James Rosen, Bishop Harry Jackson, Rod Wheeler and guest host Jessie Jane Duff joined WMAL on Friday!

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Mornings on the Mall

Friday, June 19, 2015

Hosts: Larry O’Connor and guest host Jessie Jane Duff

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C Q&A with Jessie Jane Duff – Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret) – Jessie served 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps and retired a Gunnery Sergeant. Along with multiple overseas deployments and combat related exercises, she provided logistical and training support to combat arms and wing units throughout her career, including Desert Storm and the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. In a collateral duty, Jessie served on the Executive Staff to the Commander of Marine Forces Pacific, the largest operational command in the Marine Corps prior to her retirement. She completed her career as an Operations Chief.

5am – D         Charleston Shooting Reaction:

• Chris Hayes Confronts Mark Sanford About Confederate Flag: Flying ‘Symbol of Tyranny. ’The shooting in Charleston has revived a national debate over the Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina state capitol and the question of why the Confederate flag is still embraced in the state, especially given how the Charleston gunman had a Confederate flag license plate. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes confronted former South Carolina governor and current congressman Mark Sanford about why a “symbol of tyranny” and “white supremacy” and “domination” continues to fly from the capitol to this day. Sanford argued that to another part of the population, “it’s a symbol of heritage” and state’s rights and the sacrifices of their ancestors. Hayes shot back that there’s clearly a connection between the symbolism of that flag and the horrible, racist actions of the Charleston killer.
• Martin Luther King III, O’Reilly Slam Violent Video Games in Talking Charleston. (Mediaite) — During an appearance with Bill O’Reilly tonight to talk Charleston, Martin Luther King III expressed his concerns about the influence of violent video games on popular culture. “Look at video games,” King said. “Our children play video games and 7 out of 10 of them are violent. Some of our movies are very violent, and we want to see more and more violence.” O’Reilly agreed, saying there needs to be more pushback and “peer pressure” to argue it’s “not a good thing to devote your leisure time to violent pursuits.”

5am – E         O’Reilly Confronts SC Pol for Connecting Fox ‘Hate Speech’ to Charleston Shooting. (Mediaite) — Charleston legislator Todd Rutherford, a friend of slain Reverend Clementa Pinckney, said on CNN earlier today that “hate speech” from Fox News and other outlets helped fuel the kind of rhetoric that led the Charleston church shooter to carry out the horrible killings of nine people. Rutherford appeared on Fox News tonight, and Bill O’Reilly confronted him about those “disturbing” remarks. Rutherford stood by them and said there are a lot of black people disturbed by a lot of what Fox coers. O’Reilly really challenged Rutherford on what he’s talking about, who on Fox says what he thinks they say, and whether he’s honestly “equating what Dylann Roof did in that church to our commentary.”

6am – A/B/C Mourning Charleston, Obama calls for stricter gun laws. (USA Today) — WASHINGTON — President Obama renewed his call for stricter gun laws Thursday following a shooting spree at a Charleston, S.C. church that killed nine people. “We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said. Obama’s remarks were not unlike the 13 others he’s given following a mass shooting during his presidency. But this time, he said the usual condolences could not express “the heartache and the sadness and the anger we feel” about the overnight shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday night.

6am – D/E     Rand Paul calls for 14.5 percent flat tax. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to gut the U.S. tax code and instead install a flat tax, insisting such a plan would “turbocharge” the economy and be more fair for average taxpayers. Paul, who’s running for president in 2016, would put into place a 14.5 percent rate for individual, business and investment income, and remove all but a couple of the tax breaks currently on the books. The current top rate for individuals and many small businesses is near 40 percent, while the corporate rate tops out at 35 percent. Taxpayers would get to keep deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable deductions under Paul’s plan, and would also not have to pay any payroll taxes. Plus, the gift and estate taxes would be scrapped, and the first $50,000 of a family of four’s income would be exempt from taxes.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JAMES ROSEN – Fox News Channel’s chief Washington correspondent and hosts the online show “The Foxhole.”

• ROSEN’S SCOOP THIS WEEK: DIA Director sees Iraq as ‘quagmire,’ but strikes term from testimony. EXCLUSIVE: One of President Obama’s top intelligence officers has privately concluded that the situation in Iraq is a “quagmire,” but struck the term from testimony being prepared for him to deliver on Capitol Hill, Fox News has learned.
• Sources: Clinton confidant who sent Libya memos paid $200G by Brock network. (Fox News/Judson Berger) — The Clinton confidant under scrutiny on Capitol Hill over detailed Libya memos he sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers earlier this week he has been pulling in $200,000 a year from Clinton ally David Brock’s media operation, congressional sources tell FoxNews.com. The figure is far higher than initially reported. While the payments to Sidney Blumenthal may not reflect any apparent conflict of interest, his work with Brock’s liberal advocacy and media groups was a focus of his high-profile deposition on Tuesday before the House Benghazi committee. Republicans’ rationale for the questioning was that his financial and political interests are important context, at a time when he was sending high-level guidance to Clinton.

7am – B         NBC names Lester Holt as permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News as Brian Williams move to MSNBC. NBC News announced Thursday that it has demoted Brian Williams as anchor of its marquee nightly newscast to a position at MSNBC, a fall from grace for the journalist who was arguably the most popular American TV newsman until he was caught fibbing about his work. Lester Holt, who has substituted for Williams as the anchor of NBC Nightly News while Williams was serving his six-month suspension, was named permanent anchor for the evening news program, a reward for Holt’s steady work for decades at the network and for keeping the show’s ratings afloat.

7am – C         Social Anxiety? Try Eating Yogurt, Pickles, and Kimchi. According to a study of over 700 people published in the journal Psychiatry Research, fermented foods that contain probiotics or have the potential to contain probiotics and bioactive peptides may reduce symptoms of social anxiety. For the study, researchers gave college students a questionnaire that measured social anxiety and neuroticism, among other traits, and asked about eating habits — particularly how many fermented foods they ate over the last 30 days, such as yogurt, kefir, fermented soy milk, miso soup, sauerkraut, some dark chocolates, microalgae juices (aka green juices), pickles, tempeh, and kimchi. The questionnaire also asked how often they exercise and how many fruits and vegetables they eat on average to control for healthy eating habits outside of how many fermented foods they eat.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — BISHOP HARRY JACKSON – Senior Pastor at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, MD, author of “The Truth in Black and White” – reacted to the South Carolina church shooting.

7am – E         Charleston Shooting Reaction:

• Chris Hayes Confronts Mark Sanford About Confederate Flag: Flying ‘Symbol of Tyranny. ’
• O’Reilly Confronts SC Pol for Connecting Fox ‘Hate Speech’ to Charleston Shooting
• Martin Luther King III, O’Reilly Slam Violent Video Games in Talking Charleston

8am – A         What Does Dad Really Want For Fathers Day?

8am – B         Sports News:

• Bryce Harper strains hamstring, will be re-evaluated Friday. WASHINGTON — Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper left Thursday night’s 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay with a left hamstring strain that occurred while he was making a throw in right field. The All-Star took an awkward tumble while throwing home, held his left leg while down on the ground and then gingerly walked off the field. “I’ve had problems with my left knee before — I’ve had surgery on it,” Harper said after the game. “So you know, it was definitely really scary.”

• Patriots-used ball from AFC title game put on auction block. (ESPN) — Would you like to own one of the Deflategate balls? Well, now’s your chance. A New England Patriots-used ball from the AFC Championship Game is hitting the auction block Thursday. The ball, handed to fan Laura Nichols in the third quarter by Patriots wide receiver Brandon LaFell, has been consigned to online auction house Lelands.com for the company’s summer auction that will close July 17. Nichols and her husband Matt said they were sitting in the first row of the end zone at Gillette Stadium for the game played on Jan. 18. Toward the end of the third quarter, Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount ran it into the end zone from 13 yards out to put the team up 37-7 on the Indianapolis Colts. “LaFell picked up the ball, I pointed at him, he pointed at me and he handed me the ball,” Nichols said. “It was all so surreal.

8am – C         Maryland News:

• HBO makes it official: ‘Veep’ leaving Maryland after four years. (Baltimore Sun) — HBO today announced that “Veep” is leaving Maryland after four years to relocate in Los Angeles. “Maryland has been home to many vital HBO projects, from ‘The Corner’ to ‘The Wire’ to ‘Game Change,’ and the support has always been extraordinary,” a statement to the Sun from the premium cable channel said. “The producers and HBO would like to thank Maryland for making the last four seasons of ‘Veep’ such a success. We look forward to returning with another production in the future.” The loss of “Veep” will be a serious blow not just to members of the local production community, but also to companies, stores, hotels and restaurants that served the production.
• As the pope opines on climate change, O’Malley releases a clean energy agenda. (Washington Post) — As some Catholic candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination question the pope’s advocacy on climate change, Democratic hopeful Martin O’Malley is embracing it. The former Maryland governor, who is a practicing Catholic, plans to issue a white paper Thursday morning that declares that the United States has a “moral obligation” to address climate change and outlines steps he would take to accelerate a move toward clean energy — including several that build upon Obama administration policies and some that depart from them. The move from O’Malley comes as he tries to gain a foothold in a Democratic primary contest in which Hillary Rodham Clinton has established herself as a formidable front-runner and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been making more headway with more liberal voters.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — ROD WHEELER – Former DC homicide detective

• Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof due in court in Charleston Friday. The Columbia area man accused of shooting and killing nine people in a downtown Charleston church on Wednesday night is now back in the Lowcountry after being arrested in North Carolina. He is scheduled for a bond hearing Friday afternoon.
• Dylann Roof confesses to killing 9 people in Charleston church, wanting to start ‘race war’ – CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann Roof has confessed to authorities to shooting and killing nine people this week at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, two law enforcement officials said Friday.       One of the officials said that Roof, who is white, told investigators that he wanted to start a race war. He himself bought the .45-caliber handgun used in the shooting last April at a Charleston gun store, according to the two officials.
• DOJ Announces Hate Crime Probe into SC Church Shooting. (CNSNews.com) – Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Thursday that a federal hate crimes investigation has been launched into Wednesday night’s shooting at a historic black church in South Carolina. “The Department of Justice has opened a hate crime investigation into this shooting incident. The FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshal Service, Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s office are working closely with our state and local partners, and we stand ready to offer every resource, every means, and every tool that we possess in order to locate and to apprehend the perpetrator of this barbaric crime,” said Lynch.

MONDAY: Joe diGenova and Brian Wilson is back