Gordon Chang, ACLU’s Art Spitzer, FBN’s Lou Dobbs and Larry Michael joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C   MALIA OBAMA: Apparently Malia partied a bit too much and the media has been reporting on it.  Some are coming to her defense and saying it’s “unsavory” to report on the former first daughter. TMZ has video of her propped up being taken away in a golf cart.

5am – D/E     NORTH KOREA:

• North Korea brands Donald Trump ‘bereft of reason’ over military threat. Rhetoric escalates amid mounting hostility between Pyongyang and Washington. North Korea and Donald Trump continued their sabre rattling on Wednesday as North Korea’s military called Mr Trump “bereft of reason.” The military statement, carried on Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA, also warned that “only absolute force can work” on the US President, according to the Associated Press.
• MATTIS WARNS NOKO: U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis cautioned Wednesday that North Korea’s actions “will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates,” a day after President Donald Trump made a similar warning in the wake of reports North Korea is continuing to advance its nuclear capabilities.
• North Korea brands Donald Trump ‘bereft of reason’ over military threat. Rhetoric escalates amid mounting hostility between Pyongyang and Washington. North Korea and Donald Trump continued their sabre rattling on Wednesday as North Korea’s military called Mr Trump “bereft of reason.” The military statement, carried on Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA, also warned that “only absolute force can work” on the US President, according to the Associated Press. Tensions have escalated in recent days after Mr Trump warned North Korea would with “be met with fire and fury” if it continued to threaten the United States. It was the most provocative statement yet in a steady stream of criticisms and warnings Mr Trump has issued since taking office. After issuing the warning, Mr Trump kept up the bellicose rhetoric, claiming falsely on Twitter that “my first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal.”

6am – A/B/C Trump defends “excessive expectations” on healthcare to Mitch McConnell: “Why not done” after 7 years?  President Trump on Wednesday fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the Kentucky Republican vented his frustrations about the president’s “excessive expectations” for his agenda. “Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?” Trump tweeted from his New Jersey golf course, where he is on vacation.

6am – D/E/F Serena Williams slammed by fans for ‘ridiculous’ comment that giving birth will make her a ‘REAL woman’ (Daily Mail) – Serena Williams is facing backlash after saying she thinks giving birth will make her a ‘real woman’ in a recent interview about her first child with fiancé Alexis Ohanian. ‘I have so much respect for so many women [for giving birth],’ Williams, 35, told the Herald Sun’s Stellar. ‘I am about to be a real woman now, you know? It’s going to be something incredibly impressive to go through.’  Williams, who will welcome her baby in September, explained her views in child, was quickly criticized for the comment, which readers called ‘brainless’. Many on social media said that a woman can be a ‘real woman’ without giving birth, and questioned her thoughts on women unable to have children.  They also noted that they shouldn’t be considered ‘less of a woman’ for not having children. Social media users called it an ‘unfortunate’ and ‘ridiculous’ comment, while others suggested that she ‘misspoke’ in the interview. 

7am – A         INTERVIEW – GORDON CHANG – author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World” and Forbes contributor – discussed the latest news about North Korea.

7am – B         TRUMP NEWS:

• Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump 23m23 minutes ago:  Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!
• Donald J. Trump Retweeted: ProgressPolls‏ @ProgressPolls  Aug 4:  Who is a better President of the United States? #ObamaDay 61%President Trump 39%President Obama
• Scaramucci on Colbert Monday! “This is just a heads up for our censors to get ready!” Stephen Colbert to interview Scaramucci on August 14. Anthony Scaramucci — the short-lived White House communications director — will appear on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday. Colbert made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday evening. The comedian added: “This is just a heads up for our censors to get ready!” It will be Scaramucci’s first televised sit-down interview since he was ousted from President Trump’s staff after 10 short, albeit memorable, days on the job.
• Scaramucci: Pence “can’t believe what the f-ck is going on” (The Hill) — Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci suggested in an interview last month shortly before his dismissal that Vice President Pence was protecting himself with a staffing choice. Scaramucci’s comment, made during his infamous interview with The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, was published Tuesday after The New York Times reported over the weekend that Pence advisers claimed he has been signaling to GOP donors that he will run in 2020 if President Trump does not. “Why do you think Nick’s there, bro?” Scaramucci said during the phone call, referring to Nick Ayers, Pence’s chief of staff who was appointed to the position last month. “Are you stupid?” Scaramucci added, Lizza reported. “Why is Nick there? Nick’s there to protect the Vice-President because the Vice-President can’t believe what the f— is going on.”
• Top Trump donor ponies up to take out Flake. (Politico) — Robert Mercer is donating $300,000 to a super PAC backing Kelli Ward, who is running against the GOP senator in a primary next year. One of Donald Trump’s most generous political benefactors is providing a six-figure donation to a super PAC devoted to unseating Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has been fiercely critical of the president. Robert Mercer, a reclusive hedge fund billionaire who was intimately involved in Trump’s rise and helped to bankroll his 2016 campaign, is contributing $300,000 to a super PAC supporting former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who is challenging Flake in a Republican primary next year.

7am – C         Hats off: Loudoun Co. revises school dress code.

WASHINGTON — Revisions made to the dress code by Loudoun County’s school board have been revised again. On Tuesday night, the board voted specifically to do away with the change that would have allowed high school students to wear hats inside the classroom. Back in June, the board adopted a revised dress code that included a provision allowing high school students to wear hats. An attempt by one board member to amend the dress code to keep the ban on indoor hats failed in a 4-4 vote, after one board member was absent. But on Tuesday, the board voted 5-3-0-1, with one member absent, to amend the revised dress code, specifically targeting the policy on hats.

7am – D         ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

• The Koch brothers are silent investors in #WonderWoman and other Warner Bros. films. Wonder Woman reportedly funded by Koch brothers, which shouldn’t surprise any of us: (Slate) — Wonder Woman hit a major milestone on Tuesday, when its North American box-office take topped $400 million. The film is now the highest-grossing film ever made by a female director and the third highest-grossing domestic release in Warner Bros. history. Woohoo! Feminist #win! Think of all that money flying out of women’s paychecks and into the pockets of female actresses and a female director, keeping it in the sisterhood! And also, think of the way, way, larger sums of money going into the bank accounts of the right-wing billionaires who funded it!
• DJ: I didn’t grope Taylor Swift… the photo is just awkward. Denver (CNN)Taylor Swift’s mother testified Wednesday that she sees something “horribly wrong” in an image taken during a 2013 pre-concert event that the singer contends shows a radio DJ from Denver groping her. David Mueller, who was fired from his job at KYGO-FM, said earlier under oath that the photo of him and Swift appears “weird” and “awkward” but he vehemently denied that he inappropriately touched the pop star during a meet-and-greet. The trial centers on Swift’s allegation that Mueller reached under her skirt and grabbed her behind before a concert at Denver’s Pepsi Center in June 2013. Swift’s team told KYGO, a CNN affiliate, about the incident, and Mueller, then 51, was fired two days later. In 2015 he sued Swift, her mother, Andrea Swift, and her radio promotions director Frank Bell, alleging that they pressured KYGO to terminate him and that he lost his job because of a false accusation. On Wednesday the court heard from Mueller, Swift’s mother and Bell. During emotional testimony, Andrea Swift gestured at Mueller and said, “He sexually assaulted her. Right there, that guy.”

7am – E         PREDAWN RAID ON MANAFORT’S HOME: (Washington Post) — FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ART SPITZER – legal director of the ACLU-DC and lead counsel in the case

• ACLU sues Metro for rejecting controversial ads, saying its policy violates the First Amendment. (Washington Post) — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Metro, alleging the transit agency’s ad restrictions violate the First Amendment. The lawsuit also challenges Metro’s rejections of ads by Carafem, PETA, alt-right writer Milo Yiannopoulos and one the ACLU submitted. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, centers on four ads: a PETA ad that encouraged riders to “Go Vegan,” an advertisement for an FDA-approved abortion pill, a promo for a book by Yiannopoulos, and an ACLU campaign that highlighted a quote from the First Amendment. All were either rejected outright by Metro — based on its advertising guidelines that prohibit ads that are “issues-oriented” or “intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions” — or were retroactively pulled from stations, trains and buses after riders complained. “This case highlights the consequences of the government’s attempt to suppress all controversial speech on public transit property,” Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU-DC and lead counsel in the case, said in a statement. “The First Amendment protects the speech of everyone from discriminatory government censorship, whether you agree with the message or not.” The ACLU said that Metro is enforcing its advertising guidelines capriciously, and that the prohibitions outlined in the guidelines are far too broad and wide-reaching.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — LOU DOBBS – anchor of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on Fox Business Network, at 7 & 11 pm

• Trump defends “excessive expectations” on healthcare to Mitch McConnell: “Why not done” after 7 years?  President Trump on Wednesday fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the Kentucky Republican vented his frustrations about the president’s “excessive expectations” for his agenda. “Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?” Trump tweeted from his New Jersey golf course, where he is on vacation.
• FBN’s Lou Dobbs Slams McConnell for Comments on Trump’s ‘Excessive Expectations’: ‘Ditch Mitch’ Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs––one of the most pro-Trump voices on Fox––slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tonight for comments he made about President Trump yesterday. Yesterday McConnell expressed frustration with how people complain about how long it takes for Congress to get legislation passed, bringing up President Trump’s own “excessive expectations.” “Mitch McConnell refusing to take responsibility for his failures to deliver legislative victories,” Dobbs said. “McConnell instead, shamelessly, trying to shift blame to President Trump.”

8am – D/E     INTERVIEW — LARRY MICHAEL – the “Voice of the Washington Redskins”

• BIO: Larry Michael is the “Voice of the Washington Redskins as well as the TV host for the Redskins Broadcast Network. He is a 10-time Emmy Award winner for his work with the Redskins Broadcast Network, and his current on-air work includes his role as “Voice of the Washington Redskins” (2004-present), as well as Hosting Redskins Nation on Comcast Sports Net (Daily 2008-present) and the Redskins Coaches Show on WRC NBC 4. He is also currently Senior VP and Executive Producer of Media for the Washington Redskins. He is responsible for the team’s Video content on Redskins.com, as well as production of all Redskins Broadcast Network Television shows and broadcasts.
• TOPIC: It’s the Battle of the Beltways! Ravens gearing up to take on the Redskins in tonight’s preseason opener!