Ron Meyer, Red Maryland’s Gregory Kline, Daily Mail’s David Martosko, RNC’s Ronna Romney McDaniel and Phil Kerpen joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   Neighbors: Rand Paul dispute began over landscaping. (The Hill) — A feud that allegedly resulted in Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) being assaulted at his home last weekend started due to a dispute over landscaping, The New York Times reported. Paul and his longtime, next-door neighbor had disagreements over yard care, according to the newspaper, which cited neighbors and three Kentucky Republicans familiar with the issue. Paul was reportedly mowing his lawn and wearing ear plugs when he was attacked. “Rand never saw him coming or heard him coming,” a friend, Robert Porter, who visited Paul on Saturday, told the Times. Paul’s neighbor, Rene Boucher, was charged with fourth-degree assault.

5am – D/E     TX SHOOTING NEWS:

• NRA instructor who shot Texas church gunman shares his story. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Stephen Willeford shot and chased the man who killed 26 people in a Texas church on Sunday. He spoke to 40/29 News in an exclusive sit-down interview on Monday. Willeford was at home when his daughter came into his bedroom to tell him she heard gunshots at the First Baptist Church nearby. Willeford, a former NRA instructor, got his rifle out of his safe while his daughter looked outside again. She ran back in and told him she saw a man in black tactical gear shooting up the church. “I kept hearing the shots, one after another, very rapid shots – just ‘pop pop pop pop’ and I knew every one of those shots represented someone, that it was aimed at someone, that they weren’t just random shots,” Willeford said.” Willeford loaded his magazine and ran across the street to the church, not even taking the time to put on shoes. When Willeford saw the gunman, he exchanged gunfire.
• An unlikely hero describes gun battle and 95 mph pursuit of Texas shooting suspect. Hero Texan Describes His Response To Shooting — ‘That’s What You Do. You Chase The Bad Guy’ [VIDEO] (Daily Caller) — Johnnie Langendorff, the hero Texan who chased down the church shooter with his truck, said he wasn’t thinking much else besides “get him” during the harrowing chase. In a Monday interview with CNN, Langendorff said another Texas man engaged Devin P. Kelley with his AR-15 and then asked Langendorff for a ride so they could chase Kelley as he fled in his own vehicle. The ensuing chase reached speeds of 95 MPH before Kelley seemingly lost control and pulled off the road. When asked what was going through his mind when he decided to chase Kelley, Langendorff said, “nothing–get him.” “Because that’s what you do,” he asserted. “You chase the bad guy.” “You said the chase was 12-15 minutes long going 95 down these country roads,” CNN’s John Berman said. “What was going through your head as this was going on?” “Not a lot,” the hero responded. “I like to drive so if I can get away with driving fast well, you know. I had to catch the guy, I had to make sure he was caught.”
• Air Force didn’t submit Texas church shooter’s REQUIRED criminal history to FBI: Officials says. Air Force launches review after failing to enter Texas shooter’s criminal history in FBI database. Texas church massacre suspect purchased firearms legally despite domestic-violence conviction. (Washington Times) — He had a history of abusing his ex-wife and stepson as well as a bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force, yet the suspect in the Texas church massacre was able to obtain multiple firearms legally after passing background checks. How? It turns out Holloman Air Force Base officials failed to enter Devin Patrick Kelley’s 2012 court-martial and conviction on two counts of domestic assault into the federal database. “Initial information indicates that Kelley’s domestic violence offense was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database by the Hollomon Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations,” the USAF said in an email statement. The Air Force announced Monday it had launched an investigation into its handling of criminal records in the aftermath of Sunday’s mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which left 26 dead. In a statement, USAF spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said that Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein had directed the Air Force Office of the Inspector General to conduct a “complete review.”
• Texas Gunman Broke Child’s Skull and Assaulted Wife in Troubled Life. (NY Times) – He beat his wife, cracked his toddler stepson’s skull and was kicked out of the military. He drove away friends, drew attention from the police and abused his dog. Before Devin P. Kelley entered a rural Texas church with a military-style rifle, killing at least 26 people on Sunday, he led a deeply troubled life in which few in his path escaped unscathed.
• GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE IN PREVIOUS CHURCH SHOOTING à PREVIOUSLY: Statement by FBI Director James Comey Regarding Dylann Roof Gun Purchase. “Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of so many innocent people at the Emanuel AME church, should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he allegedly used that evening. Let me tell you what happened, as I understand it today… As you know, the FBI, through our CJIS Division in West Virginia, administers part of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. We perform background checks in response to requests from gun dealers in about 30 states; the remainder of the states do their own. The NICS examiner studied Roof’s criminal history and saw that the arresting agency listed on his rap sheet was the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office. There was no mention of the Columbia police on the rap sheet. It is not clear why that happened, but it made a big difference in what happened next. The examiner followed our protocols and did three things : First, she went on the website of the Lexington County court to see if the matter had been resolved. Her review of the court website showed that Roof was a defendant there but there was not yet a disposition in the case, which meant he was not a convicted felon. She didn’t stop there. Second, she faxed a request to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office asking for more details on the case. Third, she faxed a similar request to the Lexington County prosecutor’s office. She heard back from the sheriff’s office, telling her that the case was not theirs, and that she should check with the Columbia Police Department. Not knowing the geography, she did what she was supposed to do and followed our protocols. Examiners use contact sheets that list criminal justice organizations, organized by state and county. Because the arrest was attributed to the Lexington County sheriff, she was obviously dealing with Lexington County, so she pulled up the sheet for that county. As she examined it, she did not see a listing for a “Columbia,” but she did see a listing for “West Columbia.” Informed by the fact that the gun had been bought in West Columbia and that it was the only listing on the sheet for such a name in Lexington County, she contacted the West Columbia police. They replied that they had no record of such a case. The contact sheet for Lexington County did not list the Columbia police. Instead, Columbia PD was listed as a contact only on the sheet for Richland County. But the examiner never saw that sheet because she was focused on Lexington County. So the court records showed no conviction yet and what she thought were the relevant agencies had no information or hadn’t responded. While she processed the many, many other firearms purchases in her queue, the case remained in “delayed/pending.” By Thursday, April 16, the case was still listed as “status pending,” so the gun dealer exercised its lawful discretion and transferred the gun to Dylann Roof.”
• KELLEY PASSED BACKGROUND CHECK: The TX church shooter, Devin Kelley, acquired his gun via a background check at a retail sporting goods store in San Antonio.  This makes Kelley only the latest in a long list of mass public attackers who complied with all gun controls to acquire their firearms, only to use those guns for heinous purposes.
• KELLEY THREATENED EX-MOTHER-IN-LAW BEFORE SHOOTING: While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues, as has been the case involving other rampages at houses of worship. Instead, they said the gunman had sent “threatening texts” to his mother-in-law as part of this ongoing dispute.

6am – A         Interview – RON MEYER – a supervisor on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, serving the Broad Run District.. (R-Broad Run), and is a Washington Examiner columnist, editor of Red Alert Politics (a sister publication of the Washington Examiner).  (@Ron4VA)

• TOPIC: on the VA elections Tuesday: GOVERNOR, LT. GOVERNOR, ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HOUSE OF DELEGATES
• GOVERNOR: Virginia’s race for governor is receiving national attention. The question both political parties want to know: Will supporters turn out for in an off-year election to support Ed Gillespie or Ralph Northam?
• ATTORNEY GENERAL: Voters will also decide whether to re-elect Attorney General Mark Herring or give political newcomer John Adams a chance.
• LT. GOVERNOR: And they will decide who will preside over the Virginia Senate, possibly breaking tie votes, as lieutenant governor. State Sen. Jill Vogel, a Republican, faces Democrat Justin Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor.
• HOUSE OF DELEGATES: All 100 House of Delegate seats are also on the ballot — but 67 districts have contested races this year. And Democrats are challenging Republican incumbents in 48 districts, hoping to increase their numbers in the GOP-controlled House. Two years ago, just 29 districts fielded candidates from both major political parties.

6am – B         Very Fake News: CNN Selectively Edits Trump Quote on Japanese Auto Production in U.S.: On Monday, CNN published a story that included this snide headline: “Trump asks Japan to build cars in the U.S. It already does.” “President Trump wants Japan Inc to ‘try’ building vehicles in the U.S.,” read the story’s opening lines. The report added in what its author must’ve thought was a solid burn, “Japanese automakers … already have huge factories in the U.S. that churn out millions of cars each year.”  CNN has since amended its article so that the headline now reads, “Trump wants Japan to build more cars in the U.S.”

6am – C         Hollywood Harassers:

• Harvey Weinstein hired investigators and ex-intel agents to suppress sexual assault allegations: report. Harvey Weinstein hired several private security agencies to investigate his accusers and try to prevent allegations that he had sexually assaulted women from going public, The New Yorker reported Monday.
• Spacey checks into Weinstein’s rehab… Shamed Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey has checked into a luxury $36,000-a-month rehab center in the Arizona desert to receive treatment for sex addiction, sources tell DailyMail.com. The elite Meadows clinic is popular among celebrities and has treated stars such as Tiger Woods, Elle Macpherson, Kate Moss and Selena Gomez. Last week it was reported that alleged serial assaulter Harvey Weinstein was also seeking treatment at the Meadows. He was seen in disguise at a local eatery in Phoenix.

6am – D         DONNA BRAZILE NEWS:

• Virginia Gov. (and Longtime Clinton Pal) Terry McAuliffe Rips Brazile: ‘Nobody Cares’ About Her Book
• Mook: Brazile Was Pushed By Her Publisher
• Robby Mook: “We certainly don’t recognize the campaign she describes.”

6am – E         COMEY NEWS:

• James Comey outs himself on Twitter, announces new handle. Former FBI Director James Comey announced his new official Twitter name “Comey” to his 201,000 followers Monday after hiding behind the name of an American theologian for seven months. “Here’s my new handle. Glad to be part of the Twitterverse. Grateful to Reinhold for the cover these last few years,” Comey tweeted from the updated page Monday morning. The page has been verified by Twitter. Comey had been using @FormerBU and Reinhold Niebuhr’s name as his alias; the oldest post on the page is dated March 30.
• Comey planned to call Hillary ‘grossly negligent’ over her use of a secret sever. Former FBI Director James Comey’s infamous press conference in July 2016 where he scolded Hillary Clinton for being ‘extremely careless’ with her private email server was tamped down from an early draft that hit her for being ‘grossly negligent.’ That earlier version from about two months earlier used different words which carried a different legal connotation.

6am – F         DC HAS THE LONGEST COMMUTE, BUT S. CALI HAS THE MOST STRESSFUL: Washington, D.C. — known for its extensive mass transit network — had the longest commute at 60.4 minutes but was only eighth-most stressful. San Francisco ranked No. 2 for time (59.2 minutes), but its BART system helped lower the city to No. 5 for stress. And subway-loving New York was No. 4 in lengthy commutes (57.9 minutes) but only ninth-most stressful.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – GREG KLINE – co-founder of “Red Maryland”, a popular conservative blog about Republican politics in the Free State of Maryland. KLINE is also an attorney in Maryland @RedMaryland @GregoryKline

• TOPIC: A lot of focus is on Virginia’s elections today but there are some elections in Maryland today too
• Annapolis voters will decide whether to re-elect Mayor Mike Pantelides, a Republican. He faces challenger Gavin Buckley, a Democrat. All eight seats on the council are up for election….  Gavin Buckley wants a ferris wheel in Annapolis
• In College Park, three candidates are challenging Mayor Patrick Wojahn for the post. Voters in all four city districts have competitive races for city council. FLASHBACK: College Park: The dumbest town in America? (Baltimore Sun) –– On Sept. 12, the City Council and mayor of College Park voted to give noncitizens the right to cast a vote in all municipal elections. Some council members suggested that a decision of such import should involve residents, perhaps through a ballot referendum, but the mayor cast his tie-breaking vote against that suggestion. Some council members then suggested that immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally be excluded from the group of noncitizens, but the mayor again cast his tie-breaking vote in opposition to that suggestion. When the council finally voted on the amendment, four members were in favor of it, three were opposed, and one abstained. The measure passed much to the satisfaction of the mayor and victorious aldermen.
• Frederick Mayor Randy McClement is running for re-election and faces Democrat Michael O’Connor.
• Also, the Maryland Dems are gearing up to take on Gov. Hogan for next year: Eight try out as Democrats hold casting call for candidate for Maryland governor. (Baltiimore Sun) –– Eight candidates for governor auditioned Saturday as Maryland Democrats held a casting call for the role of nominee to challenge Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The joint appearance before the Democratic Party State Central Committee at a Lanham union hall was the first to bring all eight together in the same forum. It was not a debate, but the event gave the candidates the opportunity to show off their skills at pummeling Hogan’s record and excoriating President Donald J. Trump.
• And will GOP in blue states like Maryland get hit next year by the GOP tax plan?

7am – B/C     Interview – DAVID MARTOSKO – Daily Mail in Seoul, South Korea – discuss Trump’s Asia trip @dmartosko ‏

• TOPIC: Latest news from Trump’s Asia trip
• DAILY MAIL: Trump says he ‘hopes to God’ he never has to attack North Korea but insists he’s prepared to defend the U.S. and its allies ‘using the full range of our unmatched military capabilities’
• DAILY MAIL: ‘It has to work out!’ Trump predicts success stopping North Korea’s nuclear plans as he arrives in the South for top-secret military briefing
• DAILY MAIL: Koi, stop that! Twitter users attack Trump for feeding Shinzo Abe’s prized fish by dumping an entire container of food in the pond – but the prime minister did it first!
• Very Fake News: CNN Selectively Edits Trump Quote on Japanese Auto
• ‘This isn’t a guns situation’: Trump says Texas shooter was ‘deranged’  President Trump said Monday that the South Texas shooting that killed at least 26 people wasn’t “a guns situation,” and blamed it instead on the gunman’s mental health.  During a news conference in Tokyo, where he’s on the first leg of a five-nation Asia trip, Trump was asked if he thought stricter gun laws could help prevent such mass shootings.  “I think that mental health is your problem here,” Trump said. “Based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual, a lot of problems for a long period of time,” he said.

7am – D         Interview – RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL – RNC Chairwoman – on VA governor race / thoughts on the Dem freakout over Donna Brazile’s new book  @GOPChairwoman

7am – E         Woman fired from her job after flipping off Trump’s motorcade. (Washington Examiner) — A woman was fired from her job with a government contractor after a photo of her flipping off President Trump’s motorcade went viral. Juli Briskman, a Democrat, was riding her bicycle when Trump’s motorcade rolled past her on its way back to the White House from Trump’s Virginia golf club. “He was passing by and my blood just started to boil,” she told the Huffington Post. “I’m thinking, DACA recipients are getting kicked out. He pulled ads for open enrollment in Obamacare. Only one-third of Puerto Rico has power. I’m thinking, he’s at the damn golf course again.” She added: “I flipped off the motorcade a number of times.” She said she decided to give her employer, Akima LLC, a heads up about the image after it went viral. A day later she was fired. Briskman said her bosses told her she had violated the company’s social media policy by making the image her profile picture on Facebook and Twitter. “They said, ‘We’re separating from you,’” Briskman said. “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’”

8am – A         Interview – PHIL KERPEN  – President, American Commitment @kerpen

• TOPIC: Sen. Menendez corruption trial goes to jury: The fate of Sen. Robert Menendez is now in the jury’s hands. With the New Jersey Democrat’s career and freedom hanging in the balance, his defense lawyer said Monday that Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, was a longstanding friendship — not a corrupt connection, as claimed by the Justice Department.

• Menendez said yesterday: “I think the government floundered in their closing statement. I’m looking forward to the jury’s decision.”

8am – B         TX SHOOTING NEWS:

• NRA instructor who shot Texas church gunman shares his story.
• An unlikely hero describes gun battle and 95 mph pursuit of Texas shooting suspect. Hero Texan Describes His Response To Shooting — ‘That’s What You Do. You Chase The Bad
• Air Force didn’t submit Texas church shooter’s REQUIRED criminal history to FBI: Officials says. Air Force launches review after failing to enter Texas shooter’s criminal history in FBI database. Texas church massacre suspect purchased firearms legally despite domestic-violence conviction.

8am – C         VA ELECTION TODAY:

• GOVERNOR: Virginia’s race for governor is receiving national attention. The question both political parties want to know: Will supporters turn out for in an off-year election to support Ed Gillespie or Ralph Northam?
• ATTORNEY GENERAL: Voters will also decide whether to re-elect Attorney General Mark Herring or give political newcomer John Adams a chance.
• LT. GOVERNOR: And they will decide who will preside over the Virginia Senate, possibly breaking tie votes, as lieutenant governor. State Sen. Jill Vogel, a Republican, faces Democrat Justin Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor.
• HOUSE OF DELEGATES: All 100 House of Delegate seats are also on the ballot — but 67 districts have contested races this year. And Democrats are challenging Republican incumbents in 48 districts, hoping to increase their numbers in the GOP-controlled House. Two years ago, just 29 districts fielded candidates from both major political parties.
• VA VOTERS CAST RECORD NUMBER OF ABSENTEE BALLOTS: (WTOP) – Virginia voters have cast a record number of absentee ballots in a nonpresidential election, in large part due to the close race for governor, between Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam.

8am – D         TAX REFORM NEWS:

• Cornyn: Senate GOP tax plan to be released Thursday. (The Hill / By Jordain Carney – 11/06/17 04:02 PM EST) — Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is predicting that Senate Republicans will unveil their tax-reform legislation on Thursday. Asked about the bill, Cornyn said the “mark” — or the version drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) — would be released Thursday.  “Yep, well that’s the last I heard,” said Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, when asked if Thursday’s release date was “for sure.” Spokespeople for Hatch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the timing of the bill.  Cornyn added that the Finance Committee would start its mark up next week and Republicans are still aiming to pass their tax plan before leaving town for Thanksgiving.  The timeline, if Republicans stick to it, leaves senators with a tight schedule. Lawmakers are currently scheduled to leave for the weeklong Thanksgiving break on Nov. 17, just over a week after they will unveil their tax plan.  But Senate GOP leadership is threatening to keep the chamber in session for part of the break in order to pass the tax legislation.  Republicans have a narrow path to clearing a bill through the Senate. With 52 seats, they can only afford to lose two GOP senators, if every Democrat votes no, and still let Vice President Mike Pence break a tie.

• Mnuchin: Trump Tax Plan ‘Critical to Economy – We’re Going to Get It Done’ Tucker Carlson sat down with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to discuss President Trump’s tax plan. He said he and Trump believe the U.S. can return to the three-percent economic growth it has seen in the past. Carlson asked about the tax cuts in Trump’s plan, saying that there are a lot of new benefits for corporations.
• Influential think tank retracts analysis of GOP tax bill: “TPC staff found an error in the preliminary distributional analysis of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) that we released today. This error involved the additional child tax credit component of the proposed legislation,” the organization said in a statement Monday night, several hours after releasing its report that showed the benefits of the tax bill were skewed toward the richest Americans. The center has pulled all materials related to its initial report and said it will issue a corrected version as soon as it is able, likely Tuesday.  […] The uncorrected version of the report released Monday showed that the bulk of the House GOP bill’s benefits would go to the wealthy and that many working class households earning under $48,000 would see their tax bills rise in upcoming years. That conclusion contradicted Republican claims that the bill was crafted to help the middle class.  Someone familiar with the error who was not authorized to speak publicly said the revised report would likely come to a similar conclusion overall, but that exact numbers of how many Americans are helped and hurt would be different.

8am – E         Diddy’s name changes catches heat with WWE fans. (Page Six) — Perhaps Sean Combs should have scrolled through social media before switching up his moniker. After changing his name to “Brother Love” on his 48th birthday on Saturday, the music mogul was hit with a slew of responses as Twitterverse informed him the name was already taken by wrestling personality Bruce Prichard, a.k.a. the first Brother Love. “I’m sorry Diddy imma let you finish, but @bruceprichard is the greatest Brother Love Of ALL TIME,” one user tweeted. “Note to @diddy there will always be only one Brother Love @WWE,” posted another.

Sean Diddy Combs: @diddy: I decided to change my name again!

My new name is LOVE aka Brother Love. #TakeDat pic.twitter.com/gArAXusygG

Bruce Prichard @bruceprichard: Yo. Find a new gimmick. I invented and perfected Brother Love. I am the original and you are not. Remember North Carolina. 5:40 PM – Nov 4, 2017

It didn’t take long for the OG Brother Love to dismiss Combs’ claim to the name. Prichard, 54, made his WWE debut in June 1988 as Brother Love. He was released from the organization in 1991, before returning a year later. As for Combs — previously known as Diddy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Puffy — he knew the latest change would be “risky.”