Cal Thomas, Cato’s Ilya Shapiro, The Hill’s Joe Concha and Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C DC considers letting 16-year-olds vote (The Hill) — A council member in Washington, D.C., has introduced legislation that would lower the age to vote in federal and local elections to 16. D.C. council member Charles Allen (D) last week introduced the legislation, which could allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the 2020 presidential election, WUSA-TV reported. Allen said he proposed the legislation after seeing the students march last month in Washington, D.C. for the “March for Our Lives” event to protest gun violence and demand new gun laws. Seven of the 13 members of the D.C. Council are backing the measure, advocates of the proposal told WUSA-TV. “I think people are getting excited about this, especially with what’s going on in the nation right now in terms of youth leading social change,” said Alisha Chopra, 18, a senior at School Without Walls in Washington, D.C.  “So I think that people are going to be very excited about it and want to get on board.”

5am – D         NORTH KOREA:

• Trump Gathers For Mar-A-Lago Summit With Japanese Prime Minister
• Trump secretary of State nominee secretly met with Kim Jong Un: report
• Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: 2h2 hours ago Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!

5am – E         BARBARA BUSH PASSES AWAY:

• Trump orders flags flown at half-staff to honor Barbara Bush. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of former first lady Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday at the age of 92. In a proclamation issued Tuesday night, Trump says Americans mourn the loss of “an outstanding and memorable woman of character.” He calls Mrs. Bush “an advocate of the American family” who “lived a life that reminds us always to cherish our relationships with friends, family, and all acquaintances.” The proclamation calls for flags to remain lowered until sunset on the day of her burial.
• Barbara Bush Sipped Bourbon Night Before Her Death: ‘She Was Answering All of Her Phone Calls’ / (People) — Barbara Bush, in what her spokesman called “failing health,” had traded further medical treatments for comfort care at home —that included the “alert” 92-year-old former first lady enjoying phone calls, conversation and bourbon. On Tuesday afternoon, the Office of George H. W. Bush confirmed her death, saying in a statement, “A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018, at the age of 92.”
• Barbara Bush, Wife of 41st President and Mother of 43rd, Dies at 92. Barbara Bush, the widely admired wife of one president and the fiercely loyal mother of another, died Tuesday evening at her home in Houston. She was 92. Jim McGrath, a family spokesman, announced the death in a statement posted to Twitter. On Sunday, the office of her husband, former President George Bush, issued a statement saying that after consulting her family and her doctors, Mrs. Bush had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.”

6am – A         SOUTHWEST UPDATE: Woman Partially Sucked Out of Jet When Window Breaks Mid-Flight; Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Philadelphia. (NBC Philadelphia) — The jet’s left engine blew shortly after takeoff, passengers said. Pieces of shrapnel flew into the plane’s fuselage and at least one window, the passengers and FAA said. As a Southwest Airlines jet hurtled 32,000 feet over suburban Philadelphia, a rare engine explosion caused a passenger’s window to burst, partially pulling the woman sitting next to the opening out of the plane. Fellow passengers frantically worked to yank her back inside the airliner as it depressurized and quickly descended thousands of feet per minute, according to several passengers. The frightening ordeal played out Tuesday morning onboard Southwest flight 1380 as it headed for Dallas. The Boeing 737-700 was about 20 minutes into its journey from New York’s LaGuardia Airport when the engine failure occurred. The plane, carrying 144 passengers and five crew, diverted to Philadelphia International Airport where it made an emergency landing at 11:20 a.m. Passengers described hearing a loud explosion from the left engine — one of two onboard — before debris peppered the fuselage and shattered that window. “The plane dropped immediately,” said Matt Tranchin, who was sitting three rows behind the broken window. “Plane smelled like smoke. Ash was all around us.”

6am – B         STORMY ON THE VIEW / STORMY SKETCH:

• Meghan McCain accuses adult star Stormy Daniels of “publicity stunt” on “The View”
• Stormy Daniels: “This isn’t what I want to be known for”
• Stormy’s sketch of harasser sparks social media frenzy of Tom Brady comparisons. Tom Brady found himself unwittingly pulled into another Trump controversy Tuesday as porn star Stormy Daniels released a sketch of the man she says threatened her to keep quiet about her relationship with the president – a drawing that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Patriots superstar.  Nobody is actually accusing the famed quarterback of taking time out to harass the adult film star. But media observers and pundits immediately took to Twitter to marvel at the similarities.  “It’s all coming together,” conservative radio host Ben Shapiro tweeted, with a photo of the sketch and one of Brady next to Trump.

6am – C         TAX NEWS:

• Trump files for extension on 2017 tax returns. WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — President Donald Trump has filed an extension for his taxes for the second time since taking office, the White House said Tuesday. “The president filed an extension for his 2017 tax return, as do many Americans with complex returns,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News. “He will file his tax return by the extension deadline of Oct. 15, 2018.”
• IRS gives Americans extra day to file taxes after outage. Agency officials said the problem was on the IRS’ end, causing a disconnect that meant the IRS couldn’t take returns filed through tax preparation software companies.The IRS is giving taxpayers an extra day to file their tax returns after a malfunction at the agency prevented it from accepting electronically filed returns and payments for much of Tuesday, which had been the official deadline for filing. The extraordinary move means all individuals and businesses now have until midnight Wednesday, and they don’t need to do anything to secure the extra filing day. “This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers,” acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said in a statement announcing the extra filing day after the systems were restored. “The IRS appreciates everyone’s patience during this period. The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation,” Kautter said.The IRS wasn’t prepared for such a failure, the agency’s watchdog warned last year. It lacked plans to deal with a system crash because it was out of date with protocols to restore operations in the event of an emergency, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in an audit.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist – reflected on the passing of former First Lady Barbara Bush.

6am – E         MEDIA HEADLINES TIRED TO GORSUCH:

• NY TIMES: Justice Gorsuch Joins Supreme Court’s Liberals to Strike Down
• BUSINESS INSIDER: The Supreme Court just handed Trump a loss on immigration — and Gorsuch was the tiebreaking vote
• USA TODAY: Neil Gorsuch sides with liberals to tip decision to immigrant in Supreme Court deportation case.

• ILYA SHAPIRO: Surprised by Neil Gorsuch’s ruling? You weren’t paying attention.

6am – F         Duckworth proposes rule allowing babies on Senate floor.  (CNN) Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who just gave birth to her second child, is attempting the rare move of changing longstanding Senate rules in order to accommodate senators with newborns. The Illinois Democrat has submitted a resolution this week that would allow senators to bring a child under one year old to the Senate floor during votes, which they currently cannot do. “After many positive, constructive conversations with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Sen. Duckworth is glad to be able to offer this legislation to ensure no senator with an infant is prevented from performing their constitutional responsibilities — and send a message that working parents everywhere deserve family-friendly workplace policies,” said Kaitlin Fahey, Duckworth’s chief of staff, in a statement provided to CNN on Monday. “She is optimistic that this will be resolved quickly.”

7am – A         Highlights of James Comey on Colbert

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – ILYA SHAPIRO – senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review

• NY TIMES: Justice Gorsuch Joins Supreme Court’s Liberals to Strike Down Deportation Law
• Surprised by Neil Gorsuch’s ruling? You weren’t paying attention.

7am – D/E     DC considers letting 16-year-olds vote (The Hill) — A council member in Washington, D.C., has introduced legislation that would lower the age to vote in federal and local elections to 16. D.C. council member Charles Allen (D) last week introduced the legislation, which could allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the 2020 presidential election, WUSA-TV reported. Allen said he proposed the legislation after seeing the students march last month in Washington, D.C. for the “March for Our Lives” event to protest gun violence and demand new gun laws. Seven of the 13 members of the D.C. Council are backing the measure, advocates of the proposal told WUSA-TV. “I think people are getting excited about this, especially with what’s going on in the nation right now in terms of youth leading social change,” said Alisha Chopra, 18, a senior at School Without Walls in Washington, D.C.  “So I think that people are going to be very excited about it and want to get on board.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media reporter, The Hill — discussed the media coverage of James Comey’s book and Stormy Daniels.

8am – B/C     Starbucks to close 8,000 stores for racial-bias training (NY Post) — Starbucks announced Tuesday that it plans to close more than 8,000 stores for an afternoon next month to conduct racial bias training. The announcement comes days after two innocent black men were arrested in a Philly store for refusing to leave while waiting for their friend — an incident that was captured in a now-viral video and sparked protests. The coffee shop chain will shutter more than 8,000 company-owned locations for several hours May 29 to “conduct racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination in our stores,” CNBC reported. On Monday, CEO Kevin Johnson apologized to the men and said on TV’s “Good Morning America” that he wanted managers at his stores to undergo training in how to spot “unconscious bias.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller – discussed the latest White House news.

• NORTH KOREA:
  • Trump Gathers For Mar-A-Lago Summit With Japanese Prime Minister
  • Trump secretary of State nominee secretly met with Kim Jong Un: report
  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: 2h2 hours ago Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!
• COMEY
  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: 15m15 minutes ago: Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!
• TPP
  • Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 10h10 hours ago: While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States. Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers. Look how bad WTO is to U.S.

8am – E         BARBARA BUSH PASSES AWAY:

• Trump orders flags flown at half-staff to honor Barbara Bush.
• Barbara Bush Sipped Bourbon Night Before Her Death: ‘She Was Answering All of Her Phone Calls’
• Barbara Bush, Wife of 41st President and Mother of 43rd, Dies at 92.