Gary Sinise, Dc Council Chair Phil Mendelson, Hans Von Spakovsky, Stuart Varney, Jake Tapper and Sebastian Gorka joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A         DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW — DC COUNCIL CHAIRMAN PHIL MENDELSON

• Discussing what has happened with the homeless plan in DC

5am – B         Trump refers to alleged Bill Clinton sexual indiscretions as ‘rape’ (Fox News) – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used the word “rape” Wednesday evening to describe alleged sexual misconduct by former President Bill Clinton.  Trump made the comment during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The real estate mogul was answering questions about an unflattering story published this past weekend by The New York Times involving his relationships with women when he turned his attention to Bill Clinton. “By the way, you know, it’s not like the worst things, OK,” Trump said. “You look at what Clinton’s gone through with all of the problems and all of the things that he’s done.” Hannity went on to question whether the newspaper would interview women including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey. All three have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct.

5am – C         Guard Charged with Assault After Confronting Transgender Woman Using Women’s Restroom, Police Say. News4 spoke with Ebony Belcher, the transgender woman who said she was assaulted by the guard. Belcher, 32, said she went to the Giant with a friend to pick up a delivery from the Western Union. While at the Giant, she asked a store employee to point her to the restroom and passed a female security officer standing in the hallway. The officer came into the restroom and told her to get out, according to Belcher. “She opened the door and came in and started calling me derogatory names,” Belcher said.

5am – D         INTERVIEW – GARY SINISE – Hollywood actor and military supporter discussed GI Film Festival and the National Memorial Day concert.

5am – E         EgyptAir says Airbus A320 Flight 804 carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.  (Reuters) — An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt’s national airline said. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the search was underway to find the missing Airbus A320 and it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the jet had crashed into the sea.

6am – A/B/C How to make Republican men like Hillary Clinton. Poll after poll shows Hillary Clinton is not popular among white men. Her policy stances haven’t won their admiration. A cultural shift toward feminism hasn’t helped much, either. But the Democratic front-runner in the presidential campaign has a secret weapon, one that could help her snare crucial voters from presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump: her husband. The idea may seem counterintuitive, especially since Trump intends to use Bill Clinton’s philandering past against his wife. New research from Lauren Wright, a political consultant and author who just finished her PhD in government at Georgetown University, suggests the potential first gentleman could sway a surprising demographic. She recently surveyed more than 4,200 people nationwide, ages 19 to 85, about how they perceive Hillary Clinton. A trend emerged: Republican men who viewed a picture of the couple, rather than the candidate alone, rated Hillary Clinton as much more likable. Her husband’s presence, it turned out, increased her popularity.

6am – D         EgyptAir says Airbus A320 Flight 804 carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.  (Reuters) — An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt’s national airline said. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the search was underway to find the missing Airbus A320 and it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the jet had crashed into the sea. However, it remained unclear whether the disappearance was due to technical failure or any other reason such as sabotage by ultra-hardline Islamists, who have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years. Egypt Air said the plane sent an emergency signal – possibly from an emergency beacon attached to the plane – at 04:26 a.m., two hours after it disappeared from radar screens.

6am – E         Streetcar to Extend to Georgetown Via K Street? DC Taking a Look.Could you someday be able to ride a streetcar all the way from Benning Road to Georgetown? D.C. and federal officials are exploring the possibility. Studies are underway to lengthen the route of the DC Streetcar, which began service in February between Union Station and Benning Road just east of Oklahoma Avenue NE after years of delays. The streetcars would glide to Georgetown, under the Whitehurst Freeway, according to a plan published by the D.C. and federal departments of transportation. In order for the streetcar to be fast, it likely would have a dedicated lane on busy K Street NW. The CEO of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, Joe Sternlieb, said the streetcar extension would draw people to the area from the east side of the District.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – HANS VON SPAKOVSKY – –  A former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, former commissioner for the Federal Election Commission from 2006 to 2007 and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation

• Voter registration soaring:

• Voter registration soaring in Virginia. Voter registration has surged this year across Virginia compared to the white-hot 2012 presidential election — and some Peninsula communities are outpacing the state’s double-digit increase, state Elections Department data show.
• Data Disproves Trump’s Appeal to New Voters: Many states have seen higher turnout during the primary race, but the GOP front-runner isn’t bringing first-time voters to the polls.   new analysis by Politico of voting statistics in states such as Iowa, South Carolina, Florida and Ohio, all of which saw big bumps in turnout this year, essentially disproves Trump’s claim. In Iowa, participation in the Feb. 1 caucuses leaped 50 percent, but nearly all of those attending – 95 percent – had voted in at least one of the previous four presidential elections, while 80 percent had voted in at least three out of the four presidential contests since 2000.
• Hispanic voter registration is climbing in some states. Is it because of Donald Trump?   In a traditional election year, a 65% growth from the same period of last year would be remarkable. But this year we are seeing a doubling of registration growth among Latinos, and a more than 150% increase for some young voters, and a near-tripling for Democrats. The number of new Democrats registering was up 185 percent compared with the first three months of 2012. The number of voters aged 23 to 30 was up 161 percent. And, perhaps most significantly, the number of Hispanics registering was up 98 percent. There have been a number of anecdotal reports of Hispanics seeking to become naturalized citizens in order to register to vote — and then vote against Donald Trump. The Houston Chronicle looked at this last week, finding that citizenship applications were up 15 percent between August and January compared to the year prior. There’s also a big push by Univision to get Hispanics registered to vote, with the aim of getting 3 million new voters registered.

7am – B         2016 News:

• Donald Trump unveils list of his top picks for Supreme Court. WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, released Wednesday a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia if he’s elected to the White House. The list of conservative federal and state judges includes Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump had previously named Pryor and Sykes as examples of kind of justices he would choose.
• White House smacks down Trump’s Supreme Court list. (Politico) – Minutes after Donald Trump on Wednesday released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees, the White House did not even need to see the names to blast his choices and advocate for the Senate to move forward with the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. “Let me make this observation: I would be surprised if there are any Democrats who would describe any of those 11 individuals as a consensus nominee,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during a news conference. Earnest noted that Garland is someone who has been described by Republicans as a “consensus nominee,” a descriptor used by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in 2010.
• Trump refers to alleged Bill Clinton sexual indiscretions as ‘rape.’ (Fox News) —  Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used the word “rape” Wednesday evening to describe alleged sexual misconduct by former President Bill Clinton.  Trump made the comment during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The real estate mogul was answering questions about an unflattering story published this past weekend by The New York Times involving his relationships with women when he turned his attention to Bill Clinton. “By the way, you know, it’s not like the worst things, OK,” Trump said. “You look at what Clinton’s gone through with all of the problems and all of the things that he’s done.” Hannity went on to question whether the newspaper would interview women including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey. All three have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. “In one case, it’s about exposure. In another case, it’s about groping and fondling and touching against a woman’s will,” Hannity said. “And rape,” Trump responded.
• Sanders tentatively accepts Fox News invitation to proposed Dem debate. (Fox News) — Bernie Sanders’ campaign has tentatively accepted an invitation to a proposed Fox News-hosted Democratic presidential debate provided they can reach a “mutual agreement” with Hillary Clinton. The campaign released a statement Wednesday after Fox News invited both Democratic presidential candidates to a final debate in California before the June 7 primaries.   “Both campaigns have been invited by Fox News to a debate. We have told the network that we would accept the invitation with the understanding that we can reach mutual agreement on the debate moderators, the format and other details,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a statement.
• Fox News Poll: Trump tops Clinton, both seen as deeply flawed candidates. (Fox News) — Donald Trump tops Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, according to a new Fox News Poll that also finds majorities of voters feel both frontrunners lack strong moral values and will say anything to get elected. Trump has a 45-42 percent edge over Clinton, if the presidential election were held today.  That’s within the poll’s margin of sampling error.  Last month, Clinton was up by 48-41 percent (April 2016).

7am – C         A hacker is reportedly selling the stolen emails and passwords of 117 million LinkedIn users. (Business Insider) — A hacker known as “Peace” is selling what is reportedly account information from 117 million LinkedIn users. The stolen data is said to include email addresses and passwords, which a malicious party could use to gain access to other websites and accounts for which people used the same password. LinkedIn says it has about 433 million members worldwide, so this data could represent 27% of its user base. The hacker says the credentials were obtained during a LinkedIn data breach in 2012 that saw 6.5 million encrypted passwords posted online, according to Motherboard. But the leak now appears to be much larger than was thought at the time. Peace is selling the data for about $2,200 (5 bitcoin) on the Dark Web, the part of the internet accessible only with a special browser that masks user identities.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Anchor of Varney and Company, Fox Business

• Stuart thinks the Egypt Air flight crash could impact immigrant crisis in Europe.
• Overtime protections to be extended to 4.2 million more Americans:
• Fed Is Seriously Considering Raising Interest Rates in June, Meeting Minutes Say

7am – E         DEVELOPING: EgyptAir says Airbus A320 Flight 804 carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.  (Reuters) — An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt’s national airline said. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the search was underway to find the missing Airbus A320 and it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism. Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the jet had crashed into the sea.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – GARY SINISE – Hollywood actor and military supporter discussed GI Film Festival and the National Memorial Day concert.

8am – B         Trans News:

• Conservative Lawyer Ted Olson Joins Fight Against North Carolina’s Bathroom Law. Attorney Ted Olson walks up to the U.S. Supreme Court building June 24, 2013 in Washington DC. The high court is expected to rule this week on some high profile decisions including California’s Proposition 8, the controversial ballot initiative that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. ‘This law directly challenges the legitimacy of the identity of transgender persons and then compels them to deny it every time they use a public restroom.’ Conservative legal dynamo Ted Olson is joining the fight against North Carolina’s law that requires residents to use the bathroom that correspond to their sex at birth. The nation’s largest LGBT group, the Human Rights Campaign, has assembled a coalition of more than 200 businesses that oppose the law, which makes life difficult for transgender residents of the state, and on Wednesday announced that Olson would write a friend-of-the-court brief for those companies opposed to the measure.
• Ben & Jerry unveil new flavor, voter registration push in NC. The founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream launched a new flavor in Durham on May 17, 2016, as part of a nationwide voter registration drive and campaign finance reform effort. DURHAM, N.C. — Ice cream innovators Ben & Jerry were in North Carolina Tuesday to launch a drive to increase voter registration and participation. Ben & Jerry’s co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield visited North Carolina Central University in Durham to launch a national campaign that includes a new ice cream flavor, Empower Mint. The liberal entrepreneurs are working with the North Carolina NAACP and others in an effort to promote the importance of Congress reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and working to remove the influence of big money in politics.
• Elton John: North Carolina ‘bathroom bill’ shows ‘failure of compassion.’ Musician condemns measure barring local governments from creating LGBT protections, calling its effects potentially ‘traumatic and unsafe’ North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” demonstrates lawmakers’ “failure of compassion” because it shuts out the state’s LGBT community, Sir Elton John has said.

8am – C         You need to make $119,000 to rent a two-bedroom apartment in D.C., study says. If the construction cranes, the new restaurants and your monthly rent  bill weren’t enough proof that the District’s real estate market is for the deep-pocketed, here’s more evidence:  Your household needs an income of about $119,000 a year to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment in the city, according to a new report. The SmartAsset report, which DCist website first spotted, figures that a household should spend no more than 28 percent of its monthly income on rent. That’s what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says is the ideal spending threshold.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of The Lead and State of the Union on CNN

• Van Jones: I wish Priebus was DNC chair. Liberal commentator Van Jones on Wednesday said he’d prefer the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) to his own party’s chair after a “leadership failure” on the Democratic side. Jones knocked Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her response to Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Tuesday in light of the contentious Nevada Democratic convention. “Debbie, who should be the umpire, who should be the marriage counselor, is coming in harder for Hillary Clinton than she is for herself. That is malpractice,” Jones told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Wednesday. “I wish Reince Priebus was my party chair. He did a better job of handling the Trump situation than I’ve see my party chair handle this situation,” Jones said. “I’m ashamed to say that. Yeah, I said it.”
• Sanders camp slams Debbie Wasserman Schultz for ‘throwing shade,’ Insults are being hurled inside the Democratic Party as part of the fallout from last Saturday’s Nevada convention. The latest controversy roiling the Democratic Party showed no signs of abating Wednesday, as Bernie Sanders’ campaign put the onus of the rift splitting Democrats on Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s failed leadership, accusing her of “throwing shade” on the Vermont senator from the beginning. The chaos that ensued Saturday in Nevada at its state convention over what some perceived as unfair delegate allocations erupted onto the national scene and has lingered beyond two additional Democratic primaries, exposing the Democratic Party to infighting as the Republican Party takes steps to unify behind its presumptive presidential nominee. Sanders’ campaign fired back at Wasserman Schultz on Wednesday morning after the Democratic National Committee chairwoman panned the campaign’s “anything but acceptable” response to reports of violence and threats from Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic convention over the weekend. Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, pointedly accused Wasserman Schultz of undermining the Sanders campaign from the get-go and called into question her leadership.
• Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate. (CNN) – Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won’t launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney’s thinking told CNN.

8am – E         INTERVIEW — DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA – counter-terrorism and irregular warfare expert and author of NEW book DEFEATING JIHAD

• NEW BOOK: Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War – (released April 11, 2016) –  Sebastian Gorka, counterinsurgency expert and Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at Marine Corps University, explains how America can win the war on terror quickly and decisively by delegitimizing the enemy in the eyes of its followers—a strategy that won the Cold War and would end the era of Jihad forever.
• Egyptair flight MS804: crash could have been terror or technical, Egypt says – Passenger jet took off from France’s Charles de Gaulle airport headed to Cairo late on Wednesday night with 66 people on board