White House’s Peter Navarro, Saagar Enjeti and Joe Concha joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C KAVANAUGH THE ICE THROWER:

• NY TIMES: Kavanaugh Was Questioned by Police After Bar Fight in 1985. NEW HAVEN — As an undergraduate student at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a local bar during which he was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report. The incident, which occurred in September 1985 during Mr. Kavanaugh’s junior year, resulted in Mr. Kavanaugh and four other men being questioned by the New Haven Police Department. Mr. Kavanaugh was not arrested, but the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him “for some unknown reason.”
• SARAH SANDERS: Democrats desperately attack Judge Kavanaugh for throwing ice during college. What motivated New York Times reporter to write this ridiculous story? Throwing ice 33 years ago, or her opinion of Judge Kavanaugh in July?

5am – D KEITH ELLISON UPDATE:

• DEMS FIND KEITH ELLISON’S ABUSE ALLEGATIONS “UNSUBSTANTIATED”…….An attorney hired by Minnesota Democrats to investigate domestic abuse allegations against Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison reportedly concluded the accuser’s claim was “unsubstantiated.”
• ………BUT THEY ARE REFERRING IT TO AN INVESTIGATOR: The Minnesota DFL says it will forward an internal report on a domestic abuse claim against Keith Ellison to local authorities for further investigation, after an investigator hired by the party found the claim could not be substantiated.
• MONAHAN WON’T RELEASE THE TAPES: Environmental activist Karen Monahan says she possesses a video of Minnesota Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison physically abusing her but has not released it because “You are not entitled to my pain and trauma,” Monahan tweeted Monday.
• OBAMA STILL NOT ENDORSING ELLISON BUT GIVES OCASIO-CORTEZ THE NOD. Former President Obama released his second round of endorsements for a number of November midterm election candidates on Monday, and alleged domestic abuser Congressman Keith Ellison, who is running for Minnesota Attorney General, was notably left off his list.

5am – E LICENSE PLATE READERS:

• DEA SPENDING TO HIDE LICENSE PLATE READERS IN SIGNS: According to recently released US federal contracting data, the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding the footprint of its nationwide surveillance network with the purchase of “multiple” trailer-mounted speed displays “to be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.” The DEA is buying them from RU2 Systems Inc., a private Mesa, Arizona company. How much it’s spending on the signs has been redacted.
• FLASHBACK 2015: DEA using license-plate readers to take photos of US drivers, documents reveal. ACLU publishes DEA documents that show license plate-scanners also record humans, as face recognition helps government be ‘even more sure of exactly who they are surveilling’ / The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is using license-plate reader technology to photograph motorists and passengers in the US as part of an official exercise to build a database on people’s lives. According to DEA documents published on Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the agency is capturing images of occupants in the front and rear seats of vehicles in a programme that monitors Americans’ travel patterns on a wider scale than previously thought. The disclosure follows the ACLU’s revelation last week about the potential scale of a DEA database containing the data of millions of drivers, which kindled renewed concern about government surveillance

6am – A SWETNICK

• SWETNICK’S STORY HAS A LOT OF HOLES: Swetnick responded, “I don’t remember exactly. But it was about six weeks ago. And then I became aware of Dr. Ford and her description of what had happened to her at a party one time, that also had Brett Kavanaugh involved. And I started to think back to my days when I was, in the early ‘80s in Montgomery County in Maryland.” Six weeks ago from Monday would be August 20. However, Ford did not come out publicly with the allegations until September 16 in a Washington Post story, which was just over two weeks ago.
• SHE’S NOT SURE IT WAS KAVANAUGH: “I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me. But before this happened to me, at that party, I saw Brett Kavanaugh there. I saw Mark Judge there,” she continued. “And they were hanging about the area where I started to feel disoriented and where the room was, and where the other boys were hanging out. And laughing. I could hear them laughing and laughing.”
• Julie Swetnick contradicts sworn statement? Now she isn’t sure if Brett Kavanaugh spiked punch at house parties
• NBC’s Kate Snow: Michael Avenatti’s client Julie Swetnick “told us [things] on camera that differ from her written statement”
  

6am – B Trump calls on Cecilia Vega of ABC News. He says that she’s shocked that he picked her. Then he adds, “That’s OK. I know you’re not thinking. You never do.”

6am – C Toss-Up? New Poll Shows Republican In Dead Heat With Sen. Bob Menendez. Democrats thinking the New Jersey election for the U.S. Senate would be an easy seat to hold on to may have to adjust their expectations. A new poll from Stockton University released Monday shows Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) just two points ahead of his Republican challenger, Bob Hugin, the retired executive chairman of the biopharmaceutical company Celgene Corporation. Menendez leads Hugin 45% to 43%, and Libertarian candidate Murray Sabrin sits at 3% in the poll. The poll also found Menendez continues to be an unpopular candidate, with just 30% of New Jerseyans having a favorable opinion of him and 54% having an unfavorable opinion. Working for the Menendez campaign, however, is the fact that 43% of New Jersey residents have not heard of Hugin. Each candidate has a major issue to overcome: 59% of respondents said the corruption charges against Menendez would weigh on their vote (his trial ended in a mistrial), and 51% said accusations that Hugin profited off a life-saving cancer drug manufactured by his company would also weigh on their vote.

6am – D PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ENDORSEMENTS

• Obama endorses more than 200 Democrats ahead of midterms. WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama is expanding his influence ahead of November’s midterm elections. On Monday, he released a second slate of endorsements for Democrats running for offices ranging from local to national, bringing the total to more than 300.
• Obama Endorses Socialist Ocasio-Cortez: Former President Barack Obama included support for New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a slew of new endorsements for the midterm elections announced Monday. Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary against incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in June in an upset that shook the party establishment. A dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ocasio-Cortez’s victory signaled a sharp shift to the left among the Democratic Party base. Despite her war against the party’s establishment, Ocasio-Cortez still earned Obama’s blessings.
• VIRGINIA: Obama endorses three Democrats running for Congress in Virginia: Former president Barack Obama on Monday endorsed three Virginia Democrats running in competitive congressional races in November. In his second wave of midterm endorsements, Obama gave the nod to: Democrats Abigail Spanberger (Former CIA Operations Officer is challenging Rep. Dave Brat (R) in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District), Jennifer T. Wexton (a Virginia state senator, is challenging Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) in the 10th District, which covers parts of Northern Virginia) and Elaine Luria (Luria, a retired Navy commander, is challenging Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R), a former Navy SEAL, in the 2nd District), who are all seeking to unseat Republican incumbents.
• MARYLAND: Obama’s Maryland endorsements: He also endorsed Democrat Ben Jealous to be Maryland’s next governor. Jealous, a former NAACP president, would be the state’s first black chief executive.
• FLORIDA: Obama endorses Gillum and Nelson but snubs Shalala. MIAMI – Former President Barack Obama endorsed more a dozen Florida Democrats running for office Monday, including gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum and Sen. Bill Nelson.
• TEXAS: Obama did not endorse Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, or Phil Bredesen, a former Democratic governor of Tennessee who is now running for Senate against Republican Rep. Marcia Blackburn.
• ELLISON: Notable absence from Barack Obama’s new round of endorsements: Keith Ellison for attorney general in Minnesota.

6am – E D.C. restaurant hires guards after anti-Kavanaugh crowd harasses Ted Cruz and wife. WASHINGTON — The upscale Italian restaurant Fiola will hire security guards after protesters confronted Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife while dining at the restaurant last week. “We are now living in the aftermath of this PR disaster,” the owner said in an email to customers. Last Monday, the senator and Heidi Cruz were chased out by about a dozen protesters regarding Ted Cruz’s support of embattled Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In the email sent last weekend, owner and chef Fabio Trabocchi said the restaurant had to temporarily take down social media accounts because of hateful comments, and reservation lines were inundated with callers taunting staff and threatening to destroy the restaurant. The email said Trabocchi and his wife, Maria Font Trabocchi, have personally received death threats. “We would have never thought such a thing was possible in the restaurant business,” the email said. In addition to extra security, staff will be retrained to avoid similar instances and encouraged customers to keep coming to Fiola’s because it “will emerge from this challenge quickly.”

Video clips of the confrontation were posted on Twitter by an account called “SmachRacismDC.” The various clips show a protester demanding to know Cruz thought of the allegations and the group chanting, “We believe survivors!” Members of the group told The Washington Post that they had been tipped off to the Cruzes’ reservation that evening and sat at Fiola’s bar for more than an hour awaiting his arrival.

6am – F Trump “deserves praise” on NAFTA deal, Chuck Schumer says. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., gave President Trump rare praise Monday for the renegotiated trade deal between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada announced earlier in the day. Schumer said that Trump “deserves praise” for taking “large steps” to improve the outgoing North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump had derided for years as a “disaster.” The new deal, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, was reached late Sunday night between the three countries after months of negotiations. “As someone who voted against NAFTA and opposed it for many years, I knew it needed fixing. The president deserves praise for taking large steps to improve it,” Schumer said. “However, any final agreement must be judged on how it benefits and protects middle-class families and the working people in our country.” “Two areas where I particularly want to see the details are dairy, where our dairy farmers are being taken advantage of by Canada, and real enforcement of labor provisions,” Schumer continued. “Labor provisions are good, but too often they are written into trade bills and never enforced.”

7am – A INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller – discussed the latest on the Canada trade deal and latest on Kavanaugh. – Canada trade / Kavanaugh news, etc

7am – B Georgetown professor calls for the white men on the Senate Judiciary Committee to be castrated and their bodies fed to pigs. Georgetown Professor Says White Republicans Should Be Castrated, Fed To Swine. A professor at Georgetown University known for making incendiary comments against supporters of President Donald Trump said white men deserve “miserable deaths” for supporting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. C. Christine Fair, an associate professor at Georgetown in the School of Foreign Service, tweeted Saturday, saying white Republican men should die and an added bonus would be if women “castrate their corpses and feed them to swine.” Her tweet was in response to South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s comments in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He defended Kavanaugh against an “unethical sham” and slammed Democrats for not releasing sexual assault allegations against the judge for weeks after they first received them. In the tweet Fair called Kavanaugh a “serial rapist,” although he has never been convicted or even accused of rape. The FBI is currently investigating the accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh and plans to have its investigation finished by Friday.

7am – C Catholic U. students protest dean who disparaged Kavanaugh accuser. Catholic University students protested Monday, objecting to a dean whose comments on social media last week questioned allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. More than 100 students, alumni and others gathered on campus to “demand dignity for survivors of sexual assault, and to reject victim-blaming in all its forms,” according to their shared announcement of the campus protest. They demanded the resignation of William C. Rainford, dean of the National Catholic School of Social Service, because of “a series of disturbing tweets. The tweets not only mocked a survivor of a campus sexual assault, but also suggested a scenario in which she was instead a perpetrator.” “He has lost the confidence of the vast majority of students,” said Anthony Hain, a student in the master’s program at the school, “as well as a growing and large number of alumni.” Catholic’s president, John Garvey, said Friday evening in an email to the campus that the remarks “demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim,” and announced that while it is his wish that Rainford continue to lead the school, Rainford’s remarks were unacceptable. As a result, Garvey said, the dean would be suspended for the semester. Rainford apologized Thursday for a remark he said “unfortunately degraded” a woman who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. He deleted his social media accounts. Rainford did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the school did not immediately return a request for comment Monday morning. Forty-five students walked out of classes Thursday, objecting to Rainford’s tweets. Rainford’s tweet about one of the women, Julie Swetnick, who recently accused Kavanaugh of past sexual misconduct, offended many students and graduates. “Swetnick is 55 y/o,” Rainford posted Wednesday on his @NCSSSDean Twitter account. “Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!”

7am – D MITCH MCCONNELL / VOTE THIS WEEK:

• Top Senate Republican says chamber will vote this week on Kavanaugh, says “endless delays and obstruction” will end. McConnell on the Senate Floor: “The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close…. Mr. President, we’ll be voting this week.”
• Senate Majority Leader McConnell says Kavanaugh was “rightfully angry.” “Who wouldn’t be? That his good name and his family have been dragged through the mud with a campaign of character assassinations based on allegations that lack any corroboration”

7am – E Kanye West: I Want to Set Up a Meeting Between Trump and Colin Kaepernick. Kanye West (or Ye as he’s calling himself these days) thinks he can be a peacemaker between Donald Trump and Colin Kaepernick. The rapper gave an interview to TMZ’s Harvey Levin on Monday, saying he’s trying to arrange a meeting at the White House between the president and the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. “I’ve been calling Colin this morning, reaching him, so I can bring Colin to the White House and we can remove that ‘sons of bitches’ statement and we can be on the same page,” said West. “We never give up on anyone. We move forward. We give love. We keep going. We keep having the conversation, until the conversation turns to love, we keep going.” West has been raising eyebrows again with his most recent political statements. He was booed when he went on a pro-Trump tangent during his appearance on Saturday Night Live, and over the weekend he blasted the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery nationwide after the Civil War).

8am – A INTERVIEW – PETER NAVARRO – White House trade adviser, serves as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council

Trump “deserves praise” on NAFTA deal, Chuck Schumer says. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., gave President Trump rare praise Monday for the renegotiated trade deal between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada announced earlier in the day. Schumer said that Trump “deserves praise” for taking “large steps” to improve the outgoing North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump had derided for years as a “disaster.” The new deal, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, was reached late Sunday night between the three countries after months of negotiations.

8am – B/C KAVANAUGH THE ICE THROWER:

• NY TIMES: Kavanaugh Was Questioned by Police After Bar Fight in 1985. NEW HAVEN — As an undergraduate student at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh was involved in an altercation at a local bar during which he was accused of throwing ice on another patron, according to a police report. The incident, which occurred in September 1985 during Mr. Kavanaugh’s junior year, resulted in Mr. Kavanaugh and four other men being questioned by the New Haven Police Department. Mr. Kavanaugh was not arrested, but the police report stated that a 21-year-old man accused Mr. Kavanaugh of throwing ice on him “for some unknown reason.”
• SARAH SANDERS: Democrats desperately attack Judge Kavanaugh for throwing ice during college. What motivated New York Times reporter to write this ridiculous story? Throwing ice 33 years ago, or her opinion of Judge Kavanaugh in July?

8am – D/E INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media reporter, The Hill

• TOPIC: Media coverage of Kavanaugh and also how much media coverage the Canada deal got from the MSM outlets
• Broadcasters grant only 4% of Brett Kavanaugh news coverage to judge’s side of story: Study
• NYT: Brett Kavanaugh Instigated Bar Fight After UB40 Concert, Police Report Reveals. Supreme Court nominee, then a junior at Yale, sparked altercation with man mistaken for UB40 singer Ali Campbell