Joe diGenova, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, Stephen Moore, former FBI official Ron Hosko & Reihan Salam joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, October 1, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Do You Trust The FBI To Do A Fair Investigation?

• Jeff Flake calls for delay of full Kavanaugh vote and FBI investigation of allegations. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate while proposing a delay of no more than one week before a full vote, so that the FBI can complete an investigation into allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. “I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope, to the current allegations.,” Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said. “This country is being ripped apart here.”
• Trump changes course by ordering FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. (CNN) President Donald Trump ordered a limited, week-long FBI probe of the allegations against his Supreme Court pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. It was a 180-degree turn from his previous statements about making such a move. After the initial accusations against Kavanaugh from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford emerged nearly two weeks ago, the White House touted what was described as a “very thorough” background check process by the FBI, citing the six previous pristine investigations as evidence the confirmation process should move ahead. And asked multiple times whether he would order the FBI to reopen its investigation, Trump suggested that the FBI “doesn’t do that.” But on Friday, amid threats by key Republican Sen. Jeff Flake and growing uncertainty that Kavanaugh would have enough votes for confirmation, the Senate stalled the process to allow a probe into the allegations. Following the committee’s vote, Trump cast a more deferential tone. “I will be totally reliant on what Sen. [Chuck] Grassley and the group decides to do,” he said of an additional investigation Friday during an Oval Office meeting with the Chilean President.

5am – D/E     Republicans’ prosecutor says Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, has a weak case. WASHINGTON — The sex crimes prosecutor hired last week by Senate Republicans to question witnesses about a sexual assault claim against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said Sunday night that his accuser has a very weak case. Rachel Mitchell issued a five-page report in which she said Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a small, suburban house party in 1982 normally would be “incredibly difficult to prove.” But “this case is even weaker than that,” Mitchell wrote to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them.

6am – A/B/C WILL DEMS EVER BE HAPPY WITH KAVANAUGH?

• Democrats are threatening to investigate Brett Kavanaugh if he is confirmed for the Supreme Court and they take control of the House in the midterm elections

• DEMOCRATS WON’T MAKE IT EASY FOR KAVANAUGH: Democratic lawmakers ratcheted up their threats against Brett Kavanaugh as the FBI investigates his background, vowing to conduct more probes if he is confirmed for the Supreme Court and if they take control of the House … “If he is on the Supreme Court and the Senate hasn’t investigated, then the House will have to,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said on ABC’s “This Week.” Nadler added that the House would investigate if lawmakers felt the FBI investigation wasn’t thorough. “We would have to investigate any credible allegations certainly of perjury and other things that haven’t properly been looked into before,” he said.
• Republican Sen. Jeff Flake Forces A Delay In Senate Vote On Kavanaugh. The Senate Judiciary Committee began Friday morning with an early vote scheduled on whether to send the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate floor. Then came a dramatic confrontation by the Senate elevators, a partial walkout by Democrats and a surprise finish from the senator in the middle, Arizona Republican Jeff Flake.

6am – D         Flake confronted by two female protesters after announcing he’ll back Kavanaugh. Washington (CNN) Sen. Jeff Flake was confronted at the US Capitol Friday morning by two women who say they are sexual assault survivors, an event that happened just hours before he called for a delay of the Senate vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Arizona Republican, a key swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was stopped in a Senate office building elevator on his way to the panel’s vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh and excoriated by two women who wanted to know why he was voting yes. Flake ended up voting with his Republican committee members to vote Kavanaugh’s nomination favorably out of the committee to the Senate floor but seemed to have a change of heart. He voted for Kavanaugh on the condition that the Senate delay the floor vote by one week so the FBI could investigate the claim. It is unclear how his call for an FBI probe will change his backing of Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh has been accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her decades ago. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegation. The women who confronted Flake sharply criticized him moments after his initial statement of support was made public. “What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children,” one of the women, Ana Maria Archila, yelled at Flake. “I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir?” “I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me,” the other woman, Maria Gallagher, told Flake.

6am – E         RATINGS:

• LAST MAN STANDING RATINGS ARE IN: “Last Man Standing” debuted its seventh season on Friday night and brought in a 1.8 rating among adults aged 18-49, totaling slightly more than eight million viewers. That’s higher than its final season on ABC, which averaged a 1.2 and brought in 6.41 million viewers on same day ratings, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
• Season 7 of ‘Last Man Standing’ debuts on new network, Fox, to big Friday-night ratings
• CNN COMES IN 10^TH: According to AdWeek, CNN came in tenth place during prime time in the week of September 17-23, while cable news competitors Fox News and MSNBC came in first and third place, respectively.
• Fox News Beats CNN and MSNBC Combined in Kavanaugh Hearing Viewers

6am – F         D.C. NEWS:

• D.C. Council to vote Oct. 2 on whether to ban renting out second homes on Airbnb. The District would bar property owners from using Airbnb or similar companies to rent out second homes under a revised bill to go before the D.C. Council on Tuesday, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Thursday. The long-awaited new version of the legislation also would limit rentals of a primary residence when the owner is away to 90 days in a calendar year. There would be no limit on renting out space in one’s home, such as an extra bedroom or basement, when the host is present. If approved, as Mendelson said he expects, the bill would represent a victory for critics of short-term rentals including the hotel industry, hotel workers union and neighborhood associations. They have said that the rapid growth of short-term rentals was reducing the availability of affordable housing and disrupting neighborhoods.
• Voters approved Initiative 77 to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15/hour. Tuesday that vote could be repealed.  Showdown looming at D.C. Council to overturn Initiative 77, the tipped wage hike. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said Friday that he has secured enough votes and is moving ahead to overturn a voter-approved minimum wage increase for servers, bartenders and other tipped workers in the nation’s capital. The council is scheduled Tuesday to vote on Mendelson’s emergency legislation to repeal Initiative 77 before it takes effect on Oct. 9. Emergency legislation requires the support of nine of 13 members. Lawmakers on Tuesday will also cast the first of two votes to permanently overturn the ballot measure, which requires a simple majority. But another group of lawmakers is trying to hash out a compromise that could preserve a watered-down version of the law.

7am – A/B     INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – shared thoughts on FBI investigation into Kavanaugh and Rosenstein testifying this week;

• Jeff Flake calls for delay of full Kavanaugh vote and FBI investigation of allegations.
• SCOTUS new term begins without Kavanaugh
• ROSENSTEIN TO MEET W/HOUSE REPUBLICANS THIS WEEK: Embattled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to meet with House Republicans next week to explain reports he allegedly suggested secretly recording President Donald Trump and raised invoking the 25th Amendment to have him removed from office as unfit

7am – C         D.C. council member says he was pushed out door of nightclub. D.C. Council member Vince Gray said he was pushed out of a nightclub in Northeast Saturday night after going there for an event sponsored by the District government , according to authorities. A spokesman for Gray (D-Ward 7) said a dispute broke out over acceptance of his council identification card at the club, the DC Eagle. According to Gray’s spokesman, an employee “wouldn’t accept” the card. Gray “basically told the guy to chill out,” and was shoved out the door, said the spokesman, Chuck Theis. Theis said Gray was at the club for “Art All Night,” a city wide arts festival. A police report said Gray reported that he fell and was injured after being pushed out the door. The report said he refused medical attention at the scene.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – DC COUNCILMEMBER PHIL MENDELSON – Chairman of the DC COUNCIL

• D.C. Council to vote Oct. 2 on whether to ban renting out second homes on Airbnb. The District would bar property owners from using Airbnb or similar companies to rent out second homes under a revised bill to go before the D.C. Council on Tuesday, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Thursday. The long-awaited new version of the legislation also would limit rentals of a primary residence when the owner is away to 90 days in a calendar year. There would be no limit on renting out space in one’s home, such as an extra bedroom or basement, when the host is present. If approved, as Mendelson said he expects, the bill would represent a victory for critics of short-term rentals including the hotel industry, hotel workers union and neighborhood associations. They have said that the rapid growth of short-term rentals was reducing the availability of affordable housing and disrupting neighborhoods.
• Voters approved Initiative 77 to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15/hour. Tuesday that vote could be repealed.  Showdown looming at D.C. Council to overturn Initiative 77, the tipped wage hike. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said Friday that he has secured enough votes and is moving ahead to overturn a voter-approved minimum wage increase for servers, bartenders and other tipped workers in the nation’s capital. The council is scheduled Tuesday to vote on Mendelson’s emergency legislation to repeal Initiative 77 before it takes effect on Oct. 9. Emergency legislation requires the support of nine of 13 members. Lawmakers on Tuesday will also cast the first of two votes to permanently overturn the ballot measure, which requires a simple majority. But another group of lawmakers is trying to hash out a compromise that could preserve a watered-down version of the law.

7am – E         “Saturday Night Live” took aim at Brett Kavanaugh in its season opener, with actor Matt Damon portraying the Supreme Court nominee in a sketch mocking his testimony on the sexual assault allegations against him. In the 13-minute cold open, Damon depicts Kavanaugh as an angry, beer-obsessed bro as he fields questions from senators and repeatedly references his 1982 calendars. “I’m going to start at an 11. I’m going to take it to about a 15 real quick,” Damon begins his opening statement as Kavanaugh. Throughout the sketch, Damon repeatedly makes references to memories from his days with friends “P.J.,” “Tobin,” and “Squi,” including lifting weights and drinking “a couple thousand beers.” “I’m here tonight because of a sham,” Damon says as Kavanaugh. “A political con job orchestrated by the Clintons, George Soros, and Kathy Griffin.” Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford appeared separately in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week to give testimony. Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party while the two were in high school together in the 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, as well as another sexual misconduct allegations against him. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, but senators have reached a deal to delay a floor vote for a week while the FBI reopens its background investigation into Kavanaugh over the allegations.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — STEVE MOORE — Chief Economist at The Heritage Foundation

• Pres. Trump hails “historic transaction” as U.S. and Canada reach agreement on new trade deal.
• US and Canada reach deal on NAFTA after talks go down to the wire.  (CNN) Canada agreed late Sunday to sign on to a trade deal between the United States and Mexico, revamping the three-country North American Free Trade Agreement after more than a year of tortuous negotiations. Just hours before a midnight deadline, the US and Canadian governments agreed to a deal that would allow US farmers greater access to Canada’s dairy market and address concerns about potential US auto tariffs, officials from both countries said. The agreement with Canada and Mexico — two of the United States’ biggest trading partners — fulfills President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA and avoids his threat to exclude Canada if the talks failed. The new deal has a new name: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home,” said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in a joint statement. Trump praised the agreement early Monday as a “great deal” for all three countries that would expand markets for American farmers and manufacturers. “The USMCA is a historic transaction!” he said on Twitter.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – RON HOSKO – former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and currently the ‎President at Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund — discussed the Kavanaugh-FBI investigation and what it could look like.

8am – D         INTERVIEW  — REIHAN SALAM – Executive editor of National Review and authior of new book  “Melting Pot or Civil War? A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders” (@reihan) – discussed his new book.

• LAST WEEK: More Than 22 Million Illegal Aliens In U.S., Study Finds.  A new study by two Yale professors and an instructor at MIT puts the number of illegal aliens in America at 22.1 million — more than twice previous estimates. Most media outlets have reported that some 11.3 million illegals live in the U.S., but researchers Edward Kaplan, Jonathan Feinstein and Mohammad Fazel‐Zarandi say that’s not even close to the actual number. “Our original idea was just to do a sanity check on the existing number,” said Kaplan, a professor of operations research at Yale School of Management, according to a report in Yale Insights.
• Melting Pot or Civil War?: A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders by Reihan Salam (Author) / Why would a son of immigrants call for tighter restrictions on immigration? For too long, liberals have suggested that only cruel, racist, or nativist bigots would want to restrict immigration. Anyone motivated by compassion and egalitarianism would choose open, or nearly-open, borders—or so the argument goes. Now, Reihan Salam, the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, turns this argument on its head. In this deeply researched but also deeply personal book, Salam shows why uncontrolled immigration is bad for everyone, including people like his family. Our current system has intensified the isolation of our native poor, and risks ghettoizing the children of poor immigrants. It ignores the challenges posed by the declining demand for less-skilled labor, even as it exacerbates ethnic inequality and deepens our political divides. If we continue on our current course, in which immigration policy serves wealthy insiders who profit from cheap labor, and cosmopolitan extremists attack the legitimacy of borders, the rise of a new ethnic underclass is inevitable.  Even more so than now, class politics will be ethnic politics, and national unity will be impossible.

8am – E         Breaking News: Kate Upton Comes Out Against Kavanaugh. Kate Upton came out strongly against Judge Brett Kavanaugh following his fiery hearing Thursday. Upton, who tends keep her political beliefs to herself, issued a clear message on Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday night.  The supermodel posted a quote from Dr. Ford that she said during her hearing: “I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one’s pawn,” adding, “It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell the truth.” Kate Upton captioned the photo with the hashtag #IBelieveChristineBlaseyFord.