Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti and Rep. Louie Gohmert joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, July 13, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C STRZOK HEARING HIGHLIGHTS

• Anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok was grilled by GOP lawmakers and threatened with contempt Thursday in an explosive hearing marked by angry exchanges
• Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is expected to be interviewed privately by lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Friday about anti-Trump text messages exchanged with her former colleague and lover Strzok, days after defying a congressional subpoena
• STRZOK INTERROGATED – FBI official Peter Strzok’s first public hearing erupted into a heated political fracas on Thursday, as Republicans clashed with Democrats as well as the former investigator over his anti-Trump texts — and even threatened him with contempt for initially refusing to answer questions on the Russia probe … Throughout it all, Strzok remained defiant and maintained that he did not show bias in those infamous messages with former FBI lawyer – and his ex-lover – Lisa Page. He said that while he had his own political opinions, they did not impact his official investigative actions in the Hillary Clinton and Russian meddling probe. Republicans sharply disputed that assessment, with Rep. Darrell Issa later making Strzok read examples of those texts aloud. Among them, Strzok read one message where he called Trump a “disaster,” and another calling him an “idiot.” Perhaps the most explosive and personal exchange took place when Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, asked the “smirking” Strzok whether he was lying under oath the same way he “lied” to his wife while he carried on an affair with Page. Democrats immediately erupted into more objections, with one yelling, “Mr. Chairman, this is intolerable harassment of the witness” and another calling out, “You need your medication.”

5am – D         Axios: Trump wants tough new Air Force One paint job. President Trump wants to update the paint job on the next version of Air Force One, ditching the iconic robin’s-egg blue (which he calls a “Jackie Kennedy color”) for a bolder, “more American” look. Trump rarely gets into the weeds of government negotiations. But he sat down in the Oval Office with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg in February to personally hammer out the $4 billion deal for a pair of replacement 747s for use as Air Force One (the call sign for whatever aircraft the president is on). Axios has learned that Trump had one specification for the plane that could cause tension with the Air Force and surprise around the world: Trump wants to change the plane’s signature blue-and-white look that goes back 55 years, to a redesign of the presidential aircraft by President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the early 1960s. We’re told that Trump wants a color scheme that “looks more American” and isn’t a “Jackie Kennedy color.” He doesn’t think the current blue (technically “luminous ultramarine”) represents the USA.

The president’s preferred design is believed to include red, white and blue.

“He can do it,” said a source familiar with the negotiations.

5am – E         Thai rescue boys ‘were drugged with KETAMINE’: Youngsters given doses of horse tranquiliser to stop them panicking say divers as gripping footage of underwater mission is released. Thailand’s PM admits that schoolboys were dosed with an anti-anxiety drug. Prayut Chan-o-Cha said youngsters given anxiolytic ‘to make them not excited, not stressed.’ Yet authorities had previously denied the children were drugged for the rescue.  (Daily Mail) —  The schoolboys rescued from a flooded cave system in Thailand were dosed with an anti-anxiety drug to stop them panicking during the terrifying underwater mission, the country’s prime minister has admitted. The authorities had previously denied the children were drugged but Prayut Chan-o-Cha confirmed that they had been given anxiolytic ‘to make them not excited, not stressed’. The rescue was carried out by an elite team of international divers, led by Britons, who guided the sluggish youngsters along the tortuous two-and-a-half-mile escape route.

6am – A/B/C STRZOK HEARING HIGHLIGHTS

6am – D         CBS News Surprised to Realize Border is Open and Unsafe. A human smuggler paddles two illegal immigrants across the Rio Grande River in front of a CBS News crew. (Breitbart) — A CBS News reporter appeared shocked and afraid after witnessing an illegal border crossing near Roma, Texas. The reporter said he and his film crew were threatened by a “scout” who told them the area was not safe and to go away. CBS News reporter David Begnaud traveled to Roma, Texas, this week to cover a story about Texas landowners getting notices about a proposed border wall. While shooting a segment along the river border, he was shocked to see a group of illegal immigrants making their way across the river in broad daylight a few hundred yards from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry. He was even more shocked when a man with a two-way radio approached them and told them to leave.  “What was surprising for us to see is that this happened in broad daylight about a hundred yards from that international bridge,” Begnaud said while gesturing to the port of entry, “where there are dozens of Customs and Border Protection officers.” He seemed shocked that CBP officers processing vehicles and pedestrian traffic on the bridge did not notice three people on a makeshift raft making their way from Mexico to Texas.

6am – E         Several interns on Capitol Hill say they were denied a ride from Uber after their driver saw their pro-Donald J. Trump “Make America Great Again” hats.. (Fox News) — Several interns on Capitol Hill for a program geared toward young black Republicans said an Uber driver refused to give them a ride together in Washington this week because two of them were carrying pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” hats. The incident unfolded Tuesday, according to the interns, when they piled into an Uber to head to a monthly gathering of supporters of the president at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. In interviews with Fox News, three of the interns said the driver picked them up at George Washington University. But after the driver asked them about the famous pro-Trump red hats, he told the interns he couldn’t give them a ride, they said. The interns, who have been working for Republican lawmakers this summer, said they were forced to get out of the Uber car. The company responded: “We aim to provide a reliable service to everyone who uses Uber. We have reached out to both the rider and the driver, and continue to look into this.”

6am – F         UK TRIP:

• President Trump slams British Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, says the London mayor has done a ‘terrible job’ on terrorism and blasts mass migration in interview given during his trip to Britain
• ‘SHE DIDN’T LISTEN TO ME’: President Trump criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of Brexit on Thursday, telling the Sun newspaper that her plan was “very unfortunate” and would “probably” kill any possible trade deal between the U.S. and Britain. … Trump’s comments could be seen as a body blow to May’s government, which is struggling to steady itself. Two key Cabinet members — including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson — resigned in protest earlier this week over her plan to keep Britain and the European Union in a free market for goods, with a more distant relationship for services. When asked about the ongoing negotiations between May’s government and the EU over the terms of their divorce, Trump told the Sun: “I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me.” Trump also had harsh words for current London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a fervent critic of the president, saying Khan “has done a terrible job” running Europe’s third-largest city. “I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism. I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.” The president also warned that Britain and Europe were “losing its culture” due to mass migration.
• Trump’s comments came as widespread protests of Trump’s visit were expected in London on Friday. Over the weekend, the president will head to one of his golf resorts in Scotland. Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday in a closely watched summit in the finale of his European trip.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller – discussed the White House’s reaction to the Strzok hearing and what’s on President Trump’s agenda on his UK trip and looking ahead to the rest of his trip.

7am – B/C/D/E  Strzok Hearing Highlights

8am – A         Strzok Hearing Highlights

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – REP. LOUIE GOHMERT – R-TX

• TX Rep Louis Gohmert to Peter Strzok: “… I can’t help but wonder, when I see you looking there with a little smirk, how many times did you look so innocent into your wife’s eye and lie to her about Lisa Paige … ”

8am – D         Latest on the UK Trip