Noah Pollak, Philip Wegmann, Chris Ferguson, Chuck Thies, and Larry Kudlow joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Do Video Games Contribute To Violence?

• White House: Trump to Hold Meeting With Video Game Industry on Thursday (Variety) — President Donald Trump will meet on Thursday with leaders of the video game industry to talk about gun violence, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. No announcement was made about who would be attending the meeting. A spokesman for the the Entertainment Software Association, which represents major video game makers, said that they will attend, but they rejected the notion that their titles contribute to real-life mayhem.
• Trump is wrong about video games and violence (Yahoo) — President Donald Trump is expected to speak with members of the video game industry this week to discuss the medium’s relationship to the kind of violence that occurred when Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. But such a meeting is likely nothing more than a politically motivated waste of time, according to psychologists.

5am – D         Study: Young Adults Spend More than Six Hours a Day Feeling ‘Stressed Out’ (Breitbart) — A new mental health study reveals that young people spend more than six hours each day feeling “stressed out.” A survey of 1,000 18 to 25-year-olds revealed that young adults spend a significant portion of their average day stressed or anxious about money, their appearance, or their career. 67 percent said that they have come across problems and have had no one to lean on for help. 56 percent of respondents said that the lack of a support system only served to heighten the severity of their problems. The study was conducted by the British charity UK Youth.  “It’s concerning to see just how long young people spend feeling worried or stressed and how many of them have to go through these issues alone, without anyone to turn to for advice and guidance,” a spokesperson for UK Youth said. “Despite living in our ever-connected world, young people need safe spaces more than ever.”

5am – E         U.S. – Israel Relationship

• THE DONALD & BIBI HANG OUT AT THE WH (Daily Mail) — President Donald Trump says he ‘may’ attend the May opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. Trump said he was looking at coming, if he can, in a meeting Monday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• NETANYAHU PRAISES TRUMP’S DECISION TO MOVE THE EMBASSY (Daily Caller) — The President of Israel went further, lumping Trump’s decision to recognize the Israeli capitol among some of the greatest liberation heroes in the history of Israel. Bibi compared Trump the Persian King Cyrus, who liberated the Jews from slavery, Lord Balfour, who first recognized the Jewish right to a homeland and President Harry S. Truman who recognized the Jewish state.

6am – A/B/C Former Trump Aide Sam Nunberg gives numerous crazy interviews about not cooperating with subpoena by Mueller investigation:

• Ex-aide Sam Nunberg backs away from vow to fight Mueller subpoena (NBC News) — After a day spent belligerently defying special counsel Robert Mueller, former Donald Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg appeared to reverse himself Monday night and said he likely will cooperate with a subpoena seeking campaign documents related to the Russia investigation. Nunberg helped Trump prepare for the first Republican presidential primary debate in August 2015 along with the man he has described as his mentor, veteran Republican operative Roger Stone. He made a bravado tour of television talk shows Monday declaring he wouldn’t cooperate with the subpoena. “The president’s right, it’s a witch hunt,” Nunberg told MSNBC’s Katy’s Tur. But Monday night, Nunberg, who said he still hadn’t talked with his attorney, told NBC News that he would probably cooperate with Mueller in the end. He said he objected to the subpoena because it asks for information about people whom he either never talked to or with whom he had close relationships.

• Keep in mind that Sam Nunberg is kind of crazy (Washington Examiner) — Sam Nunberg is currently cold calling cable news stations, spewing what can best be described as verbal diarrhea with a Brooklyn accent. The disgraced former Trump aide is of note because he refuses to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller. He plans, according to bizarre interviews he gave on MSNBC and CNN, to just “let him arrest me.” He also claims, at different times, that Trump “did something” but also that Trump is the victim of “a witch hunt.” All of this, of course, is excellent awful television.

6am – D/E/F  Montgomery County considering bill to ban panhandling at medians (Washington Examiner) — There is a push in Montgomery County to put an end to panhandling at medians. Some people support the idea while others say it will create more problems than solutions. Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice has sponsored a bill that would not only make soliciting from medians and roadways illegal, but also require first offenders to be educated on the new law and the dangers of panhandling. Repeat offenders would be fined. Montgomery County police said four years ago, panhandling was illegal. Since the county did away with the law, two people have been killed. “Mr. Rice’s law is just trying to restore the balance,” said Montgomery County Police Capt. Thomas Didone. “People can solicit from the sidewalks where it is safe, where pedestrians are supposed to be, but not on the center median or in the roadway.” “The affordable housing resources coupled with this type of initiative is key and Councilmembers Rice, [Roger] Berliner, [George] Leventhal and [Marc] Elrich have been supportive of that,” said John Mendez of Bethesda Cares, an outreach group that helps people avoid homelessness. “Most affordable housing initiatives that we have had in Montgomery County, we want the other council members to take note of that example.”   

7am – A          INTERVIEW – NOAH POLLAK – Weekly Standard – discussed AIPAC, the new U.S. – Israel relationship, and the developments related to President Trump’s decision to move the Embassy to Jerusalem.

7am – B         Oscars News:

• TV Ratings: Oscars Drop to All-Time Low 26.5 Million Viewers (The Hollywood Reporter) — The telecast stumbles an unfortunate 19 percent from 2017. A comparatively uneventful Oscar telecast led the way on TV Sunday night — though updated numbers have the telecast somewhat predictably stumbling to an all-time low. The kudocast, nearly four hours long, stumbled 19 percent from the previous year to 26.5 million viewers. That’s easily the least-watched Oscars in history, trailing 2008 by more than 5 million. Overnight returns had the lengthy ABC broadcast averaging a 18.9 rating among households between 8 and 11 p.m. ET. Compared to the same stat for 2017, the night the wrong best picture winner was named, that was down a more modest 16 percent.
• Frances McDormand’s Oscar stolen, suspect arrested for grand theft (ABC News) — Best actress winner Frances McDormand has been reunited with her Oscar after it was stolen from her table inside the Governors Ball, the official Oscars after-party. The “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” actress was spotted at the party getting her Oscar engraved. The 60-year-old star realized later that it had gone missing. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to ABC News that Terrence “Terry” Bryant Jr., 47, was arrested late Sunday night for the alleged crime, and booked early Monday morning. He was charged with grand theft and police set a bail of $20,000.

7am – C         BROOKLYN BBQ OUTRAGE: Twitter Users Find Bipartisan Consensus Decimating Claim ‘Brooklyn BBQ Is Taking Over the World’ (Washington Free Beacon) — Social media users were not kind to a claim by a Vice News-affiliated food website that barbecue from Brooklyn was “taking over the world.” The controversy first arose on Sunday when the website tweeted an article denoting the culinary influences that Brooklyn has made to the world of barbecue. The author, Nicholas Gill, attempts to understand why the barbecue style created and adapted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is spreading to remote areas of the globe, while the more fabled variations from the southern United States have not. “The barbecue being assimilated in places like Colombia, Spain, Panama, Sweden, England, and Japan (and even other parts of the US) is not the killer ‘cue from fabled Texas BBQ cities like Lockhart or Austin. Or even the pork-centric versions with sauce in the southeast,” Gill wrote. “It’s an adapted form of Southern barbecue from Brooklyn. And it all looks like it came straight out of Williamsburg”

Ted Cruz @tedcruz

Bless your hearts.

Rep. Mark Meadows @RepMarkMeadows

Fake news

7am – D         INTERVIEW – PHILIP WEGMANN – Washington Examiner – discussed Sam Nunberg’s bizarre interviews where he refused to comply with a subpoena from the Mueller investigation

7am – E         More discussion about Sam Nunberg interviews

8am – A         INTERVIEW – CHRIS FERGUSON – Stetson University psychology professor and expert on video game violence – discussed whether there is a link between violent video games and real life violence and President Trump’s upcoming meeting with leaders of the video game industry.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – CHUCK THIES – – political strategist and former Mayor Vincent Gray campaign manager and close friend/adviser to Gray – discussed the revelation that ousted DCPS Chancellor Antwon Wilson says Mayor Bowser knew about the this daughter’s school transfer, despite denials.

• D.C. mayor called her ousted school chancellor’s action ‘indefensible.’ He says she knew about it for months. (Washington Post) — Former D.C. Public Schools chancellor Antwan Wilson said he told Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) that he had transferred his daughter to one of the city’s most desirable high schools in October, four months before Bowser forced Wilson to resign when news of the transfer became ­public. Wilson’s account is at odds with statements by the mayor and her top aides that they didn’t know his daughter had been given a coveted seat at Woodrow Wilson High School, a campus in Northwest Washington with a waiting list of more than 600 students. That transfer bypassed the lottery used to award scarce seats in the District’s top public schools and violated a policy that bans preferential treatment for the children of government ­officials.
• Washington Post: D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large), who chairs the education committee, said Monday he will hold a hearing into the circumstances around the school transfer and ask the mayor, Wilson and Niles to testify under oath. Council committees can subpoena witnesses who refuse to appear voluntarily. “We will be looking to get to the bottom of this,” Grosso said. “I feel like it’s time for us to have a public conversation, under oath, about what happened.” The mayor has repeatedly said she first learned of the transfer on Feb. 12, when D.C. Inspector General Daniel W. Lucas informed her that he was looking into the circumstances surrounding the placement of the chancellor’s daughter at Wilson High.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm and author of “JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity” @larry_kudlow

• Kudlow: Mr. President, tariffs are really tax hikes.
• Speaker Ryan presses Trump to pull back on tariffs
• Trump: ‘We’re not backing down’ on steel tariffs.
• Gary Cohn’s anti-tariffs mtg Thursday will include leaders from automakers, breweries, beverage can manufacturers, the oil industry. John Kelly will attend, as well as Commerce Sec Wilbur Ross, Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer and adviser Peter Navarro.

8am – E         Gun News:

• Florida lawmakers approve bill to restrict rifle sales, allow some teachers to carry guns (CBS News) — In response to a deadly Florida school shooting last month, the state’s Senate narrowly passed a bill Monday that would create new restrictions on rifle sales and allow some teachers to carry guns in schools. The 20-18 vote came after three hours of often emotional debate. Support and opposition crossed party lines, and it was clear many of those who voted for the bill weren’t entirely happy with it. “Do I think this bill goes far enough? No! No, I don’t!” said Democratic Sen. Lauren Book, who tearfully described visiting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after 17 people were fatally shot on Valentine’s Day. She also would have liked a ban on assault-style rifles, like many of the students who traveled to the state capital to ask lawmakers to go even further to stop future mass shootings. But Book said she couldn’t let the legislative session end Friday without doing something.
• 20-year-old sues Dick’s, Walmart over new gun policies. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — An Oregon man filed suits Monday claiming Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart discriminated against the 20-year-old when they refused to sell him a rifle. Dick’s and Walmart restricted gun sales to adults 21 and older in the wake of the Florida high school massacre. The 19-year-old accused in the school slaying bought the AR-15 used in the attack legally. Oregon law allows residents to buy shotguns or rifles starting at age 18. Tyler Watson’s lawsuits filed against the retailers in two separate counties claim he faced age discrimination from Dick’s and Walmart, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The lawsuit is believed to be the first filed over the new gun policies enacted on Feb. 28. The lawsuit claims a store owned by Dick’s Sporting Goods in Medford, Oregon, refused to sell Watson .22-caliber Ruger rifle on Feb. 24. The suit says Grants Pass Walmart in Oregon refused to sell him a gun on March 3. It’s not clear if Watson knew at that point of the restrictions.