Red Maryland Editor-in-Chief Brian Griffiths, ‘Voice of the Redskins’ Larry Michael, and American Conservative Union’s Matt Schlapp joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Rep. Chris Collins charged with insider trading – what does it mean for his district? (The Weekly Standard) – Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was arrested Wednesday morning on charges of insider trading. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for New York’s Southern District announced that Collins surrendered himself in Manhattan. His son Cameron was also arrested. Their arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.  The arrest stems from actions Collins and his family allegedly took last summer. According to NBC, on June 22, 2017, while Collins was attending the annual congressional picnic at the White House, he received an email from Simon Wilkinson, the CEO of Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd.—an Australian company on whose board Collins had served before he came to Congress and in which Collins and his family had invested heavily. The email from Wilkinson informed Collins that a new drug Innate was developing to treat multiple sclerosis had failed a clinical trial.

5am – D Christopher Steele was ‘concerned’ about Senate inquiries into dossier, text messages show (Daily Caller) – Christopher Steele expressed concern last year at a Senate committee’s request for information about the former British spy’s anti-Trump dossier, according to text messages recently provided to Congress.  “Would it be possible to speak later today please? We’re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it’s possible implications for us, our operations and our sources. We need some reassurances,” Steele wrote in a March 7, 2017 text message to Bruce Ohr, who then served as deputy assistant attorney general.

5am – E Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s ties to China go way deeper than an elleged office spy (The Federalist) – As media, intelligence agency, and political scrutiny of foreign meddling is seemingly at its apex, a story with big national security implications involving a high-ranking senator with access to America’s most sensitive intelligence information has been hiding in plain sight.  The story involves China and the senior U.S. senator from California, and former chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Dianne Feinstein. It was buried eight paragraphs into a recent Politico exposé on foreign efforts to infiltrate Silicon Valley, as a passing example of political espionage.

6am – A Dershowitz: Trump legal team will make Mueller an ‘offer he can’t accept’ (Fox News) – Alan Dershowitz said that President Trump’s legal team has made it very clear how they will respond to the special counsel’s request for an interview with the president.  Trump’s attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday that his team could respond to Robert Mueller’s request by the end of the day.  Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts spoke with Giuliani, who said there’s a 90-percent chance the interview parameters will be sent to Mueller.

6am – B ‘The secret Rick Gates’: ex-Trump aide is evasive at Manafort trial (The Guardian) – A former campaign aide to Donald Trump lived a “secret life” including an extramarital affair in London, a court heard on Tuesday.  Rick Gates, under cross examination at the tax evasion and bank fraud trial of his former boss Paul Manafort, admitted that he had “another relationship” involving first-class flights and luxury hotels, but denied these were funded with money embezzled from Manafort.

6am – C Florida tourist dies after being punched by driver in New York City following stepsister wedding, reports say (Fox News) – A Florida tourist died Tuesday, two days after he reportedly was punched in the face by a driver he may have mistaken for an Uber driver in New York City.  Sander Szabo, 35, died at the hospital two days after the driver of an SUV delivered a blow to the Florida native’s face, causing Szabo to fall back and slam his head into the pavement, police told the Palm Beach Post on Wednesday. Szabo was in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens returning to his hotel just after 1 a.m. Sunday when he was hit.

6am – D Dem candidate Ben Jealous snaps at reporter for socialism question: ‘You f—ing kidding me?’ (Fox News) – Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous cursed at a reporter on Wednesday for asking if he’s a socialist.  “Not to put too fine a point on it, do you identify with the term socialist?” a reporter asked Jealous during a press conference on Wednesday.  “Are you f—ing kidding me?” replied Jealous, the former leader of the NAACP. “Is that a finer point?”

6am – E Trump administration to hit Russia with new sanctions for Skripal poisoning (NBC News) –          The Trump administration is hitting Russia with new sanctions punishing President Vladimir Putin’s government for using a chemical weapon against an ex-spy in Britain, U.S. officials told NBC News Wednesday.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on a determination that Russia violated international law by poisoning the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in March, officials said, a decision that was announced Wednesday afternoon by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

6am – F Twitter’s Jack Dorsey to Sean Hannity: ‘We do not shadow ban’ (CNBC) – Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called into conservative commentator Sean Hannity’s radio show Wednesday to address recent calls of censorship and so-called “shadow banning” of prominent Republicans.  “We do not shadow ban according to political ideology or viewpoint or content. Period,” Dorsey said.  Dorsey and the social media platform came under fire last month from President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers for the supposed de-emphasizing of conservative accounts. Twitter does limit the visibility in search results for particular accounts it finds to be abusive, but has repeatedly denied doing so based on political beliefs.

7am – A Oscars won’t televise all awards live, adds “popular” film category (New York Times) – Alarmed by plunging television ratings for the Academy Awards, the organization behind the Oscars said on Wednesday it would add a category for blockbuster films and shorten the telecast by giving out some statuettes during commercial breaks.  Yet adding a category for “outstanding achievement in popular film,” as John Bailey, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, put it in a letter to members, could create new problems for the beleaguered organization.

7am – B/C INTERVIEW – Brian Griffiths – Editor-in-Chief of Red Maryland – discussed the latest in the MD gubernatorial race                  

7am – D INTERVIEW – Larry Michael – Voice of the Redskins – discussed and previewed the Redskins first preseason game against the Patriots          

7am – E Space News:

• NASA’s historic mission to ‘Touch the Sun’ will begin on Saturday (BGR.com) – It’s been a long time coming, but NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is finally just days away from its historic launch towards the star that hosts planet Earth, and every living thing mankind knows of. It’s sure to be a mission of many ‘firsts’ and scientists are hoping to learn more about the star than ever before.  At the moment, the launch window is scheduled to open at exactly 3:33 a.m. EDT. The launch will take place from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and you’ll be able to watch it all go down live.

• Vice president to unveil detailed plan Thursday to establish Trump’s Space Force (Washington Post) – The Pentagon is moving toward fulfilling President Trump’s request to establish a Space Force, in what would be the first new branch of the military in more than 70 years.  In a speech at the Pentagon on Thursday at 11:15 a.m., Vice President Pence is scheduled to lay out the administration’s plan. The Pentagon is also expected to release a congressionally mandated report on the plan.

8am – A INTERVIEW – Matt Schlapp – American Conservative Union – discussed midterms and this past week’s primaries  

8am – B CNN’s Jim Acosta defends combative style to Colbert: Can’t ‘sit back and do nothing’ (Daily Beast) – CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta wore American flag socks on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night. He joked that they are from the “enemy of the people collection.”  As CNN’s most beleaguered reporter, Acosta has become a poster boy of sorts in the Trump administration’s war on the free press. Just this past week, he made headlines when he failed to get White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to say that the media is not the “enemy of the people,” as the president likes to say.

8am – C Tom Wilson eats Lucky Charms out of the Stanley Cup (D.C. 101) – Players on the team that hold the Stanley Cup have been known to do some pretty weird things with it. Unlike other sports, where each year a new copy of the league championship trophy is made for the team that wins it, the Stanley Cup is the exact same trophy year-after-year.  Each player on the winning team usually gets one private day with the Cup in their possession. Tom Wilson took advantage of his day with it to eat a bowl of Lucky Charms out of it. Knowing the history of the Cup, we’re not sure we’d do the same. Apparently the Stanley Cup has been pooped and peed in, had dog food eaten out of it, and been licked among many other things.

8am – D/E Dem candidate Ben Jealous snaps at reporter for socialism question: ‘You f—ing kidding me?’ (Fox News) – Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous cursed at a reporter on Wednesday for asking if he’s a socialist.  “Not to put too fine a point on it, do you identify with the term socialist?” a reporter asked Jealous during a press conference on Wednesday.  “Are you f—ing kidding me?” replied Jealous, the former leader of the NAACP. “Is that a finer point?”