Joe diGenova, Rep. Denver Riggleman, MD State Highway Admin’s John Scofield, Weather Channel’s Ray Stagich and VA Del. Tim Hugo joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, January 14, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C             LATEST ON MUELLER/RUSSIA PROBE:

• NYT:  F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia. Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.
• Trump blasts ‘insulting’ report on FBI probe into Russia ties. Trump slams ‘total sleaze’ Comey, ‘corrupt’ FBI leaders, after report bureau launched probe after director’s ouster
• White House’s SARAH: SANDERS RESPONDS: “James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI,” the statement reads. “Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.”
• Lisa Page says the DOJ refused to pursue “gross-negligence” charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server to send classified information. FBI agent Michael Gaeta, head of the Eurasian Crime Squad, who received the dossier from former MI6 spy Steele in July 2016 is referred to in the transcript as Steele’s handler.
• FLASHBACK: PETER STRZOK EXPRESSED CONCERN THAT ‘THERE’S NO BIG THERE THERE’ IN COLLUSION PROBE
• CHUCK ROSS: Without being asked, Mark Warner tells Tapper that he won’t discuss whether he was briefed as part of Gang of 8 about the FBI’s investigation of Trump (VIDEO)
• CHUCK ROSS: ‘OMG, Trump wouldn’t tell Judge Jeanine he’s not a Russian asset!,’ yell the reporters and pundits who hit Trump with the ‘he doth protest too much’ hammer every time he disputes the dossier or denies collusion.

5am – D/E     2020 DEMS

• Tulsi Gabbard to run for president 
• Tulsi Gabbard’s Homophobic Remarks Surface After 2020 Presidential Announcement 
• Julián Castro officially announces 2020 presidential bid
• Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke will head to New York next month for a live interview with Oprah Winfrey as he continues to mull a 2020 presidential run.

6am – A         Messy Commute This Morning In The DMV: What Are Roads Like In Your Area?

6am – B/C     INTERVIEW – RAY STAGICH – Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

• Are we done with snow? What should we expect this week?

6am – D         INTERVIEW – VA DEL. TIM HUGO – — representing the 40th district, which includes the municipalities of Catharpin, Clifton, and Fairfax Station and is the Majority Caucus Chairman for the Virginia House Republican Caucus – discussed what’s on the agenda for this legislative session.

• Va. Gov. Northam urges Republicans to embrace ambitious budget in annual address. (Washington Post) – RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam (D) hailed a “unique opportunity” to spend money on a cornucopia of priorities from public education to rural broadband in a State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday evening, glossing over a deep divide with Republican legislators over tax dollars in a year when all 140 seats of the legislature are up for election. e General Assembly convened earlier Wednesday for its 400th annual session with a little extra pomp, a potential breakthrough on the Equal Rights Amendment and disappointment for gay rights advocates. In his speech, Northam pitched tax and budget plans that hinge on using $1.2 billion in new revenue that the state expects to collect as a result of last year’s federal tax overhaul. He also urged the GOP-controlled legislature to consider his plans to address gun violence — legislation that Republicans snuffed out last year.
• Va. General Assembly to reconvene with elections on the horizon. RICHMOND — A bunch of Virginia legislators, mostly Republicans, stood behind Gov. Ralph Northam (D) as he rolled out a highway-improvement bill on the eve of the General Assembly’s Wednesday kickoff. “I just want to let you know this is the way it works here in Virginia,” Northam joked to a newcomer, Del. Ronnie Campbell (R-Rockbridge), who won a special election in December. “Every idea that I have gets bipartisan support.” Not quite. Northam has faced GOP pushback on other legislation he is pitching in the 46-day session. Tuesday’s gathering on Capitol Square suggests there may still be room for compromise, despite the fact that all 140 seats in the state House and Senate will be on the ballot in November — a dynamic that will color the entire session.

6am – E/F      BABIES REPLACEMENT RATES:

• Data: White American Births Below Replacement Level in Every State. (Breitbart) – The United States birth rate remains well below the replacement level needed as white American births plummet in all 50 states and the District of Colombia. New federal data released by the Center for Disease Control reveals that American women are having less and less children needed to sustain the current population. In 2017, all but two states in the country had birth rates below replacement level. The total U.S. birth rate was about 1.765 children per woman. The U.S. needs a birth rate of at least 2.1 children per woman to replace the current population of the country without experiencing population decreases.
• Americans are having fewer and fewer babies, a new government report finds, and not making enough babies to replace themselves. (NBC News) –– Americans are having fewer and fewer babies, a new government report finds. In fact, we now aren’t making enough babies to replace ourselves. For the population to reproduce itself at current numbers, the “total fertility rate” needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age over their lifetime, researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in their report, released early Thursday. But the latest data show a current rate of just 1,765.5 per 1,000, or 16 percent below the number needed to keep the population stable without additions through immigration. The total fertility rate has been declining steadily for seven years, but the numbers for 2017 represent the biggest drop in recent history. The rate for 2016 was 1,820.5; for 2015, 1,843.5; and for 2014, 1,862.5.
• Millennials cause disruption in pet food market by treating their pets like children. (The Blaze) — Young Americans in the millennial generation often treat their dogs and cats as one would a first-born child, and according to experts, their spending habits show it. Now big pet-food brands are starting to feel the pinch, as these members of so-called “Generation Me” are insisting on higher-end cuisine for their fur babies. The Wall Street Journal reported in November that major pet-food brands are starting to experience the same slump that big-name people-food giants have been battling in recent years: consumers opting for less-processed, fancier product. “Pets are becoming a replacement for children,” Twenge told the Washington Post. “They’re less expensive. You can get one even if you’re not ready to live with someone or get married, and they can still provide companionship.”
• Study Finds People Are Morally Outraged by Those Who Decide Not to Have Kids. According to a study published in 2017 in Sex Roles, some people are outraged when complete strangers decide not to have children. Since the 1970s, the percentage of younger women remaining childless has been on the rise, reports a Pew Research study. In fact, a growing number of couples are choosing small dogs over small humans. But past studies have shown that men and women who choose to be kid-free are often perceived negatively by others. Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, an associate professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, decided to investigate why these perceptions continue to exist, even as birthrates fall in the US. Ashburn-Nardo and her team recruited 197 undergraduate psychology students to participate in the study. After being told the experiment had to do with people’s sense of intuition and how accurately they can predict the future, they were given one of four versions of an anecdote about a married adult’s decision to have children, with variables accounting for gender and whether they had zero or two kids. Participants were then asked to rate how psychologically fulfilled they thought the subject was. In another set of questions, researchers also gleaned if and to what extent participants felt disapproval, angry, outraged, annoyed, and disgusted toward the subject. Not only did participants perceive the voluntarily childfree male and female subjects to be “significantly less psychologically fulfilled than targets with two children,” Ashburn-Nardo notes, they also reported “significantly greater moral outrage” toward them. These findings offer evidence for the theory that parenthood is seen by some as a moral imperative: “In other words,” the study states, “not having children is seen not only as atypical but also as wrong.” An interest in having children is “both a prescriptive and descriptive stereotype for men and women,” the researcher writes. “[W]hen people violate strongly held norms and expectations such as those regarding parenthood and interest in children … there are potentially serious consequences. … This backlash is justified in the minds of perceivers because the targets are thought to have brought it upon themselves by not fulfilling their expected roles.”

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former US Attorney to the District of Columbia

• NYT:  F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia. Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.
• Trump blasts ‘insulting’ report on FBI probe into Russia ties. Trump slams ‘total sleaze’ Comey, ‘corrupt’ FBI leaders, after report bureau launched probe after director’s ouster
• ATTORNEY GENERAL CONFIRMATION HEARING THIS WEEK: William Barr, President Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. attorney general, is expected to be grilled this week during his Senate confirmation hearing before a sharply divided Senate Judiciary Committee … The committee has a new chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Barr on Tuesday will be facing several Democrats who may have 2020 presidential campaign ambitions, including Sen. Cory Booker on New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
• GINSBURG/SCOTUS: Ginsburg to miss next week’s Supreme Court sessions, but recovery ‘on track’

7am – D         SHUTDOWN CONTINUES: Shutdown is now the longest in history as the Dems party on the beach

• Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  4m4 minutes ago “Dems in Puerto Rico as Shutdown hits day 24.”
• Trump continues telling Democrats that he’s waiting to make a deal and tells them to come back from their “vacation” // In several tweets Saturday morning, Trump said that he was waiting at the White House for Democrats to make a deal that would both end the government shutdown and allocate money to construct a physical barrier at the southern border. “Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border,” Trump tweeted. “I am in the White House waiting for you!”
• WILL BOTH SIDES RETURN TO THE BARGAINING TABLE? –  Congress is set to return Monday for its first full week of work since Democrats assumed control of the House and neither President Trump nor Democratic lawmakers show signs of relenting in the battle over the border wall at the center of the partial government shutdown … In an interview with “FOX News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recommended that President Trump open the government for a period of time – perhaps three weeks – while resuming negotiations and trying to reach a deal with Democrats. If Democrats still refuse to compromise on a deal after three weeks, Graham said, Trump should resort to emergency options to get funding for the border wall.
• SHUTDOWN SHENANIGANS – NO WORK AND ALL PLAY FOR DEMS: With the longest government shutdown in U.S. history entering its fourth week, some 30 Democrats are under fire for traveling to Puerto Rico this weekend to meet with lobbyists and to see a special performance of “Hamilton” …While the Democrats also planned on attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC gathering in San Juan and met with Puerto Rican officials to discuss ongoing cleanup efforts from Hurricane Maria, Republicans were angered over images of their Democratic colleagues enjoying the island’s beaches. “While [President Trump] is in DC working to resolve the government shutdown and secure our border, Democrats are hitting the beach and partying with lobbyists,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted. Democrats soaked in the sun while a new potential crisis was also on the horizon at the border. A new caravan was reportedly forming in Honduras with plans to head toward the U.S.
• 30 Democrats in Puerto Rico with 109 lobbyists for weekend despite shutdown. Some 30 Democratic lawmakers left the government shutdown behind Friday on a chartered flight to Puerto Rico for a winter retreat with 109 lobbyists and corporate executives during which they planned to see the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” and attend three parties including one with the show’s cast. Those attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC winter retreat in San Juan planned to meet with key officials to discuss the cleanup after Hurricane Maria at a roundtable Saturday. But the weekend is packed with free time for the members and their families on the trip. Some 109 lobbyists and corporate executives are named in the memo, a rate of 3.6 lobbyists for every member. They include those from several big K Street firms, R.J. Reynolds, Facebook, Comcast, Amazon, PhRMA, Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, and unions like the National Education Association.

7am – E         SNOW IMPACT ON AIRPORTS:

• Flight Delays Pile Up in Washington D.C. as Snowstorm Tracks East. (Washington Post)  Region’s first major snowfall leads to dangerous roads, flight cancellations and power outages. The first significant winter storm of the season unleashed dangerous road conditions, shut down government offices, snarled air travel and closed schools in the nation’s capital, where deserted streets and snow-capped buildings on Sunday served as a fitting image for a city where many federal offices were already closed by a long shutdown. According to the website FlightAware.com, 48 flights were delayed or canceled at the three Washington-area airports.
• Benny Johnson is trapped on an American Air jet in DC and live tweeting it. The Daily Caller’s Benny Johnson is live tweeting from his American Airlines flight that landed in D.C. this afternoon and which has reportedly been stuck on the tarmac for two hours as they wait for a gate to open up:  Benny @bennyjohnson  Dear @americanair – Been sitting on a tarmac in DC for +2 hours.  2. Hours.  The steward refuses to serve us or give us water while we wait.  You should consider revising this policy since there are multiple pregnant/sick people on this flight who are really hurting.

 

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – RON MEYER –  Supervisor, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC).

• Loudoun County Supervisor Ron Meyer (R) plans to run for the state Senate seat being vacated by one of the Virginia legislature’s most vocal conservatives, promising to be “laser focused” on transportation instead of the social issues that have animated retiring Sen. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun).

8am – D         INTERVIEW — REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN – R-VA — discussed the latest on the shutdown and border funding fight.

• Trump continues telling Democrats that he’s waiting to make a deal and tells them to come back from their “vacation” // In several tweets Saturday morning, Trump said that he was waiting at the White House for Democrats to make a deal that would both end the government shutdown and allocate money to construct a physical barrier at the southern border. “Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border,” Trump tweeted. “I am in the White House waiting for you!”
• SHUTDOWN SHENANIGANS – NO WORK AND ALL PLAY FOR DEMS: With the longest government shutdown in U.S. history entering its fourth week, some 30 Democrats are under fire for traveling to Puerto Rico this weekend to meet with lobbyists and to see a special performance of “Hamilton” …While the Democrats also planned on attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC gathering in San Juan and met with Puerto Rican officials to discuss ongoing cleanup efforts from Hurricane Maria, Republicans were angered over images of their Democratic colleagues enjoying the island’s beaches. “While [President Trump] is in DC working to resolve the government shutdown and secure our border, Democrats are hitting the beach and partying with lobbyists,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted. Democrats soaked in the sun while a new potential crisis was also on the horizon at the border. A new caravan was reportedly forming in Honduras with plans to head toward the U.S.

8am – E         ON FRIDAY: TRUMP TO ACOSTA: “Some people are dumb”

TRUMP: Good job yesterday, I appreciate your sales pitch.

ACOSTA: I didn’t see any danger on the border Mr. President

TRUMP: That’s because we had a wall.

ACOSTA: There are some portions that didn’t have a wall

TRUMP: Some people are dumb