WMAL reporter Steve Burns, former Secret Service officer Gary Byrne, Clark Judge, Bret Baier and guest host Rod Wheeler joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, January 20, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Rod Wheeler

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A         Q & A with ROD WHEELER – former D.C. Homicide Detective and founder of Capital Investigations

5am – B         White House Staff Packs Up And Valerie Jarrett Posts An Elitist Tweet:

• Valerie Jarrett ‏@vj44 13h13 hours ago: Taking my last walk around the grounds. Will be watching from outside the gate after tomorrow as a citizen.
• Amid packing boxes and tears, staffers leaving White House. WASHINGTON (AP) — They line up near the Oval Office, down the hallway toward the Cabinet Room, trailed by their spouses and young kids in their finest clothes. When it’s their turn, the White House staffers enter for a few private moments with President Barack Obama, a photo and a farewell hug from the boss. There’s a mass exodus underway this week at the White House. As Obama holds his last news conference Wednesday, his staff is busy packing up their offices and turning in their BlackBerrys. For some who joined Obama’s team right out of college, it’s the end of the only professional experience they’ve ever known. The finals days of any president’s administration are always bittersweet and heavy on nostalgia, as officials face the transition back to being “civilians” who will no longer have their hands on the nation’s levers of power. Yet there’s added sadness this time for Obama staffers who are mostly horrified by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

5am – C         National Park Service changes ‘no umbrella’ policy for Inauguration Day. WASHINGTON (ABC7) — With rain istill in the forecast for Inauguration Day the National Park Service decided to make a change to their “no umbrella policy.” ‘Totes’ style umbrellas that collapse will be allowed on the parade route and the National Mall for the day, but “long, non-collapsible umbrellas” will still be prohibited, NPS announced.

5am – D         Obama grants 330 more commutations, bringing total to a record 1,715. (USA Today) – WASHINGTON — President Obama commuted the sentences of 330 more federal inmates Thursday, capping an unprecedented clemency effort that has now released 1,715 prisoners — more than any other president in history. The clemency grants announced on Obama’s last full day in office set a one-day record. “Proud to make this one of my final actions as President. America is a nation of second chances, and 1,715 people deserved that shot,” Obama tweeted Thursday. The clemency initiative, which began in 2014, was targeted at drug dealers who received mandatory-minimum sentences during the War on Drugs from the 1980s to the 2000s.

5am – E         Confirmation Hearings Highlights:

• Gov. Rick Perry, nominee for Energy Secretary, testifies on Capitol Hill for his confirmation hearing, Perry had this humorous exchange before he was questioned by Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota.
• Former Texas Governor Rick Perry today appeared before the Senate Energy Committee for his confirmation hearing to be the nation’s next Energy Secretary. Perry today told the Committee he regrets pushing for the elimination of the Department as a candidate during the 2012 Republican primary contest for president.
• Kansas’ Roberts quips about Valium then gets snippy with Dems in Mnuchin grilling. Sen. Pat Roberts, defending a Trump nominee in a committee hearing Thursday, joked that a Democrat on the panel take a drug to calm down. The quip didn’t go over well. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, had been questioning Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin over how a bank he had taken over aggressively pursued home mortgage foreclosures. The Wall Street financier is expected to ultimately win confirmation, but not without a grilling by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. Roberts suggested during the committee meeting that perhaps Wyden had set the heat unnecessarily high. “I just have an observation. I think that today — Mike what have you done with my, uh, here it is — Sen. Wyden, I’ve got a Valium pill here,” Roberts said, appearing to dig his right hand into a suit pocket, “that you might want to take before the second round” of questioning.

6am – A/B/C D.C. police body cameras: Off at demonstrations, on for criminal behavior, public interaction. D.C. police officers working Friday’s inauguration and Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington will have their body cameras turned off but must switch them on if they witness criminal behavior or interact with the public, according to already established department directives. The reiteration of the policy by a department spokesman on Thursday eased some concerns on both sides of the lenses: among civil rights groups worried that cameras would be used to surveil demonstrators and among police who saw inaccurate reports that officers had been ordered to keep their body cameras turned off at all times. In anticipation of demonstrations, several Washington law groups on Thursday said they will offer free legal assistance to demonstrators arrested during the events. Organizations including the National Lawyers Guild, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, D.C. Law Students in Court, and Law for Black Lives, D.C., plan to have lawyers, paralegals and other staff members on call and have established a hotline.

6am – D         Trump’s Inaugural Concert Highlighted by Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood. The “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration” at the Lincoln Memorial included Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down and Lee Greenwood, among others. Trump At Lincoln Memorial Concert: ‘You’re Not Forgotten Anymore.’ President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his inaugural festivities on Thursday evening with a concert at the Lincoln Memorial, promising to unify the country but also reflecting on his unlikely election. “This journey began 18 months ago. I had something to do with it, but you had much more to do with it than I did,” Trump said. “I’m the messenger. I’m just the messenger.” He pledged to “make America great for all our people,” citing his campaign slogan. And Trump told his supporters — calling them “the forgotten man and the forgotten woman” that helped propel him to victory — that they wouldn’t be “forgotten anymore.” He recounted how the polls had counted him out against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton — a favorite tale of his to tell in the weeks after his win. “That last month of the campaign, we knew that something special was happening,” Trump said. “And I can only tell you this, the polls started going up, up up, but they didn’t want to give us credit because they forget about a lot of us.”

6am – E         INTERVIEW — STEVE BURNS — WMAL’s reporter on the ground — discuss the Inauguration crowds, road closures, metro and security.

6am – F         Only 3 of 13 D.C. Council members to attend inauguration parade. The presidential inauguration has traditionally been a standing-room-only event at the District’s city hall, as D.C. elected officials and a select crowd of their handpicked constituents jostle for a nonpareil view of the parade route. When President Trump passes the John A. Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue Friday, he will find few of his new neighbors at home: Only three of the city’s 13 council members, along with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), plan to be there. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said he cannot remember a similarly small turnout in his 26 years in office. While Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama drew predictably rapturous crowds to the special parade-viewing stand at city hall, even the two Bush inaugurations were well-attended, said Evans, one of the three council members who will be present Friday. The other two council members who plan to attend are Anita Bonds (D-At Large) and Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4). Others aren’t holding out great hope for the city’s relationship with the White House. Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) said in an email that she is choosing not to attend the inauguration because Trump “has expressed opinions and policies that I believe are not only contrary to our values as a city and as a country — but potentially destructive and detrimental to the great American democratic experiment.” Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) said he does “not want to show any indication of any support for the incoming president” by attending the parade.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — GARY BYRNE –Former Secret Service Uniformed Officer and author of new book “CRISIS OF CHARACTER” – discussed security concerns about Inauguration.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW — CLARK JUDGE – former speechwriter in the Reagan White House and founder of the White House Writers Group – previewed Trump’s Inaugural address.

• Trump, like every president before him, will give an inaugural address. Some of the addresses have been very short, coming in at just a few hundred words, while the longest stretched on for more than 8,400 words. Obama’s were about 2,100 words and 2,400 words.
• Trump wrote inauguration speech himself. Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump has written his inauguration address draft himself, two senior Trump transition officials told CNN Tuesday. Last month, Trump told guests at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, as well as presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, that he planned to write the speech himself. On Wednesday, Trump on social media shared an image of him writing what he said was his inaugural address at the estate last month.

7am – D         ‘Deploraball’ guests met by protesters in chaotic scene. (Fox News) — WASHINGTON –  Trump supporters arriving for the “Deploraball” inauguration celebration in Washington on Thursday night were greeted by screaming profanities and threats as they entered the National Press Club Building. Some of the hundreds of protesters sprayed Mace, while others were peaceful as law enforcement officers lined the streets to monitor the chaotic scene. At least one passerby reported bottles were being thrown as he showed off a gash in his head. The “Deploraball,” organized by the pro-Trump organization MAGA3X, saw more than 1,000 invited guests celebrate on the eve of the President-elect’s swearing in. The main goal of the evening, according to organizers, was to celebrate.

7am – E         White House Staff Packs Up And Valerie Jarrett Posts An Elitist Tweet:

• Valerie Jarrett ‏@vj44 13h13 hours ago: Taking my last walk around the grounds. Will be watching from outside the gate after tomorrow as a citizen.

8am – A/B/C D.C. police body cameras: Off at demonstrations, on for criminal behavior, public interaction. D.C. police officers working Friday’s inauguration and Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington will have their body cameras turned off but must switch them on if they witness criminal behavior or interact with the public, according to already established department directives.

INTERVIEW — STEVE BURNS — WMAL’s reporter on the ground — discuss the Inauguration crowds, road closures, metro and security.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BRET BAIER – Anchor of Special Report on Fox News Channel and author of new book “Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission” – previewed today’s inauguration.

8am – E         Trump gives up his Android phone: report (Washington Examiner) —

Donald Trump has reportedly given up his Android smartphone before he is sworn in as president on Friday. Trump, who is known for answering his cellphone no matter who it is, told a friend Thursday he had given up the phone, the Associated Press reported. President Obama was the first president to carry a cellphone. He exchanged his personal phone for a Blackberry — and later an iPhone — that had additional security measures. Only a handful of people had his phone number or email address. Trump has said he doesn’t use email. Though he often fires off tweets from his Android. Last week Trump said he will continue to tweet from his personal Twitter account to combat media bias. “It’s my only way that I can counteract,” Trump said. “When people make misstatements about me, I’m able to say it and call them out.” According to the AP, Obama had a phone with access to the official presidential Twitter account, but rarely hit “send” himself. He also always coordinated with his staff before tweeting.