joined WMAL on Wednesday!
Mornings on the Mall
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Scottie Nell Hughes
5am – A/B/C Trump will be sworn in as the least popular president in four decades, new poll says. When Donald Trump takes the oath of office in just a few short days, he will do so as the least popular president in at least 40 years, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll says. According to the national poll, just 40 percent of Americans say they have a favorable impression of the president-elect. That’s 21 points lower than President Barack Obama’s departing favorability rating of 61 percent and easily the lowest popularity for an incoming president since 1977, ABC News reports. Trump trails behind former Presidents Obama (79 percent), Bill Clinton (68 percent), George H.W. Bush (65 percent), Ronald Reagan (58 percent) and Jimmy Carter (78 percent). Even former President George W. Bush — who entered office after a bitter recount fight with Al Gore — was still more popular than Trump at inauguration time, with a 62 percent favorability rating. Similarly, just 40 percent of Americans polled say they approve of the way Trump has handled the presidential transition. That’s half as many as the roughly 80 percent who approved of the way Obama, Clinton and George H.W. Bush handled their transitions. On the eve of his inauguration, 52 percent of Americans see Trump as unqualified to be president, compared with 44 percent who say he is qualified.
5am – D Chelsea Manning to Be Released Early as Obama Commutes Sentence. President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted Mr. Obama’s administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures.
Julian Assange under pressure to hand himself in for extradition following Manning commutation. The 45-year-old has been in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for more than four years. Julian Assange agreed to extradition if Chelsea Manning was shown clemency. Her sentence has just been commuted. (Independent) — Will Wikileaks founder Julian Assange now hand himself over to be extradited to the US? Last week, Mr Assange said on that he would give up his sanctuary in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than four years, if Barack Obama showed “clemency” to whistleblower Chelsea Manning. “If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case,” WikiLeaks said on Twitter.
5am – E O’Keefe Videos Update:
- Agitators Plan To Stop D.C. Subways During Inauguration. Agitators attempting to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration are planning on stopping Washington D.C. subway lines, according to an undercover video released Tuesday by Project Veritas. The Daily Caller has previously reported that protesters are planning to disrupt inauguration balls, set up blockades and lead a march that will likely end in property destruction. The video released by Project Veritas, a group launched by activist journalist James O’Keefe, shows that an organizer for #DisruptJ20 also plans on committing a federal act of terrorism. “So simultaneous to the checkpoint blockades in the morning, we are also doing a series of clusterfuck blockades, where we are going to try to blockade all the the major ingress points in the city,” organizer Legba Carrefour says in the undercover video while speaking to activists. He said this can include “shutting down major bridges and highway access points as well as shutting down metro rail.” A journalist for Project Veritas recorded Carrefour detailing how he would shut down Washington subway lines. “The trains pull up…one person is going to lock one end of a chain to an edge, and the other end of the chain on the end of the car, so on and so fourth. Done,” a voice identified as Carrefour’s is recorded saying. The video says Carrefour added, “It takes 15 seconds and everyone can leave and literally it can’t go anywhere at that point, its anchored. And you can use a really thin chain, you don’t need a heavy chain…that would require like a bolt cutter to undo, basically to shut down that line.”
- ‘Throat-punching,’ ‘blockades’ to disrupt Trump inaugural. ‘These activities likely violate multiple criminal laws.’ James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas on Tuesday released a second video it assembled during undercover discussions with a series of individuals who explain their plans to disrupt Donald Trump’s inauguration as president on Friday. And they included details like blockading streets, disrupting train traffic, “throat-punching” as appropriate and other “civil disobedience,” including some that they openly boast may be cause for arrests.
6am – A/B President-elect Donald Trump: ‘I don’t like tweeting.’ The tweeter in chief apparently doesn’t like Twitter. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview released late Tuesday that he’s not too fond of the social media site, claiming he just uses it as a shield against the “unbelievably dishonest” media. “Look, I don’t like tweeting, I have other things I can be doing,” Trump told Fox News in an interview set to air in full on Wednesday morning. “But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press. And it’s my only way that I can counteract. When people make misstatements about me, I’m able to say it and call it out.” Trump, who has over 20 million Twitter followers, also promised that he would wean off his habitual tweeting if the press started treating him fairly. “Now if the press were honest, which it’s not, I would absolutely not use Twitter,” the President-elect said without providing specifics on what an “honest” press would actually look like.
6am – C Trump eyes 10 percent spending cuts, 20 percent slash of federal workers. (Washington Examiner) – Making good on a promise to slash government, President-elect Trump has asked his incoming team to pursue spending and staffing cuts.
Insiders said that the spending reductions in some departments could go as high as 10 percent and staff cuts to 20 percent, numbers that would rock Washington if he follows through. At least two so-called “landing teams” in Cabinet agencies have relayed the call for cuts as part of their marching orders to shrink the flab in government. The cuts would target discretionary spending, not mandated programs such as Medicare or Social Security, the sources said.
6am – D INTERVIEW – Former Congressman PETE HOEKSTRA – (hook stra) – is the former Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee
- Chelsea Manning to Be Released Early as Obama Commutes Sentence. President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted Mr. Obama’s administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures.
6am – E Women’s March on Washington Says No to Pro-Life Feminist Group.
Pro-life feminists booted from Women’s March sponsorship. Washington D.C., Jan 17, 2017 / 04:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pro-life feminist organization New Wave Feminists has been removed from the official list of sponsors of the Women’s March on Washington 2017. Support of abortion as a fundamental principle of the upcoming January march has been cited as grounds. “I can only assume it’s because there was a lot of pressure not to affiliate with pro-lifers, which is unfortunate,” Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, president of New Wave Feminists, said about the decision. In a Jan. 16 video statement on Facebook, Herndon-De La Rosa explained that they had been removed, speculating it was because of negative media backlash after an article on their participation appeared in The Atlantic. The feminist protest had previously listed New Wave Feminists as a partner, but by Monday afternoon had removed links to the Texan pro-life group from the event’s website.
6am – F Dem Boycott:
- Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin will skip Trump’s inauguration. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he will not go to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, reversing his earlier plan to be in attendance. “These are not normal times and I cannot pretend as if they are. The moral and political legitimacy of this presidency are in the gravest doubt,” Raskin said in a statement. The freshman from Montgomery County is the third member of Congress from the D.C. metropolitan area to skip the ceremony. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) said earlier this week that they will join dozens of other Democrats who are sitting out the event in protest of Trump. As of Tuesday afternoon, Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) and A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) were still undecided about whether to go to the inaugural festivities.
- More Than 50 Democratic Congress Members Planning to Skip Inauguration. Dozens of Democratic members of Congress have announced they will skip Donald Trump’s Friday inauguration. While some of the 55 made their decision in previous weeks, many more have come forward in recent days, citing the president-elect’s perceived insult of Rep. John Lewis as the final straw.
7am – A INTERVIEW — Somerset Mayor JEFFREY SLAVIN
- Somerset Mayor Quits Woodmont Country Club over Obama Membership Flap. Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin resigned Monday from the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville because of a controversy over whether the mostly Jewish club would allow President Barack Obama to join. According to his resignation letter, he chose Monday because it is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. “I can no longer belong to a community: where Intolerance is accepted, where History is forgotten, where Freedom of Speech is denied, and where the nation’s first black president is disrespected,” Slavin wrote.
7am – B Entertainment News:
- Steve Harvey Feels ‘Fierce Backlash’ for Meeting with Trump. (Daily Mail) — Comedian and host Steve Harvey says he has gotten a ‘fierce’ backlash from fans following a meeting Friday with President-elect Donald Trump. Harvey revealed the furious reaction during his radio show Monday, acknowledging that the criticism hit home following his meeting with Trump, where the two men discussed working on the nation’s inner cities. ‘It’s been a little bit more than interesting,’ Harvey said. The meeting occurred just a day before Trump’s clash with members of the congressional black caucus boiled over, with Rep. John Lewis saying his election wasn’t ‘legitimate’ and Trump blasting the civil rights icon on Twitter. ‘On a personal note, a lot of y’all hurt me,’ Harvey told his listeners, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. ‘I didn’t expect the backlash to be so fierce. I also understand if I’m going to keep getting stabbed at, at least while you’re stabbing me, you should understand my intent,’ he continued.
- Another Singer Backs Out Of Trump’s Inauguration Due To Death Threats She Received. Singer Jennifer Holliday Backs Out of Inauguration After Intense Backlash. ‘I was receiving death threats from black people.’ Singer Jennifer Holliday told ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday that she backed out of performing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration because she “was receiving death threats from black people.” The broadway star stopped by “The View” and discussed her recent decision to cancel her performance set for Thursday on the eve of the inauguration.
- Snoop Dogg Dares ‘Uncle Tom’ Black People to Perform at Trump Inaugural. Editor’s note: the video in this article contains language that some viewers may find offensive. Rapper and entertainer Snoop Dogg is throwing down the gauntlet to any black entertainer who’s even thinking of performing at any inaugural activities for Donald Trump. In a YouTube video peppered with profanities and racial epithets, Snoop dismissed entertainers who perform as an “Uncle Tom-assed n*****: “So ain’t nobody going to perform for Donald Trump, huh? You (racial epithet) (racial epithet) are going to be the first one to do it. Wait, I’m going to roast the f*** out of every one of you Uncle Tom-assed (racial epithet) for doing it.”
7am – C Putin: Obama administration trying to undermine Trump. MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin took a parting shot at the Obama administration Tuesday, accusing it of trying to undermine Donald Trump’s legitimacy with fake allegations and “binding the president-elect hand and foot to prevent him from fulfilling his election promises.” In his first public remarks about an unsubstantiated dossier outlining unverified claims that Trump engaged in sexual activities with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel, Putin dismissed the material as “nonsense.”
7am – D/E Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin will skip Trump’s inauguration. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he will not go to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, reversing his earlier plan to be in attendance.
“These are not normal times and I cannot pretend as if they are. The moral and political legitimacy of this presidency are in the gravest doubt,” Raskin said in a statement. The freshman from Montgomery County is the third member of Congress from the D.C. metropolitan area to skip the ceremony. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) said earlier this week that they will join dozens of other Democrats who are sitting out the event in protest of Trump.
8am – A Inauguration: Are You Bringing Your Kids? Scottie Has A Surprise.
8am – B/C INTERVIEW – BORIS EPSHTEYN – Director of Communications, Presidential Inaugural Committee and Senior Advisor, Trump Pence Presidential Transition — discussed the latest progress on how the Trump Inauguration plans are coming together in D.C.
8am – D RECAP HEARINGS:
- Betsy DeVos confirmation hearing for education secretary
- Ryan Zinke confirmation hearing for Interior secretary
8am – E Mr Trump goes to Washington! The Donald flies in to DC on his private jet to join a stunning Kellyanne Conway and Jon Voight at glamorous pre-inauguration dinner. (Daily Mail) — Diplomats, politicians, donors and a cast of Broadway stars joined president-elect Donald Trump for a glamorous dinner in Washington DC, three days before he takes office. Trump made the short flight to the nation’s capital in his private jet to attend the Chairman’s Global Dinner on Tuesday night, where he was joined by Kellyanne Conway and a host of big names. The black-tie, invitation-only affair was attended by about 500 people – with a mix of 150 diplomats and 300 or so of Trump’s biggest donors and VIPs, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some of the big names in attendance were: Daniel Snyder – owner of Washington’s NFL team, actor Jon Voight, Jeff Sessions, casino magnate Steve Wynn, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, and Israel’s ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer. Trump addressed the crowd gathered at the opulent Andrew W. Mellon auditorium, and kicked off his remarks by thanking his running mate, Mike Pence.
