Joe diGenova, Judicial’s Watch Tom Fitton and Washington Post’s Scott Allen joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Arlington Cemetery is running out of room. Already the final resting place for more than 420,000 veterans and their relatives, the cemetery has been adding about 7,000 each year. At that rate, even if the last rinds of open ground around its edges are put to use, the cemetery will be completely full in about 25 years.

5am – D/E     Greg Gutfeld Schools America on the Uselessness of Commencement Addresses. Greg Gutfeld opined on the effectiveness of commencement speeches, after several from the past month drew criticisms and other commentary. Of note, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave one at Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts, Al Gore gave one at the University of Maryland, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) offered remarks at Harvard Law School, and Hillary Clinton spoke at Yale’s class day. “My opinion on commencement addresses is that the advice they give is terrible,” Gutfeld said.

 

6am – A         NORTH KOREA UPDATE:

• North Korean officials and U.S. meet in Singapore ahead of summit via @foxnews. A top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Singapore Monday evening to meet with U.S. government officials, an indication that the fragile June 12 summit with President Donald Trump will proceed, Reuters reported. President Trump had abruptly called off the highly anticipated summit with Kim before retracting a day later. Kim Jong Un’s chief of staff, Kim Chang Son, arrived in Singapore by way of Beijing, where he told reporters he was “going to play” in Singapore. Meanwhile, U.S. government officials, flew to Singapore from U.S. Yokota Air Base in Japan, to work out the details of the June 12 summit. Monday night’s pre-advance meeting follows a surprise second meeting between Kim Jon Ung and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday and a meeting between North Korean officials and the U.S. State Department on Sunday. Both meetings were held at the border village of Panmunjom.
• Fox News: The U.S. reportedly held off on slapping new sanctions on North Korea as negotiations for a still-possible summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un continue
• A Senior North Korean Official Is Reportedly Heading to the United States. Kim Yong Chol, North Korean official, travels to U.S. for summit planning: Reports (Washington Times) — SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean media say top North Korean official seen by AP Television at Beijing airport is going to Washington. Kim Yong Chol, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, was in Beijing preparing for a flight to New York, the Yonhap New agency reported. Kim’s anticipated trip to the U.S. was to reciprocate visits by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the news agency reported.
• White House: Trump, Japanese PM discuss North Korea ahead of expected summit. WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed North Korea by phone on Monday and confirmed they would meet before an expected US-North Korea summit, the White House said. A White House statement said that in their call, Trump and Abe “affirmed the shared imperative of achieving the complete and permanent dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and ballistic missile programs.”

• CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Presses Ex-Obama Official: Didn’t Trump’s Letter Bring NoKo Back to the Table?

6am – B         Liberals mad about Trump’s Memorial Day tweet

• Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice! 5:58 AM – 28 May 2018
• Obama tweets a photo of himself, as is tradition
• On Memorial Day, Trump Honors Fallen Soldiers; Draws Criticism Over Tweet. (NPR) — The tweet struck some as self-serving. “This is one of the most inappropriate, ignorant and tone-deaf things our Commander-in-Chief could have said on a day like today,” tweeted John Kirby, a State Department spokesman during the Obama administration. Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Obama, seemed to chastise Trump in a tweet of his own. GEN(R) Marty Dempsey @Martin_Dempsey:  This day, of all days of the year, should not be about any one of us. No matter how prestigious or powerful, no matter how successful we perceive ourselves to be. Rather, this day should be about those who gave their lives so that we could live ours in freedom. #MemorialDay

6am – C         Rep. Garrett announces he is an alcoholic and will not seek reelection. (Washington Post) — RICHMOND — Rep. Thomas Garrett (R-Va.) announced Monday that he is struggling with alcoholism and will abandon his run for a second term in Congress so he can focus on recovery and his family. Garrett, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is the 48th Republican to retire or announce they will not seek reelection to the House this year, according to a list maintained by the House Press Gallery. Many are leaving in anticipation of a strong Democratic performance in congressional races this fall and out of frustration with partisan politics in Washington. Garrett, 46, was facing a robust challenge from his Democratic opponent, journalist and author Leslie Cockburn, who had raised more money and had more cash on hand than he had. In recent days, unnamed former staffers had accused him and his wife of mistreating staff who worked in his congressional office.

6am – D         Chelsea Manning ‘safe’ after tweeting alarming photo hinting at suicide. (NY Daily News) — Chelsea Manning alarmed her friends Sunday night with a pair of since-deleted tweets in which she contemplated suicide. The U.S. Senate candidate — a former soldier and whistleblower — who is hoping to unseat a Maryland Democrat shared a jarring photo of what appeared to be her poised to jump from the ledge of an unidentified high-rise building. The figure in the photo was wearing pink pajamas and had painted toenails. It’s unclear where the photo was taken. “I’m sorry – I tried – I’m sorry I let you all down,” Manning wrote. “Im not really cut out for this world – I tried adapting to this world out here but I failed you – I couldn’t do this anymore – I can take people I don’t know hating me but not my own friends,” she added. “I tried and I’m sorry about my failure.” The posts were flooded with well-wishes from Manning’s followers and the number to the suicide hotline. After a half hour, the tweets vanished and were replaced with a brief message announcing that Manning was out of harm’s way. “Chelsea is safe. She is on the phone with friends. Thanks everyone for your concern and please give her some space,” the message read.

6am – E/F      3 Married Men on Taking Their Wife’s Last Name (The Cut) — Despite radical changes to marriage in recent years, “last name choice” remains one of the most highly gendered aspects of the institution. One study showed that in the U.S. about 94 percent of women still take their husband’s name when they get married, and half the population believes that lawmakers should require women to take their husband’s last name, like in Japan. While hyphens and couture-blended couple names are more popular than in the past, the idea of a man taking his wife’s last name is still rare and ridiculed. The Cut spoke to three men who ignored the social stigma and opted to take their wife’s last name anyway.

 

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

• Rudy Giuliani: I’m not comfortable with Trump answering Mueller questions about obstruction. President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he is uncomfortable with his client potentially answering special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions relating to possible obstruction of justice, though he maintains that the president is innocent. “The collusion part we are pretty comfortable with because there has been none,” Giuliani told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The obstruction part I’m not as comfortable with. I’m not, the president is fine with it. He is innocent. I am not comfortable because it is a matter of interpretation, not just hard and fast, true, not true.” Giuliani pointed to Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey and how that could be interpreted as obstructing the Russia investigation instead of firing someone who “was doing a bad job.”
• Clapper Answers Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Alerted To Russian Effort. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tried to explain on CNN Sunday why the Trump campaign wasn’t warned about Russian meddling efforts. During an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Clapper seemed to argue that the Russian threat “had [not] reached the point” where the FBI would alert the campaign, but apparently had reached the point where the FBI would send in an informant. “The first thing is just to determine what was going on,” Clapper said. “If there wasn’t a concern about the Russians…perhaps no reason to do that. You know, the FBI has rules and protocols for when they decide to do something like that and I don’t think that at that point it had reached the point where it would be appropriate to engage the head of the campaign or the nominee.”

7am – B         ELLICOTT CITY UPDATE:

• National Guardsman missing after monstrous floods sink Maryland town (NY Post) — A man who went missing in a flash flood in historic Ellicott City, Maryland, is an active member of the Army National Guard. Howard County police identified him Monday as 39-year-old Eddison Hermond of Severn. Police said on their Facebook page that he was reported missing at 12:30 a.m. Monday, but was last seen about 5:20 p.m. Sunday in the area of La Palapa Grill & Cantina. That was at the height of the flash flooding, which sent stormwaters cascading down Main Street. Police say, “He has not been located despite ongoing searches of the area.” They confirmed that a photo circulating on social media of Hermond, showing him in Army fatigues and standing near a military jeep, is his. As floodwaters receded and revealed the damage in Ellicott City, residents and business owners in the flood-prone historic district could see the scope of the challenge ahead of them.
• WAPO REPORTER: Woman who saw Eddie Hermond vanish into raging flood waters in #EllicottCity last night tells me the missing veteran was NOT trying to save her cat, as police said in press conf. He was trying to save HER. “He’s an absolute hero for what he did,” she said.
• MARTIN O’MALLEY: Solidarity and support to our flooded neighbors in Ellicott City. Climate change is real. 1,000-year floods are now every other year events. Time to act.
• More than 300 people were rescued in Ellicott City, 20 to 30 of whom were trapped in cars or buildings or swift water rescues: ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (WJZ) — It’s been a long night for residents, business owners and first responders in Ellicott City as they assess the damage and begin cleaning up following a catastrophic storm Sunday. Crews were seen towing cars out of the mud on Main Street and surrounding areas Monday as the shock of Sunday’s storm — not even two years after the last flood in July 2016. The scene is a disaster zone — trees and lawn furniture shredded in yards and debris in the streets, roads washed away and mud everywhere. “It’s still a difficult scene down there,” said County Executive Allen Kittleman. “It’s devastating for all of us.” County officials reported that 1,100 calls came into the 911 call center Sunday and almost 300 citizens were helped by first responders — 20 to 30 of those were water rescues or people trapped in buildings.

7am – C         Golden Knights beat Capitals 6-4 in Game 1. The Golden Knights outlasted the Capitals in a back-and-forth Game 1 win in the Stanley Cup Final. The pregame festivities at T-Mobile Arena were engaging and entertaining, as has been the case all postseason long. The Vegas Golden Knights followed up with quite a show themselves, which has also been the norm this spring. The Washington Capitals, though, showed enough in their 6-4 defeat in Game 1 to make Vegas think that this just might be the tallest task of its fairytale postseason run. Still, the Golden Knights inched three wins away from raising the Cup in their inaugural season on the strength of three third-period goals.

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – Judicial Watch President

• DOJ keeps refusing to release the budget for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s out-of-control investigation. JW seeks that info via FOIA lawsuit, b/c we think the American taxpayers deserve real accountability. No one is above the law — not even Mueller.
• Rudy Giuliani: I’m not comfortable with Trump answering Mueller questions about obstruction

 

8am – A         “LOST” UNDOCUMENTED KIDS:

• Biggest Self-Own in History: Liberals Share Immigrant Story From 2014 Thinking It’s Trump’s Fault
• JAMES HASSON: That a lot of journalists did not recognize those pictures from the unaccompanied minors surge in 2014 and shared the story assuming it depicted a new practice under Trump seems like pretty clear evidence that they didn’t do their jobs during the Obama years.

• Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires. Dems must agree to Wall and new Border Protection for good of country…Bipartisan Bill!
• HHS official offers new explanation for missing immigrant children.  (CNN) A top official at the US Department of Health and Human Services on Monday called reports that the agency has lost nearly 1,500 immigrant children false and misleading. The children are not lost, HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan said in a statement. Their sponsors simply have not responded to follow-up calls from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the HHS department that oversees the care of unaccompanied alien or minor children. The agency was under no obligation to make the 30-day follow-up calls to ensure that the children and their sponsors needed no additional services, he said. Now, this voluntary action is being used to confuse and spread misinformation, he said. “This is a classic example of the adage ‘No good deed goes unpunished,'” he said, offering a possible explanation. “While there are many possible reasons for this, in many cases sponsors cannot be reached because they themselves are illegal aliens and do not want to be reached by federal authorities,” he continued. “This is the core of this issue: In many cases, HHS has been put in the position of placing illegal aliens with the individuals who helped arrange for them to enter the country illegally. This makes the immediate crisis worse and creates a perverse incentive for further violation of federal immigration law.”

8am – B         INTERVIEW – SCOTT ALLEN – Washington Post sports reporter

• DISCUSSED: CAPS GET BEAT GAME 1 IN STAND CUP… LOOK AHEAD Game 2 on Wednesday, May 30

8am – C         EU proposes to ban plastic straws, stirs, and cotton buds. BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has proposed banning plastic products like cotton buds, straws, stirs and balloon sticks when alternatives are easily available in an attempt to reduce litter spoiling beaches and ocean beds. The European Commission said its proposal would seek to cut marine litter in half for the ten most prominent items and avoid environmental damage estimated at over $250 billion over the next dozen years. EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said that utensils would not be banned completely, but steps would be taken to have them made out of sustainable materials when possible.

8am – D         Teacher schools Trump on grammar. Teacher mails Trump’s letter back with edits. (CNN) A teacher in Georgia responded the only way she knew how after receiving a letter from President Donald Trump filled with grammar mistakes: covering the paper with ink and yellow highlighted corrections. Yvonne Mason, a teacher in Atlanta took a picture of a letter Trump sent her regarding school safety and gun violence and posted it on Facebook — marking it up as if it were a student’s work. “Have y’all tried grammar and style check?” Mason wrote on the top of the page, which was filled with notes written in purple ink and yellow highlighter by the teacher. Mason also circled the “N” in “Nation” twice on the page writing first, “not part of proper noun construction,” and then on the second instance: “OMG this is WRONG!” The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

8am – E         8,000 Starbucks stores to close Tuesday as anti-bias training begins. (AP) — Starbucks, trying to put to rest an outcry over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores, is closing more than 8,000 stores for an afternoon of anti-bias training, a strategy some believe can keep racism at bay. After the arrests in Philadelphia last month, the coffee chain’s leaders apologized and met with the two men, but also reached out to activists and experts in bias training to put together a curriculum for its 175,000 workers. That has put a spotlight on the little-known world of “unconscious bias training,” which is used by many corporations, police departments and other organizations to help address racism in the workplace. The training is typically designed to get people to open up about implicit biases and stereotypes in encountering people of color, gender or other identities.