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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Is Trump his best spokesperson? President Trump may not be well-served by his primary spokespeople, but he is probably his own worst mouthpiece, according to the latest Monmouth University Poll . More Americans say that Donald Trump, press secretary Sean Spicer, and counselor Kellyanne Conway tend to hurt rather than help the administration’s cause when they step in front of the media. Reviews are mixed for deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Vice President Mike Pence is the only official tested in the poll who has a net positive impact when he speaks on behalf of the administration.

5am – D Flynn and Trump lawyer subpoenaed over Russia investigation (ABC News)

The House intelligence committee approved subpoenas for two individuals as a part of the ongoing investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Trump‘s attorney, Michael Cohen. The subpoenas require both Flynn and Cohen to testify before the committee, as well as turn over personal documents and business records. “We hope and expect that anyone called to testify or provide documents will comply with that request, so that we may gain all the information within the scope of our investigation,” Reps. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, and Adam Schiff, D-California, said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead.”Both Flynn and Cohen have resisted the committee’s requests for their testimony.

5am– E   Doctor Arrested at Trump Hotel on Gun Charges Due in Court (USA News)

A Pennsylvania physician was on his way to the nation’s capital with a carload of weapons, planning to visit the president. As a result, Bryan Moles, 43, of Edinboro, Pennsylvania, was arrested on weapons charges after checking in to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, a few blocks from the White House. He is expected to make an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon. While the Secret Service interviewed Moles and determined he posed no threat to the president or anyone else they protect, D.C.’s police chief said the tip averted a potential disaster.

6am – A/B/C  . Kathy Griffin: ‘I beg for your forgiveness’ for gruesome anti-Trump photo shoot (CNN)  An apologetic Kathy Griffin took to Instagram to issue a mea culpa for participating in a photo shoot that featured her holding up a bloody head resembling President Donald Trump. “I’m a comic,” she said. “I cross the line. I move the line, then I cross it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn’t funny. I get it.” She said she is asking celebrity photographer Tyler Shields to take down the photo. “I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far,” she said in the post on Tuesday. “I made a mistake and I was wrong.” CNN fires Kathy Griffin (CNN)  CNN’s decision comes one day after photos were released of Griffin that showed the comedian holding up a bloody head resembling that of President Donald Trump.

“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” the network said in a statement.

6am – D Trump administration reversing Obamacare’s birth control mandate (USA Today) Health officials are drafting a regulation rolling back the so-called “contraceptive mandate” that their Democratic predecessors implemented following the Affordable Care Act’s passage in 2010, and which became the subject of two Supreme Court battles in 2014 and 2016. While not yet final, the regulation appears intended to let employers avoid providing birth control coverage if they object for any reason — an expansion of the original effort to exempt those with religious objections. As a result, abortion rights groups warn that up to 55 million women could lose free birth control coverage — something that saves them $1.4 billion annually. “The birth-control coverage benefit in our nation’s health care law was the single greatest advancement in reproductive health care in a generation,” said Kaylie Hanson Long of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “It gave millions of women more control over their own lives by making birth control affordable and accessible, and it was fiscally responsible to boot.” But conservative groups that battled the Obama administration in court over the insurance coverage mandate heralded the emerging policy — which would be implemented even before public comments are solicited, rather than the other way around. They said fewer than 200,000 women would be affected and could get separate policies directly from insurers.

6am  – E  7th-grader becomes Baltimore’s first-ever national chess champion (Baltimore Sun) In the back of the Reflection Eternal Barbershop in Baltimore’s Barclay neighborhood, owner Sundiata Osagie sits locked in an intense chess battle — with a 12-year-old boy. A skilled chess player, Osagie easily beats most of the customers who challenge him at his shop. But this is no ordinary challenger. This 12-year-old boy is Cahree Myrick, who has just been crowned the first individual national youth chess champion in the history of Baltimore. “This is the chess champion of the country right here,” Osagie brags to customers, as the two players trade pawns. Though Cahree has learned to play in a formal chess league, his mother, Yuana Spears, brings her oldest son here to the barbershop — amid the buzz cuts, jazz music and history books — to test his skills.

6am – F  Police catch speeder going 144 mph (Fox 5) State Police in Iowa say a radar gun caught a driver going 144 mph on I-80.The incident happened the first week of May.  The Iowa State Patrol posted a photo of the speed displayed on the machine in a patrol car. The post said that a state trooper stopped a vehicle that was going a “blazing speed” during the midnight shift.  The patrol stated that “a dark, open road is no excuse for high speed.”

7am – A INTERVIEW –  LT. COL TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and the New York Times bestselling author of ” Operation Dark Heart.”

TOPIC: What the House Subpoenas of Rice, Brennan, and Power in the ‘Unmasking’ Probe Mean

7am –B Ex-CIA Chief Mike Morell Has Little Confidence In Sources Behind Kushner-Russia Story (Daily Caller) Mike Morell, the former acting director of the CIA, says he has little confidence in the chain of sources cited in news reports alleging that top White House adviser Jared Kushner discussed setting up a secret back channel with the Russian government during a meeting in December. In an interview with The Cipher Brief, Morell, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, also warned against “over-connecting” the dots based on the reports. “That is not a sourcing chain in which I would put a great deal of confidence,” Morell said in the interview of reports by The Washington Post and The New York Times.“I spent a career watching the media get a significant portion of intelligence-related stories wrong. So, the bottom line: we should all be very careful in saying what is a fact on which to base analysis here. The real facts may be different.”

7am  – C  Obamas Pay $8.1 Million for Home Just Miles From White House (New York Times) President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, who have spent the past few months slowly figuring out the rhythm of post-White House life, have taken some time to invest in local real estate: They just spent $8.1 million to buy the mansion they’ve been renting in an exclusive neighborhood here. Last May, the Obamas decided to lease the 8,200-square-foot Tudor-style mansion in Kalorama, a Washington neighborhood that has long been home to diplomats, lobbyists, politicians and the occasional spy. The wealthy enclave is especially crowded lately: President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson have all moved into Kalorama in recent months.

7am – D INTERVIEW – CHARLES PAYNE –  Host of Making Money with Charles Payne

TOPIC: Taxes doubling in the US since JFK

• Per capita federal taxation in fiscal 2016 was 121 percent more than it was in 1965 and 145 percent more than it was in 1961.

7am–E  News anchors struggle to pronounce the made up word from Trump’s mistaken tweet,“covfefe.”

8am – A  INTERVIEW – AMY HARDER – Energy reporter from Axios

Topic: Why Trump is pulling out of the Paris climate deal

• Most major fossil-fuel companies supported staying in Paris, but they weren’t as loud and persistent as the conservative interests pulling the other way, such as the 22 Senate Republicans who sent a letter last week to Trump urging him to withdraw.

8am – B Librarians stock heroin antidote as ‘heroin tourists’ flock to Philadelphia They’re called “heroin tourists” the hundreds of people traveling to Philadelphia every month because of its reputation for having purer heroin with better highs than other metropolitan areas. Consequently, overdoses in public places have surged, including public libraries, where librarians have begun to stock Narcan to counteract overdoses that occur there. Librarians have been called into duty so often to revive overdose victims, they have learned to tell the difference between a regular heroin overdose and a more deadly fentanyl overdose,  by the sound the victim makes while collapsing. Ohio sues five drug companies over opioid crisis. The state of Ohio on Wednesday sued five major drug manufacturers, accusing them of misrepresenting the risks of prescription opioid painkillers that have fueled a sky-rocketing drug addiction epidemic. The suit, filed by Attorney General Mike DeWine, comes as a growing number of state and local governments are suing drugmakers and distributors, seeking to hold them accountable for a deadly and costly opioid crisis.

8am – C Pennsylvania man arrested after calling 911 for conversation (AP)

Police say a Pennsylvania man repeatedly called 911 while intoxicated because he was seeking conversation. Pennsylvania State Police say 51-year-old Larry Keiser first called around 10:30 p.m. Friday because he wanted to speak with a police officer. He said there was no emergency. Keiser called five more times, leading police to show up at his home in North Whitehall Township after midnight. The man told officers he drank several beers because he was upset about a family situation. Troopers told Keiser not to call 911 again unless there was an emergency, and he said he wouldn’t call again. Troopers say he called 911 the minute after officers left. Keiser has been arrested and is facing charges that include intentionally calling 911 for other than emergency purposes.

8am – D Insurance Companies Recommending Assisted Suicide for Terminally Ill Patients (Breitbart) A new video features Dr. Brian Callister of Reno, Nevada, who explains that two of his terminally ill patients from neighboring states required life-saving treatments. The internal medicine specialist says that both of his patients live in states in which assisted suicide is legal, and both were denied the therapies they needed to continue to fight their illnesses. The insurance companies instead, however, offered to cover the costs of assisted suicide drugs. Callister, who notes that neither he nor his patients had expressed interest in assisted suicide to the insurance company, says the fact the practice was legal in those states limited the choices for his patients.

8am – E  INTERVIEW – TUCKER CARLSON – Host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, weeknights at 9 PM ET on Fox News.

TOPICS: Hillary’s long list of excuses for losing presidency

• In an interview with Recode’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Hillary adds NYT and the DNC as reasons why she did not win.