ABC's Tom Rivers, Joe diGenova, WMAL's Redskins analyst Trevor Matich and Washington Post's Robert Costa joined WMAL Monday morning.

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, November 15, 2014

Hosts: Brian Wilson and guest host Torie Clarke

5am – A/B/C 2016 Democratic Candidates: Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren?

• Hillary Clinton decided to postpone her presidential announcement. She might want to reconsider. (Washington Post) — Hillary Clinton, after much debate within her inner circle, appears to have put off formally entering the 2016 presidential race until the spring of 2015.   "Hillary Rodham Clinton is considering the nitty-gritty details of how and when to organize a presidential campaign amid signs that she will postpone making her shadow campaign official until later in 2015 than expected, according to advisers and Democratic strategists," wrote WaPo's Anne Gearan and Matea Gold this week.
• Elizabeth Warren is catching fire. (Politico) — The Massachusetts senator's latest moves inspire liberals hoping for a 2016 challenge to Clinton. Progressive activists haven’t agreed on what to call the movement urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but they largely concur on this: With every recent anti-establishment move, the Massachusetts Democrat grows more attractive as a 2016 candidate, both in her own right and as a progressive foil for Hillary Clinton. Such sentiments were on vivid display this week at RootsCamp, a gathering of some 2,000 progressive activists held in Washington, D.C. The event was held as Warren and others on the left have been denouncing the “cromnibus” spending bill winding its way through Congress over provisions they say are too friendly to Wall Street. One panel at the conference, for instance, was called #HillaryProblems, and it delved into the disconnect between the Democratic establishment and the grass roots. Another was devoted to the “Draft Warren” movement, and it included members of groups such as MoveOn.org, which has pledged to spend at least $1 million to nudge the senator into the race, something she has said she won’t do.

5am – D         Redskins Lose Again.

• Redskins lose it after RG3's TD run was overturned. Robert Griffin III fails to lead Redskins to comeback in loss to Giants. Quarterback Robert Griffin III entered the game on the second drive and led the team to a temporary lead later in the half, but ultimately he could not complete a fourth-quarter comeback. The result was another loss in a season filled with them, as Washington fell to New York, 24-13. An overturned Robert Griffin III touchdown run that closed out the first half against the Giants led to some controversy as the clock expired. Griffin III appeared to score on a touchdown run that would have given the Redskins a 10-point lead going into halftime: Originally ruled a touchdown, referee Jeff Triplette explained that RG3 was losing the ball before he crossed the goal line and never re-established possession. That made the play a fumble.  After the call was overturned, Washington wide receiver Santana Moss was ejected for arguing a questionable call on the final play of the first half that cost the Redskins a touchdown on Sunday.
• RG3 replaces injured Colt McCoy for Washington Redskins. The Washington Redskins' quarterback carousel keep on spinning. Colt McCoy started and led the Redskins on a field-goal drive on their opening possession but injured his neck and was listed as questionable to return. It's not clear which play McCoy hurt his neck. Enter Robert Griffin III. As McCoy headed to the locker room for further evaluation, Griffin came on for the Redskins' second drive. McCoy completed 4-of-7 passes for 39 yards before departing. The Redskins only dressed two quarterbacks on Sunday: McCoy and Griffin. Griffin looked great early, completing 9-of-15 passes for 140 yards with a 9-yard TD pass to Chris Thompson in the first half. Griffin also appeared to run for an 8-yard touchdown run right at the end of the half, invoking memories of 2012.

5am – E         Sony leaks

• James Bond Script Leaked In Sony Hack. The script for the new James Bond film Spectre has been leaked by Sony hackers, the film’s producers have confirmed. Eon Productions said an early version of the film’s screenplay, which stars Daniel Craig, Christopher Waltz and Ralph Fiennes, has been “illegally made public” by hackers.
• The new Bond movie Spectre reportedly costs over $300 million and is way over budget. The budget of the new Bond movie, "Spectre," has been revealed as emails from the massive Sony hack continue to leak online. CNNMoney reports the movie, distributed by Sony and Columbia Pictures and MGM, is expected to cost over $300 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made.
• Sony Demands Media Stop Posting Data Leaked by Hackers. Attorney David Boies, speaking for the studio, calls documents “stolen information” and asks that they be destroyed in letter to media outlets. Besieged by a wave of revealing and embarrassing leaks, Sony Pictures Entertainment on Sunday demanded that news agencies stop running stories on “stolen” data released by hackers. In a sharply worded letter sent to news organizations, Sony lawyer David Boies called the documents posted online “stolen information,” and demanded they not be posted and urged that they be destroyed.

6am – A         INTERVIEW: TOM RIVERS, ABC News Correspondent, London @tomrivers

• HOSTAGE SITUATION IN SYDNEY FINANCIAL DISTRICT. Armed police surrounded a café in Sydney’s central business district Monday morning after one or more gunmen took hostages and displayed a black flag with Arabic script in white in the café window. Hundreds of armed police sealed off the normally busy Martin Place. Two U.S. officials briefed on the incident said that it was unclear exactly how many hostages were being held. There was a least one armed suspect involved and no known motive as of this writing. Tom has the latest reportable information regarding the situation.

6am – B/C     Justice Scalia: Constitution Doesn’t Prohibit Torture. (Mediaite) — In an interview with Radio Television Suisse this week following the release of Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA torture report, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he doesn’t “think it’s so clear at all” that the U.S. Constitution prohibits torture, especially in the “ticking time bomb” scenarios so often cited by defenders of the “enhanced interrogation techniques.” “Listen, I think it’s very facile for people to say, ‘Oh, torture is terrible,’” Scalia told the Swiss radio network. “You posit the situation where a person that you know for sure knows the location of a nuclear bomb that has been planted in Los Angeles and will kill millions of people. You think it’s an easy question? You think it’s clear that you cannot use extreme measures to get that information out of that person?” “I don’t know what article of the Constitution that would contravene,” the conservative justice added in reference to the harsh treatment of terrorism suspects.

6am – D/E     Ted Cruz does it again. And the GOP pile on begins. (Politico) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, along with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, took to the floor Friday night to demand Republicans stop President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration and scuttled a bipartisan agreement to push back votes until Monday, effectively forcing the Senate to return for a rare weekend session and cast a marathon series of procedural votes. Senior Republicans say there’s a problem with Cruz’s strategy: The GOP lacks the votes to stop Obama on immigration now, the $1.1 trillion spending package was speeding to passage, and they won’t resort to shutting down the government to mount their objections. Plus, the weekend session could allow Obama to get even more of his nominees confirmed. So while Cruz and Lee argue they’re taking a hard stand against Obama, the result might allow Democrats to end the year with more of their priorities advanced — and the two conservatives getting nothing.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

• MEDICAL MARIJUANA
  • Congress just banned the federal government from interfering with state medical marijuana laws.. Dispensaries in the 23 states that have legalized medical marijuana can all breathe a sigh of relief. The massive “Cromnibus” spending bill passed Saturday night includes an amendment that essentially shuts down the DEA’s pricey prosecution of state-sanctioned medical marijuana. The amendment bans the Justice Department from using funds to “prevent [medical marijuana states] from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” The bill now awaits approval from President Obama.
  • Phil Mendelson says he’ll ignore Congressional interference on marijuana and send the bill anyway. D.C. maneuvering for marijuana showdown with Congress. The D.C. Council chairman plans to send a legalization measure to lawmakers in January.
  • >> Sony Demands Media Stop Posting Data Leaked by Hackers. Attorney David Boies, speaking for the studio, calls documents “stolen information” and asks that they be destroyed in letter to media outlets. Besieged by a wave of revealing and embarrassing leaks, Sony Pictures Entertainment on Sunday demanded that news agencies stop running stories on “stolen” data released by hackers. In a sharply worded letter sent to news organizations, Sony lawyer David Boies called the documents posted online “stolen information,” and demanded they not be posted and urged that they be destroyed.
  • Justice Scalia: Constitution Doesn’t Prohibit Torture. In an interview with Radio Television Suisse this week following the release of Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA torture report, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he doesn’t “think it’s so clear at all” that the U.S. Constitution prohibits torture, especially in the “ticking time bomb” scenarios so often cited by defenders of the “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

7am – B         Sydney Siege: Five Flee Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Australia. A suspected Islamist gunman was holding hostages inside a chocolate shop in Sydney on Monday and appeared to be making demands to negotiators through Facebook and Twitter, police said. Five hostages managed to flee the building, but police would not confirm how many were still being held inside the Lindt cafe — where a black flag used by Islamist groups in the Middle East has been shown in the window.  Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the gunman was "claiming political motivation" but after almost 12 hours had yet to declare the siege a terrorist event. Chris Reason, a journalist with NBC News' Australian partner Channel 7, said the hostage-taker was "forcing them to stand against windows, sometimes two hours at a time." He added that the suspect seemed to be "getting extremely agitated" after the five hostages left.

7am – C         "Gone with the Wind" marks 75th anniversary. (CBS News) — Publicity still of Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, and David O. Selznick going over script for Gone With The Wind. Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin Seventy-five years ago this month, the epic film "Gone with the Wind" premiered in Atlanta. And it's that city that's keeping the story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler alive today. But the most successful movie of all time had a dark side as well and even today the film evokes both disfavor, and devotion, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. Super-fans like Missouri native Novella Perrin call themselves, "windies." "I always tell people I'd rather be called a 'windy' than a 'goner,'" Novella Perrin said. She reunited with other "windies" at the Road to Tara Museum that boasts a unique collection of the film's manuscripts, costumes and historic artifacts. It's a trip she has made dozens of times. For Perrin, there's one aspect of the film that drives the "windies'" obsession. That sweeping and torrid love affair, told in state-of-the-art Technicolor, is an epic tale of a Southern plantation during the Civil War. A then-unknown Vivian Leigh played the headstrong southerner, Scarlett O'Hara, who was more feminist than southern belle, and the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, played the pragmatic Rhett Butler. At four hours long, and filmed with seven color cameras, "Gone with the Wind" redefined American cinema and it's still the top grossing film of all time.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – WMAL's Redskins Analyst

• Redskins lose it after RG3's TD run was overturned. Robert Griffin III fails to lead Redskins to comeback in loss to Giants. Quarterback Robert Griffin III entered the game on the second drive and led the team to a temporary lead later in the half, but ultimately he could not complete a fourth-quarter comeback. The result was another loss in a season filled with them, as Washington fell to New York, 24-13. An overturned Robert Griffin III touchdown run that closed out the first half against the Giants led to some controversy as the clock expired. Griffin III appeared to score on a touchdown run that would have given the Redskins a 10-point lead going into halftime: Originally ruled a touchdown, referee Jeff Triplette explained that RG3 was losing the ball before he crossed the goal line and never re-established possession. That made the play a fumble.  After the call was overturned, Washington wide receiver Santana Moss was ejected for arguing a questionable call on the final play of the first half that cost the Redskins a touchdown on Sunday.

7am – E         Happy sequential birthday! Two babies born at 10:11 on 12/13/14. (CNN) — They won’t be able to count for a few years, but when the time comes, they’ll be able to practice using their unique birthdays. Two babies were born Saturday at 10:11 a.m. If you follow the American style of writing dates, that means their birthdays appear in sequential order: 10:11 on 12/13/14. Parents David and Katherine Jones did not realize it until a nurse excitedly pointed it out, said Kimberly Romo, a spokeswoman for Tucson Medical Center in Arizona. The couple had other things on their mind — Victoria Marie Jones was not due until December 31. Instead, she came early via C-section. Around the same time, Hazel Grace Zimmerman was born to parents Leisha Campbell and Shawn Zimmerman in Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic. Hazel is the couple’s fourth child, hospital spokeswoman Sabrina Powers told CNN. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 14 ounces. Maclane Thomas Flynn was born at 3:16 on December 13. That translates to 12/13/14 at 15:16 p.m. Another baby was born on 12/13/14 at 15:16 (3:16 for those not using military time).

8am – A         INTERVIEW – ROBERT COSTA — National political reporter for The Washington Post @costareports

• Jeb Bush’s move to release book, e-mails stokes expectations of White House bid. (Washington Post) — Jeb Bush’s decision to release a policy-laden e-book and all his e-mails from his time as governor of Florida has further stoked expectations among his allies that he will launch a presidential bid. Bush announced the moves in an expansive interview that aired Sunday on a Miami television station. He mused about the kind of campaign he would run and addressed his views on immigration and education reform that rile parts of the GOP base.
• Ted Cruz does it again. And the GOP pile on begins. (Politico) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, along with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, took to the floor Friday night to demand Republicans stop President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration and scuttled a bipartisan agreement to push back votes until Monday, effectively forcing the Senate to return for a rare weekend session and cast a marathon series of procedural votes

8am – B         Closing Speech At Sharpton Rally Calls For Return Of ‘Black Jesus.’ (Daily Caller) — WASHINGTON — The event was billed as one of solidarity, thousands of people unified in their demand for “justice for all” and an end to alleged police brutality against “unarmed black men.” Led by MSNBC host Al Sharpton, the march was organized and promoted by his National Action Network. The final speaker, Reverend Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Maryland, gave a speech and closing prayer laden with political anger and racial overtones. Bryant declared Sunday “Black Solidarity Sunday” and urged the crowd to “go to church wearing black.” After that, he said, “I don’t want you to just go to church wearing black. When you leave church still be black. And because Hollywood didn’t get the memo, Jesus is black.”

8am – C         A gunman is holding staff and customers hostage at a cafe in Sydney, Australia. (BBC) — The Lindt cafe in the city centre is surrounded by armed police. Officers have made contact with the gunman. Five people have been seen running from the building. It is not clear how many remain inside. A black Islamic flag has been displayed at the window. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was "profoundly shocking" that people were being "held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation". He was speaking after chairing a meeting of the national security committee in Canberra. Earlier Mr Abbott said: "Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society – nothing should ever change that and that's why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual." Senior police officers say they are on a footing "consistent with a terrorist event". The incident began as people were arriving for work in Martin Place on Monday. Witnesses saw a man with a bag and gun walk into the Lindt chocolate shop and cafe. Lindt said about 10 employees and 30 customers were thought to be inside at the time. Nearby offices were evacuated and police asked people to remain indoors and away from open windows.

8am – D         Humbug! Santa Claus is removed from elementary school concert over complaint he is 'too religious.'  (Daily Mail) — Santa Claus did not come to town, or at least he did not make his traditional appearance at one elementary school's winter concert, after he was banned following a complaint. Many parents were outraged after receiving a letter notifying them of the change from the principal of the Andrew Peabody School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, days before the December 12 event. 'Our First through Fourth grade concert as well as our Kindergarten concert will not include a visit from Santa Claus this year,' wrote Jennifer Ford. Children whose parents did not want them to attend the event which featured songs and performances, could play games and read books with her in the library, she added.  Robert Thompson, who has two children at the school, questioned the decision to break with tradition, which he claimed was made after a single complaint. 'I don't think it's right, and I know a lot of people agree with me,' He told the WBZ TV station. 'It seems like that's what's going on in America – the squeaky wheel gets oil. It's a shame.'  He added that would not be offended if other cultures were added to the concert. 

WMAL Listener Ann-Marie wrote us: “We took our 7 year old grandson down to the National Christmas Tree this Saturday to see Santa at Santa's Workshop only to be told that there is no Santa this year! We were so disappointed and angry. This has become a family tradition for us as it is for many families in the area. The children are invited in to walk through the workshop and sit in Santa’s Chair with no Santa!”

TOMORROW:          Ken Cuccinelli, Judge Andrew Napolitano and Larry Kudlow