12)
The election for Virginia’s governor, which has garnered national attention, will be held in less than two weeks. A new poll shows Republican candidate Ed Gillespie ahead of Democratic candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. The poll, released by the Hampton University Center for Public Policy (CPP), shows Gillespie ahead of Northam by eight percentage points. The poll questioned 750 voters who said they were likely to vote on election day. 41 percent said they would vote for Gillespie, while Northam has 33 percent. 27 percent were undecided.  The poll also showed that 34 percent believe the biggest issue for the governor will be the economy and creating jobs, followed by healthcare at 23 percent and education at 18 percent.

7am – A INTERVIEW –  JOHN WHITBECK- Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia

TOPIC: Dems Sending Desperate Campaign Mailers In Final Stretch

• A campaign mailer funded by the Democratic Party of Virginia is sparking criticism among Republicans. The ad authorized by Kathy Tran, a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates seat for District 42, warns residents of the Springfield area about Republican candidate Lolita Mancheno-Smoak.” The Halloween season, protect your family from the scariest threats,” the mailer says, showing Mancheno-Smoak’s smiling face alongside a metal mask and a snarling wolf mask. John Whitbeck, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, implied on Twitter that the mailer was racist.

• “Ralph Northam’s latest mailer is the perfect example of what’s wrong with politics. Long after Ed Gillespie called out the barbaric, ignorant racists who invaded Charlottesville, Ralph Northam and his team are attempting to smear a good man with their reprehensible hate. In reality, Ed Gillespie was widely praised for his response to Charlottesville. Even reporters have noticed the reek of desperation from this attack.”

7am – B INTERVIEW –  Alexi MCCAMMOND – Deputy News Editor, Axios

TOPIC: Most Republicans are Trump Supporters

• So much media coverage centers on four Republican Trump critics — one retired, two retiring and one facing a deadly, possibly career- or life-ending cancer: George W. Bush, Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (Ariz.).
• Lost in this: President Trump enjoys public support (despite private gripes) from most of the 49 other Senate Republicans and 239 House Republicans, including every person in elected leadership.

7am – C  Las Vegas shooter’s laptop missing its hard drive (ABC News) A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.Paddock is believed to have removed the hard drive before fatally shooting himself, and the missing device has not yet been recovered, sources told ABC News.

7am – D INTERVIEW – VICTORIA TOENSING – Founding Partner DiGenova & Toensing

TOPIC: DOJ says informant can speak to Congress on Uranium One, Russia bribery case with Clinton links

• The Justice Department said Wednesday night that it had lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant involved in a high-profile Russia bribery case, clearing the individual to speak to Congress about Moscow’s Obama-era uranium deals in the U.S. market and other schemes.
• Multiple congressional committees have been seeking to interview the informant, whose name has not been released publicly, because he stayed undercover for nearly five years providing agents information on Russia’s aggressive efforts to grow its atomic energy business in America. 
• His work helped the Justice Department secure convictions against Russia’s top commercial nuclear executive in the United States, a Russian financier in New Jersey and the head of a U.S. uranium trucking company in what prosecutors said was a long-running racketeering scheme involving bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering. 

7am – E          App Allows D.C. Residents to Help People Having Heart Attacks Nearby (NBCWashington) Washington, D.C., joined other area jurisdictions in using a potentially life-saving app that alerts people who know CPR to the location of people suffering heart attacks. People who have the PulsePoint app on their phones are alerted to 911 calls for cardiac arrest within a quarter mile of their location when they are in a city or county that uses the app. The alert goes out the exact time an ambulance is dispatched, and it also tells you where to find the nearest AED device. Last summer, Sean Macguire had a heart attack at work in Howard County, Maryland, and someone called 911. Around the corner, Simone Rockstroh got an alert and got to Macguire and performed CPR before paramedics arrived. “The fact that she showed up a few minutes before them, it’s the only reason I’m standing here,” he said. Howard County officials credited PulsePoint for saving his life.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ELIZABETH SCHULTZ – Fairfax County School Board member

TOPIC: The Fairfax County school board is scheduled to pick a new name for J.E.B. Stuart High on Thursday.

• For nearly 60 years, Northern Virginia students have attended J.E.B. Stuart High School, named after a Confederate general who died in battle. Now, after a contentious dispute, the Fairfax County School Board is expected to vote to change the school’s name.
• The debate has dragged on for two years and has included raucous community forums and testy board meetings.
• The community surrounding the Falls Church, Va., school was at one point asked to vote on possible new names, only to find out later the public vote was nonbinding and the Fairfax County School Board has the final say.

8am – B/C  INTERVIEW –  BRIAN KILMEADE – co-host of “Fox & Friends” author of “Andrew Jackson And The Miracle Of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny” 

• The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. In August 1814, British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country.
• Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.
• If the British could conquer New Orleans, they would control the mouth of the Mississippi River, cutting Americans off from that essential trade route and threatening the previous decade’s Louisiana Purchase. The new nation’s dreams of western expansion would be crushed before they really got off the ground. So Jackson faced three enormous challenges at the same time:
• In short, Jackson needed a miracle, and the local Ursuline nuns, whose convent was said to have miraculously warded off danger in the past, set to work praying for his outnumbered troops. And so, the Americans, driven by patriotism and protected by prayer, began the battle that would shape our young nation’s destiny.

 8am – D Five women accuse journalist and ‘Game Change’ co-author Mark Halperin of sexual harassment (CNN) Veteran journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed women while he was in a powerful position at ABC News, according to five women who shared their previously undisclosed accounts with CNN and others who did not experience the alleged harassment personally, but were aware of it. “During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me,” Halperin said in a statement to CNN Wednesday night. “I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I’m going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.”

8am – E Weird News Montage