John Lott, Joe diGenova, Trevor Matich, Pete Snyder and Michael Auslin joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, November 6, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B     MASSACHUSETTS WANTS TO DITCH DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. (NY Daily News) — A committee in the New England state wants to end Daylight Saving Time and move into the Atlantic Time Zone, which is an hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. According to International Business Times, the committee is set to vote on Nov. 1, four days before Daylight Saving Time ends this year, to hopefully get lawmakers on their side.

5am – C         REDSKINS VICTORY:

• Redskins upset the Seahawks in Seattle, 17-14: Washington Redskins (4-4)   17   vs  Seattle Seahawks (5-3)  14
• Redskins, with key starters missing, pull off stunning upset of Seahawks
• Next Sunday the ‘Skins face the Vikings at FedEx Field.

5am – D         TX SHOOTING NEWS:

• Texas gunman kills at least 26 worshipers at small-town church. Gunman kills 26 in rural Texas church during Sunday service. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (Reuters) – A man with an assault rifle killed at least 26 people and wounded 20 in a rural Texas church during Sunday services, adding the name of Sutherland Springs to the litany of American communities shattered by mass shootings. The massacre, which media reports say was carried out by a man thrown out of the Air Force for assaulting his wife and child, is likely to renew questions about why someone with a history of violence could amass an arsenal of lethal weaponry. The lone gunman, dressed in black tactical gear and a ballistic vest, drove up to the white-steepled First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and started firing inside. He kept shooting once he entered, killing or wounding victims ranging in age from five to 72 years, police told a news conference. President Donald Trump told reporters the shooting was due to a “mental health problem” and wasn’t “a guns situation.” He was speaking during an official visit to Japan. Among the dead was the 14-year-old daughter of church Pastor Frank Pomeroy, the family told several television stations. One couple, Joe and Claryce Holcombe, told the Washington Post they lost eight extended family members, including their pregnant granddaughter-in-law and three of her children. The gunman was later found dead, apparently of a gunshot wound, after he fled the scene. “We are dealing with the largest mass shooting in our state’s history,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference. “The tragedy of course is worsened by the fact that it occurred in a church, a place of worship.” About 40 miles (65 km) east of San Antonio in Wilson County, Sutherland Springs has fewer than 400 residents.
• Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting the deadliest church shooting in almost 20 years.
• EXCLUSIVE: ‘Creepy, crazy and weird’: Former classmates say Texas gunman was an ‘outcast’ who ‘preached his atheism’ online before killing 26 in the state’s worst ever mass shooting
• The gunman’s mother-in-law, Michelle Shields, also appears to have been a parishioner at the church and was friends on social media with the pastor’s wife.
• Texas DPS official confirms ages of victims in the First Baptist Church shooting range from 5 to 72 years old.
• Pastor’s 14-year-old daughter among dead in Texas church shooting
• Sutherland Springs Church Killer Was Kicked Out of Air Force for ‘Bad Conduct’
• Trump on Texas church shooting: ‘This is a mental health problem’
• Authorities also say they don’t know if shooter died form self-inflicted gun shot wounds or from local resident who engaged him in gunfire.
• Hero Johnnie Langendorff describes chasing Texas church shooting suspect
• The gunman’s motive is still not clear, but the Daily Beast reports that, according to public records, Kelley was married and that his mother-in-law had a P.O. Box in Sutherland Springs. CBS News reports that Kelley served in the U.S. Air Force from 2010–2014, but was court-martialed in 2014 and received a dishonorable discharge. If he was dishonorably discharged, as The Guardian’s Lois Beckett points out on Twitter, that means Kelley should have been disqualified from owning a gun. If that’s the case, it is not yet clear how he obtained the multiple weapons law-enforcement officials said he had with him during the attack.

5am – E         BERGDAHL WALKS:

• Bowe Bergdahl gets dishonorable discharge, avoids prison time. Fort Bragg, North Carolina (CNN)Bowe Bergdahl received a dishonorable discharge from the US Army, but will avoid prison time for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009, a military judge ruled Friday. The judge ordered that Bergdahl’s rank be reduced from sergeant to private. Additionally, Bergdahl will be required to pay a $1,000 fine from his salary for the next 10 months. “Sgt. Bergdahl has looked forward to today for a long time,” Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s civilian attorney, said at a news conference after the proceedings. “As everyone knows, he was a captive of the Taliban for nearly five years, and three more years have elapsed while the legal process unfolded. He has lost nearly a decade of his life.” he sentence is effective immediately, except for the dishonorable discharge, which Bergdahl is appealing, according to Fidell. Bergdahl appeared visibly shaken as the sentence was announced, according to CNN affiliate WRAL. Two of his attorneys stood by his side with their hands on his back while the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, read the sentence.
• Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump Nov 3: The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.

6am – A         PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ASIAN TRIP:

• Trump arrives in Japan, first in five-country Asian tour. Tokyo (CNN) President Donald Trump touched down in Japan late Saturday ahead of a 13-day trek through Asia that he hopes will divert from a bruising political controversy back home. During the first set of remarks on his five-nation tour, Trump avoided the incendiary, bellicose rhetoric that has often defined his public stance about the North Korean threat.  President’s Asian tour that will take him next to South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines for nearly two weeks of powerhouse diplomacy, much of which will focus on rallying other regional powers to step up their efforts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
• Trump feeds fish, winds up pouring entire box of food into koi pond. (CNN)President Donald Trump took a moment out of his whirlwind Japanese trip to connect with nature and feed some fish, but after a few delicate scoops, he resorted to a grand gesture met with some laughter. The moment happened as Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe headed to lunch. The leaders were escorted to a dining room that overlooks a koi pond ad Akasaka Palace. Moments later, aides opened two large screen doors and the leaders emerged holding two small wooden boxes filled with fish food.
• Trump shakes Japanese emperor’s hand but doesn’t repeat groveler-in-chief Obama’s deep bow. President Donald Trump shook hands confidently with Japanese Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In 2009 his predecessor Barack Obama bowed deeply before the emperor in a sign of respect that was seen as a show of weak deference in the United States.   Obama had already set the tone of American weakness by bowing to the Saudi king at a G20 summit in London. Trump offered just a nod of his head to the aging and low-statured emperor on Monday. An administration official traveling with Trump on his Far East tour told DailyMail.com that bowing is ‘not his style – never has been’. (By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com In Seoul, South Korea) — President Donald Trump met with Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Monday, sharing a brief handshake eight years after his predecessor became a global laughingstock by bowing deeply before the monarch. Visiting with the emperor and empress is routine for heads of state visiting Tokyo, and Trump did his part a few hours before a joint press conference with Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, who wields more power than the aging figurehead. Trump nodded his head slightly, but did not bend at the waist. An administration official traveling with Trump on his Far East tour told DailyMail.com that bowing is ‘not his style – never has been.’
• Trump and Abe bond in Tokyo over golf, steaks and trucker hats that say ‘great again’ (LA Times) — Shinzo had a something special for Donald. When President Trump arrived on Sunday at the Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo to play golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese leader surprised Trump with the sort of trucker hats Trump favors, embroidered in his preferred color — gold — and borrowing from Trump’s signature slogan: “Donald & Shinzo, Make Alliance Even Greater.” The hats symbolized how foreign leaders have quickly learned to play to Trump’s pride, and the Donald-Shinzo love-fest didn’t end there.  After nine holes of golf, joined by the fourth-ranked golfer in the world, Hideki Matsuyama, the leaders complimented each other on Twitter. Trump called Abe and Matsuyama “wonderful people.” Abe said Trump is a “marvelous friend” and the round was “full of spirited conversation.” Later, as the two leaders and their wives walked into an expensive teppanyaki grill for dinner in downtown Tokyo, Abe was silent but Trump told reporters, “Our relationship is really extraordinary.” He added a typical hyperbolic flourish: “I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Japan than we are right now.” Trump said he and Abe were having “very major discussions on many subjects” including North Korea and trade. “I think we’ll insult everybody by continuing to talk about trade,” he added.

6am – B         VIRGINIA GOVERNOR ELECTION TUESDAY:

• GILLESPIE LEADING NORTHAM: A new poll from Optimus/Firehouse Strategies revealed that Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie leads by three points over his Democratic opponent, Ralph Northam. The poll suggested that 40.4 percent of Virginia voters prefer Ed Gillespie over 37.4 percent of Virginia residents, who favor Ralph Northam. Another poll suggested that Ed Gillespie leads Ralph Northam by two points.
• DNC CHAIR TOM PEREZ GOES AFTER GILLESPIE. PEREZ SAYS GILLESPIE IS FEARMONGERING. Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez accused Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie of “fearmongering.” Perez said, “Well, you know, let’s be clear, Chuck, about what’s happening in the race in Virginia and all too many other races, dog whistle politics. Steve Bannon just endorsed Ed Gillespie in Virginia this morning, and throughout this campaign, Ed Gillespie has been fearmongering. He’s doing the same thing that Donald Trump did. That’s not fair. That’s not right. Virginia under Ralph Northam’s leadership and Justin Fairfax leadership, they’re looking for ways to unite people. When you hit the bully back, and the bully starts crying, those are crocodile tears to me.”

6am – C         MUELLER NEWS:

• MUELLER HAS ENOUGH TO CHARGE FLYNN. (NBC News) — Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
• Tony Podesta Lobbied For Russia’s ‘Uranium One’ And Did Not File As A Foreign Agent. (Daily Caller) — Tony Podesta’s lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, represented the Russian-owned company Uranium One during former President Barack Obama’s administration and did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined. Podesta collected lobbying fees of $180,000 from Uranium One, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, that discloses lobbying documents filed with Congress. The uranium company states on its web site it is a “wholly owned subsidiary” of RUSANO, the Russian State Corporation for Nuclear Energy. Special Counsel Robert Mueller already is scrutinizing Podesta and his firm for allegedly failing to register as a lobbyist for the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, a Ukrainian government entity.  His role there is tied up with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who was indicted on 12 counts on Oct. 30, including the failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
• FEINSTEIN “NO EVIDENCE SO FAR” Congress has been investigating possible Trump campaign collusion with the Kremlin for nearly 10 months, but a top Senate Democrat says she has still not seen evidence to support the allegation. “Have you seen any evidence that this dirt, these emails, were ever given to the Trump campaign?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Sunday. “Not so far,” replied the Democrat, who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

6am – D         INTERVIEW — JOHN LOTT – President, Crime Prevention Research Center and author of “More Guns Less Gun” – shared his thoughts on the church shooting.

6am – E         Actors say rude audiences destroying Broadway…  (NY Post) — Badly behaved audiences are all too common on Broadway. Phones ring, screens glow as people text, wrappers crinkle. And now that theatergoers can drink alcohol during many shows, they fidget, rattle the ice in their cups, nod off and snore, or laugh in all the wrong places. Many actors object to the drinking, but they have no power over theater owners, who enjoy the fat profits that come from $20 glasses of wine. “I didn’t get a good look at them,” Birney said of his tormentors, “but they were probably millennials who were drinking. At the Hudson you can take a bucket of Champagne to your seat. We [would] hear the glasses rolling down the aisles. Sometimes I think we’re one step away from dinner theater.”

6am – F         Charles Barkley: ‘There’s No Such Thing as a Vegetarian’ (Breitbart) — Thursday on “Inside the NBA” on TNT, analyst and NBA legend Charles Barkley declared vegetarianism as fake. “Vegetarians, that’s not a thing,” Barkley said. “Everybody likes meat.” A baffled co-host Ernie Johnson began to respond to Barkley’s bizarre comments, but the “Round Mound of Rebound” interrupted. “It’s not a thing, Ernie. Just because they say it does not make it true,” he stated.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed Bergdahl walking and the latest on the Mueller investigations.

• Bowe Bergdahl gets dishonorable discharge, avoids prison time. Fort Bragg, North Carolina (CNN) Bowe Bergdahl received a dishonorable discharge from the US Army, but will avoid prison time for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009, a military judge ruled Friday. The judge ordered that Bergdahl’s rank be reduced from sergeant to private. Additionally, Bergdahl will be required to pay a $1,000 fine from his salary for the next 10 months

7am – B         Latest on Texas Church Shooting

7am – C         Man who sent prostitutes to neighbors’ door while he watched from his house is sentenced to 4 years in prison. (Omaha.com) — The married couple felt afraid and captive in their own home for nearly four years. About 30 times each year, women would show up on their front porch late at night or early in the morning. They would strip and then, seeking payment, would try to open the front door or ring the doorbell, waking the Elkhorn couple’s two young children. It caused marital stress and affected their professional lives. The visits and the women’s actions were orchestrated by a neighbor across the street: Douglas Goldsberry, who masturbated while watching from his kitchen. “It’s a really twisted and sick plot,” said Deputy Douglas County Attorney Chad Brown, adding that Goldsberry called it “a screening process.” “He derived pleasure out of how far he could control these women to see how far he could get them to go.” Goldsberry, 45, was sentenced to the same amount of time he terrorized the family — four years, the maximum penalty on his pandering charge. Under state guidelines that cut sentences in half, Goldsberry will serve less than two years, with credit for 177 days already served in jail.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — TREVOR MATICH – WMAL’s Redskins Analyst, Comcast SportsNet co-host and former Redskins long snapper – discussed the Redskins victory.

• Redskins upset the Seahawks in Seattle, 17-14: Washington Redskins (4-4)   17   vs  Seattle Seahawks (5-3)  14
• Redskins, with key starters missing, pull off stunning upset of Seahawks
• Next Sunday the ‘Skins face the Vikings at FedEx Field.

7am – E         INTERVIEW — PETE SNYDER – Ed Gillespie’s campaign chair – previewed the VIRGINIA GOVERNOR ELECTION TOMORROW.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – MICHAEL AUSLIN – the Fellow in Contemporary Asia at the Hoover Institution and latest book is “The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region” – gave an overview of President Trump’s Asia trip.

8am – B         OH DONNA, DEMS OUTRAGED OVER NEW BOOK:

• Donna Brazile: I considered replacing Clinton with Biden as 2016 Democratic nominee. (Washington Post) — Former Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile writes in a new book that she seriously contemplated setting in motion a process to replace Hillary Clinton as the party’s 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton’s fainting spell, in part because Clinton’s campaign was “anemic” and had taken on “the odor of failure.” In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the process of removing Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton’s Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City.
• Democrats shaken and angered by Brazile book. The memoir by the former DNC chief has some of the highest-ranking Democrats fighting anew over 2016. (Politico) — Donna Brazile’s forthcoming memoir triggered renewed recriminations at the highest ranks of the Democratic Party this weekend over the topic that just won’t die: 2016. The latest bombshell from the book came Saturday in a report that the former interim Democratic National Committee chair seriously considered replacing Hillary Clinton on the ticket with Vice President Joe Biden after Clinton collapsed at a 9/11 memorial service. Brazile also describes the Clinton campaign as badly mismanaged and spiritless, according to a copy of the memoir that The Washington Post acquired early. That came on the heels of an excerpt published by POLITICO Magazine about how Brazile said she discovered the Clinton campaign had essentially rigged the DNC — if not the primary itself — in Clinton’s favor long before she became the nominee, apparently confirming the worst suspicions of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. “The timing couldn’t have been worse. It does us no good to hash out all this stuff. At this point, we should be looking to the future — what’s done is done,” said former DNC chairman and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, pointing to the financial arrangement at the center of Brazile’s account.
• Shocking Donna Brazile expose drives Hillary camp into chaos, may throw crucial Virginia governor race to the GOP. (Fox News) — Donna Brazile’s scathing review of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign sent more shock waves this weekend through the Democratic Party, with members eager to bury the Clinton era ahead of Tuesday’s key Virginia governor’s race and other upcoming elections. “Those telling me to shut up … I tell them, ‘Go to hell.’ I’m gonna tell my story,” Brazile, who ran the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 White House race, on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week.” Brazile roiled the political world on Thursday when she published excerpts in Politico of her upcoming book that detailed a 2015 money deal between the Clinton campaign and the DNC that made winning the party’s presidential nomination nearly impossible for any other Democratic candidate. To be sure, the scathing criticism of one long-standing Democrat on other members of her own party comes at a bad time — days away from the Virginia gubernatorial race featuring Republican Ed Gillespie against Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. the RealClearPolitics polls average shows Northam now leading by 3 percentage points, essentially a dead heat, after leading by nearly 7 points just weeks ago. “Donna Brazile going off the reservation right now is bad for Democrats,” Republican strategist Rory McShane told Fox News on Sunday. “But we’ve seen this before in off-year elections like in Georgia and South Carolina, where Democrats believed they’d win. This is just the latest case of no message, no organization, no leadership.”
• Donna Brazile Says She “Feared For Her Life” After Seth Rich Was Killed. Perhaps the most shocking revelation contained in the excerpts from former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile’s book was, unsurprisingly, buried in a Washington Post overview of the various allegations (and frankly, we’re surprised the Post, given its status as a protector of the Washington establishment, deigned to publish it). In the aftermath of Wikileaks’ decision to publish a cache of emails stolen from the DNC’s servers, Donna Brazile says she became increasingly paranoid about both possible Russian efforts to sway the election. Surprisingly, she says top Democrats initially instructed her not to discuss her concerns with others. But even more than the Russians, Brazile says she feared possible retribution from shadowy elements within the campaign and the Democratic Party who might blame her for the leak. Her fears only intensified, she says, after the mysterious shooting of former campaign staffer Seth Rich, who the authorities said was killed during a robbery, though many so-called conspiracy theorists have speculated about a possible Democratic plot to kill Rich for his role in leaking the stash of DNC emails to Wikileaks. Brazile’s anxiety eventually spiraled out of control, to the point where she feared for her own life while serving as interim chairwoman of the DNC.

8am – C         A Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling. (WSJ) — Brisk demand from old and new fans prompts a Missouri company to return to a long-paused business SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Steve Stepp and his team of septuagenarian engineers are using a bag of rust, a kitchen mixer larger than a man and a 62-foot-long contraption that used to make magnetic strips for credit cards to avert a disaster that no one saw coming in the digital-music era. The world is running out of cassette tape. National Audio Co., where Mr. Stepp is president and co-owner, has been hoarding a stockpile of music-quality, ⅛-inch-wide magnetic tape from suppliers that shut down in the past 15 years after music lovers ditched cassettes. National Audio held on. Now, many musicians are clamoring for cassettes as a way to physically distribute their music. The company says it has less than a year’s supply of tape left. So it is building the first manufacturing line for high-grade ferric oxide cassette tape in the U.S. in decades. If all goes well, the machine will churn out nearly 4 miles of tape a minute by January. And not just any tape. “The best tape ever made,” boasts Mr. Stepp, 69 years old. “People will hear a whole new product.”

8am – D         Latest on Texas Church Shooting

8am – E         RAND PAUL ATTACKED BY NEIGHBOR:

• Rand Paul suffers 5 broken ribs after neighbor assaulted him. Republican Sen. Rand Paul is recovering from five broken ribs after his neighbor blindsided him outside his Kentucky home on Friday, his senior adviser told the Associated Press. Doug Stafford said it’s unclear when Paul will be able to return to work in Washington, DC, because he is in considerable pain and has been having trouble getting around. He also said the broken ribs and three displaced fractures could lead to life-threatening injuries, and the severe pain they cause could last for week or months. Rene Boucher, 59, was arrested on Saturday and charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault.
• Kentucky State Police have arrested Sen. Rand Paul’s assailant, ID’d as Rene Boucher, 59, a registered Democrat. Voting records from the Kentucky State Board of Election list Boucher as a registered Democrat, the Daily Caller reported. A person with his name also works as an anesthesiologist in Bowling Green.
• Neighbors Say Rand Paul’s Attacker Was An Avowed Socialist. (Daily Caller) — The man responsible for attacking Sen. Rand Paul Friday afternoon was an avowed liberal who frequently fought with his neighbors about politics, according to a report Sunday from The Washington Post. Local citizens say Rene Boucher, the 59-year-old man who assaulted Paul, was a socialist who frequently fought with neighbors about health care policies and other liberal issues. Boucher and Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, are on the opposite end of the political spectrum, they told reporters. Jeff Jones, a registered nurse who worked with Boucher at the Bowling Green Medical Center, described Paul’s attacker’s politics as “liberal.” “He was active on social media and said some negative things about the Republican agenda,” Jones said of Boucher, a Bowling Green, Ky., citizen who lives in the same gated community as Paul. “I think it was unfortunate that they lived so close together.” Boucher is a divorced socialist who is “pretty much the opposite of Rand Paul in every way,” Jim Bullington, a former member of the city commission who knows both men well, told reporters Sunday. A Facebook account Boucher maintained before the attack contains numerous anti-Republican postings. Boucher wrote “May Robert Mueller fry Trump’s gonads” in a May post referencing the former FBI director’s investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian government.