Joe diGenova, Trevor Matich and Joe Concha joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, November 20, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   What Conversation Are You Having With Your Young Men About Sexual Harassment?

• #MeToo has lumped trivial in with legitimate sexual assault. (NY Post / By Andrea Peyser) — It’s gone far enough. What started as a necessary mass-rejection of sexual harassment and assault is sliding into absurdity and irrelevance. A backlash is looming against the very people the spontaneous battle against sexual villainy was meant to help: powerless women and men. The fight is being waged not with force, but with the rather bland Internet movement, #MeToo. The battle by hashtag conflates genuine sex crimes with mere childish behavior — blending the Harvey Weinsteins and Kevin Spaceys with the Al Frankens and George H.W. Bushes. How long before we stop taking victims seriously? Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer and now staunchly liberal senator from Minnesota, has been tossed into the guillotine without a trial. And while I reject his leftist politics — even more so his inability to be funny — I don’t think confusing childish, even lewd, behavior with clear, intimate violations helps anyone. Rather, it threatens to make accusers, many of them women, appear unserious. Or “hysterical,’’ to use a term commonly wielded against humans bearing XX chromosomes. On Thursday, former Playboy model-turned-radio host Leeann Tweeden claimed Franken stuck his tongue in her mouth. He claimed he doesn’t remember the tongue-lashing that evidently occurred as they were “rehearsing” a scene for a skit on a USO tour to the Middle East in 2006, before Franken was elected to office. But there exists photographic evidence that he took things a few notches further. Franken was snapped, with a doofusy grin on his face, groping Tweeden’s flak jacket-covered breasts as she slept. Lewd and crude? For sure. Grounds for public censure? Perhaps. But potentially career-ending? I don’t think so. Franken initially issued a statement of apology to Tweeden, saying, “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.” Hours later, he added an “I’m sorry’’ to “everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women.’’

5am – D/E     Trump War of Words with UCLA Player’s Dad: ‘Should Have Left Them in Jail’ (LifeZette) — President Donald Trump blasted the father of one of the three UCLA college basketball players recently detained in China, saying that he “is unaccepting of what I did for his son” in a tweet Sunday. LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested in China and accused of shoplifting when the UCLA basketball team visited the country for a season-opening game. While the rest of the team returned to the United States, Chinese authorities detained the three players. While visiting China as part of his five-nation tour across Asia earlier in November, Trump interceded with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the players’ behalf. On Tuesday, they were allowed to return to the U.S. As the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers star Lonzo Ball, LiAngelo Ball was the most high-profile of the three detained players. During a press conference Wednesday, the younger Ball thanked the president for his help. “I’d also like to thank President Trump and the United States government for the help that they provided as well,” LiAngelo Ball had said. “I’m grateful to be back home, and I’ll never make a mistake like this again. I’m extremely sorry for those who I let down, but I’m also very thankful for all the help, love and support that they provided. And I take full responsibility for my actions. And I’m sorry.” The other two players each thanked Trump as well. “And thank you to the United States government and President Trump for your efforts of bringing us home,” Hill had said. For his own part, Riley had said, “To President Trump and the United States government, thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf. We really appreciate you helping us out.” Although LiAngelo Ball publicly expressed nothing but gratitude for Trump’s intercession, his father, LaVar Ball, spurned Trump. When ESPN asked LaVar Ball on Friday about Trump’s help with his son’s detention in China, the father replied, “Who?” “What was [Trump] over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out,” said LaVar Ball, an outspoken former basketball and football player and the CEO of sports apparel company Big Baller Brand. “As long as my boy’s back here, I’m fine,” LaVar Ball added. “I’m happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, ‘They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.’ I’m from L.A. I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses.” The president did not take kindly to LaVar Ball’s dismissal. “Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!” Trump tweeted Sunday.

6am – A/B     ARE YOU A GRISWOLD OR GRINCH WITH YOUR CHRISTMAS DISPLAY? COUPLE ENDS CHRISTMAS LIGHT SHOW. (The Arizona Republic) – PHOENIX — For more than 30 years, Lee and Patricia Sepanek have decorated their home in a Phoenix neighborhood with one of the most extravagant holiday light displays in the area. Every October, they begin putting up 250,000 lights in time to flick on for Thanksgiving. They even get a small manlift so they can light up their 100-foot eucalyptus tree. Lee Sepanek estimates they spend nine to 10 hours a day for three months preparing or fixing the lights, cleaning the neighborhood, or sitting outside greeting and selling hot cocoa and cookies to numerous visitors, some of whom arrive in buses or trolleys. This year will be different. The Sepaneks haven’t put a single light on their house and don’t plan to. “That would defeat my whole purpose,” Lee Sepanek said. “This is my protest.” After receiving multiple complaints about the Sepaneks’ lights display, city of Phoenix staff approached the couple in early October to talk about what they could change this year to avoid more complaints. Sepanek came away from the meeting so discouraged, he decided to call the whole thing off.

6am – C         FBI, DOJ officials have told congressional investigators they have not been able to verify the substantive allegations of Trump-Russia collusion in Trump dossier.

• FBI has not verified Trump dossier. (Washington Examiner/by Byron York) — FBI and Justice Department officials have told congressional investigators in recent days that they have not been able to verify or corroborate the substantive allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign outlined in the Trump dossier. The FBI received the first installment of the dossier in July 2016. It received later installments as they were written at the height of the presidential campaign, which means the bureau has had more than a year to investigate the allegations in the document. The dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. An August 24, 2017 subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee to the FBI and Justice Department asked for information on the bureau’s efforts to validate the dossier. Specifically, the subpoena demanded “any documents, if they exist, that memorialize DOJ and/or FBI efforts to corroborate, validate, or evaluate information provided by Mr. Steele and/or sub-sources and/or contained in the ‘Trump Dossier.'” According to sources familiar with the matter, neither the FBI nor the Justice Department has provided documents in response to that part of the committee’s subpoena. But in face-to-face briefings with congressional staff, according to those sources, FBI and DOJ officials have said they cannot verify the dossier’s charges of a conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

6am – D         Apple Fired Its Black Diversity Chief After She Said Whites Can Be Diverse. (Daily Caller) — Apple fired its diversity chief shortly after she made statements allowing that white people can come from a diversity of backgrounds. “There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blond men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation,” diversity and inclusion chief, Denise Young Smith, recently said at a summit in Columbia according to the New York Post. “Diversity is the human experience … I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of color, or the women, or the LGBT,”  she added, according to Quartz.

6am – E         Marshawn Lynch Sits For American National Anthem, Stands For Mexican Anthem. (Daily Caller) — Oakland Raiders star running back Marshawn Lynch sat on the bench Sunday during the America’s national anthem, but stood for the Mexican anthem. Boston Globe reporter Ben Volin tweeted out photos of Lynch during both anthems for the game against the New England Patriots, which was played in Mexico City.

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump 18m18 minutes ago: Marshawn Lynch of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem. Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.

6am – F         Steve Mnuchin Reacts to Being Called a ‘Bond Villain’ Over Viral Money Photos. Last week Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton went viral for photos holding sheets of cash. Mnuchin amusedly responded to some of the reaction this morning on Fox News Sunday, with Chris Wallace noting how some people were calling them “Bond villains.” “I never thought I’d be quoted as looking like villains from James Bond,” Mnuchin said. “I guess I should take that as a compliment that I look like a villain in a great, successful James Bond movie.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

• Joe’s thoughts on the slew of sexual harassment claims: Roy Moore… Al Franken, etc
• BYRON YORK: FBI, DOJ officials have told congressional investigators they have not been able to verify the substantive allegations of Trump-Russia collusion in Trump dossier.
• Nancy Pelosi on impeaching Trump: “He’s just not that important.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that impeaching President Trump is a waste of time because “he’s just not that important.” Pelosi, speaking at an event at Hearst, said impeaching Trump would further divide America at a time when it needs to come together. “Republicans would love for us to make our campaign about the impeachment of Trump,” Pelosi said, according to an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s about the well-being of American families. He’s just not that important. Impeachment would further divide us, not bring us together.” Pelosi also noted that former President Bill Clinton “never should’ve been impeached.” “That was a frivolous activity,” Pelosi said.

7am – B         CLINTON NEWS:

• Hillary: Bill Clinton Would Not Have ‘Survived’ If Fox News Had Been Around Earlier. (Daily Caller) — Bill Clinton might never have become president if Fox News had been around earlier, Hillary Clinton said on Saturday. Speaking at a Clinton Foundation event commemorating the 25th anniversary of Bill’s 1992 election victory, Hillary lashed out against Fox News and conservative media outlets. “Unfortunately our body politic’s immune system has been impaired because there has been a concerted effort starting with the creation of the Fox network — it wasn’t there when Bill first ran, it was one of the reasons he probably survived, it was there when he ran the second time — it and all of its associated media outlets who are by no means delivering news. They are delivering partisan advocacy positions irrespective of the truth, the facts, the evidence,” Clinton said.
• Hillary Clinton: Bill ‘didn’t tweet’ about his problems in the White House. (Washington Examiner) — Hillary Clinton took a jab at President Trump on Saturday, joking that as president, Bill Clinton didn’t tweet like Trump does. While addressing a crowd at the Clinton Presidential Center to mark the 25th anniversary of Clinton’s first election, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton took time to criticize Trumps’s administration while highlighting some of the successes of the Clinton era. “He didn’t tweet about it, he went to work about it, and he actually got things done,” Hillary noted, which got a loud round of applause. Twitter, of course, didn’t exist in the 1990s when Clinton was president. It was founded in 2006.
• Trump urges Clinton to run again. (Politico) — President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling his Democratic former opponent the “worst and biggest loser of all time” and urging her to run again in 2020. “She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!”

7am – C         Charles Manson, leader of murderous ’60s cult, dead at 83. (CNN) Charles Manson, the wild-eyed 1960s cult leader whose followers committed heinous murders that terrorized Los Angeles and shocked the nation, died Sunday of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections. He was 83. The diminutive and charismatic Manson orchestrated a wave of violence in August 1969 that took the lives of seven people, spawned headlines worldwide and landed him and his “Manson Family” of followers in prison for most of the remainder of their lives. Manson served nine life terms in California prisons and was denied parole 12 times. His notoriety, boosted by popular books and films, made him a cult figure to those fascinated by his dark apocalyptic visions.

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

• Saints make history in wild OT victory over Redskins. After falling behind by 15 points late in the fourth quarter, the white-hot New Orleans Saints rallied for a pair of late touchdowns and an overtime field goal to pull off a thrilling 34-31 victory over the Washington Redskins in Week 11.
• Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg: “I seriously cannot believe the Redskins just lost that game” — I can’t believe the Redskins just lost that game. (Hell yes, we are doing this again. And I don’t blame you at all if you stop reading right now. Go get a beer or something. It’s Thanksgiving week. Washington doesn’t work this week. Maybe make some yams or something. Pretend none of it ever happened.) No, but really: I can’t believe the Redskins just lost that game. I can’t believe the Redskins just lost that game, despite having a 15-point lead with less than five minutes left and the Saints on their own side of midfield facing a first and 20 while local fans were busy toasting their team for having the sort of resilience and guts few Washington teams in 25 years have had. Frankly, I still can’t believe the Redskins even had a 15-point lead.”

7am – E         Turkeys arrive to D.C. to await Trump’s pardon… and stay at the Willard. Two turkeys arrived in D.C. today ahead of the 70th annual turkey pardon.  According to the White House, the two turkeys were raised in Western Minnesota, and after the pardon will join turkeys pardoned by Obama at Virginia Tech’s “Gobblers Rest” exhibit. They will be staying in style at the Willard Hotel, as is tradition.

8am – A         Trump War of Words with UCLA Player’s Dad: ‘Should Have Left Them in Jail’

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter, The Hill

• Hillary: Bill Clinton Would Not Have ‘Survived’ If Fox News Had Been Around Earlier
• Brian Stelter: Trump’s LaVar Ball Tweet Is Immature at Best, ‘Race-Baiting at Worst’

8am – D         HOLLYWOOD IMPLODING OVER #METOO MOVEMENT SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS:

• LENA DUNHAM: Backpedal FAIL: Lena Dunham apologizes for defending a “Girls” writer accused of sexual assault: “I naively believed that it was important to share my perspective….I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement”
• FRANKEN: Franken cut from upcoming David Letterman tribute after sexual misconduct allegations  
• TAMBOR: Jeffrey Tambor may leave ‘Transparent’ following allegations of sexual misconduct. After being accused of sexual harassment by two women on the set of “Transparent,” Jeffrey Tambor may not return to the Amazon series. “Playing Maura Pfefferman on ‘Transparent’ has been one of the greatest privileges and creative experiences of my life,” Tambor said in a statement released Sunday. “What has become clear over the past few weeks, however, is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago.”
• SEACREST: Ryan Seacrest accused of sexual misconduct by former “E! News” employee . Radio personality and television producer Ryan Seacrest is the latest celebrity to face sexual misconduct allegations. The former “American Idol” host is denying allegations that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with an employee at “E! News” nearly a decade ago, according to the Associated Press. Details of the allegation have not yet been made public.
• SEAGAL / MCCARTHY: Actress, model and “Blondies” creator Jenny McCarthy, who was also an MTV host like Hilarie Burton, discussed the alleged sexual harassment she faced in an audition with Steven Seagal when she began making the transition from modeling to acting. “I went into an audition and wore a long muumuu-type dress that he [Seagal] could pay attention to my eyes. I did, I looked like Mrs. Roper, you know because I wanted to be taken seriously, I was Playmate of the Year at the time and not many people take a Playmate of the Year seriously at all,” McCarthy told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”

8am – E         THANKSGIVING NEWS:

• Ivanka Trump mocked shamelessly on Twitter after Thanksgiving post. Followers on Twitter quickly used this trending topic to criticize US President Donald Trump.  US Presidential First Daughter Ivanka Trump posted on Instagram a picture of an oversized clam stuffed with debris on Friday as a suggested Thanksgiving center piece. Twitter erupted with criticism of the picture and US President Donald Trump’s politics.  Ivanka Trump HQ @IvankaTrumpHQ: Have no idea how to decorate your Thanksgiving table? Problem solved: http://bit.ly/2zGtLQp  6:30 PM – Nov 16, 2017  The Instagram post was linked to Twitter and followers on Twitter quickly began posting pictures of trash as their suggested centerpiece, mocking the first daughter.
• THANKSGIVING TRAVEL: Triple-A expects nearly 51 million people to travel 50 miles or more for the Thanksgiving holiday, the highest volume in a dozen years.  Thanks to cheaper airfares, AAA expects a 5% growth in air travel this year, with 3.95 million people in the U.S. flying for the holiday.