Legal analyst Joe diGenova, National Review Jim Geraghty, Heritage’s Steve Moore and Rowan Scarborough joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, March 27, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   Jordan: Freedom Caucus ‘did the country a favor.’ House Freedom Caucus Vice Chair Jim Jordan touted his group’s opposition to the Republican health care bill during an interview Sunday, saying the legislative effort didn’t go far enough to overturn and eradicate the Affordable Care Act. “The fact that we opposed it, we did that country a favor because this bill didn’t repeal Obamacare,” said Jordan, who, along with many in his caucus.

5am – D         Trump taps Kushner to lead a SWAT team to fix government with business ideas. President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions. The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements.

5am – E         Defense Attorney For Rockville Rapist Blames ‘Hysteria’ Around Case on Trump. Last week we reported on the 14 year old girl who was gang raped by illegal immigrants in a high school bathroom in Montgomery, MD. The rapists’ criminal defense attorneys have begun to speak out. Criminal defense attorney, David Wooten blamed the ‘hysteria’ on this horrific crime on ‘disgusting vitriol that’s been spewed by Donald Trump’. Apparently a 14 year old girl being gang raped and sodomized by an 18 year old illegal immigrant man is enough to cause hysteria, it’s somehow Trump’s fault.

6am – A/B/C BLAMING PAUL RYAN?

• Priebus: Trump Doesn’t Want Paul Ryan to Step Down, Tweet About Judge Jeanine’s Show ‘Coincidental’

• House Freedom Caucus chair says ‘no conversation’ happening about replacing Paul Ryan as speaker.
• President Trump attacks conservative lawmakers for the failure of the Republican bill to replace Obamacare, as aides signal a greater willingness to work with moderate Democrats on upcoming legislative battles from the budget and tax cuts to health care. Over the weekend, the President tweeted a promise of achieving a “great healthcare plan” because Obamacare will “explode.”
• Sen. Chuck Schumer tells ABC This Week: Pres. Trump showed “basic lack of competence” on health care bill

6am – D         Police cite sixth-grader for trespassing because she cuts through neighbors’ yard en route to and from school. Police cite girl, 11, for trespassing because she cuts through a neighbor’s yard on the way to and from her school bus stop to stay out of the cold. (Daily Mail) — Police in Massachusetts served a sixth-grader with no-trespass orders after neighbors grew wary of the girl cutting through their properties to get to and from her school bus stop. The mother of 11-year-old Autumn Blanchard told the Cape Cod Times her daughter received three pink no-trespass notices from the Harwich Police Department on March 2.  Krystal Blanchard said she was unaware neighbors had an issue until the police arrived at her door.  She questioned why she wasn’t informed by the neighbors or school officials, who also knew about the problem. ‘I am beyond distressed by this situation,’ she said. ‘I can’t imagine why it had to go to this level. Someone should have spoken to me.’ Blanchard said she wonders if the fact her family is new to the area and she and her daughter have brightly colored hair may be causing neighbors to discriminate against them.

6am – E         Internet Erupts After United Airlines Boots Girls for Wearing Leggings. (NBC) — The two girls denied entry were flying as “pass travelers,” meaning they were relatives or friends of an United Airlines employee. United Airlines is facing backlash from customers after two girls wearing leggings were denied entry onto a flight because a gate agent deemed their attire improper, NBC News reported. Shannon Watts said she was waiting to board a plane to Mexico for vacation when she overheard a female gate agent deny entry to a young girl wearing gray leggings and saying, “I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them.” The girl, who Watts said was about 10 or 11 years old, had a dress in her backpack to put over leggings and was eventually allowed onto the flight. Two other female passengers who did not have a change of clothes were also denied entry, she said. Defending the decision on Twitter, United Airlines initially cited a rule in the company’s contract of carriage, which states the company can refuse transport to “passengers who are barefoot or not properly clothed,” adding that the girls were flying as “pass travelers,” meaning they were relatives or friends of an United Airlines employee.

6am – F         James Blunt reveals “You’re Beautiful” doesn’t mean what you think it does. (Huffington Post) — From recording songs in the bathroom at Carrie Fisher’s house and knowing the truth behind the mysterious cut on Ed Sheeran’s face to possibly preventing World War III (for real), nothing about Blunt is exactly what you’d assume. Even the singer’s world-renowned single, “You’re Beautiful,” is largely misinterpreted, as he explained to The Huffington Post.  “Everyone goes, ‘Ah, he’s so romantic. I want ‘You’re Beautiful’ as my wedding song.’ These people are fucked up,” said Blunt, bluntly.  The success of Blunt’s mid-2000s hit put the singer on the map and reportedly led to him having the U.K.’s best selling album of that decade, but it’s also caused him a bit of frustration over the years. Some, like those people playing it at weddings, still don’t seem to know what the song is actually about. The singer said, “You get labeled with these things like, ‘Oh, James Blunt. Isn’t he just a soft romantic?’ Well, fuck that. No, I’m not. ‘You’re Beautiful’ is not this soft romantic fucking song. It’s about a guy who’s high as a fucking kite on drugs in the subway stalking someone else’s girlfriend when that guy is there in front of him, and he should be locked up or put in prison for being some kind of perv.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA — legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney of the District Attorney

• Virginia judge backs Trump on travel ban.
• Defense Attorney For Rockville Rapist Blames ‘Hysteria’ Around Case on Trump
• Maryland county’s count suggests noncitizens voting across U.S.
• Chuck Schumer is prepared to push the Senate into a nuclear confrontation over the Supreme Court.

7am – B         DEM NEWS:

• Huma Abedin ‘working hard’ on marriage with Anthony Weiner. (NY Post) – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Huma Abedin four times, and she’ll still take you back. After years of public humiliation by her sext-a-holic husband, Anthony Weiner, 40-year-old Abedin finally separated from the former congressman in August, one day after The Post reported that he had sent yet another explicit photo to a woman — this one showing his toddler son asleep beside him. But sources tell The Post that Hillary Clinton’s righthand woman is now giving the marriage another try. “Huma has been working hard on her relationship with Anthony,” said a source close to the Abedin family. “He has been spending 80 to 90 percent of his time at the [Irving Place apartment] they share . . . If there is a disagreement, he goes to his mother’s apartment in Brooklyn. “Both [his and her] families are hoping they will reconcile.” Another source, who worked closely with Bill and Hillary Clinton for several years, corroborates this, saying the breakup was “more for optics for the campaign and [under] pressure from Hillary’s camp.”
• Biden claims he could have won the Oval Office if he ran for president in 2016. (Daily Mail) — Well why didn’t you run then? Joe Biden says he probably would have won the White House if he was Democratic nominee.  (Daily Mail) — Joe Biden has claimed he could have won the Oval Office if he ran for president in 2016. The former Vice President told students at Colgate University in New York on Friday he believes he could upgraded to the top office in Washington, but admitted the Democratic primary would have been ‘very difficult’. Biden discussed the matter after being asked if he regretted not getting in the race to replace Barack Obama in the White House.  ‘On a college campus I will never, never do anything other than answer the question completely unvarnished and straightforward,’ he said, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reports.  ‘The answer is that I had planned on running for president. And although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won. ‘Do I regret not being president? Yes.’
• Obama to travel to South Pacific island to work on memoir: report. Former President Barack Obama is planning an extended stay in the South Pacific as he begins to write his memoir about his eight years in the Oval Office, according to a new report. Obama has added the South Pacific island of Tetiaroa, once owned by actor Marlon Brando, to his post-presidency vacation spots, according to The Washington Post. Both Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have signed multimillion dollar book deals with Penguin Random House, the publisher announced last month.
• Sanders will introduce a “Medicare for all” bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is planning to introduce a single-payer healthcare bill in Congress. The Vermont senator said during a town hall Saturday he plans to introduce a “Medicare for all” bill “within a couple of weeks,” Vermont Public Radio reported. “It is a commonsense proposal, and I think once the American people understand it, we can go forward with it,” Sanders said after the town hall meeting. During the town hall, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said he would introduce the same bill in the House. “Well, you know, it’s a goal. In this Congress, we won’t pass it,” Welch said after the town hall.  “But I think we have to do keep the goal out there, because we need in this country, like any industrialized country, a healthcare system that’s affordable, accessible and universal.” Welch said he will “reach out to [his] Republican colleagues with specific proposals about some of the things we can do to fix some of the issues in the Affordable Care Act.”

7am – C         SPORTS: The Final Four field is set.  North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon and Gonzaga have all punched their tickets to the national semifinals.  Games are set for Saturday at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.  The winners will meet in the national championship game on Monday, April 3rd.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — JIM GERAGHTY – Senior Political Correspondent, National Review – discussed the fallout of the GOP Health Care vote.

7am – E         IVANKA NEWS:

• Ivanka Trump to attend women’s economic summit in Berlin. WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump is planning a trip to Germany to attend a summit on the economic empowerment of women, a senior administration official said Sunday. The first daughter was invited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during Merkel’s recent White House visit, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the trip by name and requested anonymity. The W20 summit, a women-focused effort within the Group of 20 countries, will be in Berlin in late April. Ivanka Trump’s plans are still being worked out, but she hopes to study successful apprenticeship programs during her visit. Merkel and Ivanka Trump spent time together when Merkel visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.

• Ivanka’s DC neighbors are furious at her for ‘ruining’ the neighborhood — including a Fox News anchor. (Blaze) — Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to Trump, moved to Washington D.C., from Manhattan earlier this year after Trump was elected president last November. They decided to move into a $5.5 million home in the ritzy neighborhood of Kalorama where former President Barack Obama now lives, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. The neighborhood is about 2 miles north of the White House. According to the Washington Post, Ivanka’s neighbors delivered her a handwritten note welcoming her family, which includes three small children, to the neighborhood when they moved in a few months back. But when Secret Service SUVs began lining the streets taking precious parking spaces, the neighbors were a little less passive. In addition to the large security presence, neighbors have complained about trash lining the curb in front of the house and noisy Secret Service agents, who some say changed their shirts out in the open. “It has been a three-ring circus from the day that they’ve moved in,” Marietta Robinson, who lives near the Trump-Kushner house, told The Associated Press. “Are you kidding me?” Robinson added in comments to the Post. “This is the adult child of the president. Sometimes there are 10 cars out here.” At a recent neighborhood commission meeting, even Chris Wallace showed up to complain about the parking situation, according to the AP.
• Trump taps Kushner to lead a SWAT team to fix government with business ideas. President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions. The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — STEVE MOORE – Economist at The Heritage Foundation – shared his thoughts on the health care vote fallout and Trump’s new office for innovation.

8am – B/C     Calls on Health Care Vote.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – ROWAN SCARBOROUGH – National security writer for The Washington Times

• Maryland county’s count suggests noncitizens voting across U.S. Lawsuit on behalf of Marylanders compared jury pools. (Washington Times) —  The debate over noncitizens voting was a hot topic a few years ago in Frederick County, a prosperous Maryland suburb wedged between Washington’s urban metropolis and the state’s rural western gateway to the rest of America. Conservative activists went to court to show that noncitizens were registering fraudulently to vote. A court employee met their request by turning over pages of residents’ names disqualified from jury duty because of alien status. When those lists were compared with voting records for just three years — 2007, 2008 and 2011 — nearly 180 noncitizens were found to have registered to vote. Of those, 63 had voted, some in multiple elections. The 180 registered votes came from 1,400 disqualified noncitizens in those three years, a rate of 12.8 percent. The issue of noncitizen voters has taken on national importance. President Trump, who said 3 million or so voted illegally in November, plans to name a federal task force to investigate. Frederick County’s numbers offer a limited snapshot from a handful of jury pools, but they indicate that noncitizens are registered to vote and are casting ballots in states, which administer federal, state and local elections.

8am – E         Town Hall Clashes Over The Weekend:

• Pelosi clashes with constituents: ‘Do you want to listen or just speak?’ Even Nancy Pelosi is too conservative for them. The House Minority Leader found that out the hard way when her constituents attending a Saturday town hall meeting in San Francisco repeatedly shouted out and jeered as she said what they apparently thought were wobbly statements. Several times, she clashed with her own constituents, who were largely sympathetic to her agenda. Appearing with Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Pelosi was confronted by activists with Indivisible, a group that has been turning out left-wing citizens largely at Republican town hall meetings across the country When Pelosi told the group that she has supported a single-payer health scheme for 30 years, shouts and jeers erupted. “Sorry?” a confused Pelosi said looking out into the crowd. When Pelosi said “certain respects” of Obamacare have gone “to the left” of “Medicare for all,” many in the crowd weren’t buying that, either. “Yes, yes, yes,” Pelosi said, raising her voice. “Do you want to listen or do you just want to speak?” she quizzed the audience. Moments later, she said Democrats got the next best thing to single payer by “putting as many benefits in the bill as possible.” Then she paused and lectured the audience to “listen up” to her next statement.
• ‘Bring it on!’: Lindsey Graham and constituents shout over each other in latest town hall debacle. (Washington Post) — Inundated with boos from a raucous town hall crowd, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) snapped back, lashing out at one attendee for asking a “garbage” question and slamming many for not accepting the result of the 2016 presidential election. Toward the end of the hour-long town hall in Columbia, S.C., people were standing up. “Your last term! Your last term!” they chanted. The senator fired back, telling the crowd that he does not and will not worry about losing his job in the 2020 election. “Good! Good! Come on, bring it on! Bring it on!” Graham said. “If I win, fine. If I don’t, fine. But here’s what you’re going to get from me. You’re going to get somebody that tells you exactly what I believe. And to everybody in this room, it’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to be upset.” Republicans who have hosted town halls have endured “protests, sharp rebukes and emotional questions about what they see as a sharp turn in governance as well as the House and Senate’s willingness to check the White House,” The Washington Post’s Dan Zak and Terence Samuel wrote last month.