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Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday July 4, 2017

Hosts: Dan Mandis

5am – A GOP Rep. Scott Taylor to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota: “You Guys Are Getting Played” By Trump’s Tweets, Every Time Rep. Scott Taylor, R-Va., criticized CNN on Monday and said the network and the media are “getting played” by President Trump by covering his tweets instead of “real issues.” “I think you guys are getting played, man,” Taylor said during an interview on CNN. “I think every time he does this you guys overreact — and I say you guys, I mean the media in general. You guys play right into his hands.” Taylor was asked about a tweet Trump sent Saturday that included a video from a 2007 WWE appearance in which he appears to tackle a man with CNN’s logo superimposed over his face. In the real video, from Wrestlemania 23, Trump clotheslined WWE owner Vince McMahon.

5am /B/C Loud fireworks could startle soldiers suffering from PTSD, advocate says Fireworks are a big part of Fourth of July festivities here in the Lowcountry, but for a number of combat veterans, the loud blasts are distressing. A veterans advocate in the Charleston-area is reminding the community it’s important to be courteous while setting off fireworks, as some of those returning from war are reminded of the battlefield when they hear the sounds of the holiday. “There is comfort that’s available for veterans, but the fireworks sounds are definitely a trigger,” said Yolanda Claibourn, with Hands for Heroes.

Due to the sounds, those living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder might feel anxious and it can be particularly jarring.

5am – D  Therapy animals are everywhere. Proof that they help is not. (Washington Post) A therapy-animal trend grips the United States. The San Francisco airport now deploys a pig to calm frazzled travelers. Universities nationwide bring dogs (and a donkey) onto campus to soothe students during finals. Llamas comfort hospital patients, pooches provide succor at disaster sites and horses are used to treat sex addiction. And that duck on a plane? It might be an emotional-support animal prescribed by a mental health professional. The trend, which has accelerated hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is underpinned by a widespread belief that interaction with animals can reduce distress — whether it happens over brief caresses at the airport or in long-term relationships at home. Certainly, the groups offering up pets think this, as do some mental health professionals. But the popular embrace of pets as furry therapists is causing growing discomfort among some researchers in the field, who say it has raced far ahead of scientific evidence.

5am- E Baseball Challenged by Social Media Accusations of Domestic Violence (New York Times) When Major League Baseball began two domestic-violence investigations last month, allegations against Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell and Tampa Bay Rays catcher Derek Norris did not come from the usual source — a police report, or video, or court testimony. Instead, they came from social media. Kristen Eck, Norris’s former fiancée, wrote on Instagram that she had been physically and verbally abused by Norris in 2015. And after Russell’s wife, Melisa, wrote on Instagram that Russell had cheated on her, a friend of Melisa Russell’s posted that Addison Russell had hit his wife in front of his two young children. Norris, who has since been waived by the Rays, and Russell have denied accusations of abuse. Pat Courtney, an M.L.B. spokesman, confirmed that the league was investigating both cases but declined to say more. Though the two cases are in their early stages, they highlight a new challenge that baseball faces in addressing domestic violence.

6am – A Carl Bernstein calls for ‘different kind of reporting’ to take on ‘malignant presidency’ (Washington Examiner) Carl Bernstein is calling on journalists to commit to a “different kind of reporting” in response to a “malignant presidency” unlike any the country has seen before. “We’re in foreign territory,” Bernstein said Friday on CNN’s “New Day.” He added, “We have never been in a malignant presidency like this before. It calls on our leaders, it calls on our journalists to do a different kind of reporting, a different kind of dealing with this presidency and the president.”

6 B/C. Dems Draft Bill That Could Activate 25th Amendment Powers to Remove Trump (Fox News) Several Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), have signed onto an initiative that could lead to President Trump’s removal using 25th Amendment powers. According to the Washington Post, Raskin’s bill would activate a probe into whether President Trump has been too far “incapacitated” to continue as the leader of the free world. The 25th Amendment deals mainly with presidential succession, denoting that the vice president would take over for a deceased or removed president, and so on. Raskin said his legislation would focus on Section 4 of the 1967 amendment

6am – D Refugee and migrant flows through Libya on the rise The UN has said that seven in 10 people crossing the Mediterranean from Libya are economic migrants and the rest are ‘people in need of protection’ like refugees and asylum-seekers. The U.N. refugee agency says people smuggling and migrant flows in Libya are on the rise, so Europe may face increased flows of migrants and refugees in the future. UNHCR says 84,830 migrants and refugees have reached Italy’s shores so far this year from Libya, which is a 19-percent increase from last year.  In a new report on migration trends in Libya issued today, UNHCR noted that largely lawless Libya has become a major thoroughfare for migrants, but patterns of movement are changing. UNHCR says ‘trafficking for sexual exploitation’ seems to be increasing, particularly affecting Nigerian and Cameroonian women and organized crime rings are becoming internationalized.

6am – E In tweeted video, Trump knocks down, beats up ‘CNN’ US President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the news media Sunday by tweeting a video — bizarre even by his standards — showing him knocking down and beating a professional wrestling “villain” whose face had been replaced by a CNN logo. The 10-year-old video, hailing back to Trump’s days as a guest celebrity at pro-wrestling events, came after a week in which his unrestrained Twitter attacks on two MSNBC talk show hosts drew widespread condemnation from members of both political parties. The latest tweet was immediately condemned by journalists, who said Trump seemed to be promoting physical violence against the media, while a Republican lawmaker said the president was trying to “weaponize distrust” through his postings. But administration officials insisted Trump has a right to respond to critical coverage.

6am – F Jay Leno gets tour of George W. Bush’s ranch Jay Leno is offering a glimpse into life on former President George W. Bush’s ranch. The former “Tonight Show” host visited Bush’s ranch near Dallas for the season premiere of his show, “Jay Leno’s Garage.” Leno and Bush drove around the ranch, where the former president revealed that he is not allowed to drive on public roads for the rest of his life, a rule for all presidents. The two discussed Bush’s Ford F-150 King Ranch truck and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a museum that Bush signed off on during his time in office.

7am – A Dems Draft Bill That Could Activate 25th Amendment Powers to Remove Trump (Fox News) Several Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), have signed onto an initiative that could lead to President Trump’s removal using 25th Amendment powers. According to the Washington Post, Raskin’s bill would activate a probe into whether President Trump has been too far “incapacitated” to continue as the leader of the free world. The 25th Amendment deals mainly with presidential succession, denoting that the vice president would take over for a deceased or removed president, and so on. Raskin said his legislation would focus on Section 4 of the 1967 amendment

7am – B  Trump’s coming immigration battle with Senate Democrats (Washington Examainer) President Trump may have a chance to break the legislative logjam behind healthcare with a victory on one of his signature issues: immigration. Buried in a sea of tweets, Trump notched a rare bipartisan win in the House when 24 Democrats crossed over last week to support Kate’s Law, a bill toughening penalties for criminals who illegally enter the United States multiple times. The legislation was named after Kate Steinle, a young woman murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times. Now both it and another bill from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cutting off certain federal grants to sanctuary cities — local governments that don’t fully cooperate with immigration enforcement — head to the Senate.

7am – C/D Mother Wants To Record Baby’s Gender As ‘Unknown’ (Daily Caller)

A Canadian mother renewed a campaign against birth certificate regulations Monday, arguing that not allowing gender to remain undetermined at birth is a human rights violation. Kori Doty, who sports a mustache and spotty beard, identifies as a non-binary transgender person and wants her daughter to remain legally gender unidentified, like she claims to be herself. Her renewed call to allow birth certificates to read “gender unknown” instead of “male” or “female” comes after Oregon and Washington, D.C. allowed license holders to mark “X” on their IDs instead of specifying a gender.

7am – E Illegal Immigration from Honduras Drying Up From February through May, the number of undocumented immigrants stopped or caught along the southwest border of the United States fell 60 percent from the same period last year, according to United States Customs and Border Protection — evidence that far fewer migrants are heading north, officials on both sides of the border say. Arrests of immigrants living illegally in the United States have soared, with the biggest increase coming among those migrants with no criminal records. The shift has sown a new sense of fear among undocumented immigrants in the United States. In turn, they have sent a warning back to relatives and friends in their homelands: Don’t come.  Migrant smugglers in Honduras say their business has dried up since Mr. Trump took office.

8am – A  In tweeted video, Trump knocks down, beats up ‘CNN’ US President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the news media Sunday by tweeting a video — bizarre even by his standards — showing him knocking down and beating a professional wrestling “villain” whose face had been replaced by a CNN logo. The 10-year-old video, hailing back to Trump’s days as a guest celebrity at pro-wrestling events, came after a week in which his unrestrained Twitter attacks on two MSNBC talk show hosts drew widespread condemnation from members of both political parties. The latest tweet was immediately condemned by journalists, who said Trump seemed to be promoting physical violence against the media, while a Republican lawmaker said the president was trying to “weaponize distrust” through his postings. But administration officials insisted Trump has a right to respond to critical coverage.

8am – B/C  Dems Draft Bill That Could Activate 25th Amendment Powers to Remove Trump (Fox News) Several Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), have signed onto an initiative that could lead to President Trump’s removal using 25th Amendment powers. According to the Washington Post, Raskin’s bill would activate a probe into whether President Trump has been too far “incapacitated” to continue as the leader of the free world. The 25th Amendment deals mainly with presidential succession, denoting that the vice president would take over for a deceased or removed president, and so on. Raskin said his legislation would focus on Section 4 of the 1967 amendment

8am – D INTERVIEW – LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays

8am – E  Therapy animals are everywhere. Proof that they help is not. (Washington Post) A therapy-animal trend grips the United States. The San Francisco airport now deploys a pig to calm frazzled travelers. Universities nationwide bring dogs (and a donkey) onto campus to soothe students during finals. Llamas comfort hospital patients, pooches provide succor at disaster sites and horses are used to treat sex addiction. And that duck on a plane? It might be an emotional-support animal prescribed by a mental health professional. The trend, which has accelerated hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is underpinned by a widespread belief that interaction with animals can reduce distress — whether it happens over brief caresses at the airport or in long-term relationships at home. Certainly, the groups offering up pets think this, as do some mental health professionals. But the popular embrace of pets as furry therapists is causing growing discomfort among some researchers in the field, who say it has raced far ahead of scientific evidence.