Mornings on the Mall 07.28.15

Senator James Lankford, Senator Jim DeMint and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL’s morning-drive show.

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C Mike Huckabee not backing down after Holocaust remark. (Politico) — Mike Huckabee is not backing away from his strident criticism of President Barack Obama and the Iranian nuclear deal — even as his fellow Republican presidential candidates distance themselves from his remarks. A day after making an explicit comparison to the Holocaust in denouncing the agreement, the former Arkansas governor continued to make his case on Twitter. In an earlier interview with Breitbart News published Saturday, Huckabee said that Obama is “naive” in trusting Iran to uphold its part of the deal. “By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors anti-Semitism, immediately denounced Huckabee’s language. have been critical of it, noting that there are serious unanswered questions that need to be addressed — comments such as those by Mike Huckabee suggesting the president is leading Israel to another Holocaust are completely out of line and unacceptable,” ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

5am – D Florida Official Says It’s Illegal for BBQ Smoke to Leave Resident’s Property. (Breitbart) — A Pinellas County, Florida, environmental specialist was recently recorded in a video telling a resident that it was somehow illegal for the smoke from his home barbecue to leave his property. The video, which is now going viral, shows Pinellas County environmental specialist Joe Graham issuing a warning to resident Scotty Jordan, saying that he can be cited for allowing the smoke and odor of his cookouts to leave his property. The video has been viewed on Jordan’s Facebook page over 4 million times. Pinellas County authorities insist that Jordan could have violated air quality rules. But on the video, one of Jordan’s friends can be heard saying incredulously, “We can’t control the wind, God does that.”

5am – E Metro says Silver Spring Transit Center needs yet more repairs. Metro has told Montgomery County officials that some of the recent repairs to the Silver Spring Transit Center are showing “signs of degradation,” and it is asking the county for $15 million to cover future maintenance and repair. County officials, in turn, accuse Metro of attempting to hold “hostage” the delivery of the problem-plagued facility to the transit agency until its demands are met. The new round of charge-and-countercharge is the latest in a long history of interagency discord surrounding the three-level commuter hub, which is four years late and $50 million over budget because of design and construction issues. Under the terms of a 2008 agreement, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is to take control of the building upon completion. Metro would operate the center, which is adjacent to its Silver Spring station, as a part of its regional bus and train system.

6am – A/B/C GWU ENTRANCE TESTS:

Standardized Test Scores Will Be Optional for GW Applicants. Beginning in August, submitting SAT or ACT scores will no longer be required for most students applying for undergraduate admission. The George Washington University will no longer require most undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores, effective Aug. 1.
George Washington University applicants no longer need to take admissions tests. Washington Post — George Washington University dropped its testing requirement for most freshman admissions Monday, becoming one of the largest and most prominent schools to declare that its applicants don’t have to take the SAT or ACT.

6am – D/E Daily Beast: Ex-Wife: Donald Trump Made Me Feel ‘Violated’ During Sex. Ivana Trump once accused the real estate tycoon of ‘rape,’ although she later clarified: not in the ‘criminal sense.’ Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being “rapists” and bringing crime into the country. “I mean somebody’s doing it!…Who’s doing the raping?” Donald Trump said, when asked to defend his characterization. It was an unfortunate turn of phrase for Trump—in more ways than one. Not only does the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have a history of controversial remarks about sexual assault, but as it turns out, his ex-wife Ivana Trump once used “rape” to describe an incident between them in 1989. She later said she felt “violated” by the experience.

7am – A/B/C This girl spent her entire $90,000 college fund on clothes and travel. (Mashable) — One 22-year-old had a college fund that most kids would kill for, but now she’s thousands of dollars short for her senior year tuition after blowing $90,000 on clothes and a trip to Europe. “Maybe they [my parents] should have taught me to budget or something,” said Kim, who didn’t disclose her last name and had her voice disguised on the The Bert Show, an Atlanta, Georgia-based radio show. Kim told the hosts that her grandparents set up a pretty sweet fund for her that would cover costs for all four years of college. But, because she didn’t budget properly, she’s out of money to cover her senior year. She told the radio hosts that maybe some of that money went to clothing and a trip—an educational trip, of course—to Europe for college break. “I probably should have not done that,” she said.

7am – D INTERVIEW – SENATOR JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK)

Discussed his speech at “The Women Betrayed Rally”: Washington, DC rally – which is part of the national #WomenBetrayed rallies – to take place calling for the defunding of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood

WHERE: EAST side of the Capitol Building, Washington, DC; Spot #10 on the map:

WHEN: Today, July 28th at Noon

Rand Paul Confident Senate Will Vote on De-Funding Planned Parenthood Soon. (Life News – Jul 27, 2015) – Paul is behind one effort to strip the abortion business of its taxpayer funding while Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, introduced a bill to end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood for a year while they are investigated for possible illegal practices.

7am – E Boston Doesn’t Want the 2024 Olympics. Does D.C.? (Washington City Paper) –Following months of debate over whether the city could sustain the world’s largest sporting event, Boston has officially pulled its bid to host the 2024 Olympics. Will D.C. try again for the Games? United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun and Boston 2024 Partnership Chairman Steve Pagliuca jointly released statements today acknowledging their groups had failed to garner the public support necessary to seal the deal—a deal that, according to Washington Business Journal, would have generated about $4.8 billion in revenue and $4.6 billion in costs, in addition to thousands of new apartments, construction jobs, and operations jobs for the international contest.

8am – A INTERVIEW — SENATOR JIM DEMINT – former South Carolina senator and current president of The Heritage Foundation

The Export-Import Bank Needs to Stay Dead. (By Jim DeMint) —The Export-Import Bank is dead. Let’s keep it that way. This hoary relic of the Great Depression has been plagued with corruption and fraud. Its lending practices primarily benefit a handful of wealthy American mega-corporations and, far too often, unsavory interests abroad. Ex-Im’s charter expired on June 30, but special interests continue to press Congress to revive it. Lawmakers wishing to keep this monument to crony capitalism dead and buried can draw some valuable “how-to” lessons from past successful effortsto resist wasteful special-interest pleadings. In 1988, Congress established the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) Commission to close unnecessary and expensive military bases. For years, successive administrations had treated basing decisions as political bonbons, keeping certain bases open for their friends while closing others.

8am – B Anchor Says Sex Toys Are Why Amazon Is Worth More Than Walmart

“They’re trying to eat breakfast!” (The Huffington Post) — This is why certain news anchors shouldn’t do unscripted business analysis. John Potter, a reporter for KTVN Channel 2 in Reno, Nevada, was listening to colleague Andi Guevara report recently on how Amazon had surpassed Walmart in value. So he chimed in with his, um, interesting theory. “You know why? ‘Cause they sell sex toys and Walmart can’t or won’t sell sex toys,” he said. … As is her follow-up line. “They’re trying to eat breakfast,” she said, referring to viewers.

8am – C GOP lawmakers introduce bill to give union members say in political donations. (Fox News) — Republican lawmakers took a first step Monday toward trying to fundamentally change the way unions operate, introducing legislation that would restrict how they spend campaign money — and could keep cash away from Democratic candidates in 2016. Their complaint: Unions are taking advantage of dues-paying members and sending their money to Democratic candidates whether members like it or not. The Employee Rights Act, introduced Monday by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., would allow union members to tell their bosses they don’t want their share of dues going to certain candidates or causes, without fear of retaliation.

Why union leaders want L.A. to give them a minimum wage loophole. One of the most divisive issues that Los Angeles City Council members expect to confront when they return this week from a summer recess will be a proposal by labor leaders to exempt unionized workers from the city’s new minimum wage. The push for the loophole, which began in the final days before the law’s passage, caused a backlash rarely seen in this pro-union city and upended perceptions of labor’s role in the fight to raise pay for the working poor. Union activists were among the most stalwart backers of L.A.’s ordinance raising the wage to $15 by 2020, and argued against special consideration for nonprofits and small businesses. Rusty Hicks, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the union waiver would be a routine protection against challenges to the ordinance under federal labor law. “This is about staying consistent with previous provisions and crafting something that will withstand legal scrutiny and delay,” Hicks said in May. In California, he added, “we’ve seen every city that has passed a minimum wage include this kind of a provision.”

8am – D INTERVIEW — LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm

China’s stock market continues its dramatic slide. (CNN) — China stocks continued to lose ground on Tuesday as investors shrugged off efforts by regulators to calm markets. The Shanghai Composite closed down 1.7% after recovering from a 4% loss in early trading. The Shenzhen Composite shed 2.2% over a volatile trading session. The losses build on an 8.5% decline on Monday for the benchmark Shanghai index, its worst performance in eight years. The smaller Shenzhen market, which is heavy on tech stocks, closed down 7%. Chinese stocks have stumbled dramatically over the past two months.
KUDLOW: Hillary’s inconceivably stupid capital-gains tax scheme
Larry’s thoughts on whether we should let the Export-Import bank die

TOMORROW: KT McFarland and Del. Tim Hugo