Kerry Picket, Katie Phang, Susan Ferrechio, Matthew Post, and RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, March 26, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes Tell-All Interview: Did The Interview Help Or Hurt President Trump?

• Stormy Daniels describes her alleged affair with Donald Trump (CBS News) — A week and a half before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s personal attorney paid a porn star named Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with the Republican candidate for president. Today, that arrangement is well on its way to becoming the most talked-about “hush agreement” in history, with potential legal and political implications for the president. Through his spokesman, Mr. Trump has denied having an affair with Stormy Daniels, and his lawyers are now threatening her with financial ruin, saying she has to pay $1 million dollars every time she violates her agreement to stay silent. But that didn’t stop her from coming on 60 Minutes.

5am – D         Trump Will Not Hire These Lawyers In Russia Probe (Daily Caller) — President Donald Trump decided to not hire Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing to represent him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 president election, The New York Times reported. “The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team,” Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal lawyer, told The New York Times in a statement Sunday. “However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.” John Dowd — the president’s lead lawyer in the Mueller probe — resigned Thursday. Dowd reportedly disagreed with the president as to whether or not Trump should sit down with Mueller for an interview. Dowd thought it would be best for the president to avoid such a meeting, but the president is increasingly interested in engaging with Mueller. Trump hired Joe diGenova, former United States attorney for the District of Columbia and frequent Fox News guest, to serve on his personal legal team last week before Dowd resigned. Trump is not necessarily looking into hiring additional legal representation for fear it will slow down the probe and reiterated he is not concerned with the investigation because there is “NO COLLUSION with Russia,” the president said early Sunday morning. Trump reportedly met with diGenova and Toensing in the past few days to discuss the possibility of joining his legal team in the Russia probe; but after the meetings, the president did not feel the pair would be the best fit.

5am – E         Trump On Omnibus Spending Bill

• Trump calls $1.3 trillion spending bill a ‘ridiculous situation’ (Politico) — President Donald Trump assailed a $1.3 trillion government funding bill even as he announced his decision to sign it Friday “as a matter of national security.” “There are a lot of things that I’m unhappy about in this bill,” he said, after announcing he signed it into law. “There are a lot of things that we shouldn’t have had in this bill.” Trump said he swallowed his objections to the bill because of its funding for national defense and the military. But he said the bill included many provisions demanded by lawmakers in exchange for the uptick in military funding that he would prefer be eliminated. Trump urged the Senate to eliminate its filibuster, which requires a supermajority of 60 votes to pass most bills. But there is little appetite among senators of either party to adopt such a rules change. Trump also demanded a line-item veto to allow him to axe specific provisions of bills he dislikes, even though the Supreme Court ruled that line-item vetoes are unconstitutional
• President Trump said ‘f— that’ to aides who warned him about backlash if he vetoed spending bill (Washington Examiner) — As President Trump threatened to veto the massive spending bill earlier on Friday, he brushed off warnings from aides that he might be blamed for a government shutdown as he headed to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “Fuck that,” Trump said in response to aides that cautioned him, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump ended up signing the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill Friday afternoon, although he vocalized his dissatisfaction with the price tag and said he would “never sign another bill like this again.”  “My highest duty is to keep America safe,” Trump said. “Therefore, as a matter of national security, I’ve signed this omnibus bill.” “There are a lot of things I’m not happy about in this bill. There are a lot of things we should not have had in this bill,” he said. Even so, the spending bill includes $1.6 billion to jump-start building Trump’s long-discussed border wall.

6am – A/B/C Highlights From The March For Our Lives

6am – D         INTERVIEW — KERRY PICKET — Daily Caller reporter & NRA TV contributor – was at the March and wrote piece on how crowd size wasn’t as big as reported – discussed the size of the crowd at this weekend’s March for our lives gun control rally and the media’s wild exaggerations of it

• Report: March For Our Lives Crowd Count Well Below Expected And Initial Reports (Daily Caller) — Around 200,000 people attended the March For Our Lives gun control event in Washington, D.C. Saturday afternoon, CBS News reported. The number is well below the 500,000 number organizers of the event expected and 600,000 less than initially reported by many news outlets immediately following the celebrity-fueled march and rally. The march took place between noon and 3 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd Street NW and 12th Street NW. USA Today said Saturday the initially reported number of 800,000 marchers could “be the biggest single-day protest in D.C.’s history,” becoming a number that is larger than the 2017 Women’s March that brought 500,000 to the capitol

6am – E         ’He fell a hero: French praise policeman in hostage swap (AP News) — The French police officer who swapped places with a female supermarket employee being held hostage had already received a lifetime of accolades by the time he walked unarmed into the store under attack by an extremist gunman. Known for his courage and sang-froid, Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame was acclaimed by neighbors, colleagues and French authorities as a hero Saturday after his death from wounds the day before. President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for a national ceremony to formally honor him. After agreeing to the hostage swap, Beltrame surrendered his weapon — but kept his cellphone on, allowing authorities outside the Super U market in the southern French town of Trebes to hear what was happening inside. Thanks to Beltrame’s quick thinking, special police units heard gunshots inside the store Friday and stormed the building immediately, killing the attacker. “Beyond his job, he gave his life for someone else, for a stranger,” his brother, Cedric, told RTL radio in France. “He was well aware he had almost no chance. He was very aware of what he was doing … if we don’t describe him as a hero, I don’t know what you need to do to be a hero.” “Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much,” Macron said. “In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.” The date of the ceremony for Beltrame wasn’t immediately set.

6am – F         McCabe News: McCabe wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post

• Andrew McCabe: Not in my worst nightmares did I dream my FBI career would end this way (Washington Post) — Andrew McCabe served in the FBI from 1996 until March 16. He was the bureau’s deputy director from 2016 to January, including time as acting director from May to August 2017. On March 16, I spent the day with my family waiting to hear whether I would be fired, after 21 years in the FBI and one day before I qualified for my long-planned, earned retirement. As day turned to night, I had a lot of time to reflect on how it would feel to be separated from the organization I loved — and led — and the mission that has been the central focus of my professional life. Despite all the preparation for the worst-case scenario, I still felt disoriented and sick to my stomach. Around 10 p.m., a friend called to tell me that CNN was reporting that I had been fired. She read me the attorney general’s statement. So, after two decades of public service, I found out that I had been fired in the most disembodied, impersonal way — third-hand, based on a news account. Shortly after getting word, I noticed an email from a Justice Department official in my work account, telling me that I had been “removed from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the civil service.”

• ‘I Went Through Hell’: Former FBI Agent Says Andrew McCabe ‘Targeted’, ‘Slandered’ Her (Fox News Insider) — Robyn Gritz, who said she served 16 years with the bureau fighting terrorism, told “Fox & Friends” that she celebrated McCabe’s dismissal and that it brought back memories of how he allegedly mistreated her. Gritz said that she began working with McCabe in 2005 until she ultimately resigned several years later. She said McCabe retaliated against her for filing a harassment claim against one of her supervisors. Gritz said that, while working as a “detailee” to the CIA, her boss began “scrutinizing [her] work and asking questions” about her purportedly being “fragile” after her divorce. “He made some discriminatory comments about why I was traveling and such,” Gritz said of her boss at the time, who was not McCabe. When she heard that the boss was making similar comments to a black coworker, Gritz said she decided to file a complaint against him. Gritz said when she filed the suit, McCabe signed off on an internal investigation against her, adding that “he know that I was either filing or going to file the [case].” “I went through hell for a year and a half,” she said. “Andy made sure I couldn’t get out of the division.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – KATIE PHANG – NBC Legal Contributor, Trial Lawyer and a Partner at Berger Singerman, based in Miami, FL. – discussed Stormy Daniels 60 minutes interview and the legal ramifications that may arise from it

7am – B         Dumb as a bucket of rocks: Pa. school district stocks classrooms with rocks to combat school shooters:

• Pa. school district stocks classrooms with rocks to combat school shooters (MSN) — A Pennsylvania school district has armed its students with rocks to defend themselves in the event of a school shooting. David Helsel, the superintendent of Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, said at a state House Education Committee hearing on school safety this week that his district’s classrooms are equipped with 5-gallon buckets of river rocks. “If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance to any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full of students armed with rocks,” he said. “And they will be stoned.” Helsel emphasized to Buzzfeed News that the so-called “go buckets” are a “last-resort” effort in the district’s active school shooter defense plan, which also includes automatic door-securing technology and lock-in and lockdown procedures. Helsel said that the buckets have been in classrooms for two years. Media outlets picked up the story this week after he spoke about the plan at the hearing. He said that he thinks news outlets have taken the plan “out of context to make it look silly.”
• UPDATE: Pennsylvania school district that arms teachers with rocks will add extra security (CBS News) — A rural school district in Pennsylvania that has armed teachers and students with rocks to ward off potential school shooters has arranged for additional armed security in its buildings. Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel said in a statement posted on the district’s website there will be extra security starting Monday and “into the near future.” Helsel says media attention over the district’s planned response to school shooters “has increased our concern regarding the possibility that something may happen.” He says the district will continue to evaluate the situation moving forward. He continued writing: “Starting tomorrow and into the near future, we have arranged for additional armed security for our buildings. We will continue to reevaluate this situation moving forward. Please be assured, the safety of our students and staff is of paramount importance to us.”

7am – C         MARCH MADNESS:

• The 2018 NCAA tournament’s Fina lFour is set: Villanova will take on Kansas, and Michigan will face Loyola Chicago!
• Kansas defeated No. 2 seed Duke, 85-81, in overtime Sunday to join Villanova, Michigan and Loyola Chicago in the men’s college basketball national semifinals Saturday in San Antonio.
• NCAA tournament: Kansas breaks through to Final Four with overtime defeat of Duke
• Twitter had so many jokes when Duke-Kansas overtime pushed back the Stormy Daniels interview

7am – D/E     More Highlights From The March For Our Lives

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner – discussed the passage of the omnibus bill, the effect that it could have the midterms, and the effect that the gun issue could have on the midterms

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — MATTHEW POST – Student member of the Montgomery County School Board and Speaker at the March for Our Lives – discussed his gun control positions and recapped the March for our lives protest

8am – D         INTERVIEW – RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL – Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) – discussed the omnibus spending bill, its effect on the 2018 midterms, and the narrowing gap for the GOP on the generic ballot

8am – E         CBS This Morning Grills Stormy Daniels Lawyer Over Evidence of Trump Affair: ‘Why Are You Teasing Us?’ (Mediaite) — Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti appeared on CBS This Morning on Monday — after his client’s 60 Minutes interview — and faced a grilling over his claims about the legal case against President Donald Trump. Host Gayle King asked why Avenatti had not released evidence of the alleged affair between Stormy, a former porn star, and Trump. “Why haven’t you done that yet?” King pressed. “You teased us on Twitter with a CD, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ That seems like a big tease. Why are you teasing us?” “It’s not a big tease,” Avenatti contested. “We’re in the process of a legal case. We’re going to be methodical, surgical, and smart in the way that we go about doing this. The tweet of the CD or the DVD was meant to send a warning shot, that Mr. Cohen and the president better be very careful what they come out and state regarding my client.”