Joe diGenova, Dr. Stephen Farnsworth and Sharyl Attkisson joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, February 29, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Donald Trump on Racist Endorsement: ‘I Don’t Know Anything About David Duke.’ In an interview Sunday morning, GOP front-runner Donald Trump would not condemn former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke’s support for his presidential campaign, saying that he has no knowledge of the white supremacist leader. “Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, okay? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don’t know, did he endorse me or what’s going on,” Trump said CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. When Tapper asked if Trump would unequivocally condemn and reject the white supremacists who support him, Trump said he would need to conduct research into the groups.

5am – D         Oscar Highlights: Spotlight won Best Picture tonight at the 88th Annual Academy Awards, handed out at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Mad Max: Fury Road came into the night with the second-most nominations — 10 — and won six trophies, twice as many Oscars as its closest rival. The Revenant, which had a leading 12 noms, and Spotlight were the only other films to win multiple awards, with three and two respectively. Alejandro G. Inarritu won Best Director for The Revenant, becoming the only the second helmer to win back-to-back Oscars, following Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1949-50. The film also scored the first Academy Award for Leonardo DiCaprio, who won Best Actor in his sixth nom. Room star Brie Larson won Best Actress, her first Oscar in her first nomination.

5am – E         Clinton News:

• State Dept. releases another 1,500 pages of Clinton emails. Published February 26, 2016 Associated Press – WASHINGTON – The State Department has released another batch of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails from her private server, including 88 documents that were upgraded to the lowest classification level. The department on Friday posted 1,589 pages of Clinton’s emails on its website, bringing to 48,535 the number of pages released as part of its ongoing release of the former secretary’s correspondence. The last batch of the roughly 55,000 work-related emails Clinton turned over to the department is scheduled to be released on Monday in accordance with a court order.
• Bill Clinton gets into heated exchange with Benghazi protesters. Washington (CNN) Former President Bill Clinton engaged in a heated back-and-forth with a military veteran at a campaign event in Bluffton, South Carolina, saying he would answer a question about the Benghazi attacks if the veteran would “shut up.” “I’m not your commander in chief anymore, but if I were, I’d tell you to be more polite,” Clinton told the man on Friday, who said he was a military veteran. “And I wouldn’t listen. I would just raise my voice,” the man shouted back at Clinton, according to video taken at the event by another protester. Clinton was interrupted by the protester while he was discussing his experiences during 9/11, part of a speech he was giving for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
• Hillary wins South Carolina.

6am – A/B/C Charles Schumer condemns ‘shrinkage’ of airline seats, proposes standard size. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer wants to require the Federal Aviation Administration to establish seat-size standards for commercial airlines, which he says now force passengers to sit on planes “like sardines.” The New York Democrat told The Associated Press the airlines have been slowly cutting down legroom and seat width. “One of the most vexing things when you travel on an airplane is there’s almost no legroom on your standard flight,” Schumer said. “There’s been constant shrinkage by the airlines.” He said he will add an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill that is pending before Congress that would require the agency to set the seat-size guidelines. Schumer planned to formally announce the proposal at a news conference Sunday. Schumer said the average distance between rows of seats has dropped from 35 inches in the 1970s to a current average of about 16.5 inches.

6am – D         Endorsements:

• Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump and Calls Marco Rubio ‘Desperate.’ In a rollicking day of spectacle, spite and scorn, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey declared his allegiance to Donald J. Trump and war on Marco Rubio, describing the senator on Friday as desperate and unfit for the presidency. The endorsement interrupted a 48-hour assault from an emboldened Mr. Rubio, who is adopting many of the real estate mogul’s crude tactics and colorful insults as he urgently tries to arrest Mr. Trump’s march to the Republican nomination.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions endorses Donald Trump. Madison, Alabama (CNN) Sen. Jeff Sessions on Sunday became the first sitting senator to endorse Donald Trump, declaring his support for the Republican front-runner during a rally at a football stadium here. The endorsement from the Alabama Republican known for his opposition to illegal immigration will solidify Trump’s attempts to position himself as the Republican presidential candidate with the toughest stance on the issue. The endorsement comes two days before the crucial Super Tuesday primary when Alabama and a dozen other states, mostly in the South, vote.
• Tulsi Gabbard endorses Bernie Sanders.

6am – E         Starbucks to open first coffee shop in Italy. Starbucks is taking its boldest step yet by opening its first store in Italy. The American coffee chain promised to enter the birthplace of the espresso “with humility and respect”. The first Starbucks will open in Milan early next year, in partnership with Italian developer Percassi. President Antonio Percassi said: “We know that we are going to face a unique challenge with the opening of the first Starbucks store in Italy.” It was a trip to Milan in the 1980s where he saw locals gathered at coffee bars that inspired Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, to set up a coffee shop in America. The chain now has 22,000 outlets in 67 countries.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JOE DIGENOVA – LEGAL ANALYST and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

Hillary Clinton Wins South Carolina Primary

• State Dept. releases another 1,500 pages of Clinton emails
• Lynch confirms career Justice Department attorneys involved in Clinton email probe

7am – B/C     Donald Trump on Racist Endorsement: ‘I Don’t Know Anything About David Duke.’ In an interview Sunday morning, GOP front-runner Donald Trump would not condemn former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke’s support for his presidential campaign, saying that he has no knowledge of the white supremacist leader. “Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, okay? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don’t know, did he endorse me or what’s going on,” Trump said CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.

7am – D         Melissa Harris-Perry Is Officially OUT At MSNBC. MSNBC confirmed Sunday morning that it has cut ties with Melissa Harris-Perry after her very public attack on the network over having her airtime repeatedly preempted by election coverage. Rumors of Harris-Perry’s imminent departure have been flying ever since Friday’s publication of an email where Harris-Parry accused the cable network of trying to silence her and sideline her program. The shift was confirmed Sunday morning when Harris-Perry made a farewell post on Twitter: Melissa Harris-Perry @MHarrisPerry: Farewell #Nerdland. Inviting diverse new voices to table was a privilege. Grateful for years of support & criticism 7:06 AM – 28 Feb 2016

Meanwhile, the network itself confirmed with The New York Times that Harris-Perry was getting the boot. While severance terms are still being negotiated, there is no longer any hope of a reconciliation between the two parties.

7am – E         The DC Streetcar Is Finally Running. More than a decade after DC officials first raised the idea, and seven years after the tracks were laid down, Washington’s first streetcar in more than half a century entered service Saturday morning, finally rolling down H St. and Benning Rd., Northeast. “Today we start the DC Streetcar,” Leif Dormsjo, the District Department of Transportation’s director, said at a ceremony packed with current and former city officials and transit geeks. The streetcar, which has cost the city about $200 million since it was first conceived, missed numerous deadlines over the years, held up by several bouts of faulty planning and shoddy record-keeping. Dormsjo, the seventh person to hold DDOT’s top job since the streetcar was first conceived, got much of the credit for finally getting it running. But the agonizing wait for streetcar service couldn’t be overlooked by its biggest boosters. “On behalf of four mayors, many DDOT directors, thank you for your patience,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said, addressing residents of the neighborhood that bloomed around H Street in the years since the line was first announced. “I inherited all of the good things happening in the District of Columbia, and I inherited some of the lulus.”

Time Comparison of Streetcar and other transportation: (Washington Post) – On the day the back-to-the-future transit system launched passenger service — after more than $200 million and a decade of delays and missteps — it took the streetcar 26 minutes to make its way end-to-end on the two-mile line. It took 27 minutes to walk the same route on Saturday, 19 minutes on the bus, 10 minutes to bike and just seven minutes in a Uber.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — DR. STEPHEN FARNSWORTH – Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA @drsfarnsworth

• PREVIEW SUPER TUESDAY / VIRGINIA PRIMARY:
• NEW CNN POLL: Trump, Clinton dominant as Super Tuesday looms. (CNN) Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are poised to lead the nation’s two major parties in this fall’s presidential election, with a new nationwide CNN/ORC poll finding each well ahead of their closest competitors just as the race expands to a national stage. Trump has expanded his lead over the diminished field to capture the support of nearly half of Republican voters, while Clinton tops Sanders by nearly 20 points.On the Republican side, the new survey finds Trump’s lead is dominant, and his support tops that of his four remaining opponents combined. The businessman tops his nearest competitor by more than 30 points: 49% back Trump, 16% Marco Rubio, 15% Ted Cruz, 10% Ben Carson and 6% John Kasich.
• Poll: RC Poll: Clinton, Trump hold leads in Virginia primary elections; Cruz, Rubio in tight battle for second. Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders (50%-33%), and Donald Trump leads the Republican field (Trump 38%, Cruz 15%, Rubio 13%), according to The Roanoke College Poll.
• What you need to know for the Virginia primary Tuesday. WASHINGTON — Many more Virginia voters are expected to cast ballots Tuesday than the last time both major parties held presidential primaries, so elections officials want to ensure voters are prepared before coming to the polls. Acceptable IDs include a driver’s license, passport or other government-issued photo identification issued by the federal, state or local government. IDs from Virginia colleges or high schools and employee identification cards are also acceptable. Absentee voting activity in Fairfax County leads Sasnett to believe they’re in for heavy turnout on Tuesday. “When you see numbers like this in absentee, it shows that we’re going to see a big increase [in turnout],” Sasnett says. He says there are enough poll workers ready at all of the county’s 242 polling places. But they are not expected to be faced with the more than 70 percent turnout of a usual presidential general election.

8am – B/C     Oscar Highlights: Spotlight won Best Picture tonight at the 88th Annual Academy Awards, handed out at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Mad Max: Fury Road came into the night with the second-most nominations — 10 — and won six trophies, twice as many Oscars as its closest rival. The Revenant, which had a leading 12 noms, and Spotlight were the only other films to win multiple awards, with three and two respectively. Alejandro G. Inarritu won Best Director for The Revenant, becoming the only the second helmer to win back-to-back Oscars, following Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1949-50. The film also scored the first Academy Award for Leonardo DiCaprio, who won Best Actor in his sixth nom. Room star Brie Larson won Best Actress, her first Oscar in her first nomination.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — SHARYL ATTKISSON – Investigative journalist and host of new show “Full Measure” on WJLA ABC Sunday mornings at 9:30 am

• State Dept. releases another 1,500 pages of Clinton emails. Published February 26, 2016 Associated Press – WASHINGTON – The State Department has released another batch of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails from her private server, including 88 documents that were upgraded to the lowest classification level. The department on Friday posted 1,589 pages of Clinton’s emails on its website, bringing to 48,535 the number of pages released as part of its ongoing release of the former secretary’s correspondence. The last batch of the roughly 55,000 work-related emails Clinton turned over to the department is scheduled to be released on Monday in accordance with a court order.
• Lynch confirms career Justice Department attorneys involved in Clinton email probe

8am – E         Virginia police officer killed a day after she is sworn in; 2 others injured. (CNN) A Virginia police officer was killed while responding to a domestic-related shooting a day after she was sworn in, authorities said. Prince William County police officer Ashley Guindon was killed Saturday night in Lake Ridge. She was sworn in Friday. Two other officers were injured in the shooting, authorities said. One was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds and another officer was stable, according to Corey Stewart, chairman of the board of county supervisors. A day before the shooting, the department tweeted a photo of Guindon after her swearing in. Guindon had been an officer before but took some time off, Stewart said.