White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp, Fox News’ Dr. Sebastian Gorka, and Virginia representative Barbara Comstock joined WMAL on Thursday!
Mornings on the Mall
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Hosts: Matt Schlapp and Vince Coglianese
Executive Producer: Heather Hunter
5am – A/B/C Q&A With Guest-Host Matt Schlapp!
5am – D Facebook CEO walks back defense of Holocaust deniers (Bloomberg) – Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg walked back comments that appeared to defend Holocaust deniers, after trying to explain how careful the social-media giant tries to be before kicking people off the social network. He ended up using as an example a group that garners little sympathy. In an interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher, Zuckerberg was illustrating the difference between those who spread false information with an intent to harass people, and those who simply spread the misinformation. The first type gets banned, and the second doesn’t. So he tried to relate. “I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,” he told Swisher. “I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”
5am – E When a DNA test shatters your identity (The Atlantic) – It was AncestryDNA’s customer-service rep who had to break the news to Catherine St Clair. For her part, St Clair thought she was inquiring about a technical glitch. Her brother—the brother who along with three other siblings had gifted her the DNA test for her birthday—wasn’t showing up right in her family tree. It was not a glitch, the woman on the line had to explain gently, if this news can ever land gently: The man St Clair thought of as her brother only shared enough DNA with her to be a half-sibling. In fact, she didn’t match any family members on her father’s side. Her biological father must be someone else.
6am – A/B Democrat News:
- Democrats’ 2018 slogan: “For the People” (Axios) – Dems are trying to capture what they stand for by simplifying their economy-focused “A Better Deal” message, but neither slogan will inspire Democratic voters the way Trump’s “Make America Great Again” broke through with Republicans. Yes, but: Take it from Rep. Cheri Bustos, who told Politico that no one is “claiming this is poetic … It’s just a way, in a quick way, to put together the answer to what we stand for.”
- Clinton aides found mariachi band to try ruining Donald Trump’s sleep for third straight night (People) – Protestors determined to keep President Donald Trump from getting a good night’s sleep after his controversial summit in Helsinki called in big shots for Day Three of #OccupyLafayettePark on Wednesday night—an 18-person Mariachi band crowd-funded in under 30 minutes by Twitter users. After two days of protests drew hundreds of people to Pennsylvania Avenue to “welcome” Trump home from talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that critics have denounced as appeasement, former top aides to Trump’s 2016 election opponent Hillary Clinton kept the momentum going by finding a Mariachi band to join in. The band started playing in front of the White House around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
6am – C 34 Democrats, 1 Republican vote ‘no’ on resolution to support ICE (Daily Caller) – House lawmakers voted for a resolution Wednesday that supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and explicitly condemns Democrats’ calls to abolish the agency. Members voted 244-35-133 Wednesday afternoon in favor of a resolution GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana sponsored that both decries Democrats’ push to do away with ICE and calls for congressional support for the agency and its officials. Republicans brought the measure to the floor under an expedited procedure, known as suspension of the rules, which allowed the chamber to pass it with a two-third majority.
6am – D/E Sanders endures press grilling over Russia (The Hill) – White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clashed repeatedly with reporters on Wednesday over questions related to President Trump’s summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Sanders was besieged with questions over the summit during her first briefing in more than two weeks, which came about an hour after Trump contradicted his intelligence director by saying that he did not believe Russia was a threat to the United States.
6am – F Senate GOP breaks record on confirming Trump picks for key court (The Hill) – Senate Republicans broke a record on Wednesday for the number of appeals court judges confirmed during a president’s first two years. Senators voted 50-49 on Andrew Oldham’s nomination to be a judge on the 5th Circuit, making him Trump’s 23rd circuit court judge confirmed since he took office last year. That breaks the previous record set by President George H.W. Bush, who got 22 appeals court judges confirmed during his administration’s first two years.
7am – A CPAC head: Alleged Russian agent was not a VIP (The Hill) – The chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) pushed back Wednesday on a report that the Russian woman charged with conspiring to infiltrate U.S. organizations with political influence was a given access to VIP areas at the annual event. CPAC head Matt Schlapp said in a series of tweets Wednesday that the group doesn’t know Maria Butina, and that she only purchased a general access CPAC ticket, meaning she wouldn’t be able to have VIP access.
7am – B/C INTERVIEW – Mercedes Schlapp – White House Director of Strategic Communications – discussed reaction to Trump “no” comment
7am – D/E Sacha Baron Cohen called out by gun store owner for trying to trick him for a ‘Who is America?’ sketch (Fox News) – Sacha Baron Cohen has been making headlines for his pranks on his Showtime series “Who Is America?” However, in February 2017, a gun store owner wasn’t fooled by the actor’s antics. A Riverside, Calif., gun store, Warrior One Guns & Ammo, agreed to participate in a documentary about a Hungarian immigrant wanting to buy a gun in the United States. But when the store’s owner, Norris Sweidan, finally saw the film’s subject in question, he quickly realized he was getting duped. The whole event was caught on the store’s surveillance camera.
8am – A INTERVIEW – Dr. Sebastian Gorka – Fox News national security strategist and best-selling author – discussed continued fallout from Helsinki summit
8am – B/C INTERVIEW – Barbara Comstock – Republican Representative from Virginia’s 10th district – discussed DC Metro Union strike threat
8am – D Q&A With Guest-Host Matt Schlapp!
8am – E Woman Impaled by Beach Umbrella in N.J. After ‘Just a Gust of Wind,’ Sparking Safety Warnings (People) – A 67-year-old tourist from London, England, was sunbathing on a New Jersey beach on Monday when she was impaled by an aluminum beach umbrella, numerous outlets report. The woman — identified as Margaret Reynolds — was sent to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune after part of the umbrella hit and pierced through her right ankle “due to the force of the wind,” Seaside Heights Police Detective, Steve Korman, told The Asbury Park Press. A man sitting just feet from Reynolds told NJ Advance Media that the umbrella went flying after “just a gust of wind.” He recalled, “It got really windy and I could see an umbrella pass by. I heard someone scream ‘my leg, my leg’ and I looked over and I could see what happened.”
