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Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C             DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW: ELEANOR CLIFT – covers politics for The Daily Beast and a regular panelist on the McLaughlin Group.

• Biden meets with Warren in Washington. Biden-Warren Ticket 2016 — Democrats’ Plan B.
• Vice President Joe Biden met privately with Senator Elizabeth Warren on Saturday at his home in Washington D.C., according to CNN.   It’s another sign he is seriously deciding whether to jump into the Democratic presidential race. Biden has told associates he intends to make his decision by October 1st.       With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary six months away, Biden is the leading figure Democrats believe they could turn to if they needed an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
• Democrats Look at Plan B: Biden as a One-Term President, with Warren as His VP
• Earnest: Adding Biden “Smartest Decision Obama Has Ever Made In Politics”
• Obama gives Joe Biden ‘blessing’ for 2016 bid. Washington (CNN) Vice President Joe Biden received President Barack Obama’s “blessing” to make a 2016 bid for the White House, according to a senior Democrat. But that’s if Biden chooses to run — the decision is his. While he doesn’t need the President’s permission, of course, a potential presidential candidacy was among the topics of their lunch Monday at the White House. The President made clear he would not stand in his way or counsel him against a run, the senior Democrat said. The Vice President’s office downplayed the speculation about Biden’s political future. “Sources continue to speculate about something they know nothing about,” Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said. “This lunch was a private meeting between two people — the President and the Vice President.”

5am – D         Father of Train Hero: The PC Crowd Needs To Recognize Terrorism For What It Is. Emanuel Skarlatos, father of the train hero Alek Skarlatos, told MSNBC Monday that “the p.c. crowd needs to recognize terrorism for what it is.” His 22-year-old son Alek, along with his childhood friends Anthony Sadler and Spencer Stone were aboard a high-speed train en route to Paris from Amsterdam on Friday when a gunman entered their train car. In addition to the Americans, a French national and a Briton tackled and subdued the alleged terrorist. As the MSNBC interview closed, he added: “Can I just say one quick thing? It’s better to die like a lion than be slaughtered like sheep. The p.c. crowd needs to recognize terrorism for what it is.” His hero son is a Oregon National Guard Specialist who was on vacation after his return from deployment in Afghanistan. He believes his son’s split second decision to tell his friends “let’s go” came from his upbringing. “Alek grew up with a sense of justice and righteousness. I think he believes in fairness. He’s for the underdog, and I think the people on the train were underdogs because they had no weapon. Alek recognized that the guy’s AK was jammed because of his experience with weapons, and that’s when he said, ‘let’s go do it now, just let’s go.’ That’s when they bum-rushed the guy and got him down. it’s fortunate for everybody on that train that they were there at that particular moment,” said Emanuel Skarlatos.

5am – E         Critter News:

• Zoo: Newborn panda cubs doing well after challenging first night. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The two newborn panda cubs are doing well after a challenging night, the Smithsonian National Zoo said in a statement Monday morning. According to zoo officials, they tried to swap the cubs around 11 p.m. Mei Xiang, the giant mother panda, would not put down the cub she had in her possession. The panda team ended up taking care of the smaller cub throughout the night until 7:05 a.m. Monday. The team was finally able to swap out the cubs then. The smaller cub was given formula by bottle feeding. However, the panda team was worried that the smaller cub was not getting enough of the formula so they switched to tube feeding.
• PETA wants roadside memorial for pigs killed in truck crash. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is seeking to erect a roadside memorial for several pigs that died last week when at tractor-trailer rolled over on a Manheim Township highway. PETA would like to erect a five-foot tombstone at the scene of the Aug. 17 accident on the ramp from Route 30 to Route 222. The group is asking permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to erect the memorial for a period of one month, according to a news release issued by PETA. In addition to remembering the animals lost, the memorial also will encourage motorists to adopt a vegan lifestyle. “This memorial is intended to remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they carry to their deaths every year,” Tracy Reiman, PETA’s executive vice president said in the release.

6am – A/B/C Scott Walker is urging Obama to cancel state visit by Chinese president. Trump: I Wouldn’t Give China’s President a State Dinner.

6am – D         D.C. Women (And Men) Go Topless For Annual Gender Equality Rally. (DCist) — Every year, thousands of women in cities across the country participate in GoTopless Day as a way to celebrate Women’s Equality Day on August 26—the anniversary of the day women earned the right to vote. Parading around topless (which is totally legal in D.C.) in front of the White House, there were more tourists and spectators than there were protesters, but for those who were there to participate in GoTopless Day, their message was clear: gender equality needs to happen now.

Women, and Men, Doff Their Shirts Around the World for ‘Go Topless Day.’ Thousands of people paraded shirt-free around the world Sunday to push for laws that would allow women to go topless in public. “It’s absurd that someone has judged topless women as obscene, and yet topless men is considered normal in our culture,” said Carolyn Estes, a participant in Sunday’s parade in Austin, Texas. “We just abhor the double standard,” Estes told NBC station KXAN of Austin. “We are practicing our rights. We think everyone should try it — it’s a lot of fun.” The parades in at least 60 cities around the world took place amid a debate over New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to remove topless and “painted” women from Times Square, whom he calls nuisances even though toplessness is legal in New York.

6am – E         Taxpayers foot bill to retrieve sunken tires from failed offshore environmental project. (Fox News) — What to do with a million used tires? Dump them in the ocean, of course. As unthinkable as that idea is today, back in 1972, that was what Florida environmentalists chose to do, in an attempt to create an artificial reef. They gathered up old tires, ferried them a mile offshore from Fort Lauderdale’s world-famous beach and tossed them overboard. “Ummmm, seemed like a good idea at the time. Looked good on paper,” said Pat Quinn, Broward County’s environmental resource manager. It wasn’t. Now, the castaway tires are an environmental menace, and taxpayers are footing the bill on a new project to retrieve them. Quinn is project manager on the $1.6 million operation to undo the damage from the ill-conceived environmentalist push from the early ‘70s. Back then, discarded car and truck tires typically were sent to a landfill. So a handful of Fort Lauderdale environmentalists — thinking they were doing the earth good — got permits to bundle the tires and sink them adjacent to the reef that runs up the Florida coastline. They thought coral would grow on the tires, attracting more fish and aquatic life. But routine storm surges ended up breaking the bundles apart and slamming the tires into the healthy reef. Coral didn’t grow on the rubber, the fish didn’t come and, today, there’s a ghostly wasteland of tire after tire as far as the diver’s eye can see.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOHN FUND – national-affairs correspondent for National Review Online.

• Democrats Look at Plan B: Biden as a One-Term President, with Warren as His VP
• Earnest: Adding Biden “Smartest Decision Obama Has Ever Made In Politics”
• Obama gives Joe Biden ‘blessing’ for 2016 bid.

7am – B         ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Sets All-Time Cable Ratings Premiere Record. AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” the much-anticipated companion series to megahit zombie drama “The Walking Dead,” opened to monster — and record-setting — ratings of its own own Sunday night. Nielsen estimates that the 90-minute debut of “Fear the Walking Dead” became the No. 1-rated cable series launch on record with 10.1 million viewers, including 6.3 million adults 18-49. In total viewers, “Fear” surpasses TNT’s “Raising the Bar” (7.7 million in 2008) as top dog among cable premieres.

Caitlyn Jenner Halloween costume sparks social media outrage. (CNBC) — It’s nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015. Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete’s Vanity Fair cover earlier this year. While Jenner’s supporters condemned the costume as “transphobic” and “disgusting” on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup. “At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes,” said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. “We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that.”

7am – C         Pope coming to DC:

• ‘Pope-apalooza’ inspires a flood of bobbleheads, mugs, even beer. (Washington Post) – Warren Royal dreamed of a classier bobblehead pope. The owner of Royal Bobbleheads is one of the many manufacturers, vendors and artists producing a heavenly host of commemorative baubles — and bobbles — that will surround Pope Francis on his visit to Washington, New York and Philadelphia next month. The multitudes will include papal mugs, magnets, buttons and T-shirts along with popes rendered in plush, plastic and (at one Philadelphia deli) mozzarella. Whatever this pope’s view of global capitalism, there’s not much he can do about the Papal Industrial Complex busily slapping his name and face on souvenirs ranging from Pope Francis Cologne to “YOPO” (“You Only Pope Once”) beer. The mercantile blizzard has become a standard feature of the pontifical visit, and Francis, in particular, seems to have inspired secular as well as religious suppliers to get in the game.
• Public to have limited chances to see Pope Francis in D.C. WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has a jam-packed two-day schedule Sept. 23-24 when he visits Washington. But the opportunities for the public to see the pope in person during his Washington stay appear to be limited. “Tickets to the canonization mass over at the Basilica, there’s a very limited number of them, due to the small size of the venue,” says Chieko Noguchi, spokeswoman for the Washington Archdiocese. The mass on the east portico of the Basilica is expected to be attended by about 25,000 on the grounds of Catholic University. “Every parish received a small allotment of tickets for the pastor to distribute to his parishioners,” Noguchi says. There is expected to be live television coverage and online streaming of the mass. During Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit to the nation’s capital, he celebrated mass for 50,000 at Nationals Park. In 1979, Pope John Paul II said mass for 175,000 on the National Mall. Pope Francis’ big public mass will be held in Philadelphia at the World Meeting of Families on Sept. 27. On Sept. 24, Pope Francis will become the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. Invited guests will be able to watch the pope’s speech via giant TV screens erected on the West Front of the Capitol.

7am – D         INTERVIEW: PETER SCHIFF – CEO of Euro Pacific Capital and Euro Pacific Precious Metals, and Author of the best seller, The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy – How to Save Yourself and Your Country – analyzed what the changes in the markets mean for China and the U.S.

• China cuts interest rates after days of market turmoil. (BBC / 12 minutes ago) — China has cut its main interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.6% after two days of stock market turmoil. It’s the fifth interest rate cut since November. The People’s Bank of China also cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points. The moves take effect from Wednesday, the bank said.

7am – E         St. Louis grandmother’s criticism of Black Lives Matter goes viral. After her rant against criminals among the black community went viral, a St. Louis grandmother recorded a follow-up, apologizing for her bad language but not for her beliefs. Now Peggy Hubbard is being called a hero – and a traitor. Hubbard, who grew up in St. Louis and lives across the river in Illinois, recorded the first video after the August 20 protests in Fountain Park. A house and a car went up in flames, as some 150 demonstrators protested the police shooting of a young black man during a drug raid. Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, was shot in the back after reportedly pointing a gun at two officers and running away. The night before, 9-year-old Jamyla Bolden was shot and killed in her bedroom in Ferguson, in what appeared to be a random drive-by attack. Hubbard later said she recorded the first video because, as a grandmother of a girl about that age, she was shaken and angered by Bolden’s killing.

Woman Who Posted Viral #BlackLivesMatter Rant Hits Back at Critics: ‘Bite Me.’ (Mediaite) — Peggy Hubbard, the woman who posted a #BlackLivesMatter rant that went viral, appeared on CNN tonight to tell Don Lemon why she thinks the movement has misplaced priorities. Her main frustration is that a nine-year-old black girl was killed in a drive-by shooting, but no one cared, and at the same time, protesters rioted after someone who reportedly pointed a gun at cops was shot by the police. Hubbard told Lemon that police officers across the country are worried either about being killed or being “the next Darren Wilson” because of the strong anti-police sentiment. Lemon read some of the nasty responses she’s gotten for her outspokenness (including at least one invocation of the n-word) and asked for her response. Hubbard replied, “Bite me.”

8am – A/B/C Julianne Moore petitions to change high school named after Confederate general. Julianne Moore and Hollywood producer Bruce Cohen have teamed up to petition to rename their northern Virginia high school. The former classmates started a petition on Change.org to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School, currently named for a Confederate general. “When we were at J.E.B. Stuart in the late ’70’s, the school symbol was Stuart riding a horse and waving the Confederate flag,” the petition reads. “The Confederate flag was at the center of our basketball court and on our athletic letter jackets and wasn’t removed until 2001…No one should have to apologize for the name of the public high school you attended and the history of racism it represents, as we and so many alumni of Stuart have felt the need to do our whole lives.”Moore and Cohen suggested the school be renamed after Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice. The petition has more than 28,000 signatures so far. A call to the school’s main office was not answered. J.E.B. Stuart High School begins classes Sept. 8.

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

• China stocks crash again but global markets recover.
• Scott Walker is urging Obama to cancel state visit by Chinese president
• Trump: I Wouldn’t Give China’s President a State Dinner
• Democrats Look at Plan B: Biden as a One-Term President, with Warren as His VP
• Earnest: Adding Biden “Smartest Decision Obama Has Ever Made In Politics”

8am – E         IRS finds yet another Lois Lerner email account. ‘Toby Miles’ account linked to government business. (Washington Times/Stephen Dinan) — Lois Lerner had yet another personal email account used to conduct some IRS business, the tax agency confirmed in a new court filing late Monday that further complicates the administration’s efforts to be transparent about Ms. Lerner’s actions during the tea party targeting scandal. The admission came in an open-records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest law firm that has sued to get a look at emails Ms. Lerner sent during the targeting. IRS lawyer Geoffrey J. Klimas told the court that as the agency was putting together a set of documents to turn over to Judicial Watch, it realized Ms. Lerner had used yet another email account, in addition to her official one and another personal one already known to the agency. “In addition to emails to or from an email account denominated ‘Lois G. Lerner’ or ‘Lois Home,’ some emails responsive to Judicial Watch’s request may have been sent to or received from a personal email account denominated ‘Toby Miles,'” Mr. Klimas told Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who is hearing the case. It is unclear who Toby Miles is, but Mr. Klimas said the IRS has concluded that was “a personal email account used by Lerner.”

TOMORROW: KT McFarland, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer