VA lawmaker Dorothy Jaeckle, Andrew McCarthy, Washington Examiner’s Al Weaver and MD Delegate Nic Kipke joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C McAuliffe Vetoes Bill Allowing Domestic Violence Victims To Arm Themselves. (Bearing Arms) — Virginia’s radically anti-gun Democrat governor, Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe, wants to ensure that domestic abusers don’t face armed victims. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) vetoed a bill on Friday that aimed to allow victims of domestic violence to carry concealed firearms without obtaining a permit. House Bill 1852 would allow anyone in Virginia who has a protective order and is over 21 to carry a concealed firearm without a permit for up to 45 days after the order is issued. It would then give anyone with an active order an additional 45 days to carry concealed should they apply for a permanent concealed-handgun permit, which can take up to 45 days to process. The person with the protective order would be required to show police the order or permit application and photo ID if stopped. Governor McAuliffe noted in a statement that the bill bypasses the training and background check requirements associated with obtaining a Virginia concealed handgun permit and said it would make domestic violence situations worse, not better. “The bill perpetuates the dangerous fiction that the victims of domestic violence will be safer by arming themselves,” he said. “It would inject firearms into a volatile domestic violence situation, making that situation less safe, not more.” Governor McAuliffe doesn’t apparently like the idea of domestic violence victims being able to defend themselves against violent predators. Laws similar to House Bill 1852 are on the books in many states, and have not made the situation “less safe” as the pro-felon governor has opined.

5am – D GORSUCH SUPREME COURT NOMINATION UPDATE:

• McConnell claims votes to bust Supreme Court filibuster. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is claiming he has the votes necessary to thwart a planned Democratic filibuster of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, as a showdown draws near that could change the Senate, and the court, for generations.
• McConnell starts clock on Neil Gorsuch nuclear showdown. (CNN) Senate Republicans took their first procedural step Tuesday toward implementing the “nuclear option” to get Judge Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court over Democratic opposition when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to end debate on his nomination. A vote on that “cloture” motion will take place Thursday. Democrats can block ending debate — what’s known as a filibuster — by mustering 41 votes against it, which they are expected to be able to do. At that point, McConnell will turn to the nuclear option by essentially declaring from the Senate floor that from now on filibusters of Supreme Court nominees can be stopped with 51 votes not 60, as has been the case for decades.
• Leader McConnell‏ @SenateMajLdr 11h11 hours ago: Due to an unprecedented filibuster threat, I just filed cloture on the Judge #Gorsuch nomination. #SCOTUS

5am – E TRUMP’S BUSY WEEK IN FOREIGN POLICY MEETINGS:

• Egypt’s El-Sisi Meeting Trump Monday at White House: Trump: US, Egypt Will Fight Islamist Militants Together. U.S. President Donald Trump moved to reset U.S. relations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday after the prior Obama administration’s strained ties, giving him firm backing and vowing to work together to fight Islamist militants.
• UPCOMING CHINA MEETING: This week President Xi Jinping will travel to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a meeting that will set the tone for one of the world’s most important bilateral relationships. TRUMP DELEGATION for Xi mtg to include Tillerson, Mnuchin, Ross, Kelly, Mattis, Bannon, Kushner, Cohn, McMaster, Sessions, Bossert, I’m told
• TODAY at the WH: Pres Trump hosts 1st talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah. Agenda: ISIS, Syria and Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
• North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, US and South Korean officials have said. >> North Korea test-fires missile into sea ahead of Trump-Xi summit. North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, ahead of a summit between U.S. and Chinese leaders who are set to discuss Pyongyang’s increasingly defiant arms program. The missile flew about 60 km (40 miles) from its launch site at Sinpo, a port city on North Korea’s east coast, the South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Sinpo is home to a North Korean submarine base. The launch comes just a day before the start of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where talks about adding pressure on the North to drop its arms development will take center stage. “The launch took place possibly in consideration of the U.S. -China summit, while at the same time it was to check its missile capability,” a South Korean official told Reuters about the military’s initial assessment of the launch.

6am – A/B/C Poll: Trump’s approval rating sinks further. President Trump’s approval rating has declined 6 percentage points since early March, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Thirty-five percent approve of Trump’s job performance in the latest Quinnipiac University survey, while 57 percent disapprove and 8 percent are uncertain. Since the same poll was conducted about two weeks ago, Trump’s approval has decreased by 2 points, while disapproval has increased by 1 point. Quinnipiac’s March 7 survey put Trump’s approval rating at 41 percent, meaning that his score has tumbled by 6 points in just under a month.

6am – D SUSAN RICE NEWS:

• LAWMAKERS WANT HER TO TESTIFY:
• House Intel Panel Wants Susan Rice To Testify. As the WSJ reports, citing two officials familiar with the matter, Rice who served as national security adviser under former President Barack Obama, is on a list of witnesses drawn up by the committee as part of its probe. House Republicans and Democrats have agreed upon a preliminary list of about 30 witnesses that officials say will be expanded as needed. Formal requests to testify haven’t been sent yet by the committee to the witnesses.
• Susan Rice may ‘be of interest to us,’ says Senate Intelligence chairman. (Washington Post) — The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman is not ruling out interviewing former national security adviser Susan Rice over allegations that she sought to have the identities of President Trump’s transition team revealed in foreign surveillance reports. “If the reports are right,” Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said on Tuesday, “then she will be of interest to us.” Some Republican lawmakers have been clamoring for the Senate Intelligence Committee to force Rice to testify under oath after a report from Bloomberg’s Eli Lake suggested Rice on dozens of occasions requested the identities of people connected to Trump be “unmasked.”
• McConnell backs investigation into Rice on Flynn unmasking. (Politico) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday backed calls for a congressional investigation into allegations that Susan Rice, the national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, “unmasked” Trump transition officials in intelligence reports for political purposes. “I have asked the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, Sen. [Richard] Burr, Sen. [Mark] Warner, to conduct a bipartisan investigation of this whole episode,” McConnell told Fox News anchor Dana Perino in an interview. “They will conduct it. Hopefully at the end we will find out what happened and they will issue a report, I hope, on a bipartisan basis.” Numerous reports emerged this week claiming Rice sought to undermine her successor, Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, by attaining the names of Trump transition officials from intelligence reports. The name of Flynn, among others, was “unmasked,” and later leaked to the press, which led to the revelation that he had communicated with Russia officials — a revelation that cost him his job.
• Former CIA Analyst: Susan Rice’s NSA demasking denials don’t add up. (FoxNews.com/By Fred Fleitz) — As a former CIA analyst who has handled requests for demasking the names of American citizens for a U.S. policymaker, I thought Rice’s claims in her interview did not add up. The names of U.S. citizens “incidentally” mentioned in NSA reports are masked to preserve their identities because America’s intelligence agencies are barred from spying on American citizens except in extraordinary circumstances with court approval. Rice correctly said in her interview that policymakers sometimes request to know the identities of Americans from NSA reports to understand these reports in certain circumstances. She also tried to dismiss this controversy by claiming NSA demasking requests are routine. They actually are not routine and taken very seriously by NSA. Rice also said there is an Intelligence Community process to review whether to approve demasking requests. This seemed to be an attempt by Rice to make her requests look legitimate because NSA carefully reviewed them.

• ON MSNBC, SUSAN RICE BACKTRACKS ON KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT UNMASKING
• MCCARTHY: Susan Rice’s White House Unmasking: A Watergate-style Scandal

6am – E CRITTER NEWS: With springtime here, authorities warn of increase in bear sightings. WASHINGTON – Authorities say a bear was spotted in Vienna on Tuesday and Fairfax County police want people to know they could be attracting the bears without knowing it. It is that time of year when bears are making their way into our backyards again. The more people move into bear territory, the more we have to learn to live side-by-side with them and how to not attract them. Tuesday’s bear sighting in Fairfax County is just a reminder that bears are emerging from their winter habitats and are on the hunt for food. Bear sightings are nothing new to the D.C. area and they generally do not cause too much harm. But a chilling 911 call by a Frederick County, Maryland woman last year after a bear attack is a reminder that they can be dangerous. Thankfully, the woman survived the attack. Even though the encounters are rare, early spring is when the Department of Natural Resources begins to hear about more bear sightings.

6am – F SYRIA CHEMICAL WEAPONS:

• At least 72 dead in suspected chemical attack in Syria. A suspected chemical attack in a rebel-held Syrian town killed 72 people and injured 400 others, a medical relief group said, and some medics treating the wounded were later struck by rubble when an aircraft reportedly bombed a hospital. A hospital in Syria’s northern Idlib province was hit soon after the area was bombarded with a suspected chemical agent, an AFP correspondent reported. The U.N. Security Council is to convene for an emergency meeting over the suspected deadly chemical attack. At least 11 of the 72 people that were reported killed were children.
• Tillerson urges Iran and Russia to prevent chemical weapons attacks in Syria. (The Hill) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday urged Russia and Iran to prevent Syrian President Bashar Assad from launching chemical weapons attacks following a deadly chemical attack in Syria. “While we continue to monitor the terrible situation, it is clear that this is how Bashar al-Assad operates: with brutal, unabashed barbarism,” Tillerson said in a statement. “Those who defend and support him, including Russia and Iran, should have no illusions about Assad or his intentions,” Tillerson continued. “Anyone who uses chemical weapons to attack his own people shows a fundamental disregard for human decency and must be held accountable.”
• WHITE HOUSE REACTION: The White House on Tuesday also condemned the chemical attack, with President Trump calling it “reprehensible” and stating that it “cannot be ignored by the civilized world.” At the same time, Trump blamed the “heinous actions” of Assad’s regime on the Obama administration’s “weakness and irresolution.” “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing. The United States stands with our allies across the globe to condemn this intolerable attack,” Trump said. Trump didn’t say how his administration would respond to the attack, considered the worst chemical weapons strike in Syria in years.
• Pres Trump hosts 1st talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah. Agenda: ISIS, Syria and Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
• U.S., France, Britain propose U.N. resolution on Syria gas attack

7am – A INTERVIEW — DOROTHY JAECKLE – chairwoman of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors in Virginia

• Local Virginia Lawmaker Under Fire For Remarks About Immigrants. CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) – The chairwoman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors is under fire for comments she made about immigrant students and non-native English speakers in county schools. Media outlets report Dorothy Jaeckle made the comments during a budget work session earlier this month. Jaeckle said, in part, that parents want their children to “be in a classroom that’s more English-speaking.” She also referred to the recent nationwide protest, “A Day Without Immigrants,” saying “teachers said it was so nice to have a whole class that understood English.” The comments appeared in a March 18 Richmond Times-Dispatch article. Chesterfield County is just south of Richmond. Members of the public, including members of the Chesterfield NAACP, rallied Wednesday outside the Chesterfield Schools building and called for Jaeckle’s resignation. During the Wednesday Board of Supervisors meeting, Jaeckle said her comments were taken out of context.

7am – B/C DC is the #1 coupon downloader in the country earning them the rank of the most frugal city in America.

• Frugal DC ranked No. 1 for digital coupon downloads. WASHINGTON — Coupons.com has just dubbed D.C. “America’s Coupon Capital.” The D.C. region won the top spot on Coupons.com’s rankings of America’s Most Frugal Cities of 2016, based on how many digital coupons per capita are downloaded. Coupons.com used data from parent company Quotient Technology Inc., counting coupon downloads through Coupons.com, its app and its thousands of partners. Quotient’s coupon partners includes hundreds of national retailers, restaurants and consumer goods companies. “Shoppers in D.C. selected more than 23 million digital coupons in 2016, totaling more than $31 million in savings and overtaking Orlando as No. 1 for the first time in the seven-year history of the index,” Coupons.com said in a statement. Virginia Beach also ranked in the top 10.

7am – D INTERVIEW — ANDREW MCCARTHY – is a contributing editor at National Review, former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and author of “Faithless Execution” (2014).

• Susan Rice’s Unmasking — Intelligence Agencies Alone Can Make That Call

7am – E Border wall bids include tourist attraction, solar panels. SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tuesday was the deadline for companies to propose designs for President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will ask several of the bidders to build prototypes in San Diego. The government won’t identify companies until contracts are awarded around June 1 – and even then, only the winners – but some bidders released plans on their own.

• SOLAR PANELS: Gleason Partners LLC of Las Vegas proposes solar panels to cover sections of the wall.
• TOURIST ATTRACTION: Crisis Resolution Security Services Inc. of Clarence, Illinois, proposes a wall that is 56 feet (17 meters) high and 22 feet (7 meters) wide at the top – with plenty of room to allow tourists to enjoy desert views.
• NUCLEAR WASTE: Clayton Industries Inc. of Pittsburgh proposes storing nuclear waste along the wall in trenches that are at least 100 feet (30 meters) deep. Money already collected by the U.S. Department of Energy from people who benefit from nuclear power would help pay for the wall.
• ARTWORK ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER: Concrete Contractors Interstate of San Diego proposed a polished concrete wall augmented with stones and artifacts specific to areas on the 2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer) border. Russ Baumgartner, CEO of the company, says the wall should be “a piece of art.”
• BALLISTIC CONCRETE: DarkPulse Technologies of Scottsdale, Arizona, proposes a concrete wall that can withstand tampering or attacks of any kind. “You could fire a tank round at it and it will take the impact,” said company founder Dennis O’Leary.

8am – A Interview – AL WEAVER – political reporter for Washington Examiner covering congress

• GORSUCH SUPREME COURT NOMINATION UPDATE: McConnell claims votes to bust Supreme Court filibuster. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is claiming he has the votes necessary to thwart a planned Democratic filibuster of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, as a showdown draws near that could change the Senate, and the court, for generations. Leader McConnell‏ @SenateMajLdr 11h11 hours ago: Due to an unprecedented filibuster threat, I just filed cloture on the Judge #Gorsuch nomination. #SCOTUS

• OBAMACARE REPEAL: Trump White House Sells New Health Plan as GOP Seeks Details. (NBC News) — Hours after President Donald Trump told NBC News that he was serious about reaching a deal on health care with members of his party, Vice President Mike Pence headed to Capitol Hill Monday night armed with a compromise proposal for the House conservatives who had helped doom the Republican health care bill a little more than a week ago.

8am –B SUSAN RICE NEWS:

• LAWMAKERS WANT HER TO TESTIFY: House Intel Panel Wants Susan Rice To Testify. Susan Rice may ‘be of interest to us,’ says Senate Intelligence chairman.
• McConnell backs investigation into Rice on Flynn unmasking. “I have asked the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, Sen. [Richard] Burr, Sen. [Mark] Warner, to conduct a bipartisan investigation of this whole episode,” McConnell told Fox News anchor Dana Perino in an interview.
• Former CIA Analyst: Susan Rice’s NSA demasking denials don’t add up.
• ON MSNBC, SUSAN RICE BACKTRACKS ON KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT UNMASKING
• MCCARTHY: Susan Rice’s White House Unmasking: A Watergate-style Scandal

‌8am – C Two Politicians Have Formed First-Ever Senate Motorcycle Gang. (Daily Caller) — Two Harley-Davidson-riding senators have formed the first-ever Motorcycle Caucus, a bipartisan gang of politicians dedicated to advocating for biker’s interests. Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters ostensibly want to bring together both parties to work on issues like improving infrastructure, road safety, jobs and American manufacturing, but they could just be looking for an excuse to ride motorcycles in Washington, D.C. “Some of my most cherished memories include motorcycles, from delivering messages as a young girl to my dad while he was working out in the fields, to riding through the rolling hills of Northeast Iowa with family and friends,” Ernst said in a press release Tuesday. Ernst wants to “encourage thoughtful discussion and solutions on behalf of motorcycle riders and manufacturers through” with the new caucus.

8am – D Interview – MD Delegate NIC KIPKE – House Republican Leader, Maryland General Assembly and Minority Leader in the MD House of Delegates

• Preview MD legislative session ending on April 10th and what’s been accomplished vs what legislation didn’t make it through
• Less than a week remains in the Maryland General Assembly’s legislative session and lawmakers still have a lot of work left to do on issues like paid sick leave and medical marijuana.
• National politics still driving Dems in Annapolis, GOP lawmakers say. (Maryland Reporter) — A late attempt to introduce an Internet privacy bill on Monday illustrated a common complaint from the Republican minority this session: Democrats continue to make Washington politics their priority. House Majority Leader Bill Frick asked the House of Delegates to allow introduction of an emergency bill to prevent Internet service providers from selling or sharing personal information without notification and consent of their customers. Frick’s eleventh hour pitch on the House floor was an attempt to replace an Obama-era FCC rule that was repealed by the Republican controlled Congress last week. House Minority Leader Nic Kipke said the bill was just another attempt by Democrats to bring national politics into the General Assembly. “We see this as [one in a] series of bills that have been introduced this year that’s intended to drag us into the Congress of the United States,” Kipke said. “This was our opportunity to say no and we had the votes to sustain it.” Kipke, R-Anne Arundel, echoed McMillan and said the bill would not fix the issue of privacy across the Internet. He said Internet users were exposed to privacy risks using Google and Yahoo and that the solution was in Washington. “Let’s have a comprehensive look at this issue, preferably in Washington, D.C.,” Kipke said.

8am – E Bernie Sanders endorses Perriello for Virginia governor. (Politico) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Tom Perriello in the Virginia governor’s race, the first major national endorsement for the former congressman ahead of his Democratic primary against Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. Sanders’ backing could bring media attention and small-donor money to Perriello. Public polling has shown Perriello and Northam tied so far, but neither is well-known and the TV advertising blitz ahead of the June primary has not yet begun. “We need to elect progressives at every level of government if we are going to beat back the dangerous agenda of the Trump Administration and its Republican allies. Now more than ever we need people in elected office who will fight for middle-income and working families,” Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday. “That’s why I am so pleased today to endorse Tom Perriello for Governor of Virginia.”