Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti, Washington-Lee Alum Dean Fleming and Border Patrol Union’s Brandon Judd joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

 

5am – A/B/C TRUMP ADDRESS: What Do You Want Him To Say Tonight?

5am – D         Ruth Bader Ginsburg misses Supreme Court arguments for the first time in more than 25 years. (CBS News) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is missing oral arguments for the first time in more than 25 years, the Supreme Court said Monday. She is recuperating from cancer surgery last month. Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Monday the 85-year-old Ginsburg has been and continues to work from home after doctors removed two cancerous growths from her left lung on Dec. 21. She will still participate on the basis of transcripts and briefs, the Supreme Court said.  She was discharged from a New York hospital on Christmas day. Ginsburg had two earlier cancer surgeries in 1999 and 2009 that did not cause her to miss court sessions. She also has broken ribs on at least two occasions. The court said doctors found the growths on Ginsburg’s lung when she was being treated for rib fractures she suffered in a fall at her office on Nov. 7.

5am – E         MUELLER / HUBER:

• DEMS MAY RELEASE MUELLER’S REPORT TO CIRCUMVENT EXEC PRIVILEGE: Democrats who now control the House have said they’ll demand that the department hand over the report — and that they intend to make it public. The White House may counter by asserting executive privilege to prevent key findings from being turned over, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. Under the federal regulation that authorizes special counsels, Mueller is required only to submit his report to department leaders. There’s no mandate that any part of Mueller’s findings be provided to Congress or the public.
• BI-PARTISAN BILL TO PROTECT MUELLER: The legislation, sponsored by incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and three other members, is expected to be introduced this week. The same bill was approved by the panel in April but later blocked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said it was unnecessary and who allowed the legislation to expire at the end of the year.
• HOUSE REPUBLICANS WANT ANSWERS FROM HUBER: House Republicans are demanding that the Justice Department update them on the ongoing review of the FBI’s actions during its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, as well as its investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign. GOP Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the new ranking members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees, respectively, are asking U.S. Attorney John Huber to answer a handful of questions by Jan. 21.

 

6am – A/B/C DEMS PREPPING FOR 2020:

• ESQUIRE: A Joe Biden 2020 Campaign Would Be the Most Divisive Thing for the Democratic Field
• Biden likely to make decision on 2020 run within next two weeks: report. Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is likely to make a decision on whether he will run for the presidency in 2020 within the next two weeks, according to a New York Times report.  Biden has reportedly told those close to him that he does not feel other potential Democratic presidential contenders could beat President Trump.  The former vice president has been contacting supporters and allies over the last few weeks, the Times reported.
• MCAULIFFE: Speaking to @KateBolduan, former VA Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he’ll make his decision on 2020 “totally independent” of what Biden does. Adds he’s “always been a big fan of Joe Biden” and hopes he gets in. “The more the merrier.”
• Vermont Paper: For Pete’s Sake, Bernie, Don’t Run Again! It’s a little early in the 2020 season for local newspapers to endorse favorite sons or daughters. One Vermont newspaper’s editors think the time is perfect for an anti-endorsement, however. “Bernie Sanders should not run for president,” a Saturday editorial in the Times Argus began. “In fact, we beg him not to”: We fear a Sanders run risks dividing the well-fractured Democratic Party, and could lead to another split in the 2020 presidential vote. There is too much at stake to take that gamble. If we are going to maintain a two-party system, the mandate needs to be a clear one. There is strength in numbers, and if anything has been shown in recent years, it is that unless tallies are overwhelming, there can always be questions or challenges raised over what “vote totals” really mean: popular vote vs. Electoral College results. For us, this comes down to principle over ego. It is one thing to start a revolution, but at a certain point you need to know when to step out of the way and let others carry the water for you.
• BETO: “Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke is asking aides to create an itinerary for him to take a solo road trip outside of Texas where he would “pop into places” such as community college campuses”

6am – D         NETWORKS DEBATING WHETHER TO INTERRUPT PROGRAMMING: (NBC) — As of early Monday evening, CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC had decided to air Trump’s address, according to sources familiar with the decisions who were not authorized to speak publicly. Late Monday, PBS and Telemundo confirmed plans to broadcast Trump’s remarks. The major cable news channels — MSNBC, CNN and Fox News — were also planning to air the speech. The decisions came after an afternoon of debate on social media about whether the networks should give Trump the requested airtime, and what precautions they should take about what he might say. According to The New York Times, the White House has officially made the request to the networks to interrupt their primetime schedules. Times reporter Michael Grynbaum initially reported that braodcast networks were hesitant because of “skepticism about handing over airwaves for political statement.”

• CNN analyst wants a delay on Trump’s Oval Office address so journalists can ‘contextualize’ it:  CNN National Security and Legal Analyst Susan Hennessey @Susan_Hennessey:  There is absolutely zero benefit to viewers of networks covering this live as opposed to on a sufficient delay for 1. journalists to fact check and contextualize and 2. Pelosi or Schumer to be given a similarly prominent opportunity to respond.
• BRIAN STELTER Brian Stelter @brianstelter: Update to the update: NBC, ABC, and CBS will all carry Trump’s address Tuesday night. Wall to wall coverage of his pro-wall speech. Hopefully surrounded by fact-checking.
• Brian Stelter @brianstelter: For network execs, tradition and news judgment — “a presidential address from the Oval Office” — outweighed concerns about a speech filled with falsehoods.
• NBC: Should the TV networks air the president’s prime time address Tuesday? Networks face pressure on whether President Trump’s address warrants prime time coverage.
• Journalist Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg: 15h15 hours ago: Interesting challenge for networks/news organizations on Trump address re: border wall. If you have ever reason to suspect that the President will lie or at least deliberately mislead in his national remarks, do you give him airtime live?
• Sarah Westwood @sarahcwestwood: 16h16 hours ago: President Trump has asked aides about the prospect of doing a primetime address tomorrow about the shutdown and wall funding, @jeffzeleny reports. Trump is heading to the border Thursday. But it’s not yet clear the networks would agree to take it.
• Felicia Sonmez @feliciasonmez: 15h15 hours ago: Trump is seeking to make a national prime time address on the topic of immigration Tuesday night, although it is currently unclear whether the TV networks will agree to carry it
• Liberals To Broadcast Networks: Don’t Air Trump’s Big Speech On The Shutdown And The Wall
• FLASHBACK: Why major US TV networks didn’t show Obama’s 2014 immigration address (Ratings! And the White House never formally requested it…)

6am – E         Samuel L. Jackson praises Tlaib use of ‘motherf—er’ to describe Trump. Actor Samuel L. Jackson on Sunday emphatically endorsed Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-Mich.) impassioned call to impeach President Trump. Just hours after being sworn in as a new member of Congress on Thursday, Tlaib took a microphone at an event and told the crowd of supporters that “we’re going to go in and impeach the motherf—er,” referring to the president. Jackson, who is known for using the phrase in a number of his films, took to Twitter on Sunday night to “wholeheartedly endorse” Tlaib’s choice of language.

6am – F         Pelosi, Schumer say Democrats should get ‘equal airtime’ after Trump address. (Fox News) – Democratic leaders on Monday night called for equal airtime in response to President Donald Trump’s primetime address to the nation on southern border security scheduled for Tuesday evening. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that since Trump’s speech will be broadcast, the other side of the aisle should have their fair share of broadcast time, too. “Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime,” they said in a statement. Trump said he’ll be talking at 9 p.m. ET about the U.S.-Mexico border — the fight over which sparked the partial government shutdown. The address will be carried live by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and NBC.

 

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – White House Correspondent for The Daily Caller @esaagar — previewed Trump delivering a primetime address about the border Tuesday night.

7am – B/C     TUCKER CARLSON/ELIZABETH WARREN: In 2003, Elizabeth Warren wrote a book about how the entry of mothers into the workforce has been a disaster for families and the country

7am – D         INTERVIEW — DEAN FLEMING – VP of the Washington Lee Alumni Association – discussed the push for local school name changes and the upcoming school board meeting for Washington-Lee High School.

• The Arlington School Board is scheduled to officially chose the new name for Washington-Lee High School on Thursday, January 10th.
• Washington-Lee HS in Virginia may soon be renamed Washington-Loving. Arlington’s School Board is set to pick a new name for Washington-Lee High School this week, putting an end to the simmering debate over how to best strip Robert E. Lee’s name from the building. The Board voted in June to remove the Confederate general’s name from the school’s moniker, kicking off months of squabbling over potential new names and even a failed lawsuit seeking to block the change. A renaming committee has recommended “Washington-Loving” to honor the Virginia couple who successfully challenged the state’s ban on interracial marriage, while “Washington-Liberty” earned the support of some committee members as a secondary recommendation. Others still supported swapping in one Lee for another, particularly William Lee, George Washington’s enslaved manservant.
• UNDERREPORTED: BACK IN DECEMBER:  School Board Names New Middle School for Dorothy Hamm, Ditches Any Reference to Stratford School. Arlington’s School Board named a new Cherrydale middle school after civil rights activist Dorothy Hamm, opting against including any reference to the historic Stratford School on the new building’s site. The original school was named after Stratford Hall, the childhood plantation home of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, making some uncomfortable with the name’s connection to Lee’s legacy of defending slavery
• JEB STUART HIGH NAME CHANGE SPIRRED A RETIREMENT ON THE SCHOOL BAORD: Sandy Evans announces retirement from school board one day before petition filed to remove her (Fairfax County Times Dec 28, 2018) — Evans’s retirement announcement on Dec. 19 came a day before a group of Fairfax County residents filed a petition with the Fairfax County Circuit Court calling for her removal from the school board. Signed by 1,307 registered voters from Mason District, the petition argues that Evans’s handling of a student-initiated campaign to change the name of Falls Church’s J.E.B. Stuart High School constituted a “neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties [that had] a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office,” according to a press release announcing the filing.

7am – E         Whoopi Goldberg to Ocasio-Cortez: “Sit still” and “learn the job” before you “start pooping on people” / “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg on Monday called out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), saying the freshman congresswoman has to “do something” in office before she can “start pooping on people and what they’ve done.” “[Ocasio-Cortez is] very opinionated, which we like. We like opinionated women,” Golberg said on “The View.” “But it is very, very difficult when people make accusations where you say, you know, the Democrats have done nothing, the establishment of the Democrats have done nothing. “And I just want to throw this out to you. [Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)] wasn’t sitting still. [Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)] wasn’t sitting still,” she continued, adding that politicians like them have been “busting their asses” for the American people. “You just got in there, and I know you got lots of good ideas, but I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job. There are people in that party who have been working their tails off for this country. You could learn some stuff from them.” Goldberg concluded by saying that “you don’t have to be born into it.” “You don’t have to know it when you step out, but before you start pooping on people and what they’ve done, you got to do something, too,” she said.  Ocasio-Cortez, 29, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in November and is considered a rising progressive star in the Democratic Party.

 

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – BRANDON JUDD – president of the National Border Patrol Council @BPUnion – previewed President Trump delivering a primetime address about the border Tuesday night.

8am – D         Snoop Dogg posted this intense video to his Instagram page, attacking President Trump over the government shutdown — urging federal workers not the vote for Trump in 2020.