Legal analyst Joe diGenova, CEI’s Chris Horner & Redskins Analyst Trevor Matich joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, November 30, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Teflon Trump? Trump insists he didn’t insult reporter with disabilities, now wants an apology for the accusation. (Fox News) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said again on Saturday that he didn’t mock a New York Times reporter with physical disabilities, but this time called for an apology from the newspaper and said the reporter is taking advantage of the allegation to a “horrible degree.” “I don’t mock people that have problems, believe me,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Fla. The controversy began last weekend when Trump said at a rally in Alabama that thousands of people in New Jersey celebrated terrorist-hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, toppling of the World Trade Center towers across the Hudson River in Manhattan. Trump used a story by the reporter, Serge Kovaleski, then at The Washington Post, that included details about authorities detaining people for such alleged activity.

5am – D         Obama at Climate Summit in Paris:

• COP 21, the two-week meeting to hammer out a new global climate deal, which begins Monday in Paris.
• Tens of billions promised to boost clean energy tech. Government and business leaders are banking on clean energy technology to fight global warming, kicking off this week’s high-stakes climate change negotiations by pledging billions of dollars to research and develop a technical fix to the planet’s climate woes. Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande will launch a joint initiative on Monday after a diplomatic push in recent weeks ahead of the Paris climate conference. A key goal is to bring down the cost of cleaner energy. At least 19 governments and 28 leading world investors, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires George Soros and Saudi Prince Alaweed bin Talal, and Jack Ma of China’s Alibaba, have signed on so far.

• COP 21 climate deal hinges on cash payouts to developing countries. (Washington Times) – Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa was explicit earlier this year when asked what it would take for developing countries to sign up for the emerging U.S.-led climate deal: “Money.” His candor was recounted in an April email between two of the Obama administration’s top global warming officials, who called the succinct wisdom from Mr. Kutesa — at the time the president of the U.N. General Assembly — the “best answer of [the] night.” Indeed, as Todd Stern, the State Department’s top climate official, and Brian Deese, President Obama’s top climate adviser, are trying to rally a deal ahead of a major meeting in Paris that kicks off Monday, it’s becoming clear that any diplomatic breakthrough will be far less about converting hearts and minds than it will be about finding enough money to seal the agreement. That payoff will come in the form of the Green Climate Fund, the U.N.’s green bank, to which the world’s rich countries are supposed to donate $100 billion a year beginning in 2020, with the money going to the developing world, where it is supposed to be split between converting economies to green energy and helping mitigate the worst effects of changing temperatures.

5am – E         Sports News:

• Redskins beat Giants 20-14 to pull into NFC East tie at 5-6. LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jay Gruden’s Washington Redskins have not won two games in a row all season. They followed a 33-point victory with a 28-point loss. They are 5-1 at home, 0-5 on the road. They tend to have a hard time running the ball — and stopping the run. And yet, for all of their deficiencies and inconsistency, the Redskins are right there at the top of the NFC East. Kirk Cousins connected with DeSean Jackson for a 63-yard touchdown pass and scored on a fourth-down quarterback sneak, Washington intercepted Eli Manning three times, and the Redskins withstood the latest miraculous catch by Odell Beckham Jr. to hold on and beat the New York Giants 20-14 Sunday, pulling into a tie for first place.
• NATIONALS: Jordan Zimmerman signs with Detroit Tigers, according to multiple reports. (NBC DC) — Tigers closing in on deal for Jordan Zimmermann. Detroit — Tigers general manager Al Avila continues to methodically check off items on his off-season to-do list. First, he acquired a veteran closer — Francisco Rodriguez. Then a veteran, right-handed hitting outfielder — Cameron Maybin. Now, a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher. The Tigers have agreed to a five-year deal worth $110 million with right-handed free agent Jordan Zimmermann. Avila was unwilling to confirm the deal until the results of Zimmermann’s medical examination were in.
• Dallas Cowboys owner confirme that QB Tony Romo is out for the season after he fractured his left clavicle. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Friday that quarterback Tony Romo’s season is done after he fractured his left collarbone for the second time this season. During a radio interview on KRLD-FM radio in Dallas, Jones said that Romo suffered a hairline fracture that will not require surgery. The injury, suffered late in the third quarter of Thursday’s 33-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers, will sideline the 35-year-old Romo for the remaining five games of the regular season.

6am – A/B/C Carly Fiorina hits out at “typical left-wing tactics” in tying pro-life movement to Colorado shooting. In an interview this morning with Fox News Sunday, Republican primary candidate Carly Fiorina said that attempts to link Friday’s Planned Parenthood shooting with anti-abortion rhetoric were “typical left-wing tactics.” Fiorina was responding to a statement by Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. In her statement, Cowart said, “We’ve seen an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns against abortion providers and patients over the last few months. That environment breeds acts of violence.” Fiorina rejected the connections made by Cowart saying, “This is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing a messenger because they don’t agree with the message. The vast majority of Americans agree what Planned Parenthood is doing is wrong.”

6am – D         CYBER MONDAY: Be Honest: Did you shop for presents for others or shop for yourself? Self-Gifting Shopping: According to Tom Gillpatrick, the Juan Young Professor of Marketing at the Center for Retail Leadership School of Business Administration at Portland State University, “self-gifting” is an important trend in holiday shopping. And retailers are trying to cater to it. “About 40 percent of purchases are people buying things for themselves. People know what they want.” He says people are tired of white elephant gifts and inappropriate stuff. Retail is shifting rapidly, he notices. The old model of heading to the mall and driving home with a trunkload of packages is being diluted by online sales and a sense of discernment in middle and upper middle class people. Black Friday is a victim of that. “Black Friday is becoming much less of a thing. Quite a few retailers are moving to the omnichannel model. They’re asking ‘How do we touch our customers 24/7?’” says Gillpatrick.

6am – E         Critter News:

• National Zoo puts up ZooLights display. WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Zoo in Washington has begun its holiday lights display. The zoo says it hung more than 500,000 environmentally-friendly LED lights throughout the zoo as part of its annual ZooLights display. The ZooLights event started Friday and continues from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Jan. 2. Admission is free. The only days ZooLights will not be on display are Dec. 24, 25 and 31. The zoo says ZooLights will include live music performances and that new to the program this year will be a light show set to music. There’s also a special, ticketed event called BrewLights on Dec. 3 where guests age 21 and older can taste microbrew and craft beers.
• A domestic violence call to police turned out to be a man trying to kill a “big” spider. Police: Domestic violence call turns out to be man trying to kill spider. (USA Today) — Australian police responded to what they believed was a domestic violence incident only to find the commotion was caused by a man trying to kill a “big” spider. Police responded to numerous calls from neighbors that reported hearing a woman “screaming hysterically” and a man threatening her. When police arrived at the home in Sydney around 2 a.m., the man was “out of breath and rather flushed,” according to an account of the incident posted on the Harbourside Local police force Facebook page on Nov. 21. Police asked the man what he had done to the screaming woman, and the man responded that he lived alone. The hilarious conversation between the man and police is recounted below:

Police: “Come on mate people clearly heard you yelling you were going to kill her and furniture getting thrown around the unit.”

Man: “It was a spider.”

Police “Sorry??”

Man: “It was a spider, a really big one!!

Police :”What about the women screaming?”

Man: “Yeah sorry that was me, I really really hate spiders.”

Police said it turned out the male was chasing a “rather large spider around the unit with a can.”

• A K9 dog stuck in a Bethesda storm drain was rescued Friday afternoon. BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA9) — A dog that had been missing for a year and was found stuck in a Bethesda storm drain was rescued by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue crew Friday afternoon, officials said. “Cookie” was stuck in the 7800 block of Lonesome Pine Lane around 2 p.m., Montgomery County Fire and Rescue said. The bars covering the drain had to be removed. Officials said the dog appeared to be in relatively god health. The dog had been missing from Kensington since October 2014, according to officials.

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

• The first Baltimore cop goes on trial Monday in the death of Freddie Gray
• Attorney: White House fence jump was act of protest
• Carly Fiorina hits out at “typical left-wing tactics” in tying pro-life movement to Colorado shooting
• Suspected Colorado gunman set for first court appearance

7am – B         2016 News:

• New Hampshire Union Leader endorses Chris Christie. (CNN) Chris Christie’s struggling presidential campaign got a much-needed boost Saturday night when the influential New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed the New Jersey governor. “Gov. Christie is right for these dangerous times,” the paper’s publisher Joseph McQuaid wrote in an editorial. “He has prosecuted terrorists and dealt admirably with major disasters. But the one reason he may be best-suited to lead during these times is because he tells it like it is and isn’t shy about it.”
• Trump insists he didn’t insult reporter with disabilities, now wants an apology for the accusation. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said again on Saturday that he didn’t mock a New York Times reporter with physical disabilities, but this time called for an apology from the newspaper and said the reporter is taking advantage of the allegation to a “horrible degree.” “I don’t mock people that have problems, believe me,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Fla.
• Trump scraps endorsement event after black pastors object. JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has cancelled a press conference in which his campaign said he would be endorsed by as many as 100 black evangelical religious leaders. Many of those invited to the event say they had no intention of endorsing the billionaire businessman and former reality television star. “It’s a miscommunication,” said Darrell Scott, the senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who has helped to arrange meetings between Trump and black pastors in recent months. Trump’s campaign “thought it was going to be a press conference for an endorsement when it wasn’t,” Scott said Sunday in an interview.
• Ted Cruz Does ‘Princess Bride’ Impression. (ABC News) — He’s quoted “Jerry Maguire,” “The Usual Suspects” and “Scarface” on the campaign trail, but it’s clear, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz loves “The Princess Bride” the most. At a church service today in Des Moines, Iowa, the presidential hopeful was prodded by the pastor of Christian Life Assembly of God to offer an impression from his favorite movie. It didn’t take much prodding. “I will confess to knowing an awful lot of that movie,” Cruz said. Cruz has previously said it’s his favorite movie. He admitted to the congregation that while he loved the movie, he’s “never shared on a Sunday morning” his “Princess Bride” impressions in a church setting.

7am – C         Sports News:

• Redskins beat Giants 20-14 to pull into NFC East tie at 5-6. LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jay Gruden’s Washington Redskins have not won two games in a row all season. They followed a 33-point victory with a 28-point loss. They are 5-1 at home, 0-5 on the road. They tend to have a hard time running the ball — and stopping the run. And yet, for all of their deficiencies and inconsistency, the Redskins are right there at the top of the NFC East.
• Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Friday that quarterback Tony Romo’s season is done after he fractured his left collarbone for the second time this season. During a radio interview on KRLD-FM radio in Dallas, Jones said that Romo suffered a hairline fracture that will not require surgery. The injury, suffered late in the third quarter of Thursday’s 33-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers, will sideline the 35-year-old Romo for the remaining five games of the regular season.
• Eli Manning is ‘Penguin Boy,’ now and forevermore. Eli Manning shall now only be referred to as ‘Penguin Boy’ – Something magical happened during Sunday’s Giants-Redskins game. No, not Washington moving into first place in the NFC East with a 5-6 record (although that does seem fairly fantastical in its own right). What happened was a closed-captioning error bestowed upon us one of the greatest nicknames in recent memory. And from here on out, it will be impossible to refer to Eli Manning as anything but “Penguin Boy.” Well, that may not have been a good(e) decision, but it led to a wonderful new thing. The beauty of it is that “Penguin Boy” really does seem to fit Manning, who continues to possess a sort of youthful awkwardness even into his 35th year.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – CHRIS HORNER – Senior Fellow, Center for Energy and Environment. Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism – discussed the Climate Summit in Paris.

• “It’s not about climate. It never was,” said Christopher Horner, a researcher who obtained the Obama administration email detailing Mr. Kutesa’s stance. “All they want is wealth transfers, for the poor in rich countries to pay the rich in poor countries.”

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• 50 years in, ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ remains timeless. (USA Today) — To celebrate more than a half century of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ on TV, Kristen Bell will host a special holiday retrospective, ‘It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown,’ on Monday. When Christmas returns on Monday (9 p.m. ET/PT), its milestone year will be commemorated with an anniversary show, It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown! (8 p.m. ET/PT). Hosted by Kristen Bell, the retrospective features Guaraldi’s classic tunes as well as performances by Sarah McLachlan, Boyz II Men, Pentatonix, and Kristin Chenoweth, who won a Tony Award in 1999 playing Charlie’s little sister, Sally, in the Broadway revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
• ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ almost never happened. (USA Today) — A Charlie Brown Christmas is the second longest-running holiday special in TV history, second only to 1964’s Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But before it hit the small screen 50 years ago, all anyone could say was, “Good grief.” Midway through production in 1965, executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers a visit from an ad executive at McCann-Erickson, whose client Coca-Cola commissioned the special. Looking at rough pencil drawings and animation tests with no music, “he said: ‘This isn’t very good. I don’t know what I’m going to tell the agency. If I tell them what I think, they’re going to cancel the show,’ ” Mendelson says. “I said, ‘Well, wait, whoa, this is all very rudimentary. If you believe in Charles Schulz and his characters, you’re just going to have to trust us that this is going to be great.’ “
• Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Wins Thanksgiving With $75.8M; ‘Good Dinosaur,’ ‘Creed’ – Holiday revenue is up sharply from 2014 despite ‘Victor Frankenstein’ being a turkey; ‘Carol’ beats the debut of ‘The Danish Girl’ at the specialty box office. Katniss Everdeen, a lovable dinosaur and an aging Rocky Balboa made for an appetizing feast at the Thanksgiving box office, where revenue was up sharply from last year. As expected, holdover The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 dominated overall in its second outing, earning $75.8 million for the Wednesday-Sunday holiday stretch. The final installment in Lionsgate’s YA film franchise continues to pace behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, which earned $82.7 million over Thanksgiving in 2014, but is still pulling in huge numbers.
• Adele’s ’25’ sells record-breaking 3.38 million copies. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adele’s new album “25” has sold 3.38 million copies in its first week, smashing single week sales records, according to Nielsen Music. As reported by Billboard, “25” is the first album to sell more than 3 million copies in one week in Nielsen’s history, which has been tracking first week purchases since 1991. The previous record was held by ‘NSYNC whose 2000 album “No Strings Attached” sold 2.4 million copies in its first week.
• The singer Sinead O’Connor is reportedly receiving medical treatment after a worrying message about taking an ‘overdose’ was posted on her Facebook page. O’Connor sparked fears for her wellbeing after the emotional post claiming she had taken an overdose at a hotel in Ireland was widely shared. She did not disclose the name or location of the hotel. In the lengthy message posted two hours ago, O’Connor, who has four children, said she was “broken by events during this week and claimed to have been subject to “appalling cruelty”. “The last two nights finished me off. I have taken an overdose” it read. “I am at a hotel, somewhere in Ireland, under another name. There is only so much any woman can be expected to bear.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH — Redskins elite long snapper and WMAL’s Redskins analyst

• Redskins beat Giants 20-14 to pull into NFC East tie at 5-6. LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jay Gruden’s Washington Redskins have not won two games in a row all season. They followed a 33-point victory with a 28-point loss. They are 5-1 at home, 0-5 on the road. They tend to have a hard time running the ball — and stopping the run. And yet, for all of their deficiencies and inconsistency, the Redskins are right there at the top of the NFC East.

8am – B         Syria and ISIS News:

• Carson after tour: Syrian refugees don’t want to come to US. AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (AP) — After touring Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Saturday suggested that camps should serve as a long-term solution for millions, while other refugees could be absorbed by Middle Eastern countries. “I did not detect any great desire for them to come to the United States,” Carson told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Jordan. “You’ve got these refugee camps that aren’t completely full. And all you need is the resources to be able to run them. Why do you need to create something else?” The retired neurosurgeon toured the Azraq camp in northern Jordan under heavy Jordanian security, with journalists barred. Carson’s campaign also limited access, not providing his itinerary. After the Azraq visit, Carson said he didn’t learn anything that gives him confidence in authorities’ ability to screen potential terrorists. “What I learned is that you’re going to get a different answer from everybody depending on what their slant is,” he said, reiterating his opposition to allowing any Syrian refugees to come to the United States.
• FBI tracking 1,000 ISIS suspects in the U.S.; 48 considered high-risk. (Washington Times) — The FBI has roughly 1,000 active Islamic State probes inside the U.S. and new reports have revealed that at least 48 of those suspects are considered so high-risk that the bureau has deployed elite surveillance teams to track them. The squads, known as mobile surveillance teams or MST are following the men and women, who are believed to be radicalized, 24 hours a day in case they plan to commit any acts of terrorism, Fox News reported. Republican Sen. Dan Coats, who sits on the Select Committee on Intelligence, would not comment on the specific details of the surveillance or the suspects, but said the around-the-clock tracking is a major commitment for the FBI. “The FBI together with law enforcement agencies across the country are engaged in this. It take enormous amounts of manpower to do this on a 24-7 basis. It take enormous amounts of money to do this,” Mr. Coats told Fox. At least a dozen agents are assigned to each case to provide 24/7 coverage. The amount of surveillance reflects the high risk associated with suspects most likely to attempt copycat attacks like the shootings and bombings in Paris on Nov. 13. “It is a big resource drain. Yes it is. Almost overwhelming,” Mr. Coats said when asked about the demand placed on the FBI.
• Germany to send 1,200 soldiers to Syria to support fight against Islamic State. (Telegraph) — The planned involvement could be Germany’s largest current overseas deployment and is a response to France’s call for support to fight the extremists Germany is planning to send 1,200 soldiers to Syria to support the international fight against Isil, in what would be its largest current overseas military deployment, its army chief has said. The planned German military involvement in response to France’s call for more countries to help fight the militants after the Paris attacks would see troops provide service support to ships and reconnaissance planes, but would not include direct combat.
• 8am – C         Congrats Mary Katharine Ham! Welcome to the world, baby Garnet Brewer! The newborn’s first name comes from a “memorable” hike Mary and Jake did in Wyoming when Mary was just 7 months pregnant. Garnet’s middle initial is for her dad, Jake. In an Instagram post, Mary thanks her followers for their prayers and love. “We will always miss Jake, but we know we are taken care of and so does he,” she said. MK’s Instagram account message: mkhammertime 18 hours ago: “World, meet Garnet J. Brewer! At 7 lbs., 13 oz. & 21 in., she made her appearance after 5.5 hours of blessedly safe & awesome natural labor Nov. 28 at 5:15 am, reminding her mom this childbirth thing is no joke, hard core, & beautiful.

8am – D/E     CYBER MONEY SHOPPING: Online Shopping Tops Stores on Black Friday Weekend. Online shopping, especially via mobile phones, surges, showing how buying habits have changed.