Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Fox News host and best-selling author Judge Jeanine Pirro, and RNC spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Courts in three states bar release of 3D-prinable gun blueprints (USA Today) – Three courts on Tuesday barred the chief promoter of 3D-printable guns from posting his designs online, just hours before a midnight deadline that would have made such information widely accessible.  Courts in New York, New Jersey and Washington State issued rulings barring Cody Wilson and his company, Defense Distribution, from uploading instructions for making 3D-printable guns at midnight Wednesday – as he had planned to do under a settlement reached in June with the Trump administration

5am – D Facebook says it has identified a political influencer campaign aimed at creating left-wing ‘resistance’ (Daily Caller) – Facebook announced Tuesday that it has removed 32 inauthentic Instagram and Facebook profiles and pages because the company believes they were part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.  “We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and don’t have all the facts — including who may be behind this. But we are sharing what we know today given the connection between these bad actors and protests that are planned in Washington next week. We will update this post with more details when we have them, or if the facts we have change,” the company said in a statement.

5am – E Manafort judge wants to avoid politics. Good luck with that. (Bloomberg) – The judge overseeing the fraud trial of Paul Manafort wants politics barred from the evidence prosecutors will put on display about President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman.  Tell that to the jurors.  U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has already laid down ground rules for Manafort’s lawyers and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors — no mention of Mueller’s motives, his Russia collusion investigation or Manafort’s role in the Trump campaign. And with one notable exception, Trump isn’t to be mentioned.

6am – A/B/C Lawsuit: Man whose car broke down says he was wrongly arrested after Stafford Co. deputy asks for ID (FOX 5 DC) – A broken-down car led to an Alexandria man’s arrest last year in Stafford County and now he is suing the deputy who arrested him.  The encounter happened early in the morning on April 14, 2017 while George Wingate was working as a rideshare driver, according to his attorney, Victor Glasberg.

6am – D INTERVIEW – Cal Thomas – Syndicated columnist – discussed the Manafort trial           

6am – E Maryland park reopens after search yields animal tracks, but no mountain lion (Washington Post) – Visitors at a park in Prince George’s County were told to shelter-in-place Tuesday after a woman reported seeing a mountain lion, authorities said, but no lion was found.  A woman came into a U.S. Park Police substation in Greenbelt Park to report she had seen what she believed to be a mountain lion, police spokesman James Dingeldein said. The animal was not aggressive, the woman reportedly said, and was about as tall as her waist.

6am – F ‘Trump is using sports to divide the US’: LeBron opens his school for disadvantaged kids and then blats the President for creating ‘ racial tensions’, and reveals he would NEVER sit down with him (Daily Mail) – The NBA superstar opened up on Monday about how he believes that racial tension has become an even more prominent issue of late because of Trump and his actions.  James spoke at lengths about the President, race and politics in a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, which aired just hours after opening his new I Promise School in Akron, Ohio.

7am – A INTERVIEW – Stephen Gutowski – Washington Free Beacon staff writer – discussed courts blocking distributions of 3D-printed gun plans       

7am – B/C Trump calls for voter ID, teases Iran talks at Florida rally boosting DeSantis, Scott (Fox News) – President Trump gave hearty endorsements to Florida Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis Tuesday as two of the state’s top Republican elected officials seek higher office in November’s midterm elections.  “I don’t do these endorsements easily,” Trump told an enthusiastic crowd during his rally at Tampa’s Florida State Fairgrounds. “I don’t need to be here, but I happen to love this state.”

7am – D INTERVIEW – Alex Azar – Health and Human Services secretary – discussed healthcare reform  

7am – E Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ coach: Parents enlist videogame tutors for children (Wall Street Journal) – Ally Hicks fretted over her 10-year-old son playing the hugely popular shoot-em-up videogame “Fortnite.”  It wasn’t the violence or the amount of time she was worried about. It was the result. He wasn’t winning.  So she hired him a coach. For about $50, Ms. Hicks purchased four hours of online lessons from a player she found through a freelance labor website.  For many children, “Fortnite” has become a social proving ground. More than 125 million people play it world-wide, according to its maker, mostly in a free mode pitting 100 combatants against each other until one person or team is left standing.

8am – A INTERVIEW – Judge Jeanine Pirro – former District Attorney and host of Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine” – discussed her new book and the Manafort trial       

8am – B/C Fox News’ Hannity chomps Shark Weed in ratings (Daily Caller) – Fox News Channel marked its 25th consecutive month as the most-watched network in cable in July, besting competitors CNN and MSNBC.  Fox News finished first in primetime with with an average of 2.4 million viewers and finished first in total day with 1.37 million. “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” were the top two programs for the month ahead of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.”

8am – D INTERVIEW – Kayleigh McEnany – RNC spokeswoman – discussed Trump’s rally in Florida for Ron DeSantis

8am – E Bryce Harper, Nationals beat Mets 25-4; worst loss in Mets franchise history (Bleacher Report) – The New York Mets were a woeful 5-21 in June, but they seemingly made incremental strides throughout July and entered Tuesday night an encouraging 12-11 over the past 30 days.  That progress will now be overshadowed by the historic 25-4 loss they suffered at the hands of the Washington Nationals (53-53) Tuesday night in the nation’s capital.