Katie Phang, Byron York and Danica Roem joined WMAL on Thursday!
Mornings on the Mall
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese
5am – A/B/C SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOING BELLY UP According to the Social Security Board of Trustees, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will be depleted in 2034. When this happens, only 77 percent of benefits will be payable. That estimate is no change from last year’s estimate. In addition, the Disability Insurance trust fund will be depleted in 2028, which is an improvement from last year’s estimate of 2023. Once that fund is depleted, 93 percent of benefits will be paid. Right now, Social Security continues to take in through revenue more than it pays it through benefits, which is expected to continue until 2022. Once Social Security begins to pay out more than it takes in, it will be forced to liquidate the assets held by the trust funds. In 2016, Social Security generated $957 billion in income. It only paid out $922 billion including $911 billion in benefits to 61 million beneficiaries.
5am – D CHARLIE GARD & PARENTS GIVEN LEGAL STATUS IN US (Daily Mail) Charlie Gard is given legal permanent residence in US by Congress so ‘he can fly to the States for world class treatment’. Charlie Gard’s doctors remain convinced that he should be allowed to die. The medics failed to be persuaded by American neuroscientist Dr. Michio Hirano, who had spent five and a half hours trying to talk round Charlie’s doctors.
5am – E Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer (Daily Mail) Senator John McCain, 80, is diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer after surgeons remove tumor following routine check-up amid complaints of double vision and fatigue. John McCain announced he’d been diagnosed with cancer on Wednesday night. The 80-year-old Arizona Senator is recovering in hospital with his family. The procedure set back the Senate vote on the Republicans’ now scrapped healthcare bill. President Trump shared his well wishes for the 80-year-old after news of his diagnosis emerged. Some questioned whether the brain tumor was behind his confused questioning of ousted FBI director James Comey in June.
6am – A/B/C NEW YORK TIMES INTERVIEW Trump Says he would not have picked Sessions had he known the AG would recuse. Mr. Trump also faulted Mr. Sessions for his testimony during Senate confirmation hearings when Mr. Sessions said he had not met with any Russians even though he had met at least twice with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak. “Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers,” the president said. “He gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t.” Mr. Trump recalled that a little more than two weeks before his inauguration, Mr. Comey and other intelligence officials briefed him at Trump Tower on Russian meddling. Mr. Comey afterward pulled Mr. Trump aside and told him about a dossier that had been assembled by a former British spy filled with salacious allegations against the incoming president, including supposed sexual escapades in Moscow. The F.B.I. has not corroborated the most sensational assertions in the dossier. In the interview, Mr. Trump said he believes Mr. Comey told him about the dossier to implicitly make clear he had something to hold over the president. “In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,” Mr. Trump said. As leverage? “Yeah, I think so,’’ Mr. Trump said. “In retrospect.” Mr. Trump was also critical of Mr. Mueller, a longtime former F.B.I. director, reprising some of his past complaints that lawyers in his office contributed money to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. He noted that he actually interviewed Mr. Mueller to replace Mr. Comey just before his appointment as special counsel. The president also expressed discontent with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, a former federal prosecutor from Baltimore. When Mr. Sessions recused himself, the president said he was irritated to learn where his deputy was from. “There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any,” he said of the predominately Democratic city. As for Andrew G. McCabe, the acting F.B.I. director, the president suggested that he too had a conflict. Mr. McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, received nearly $500,000 in 2015 during a losing campaign for the Virginia state Senate from a political action committee affiliated with Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton. In his first description of his dinnertime conversation with Mr. Putin at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany, Mr. Trump downplayed its significance. He said his wife, Melania, was seated next to Mr. Putin at the other end of a table filled with world leaders. Trump said he doesn’t know what more the Russians could have given him, since he was so viciously attacking Hillary already.
6am – D/E MORE TOLL ROADS COMING? (WTOP) Toll lanes could blanket the region’s highway; more roads could have reversible rush hour lanes; new bus-only lanes could be built, and Metro or the yet-to-be-built Purple Line could be extended — they’re all ideas from a regional long-range planning task force for massive regional changes that would be great if money were no object. The toll lane expansion could cover much of U.S. 50, Interstate 270 and the entire Capital Beltway. It could even add toll access to the Dulles Access Highway in the middle of the Dulles Toll Road.
6am – F Poll: MD Gov Larry Hogan is 2nd most popular governor in the country, coming in behind MA Gov Charlie Baker, another Republican in a deep blue state (CBS Baltimore) Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has the second highest approval rating for a governor in the country, according to a national poll of governors released by the research group Morning Consult. According to the poll, Hogan’s super-majority approval rating is second only to the governor of Massachusetts. Hogan rides a tide of high approval ratings despite the two-to-one Democratic majority in the State. According to Morning Consult, Hogan is three points behind Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker, another republican in a deep blue state. Sixty-eight percent of registered voters polled in Maryland approve of Hogan’s performance as governor, while 16 percent disapprove. Thirteen percent don’t know or have no opinion. A spokesperson said what is most important to the governor is continuing the administration’s work to change Maryland for the better. Hogan faces re-election next year and there are presently eight Democrats declared or considering a run against him.
7am – A/B INTERVIEW – KATIE PHANG – NBC Legal Contributor, Trial Lawyer and a Partner at Berger Singerman, based in Miami, FL
TOPIC: PREVIEW O.J. Simpson’s parole hearing: What you need to know
-O.J. Simpson is set for a parole hearing Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, on the remaining counts for which he was convicted in Las Vegas in 2008. Simpson has a strong chance of a favorable outcome before the Nevada Board of Parole, which in 2013 paroled him on five counts.
-Simpson could have been sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors asked that Simpson be ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years, while the defense asked for a minimum of six years. Judge Jackie Glass, on Dec. 8, 2008, sentenced Simpson to a minimum of nine years and a maximum of 33 years in prison.
-Legal experts say it’s likely he’ll win release
7am – C Two raccoon attacks reported in one-week span in Arlington neighborhood (Fox 5 D.C.) Animal control officials said there have been two raccoon attacks that have occurred within a week at a condominium complex in the Fairlington neighborhood of Arlington.
7am – D INTERVIEW – BYRON YORK – Chief Political Correspondent for the Washington Examiner
TOPIC: OBAMACARE VOTE: McConnell: Procedural Vote on ObamaCare Repeal-Only Next Week; Trump-NYT Interview
– Trump says he would not have picked Sessions for AG if he knew he would recuse
– Trump sensed dossier threat from James Comey
– Mueller wanted to be FBI Director, and the conflicts don’t end there
– Trump explains Putin dinner story
7am – E Berkeley blocks Ben Shapiro lecture slated for September (Washington Examiner) After a spring marked by controversies involving free speech rights, the University of California, Berkeley has blocked a student-led effort to host popular conservative author Ben Shapiro for a campus lecture this fall. In a statement sent to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday evening, Young America’s Foundation announced that administrators informed the Berkeley College Republicans in an email this week they were “unable to identify an available campus venue” to host the lecture, which was slated for Sept. 14. The administrators, identified by YAF as Dean of Students Joseph Greenwell and Student Organization Coordinator Millicent Morris Chaney, claimed the lecture was spiked “despite extensive efforts.”
8am – A INTERVIEW – DANICA ROEM – Democratic Nominee for District 13 in the Virginia House of Delegates (Prince William County)
TOPIC: Her run for delegate in Prince William County
– Pushing to be the first openly transgender person elected in Virginia
-“We’re building a campaign that can win, and we don’t have to sell out our values to do it,” Roem said. “I’ll be able to demonstrate through governing that a transgender person who has in-depth knowledge about the public policy issues affecting her district and has long-standing ties to her community can succeed in politics and government.”
-Del. Bob Marshall has been a longtime figure in Prince William politics so this will be a tough election; far outpaced him recently in fundraising
8am – B NEW YORK TIMES INTERVIEW Trump Says he would not have picked Sessions had he known the AG would recuse. Mr. Trump also faulted Mr. Sessions for his testimony during Senate confirmation hearings when Mr. Sessions said he had not met with any Russians even though he had met at least twice with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak. “Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers,” the president said. “He gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t.” Mr. Trump recalled that a little more than two weeks before his inauguration, Mr. Comey and other intelligence officials briefed him at Trump Tower on Russian meddling. Mr. Comey afterward pulled Mr. Trump aside and told him about a dossier that had been assembled by a former British spy filled with salacious allegations against the incoming president, including supposed sexual escapades in Moscow. The F.B.I. has not corroborated the most sensational assertions in the dossier
8am – C Biden is taking his ‘American Promise Tour’ to these cities (The Daily Caller) Biden is releasing a book titled “Promise Me, Dad,” a memoir about his life and the loss of his son, Beau Biden, who died after a battle with brain cancer in 2015 while Biden was still in office. The former vice president is set to tour the U.S. to host panel discussions with local leaders from the states he visits. Biden hopes to start conversations outside “the 24-hour news cycle and 140-character arguments,” according to The New York Times.
8am – D/E Jada Pinkett Smith Doesn’t Want Willow Smith to Follow in Her Footsteps and Marry Young. While stopping by Hoda Kotb’s SiriusXM show, The Hoda Show, Girls’ Trip star Jada Pinkett Smith had some surprising words of wisdom warning for her 17-year-old daughter Willow Smith and that’s basically—don’t marry young. When Hoda asked the actress, who has been married to Will Smith since Dec. 31, 1997, what she would say to her independent daughter if she wanted to get married at a young age, like she did, Jada quickly joked that she’d tell her: “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” The actress, who married the Suicide Squad star when she was 25, said, “I’d have to be very careful if she fell in love when I fell in love and had a possibility of getting married. I would just talk to her and say… ‘There’s no rush; there’s a lot of life to live.'” In the sit-down, the 45-year-old even admitted, “I never wanted to be married.”
