Red Maryland’s Greg Kline, Rep. Andy Harris, The Hill’s Joe Concha and The Daily Caller’s Luke Rosiak joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C   FAKE NEWS AWARDS:

• President Trump finally reveals winners of his ‘Fake News Awards’
• Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump And the FAKE NEWS winners are…
• CNN won 4 out of 11 “Fake News Awards”
• Trump names NY Times, CNN, Washington Post “winners” of “Fake News Awards”

5am – D         Latest on the looming shutdown and DACA:

• Freedom Caucus chair: GOP leaders don’t have votes to avoid shutdown. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said late Tuesday night that House GOP leadership did not have the votes to pass a government funding bill. “There is currently not enough support for the latest leadership initiative,” Meadows told The Hill. “We continue to work with them to find a way to reach consensus on a path forward.”
• Freedom Caucus demands vote on tough border bill in exchange for supporting bill to avoid shutdown (The Hill) — Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are making an eleventh-hour bid to get a floor vote on a conservative immigration bill in exchange for their support on a short-term spending bill, as GOP leaders scramble to secure Republican votes for their proposal to avoid a government shutdown Friday. While Republican leaders sounded fairly confident Wednesday morning that they would have enough GOP support to pass the continuing resolution (CR), they have little room for error, as Democrats are vowing to oppose any spending bill that doesn’t include relief for immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his top lieutenants are threading a very thin needle as they try to build support among frustrated defense hawks and conservatives for the fourth temporary funding patch since September. And the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly 30 conservative hard-liners, has enough members to defeat legislation if they band together. Leadership can only afford to lose 21 Republican votes, according to the Majority Whip’s office.
• John Kelly on Congress averting a government shutdown: “As I understand it, they have the votes”

5am – E         MARYLAND GOVERNOR RACE:

• For all those Democrats running for Md. governor, Wednesday was a day of reckoning. Here’s our first look at confirmed fundraising in the Maryland governor’s race. (Washington Post) — Candidates in Maryland’s crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary on Wednesday began filing their first campaign finance reports of 2018, an early window into their viability to unseat popular and well-financed Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
• The first gubernatorial hopeful to file a report, which includes names of donors and individual contribution amounts, was technology entrepreneur Alec Ross. The first-time candidate has lagged in early polls, but raised $1 million last year with the help of fellow techies. He has $445,000 on hand.
• State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (Montgomery) raised $440,000 in the last year, including a $120,000 loan to himself. He had about $193,000 available, according to his filing, but even more in debt including the loan.
• Krishanti Vignarajah, a former aide to Michelle Obama and the only woman in the race, said she raised $435,000 since entering the race in September, including a $100,000 personal loan to herself, and has about as much on hand after spending little.  Finance reports for the other candidates are due by midnight.
• Hogan and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) raised $5.4 million in the last year and have accumulated a $9 million war chest, according to an internal campaign memo obtained by news organizations Tuesday.
• James Shea, an attorney and longtime Democratic fundraiser and behind-the-scenes player making his first run for office, appears to at the front of the Democratic fundraising pack so far. His campaign said he raised $2 million in 2017 and had $1.34 million as of last week. It’s unclear how much of the haul was loans to himself.
• Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced he raised $1 million in the past year, which combined with earlier fundraising left him with more than $2 million on hand. That’s more than any other Democratic candidate had available heading into 2018.
• Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, who has led in early polls, also announced he raised $1 million in his first year with nearly $700,000 on hand.
• Former NAACP president Ben Jealous, a favorite of national progressive groups, and his running mate Susan Turnbull, say they raised $1.5 million with $643,000 cash on hand.

6am – A         BANNON NEWS:

• The White House believed it had an agreement with the House Intelligence Committee to limit questions for Steve Bannon only to events on the presidential campaign, and not during the ousted former chief strategist’s time in the Trump administration, an official told CNBC. According to the White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, staffers for the committee and the White House on Friday discussed the parameters of Bannon’s testimony. The White House emerged from that conversation believing it had an agreement to limit the questioning of Bannon just to events during the campaign, and not during the transition period or his time in the White House.
• BANNON’S LAWYER COMMUNICATED W/WH DURING BANNON TESTIMONY. A lawyer for Steve Bannon communicated with the White House in real time as the former chief strategist to the president was grilled on Tuesday by a congressional panel.
• Steve Bannon made one conspicuous slip up in his closed-door hearing on Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the confidential proceedings. Bannon admitted that he’d had conversations with Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and legal spokesman Mark Corallo about Don Junior’s infamous meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower in June 2016.
• Trey Gowdy slams Steve Bannon for helping people write books, but dodging House questions
• Did the WH tell Steve Bannon to invoke executive privilege in House Intel hearing? “No,” Chief of Staff John Kelly says on Fox News.
• Press Sec. Sanders rebuts allegations that Steve Bannon relayed questions during his House interview to the White House, saying it was “following standard procedure.”

6am – B         CORY BOOKER’S MANSPLAINING:

• RNC: Dems silent after Cory Booker’s “mansplaining” to DHS chief. The Republican National Committee on Wednesday said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., got away with “mansplaining” to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during a Tuesday hearing, in a way that would have prompted attacks from Democrats if Booker were a Republican and Nielsen were a Democrat. “Picture it,” RNC rapid response director Michael Ahrens wrote in a blog post. “A male Republican senator spends his entire 10 minutes ‘mansplaining’ the female DHS secretary about immigration policy, throws around the term ‘conscientious stupidity,’ yells at her the only time she tries to speak, and concludes his diatribe without even asking her to respond.” “There’d be so many triggered Democrats that there’d be a hashtag within minutes, campus protests across the country, and the topic-du-jour for celebrities at Hollywood’s next award show,” he added. Booker blew up at Nielsen after she said she never heard President Trump say some countries in Africa and elsewhere are “shithole” countries. Booker and other Democrats have said Trump’s remarks was racist, and said he cried “tears of rage” after hearing about the comment. Booker accused Nielsen of covering up for Trump at the hearing. “When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power, it’s a dangerous force in our country. Your silence and your amnesia is complicity,” Booker said.
• Sen. Cory Booker responds to RNC claims that he was “mansplaining” the DHS secretary: “It’s a little insulting to say that I should be treating Cabinet secretaries one way or another depending upon their gender”

• Booker Defends Himself After Badgering DHS Secretary: ‘My Behavior Was on Point’ ‘I will fight against bigotry, racism, homophobia wherever I see it’

6am – C         NORTH KOREA:

• Trump: Clinton, Bush and Obama left North Korea to me because I score “the highest on tests” (Washington Examiner) — President Trump on Wednesday boasted that he had the mental acuity to resolve escalating tensions with North Korea and succeed where his immediate predecessors had failed. “I guess they all realized they were going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests,” Trump told Reuters, referring to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Trump’s crowing comes one day after White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson announced the president scored 30/30 on a cognitive assessment examination taken during a check-up. Trump also told Reuters Russia’s work with the North Koreans had effectively erased some of the leverage gained by China’s refusal to collaborate with them.
• Trump: “Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea” President Trump said Russia’s work with the North Koreans has effectively erased some of the leverage gained by China’s refusal to work with them. “Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea,” Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing.”
• Russia rejects Trump allegation it violating UN sanctions on N.Korea. MOSCOW – Moscow regards an allegation by US President Donald Trump that it is in breach of UN sanctions on North Korea as absolutely groundless, the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source at the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying on Thursday. Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that Russia was helping North Korea evade international sanctions and was probably helping supply Pyongyang with anything that China had stopped giving it.
• North, South Korea to march together under one flag at Winter Olympics. Seoul (CNN)North and South Korean athletes will march together at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony under a unified flag, the South said Wednesday, in a diplomatic breakthrough following days of talks between the two countries. The nations have also agreed to form a joint North and South Korean women’s ice hockey team for the Games in Pyeongchang, which begin early next month, South Korea’s unification ministry said. The unification ministry announced a range of joint activities between the countries for the Games, following talks Wednesday at the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

6am – D/E     JEFF FLAKE COMPARES TRUMP TO STALIN:

• Republican Senator Jeff Flake compares Trump’s treatment of the press to that of Stalin
• Flake: “Despotism is the enemy of the people. The free press is the despot’s enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy.”
• TUCKER CARLSON: Flake compared trump’s criticism to the soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, one of history’s most prolific mass murderers. Barking at Jim Acosta during a press conference is like building death camps or staging a famine in Ukraine. No one accused Jeff Flake of being a genius.”
• Press Sec. Sanders responds to Sen. Flake criticism of Pres. Trump: “We welcome access to the media every day,” and saying White House is anything but open to the press is “utterly ridiculous.”
• W.H. Deputy Press Sec. Rejects Flake’s Anti-Trump Speech: ‘Disappointing,’ ‘Bordering on Outrageous’ / ‘In a country that is totalitarian, somebody who is opposing the president couldn’t write a book, couldn’t go on a media tour, and certainly couldn’t sit on the Senate floor and attack the President of the United States’
• John Kelly Slams Jeff Flake for Anti-Trump Speech: ‘I Think It’s Beneath Him’

6am – F         Local School District Apologizes for Canceling Classes Late Today; Others Running Out of Snow Days. WASHINGTON (WMAL) — The Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools today released a letter apologizing for the late announcement of closing schools. “I regret that today we were not able to make this decision earlier,” superintendent Jack Smith writes. Smith wasn’t the only one addressing the snow day calls today. Anne Arundel County Public Schools tweeted that they only have one more snow day built into their calendar, and will request a waiver to open on Easter Monday if more are needed.

Montgomery County and Prince George’s Co. out of snow days following school closings. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — Several school systems in Maryland were forced to close due to snow in the area. With the closings, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County are now out of snow days. If Montgomery County Public Schools have another snow day, the school year will be extended to June 13. In Prince George’s County, the calendar budgeted two snow days and Wednesday is the third one taken. This means February 9, which is a scheduled off day, will now be a regular school day.

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 – discussed the Maryland gubernatorial race, Gov. Hogan’s budget and Chelsea Manning jumping into the Senate race.

• MARYLAND GOVERNOR RACE: For all those Democrats running for Md. governor, Wednesday was a day of reckoning
• Md. Gov. Hogan releases state budget plan amid fight for minimum wage raises in state ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is unveiling his new $17 billion dollar state budget — which says has no new taxes and no gimmicks. The Republican governor is already facing an increasingly combative Democrat-majority General Assembly. Democrats have proposed to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour and could again be a point of contention between lawmakers and the governor. This minimum wage fight has already played out locally in both Montgomery County and D.C., which just passed laws gradually hiking the minimum hourly wage to $15 in 2020.
• How a defiant Chelsea Manning could upend the race for U.S. Senate in Maryland (Washington Post) — In her first utterances as a U.S. Senate candidate, Chelsea Manning declares war on establishment politicians, proclaiming, “We don’t need them anymore” in a video that includes clips of white supremacists, police assaulting protesters and grinning congressional leaders meeting with President Trump. The transgender former Army private convicted of passing classified government documents to WikiLeaks is challenging Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, a two-term senator and the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her candidacy brings drama to an otherwise staid primary and gives Republicans an opportunity to stoke divisions among Democrats. But analysts say Manning’s maverick approach may not play well in Maryland, a progressive but establishment state that is home to the National Security Agency and went for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders by a large margin in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

7am – B/C     Latest on the government shutdown

7am – D         INTERVIEW – CONGRESSMAN ANDY HARRIS – (R-MD) – U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 1st congressional district since 2011 and a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus – discussed the latest on the looming shutdown and DACA.

• Freedom Caucus chair: GOP leaders don’t have votes to avoid shutdown.
• Freedom Caucus demands vote on tough border bill in exchange for supporting bill to avoid shutdown

7am – E         GIRTHERS AND MORE SKEPTICISM OF TRUMP’S HEALTH:

• First question to Sanders today questions the credibility of Dr. Jackson’s medical report on POTUS
• White House Slaps Down Trump Health Conspiracy Theorists
• ‘View’ Questions ‘Alleged’ Health Report

• Exercise? I get more than people think, Trump says “I get exercise. I mean I walk, I this, I that,” Trump, 71, said during an Oval Office interview. “I run over to a building next door. I get more exercise than people think.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter, The Hill — discussed the Fake News Awards and the media hysteria over the president’s medical records.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – LUKE ROSIAK – Investigative reporter, The Daily Caller News Foundation

• House Report Concluded Pakistanis Made ‘Unauthorized Access’ To Congressional Servers. House investigators concluded that Democratic IT aides made unauthorized access to congressional servers in 2016, allegedly accessing the data of members for whom they did not work, logging in as members of Congress themselves, and covering their tracks, according to a presentation summarizing the findings of a four-month internal probe.

8am – D         Michael Wolff’s ‘Fire and Fury’ to Become TV Series (Hollywood Reporter) — Endeavor Content has purchased rights to the best-selling exposé of the Trump White House and plans to adapt it for the small screen. Michael Wolff’s controversial Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is coming to television.

Endeavor Content — the financing and sales arm formed in October between sister companies William Morris Endeavor and IMG — has purchased film and television rights to the No. 1 best-selling book.  The massive deal is said to be in the seven-figure range. Endeavor Content plans to adapt the book as a TV series. A network is not yet attached, as Endeavor will now begin shopping the project. Wolff will executive produce the series, with veteran Channel 4 and BBC executive Michael Jackson — now CEO of indie producer Two Cities Television — also on board to produce.

8am – E         CORY BOOKER’S MANSPLAINING:

• RNC: Dems silent after Cory Booker’s “mansplaining” to DHS chief
• Sen. Cory Booker responds to RNC claims that he was “mansplaining” the DHS secretary
• Ben Shapiro ‏@benshapiro: Welcome to the hell you’ve created. Take a seat. It’s nice and warm.