Samantha Crane, Sean Crowley, Rep. Mike Rogers, Ed Klein and Jake Tapper joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   DRIVE AT FIVE – SAMANTHA CRANE – the director of public policy at the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is one of several disability-rights organizations that opposes legal physician-assisted death.

• DC Council votes in favor of ‘Death With Dignity’ bill. (Fox 5) — WASHINGTON – Dying with dignity – it’s a controversial issue that has been debated across the country. On Wednesday a D.C. council committee voted in favor of a bill that would make it legal to end your life if you have a terminal disease. The council hearing room was packed for the decision on Wednesday – many wore t-shirts depending on which side they were on. Before the hearing FOX 5’s Matt Ackland spoke to Mary Klein who wrote a post in the Washington City Paper titled “Let Me Die My Way.” She has terminal ovarian cancer and told FOX 5 why she wants the choice to die with dignity when the time comes. On the other side of this issue – many worry that this law could be used to coerce people into suicide because they’re elderly or even some think because financial reasons.

5am – D         Chelsea Clinton News:

• CNN’s Jake Tapper: Press treating Chelsea Clinton with ‘kid gloves.’ CNN anchor Jake Tapper acknowledged Wednesday that there’s a big discrepancy in the way the press covers Donald Trump’s adult children compared to how they treat Hillary Clinton’s only daughter, Chelsea. It’s an idea that’s been said before, but Tapper drew new attention to it on Wednesday. “It’s true,” Tapper said on Twitter in response to a colleague who said that Chelsea is never “grilled” the way Trump’s adult children have been. Tapper noted that Chelsea doesn’t do as many media interviews as the Trump children, but said “there’s no reason to treat one adult child of a nominee with kid gloves while others get tough questions.” Media critic Jack Shafer made a similar point about Clinton’s treatment by the press in February. “The press covers her, of course, attempting to ask her substantive questions, but mostly she exists to grace the covers of magazines — Fast Company and Elle most recently — and be treated to lighter-than-air puff pieces,” he wrote. Trump’s children, by contrast, are often asked in their own interviews to answer for their father’s controversial remarks and to any criticism his campaign may be facing that day.
• Chelsea Clinton Dodges Question On Bill’s Obamacare Comments. Chelsea Clinton flat out ignored a question about her father’s recent criticism of the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday. The younger Clinton was speaking to Hillary Clinton supporters in Sioux City, Iowa when an audience member asked her the question.  “Yesterday, your father a statement about the Affordable Care Act,” the attendee posed. “I was wondering what Hillary’s plan to fix this is [inaudible].”  “So his question was, what does my Mom plan to do to fix the Affordable Care Act, but not scrap as her opponent wants to do,” Clinton stated before totally dodging the question. “There are more than 20 million Americans who now have healthcare thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Those are not statisitcs, those are people’s lives, and I think that has often gotten lost in the conversation about the Affordable Care Act.”

5am – E         Snowden Two? NSA contractor is arrested by the FBI for ‘stealing highly classified government information’ and hiding it in his house and car. (Daily Mail) — A contractor for the National Security Agency has been arrested on charges that he illegally removed highly classified information and stored the material in his house and car, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.   Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was arrested by the FBI in August after authorities say he admitted to having taken government secrets.  But a defense attorney said Martin did not intend to betray his country.  Martin worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the same consulting firm that employed Edward Snowden when he revealed the collection of metadata by the National Security Agency, The New York Times reports. Snowden addressed the story on Twitter, writing: ‘This is huge. Did the FBI secretly arrest the person behind the reports NSA sat on huge flaws in US products?’ FBI agents seized documents and information stored on electronic devices during a raid at Martin’s house on August 27, the Justice Department said.

6am – A         Clown News:

• Clown touches, growls at woman in Fredericksburg, Va. (Fox 5) – FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – Police in Fredericksburg are investigating a report of a man wearing a clown mask approaching and grabbing a woman inside her vehicle. The incident reportedly happened in downtown Fredericksburg in the 1800 block of Stafford Avenue at around 3:04 p.m. Tuesday. It is a busy street near the city’s bus station, a church and a restaurant. Police said a man wearing a clown mask with green hair and a black long sleeve shirt walked up to a woman who was sitting in her car with her window down and allegedly reached in, touched her on the shoulder and growled at her before running off towards in the direction of Seacobeck Street. The victim who is in her 30s was not harmed.
• ‘Clown Lives Matter’ march planned for Oct. 15 in Tucson. TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – Organizers are planning a “Clown Lives Matter” march for October 15 in Tucson in reaction to the recent spate of frightening incidents — both real and imagined — spread in the news and on social media. The march will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15 on 4th Avenue in Tucson. Attendees are invited to show up wearing full clown makeup or masks. According to a flyer advertising the event, “this is a peaceful way to show clowns are not psycho killers. We want the public to feel safe, and not be afraid. So come out, bring the family, meet a clown and get a hug!”
• Pampa resident fires ‘warning shot’ after clowns came onto his property. PAMPA, Texas (KVII) — A Pampa resident fired a ‘warning shot’ after two people dressed as clowns came onto his property. According to the Pampa Police Department, officers responded to a suspicious persons call in the 250- block of Charles on Tuesday just after 10:30 p.m. PPD said the resident was working in his garage when he heard laughing, turned toward the sound and saw the two subjects, who were dressed as clowns, on the opposite side of the street. Police say when the resident saw the suspects, he verbally warned them to leave. The subjects then came toward him and onto his property. Police said that’s when the resident went inside, got his pistol, came back outside, raised it into the air and fired a warning shot.

6am – B         Hannity Freaks Out After Megyn Kelly Mocks Him As Trump’s Safe Space. Sean Hannity does not like criticism. The Fox News host attacked coworker Megyn Kelly on Wednesday night for having the nerve to suggest that he lobs softball questions at GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.  Speaking on her show, “The Kelly File,” she said: “Donald Trump, with all due respect to my friend at 10 o’clock, will go on Hannity and pretty much only Hannity and will not venture out to the unsafe spaces these days, which doesn’t exactly expand the tent for either one of them. There. That’s my two cents.”

6am – C         Cat saves owner from potentially deadly seizure. (USA Today) — FORT WORTH, Texas — When Glen Schallman adopted his 1-year-old cat, Blake, he got much more than a companion. He got a pet that would eventually save his life. Schallman lives with a combination of rare brain conditions, called polymicrogyria and unilateral schizencephaly. On top of that, he has a brain tumor known as hypothalamic hamartoma. This rare combination causes him to have daily seizures that can be deadly. Even though Schallman’s cat has never received any training, he acts as a therapy animal. When Schallman had a seizure in his sleep, Blake bit his owner’s toes and woke him up. Blake also senses when Schallman is about to have a seizure, and helps him avoid dangerous situations.

6am – D         Rachel Dolezal to be featured at North Carolina MLK celebration. (The Grio) — An MLK celebration in Cary, North Carolina, will feature Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP leader who was revealed to be born Caucasian despite representing herself as an African-American. The theme of the celebration is “Healing Race Relations through Conversation and Participation.” “We chose a person like Rachel Dolezal that has been depicted as a major villain through media because of her preference of racial identity,” said Al Cohen, CEO of Jireh Management Group. “And yet, she didn’t steal from anybody. She didn’t murder anybody. She didn’t rob anybody. She only had an affinity for a group of people, and she served her community well.”

6am – E         Father says he was charged $39.35 to hold his newborn son. (Fox 5) —

A Utah father says he was charged money to hold his newborn after delivery. A picture posted to Imgur is going viral after the new dad wrote he was charged $39.35 to hold his baby after he was born. The photo of a bill shows a $39.35 charge for ‘skin to skin after C-sec.’ The bill is dated September 23 and shows a delivery date of September 4th. Many people commenting on Reddit expressed their outrage, but one person who identified him or herself as a labor and delivery nurse gave a possible explanation for such a charge.

7am – A/B/C   INTERVIEW — SEAN CROWLEY — Spokesperson for Compassion & Choices, a group advocating for the D.C. death with dignity bill

• Advocates for the D.C. Death with Dignity Act praised the D.C. Council’s Health and Human Services Committee for approving the bill by a 3-2 vote this afternoon, so the full D.C. Council can consider the bill before the end of the year.
• About DC Bill: The legislation would give mentally capable, terminally ill adults the additional end-of-life care option of medical aid in dying. It would enable them to get a doctor’s prescription for medication they could take to die peacefully in their sleep to stop unbearable suffering.
• Two out of three (67%) of D.C. residents support the right of terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to legally obtain medication to end their lives, according to a July 2015 Lake Research poll.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — REP. MIKE ROGERS – former House Intelligence Committee Chairman

• Snowden Two? NSA contractor is arrested by the FBI for ‘stealing highly classified government information’ and hiding it in his house and car. A contractor for the National Security Agency has been arrested on charges that he illegally removed highly classified information and stored the material in his house and car, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.   Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was arrested by the FBI in August after authorities say he admitted to having taken government secrets.

7am – E         Trump Touts Pence’s Performance and Has Curious Pronunciation of Nevada.

• Reid, Clinton Supporters Hit Trump Over Nevada Pronunciation. Supporters for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Sen. Harry Reid attacked Donald Trump after the Republican presidential nominee told his supporters about the “correct” way to pronounce Nevada. Trump, during a rally Wednesday in Reno, insisted the correct way to pronounce the name of the Silver State was “Neh-VAH-da.” He declared that “nobody says it the other way.” Clinton supporters and Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, both used the moment to assail Trump. American Bridge immediately put up a video declaring that Trump was “looking like an idiot” for getting the name wrong. A statement from Reid declared that Trump’s stop in Reno was “disastrous.”
• Trump tells Nevada crowd they’re mispronouncing state’s name. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Oct. 5, 2016, in Reno, Nev.  Donald Trump says Neh-VAH-da, locals say Neh-VAD-ah. The Republican nominee mispronounced the state’s name while lecturing those he thought were saying it incorrectly during a rally in Reno Wednesday night. Trump made the gaffe in random a tangent during a discussion of Nevada’s drug problem. “Heroin overdoses are surging and meth overdoses in Neh-VAH-da,” Trump said. “Neh-VAH-da,” he repeated, drawing out the mispronunciation. “When I came out here I said nobody says it the other way. It has to be Neh-VAH-da, right?” Trump jokingly said a friend of his who said it incorrectly “was killed.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ED KLEIN – author of new book “Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation”

• Hillary Clinton certainly wouldn’t want the truth coming out. Which is exactly why #1 New York Times bestselling author Ed Klein is releasing a new book just weeks before the biggest election of our lifetime: Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation

8am – B         News:

• European human rights chiefs order the British press NOT to reveal when terrorists are Muslims in crackdown on freedom of speech.  (Daily Mail) — European human rights chiefs have told the British press it must not report when terrorists are Muslim. The recommendations came as part of a list of 23 meddling demands to Theresa May’s government on how to run the media in an alarming threat to freedom speech.  The report, drawn up by the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog, blamed the recent increase in hate crimes and racism in the UK on the ‘worrying examples of intolerance and hate speech in the newspapers, online and even among politicians’, although the research was done before the EU referendum campaign had even begun. The suggestions sent to Downing Street urging the UK Government to reform criminal law and freedom of the press and in a brutal criticism of the British press, the report recommends ministers ‘give more rigorous training’ to journalists. But UK ministers firmly rebutted the remarkable demands, telling the body: ‘The Government is committed to a free and open press and does not interfere with what the press does and does not publish, as long as the press abides by the law.’ The report, from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) body, said there had been an increase in hate speech and racist violence in Britain between March 2009 and March 2016.
• Nazi Paikidze, champion U.S. chess player, protests Iran World Championship over hijab. (Washington Times) — Nazi Paikidze, the reigning U.S. women’s chess champion, is protesting next year’s World Chess Championship competition in Iran because women players will be required by law to wear a hijab. “I think it’s unacceptable to host a women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” she wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend. Ms. Paikidze, who was born in Russia and now lives in Las Vegas, started a Change.org petition asking organizers to either change the location of the 2017 event or to make it optional for women to wear a headscarf, which is legally required in Iran.
• Brussels police stabbed in ‘terror attack.’ (BBC) Two police officers have been stabbed in Brussels in a possible terrorist incident, Belgian prosecutors say. One officer was stabbed in the neck and another in the stomach, while a third officer who arrived at the scene in Schaerbeek district suffered a broken nose, Belgian broadcaster VRT reports. The attacker was shot in the leg and taken away by ambulance. Authorities have named the attacker as “Hicham D”, 43, of Belgian nationality.Belgian media report that Hicham D is known to Belgian police and is believed to have links to jihadists who travelled to Syria to fight. He also served as a Belgian army officer until 2009. “We have reason to believe that the incident was a terrorist attack,” a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, Eric Van Der Sypt, said. Belgian prosecutors said the officers had not suffered life-threatening injuries. The attack happened near a main road in a region linked to previous terror attacks.
• Maryland imam praises ISIS beheadings. (Christian Post) – A Muslim cleric in Maryland, who has openly endorsed the Islamic State terror group and funded at least one Muslim convert who was arrested for buying illegal explosives, has not been charged or arrested because, according to authorities, he hasn’t broken any laws. Suleiman Anwar Bengharsa, an imam at mosques in Annapolis and outside Baltimore who also serves as a prison chaplain, has posted gruesome videos showing Islamic State fighters, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, beheading and burning alive their enemies and praised terrorist attacks overseas, The New York Times reports. The FBI filed an affidavit in federal court saying that the 59-year-old imam gave $1,300 to a 29-year-old Muslim covert, identified as Sebastian Gregerson, in Detroit in June 2015, and the man used it to buy firearms and grenades. Gregerson, who calls himself Abdurrahaman Bin Mikaayl, was arrested in July and indicted on explosives charges, the Times adds. FBI agents suspect the two men were plotting terrorism, according to a court filing. “Based on the totality of the aforementioned information and evidence, there is reason to believe that Bengharsa and Gregerson are engaged in discussions and preparations for some violent act on behalf of” the Islamic State, an agent wrote.

8am – C         With a month to go, Montgomery County term-limits contest heats up. (Washington Post) – The campaign to defeat a term-limits amendment in Montgomery County doesn’t have to report its contributors until Oct. 14. But four of the County Council’s nine members say they have given money to the effort, and a fifth says he plans to do so. Council members Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), Sidney Katz (D-Rockville-Gaithersburg) and Nancy Navarro (D-Mid County) each say they have transferred $1,000 from their campaign funds to the “No on B” committee. Council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) said he contributed $1,500, and council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large) said he intends to contribute $1,000. If Question B is approved by voters, council members and the county executive would be barred from serving more than three terms.  That means Berliner, Elrich, Leventhal and Council President Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) would not be able to seek reelection in 2018.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER – Host of THE LEAD and STATE OF THE UNION on CNN – discussed the VP debate, upcoming debate and Chelsea Clinton.

8am – E         Creepy Clown news