Amanda Carpenter, Peter Hart and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 11, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Priebus pleads for unity in the GOP. It was an odd start to the Republican presidential primary debate in Miami, as Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, made what sounded like something between an argument for party unity and a plea right before the candidates took the stage. On the one hand, it sounded as if he was asking the party to unite behind whoever is the GOP’s eventual nominee. On the other hand, Priebus also appeared to be trying to reassure frontrunner Donald Trump and his supporters that the party will back him, staving off any move by Trump to run as a third-party candidate. “I want to get something completely clear, because there’s been a lot of talk about this. This party is going to support the nominee — whoever that is — 100 percent,” Priebus said. “There’s no question about that.”

Trump Opens Debate With Message to GOP Establishment: Just ‘Embrace What’s Happening.’ Donald Trump‘s opening statement at tonight’s CNN Republican debate was basically a warning to the GOP establishment to just accept him already. The entire opening statement didn’t exactly dwell on policy, but instead the number of people coming out in droves to vote for The Donald. Trump called this “one of the biggest political events anywhere in the world” right now. He said there are people coming out to vote for the first time in their lives––voting out of enthusiasm and love. “I think, frankly,” Trump said, “the Republican establishment, or whatever you want to call it, should embrace what’s happening.”

5am – D         DC Fire Department News:

• DC shooting victim waits almost 30 minutes before being transported to hospital. (Fox 5) — WASHINGTON – It is yet another delayed ambulance response to an emergency in the District. A source tells FOX 5 that a man suffering from gunshot wounds on Chesapeake Street in Southeast D.C. Wednesday evening had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a transport to the hospital. Witnesses say a heated argument between two men quickly escalated and turned violent. About 70 police officers actually heard those gunshots and raced to the scene. Eventually, firefighters made their way there as well. “It was like a block party out here,” the witness said. “That’s how much people were out here.” Although police and firefighters were in the area, there was still no ambulance to transport the victim. “If that was the case, we could have put him in a car and took him,” said the witness. “That’s how long it took them to come.”
• DC Firefighter Takes Off Own Breathing Mask to Save Woman. “I love him and I love what he did,” the woman’s granddaughter said. A firefighter stormed into a burning apartment building in Southeast Washington, D.C., Wednesday and took off his own breathing mask to help rescue a senior citizen who had been ready to jump from a third-floor window to escape the smoke and flames. Firefighter Danny Lovato is being hailed as a hero after he shared his air supply with Phyllis Terrell, 65, after a blaze erupted in her apartment building on the 1700 block of Minnesota Avenue SE. Terrell and her rescuer haven’t met yet, but they’re being treated for smoke inhalation on the same floor of the intensive care unit at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The fire erupted about 4 p.m. Four school resource officers on patrol at a nearby school were the first to arrive at the scene. With smoke and flames visible outside the three-story building, the officers went inside.

5am – E         Benghazi victim’s mom: Hillary needs to tell me the truth! During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Intelligence Report with Trish Regan, Patricia Smith, the mother of one of the Benghazi victims, responded to Hillary Clinton’s comments during the latest Democratic debate. Smith, whose son Sean was killed in the attack, believes Clinton lied to her when the former Secretary of State claimed a video was responsible for the attack. “We were nose-to-nose at the coffin ceremony,” Smith said. “She lied to me. She told me it was the fault of the video. I said ‘are you sure?’ She says ‘yes, that’s what it was… it was the video.’ And she knew full well it wasn’t at that time. And then she says she was going to check and if it’s any different she would call me back, she would let me know, ”Smith continued, saying Clinton has yet to reply. “She has never once spoken to me or [has] her office. The only thing I ever got out of them is that I am not a member of the immediate family and I don’t need to know… I know what she said. I don’t lie. She’s a proven liar and I call her out for that. I know what I heard.”

6am – A/B/C GOP Debate Highlights: Were You Surprised by the Civil Debate? Was It Substantive?

6am – D         Critter News:

• ‘Dog Whisperer’ Cesar Millan Under Investigation For Possible Animal Cruelty. “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan is under investigation for possible animal cruelty stemming from an incident filmed for his “Cesar 911” TV show, authorities said. Sheriff’s deputies and investigators with LA County Animal Control visited his Dog Psychology Center in Santa Clarita Thursday evening, but Millan was not there at the time. A family member told NBC4 he is out of town on a business trip. The investigation comes after animal welfare officials were flooded with tips following the airing of an episode when Millan used a live pig as part of a training session with a dog that had previously attacked two pet pigs. In the segment, the dog bit the pig’s ear before it could be stopped, causing it to bleed. Online reports and petitions have said it appeared part of the ear had been bitten off, but representatives for Millan’s show insisted Thursday night that was not the case.
• Hollywood Hills Mountain Lion P-22 May Have Killed Koala at Los Angeles Zoo, Officials Say. A wild mountain lion named P-22 who famously roams the Hollywood Hills, may have recently made a meal of a koala at the Los Angeles Zoo, officials said today. The 14-year-old female koala named Killarney went missing from her habitat last Thursday, the L.A. Zoo told ABC News. The zoo added that koala care staff immediately began looking for her and found portions of her remains at the zoo. “There is no definite photo or video evidence that P-22, the mountain lion that lives in Griffith Park, was the cause of her disappearance, but the mountain lion was seen on Zoo surveillance footage on grounds the night before she died,” the zoo said in a statement. “As a precaution animal care staff has begun moving a majority of the animal collection into their inside barns and quarters at night.”
• Hatch watch: Bald eagle eggs expected to hatch soon in D.C. WASHINGTON — Two bald eagle eggs in D.C. are expected to hatch soon, and you can watch along through live webcams. Since 2014, two bald eagles that have since been named “Mr. President” and “The First Lady” have been nesting in a tree on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum. This year, an egg was laid on Feb. 10, followed by another on Valentine’s Day. It usually takes about 35 days for a bald eagle egg to hatch, so the first is expected to do so around March 15 or 16. “Before an egg actually hatches, the eaglet breaks through an air sac inside the egg,” explains Al Cecere, founder and President of the American Eagle Foundation.

6am – E         Reporter says she was ‘jolted’ and ‘yanked’ by Donald Trump’s campaign manager: Trump Campaign Denies Breitbart Reporter’s Assault Accusation. The Trump campaign has denied a report that a Breitbart News reporter was allegedly assaulted by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at a campaign news conference Tuesday night. Michelle Fields, who covers politics for Breitbart, spoke out about the incident for the first time in a new op-ed posted to the news outlet’s website overnight, saying she was “jolted backwards” after she posed a question to the Republican front-runner. “Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken,” Fields writes in the post. Fields did not see who pulled her but said The Washington Post’s Ben Terris identified the aggressor as Lewandowski. “I watched as a man with short-cropped hair and a suit grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way. He was Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 41-year-old campaign manager,” Terris wrote in a Washington Post story published today.

7am – A/B     Some New England Lawmakers Propose Leaving Eastern Time. (AP) -As most Americans brace themselves for losing an hour of sleep this weekend, some corners of the country are considering bold alternatives to daylight saving time. California has a bill that would ask voters to abolish the practice of changing clocks twice a year. Lawmakers in Alaska and nearly a dozen other states are debating similar measures. Some lawmakers in New England want to go even further, seceding from the populous Eastern Time Zone and throwing their lot in with Nova Scotia and Puerto Rico. “Once we spring forward, I don’t want to fall back,” said Rhode Island state Rep. Blake Filippi, who hopes the whole region will shift one hour eastward, into the Atlantic Time Zone. “Pretty much everyone I speak to would rather have it light in the evening than light first thing in the morning,” he said. Opponents of daylight saving time argue that traffic accidents, heart attacks and strokes increase when we change time, and that contrary to popular belief, it does not save electricity.

7am – C         Nancy Reagan Funeral Today:

• Nancy Reagan to be buried beside husband at presidential library. SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – Nancy Reagan called her husband’s presidential library “the shining city on the hill,” using a phrase that President Reagan had borrowed from history to describe his aspirations for the nation. Inseparable in life, they will be reunited again on that hilltop, side by side. The former first lady will be buried beside her “Ronnie” Friday at the library they loved, after being mourned and celebrated by family and hundreds of friends from Hollywood, Washington and beyond in a private service.
• Nancy Reagan funeral: Here’s who’s attending: A day after more than 1,500 people passed Nancy Reagan’s casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the Ronald Reagan Foundation released details of her funeral service. Friday’s funeral begins at 2 p.m. ET Friday and will be private. The former first lady’s two children, Patti Davis and Ronald Prescott Reagan, will speak at their mother’s service. James A. Baker, who served in President Reagan’s administration, will give remarks. Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will also speak. The ceremony will be officiated by the Rev. Stuart Kenworthy, vicar of Washington National Cathedral. A choir from Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley will sing Amazing Grace. Katie Couric, former Today show host, will attend. Couric met Reagan in 1998, after her own husband, Jay Monahan, died from colon cancer. As expected, a large contingent from the political world will also attend.
• Program for Nancy Reagan’s Funeral in California. (AP) – Former first lady Nancy Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, next to her husband. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, with a musical prelude to begin at 10:15 a.m. by the Santa Susana High School Advanced Women’s Choir and Abbe Road A Cappella, and an instrumental prelude by the 1st Marine Division Band, Marine Corps Camp Pendleton. The Rev. Stuart A. Kenworthy, Vicar, Washington National Cathedral, will preside over the funeral.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — AMANDA CARPENTER – Contributing Editor at Conservative Review, former Communications Director to Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Speechwriter to Sen. Jim DeMint. She is also a CNN contributor. She’s in Miami and was there for CNN’s GOP debate last night

7am – E         U.S. plans to publicly blame Iran for dam cyber breach. Washington (CNN) The Obama administration is preparing to publicly attribute a 2013 cyber attack against a New York dam to Iranian hackers, according to U.S. officials familiar with the investigation. The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against people thought to be behind the attack, according to the officials. An announcement could come in the next week. The intrusion at the Bowman Avenue Dam, around 30 miles north of New York City in suburban Rye Brook, New York, isn’t considered sophisticated — the hackers managed only to get access to some back office systems, not the operational systems of the dam, U.S. officials say. U.S. investigators quickly determined the attack was carried out by hackers working for the Iranian government. But the attack alarmed Obama administration officials who have voiced concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure to cyber attacks. White House and Justice Department spokesmen declined to comment on plans to attribute blame for the attack. But Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in a statement that the agency takes “malicious activity in cyberspace seriously, and we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to prevent, deter, detect, counter and mitigate such activity.”

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW — PETER HART – spokesperson for National Coalition Against Censorship

• Free-speech groups urge McAuliffe to veto book bill. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Free-speech groups are calling on Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to veto a bill that would force schools to notify parents if their child is assigned to read books with sexually explicit content. The National Coalition Against Censorship and other groups said in a letter to McAuliffe that they fear the bill could apply to “a great deal of classic and contemporary literature,” including Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” and most of William Shakespeare’s work. McAuliffe hasn’t indicated whether he supports the legislation, which would also require schools to provide an alternative to the sexually explicit book if a parent objects. He must act on it by April 11.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — BRET BAIER – Anchor of Special Report, Fox News Channel—shared his thoughts on the GOP debate and previewed the upcoming primaries.

8am – E         2016 News:

• Cruz: Trump’s supporters are ‘low information,’ not very ‘engaged.‘ Ted Cruz said in an interview ahead of next week’s critical primaries that Donald Trump’s supporters have “relatively low information” and are “not that engaged” – an oblique dig at the very voters Cruz is aggressively courting. The Texas senator, though, said in the interview with CBN News that he’s winning over these voters as they “inform themselves” and learn more about Trump’s record. Explaining his comments, he referred to Trump’s past remarks about the “poorly educated” supporting him.
• Ben Carson to endorse Donald Trump. (CNN) Former presidential candidate Ben Carson will endorse Donald Trump, the real estate mogul said Thursday during the GOP presidential debate hosted by CNN, handing Trump an important boost heading into next week’s “Super Tuesday 3.” Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, ended his own White House campaign last week after failing to win a single primary contest. Trump is scheduled to hold a press conference Friday at 9 a.m. ET at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. During the debate, Trump answered a question related to education by adding that Carson is “endorsing me, by the way, tomorrow morning.”
• “2 Live Crew” Rap pioneer LUTHER CAMPBELL “Uncle Luke” on CNN talking about partying with Trump.