Rep. Jim Jordan, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, Tom Fitton, Stephen Moore, Andrew McCarthy and guest host Sebastian Gorka joined WMAL on Thursday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Sebastian Gorka

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   Q & A with Dr. Sebastian Gorka

5am – D/E     52% of U.S. adults said it didn’t matter how they were greeted in stores over the holidays. President Trump may want you to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays,” but a new survey released Tuesday shows a growing number of Americans say they don’t mind how they’re greeted during the holiday season. The Pew Research Center found that 52% of U.S. adults who said it didn’t matter to them how they were greeted in stores over the holidays, up from 46% in 2012. Compare that to the 32% of people who said they would prefer to be greeted with “Merry Christmas” at a store, which was down from 42% in 2012.    

6am – A/B/C Rosenstein stands by Mueller probe as Republicans fume over ‘insider bias: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stood by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe Wednesday, despite a newly unearthed trove of damning text messages and other details that Republicans said show an “insider bias” on the investigative team. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and has overseen the Russia probe since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, testified before the House Judiciary Committee — and faced a grilling from GOP lawmakers.

• Ex-Mueller aides’ texts revealed: The anti-Trump texts between two former members of Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election first surfaced after a Justice Department watchdog requested messages from the government-issued phones of several FBI employees involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation … Peter Strzok, a former deputy to the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, played a key role in the email probe, changing former FBI Director James Comey’s early draft language about Clinton’s actions from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” and conducting the FBI interview of Clinton over the July 4 weekend in 2016. According to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, “politically oriented” text messages between Strzok and Lisa Page were found in his office’s initial search. That led to the watchdog requesting all messages between the two through the end of November 2016. Those messages were produced by the FBI on July 20 of this year and Mueller and Rosenstein were informed about them a week later, on July 27.
• Jim Jordan Grills Rosenstein Over Dossier, Agent Strzok. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday about the objectivity of the FBI and the special counsel’s Russia investigation. Jordan asked Rosenstein during a House Judiciary Committee hearing what he was going to do so that the public could regain trust in the FBI. Jordan focused on the FBI’s alleged reliance on the Democrat-funded Trump dossier and the recently-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was caught sending anti-Trump text messages. “If you guys paid Christopher Steele at the same time the Democrats and the Clinton campaign paid him,” Jordan said, referring to the author of the infamous Trump dossier, “or if you took the dossier, dressed it all up, took it to the FISA court and used it as the basis to get a warrant … this is unbelievable.”
• Rep. Trey Gowdy: “This ‘conflict of interest-free’ senior agent of the FBI can’t think of a single solitary American who would vote for”

6am – D         NEW SEXUAL HARASSMENT NEWS:

• Tavis Smiley accused of sexual misconduct, PBS ‘indefinitely’ suspends show’s distribution, report says
• Russell Simmons accused of rape by four women
• Chuck Schumer reports forged document charging him with sexual harassment to police
• Paul Ryan: Congress will stop using taxpayer funds to settle sex harassment suits

• Salma Hayek on ‘my monster’ Harvey Weinstein: He said ‘I will kill you.’ Salma Hayek reveals Harvey Weinstein endlessly stalked and propositioned her before forcing her to do a nude lesbian sex scene after she refused his advances – and once threatened to have her KILLED

6am – E         Democratic lawmaker: Women’s clothing an ‘invitation’ to harassment. ‘I saw a member yesterday with her cleavage so deep it was down to the floor,’ Rep. Marcy Kaptur tells fellow Democrats at a private meeting. (Politico) — A female Democratic House member shocked fellow lawmakers Wednesday when she said that the revealing clothing that some members and staffers wear is an “invitation” to sexual harassment. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) made the comments during a private Democratic Caucus meeting Wednesday to discuss sexual harassment issues, according to two Democratic sources in the room. “I saw a member yesterday with her cleavage so deep it was down to the floor,” Kaptur said, according to the sources present. “And what I’ve seen … it’s really an invitation.” The comments left many others in the room stunned, the sources said. Kaptur said women on Capitol Hill should have to abide by a stricter dress code, like those adopted by the military or corporations. “Maybe I’ll get booed for saying this, but many companies and the military [have] a dress code,” she said. “I have been appalled at some of the dress of … members and staff. Men have to wear ties and suits.”

6am – F         CNN: Anderson Cooper tweet calling Trump a “loser” was sent by someone stealing his assistant’s phone. President Trump on Wednesday morning tweeted that GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore worked hard in the Alabama special election, but that the “deck was stacked against him.” “The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!” Trump tweeted. Cooper’s Twitter account said in response: “Oh Really? You endorsed him you tool! Pathetic loser.” Following the tweet, CNN Communications tweeted that someone had gained access to the Cooper’s account. In a statement, CNN claimed the tweet in question was sent from a phone belonging to Cooper’s assistant in New York while Cooper himself was in Washington D.C. “[Cooper’s] assistant inadvertently left his phone unlocked and unattended at the gym early this morning,” the statement said, “and someone took the phone and sent the Tweet.” CNN added that Cooper’s assistant has worked with him “for more than a decade” and is “the only other person with access to Anderson’s Twitter account.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – REP. JIM JORDAN – R-Ohio and member of the House Judiciary Committee

• Jim Jordan grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday about the objectivity of the FBI and the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – FCC COMMISSIONER MIKE O’RIELLY – previewed the net neutrality vote.

• Net neutrality: Today could be the day that the internet as we know it begins a major transformation. The FCC is expected to approve a repeal of Obama-era net neutrality protections. These rules, OK’d just two years ago, were meant to keep the web open and fair and stopped big internet service providers from speeding up or slowing down traffic from specific websites and apps. There’s a big political divide on this. Democrats oppose the repeal. But the FCC is led by Republicans, and Trump appointed its chairman, Ajit Pai, who has been a critic of net neutrality rules for years. Pai wants the rules repealed to stop the federal government from “micromanaging the internet.”

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON –  President of Judicial Watch – discussed the conflicts of interest with the Mueller investigation.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Heritage Foundation economist

• Republicans reach deal on tax bill. Senate and House Republicans have struck an “agreement in principle” on a sweeping tax-cut bill that if passed would be the first major piece of legislation signed by President Trump. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told reporters about noon Wednesday of the deal between Senate and House negotiators on taxes.
• CNN: Here’s what Republican negotiators as of Wednesday evening had in the plan:

    The corporate rate would be reduced to 21%, from 35%. That is an additional point added from the 20% originally proposed in the House and Senate versions. It would take effect in 2018.

The top individual tax rate would be set at 37%, down from the 39.6% proposed in the House and 38.5% in the Senate.

The State and Local Tax deduction will be expanded, beyond just property taxes, to include income tax. It would be capped at $10,000.

The corporate alternative minimum tax, included at the last minute in the Senate version, would be fully repealed.

The individual alternative minimum tax would remain, but the threshold would be tweaked to exclude any individual under $500,000 or family below $1 million.

The mortgage interest deduction threshold — dropped to $500,000 in the House and left untouched in the Senate — would be set at $750,000.

The rate for pass-through income — business entities like s-corporations and partnerships that pay taxes through the individual side — would be determined by a 20% deduction, 3% lower than the Senate version.

The estate tax exemption would be doubled, but the tax would not be repealed entirely, as it was in the House proposal.

The Obamacare individual mandate to have health insurance would be repealed.

A House provision that proposed taxing graduate school tuition is not included in the final deal.

These deductions will remain untouched (they were all repealed in the House bill, left alone in the Senate bill). Of note, repeal of these deductions were some of the most controversial elements of the House plan. None will be repealed in the final version.

Medical expense deduction

Tax-free graduate school tuition waivers

Private activity bonds

Student loan interest deduction

Teacher spending deduction

8am – B/C     Q & A with Dr. Gorka

8am – D         INTERVIEW – ANDREW MCCARTHY – former federal prosecutor and a contributing editor at National Review.

• MCCARTHY wrote in Washington Post yesterday: “Mueller needs to make a change: As he explores possible Trump campaign collusion in Russia’s election interference, is special counsel Robert S. Mueller III running an impartial investigation?” “I am not much alarmed that several of Mueller’s staffers have anti-Trump political views. But as more evidence emerges, I have become increasingly disturbed about whether those views will taint perception of the Mueller investigation, particularly in the case of Andrew Weissmann, a key Mueller deputy... For Trump, the best outcome is that he leaves Mueller in place and is exonerated. For Mueller, the best outcome is that the public accepts the integrity of whatever decisions he makes. In that regard, I began with the belief that Mueller was a superb choice whose well-earned reputation for personal integrity would be critical. I still think so, but I’ve been shaken by his puzzling insensitivity to the imperative that his staff be, and be seen as, driven by evidence, not anti-Trump bias. Just as Mueller would not have recruited Strzok had he known of the texts, one imagines he would have passed on Weissmann had he known of his email paean to Yates. Removing Weissmann, just as Mueller removed Strzok, would be a reassuring course correction.
• Rosenstein stands by Mueller probe as Republicans fume over ‘insider bias: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stood by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe Wednesday, despite a newly unearthed trove of damning text messages and other details that Republicans said show an “insider bias” on the investigative team. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and has overseen the Russia probe since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, testified before the House Judiciary Committee — and faced a grilling from GOP lawmakers.
• Ex-Mueller aides’ texts revealed: The anti-Trump texts between two former members of Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election first surfaced after a Justice Department watchdog requested messages from the government-issued phones of several FBI employees involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation … Peter Strzok, a former deputy to the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, played a key role in the email probe, changing former FBI Director James Comey’s early draft language about Clinton’s actions from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” and conducting the FBI interview of Clinton over the July 4 weekend in 2016.

8am – E         Biden open to 2020 presidential run: “I may very well do it.” Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday suggested a possible 2020 bid for the presidency, saying he “may very well do it.” “If I were offered the nomination by the Lord Almighty right now, today, I would say no because we’re not ready, the family’s not ready to do this. If in a year from now, if we’re ready and no one has moved in that I think can do it, then I may very well do it,” Biden said on ABC’s “The View.” Speculation has swirled around a possible Biden challenge to President Trump for months. The former vice president’s latest comments mark the first time he has put a possible timeline on his consideration for running. In previous interviews, Biden has been careful not to say definitively whether he would run, but has not ruled it out.