Eli Lake, Carl Higbie, Byron York and Cully Stimson joined the show on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

5am – A/B/C At what age should a kid pay for housing, cell phone and a car?

5am – D         Trump asked Comey to end Flynn probe (Fox News)  The White House grappled late Tuesday with the political ghost of James Comey, as an explosive new report said a memo written by the ousted FBI chief claimed President Trump once asked him to end the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The White House sharply disputed the report, as Democrats seized on it as potential proof of “obstruction” of justice. According to The New York Times the memo quoted Trump as saying he hoped Comey could “let this go” with regard to Flynn. The Times said Comey wrote the memo shortly after an Oval Office meeting on Feb. 14, the day after Flynn resigned from the Trump administration. The paper acknowledged it had not seen a copy of the memo, but said a Comey associate read parts of it to a reporter over the phone. The memo was presented as the clearest evidence yet that Trump tried to influence the Justice Department and FBI probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and alleged links to Trump’s associates. But the White House rejected the characterization that the president tried to shut down an investigation. “[T]he President has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” an official said. “The President has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the President and Mr. Comey.” Trump reportedly told Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. … He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

5am – E         Chelsea Manning to remain in Army, receive health care benefits after prison release. (Fox News) — Chelsea Manning will remain on active duty following her release from military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 17, the U.S. Army said Sunday. Manning will be an unpaid soldier and will be eligible for health care and other benefits, USA Today reported. She will remain a private, Army spokesman Dave Foster told the paper. “Pvt. Manning is statutorily entitled to medical care while on excess leave in an active duty status, pending final appellate review,” Foster said. Manning was granted clemency in the final days of the Obama administration. She thanked former President Obama last Tuesday in her first statement since being granted clemency. “For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea,” she said in the statement. “I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world. Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.” Last year, Army officials told her she was eligible for sex reassignment surgery — and the government would pay for it, attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union told reporters. Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents and battlefield video to WikiLeaks. She served nearly seven years of her 35-year sentence

6am – A/B/C DRAMA COMING FROM MEDIA OR WHITE HOUSE?

• White House disputes explosive report that Trump asked Comey to end Flynn probe
• McMaster: Trump’s sharing of sensitive intelligence with Russia was ‘wholly appropriate’
• Mitch McConnell: ‘I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House’

6am – D         Bill Gates told new grads to read this book. Now it’s surging on Amazon. (Washington Post) — Since stepping down as Microsoft’s chief executive in 2000, Bill Gates has seen his reputation transform from that of a hard-nosed businessman intent on shutting out the competition — which produced comparisons to oil magnate John D. Rockefeller — to that of a wise, inspiring philanthropist seeking to solve some of the world’s toughest social challenges. Now, Gates regularly dispenses the wisdom he’s gained over the years in an effort to get people to dream bigger, think more positively and be a force for good. He’s even willing to give all this advice for free. On Monday, Gates delivered what seemed like an entire graduation speech in the span of 14 tweets. Like the best commencement speeches, Gates’s tweetstorm is a personal reflection on the ways he’s grown since he was a young adult. He admits that it took him “decades” to learn about inequality, and he says he no longer believes there is only one way to measure intelligence. He also articulates a philosophy that drives what he does: the notion that the world is steadily getting better, not worse. The argument for that, Gates said, is laid out in a 2011 book called “The Better Angels of Our Nature.” Written by Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, the book attempts to explain why, as the New York Times put it, “our era is less violent, less cruel and more peaceful than any previous period of human  existence,” despite headlines that may scream to the contrary. “That matters,” Gates tweeted, “because if you think the world is getting better, you want to spread the progress to more people and places.”

6am – E         100,000 sign petition to save Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing, because axing it attacks “conservative values.” Allen himself says he’s been “blindsided” by the show’s network ABC.

6am – F         Union Station ad screen played porn videos. WASHINGTON — Pornographic videos streamed on a digital advertising board in Union Station during rush hour Monday evening, and the property managers are looking into the possibility the screen was hacked. Around 5:30 p.m., an ad board near the Metro entrance at Union Station started playing pornographic videos, said Beverley Swaim-Staley, president and CEO of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation. The video lasted for a few minutes before someone was able to turn the board off. Union Station Redevelopment Corporation is working with the company that leases and manages the property to determine if the video board was hacked, Swaim-Staley said. The digital ad screen will remain shut down until the management company is sure the screen isn’t vulnerable to it happening again.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – ELI LAKE – Bloomberg View columnist

• TOPIC:  Latest on the Trump vs Wash post report and White House drama:
• Trump’s Best Defense on Russia Is Incompetence. (Bloomberg View/Eli Lake) –  One way you know the president is in trouble is that, accused of collusion, his best defense is incompetence. Such is the case with Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey. And such is the case with the latest scandal to hit this White House, that Trump disclosed highly classified information in his meeting last week with Russia’s foreign minister.  It looks terrible. Trump fires the FBI director investigating Russia’s influence of the election, and the very next day has the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office. He proceeds to divulge to his guests  sensitive details about an allied intelligence operation that detected an Islamic State plot against airlines. U.S. officials told the Post that this disclosure was “reckless” and violated the trust of an allied spy service. The implications could be grave. Intelligence cooperation could be chilled. A human source could be in danger. Our efforts to disrupt the Islamic State could be hobbled. That said, this doesn’t look like collusion with the Russians. “Collusion” implies the information should not be shared

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – CARL HIGBIE – former Navy SEAL and strategist at AmeriMan LLC – discussed the leaks in the media attacking Trump.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – CULLY STIMSON – Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation

• Chelsea Manning gets out of jail on Wednesday. She will still get health benefits and is on active duty status. Chelsea Manning will remain on active duty following her release from military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 17, the U.S. Army said Sunday. Manning will be an unpaid soldier and will be eligible for health care and other benefits, USA Today reported. She will remain a private, Army spokesman Dave Foster told the paper. “Pvt. Manning is statutorily entitled to medical care while on excess leave in an active duty status, pending final appellate review,” Foster said. Manning was granted clemency in the final days of the Obama administration. She thanked former President Obama last Tuesday in her first statement since being granted clemency. “For the first time, I can see a future for myself as Chelsea,” she said in the statement. “I can imagine surviving and living as the person who I am and can finally be in the outside world. Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.” Last year, Army officials told her she was eligible for sex reassignment surgery — and the government would pay for it, attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union told reporters. Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents and battlefield video to WikiLeaks. She served nearly seven years of her 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth. She was known as Bradley Manning before transitioning in prison.

7am – E         LATEST ON SLAIN DNC STAFFER SETH RICH:

• Family denies slain DNC staffer leaked information to WikiLeaks. WASHINGTON (AP) — The family of a Democratic National Committee staffer who was fatally shot has rejected news reports that he leaked work emails to WikiLeaks before his death.   According to The Washington Post, Fox News reported Tuesday that an FBI forensics examination showed that Seth Rich transferred 44,053 DNC emails and 17,761 attachments to a WikiLeaks director who has since died. A spokesman for Joel and Mary Ann Rich said Tuesday that they don’t believe their son, who was shot in July 2016 in D.C., gave any information to WikiLeaks.
• “We know of no evidence that supports these allegations. We are continuing to cooperate with investigators and have no further comment,” DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.
• Alex Seitz-Wald‏ @aseitzwald 14h14 hours ago: Fresh reporting from NBC’s Pete Williams: Seth Rich’s laptop did not have emails to WikiLeaks. And FBI never had it
• NBC: Meanwhile, a current FBI official and a former one completely discount the Fox News claim that an FBI analysis of a computer belonging to Rich contained thousands of e-mails to and from WikiLeaks. Local police in Washington, D.C., never even gave the FBI Rich’s laptop to analyze after his murder, according to the current FBI official. And a former law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of Rich’s laptop said the claim was incorrect. “It never contained any e-mails related to WikiLeaks, and the FBI never had it,” the person said.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — BYRON YORK – Chief political correspondent, Washington Examiner – discussed the latest on the Trump vs Wash post report and White House leaks drama.

8am – B         Kimberly Guilfoyle says she’s talking with Trump administration about press secretary job. The Fox News host and former First Lady of San Francisco tells the Bay Area News Group: ‘I’m a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country.’ NEW YORK — Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former first lady of San Francisco and current Fox News host, is in conversations with the Trump administration about becoming White House press secretary, she said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group on Monday night. Guilfoyle said the idea of her taking the job or another press role in the White House has been “raised by a number of people” in the Trump administration, although she declined to go into specifics. She noted that she’s regularly in touch with members of the administration in the course of her job.  “I’m a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country,” Guilfoyle said. “I think it’d be a fascinating job. It’s a challenging job, and you need someone really determined and focused, a great communicator in there with deep knowledge to be able to handle that position.”

8am – C         Redskins sign Bob Marley’s linebacker grandson as an undrafted free agent. WASHINGTON (ABC7) — You may not have heard of the Redskins’ new rookie linebacker Nico Marley before now but chances are you have heard about his famous grandpa. Nico is the grandson of iconic reggae singer and social activist Bob Marley. The grandson of the music legend was signed by the team Tuesday after getting an invitation to the Redskins’ rookie minicamp. Nico played linebacker for Tulane from 2013 to 2016 and finished as the Green Wave’s all-time leader in tackles for a loss and finished as a two-time first-team All-American Conference linebacker. He finished his career with 319 total tackles, 50.5 tackles for a loss, six forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries.

8am – D/E  DAMA COMING FROM MEDIA OR WHITE HOUSE?

• White House disputes explosive report that Trump asked Comey to end Flynn probe
• McMaster: Trump’s sharing of sensitive intelligence with Russia was ‘wholly appropriate’
• Mitch McConnell: ‘I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House’