Ron Hosko, Ken Stern and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   MANAFORT / MUELLER NEWS:

• Three Trump Associates Charged in Mueller Probe – Three Trump Associates Charged in Russia Collusion Probe. The federal investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia took a major turn Monday as authorities charged three people — a former campaign chief, his associate and an ex-foreign policy adviser — with crimes including money laundering, lying to the FBI and conspiracy. Paul Manafort, the campaign manager, and onetime business partner Rick Gates surrendered and later pleaded not guilty in Washington federal court. Separately, authorities disclosed that George Papadopoulos, the adviser, secretly pleaded guilty weeks ago and has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The accusations arrive after a months-long probe into possible crimes including obstruction of justice by Trump and other crimes by his associates. The general shape of the investigation into Manafort’s activities has been known for months. The charges against Papadopoulos were a revelation and indicate prosecutors are moving on multiple tracks. They are the most direct indication of coordination between the campaign and Russian officials.  Investigators are likely to pressure Manafort and Gates to cooperate with prosecutors in a bid for leniency and to disclose everything that they know about Trump’s campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
• The people known to have met with Robert Mueller’s team: Reince Priebus,    Sean Spicer, Rod Rosenstein, Trump’s legal team, Christopher Steele &    James Woolsey
• WSJ: Bob Mueller’s Sideshow: Nunes’s Intelligence Committee plods on with the real Russia investigation. Gregg Jarrett: Still no evidence of Trump-Russia ‘collusion’ – but Hillary is a different matter
• MANAFORT & GATES PLEAD NOT GUILTY: (CNBC) – President Donald Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was indicted on 12 counts related to hiding foreign payments, including one count of “conspiracy against the United States.” Manafort’s former longtime business partner, Rick Gates, also was charged in the 31 page indictment, made public on Monday. Gates and Manafort both surrendered to authorities on Monday morning.
• Andrew McCarthy: The Manafort Indictment: Not Much There, and a Boon for Trump. (National Review) — The Paul Manafort indictment is much ado about nothing . . . except as a vehicle to squeeze Manafort, which is special counsel Robert Mueller’s objective — as we have been arguing for three months (see here, here, and here). Do not be fooled by the “Conspiracy against the United States” heading on Count One (page 23 of the indictment). This case has nothing to do with what Democrats and the media call “the attack on our democracy” (i.e., the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 election, supposedly in “collusion” with the Trump campaign). Essentially, Manafort and his associate, Richard W. Gates, are charged with (a) conspiring to conceal from the U.S. government about $75 million they made as unregistered foreign agents for Ukraine, years before the 2016 election (mainly, from 2006 through 2014), and (b) a money-laundering conspiracy.
• Manafort and Gates chose two companies, identified as Company A and Company B in the indictment, to lobby on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a European nonprofit that officials say was created as a mouthpiece for the Party of Regions. Previous news reports have indicated that the two companies are the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC.
• TONY PODESTA STEPS DOWN: (Politico) –  Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.
• PAPADOPOLOUS PLEADS GUILTY: A former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday, while former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort’s business partner pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy
• WHO IS GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS? Papadopoulos was a 2009 graduate of DePaul University who still listed Model UN among his foreign-policy credentials. His inexperience and lack of stature was noted at the time, but he quickly faded out of public view. He didn’t fade out of view of Russia, according to the documents published along with his guilty plea. Shortly after Papadopoulos agreed to be a Trump campaign adviser, a politically connected Russian professor reached out to him, the FBI states. Papadopolous also connected with a Russian woman in March 2016, and tried to set up meetings with her, other Russian officials, and the Trump campaign. The legal problem: In earlier interviews with the FBI, Papadopoulos gave very different timelines and accounts of his dealings with the Russians.
• IS PAPADOPOLOUS ROLLING OVER? ……while Manafort and Gates sure look like they’re going to jail, as of yet they aren’t cooperating with Mueller’s investigation. Papadopoulos is, which means that he likely has information that will lead Mueller closer to the heart of the case. Papadopoulos was a junior foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. In August we learned that he had tried to set up meetings between Trump officials — and even Trump himself — with representatives of the Russian government. At the time, his suggestion was characterized as having been rejected by other Trump officials as inappropriate while Trump was still a candidate and not yet president. Papadopoulos has agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. Specifically, he falsely claimed that they had occurred before he joined the campaign in March 2016. He had communication with a professor who had contacts in the Russian government; this professor told him that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” The professor introduced him to a Russian national who was supposedly Vladimir Putin’s niece (it turned out she wasn’t), and to someone who supposedly had connections in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Based on those conversations, Papadopoulos pressed the campaign to set up meetings with the Russians, a suggestion that never came to fruition.
• PAPADOPOLOUS WAS ARRESTED JULY 27-DID HE WEAR A WIRE FOR MUELLER? According to the plea agreement, Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27 and signed his deal with the feds on October 5, although not until this morning was that publicly known. The court had sealed the files related to the case. How come? So that’s why Mueller wanted to keep Papadopoulos’s arrest a secret. Papadopoulos may have been secretly working for the feds for the past three months, since his arrest, to gather evidence on suspects in related Russiagate matters in hopes of leniency.

6am – A/B/C VA GOV RACE:

• Progressive group launches ad featuring Va. GOP ‘supporter’ chasing down minority kids with a pickup. A new Latino Victory ad targets Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie and ties him in with neo-Nazi groups. The ad, which was shared on Monday, also took aim at President Donald Trump. Latino Victory — a progressive political organization co-founded by actress Eva Longoria, which aims to support and elect leaders to benefit the Latino community — created a takedown ad targeted at Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie, who is running against current Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. The ad, which was shared on Monday, also took aim at President Donald Trump.
• The WMAL Diner Tour is back! WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall is heading to Virginia just in time for Election Day! Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese are taking the pulse of Virginia voters with a live broadcast at Metro 29 Diner in Arlington, just ahead of the election. Stop by to join the conversation live with Mornings on the Mall and WMAL!

6am – D         HALPERIN LOSES GIGS OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS:

• NBC News terminates Mark Halperin following sexual harassment allegations.   NBC News and MSNBC have severed ties with “Game Change” co-author and veteran journalist Mark Halperin, days after multiple women told CNN he sexually harassed or assaulted them during his time at ABC News.
• Mark Halperin Axed By Showtime But ‘The Circus’ Could Go On. Mark Halperin won’t be part of Showtime’s The Circus if the political documentary series returns, Deadline has confirmed. “Should ‘The Circus’ move forward with another season, Mark Halperin will not be a part of it,” said a Showtime spokesperson in a statement.

6am – E         Kelly wants investigation into allegations surrounding Clinton. (Axios) — In a Fox News interview, John Kelly said he thought an investigation was needed into funding from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC for the research behind the Trump/Russia dossier, and Clinton’s involvement in the Uranium One deal. “The American people really do have a right to know what their government does… have a right to know what their government is doing on any given day, and by this same token what private citizens are doing if they break the law,” he said.

6am – F         ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

• Selena Gomez SPLITS from The Weeknd after 10 months of dating as she and ex Justin Bieber are pictured enjoying a cozy breakfast in LA. (Daily Mail) –Selena Gomez has split from boyfriend of 10 months, The Weeknd. The news broke on Monday morning by People magazine that claimed the two had been having trouble for ‘months’ because of their difficult schedules – while he has been on tour, she was filming a Woody Allen movie A Rainy Day In New York in NYC. The timing is interesting as in the past week the Fetish singer, 25, has been spotted with her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber three times. On Sunday they were seen getting a vegan breakfast together in LA. And on Monday morning the Cold Water hit maker was spotted leaving the beauty’s LA home in his white Mercedes-Benz G-class.
• Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez grabbed breakfast and went to church together: Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are reunited again. (E! Online) — Last week, the two exes, who dated on and off for three years before breaking up in 2014, spent time together at her Los Angeles home. A source told E! News the former lovebirds have hung out “a few times” since she underwent kidney transplant surgery this past summer. On Sunday morning, Justin and Selena reunited for breakfast at JOi Cafe in Westlake Village, California, a suburb northwest of Los Angeles. A source told E! News the two looked “friendly.” TMZ posted a photo of the two sitting at a small square table. Selena and Justin both had what appear to be bottles of spring water sitting in front of them, while he also had an iced coffee. They were later spotted attending church services, sitting with the pastor. Chris Pratt was also in attendance, E! News has learned.

7am – A         KEVIN SPACEY NEWS:

• Netflix Cancels ‘House Of Cards’, Says It’s “Deeply Troubled” Over Kevin Spacey Claims. As allegations of unwanted sexual advances in 1986 by Kevin Spacey against then-14-year-old Anthony Rapp have emerged, Netflix today decided to pull the plug on the Spacey-starring House of Cards after the upcoming sixth season next year. Coming just more than 12 hours after Star Trek Discovery star Rapp first made public his allegations of what happened at a party at Spacey’s New York City apartment back in the mid-1980s, the streaming service made the official decision today, sources tell us. While Netflix and producers Media Rights Capital were leaning towards ending the show a while ago, key cast and creatives were only alerted this morning in a series of calls. “Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey,” the companies said in a joint statement today. “In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.”
• ‘Kevin Spacey has set gay rights back’: Actor blasted for response to sexual misconduct claim. (Washington Post) — For a few hours after a bombshell BuzzFeed interview in which actor Anthony Rapp alleged Kevin Spacey had made a sexual advance toward him more than 30 years ago, when Rapp was just 14, Spacey remained silent. Then, at precisely midnight, the veteran actor posted a two-paragraph statement on Twitter. In the first, Spacey said he was “beyond horrified” to hear Rapp’s story but did not remember the encounter, which would have taken place when Spacey was 26. However, he apologized “if I did behave then as [Rapp] describes . . . for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” Then, in the second paragraph, Spacey came out as gay. “This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life,” he wrote. “I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.” His late-night statement outraged many, particularly in the LGBT community, who accused Spacey of trying to deflect from a serious accusation — making a sexual advance on a minor — by coming out and implying that it was his choice to be gay. For years, the actor has danced around rumors he had relationships with other men. “Coming out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault,” GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This is not a coming out story about Kevin Spacey, but a story of survivorship by Anthony Rapp and all those who bravely speak out against unwanted sexual advances.”
• On Monday, a Twitter user posted a Family Guy clip from an episode of Seth MacFarlane’s animated series in which Stewie, the baby of the show’s family, running through a room yelling, “Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement! Help me!” The “Family Guy” clip aired in 2005, long before Rapp’s allegations against Spacey.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW — RON HOSKO – former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and currently the ‎President at Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund – discussed the latest on Manafort/Mueller.

7am – D/E     HALLOWEEN NEWS:

• MONDAY: Donald and Melania Trump meet mini FLOTUS trick-or-treater at the White House. (Washington Examiner) — President Trump and first lady Melania Trump got into the Halloween holiday spirit Monday when they hosted a trick-or-treat event at the White House. The first couple greeted, shook hands with, and gave candy to a procession of youngsters on the South Lawn — including one child dressed up as Melania Trump herself. The girl donned a black cap with “FLOTUS” emblazoned on it like the one the real first lady wore to visit hurricane-stricken Texas in August. She also wore a white shirt, black pants, and sneakers, like the ones the first lady changed into after catching snark for wearing stilettos as she and the president first departed for Houston. Melania Trump grinned and looked amused when she saw the costume. Other members of the Trump administration dressed up for the occasion as well, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as Ms. Frizzle from the “Magic School Bus” book and TV series.

• OVER THE WEEKEND: Donald Trump’s latest controversy as he makes obesity joke to reporter’s children at White House Halloween event.  And the President didn’t hold back, causing a fresh controversy by joking that none of the children appeared to have any “weight problems” as he handed out Hershey Kisses sweets. Sons and daughters of the White House press corps were among those to meet him in the Oval Office for the Trick-or-Treat night.  He said: “I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children. How the media did this, I don’t know.”
• Genderbending Halloween PSA – shows kids running to get their costumes on and then trick or treating as superheroes (but you don’t see their faces) … then they pass out in their beds — you see the boy and girl wearing costumes — boy as wonder woman and girl as batman
• Halloween 2017: US universities warn students against culturally insensitive costumes (Independent) — Mexican sombreros, Native American headdresses and blackface among ‘attention-grabbing’ options vetoed to avoid causing offence. Universities are urging students in search of an attention-grabbing costume this Halloween to pass on sombreros, Native American headdresses and blackface.  Those are some of the costumes grabbing the attention of university administrators who are increasingly concerned that certain costumes are becoming flashpoints in campus debates over race and culture. While not outright prohibiting any costume, administrators are using letters, campus forums and advertising campaigns to encourage students to pick outfits that don’t offend classmates of colour.  Some, like the University of Texas at Austin, issued a flyer encouraging students to consider how a costume aligns with an organisation’s values and whether it is “reflective of a certain racial group, gender, and/or economic class.” It also includes a list of harmful themes or costumes: any painting or tinting of skin, stereotypes of Asian culture, cowboys and Indians, or south of the border/fiesta. Comic book heroes and time period themes are fine.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – KEN STERN — the former CEO of National Public Radio. His book “Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right” (Harper) is out Tuesday.

• ABOUT BOOK: Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right by Ken Stern — The former CEO of NPR set out for conservative America to find out why these people are so wrong about everything. It turns out, they weren’t. Ken Stern watched the increasing polarization of our country with growing concern. As a longtime partisan Democrat himself, he felt forced to acknowledge that his own views were too parochial, too absent of any exposure to the “other side.” In fact, his urban neighborhood is so liberal, he couldn’t find a  single Republican—even by asking around. So for one year, he crossed the aisle to spend time listening, talking, and praying with Republicans of all stripes. With his mind open and his dial tuned to the right, he went to evangelical churches, shot a hog in Texas, stood in pit row at a NASCAR race, hung out at Tea Party meetings and sat in on Steve Bannon’s radio show. He also read up on conservative wonkery and consulted with the smartest people the right has to offer.

8am – D         INTERVIEW —  LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm and author of “JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity” – LATEST ON TAX REFORM

• KUDLOW SAYS THIS IS THE BEST ECONOMY IN 10 YEARS. (Breitbart) — The economy is now at its best in a decade, according to economist and CNBC regular Larry Kudlow. “The business side of the economy, the supply side, is doing very well,” Kudlow said Sunday on New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “It’s the best showing we’ve seen — I don’t know, probably in over 10 years,” he added. “It’s as though businesses are sniffing out tax cuts, and they’re starting to pull the trigger on some investments. And that, of course, will lead to higher wages. I like that a lot because that’s been the worst area of the economy, business investments, and I think the stock market loves it.”
• House GOP tax plan would allow Americans to deduct property taxes (Washington Post) — House Republican leaders are making last-minute changes to their tax bill in an attempt to win over skeptical members within their own party, crafting a provision that would allow Americans to deduct their local property taxes from their federal taxable income. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) had planned for months to prohibit people from deducting any state or local taxes from their federal taxable income as part of a sweeping overhaul of tax rules, but huge pushback from Republicans in states such as New York and New Jersey precipitated the change. Discussions are ongoing, and it remains unclear whether the change will placate the holdouts. Currently, taxpayers who itemize their deductions can write off their property taxes and also choose to deduct either their state and local income or sales taxes.
• Trump Is Expected to Name Jerome Powell as Next Fed Chairman. President Trump is expected to nominate Jerome H. Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, according to two people familiar with the president’s decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House intends to announce the Fed chair selection on Thursday. If confirmed by the Senate, Powell would begin serving as chair in February, replacing Janet L. Yellen, a Democrat whom Trump has at times praised but many Republicans wanted replaced. Powell, a Republican, is widely viewed as a safe pick who is unlikely to make any dramatic changes to the Fed’s handling of the economy at a time when the stock market is soaring and unemployment is at a 16-year low. Unlike some of the other candidates Trump considered, Powell has been supportive of Yellen’s policy of slowly raising interest rates, which have been at historic lows for nearly a decade as the Fed looked to help the economy recover from a massive recession. Trump has expressed interest in keeping rates low as he aims to stimulate the economy and get more Americans higher-paying jobs.

8am – E         ED GILLESPIE RESPONDS TO OFFENSIVE LATINO VICTORY AD ON FOX & FRIENDS.