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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe calls for Confederate monuments to be removed in the state (The Washington Examiner)

5am – D Trump abruptly ends business and manufacturing councils after Charlottesville resignations (Washington Examiner) President Trump abruptly announced Wednesday he is disbanding his manufacturing council of business leaders as well as his CEO strategy and policy forum. The unexpected change came minutes after the eighth CEO resigned from the manufacturing council. Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison said she will step down due to Trump’s handling of the Charlottesville protests and car attack Saturday.

5am – E FBI has ‘reopened’ its search for records of the infamous tarmac meeting between Loretta Lynch and former president Bill Clinton (The Daily Mail) The FBI has ‘reopened’ search for records on meeting between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in 2016. The FBI and Department of Justice initially said they did not have documents detailing the tarmac meet-up, before recently releasing numerous emails. FBI and DOJ are now searching searching for more records regarding meetup. American Center for Law and Justice President Jay Sekulow called the development a ‘positive sign’ on Wednesday. Last week, it was revealed that Lynch, President Obama’s last attorney-general, used a secret email address for official business under name Elizabeth Carlisle.

6am – A Steve Bannon’s White House colleagues can’t believe what they’re reading tonight — and here’s the twist: neither can Bannon. (Axios) The White House chief strategist has told associates he never intended to do an “interview” with an editor at the American Prospect, a left-wing publication. Bannon has told associates that he admired the author’s stance on China, and so called the journalist, Robert Kuttner, on Tuesday, to discuss his piece. Apparently Bannon never thought that the journalist might take his (very newsworthy) comments and turn them into a story. It’s Anthony Scaramucci all over again (minus the curse words.) The result is not good for Bannon, who is already under pressure, with colleagues lined up against him and a president who agrees with him ideologically but tells associates he thinks Bannon is a leaker.

6am – B Sessions rails against Chicago during visit to Miami (The Hill) Attorney General Jeff Sessions railed against Chicago’s sanctuary city policy Wednesday in a speech meant to praise Miami-Dade County’s collaboration with federal immigration authorities. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gim nez (R) ended the city’s sanctuary policy in February, allowing local law enforcement agencies to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers. “Unfortunately, some cities – like Chicago – refuse to follow your example,” said Sessions. Sessions linked Chicago’s murder rate to its refusal to honor ICE detainers. “In Chicago – a city with almost exactly the same 2.7 million person population as Miami-Dade – more than 433 people have been murdered since the beginning of the year. More than three times as many as Miami-Dade,” said Sessions. The speech continued a feud between Sessions and Chicago that started earlier this month when Chicago sued the Trump administration over its threat to withdraw federal law enforcement funds from so-called sanctuary cities. Sessions has made combatting sanctuary policies, particularly refusal to comply with detainers, a central issue of his tenure as attorney general.

6am – C The Falcons’ new stadium has a Chick-fil-A, which won’t be open for most Falcons games (The Washington Post) Seeing as how Chick-fil-A’s headquarters are located in Atlanta, it’s only logical that the fast-food chain have a booth at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the stadium that’s set to open for Falcons and Atlanta United games this month. But even though its NFL tenant plays most of its home games on Sundays, that doesn’t mean Chick-fil-A is changing its six-days-per-week operating hours. As noted by ESPN’s Darren Rovell below and on the concessions map posted on the stadium’s website, the chicken purveyor will not be making an exception for the Falcons, staying closed on Sundays in keeping with company policy. Seven of the Falcons’ eight regular season home games are on Sunday this season, the exception being a tilt against the Saints on Dec. 7, a Thursday night. But the stadium will host numerous other non-Sunday events, including five of the eight remaining Atlanta United home games, two college football games over Labor Day weekend (plus the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff title game down the road) and a Garth Brooks concert on Oct. 12, a Thursday. Chick-fil-A has been closed on Sundays since 1946 on orders from founder Truett Cathy.

6am – D Sharpton Comes Out Against The Jefferson Memorial (The Daily Caller) MSNBC host Al Sharpton is calling for ending federal funding for maintenance and security for the Jefferson Memorial because the third U.S. president owned slaves. “When you look at the fact that public monuments are supported by public funds you’re asking me to subsidize the insult of my family. I would repeat that the public should not be paying to uphold somebody who has had that kind of background,” Sharpton told CBS host Charlie Rose. “You have private museums, you have other things that you may want to do there,” he added. The Jefferson Memorial is a large structure on the banks of the Potomac river, sitting on federal grounds. Jefferson “had slaves and children with his slaves. And it does matter,” Sharpton continued. “I think that people need to understand when people that were enslaved and robbed of even the right to marry, and had forced sex with their slave masters, this is personal to us.” “This is personal,” Sharpton exclaimed. “This is not some kind of removed discussion from us, our families were victims of this. Certainly they ought to be removed.”

6am – E Court worker butt-dials reporter, admits he ‘barely shows up’ for $166K job (New York Post) A longtime spokesman for the state court system accidentally butt-dialed a Post reporter — yukking it up about how “I barely show up to work” while pocketing a $166,000-plus salary and boosting his taxpayer-funded pension. After speaking by cellphone with the reporter about a planned exposé on his cushy schedule, David Bookstaver butt-dialed back, and unwittingly left a four-minute voicemail while chatting with at least two other people. On the voicemail, Bookstaver admitted lying to The Post about how he spent his weekdays and confirmed the accounts of court-system sources who said he’s been working as few as two days a week. “I spoke to [the reporter] on the record for awhile. I said, ‘I’m in a much less visible position; that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything,’ ” Bookstaver said. “But, frankly, look, the bottom line: the story’s true. I’m not doing anything. I barely show up to work and I’ve been caught.” The remark promoted laughter, after which Bookstaver explained that he didn’t need to show up “because they took away all my responsibilities and left my pay.” At one point, he lamented over having bragged about his ability to play hooky. “They left me alone and look, I have a big mouth. I told people I’m not doing much. I do take a lot of time off,” he said. “I kind of asked for it. You know, if you have a big mouth, you know it catches up with you.” Bookstaver, who’s planning to retire Oct. 1, also raised the possibility he could get fired “because of a story in The Post,” but said it “would probably affect my pension check by $6 a month.” “Look, the bottom line is, I’ll suffer through a terribly embarrassing story and then go get my f–king pension and retire,” he said.

6am – F Ben Carson Says His Home Was Recently Vandalized With Anti-Trump Rhetoric (The Daily Caller) Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who heads the Department of Housing and Urban Development, revealed on Wednesday that his home in Virginia was recently vandalized with anti-Trump rhetoric. Carson told the story in a Facebook post calling for more unity in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville, Va., where a white supremacist rally ended with a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer mowing down and killing a counter-protester with his car.

7am – A INTERVIEW – ALEX PFEIFFER –  White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller

TOPIC:  Latest Trump news

• Bannon News: Bannon talks to lefty publication and reveals several interesting revelations: North Korea, and the Democrat obsession with identity politics

• News of Hope Hicks Named Interim White House Communications Director. Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s rarely seen but longest-serving aides, has been named interim White House communications director, filling the position left vacant by Anthony Scaramucci after his 10-day tenure. Hicks will work alongside press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders until a permanent replacement is found, the White House said. She has been serving as director of strategic communications.

7am – B Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe calls for Confederate monuments to be removed in the state (The Washington Examiner)

7am – C Trump to hold rally in Arizona but Phoenix mayor requests delay (The Washington Times) On the heels of raising the possibility of pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, President Trump will travel to Arizona next Tuesday to hold a campaign-style rally in Phoenix. The Trump campaign has scheduled a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday night in what will be the president’s first arena-sized public appearance since the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, over white nationalist ideology. Last week, Mr. Trump said he would consider a pardon for Mr. Arpaio, the Maricopa County sheriff and political ally who was found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop targeting illegal immigrants during traffic stops. It’s also the home state of Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both of whom have clashed with Mr. Trump in recent weeks. Mr. McCain, who is battling brain cancer, provided the key vote in defeating a White House-backed plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton called on Mr. Trump Wednesday night to postpone the event, saying it was too soon after a violent white nationalist rally in Virginia. “I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville,” Mr. Stanton said in a statement on Twitter. “It is my hope that more sound judgment prevails and that he delays his visit.”

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

TOPICS: North Korea, Camp David, and other WH updates

• Exclusive: Former CIA Director Brennan tells CNN that “Mr. Trump is putting our national security and our collective futures at grave risk.” Washington (CNN)Former CIA director John Brennan slammed President Donald Trump’s “dangerous” and “ugly” comments on the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — writing a personal letter to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer after “The Situation Room” anchor spoke publicly about the fact that he lost all four grandparents to the evils of Nazism.
  

• Trump praises North Korea’s ‘wise’ decision to back off Guam missile threat.  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a “very wise and well reasoned decision” to delay any military action against the United States and back away from his threat to strike near the U.S. territory of Guam, President Donald Trump said today. “The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!” President Trump wrote on Twitter.
  

• Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon says no military solution to North Korea’s nuclear threats. US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, says there is no military solution to the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, despite the President’s recent pledge to answer further aggression with “fire and fury”. In an interview with The American Prospect, posted online on Wednesday (local time), Mr Bannon told the leftist publication the US was losing the economic race against China. He also talked about purging his rivals from the Defence and State departments. It has been reported Mr Bannon was not aware it was an official interview. Mr Bannon was also asked about the white supremacist movement, whose march on Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend led to deadly violence. He dismissed them as “losers,” ”a fringe element” and “a collection of clowns”. In a separate interview with the New York Times, Mr Bannon said he welcomed the “race identity politics of the left”. “The left want to say it’s all racist,” he said.

• Trump to travel to Camp David for national security meeting

7am – E DC Comics Artist Gets Accused Of Being A Nazi Because He’s A Republican (The Daily Caller) Comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver, best known for his work on DC’s Green Lantern comics, is facing accusations of being a Nazi apologist and a white supremacist. Van Sciver believes he was targeted by progressives because he is a Republican. Following the violence in Charlottesville last weekend, comic book critic Kieran Shiach expressed feeling “helpless” on Twitter over his perceived rise of white nationalism in the United States. Acting upon his anger, Shiach publicly called on DC Comics to fire Sciver because the comic book artist had the audacity to employ Nazi imagery in his creations. As part of his “evidence” against Sciver’s supposed beliefs, Schiach highlighted one of Sciver’s old sketchbooks from 2007 depicting the evil comic book villain Sinestro as Adolf Hitler. Sinestro, whose power is literally fear itself, is one of the DC Comics universe’s most powerful villains. It’s no secret that Van Sciver has played around with Nazi imagery in his art—but it’s no different than how graphic novels like Hellboy and video games like Wolfenstein play around with the same concepts. Much like Van Sciver’s works for DC Comics, none of these creations glorify the Nazis as the good guys.

8am – A INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Economist at The Heritage Foundation

TOPICS: Trump’s business council and NAFTA

• Trump abruptly ends manufacturing council and strategy group after resignations over Charlottesville.  President Trump abruptly announced Wednesday he is disbanding his manufacturing council of business leaders as well as his CEO strategy and policy forum. “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

• USA Begins NAFTA Negotiations… The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is off to a rocky start.

• The Trump administration lectured Canada and Mexico on the failures of the current agreement at an opening news conference Wednesday morning, while behind closed doors negotiators began to seek significant concessions from America’s neighbors.
• “We feel that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement,” said Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, who is leading the United States team aiming to overhaul the 25-year-old agreement.
• The Canadian and Mexican representatives were publicly pleasant, emphasizing their commitment to regional trade and the benefits resulting from a regional alliance. But both nations also say the current agreement is not tilted against the United States.

8am – B Trump Removed the White House’s Capital Bikeshare Station (Washingtonian) The Obama administration got the “secret” dock installed in 2010 for people who worked inside. As Capital Bikeshare grew bigger and more widespread over the past seven years, there was always one station the vast majority of users could never access: a nine-slot dock inside the White House’s security perimeter. The station, located at 17th Street and State Place, was visible to the eye when it was installed in 2010, but did not appear on any system map, making Capital Bikeshare’s smallest station an unofficial “secret” location. But on Tuesday, Twitter user Gregory Matlesky passed by the White House and noticed the station not there. Turns out Matlesky’s intuition was correct. The station was removed earlier this week at the Trump Administration’s request, District Department of Transportation spokesperson Terry Owens tells Washingtonian. Owens adds that the station was installed in 2010 at the request of the Obama Administration, which had a favorable record with the cycling community. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery—or TIGER—grant program in the 2009 stimulus act funded bike-infrastructure programs throughout the United States, including the installation of several bike lanes and cycling paths around Washington. Before former President Barack Obama left office in January, his Transportation Department signed off on new regulations redefining traffic as people who move on roads, rather than strictly vehicles—a change considered a coup for cyclists and pedestrians. President Trump’s relationship with the two-wheeled set is not so rosy. As a self-promoting businessman in the 1980s, Trump sponsored a bike race (called, inevitably, the Tour de Trump) that drew crowds wielding signs containing phrases like “Eat the Rich!” and “Die, Yuppie Scum!” As a candidate in 2015, Trump made fun of then-Secretary of State John Kerry—an avid amateur athlete—for breaking his leg in a crash while riding his Serotta in France. And as President, Trump’s first proposed budget in May called for stripping away many programs that have advanced recreational and commuting-based cycling, including the TIGER program. People for Bikes, which advocates for pro-cycling policies, called the White House’s proposed budget a “bad deal for bikes.” The removal of a Bikeshare station from the White House grounds is unlikely to improve Trump’s standing with bike riders. Owens referred all other questions about the Bikeshare station’s fate to the White House, which did not respond to questions about why it had the dock removed.

8am – C Jackie Speier calls for Trump’s removal from office under 25th Amendment (Mercury News) A Bay Area congresswoman is calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from the presidency under a never-before-used constitutional provision. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, on Tuesday became the first member of Congress to say that Trump should be removed from office with the 25th Amendment, following his latest comments blaming “many sides” for violence after white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. “POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger,” Speier tweeted Tuesday evening. “Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.” The 25th Amendment, which has never been invoked, states that the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet can temporarily remove the president from office by declaring him or her “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” in a letter to Congress. The vice president would then become the acting president. If the president objects to his or her removal, the debate goes to Congress. A two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress is required to keep the president from returning to office. But there’s been no sign — publicly, at least — that Vice President Mike Pence or the members of Trump’s Cabinet are considering taking action to remove him. In an interview with the Bay Area News Group, Speier said on Wednesday said she’d been thinking about the 25th Amendment for a long time, as she met with foreign dignitaries who voiced worries about Trump’s policies and personal stability. But “the tipping point” leading to her calling for his removal, she said, came in the last week or so. “It was the combination of both his belligerence and hatred that he exuded relative to Charlottesville and his taunting of Kim Jong Un on North Korea, his willingness to send troops into Venezuela,” she said. “I’m very fearful right now.” On his impromptu news conference inside New York’s Trump Tower on Tuesday, “It wasn’t just what he said; it was how he said it,” she said. “For him to have his finger on a button that could put us into mutual annihilation is not something I want to even contemplate.” Some seasoned political observers, however, threw cold water on the prospect. Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, said the half-century-old amendment was designed for presidents in a coma or suffering from dementia or another disability, not those who “made extremely bad statements and extremely bad policy decisions.”

8am – D/E Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe calls for Confederate monuments to be removed in the state (The Washington Examiner)