Washington Post’s Ashley Halsey, Rep. Louie Gohmert and Daily Caller’s Robert Donachie joined WMAL on Friday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, June 29, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C ANNAPOLIS NEWSPAPER SHOOTING NEWS:

• 5 killed in ‘targeted attack’ on Capital Gazette newspaper, police say. (USA Today) — ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A gunman with a grudge against the Capital Gazette opened fire in the newsroom here on Thursday, killing five people in what police are calling a “targeted attack” on the newspaper. Armed with a shotgun and smoke grenades, the shooter “was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm,” William Krampf, acting police chief of Anne Arundel County, said at a news conference. Police had not named the suspect Thursday evening, but a law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to discuss the case publicly, identified the suspect as Jarrod Ramos, 38, of Laurel, Maryland. Court documents show Ramos filed a defamation suit against the newspaper in 2012, but a judge threw out the lawsuit, saying Ramos “fails to come close to alleging a case of defamation.” A Maryland appeals court upheld the ruling. Authorities surrounded an apartment complex connected to Ramos on Thursday evening in a small neighborhood in Laurel, Maryland. Police taped off the area near Ramos’ small side street Thursday evening as helicopters flew overhead.
• Capital Gazette massacre suspect charged with five counts of first-degree murder.  Ramos has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and is due to appear in court later Friday. Maryland does not have the death penalty.
• Police have denied claims that he was identified through facial recognition after intentionally damaging his fingertips so his prints couldn’t be used to identify him.
• The victims have been named as editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, 61, assistant editor Rob Hiaasen, 59, reporter and editor John McNamara, sales assistant Rebecca Smith, 34, and reporter and editor Wendi Winters, 65.
• Maryland newspaper suspect’s past sparked fears he would become ‘next mass shooter,’ reports say. Police in Annapolis, Md., were reportedly warned years ago that Jarrod W. Ramos — the suspect in Thursday’s deadly shooting in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette — “will be your next mass shooter.” Jayne Miller, a reporter with Baltimore’s WBAL-TV, said Thursday that she spoke to a woman who claimed Ramos had stalked, harassed and sued her — becoming “fixated” to the point where she became frightened enough to move out of state. “He’s a f***** nut job,” the woman said, according to Miller. The unidentified woman told Miller she had warned a former police official years ago that Ramos “will be your next mass shooter.”
• Jarrod Ramos of Laurel made the defamation claim in Prince George’s County Circuit Court in 2012 after a 2011 column by then-Capital staff writer Eric Hartley about Ramos’ guilty plea to criminal harassment.
• CAPITAL GAZETTE PUBLISHES ANYWAY: Capital Gazette puts out next-day ‘damn paper,’ as promised. Staffers of the Capital Gazette have put out a Friday edition, as promised, just a day after five of their colleagues were slain in the paper’s Annapolis, Md., newsroom. The Friday headline on the paper’s front page reads, “5 shot dead at The Capital,” in big, bold, black letters, with 10 staffers on the byline. Photos of the five staffers who were killed appear across the top.  Surviving journalists vowed Thursday that they wouldn’t be deterred from their journalistic mission because of the shooting. “I can tell you this,” Gazette reporter Chase Cook tweeted after Thursday’s deadly rampage. “We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.
• DAILY MAIL: ‘Ponytailed’ white male carrying a ‘long gun’ and explosive device shoots at least five dead in Maryland newsroom
• Bitter gunman, 38, who shot five dead in the Capital Gazette newsroom, after he sued the paper and harassed staff over 2011 article that exposed him for Facebook stalking a woman
• Five people are dead after a gunman opened fire Maryland’s Capital Gazette newsroom on Thursday
• Police responded within 60 seconds to reports of an active shooter at the newsroom at about 2.40pm
• The suspect, identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, 38, was taken into custody following the shooting
• Police say newspaper had received threats on social media prior to the deadly shooting
• Ramos had unsuccessfully sued the newspaper and one of its former reporters in 2013 for defamation
• Police sources said the gunman purposely damaged his fingertips so investigators couldn’t fingerprint him
• Authorities said they recovered a shotgun and what they thought to be an explosive device from the scene
• The five victims are: Wendi Winters, Rebecca Smith, Robert Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman and John McNamara
• Phil Davis, a court and crime reporter for the Gazette, said the gunman had shot through the glass door of the offices and then opened fire on the newspaper employees
• Intern Anthony Messenger sounded the alarm tweeting at 2.43pm: ‘Active shooter, please help us’

5am – D         Former NY Times Editor Rips The State of The Paper Today:

• Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson on her old paper: ‘This s–t is bad’ (Washington Examiner) — Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the New York Times, said the paper has lost its way and needs a “course correction.” Abramson, now a lecturer at Harvard, said in an interview published Thursday that her former employer is failing its readers in some of its politics coverage, pointing specifically to the upset Democratic primary election in New York this week, and a recent story on one of its own reporters, Ali Watkins, who the paper revealed was in a romantic relationship with an indicted Senate aide. “I’ve resisted critiquing the place publicly, but this shit is bad,” Abramson, who left the Times in 2014 after four years as its top editor, told the Daily Beast. “They need a course correction,” she said. “Am I wrong?” Abramson targeted the paper the day before in a tweet that called out the Times for its scant coverage of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democrat who defeated Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in a primary race he was widely expected to win, given his incumbency of nearly two decades. Abramson said the journalists at the paper are putting too much focus on themselves. “More narcissism: It’s always about us,” she said. “Yikes. Distance is part of journalism’s discipline.”

5am – E         Rite Aids are blasting Barry Manilow tunes to deter vagrants (NY Post) — He writes the songs that make people run. Some Rite Aid stores in California have taken to blasting Barry Manilow tunes as part of a plan to make loiterers scramble. Employees told the Wall Street Journal that the drugstore chain has been testing the tactic of playing songs by the 75-year-old crooner outside their stores — over and over, loudly — to deter panhandlers and vagrants. But the plan has also left neighbors mystified. “I thought some older man had died and left a Barry’s Most Depressing Hits CD on repeat,” said Lisa Masters, a professional drummer in Long Beach who couldn’t open her windows without hearing “Mandy” blaring.

6am – A/B/C ROSENTEIN / WRAY HEARING:

• Jordan, Rosenstein in fiery back-and-forth over DOJ documents
• “Your use of this to attack me personally is deeply wrong.” Deputy AG Rosenstein hits back Rep. Jim Jordan in combative exchange that saw multiple other lawmakers intervening.
• Rosenstein Smirks As Democrat Roasts Republicans Over ‘Impeachment’ Claims
• During Thursday’s House Judiciary hearing, Rep. Ron DeSantis told Rod Rosenstein point blank that he should recuse himself for his role in the Muller investigation and the dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey.
• Rep. Gowdy to Rosenstein: “If you have evidence of any wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn Grand Jury. If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the people …” “Whatever you got, finish it the hell up.”

6am – D/E/F  Latest on the Annapolis Newspaper Shooting Incident

7am – A         WOMEN’s PROTEST:

• 575 Arrested In Capitol Office Building… (Fox News) — Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal is among the more than 500 protesters who were arrested inside a Capitol office building on Thursday while demonstrating against President Trump’s policies on illegal immigration. The protest, which included hundreds demonstrators, took place in the Hart Senate Office Building. The protesters were calling for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and were heard chanting “abolish ICE.” Most of the protesters were female. Eva Malecki, a spokeswoman for the United States Capitol Police, said 575 individuals were charged with unlawfully demonstrating in the atrium of the building. “I was just arrested with 500+ women and @WomensMarch to say @RealDonaldTrump’s cruel zero-tolerance policy will not continue. Not in our country. Not in our name. June 30 we’re putting ourselves in the street again,” Jayapal tweeted.
• Over 600 women descended upon the Senate office building to protest the Trump administration’s family separation policy and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
• “We care!”: Huge crowd of women take over Hart Senate office building in a major civil disobedience action 

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – WASH POST REPORTER ASHLEY HALSEY – discussed the latest details on the Annapolis newsroom shooting.

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW — REP. LOUIE GOHMERT – R-TX – discussed his exchange with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and shared his overall thoughts on the Rosenstein/Wray hearing.

• House investigators grill Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein in contentious hearing about the Trump and Clinton probes
• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray are testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about the inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
• Republican lawmakers are seizing on the report’s findings to question the legitimacy of the Russia probe and to demand more classified intelligence from the DOJ about the investigation.
• Democrats accuse their colleagues of playing politics, focusing on the “tired story” of Clinton’s emails, and trying to force the DOJ to turn over Trump-Russia documents to discredit Rosenstein and help the White House.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – ROBERT DONACHIE – Capitol Hill Reporter for Daily Caller News Foundation — recapped the heated Rosenstein/Wray hearing on Thursday.

8am – B/C     Latest on the Annapolis Newspaper Shooting Incident

8am – D         Trump-Putin summit set for Helsinki, Finland on July 16

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladmir Putin are set to meet on July 16 in Helsinki where the leaders are expected to discuss national security issues as well as the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Moscow and Washington confirmed the location and date of the summit in coordinated statements released Thursday morning.  “President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will meet on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland.  The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues,” the White House statement said.

8am – E         Rand Paul’s Attacker Countersues, Wants Compensatory Damages For Alleged Brush Piles (Daily Caller) – The man who attacked Republican Sen. Rand Paul in November is countersuing the Kentucky senator for “unsightly” debris, WBKO reported Wednesday.Rene Boucher’s lawyer, Matt Baker, filed the countersuit in Warren Circuit Court in Kentucky on Wednesday, along with a motion to dismiss Paul’s lawsuit. The countersuit is seeking “all compensatory and punitive damages permitted by law,” citing how Paul allegedly violated Rivergreen Homeowners Association bylaws by piling debris and other waste near Boucher’s property. Paul allegedly ”historically caused to be deposited and accumulated on his property various piles, heaps and mounds of trash, debris, waste, dead trees, stumps and refuse of all types and configurations,” according to the countersuit. The suit named at least three instances where Paul had piled debris near Boucher’s property, including the Nov. 3 incident that led to Boucher attacking the senator and breaking six of his ribs.