Former Reagan Press Secretary Mark Weinberg, Weather Channel’s Ken Boone, economist Steve Moore, film critic Christian Toto, Ed Henry and guest host Dr. Sebastian Gorka joined WMAL Friday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 2, 2018

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Dr. Sebastian Gorka

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Q & A WITH DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA:

• Trump: ‘Take the guns first, go through due process second’ (The Hill) – Share to Facebook. President Trump on Wednesday voiced support for confiscating guns from certain individuals deemed to be dangerous, even if it violates due process rights. “I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence. “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.
• Trump Calls Sessions’s Handling of Surveillance Abuse Allegations ‘Disgraceful.’ WASHINGTON — The long-simmering friction between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions erupted into an extraordinary public face-off on Wednesday as the investigation into Russia’s election interference roiled the administration and raised new questions about the independence of law enforcement agencies. Mr. Trump excoriated Mr. Sessions for not ordering his own investigation into the handling of the Russia inquiry during its early months, calling his attorney general “DISGRACEFUL” in a lacerating Twitter post. Mr. Sessions, who has absorbed blows from the White House since last year mostly in silence, responded with a rare statement defending his “integrity and honor.”
• DOJ Report Expected to Rip McCabe Over Media Disclosures…  — A Justice Department review is expected to criticize the former F.B.I. deputy director, Andrew G. McCabe, for authorizing the disclosure of information about a continuing investigation to journalists, according to four people familiar with the inquiry. Such a damning report would give President Trump new ammunition to criticize Mr. McCabe, who is at the center of Mr. Trump’s theory that “deep state” actors inside the F.B.I. have been working to sabotage his presidency. But Mr. McCabe’s disclosures to the news media do not fit neatly into that assumption: They contributed to a negative article about Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration’s Justice Department — not Mr. Trump.
• HOPE HICKS RESIGNS: Hope Hicks kept a “detailed diary” about her time in the White House: report (The Hill) — One White House insider also told the website that Hicks reportedly kept a “detailed diary” detailing her interactions and time in the White House, a resource that could be a major asset for any memoir she plans to write.
• WASHINGTON POST: Hicks was exhausted, psychologically drained, “deeply shaken” by Porter situation.

5am – D         TRUMP’S STEEL TARIFFS GET MIXED REVIEWS:

• Trump says he will order tariffs on steel, aluminum imports next week. (Fox News) – President Trump announced Thursday he plans to institute tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum next week, arguing it will level the playing field for American companies and help them expand after plant closings in recent years. The president said he decided on tariffs of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum. “So steel and aluminum will see a lot of good things happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to have new jobs popping up.” He made the dramatic announcement after participating in a listening session with 15 representatives from the steel and aluminum industry. Meanwhile, stocks plunged as talk of steep tariffs on steel and aluminum spooked investors. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped as much as 500 points Thursday.
• Ryan breaks with Trump on steel tariffs: I hope he “looks at other approaches” (The Hill) – House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urged President Trump on Thursday to reconsider his plans to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports next week, joining growing GOP opposition to a policy that many fear could spark an international trade war.  The top House Republican’s comments come after Trump said he would place tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imported into the U.S. in an effort to bolster American industries against foreign competition.   “The Speaker is hoping the president will consider the unintended consequences of this idea and look at other approaches before moving forward,” Ryan spokesman Doug Andres said on Thursday. Other top GOP lawmakers and administration officials have blasted the protectionist policy as a tax hike on American workers and consumers, warning of possible repercussions in international trade.
• Larry Kudlow ‏@larry_kudlow 16h16 hours ago: Stocks down over 300 points on @realDonaldTrump announcement of 25% steel tariff and 10% on aluminum. Tariffs are taxes on users, think cars, trucks, planes, cans etc. POTUS so good on taxes & regs, so bad on trade.
• Trump’s tariff war nudges Cohn toward White House exit. (Politico) — The president’s top economic adviser lost a battle to prevent the imposition of steep tariffs pushed by protectionist advisers. Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, has been rumored to be on the brink of leaving the White House for months but stayed for one main reason: to stop the president from imposing steep tariffs. By Thursday afternoon, Cohn had lost the fight. In a meeting with steel industry executives, Trump announced plans for a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. The decision came after a frantic 24 hours in which Cohn and others tried to talk Trump off the ledge. At one point, aides were sure Trump would make the announcement. Then they said he wouldn’t. Finally, sitting alongside steel executives, he did.
• Canada says would retaliate against U.S. steel or aluminum tariffs — OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will retaliate against any U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products, officials said on Thursday, as Ottawa faced what could be one of the biggest economic threats since Donald Trump became president.  “Should restrictions be imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum products, Canada will take responsive measures to defend its trade interests and workers,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, calling any trade restrictions“absolutely unacceptable.” Canada sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States and would be vulnerable if a trade war erupted. Canada is also the largest supplier of both steel and aluminum to the United States.
• AXIOS: Trump just completely circumvented the interagency process and is executing a policy that Gary Cohn and others think is calamitous.
• China Hints At Retaliation As Trump Announces Tough Tariffs On Steel, Aluminum
• Dow sheds as much as 586 points as Trump says steel and aluminum tariffs coming next week

5am – E         HIGH WINDS CAUSING CLOSINGS:

• Nor’easter to affect us with VERY STRONG AND damaging winds.  HIGH WIND WARNING UNTIL 6AM SATURDAY
• Today|Windy with rain showers/snow showers early then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 46F. Winds NW at 35 to 50 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Winds WILL gust over 60 mph.
• FROM WMAL NEWS:
• Powerful, gusty winds this morning .. are making it hazardous to be outside. That’s why federal government offices in the Washington area are CLOSED today. The winds are bringing down power lines all across the region.  At this hour .. Dominion Electric reports over 71-thousand customers in the dark. Pepco has 21-thousand without power. BGE has 67-hundred out. Novec says about 57-hundred customers are out
• THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE DC AREA IS CLOSED
• MARC COMMUTER TRAIN SERVICE IS CANCELLED FRIDAY
• VIRGINIA RAILWAY EXPRESS SERVICE IS CANCELLED FRIDAY
• PUBLIC SCHOOLS – VIRGINIA

Alexandria City Schools – Closed

Arlington County Schools – Closed

Fairfax County Schools – Closed

Falls Church City Schools – Closed

Fredericksburg City Schools – Closed

Loudoun County Schools – Closed

Manassas City Schools – Closed

Manassas Park City Schools – Closed

Prince William County Schools – Closed

Spotsylvania County Schools – Closed

Stafford County Schools – Closed

• PUBLIC SCHOOLS – MARYLAND

Calvert County Schools – Closed

Charles County Schools – Closed

Frederick County Schools – Closed

Montgomery County Schools – Closed

Prince George’s County Schools – Closed

St. Mary’s County Schools – Closed

6am – A         Putin denies ‘new Cold War’ but says new nukes are on ‘combat duty’ (EuroNews) —  In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Megyn Kelly, Russian President Vladimir Putin denies a “new Cold War,” but claims new weapons system tests were “successful.”  The new weapons announced by Russia are so advanced that the money U.S. taxpayers have spent on missile defenses “has been thrown out into the wind,” President Vladimir Putin told NBC News on Thursday. The remarks came after Putin said in his annual state of the nation address that Russia had developed new nuclear-capable weapons, including a nuclear-powered intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that renders defense systems “useless”. Skeptics objected that because Moscow presented no video of a successful test of the new missile, Putin’s claim that Russia has deployed a working nuclear-powered ICBM can’t be verified. And in an interview in Moscow with Megyn Kelly, host of NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today,” Putin refused to answer directly when pressed about whether the ICBM had, in fact, flown a successful test. “Every single weapons system that I have discussed today easily surpasses and avoids a missile defense system,” Putin said. But “some of them still have to be fine-tuned and worked on. Others are already available to the troops and battle-ready.”

6am – B         CONDOLEZZA RICE ON TV YESTERDAY:

• ON MSNBC, Nicolle Wallace Gets Shut Down by Condoleezza Rice for Implying Trump Is Racist
• ON THE VIEW: Condi Rice to Schiff: Time to finish Russia probe
• ON THE VIEW: Condi Rice defends gun rights on ‘The View’; says ‘Bull’ Connor would have ’rounded up’ blacks’ guns

6am – C         Panda watch is on again in D.C.! Mei Xiang has been artificially inseminated (NBC DC) — Panda watch is on again in Washington, D.C. A team of veterinarians, reproductive scientists and zookeepers at the Smithsonian National Zoo artificially inseminated giant panda Mei Xiang on Thursday. The zoo has been watching Mei Xiang’s behavior closely since she started showing behavioral changes on Feb. 17 that indicated she was almost ready to breed. Female pandas only have a short window of time, about 24 to 72 hours, each year that they are able to become pregnant. Since the window when a giant panda can conceive a cub is so short, the Zoo’s panda team immediately moved to perform an artificial insemination on Mei Xiang, the zoo said in a statement. They artificially inseminated her using fresh and frozen semen from Tian Tian for the procedures. Several months will pass before the panda team will know if the artificial inseminations were successful. Giant panda pregnancies and pseudopregnancies generally last between three and six months.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – MARK WEINBERG – former Reagan Press Secretary and author of new book “Movie Nights with the Reagans”

• BIO: MARK WEINBERG is a former spokesman, advisor, and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. He served on the 1980 Reagan campaign, all eight years on the Reagan White House staff, and two years thereafter as Director of Public Affairs in the office of former President Ronald Reagan. He currently works as a communications consultant in the private sector. Weinberg and his wife live in the New York City area with their two children.
• This Sunday marks the 90th Academy Awards ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.  In January, former Reagan press secretary Mark Weinberg started a campaign that started with an online petition to get President Reagan an honorary Oscar. This week – just ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday, Weinberg released his brand new book from Simon & Schuster: Movie Nights with the Reagans: A Memoir.  In the book, Mark recalls the time where President Reagan expressed to him feeling snubbed by Hollywood.
• Former special advisor and press secretary to President Ronald Reagan shares an intimate, behind-the-scenes look inside the Reagan presidency—told through the movies they watched together every week at Camp David. What did President Ronald Reagan think of Rocky IV? How did the Matthew Broderick film WarGames inform America’s missile defense system? What Michael J. Fox movie made such an impression on President Reagan that he felt compelled to mention it in a speech to the Joint Session of Congress?
• “Perhaps that accounts for the rare expression of regret I heard Reagan make after he left the White House, when I was working with him at his post-presidency office in Los Angeles.  Having come home to Tinseltown, he was disappointed that the movie community never recognized the only member of its ranks to reach the highest office in the land.  “You would think,” he told me, “that after what I’ve done, being the only one from the profession to do so, they would commemorate it in some way.”  He had great affection for what he called “the motion picture business” and was hurt that that affection wasn’t returned. “

6am – E         ‘March For Our Lives’ gun-control rally bumped from Mall by ‘talent show’ (Washington Post) — A planned rally against mass shootings can’t be held on the Mall later this month because it conflicts with what’s described in a National Park Service permit application as a “talent show.” A permit application filed last week by survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school massacre indicated the “March For Our Lives” rally will be on March 24, with up to 500,000 attendees expected.  Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the Park Service, said organizers proposed holding the event on the Mall but were looking to move the rally to another location after the request conflicted with a film crew’s permit. Litterst said the film permit was “from a student group at a local educational institution,” but he wouldn’t name the institution because “applications from educational institutions are withheld from release for privacy reasons,” he wrote in an email. A redacted Park Service permit application this week given to The Washington Post showed the application is for a “student project” related to “filming for a talent show.” “Student project (non-commercial) of [redacted] by Publicity Dept.,” the document appeared to read. “Filming for a talent show called [redacted]. Takes a day to finish. Games will be the main activity for filming.”

6am – F         INTERVIEW – KEN BOONE – Weather Channel – shared the latest on the high winds in the D.C. area.

7am – A          YOUTUBE CENSORSHIP AND POLITICS:

• YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says. (WSJ)  — A former employee alleges tech firm set quotas for hiring minorities.  YouTube last year stopped hiring white and Asian males for technical positions because they didn’t help the world’s largest video site achieve its goals for improving diversity, according to a civil lawsuit filed by a former employee.
• YouTube’s New Moderators Mistakenly Pull Right-Wing Channels. (Bloomberg) — Video site’s human screening stumbles in a major early test.     Episode shows challenge of spotting and removing content. YouTube’s new moderators, brought in to spot fake, misleading and extreme videos, stumbled in one of their first major tests, mistakenly removing some clips and channels in the midst of a nationwide debate on gun control. The Google division said in December it would assign more than 10,000 people to moderate content after a year of scandals over fake and inappropriate content on the world’s largest video site. In the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, some YouTube moderators mistakenly removed several videos and some channels from right-wing, pro-gun video producers and outlets.  Some YouTube channels recently complained about their accounts being pulled entirely. On Wednesday, the Outline highlighted accounts, including Titus Frost, that were banned from the video site. Frost tweeted on Wednesday that a survivor of the shooting, David Hogg, is an actor. Jerome Corsi of right-wing conspiracy website Infowars said on Tuesday that YouTube had taken down one of his videos and disabled his live stream. Shutting entire channels would have marked a sweeping policy change for YouTube, which typically only removes channels in extreme circumstances and focuses most disciplinary action on specific videos. But YouTube said some content was taken down by mistake. The site didn’t address specific cases and it’s unclear if it meant to take action on the accounts of Frost and Corsi.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Economist at The Heritage Foundation and served as an economic adviser to the Trump campaign – discussed his thoughts on President Trump’s plan to order tariffs on steel, aluminum imports next week.

7am – D/E/F  Think rush-hour, peak-direction tolls on I-66 are bad? How about tolling drivers going both directions? (Washington Post) — Tolls as high as $47.25 one way on the new 66 Express Lanes have outraged commuters and captured national headlines in recent weeks. Now, some Virginia lawmakers want to take the program a step further — literally, across the highway median — and toll drivers going against rush-hour traffic. The toll system between the Capital Beltway and the District line is in effect only during rush hour and in the peak direction lanes: eastbound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon. Some lawmakers say tolling only those commuters traveling in the peak-direction lanes isn’t fair, so they want tolling on both sides of the road. “If you are going in town, you pay that $47 toll sometimes. And when you go home at night, you pay a toll again. But if you live in Arlington, D.C. or Maryland, and you are going to Tysons Corner or west, you pay no toll in the morning and you get a free ride home,” Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax), chairman of the state House Republican Caucus, said Thursday on the House floor, urging his colleagues to support a measure requiring the change. “We will even it out by getting some people in Arlington to pick up the freight,” Hugo said. Del. Marcus B. Simon (D-Fairfax) said tolling traffic in the non-rush-hour lanes would be a tough sell to road users because there are no existing restrictions in the lanes, such as high-occupancy requirements like those that existed in the peak-direction lanes before tolling launched. “Enough is enough,” Simon said. “We pay high enough tolls in the peak direction. Let’s not add these enormous tolls to folks driving the other way to stop using a road they can already use for free.” Del. Danica Roem (D-Prince William), who opposes tolling, said she has received many complaints since the toll system launched Dec. 4. Implementing reverse-commute tolling would ignite more outrage and problems, she said. “That is going to cause more bailout traffic to our secondary roads. It is going to cost more bailout traffic to people who simply do not want to have to pay another toll on I-66,” she said.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – CHRISTIAN TOTO – Film Critic, HollywoodInToto.com and Host of “The Hollywood in Toto” podcast  (available on iTunes) – previewed the Oscars this Sunday.

8am – B/C     Q & A WITH DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA

8am – D         INTERVIEW – ED HENRY – chief national correspondent for Fox News Channel

• NRA meeting at the White House last night
• Opioids summit at White House – AG Sessions was there
• Trump getting pushback on tariffs

8am – E         TRUMP TWEETS: Donald Trump slams Alec Baldwin after he said portraying the president was ‘agony’ (Washington Times) — President Trump slammed actor Alec Baldwin on Friday for his portrayal of the commander in chief on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” “Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!” Mr. Trump tweeted.