Alberto Gonzales, KT McFarland and Jim Antle joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Supreme Court Seat: Should There Be Hearings?

5am – D         Trump and The History of Foul Language in Politics:

• Trump on foul language: ‘I’ll never do it again.’ GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump promised late Thursday night that he would no longer curse on the campaign trail. “I won’t use foul language,” he told supporters during a rally in Baton Rouge, La. “I’m just not going to do it. I’ll never do it again, actually, and I’ll never even copy what somebody asks me to say.” Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have criticized his public profanity as crass and undignified.
• A Brief History of Cursing in American Politics. Donald Trump is not the first to fail to delete his expletives. One new anti-Donald Trump ad being run by Jeb Bush supporters in South Carolina doesn’t exactly mince words: the clip relies on soundbites of Trump using vulgarities during political discussions to portray him as unpresidential and lacking in values. But Trump isn’t the only person in American political history to use the odd expletive to make a point. Others like Rand Paul and Jeb Bush—yes, Jeb Bush, though generally in a much gentler way—have used strong language in their campaigns, so much so that some observers have called the trend a sign of a pro-profanity cultural shift. Nor is that trend limited to candidates: President Obama and Vice President Biden have both been known to let a less-than-polite word slip. To be fair, other observers drew the same conclusion from the politics of 2012—and, while the words used have evolved, political cursing has a long history in U.S. politics. After all, it was George Washington himself who “swore … till the leaves shook on the trees” after the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Monmouth Courthouse. Modern political profanity, however, can be traced back to the 1948 election, when President Harry Truman acquired the nickname “Give ‘Em Hell Harry” for the force of his ultimately successful campaign to stay in the White House. (“I never did give ‘em hell,” Truman would later say. “I just told them the truth and they couldn’t stand it.”) Though that particular four-letter word may sound barely worth mentioning, it was only about a decade later that, during a televised 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon would take Truman to task for his salty reputation, praising Dwight Eisenhower for having “restored dignity and decency and, frankly, good language to the conduct of the presidency of the United States.”

5am – E         China sends surface-to-air missiles to contested island in provocative move. The Chinese military has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of its contested islands in the South China Sea according to civilian satellite imagery exclusively obtained by Fox News, more evidence that China is increasingly “militarizing” its islands in the South China Sea and ramping up tensions in the region. The imagery from ImageSat International (ISI) shows two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea. It is the same island chain where a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed close to another contested island a few weeks ago. China at the time vowed “consequences” for the action. Woody Island is also claimed by Taiwan and by Vietnam. The missiles arrived over the past week. According to the images, a beach on the island was empty on Feb. 3, but the missiles were visible by Feb. 14.

6am – A/B/C Supreme Court: Should There Be Term Limits?

6am – D/E     Judge orders Apple to help unlock iPhone used by Calif. Shooter. Apple opposes judge’s order to hack San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. (CNN) Apple has responded to a California judge’s order to help the FBI break into the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters with a public letter saying it opposes such a move, labeling the instruction “an overreach by the U.S. government.” The letter, signed by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and published Tuesday, warns that complying with the order would entail building “a backdoor to the iPhone,” creating “something we consider too dangerous to create.” “The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals,” the letter reads. Such a move would potentially render tens of millions of devices vulnerable. “No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”

 

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JIM ANTLE — Politics Editor, Washington Examiner – previewed the South Carolina primary and the politics of the Supreme Court nomination.

7am – B         Entertainment News:

• The moment Sir Paul McCartney gets ‘turned away from a Grammys after party.’ Sir Paul McCartney ‘turned away from Grammys after party.’ Video shows singer asking ‘How VIP do we gotta get?’ Sir Paul McCartney is a former Beatle who boasts 18 Grammys and musical collaborations with almost every artist on the planet under his belt. But these credentials were apparently not enough to earn the 73-year-old a pass to a Grammys after party after footage emerged appearing to show him being rejected. In a video captured by TMZ (who else), Sir Paul can be heard incredulously telling fellow hopefuls Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and singer Beck, “How VIP do we gotta get? We need another hit guys!” as security refuses the trio entry to the bash at the Argyle in Hollywood. The party was hosted by the 26-year-old rapper Tyga, who appeared unsure of how to respond after being asked how it felt to have Sir Paul denied entry to his event as he left later in the evening. Fellow rapper Bow Wow did have some insight to offer, however, telling the website: “Maybe it’s the fact that we are younger than Sir Paul and it’s a new generation… and we really club when we go out.”
• Cops surround home only to find family watching “The Walking Dead” (USA Today) — A Montana family gave their neighbors quite a scare while enjoying a favorite TV show Sunday evening. A 911 call came in at 7:28 p.m. from a Great Falls neighbor who heard “screaming from a house about someone having a gun,” according to Great Falls Police Department notes from the call. A second caller helped the seven responding officers locate the house. Great Falls Police Department Sgt. Brian McGraw said the officers surrounded the residence, responding to a disturbance possibly involving a gun. “We had a whole bunch of guys on that one,” he said. The call notes say the officers heard “loud talking” from inside the home and observed “flashing lights.” According to the notes, the officers saw two adults and several children, ages unknown, watching “a show about firearms” with two windows close to the TV opened. Everyone appeared to be OK. McGraw said he later found out the show was the midseason premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead, an hour-long drama chronicling life during the zombie apocalypse.

7am – C         Fairfax Co. budget proposal floats 3 cent tax rate increase, doesn’t fully match schools funding request. FAIRFAX, Va. — An average Fairfax County homeowner would have to pay $300 more in real estate taxes under a spending plan unveiled Tuesday that provides half of the new funding requested to support the county school system. The budget proposal from County Executive Ed Long would increase school funding 3 percent over the current year. That’s still less than half of the 6.7 percent increase the Fairfax County School Board had requested, and it prompted sharp criticism from School Board members. “We are dismayed,” a statement from School Board Chairman Pat Hynes began. “This is a crushing blow to the more than 185,000 students who depend on the schools to help shape their future and to the teachers.” Long says that both fully funding the schools’ request and meeting general county administrative needs funded in his budget proposal would require a tax rate increase of 6 to 7 cents for every $100 of assessed value. Long recommends at least a 3 cent increase in the tax rate. But he said that a 4 cent increase would provide the Board of Supervisors with an extra $22 million above the revenue outlined in the spending proposal.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — KT MCFARLAND – FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST

• China sends surface-to-air missiles to contested island in provocative move. The Chinese military has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of its contested islands in the South China Sea according to civilian satellite imagery exclusively obtained by Fox News, more evidence that China is increasingly “militarizing” its islands in the South China Sea and ramping up tensions in the region. The imagery from ImageSat International (ISI) shows two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea.
• US stealth jets fly over S. Korea amid N. Korea standoff. OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) — Four U.S. F-22 stealth fighters flew low over South Korea on Wednesday in a clear show of force against North Korea, a day after South Korea’s president warned of the North’s collapse amid a festering standoff over its nuclear and missile ambitions.
• Tump blames Bush for 911 and Iraq War: Donald Trump is continuing to thrash George W. Bush over his handling of 9/11

7am – E         2016 News:

• Jeb Bush’s gun pic blows up Twitter (It’s not all outrage. Some folks had fun with Photoshop). Former Florida governor Jeb Bush — or at least his campaign — knows how to be provocative on Twitter: Jeb Bush @JebBush: America. 4:27 PM – 16 Feb 2016 / Within minutes, the post was retweeted thousands of times and drew all manner of responses:
• Hillary Has Coughing Fit During Race Speech. In the middle of her Tuesday speech in Harlem that discussed race relations, Hillary Clinton had multiple coughing fits that prevented her from getting her words out on more than one occasion. It got so bad that the audience enthusiastically started chanting “Hillary! Hillary!” to provide encouragement as Clinton started taking sips of water while popping in a cough drop.
• Obama: Trump Won’t Win.
• Trump unleashes on Cruz, threatens eligibility lawsuit over alleged ‘lies’ (Fox News) — Donald Trump dramatically escalated his feud with rival Ted Cruz on Monday, threatening to sue the Texas senator over his eligibility for office if he does not retract alleged “lies” about Trump’s positions – and calling on the Republican National Committee to intervene on two fronts. The billionaire businessman wants the RNC to pressure Cruz, and also stop allowing so many donors at the debates. If the RNC does not “get its act together,” Trump warned, they would be violating the “pledge” he signed to support the eventual GOP nominee.
• Trump claims Rubio SWEATS too much to negotiate with Putin. It’s getting hot in here: Donald Trump claims Marco Rubio SWEATS too much to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump has taken aim at Marco Rubio, saying he sweats too much to tackle high-level negotiations with Vladimir Putin. He was referring to the GOP debate when Rubio struggled to defend himself against Chris Christie, who said he was a robot that churned out the same 20-second speech at every event. Laughing about it at a rally in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday, Trump said: ‘He was soaking wet, I’m telling you. He was wet… I thought he just came out of a swimming pool. ‘He was soaking. I looked, I said, “Wow”. I said, “Are you OK?”.’ But as the crowds laughed, Trump turned his light mockery into a searing dig at Rubio’s political capabilities. ‘When we get in there with Putin, we need people that don’t sweat, let me tell you. ‘No, it’s true. Got to have people that don’t sweat. Can you imagine Putin sitting there and waiting for the meeting and this guy walks in and he’s like a wreck?

8am – A         INTERVIEW — JUDGE ALBERTO GONZALES — former United States Attorney General and the former Counsel to President George W. Bush. He is currently the Dean at Belmont University College of Law – discussed the battle over the Supreme Court nomination.

8am – B/C/D/E Supreme Court Seat: Should There Be Hearing?