Heritage’s Bruce Klingner, National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, Mark Krikorian and Andrew Pollack joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C NYT Columnist Worries Mueller Investigation Actually Helping Trump. (Daily Caller) – New York Times columnist Frank Bruni expressed his alarm on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling could actually be helping President Donald Trump.  The Mueller investigation, Bruni argued, is dominating media coverage to the extent it’s crowding out coverage of what Trump and his administration are actually doing. “Maybe the just-published Politico report of Trump’s deliberate, cavalier use of a cellphone that doesn’t have strict security safeguards would be getting extra attention” if not for the Mueller investigation, Bruni pondered. “Without Mueller and Russia, Scott Pruitt would be closer to center stage, with an even brighter, harsher spotlight on him,” the liberal columnist continued. “He’s not exactly evading scrutiny, but he’s being spared the relentless top-of-the-screen, start-of-the-newscast treatment that he would likely endure if lawmakers, journalists and other watchdogs weren’t so mesmerized by the convoluted twists of Mueller v. Trump.” Bruni also expressed his concern the Mueller investigation might not find evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. Trump “knows that if he sets the bar at incontrovertible evidence of him and Putin huddled over a Hillary Clinton voodoo doll, he just might clear it,” the columnist wrote.

5am – D         Condoms must now be made available to ‘all participants’ at the Boy Scouts global gathering as girls are permitted to join the organization. (Daily Mail) — The Boy Scouts will ensure that condoms will be made ‘readily and easily accessible’ at its global gathering this summer, it has been revealed. Rules now require that the host organization of the World Scout Jamboree provide condoms at a ‘number of locations’ for staff and participants during the event.  Leaders of the participating organizations must also communicate the policy to their ‘participants, unit leaders, and contingent staff’, the mandate requires.  The 24th World Scout Jamboree will be held in the mountains of West Virginia from July 21 to August 1, 2019.

5am – E         ACLU: Amazon shouldn’t sell facial recognition tech to police. SEATTLE (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy activists are asking Amazon to stop marketing a powerful facial recognition tool to police, saying law enforcement agencies could use the technology to “easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone.” The tool, called Rekognition, is already being used by at least one agency — the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon — to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail, which is a common use of such technology around the country. But privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing police to identify and track people in real time. The tech giant’s entry into the market could vastly accelerate such developments, the privacy advocates fear, with potentially dire consequences for minorities who are already arrested at disproportionate rates, immigrants who may be in the country illegally or political protesters. “People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government,” the groups wrote in a letter to Amazon on Tuesday. “Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom.”

6am – A         IMMIGRATION NEWS:

• TRUMP TO TALK ABOUT MS-13: Trump to rail against MS-13 ‘animals’ at Long Island event (NY Post) — WASHINGTON — President Trump will travel to New York on Wednesday for an immigration event in Long Island, according to local officials. Trump will speak at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage, according to reps for Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) and the New York GOP. He’s expected to talk about the need to remove violent MS-13 gang members, whom he’s dubbed “animals.” “So when the MS-13 comes in, when the other gang members come into our country, I refer to them as animals. And guess what? I always will,” Trump said Thursday. “But we’re getting them out by the thousands. But it’s a big, dangerous job. And they’re able, in some cases, to come back in or new groups come in also from the gangs.”
• MS-13 MEMBER NAMED ANIMAL: MS-13 gang member nicknamed ‘Animal’ sentenced to 40 years (Washington Times) — An MS-13 member who goes by the gang name “Animal” received a 40-year prison sentence this week for a conspiracy that included the murder of a 15-year-old boy, the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts said Tuesday. The nickname, which the prosecutors highlighted in the headline of a press release, is particularly telling, coming just a week after President Trump called members of the violent, immigrant-fueled MS-13 gang “animals.” Joel Martinez, 23, admitted he murdered the 15-year-old as part of his initiation as a “homeboy” in Mara Salvatrucha, the gang’s full name. “I stabbed the culero three times,” Mr. Martinez said, according to prosecutors. “He stared at me and he asked me if I was going to, if I was going to stab him. I told him, ‘Yes, the Mara rules you.’” Culero is a derogatory MS-13 members use for a rival gang. Killing a rival gang member was a requirement for achieving full status in MS-13 in Massachusetts, the FBI says.
• MOCO HELPS PAY FOR ILLEGALS TO GET LEGAL HELP: Montgomery County Council approves measure to fund legal help for people in deportation proceedings (WMAL) –ROCKVILLE, Md. – (WMAL) The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a budget measure to provide nearly $374,000 in funding to provide legal defense for county residents facing deportation. The measure’s passage, however, came after several changes to the provisions around the measure, angering people on both sides of the issue. The money was first slated to go to the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, a D.C.-based non-profit, but the coalition announced this week it was backing out, citing a list of exclusionary crimes that it said had grown far too large. CASA, another immigrants’ rights group, blamed State’s Attorney John McCarthy for persuading the council to expand the list.
• CA FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ILLEGALS:  One California lawmaker is proposing free health care for illegal immigrants at an estimated cost of $3 billion.  California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults (Politico) — California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults even as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown by separating families at the border. The proposal — which would build on Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2015 decision to extend health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status — is one of the most daring examples yet of blue-state Democrats thumbing their nose at President Donald Trump as they pursue diametrically opposed policies, whether on immigration, climate change, legalized marijuana or health care.
• OAKLAND MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF LEGISLATION: Steve King Introduces Act to Imprison Politicians Who Help Illegal Aliens Evade Deportation (breitbart) — Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has introduced legislation named after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — who infamously helped criminal illegal aliens evade deportation — that would imprison sanctuary city politicians. As Breitbart News has reported, back in February Schaaf tipped off illegal aliens and businesses who employ illegal aliens of a pending raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Schaaf’s warning of the ICE raid allowed illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes to evade deportation, as Breitbart News reported. As Breitbart exclusively reported, Schaaf is facing a lawsuit by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). Now, Schaaf is the unofficial poster-child for Rep. King’s newest immigration enforcement legislation that seeks to prosecute public officials who help illegal aliens evade deportation

6am – B         Pres. Trump raises doubts his potential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place as previously planned on June 12:

• Trump suggests historic summit with North Korea could be delayed (Fox News) — President Trump on Tuesday suggested the historic summit between him and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un could be delayed past the scheduled date of June 12 in Singapore, amid threats from the rogue regime to cancel talks after U.S.-South Korean military exercises. The president’s comments came during an Oval Office meeting with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The two leaders discussed a strategy for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and Trump’s potential upcoming summit with Kim. “If it doesn’t happen, maybe it will happen later. You never know about deals. I’ve made a lot of deals, you never really know,” Trump said about the summit. “It may not work out for June 12.”
• ‘I Don’t Like It’: Trump Says Kim Jong Un’s ‘Attitude’ Changed After Trip to China (Fox News) — President Trump said Tuesday he is “a little disappointed” by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s apparent change in posture after a meeting with China’s president.  “There was a difference when Kim Jong Un left China the second time,” said Trump at an appearance alongside South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “I can’t say that I’m happy about it.”

6am – C         Charlize Theron Set to Star as Megyn Kelly in Movie About Roger Ailes Scandal. (Mediaite) — You may have heard some talk about a movie in the works centering on former Fox News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes. Well, now a big-name star is attached to play none other than Megyn Kelly herself. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Charlize Theron has been cast as Kelly, the former Fox News star who now hosts Megyn Kelly Today on NBC. The report says other expected characters in the Ailes film will be Gretchen Carlson (who also left Fox News), Rupert Murdoch, and Bill O’Reilly, to name a few.

6am – D/E     Report: NFL Considering 15-Yard Penalty for Kneeling During the National Anthem. NFL owners proposed the idea of penalizing teams for kneeling during the national anthem, while at an offseason meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday. According to Sports Illustrated, a suggestion was made to have the home team decide whether both squads would come out for the national anthem, or remain inside their locker rooms. Should the home team decide to come out, officials would assess a 15-yard penalty to any team whose players chose to protest during the anthem.

6am – F         “My son, to me, is not a criminal, he’s a victim.” Texas school shooting suspect’s father thinks he was bullied. SANTA FE, Texas (AP) — A 17-year-old student accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Texas high school should be seen as a “victim” because he may have recently been bullied, causing him to lash out, his father said. In a phone interview over the weekend with Greece’s Antenna TV, Antonios Pagourtzis said he wished he could have stopped the killing Friday at Santa Fe High School. His voice cracked as he described how he told police to let him inside the school so his son, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, could kill him instead. He said he suspects his son was under pressure, perhaps due to bullying. “Something must have happened now, this last week,” he told the station. “Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don’t know what could have happened. I can’t say what happened. All I can say is what I suspect as a father.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – BRUCE KLINGNER – former CIA’s deputy division chief for Korea and a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center

• Pres. Trump raises doubts his potential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place as previously planned on June 12.
• ‘I Don’t Like It’: Trump Says Kim Jong Un’s ‘Attitude’ Changed After Trip to China

7am – B         COURT: Parents have right to force 30-year-old son to move out… Parents can kick their 30-year-old son out of their home, court rules. The strange case of a New York state couple going to court to get their 30-year-old son to move out has ended in favor of the parents, according to media outlets in upstate New York. State Supreme Court Justice Donald Greenwood ruled Tuesday that Michael Rotondo must leave his parents’ home in Camillus in upstate New York, reported TV station WSTM. Rotondo said he planned to appeal, calling the judge’s decision “outrageous,” reported WSYR. The 30-minute court hearing was described as “surreal” by the news outlet Syracuse.com, which reported Michael Rotondo was argumentative, refused to address his parents directly and never denied they asked him to leave the home.

7am – C         Morgan Freeman to voice Vancouver transit announcements. (Vancouver Sun) — “Hello, I’m Morgan Freeman” — and he’ll be the voice of TransLink for a limited time. As part of TransLink’s rollout of credit card and mobile payments on board its buses and at SkyTrain stations, transit riders will hear Freeman’s distinctive voice making announcements at select SkyTrain stations and on some routes for a brief time this summer. Freeman’s voice will be heard notifying transit riders about TransLink’s new tap-to-pay feature. “Good news, Vancouver. Starting today, you can now tap your Visa to go anywhere TransLink takes you,” says Freeman on a sample audio clip shared with Postmedia. The actor can also be heard making more standard announcements about bus etiquette, although his voice will not be used for individual stop announcements. “Hello bus riders. This is a smoke-free bus, but I’m sure you already knew that,” says one track. “What you might not know, however, is that you can now tap your Visa to go anywhere TransLink takes you. Have a great day.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – JOSH KRAUSHAAR – Politics Editor, National Journal

• RECAP LAST NIGHT: Texas runoffs and primaries in Georgia, Kentucky and Arkansas

7am – E         Mom Outraged Over Grocery Store’s Censorship of Son’s Graduation Cake. “How utterly ridiculous … Shame on you,” the outraged mom said in a Facebook post. (NBC NY) — A mother who wanted to celebrate her son in epic fashion for a 4.79 GPA upon graduation says a regional grocery chain refused to ice the words she requested because it considered “Summa Cum Laude” to be profanity.  Cara Koscinski, of South Carolina, wrote in a weekend Facebook post that she ordered a cake online from Publix. The confection was supposed to say “Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018.” She says the online message box took issue with the phrase. The computer marked the “cum,” a Latin word meaning “with” in English, in “Summa Cum Laude” as a naughty word and substituted three hyphens.

 

8am – A         INTERVIEW – MARK KRIKORIAN –  a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)    @MarkSKrikorian

• Trump to rail against MS-13 ‘animals’ at Long Island event
• MS-13 gang member nicknamed ‘Animal’ sentenced to 40 years
• Montgomery County Council approves measure to fund legal help for people in deportation proceedings
• California is poised to become the first state in the nation to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults
• Steve King Introduces Act to Imprison Politicians Who Help Illegal Aliens Evade Deportation

8am – B/C  DOJ NEWS:

• DOJ-Congress summit on Trump informant docs will happen Thursday (Washington Examiner) — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that a meeting between law enforcement officials and congressional investigators to discuss release of Russia-probe documents will happen Thursday. President Trump charged chief of staff John Kelly with organizing the meeting Monday after summoning law enforcement officials to discuss reports of an FBI informant speaking with members of his campaign. Sanders said “no one from the White House will attend” the Thursday meeting. Attendees, she said, will include House intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and Justice Department official Edward O’Callaghan also will attend, she said. Although Kelly was tasked with setting up the meeting, Sanders said that “at this point [he] is not expected to attend.”
• White House @PressSec says Kelly will convene meeting Thursday to arrange for House GOP to have access to secret documents on confidential informant. Attending will be Nunes, Gowdy, Wray, Coats and Ed O’Callaghan, a top DOJ official. Kelly will not attend, neither will Democrats.
• Top D on House Intel Rep Schiff: “The White House has directed the DOJ and FBI to hold a partisan briefing on information the President wants given to his allies in Congress, and ultimately to his legal defense team. No Democrats allowed. This is a serious abuse of power…”
• Donald_Trump: A ‘Disgrace to the Country’ If FBI Had ‘Spies’ in My Campaign
• Trump: It Would Be ‘Very Illegal’ And ‘A Disgrace To This Country’ If Spies Were In My Campaign
• TRUMP: If the person placed very early into my campaign wasn’t a SPY put there by the previous Administration for political purposes, how come such a seemingly massive amount of money was paid for services rendered – many times higher than normal…
• Mark Levin… Mueller is unconstitutional… On Hannity last night
• Sources: FBI Agents Want Congress To Issue Them Subpoenas So They Can Reveal The Bureau’s Dirt
• Emails Suggest the FBI ‘Triggered’ CNN Story on Steele Dossier
• Lying Liar James Clapper Just Lied Again About His Previous Lies About NSA Spying
• Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe tells Democrats ‘to shoot to kill’ in impeaching Trump
• NYT Columnist Worries Mueller Investigation Actually Helping Trump

8am – C         NEW LAUREL vs YANNY DEBATE: What do you hear? Obama or Hillary?

8am – D/E     INTERVIEW – ANDREW POLLACK – Father of Parkland victim

• POLLACK’S ORGANIZATION: www.AmericansforCLASS.org
• Pollack recently started a nonprofit called Americans for CLASS, which stands for Children’s Lives and School Safety. Through that, he wants to create a union for students and their parents to make sure they have a voice.
• Texas school shooting suspect’s father thinks he was bullied: “My son, to me, is not a criminal, he’s a victim.”