Cal Thomas, Ken Cuccinelli, Noah Rothman, Joe Concha and Henry Rodgers joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

 

5am – A/B/C SOTU REACTION / HIGHLIGHTS:

• TRUMP CALLS FOR STATE OF UNITY, NOT REVENGE: President Trump, in his State of the Union address Tuesday, railed against “ridiculous” investigations and “politics of revenge” and pleaded for unity as Washington again finds itself deadlocked over border security funding and on the verge of another government shutdown … Touting economic gains during his first two years in office, as well as legislative wins on issues like criminal justice reform, Trump warned that deepening partisan tensions undermine America’s progress. “An economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to Democratic congressional probes of his administration and possibly to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way.” At the same time, the president did not back down from his insistence that Congress fund a border wall, which was at the center of a 35-day government shutdown that ended only a few weeks ago and could fuel another shutdown on Feb. 15. Tolerance for illegal immigration, Trump said, is “not compassionate,” but “cruel.” “Simply put, walls work and walls save lives,” Trump said. “So let’s work together, compromise and reach a deal that will truly make America safe.” However, top Democrats signaled that Trump’s State of the Union address did little to convince them that a legislative compromise to construct his proposed border wall is possible.
• SOCIALISM: President Trump vowed during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that “America will never be a socialist country,” in an apparent rebuke to self-described Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders that drew loud cheers and a standing ovation from Republicans in the House chamber — as well as supportive applause from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi … In response, after the speech, Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News: “I thought it was great. I think he’s scared.” Pres. Trump: “Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and Independence and not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free.”
• IMMIGRATION: Trump: We have an obligation “to the millions of immigrants living here today who followed our rules and respected our laws. … I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.”
• MARK KRIKORIAN: “I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever” — like I’ve always said, the guy is not a restrictionist.
• “Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls, and gates and guards.”
• TRUMP: Now is the time to show America is for ending illegal immigration and to put cartels and coyote traffickers out of business.” (applause.. kamala just shakes her head) and TRUMP goes on to talk about caravans
• Trump: “As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States.” Dems start to boo. Pelosi briefly gives a hand signal to chill
• “I will get it built!”
• “Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate—it is cruel.”
• Pres. Trump introduces Debra Bissell: “Just three weeks ago, Debra’s parents…were burglarized and shot to death in their Reno, Nevada, home by an illegal alien. They were in their 80s, and they’re survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, & 20 great-grandchildren.”
• LADIES IN WHITE: ‘Don’t sit yet, you’re gonna like this’: Women in Congress cheer as President Trump points out that there are more of them now than ever before in U.S. history
• ABORTION: Democratic congresswomen do not react after Pres. Trump says he will ask Congress to “pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children”
• PARTISAN INVESTIGATIONS: House chamber erupts in “Happy Birthday” and applause to Judah Samet, who survived Nazi Germany 75 years ago in a concentration camp, and escaped the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October. Today is his 81st birthday. Trump jokes after: “They wouldn’t do that for me Judah.”
• FIRST STEP ACT: Pres also honors Matthew Charles, also a guest of the First Lady, as “the very first person to be released from prison under the First Step Act.” “Welcome home,” the president tells him.
• “Alice, thank you for reminding us that we always have the power to shape our own destiny.”  The First Step Act was a key bipartisan deal on criminal justice reform that brings relief to many incarcerated people. #SOTU

5am – D/E     KAMALA AND CORY GO AFTER JUDICIAL NOMINEE:

• The Senate Judiciary Committee met to consider Neomi Rao, President Donald Trump’s nominee for newest Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s now-vacant seat on a powerful appellate court in Washington. On Tuesday, the New Jersey Democratic senator tried to turn up the heat once again while grilling Neomi Rao, the nominee to replace Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., on whether she ever had any LGBTQ law clerks. The question was part of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s bid to explore her views on LGBTQ rights, given her past writings – but there was a problem: Rao currently isn’t a judge, and doesn’t have law clerks. “Have you ever had any LGBTQ law clerks?” Booker asked. Rao responded: “Senator, I’ve yet to be a judge. I don’t have law clerks.” Booker didn’t miss a beat, and clarified that he meant “someone working for you.” Rao is currently the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a position described as the Trump administration’s “deregulatory czar.”
• KAMALA PRESSES HER ON WOMEN TAKING STEPS TO AVOID SEXUAL ASSAULT: Ms Rao, who serves as Trump’s “czar” overseeing regulatory rollbacks, faced fierce questioning from Democrats not just for her work in the Trump administration but for commentary she wrote decades ago as a Yale University student suggesting women should change their behaviour to avoid date rape. Kamala Harris on Twitter: “Here’s the bottom line: survivors of sexual assault should not be blamed for the trauma they’ve experienced. Neomi Rao’s prior writings about sexual assault are completely unacceptable and her responses to my questions today were deeply troubling.”

 

6am – A/B/C SOTU REACTION / HIGHLIGHTS         

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist – shared his thoughts on the State of The Union.

6am – E         BERNIE SANDERS response to the State of The Union — Sanders attempts to rip on Trump’s comments about the economy by saying Trump’s billionaire friends ‘have never had it so good’

6am – F         AOC SOTU REAX:

• The progressive firebrand pointedly did not applaud as Trump condemned human trafficking and illegal immigration in his address. In an interview later Tuesday night, Ocasio-Cortez said she was asking herself, “Is this a campaign stop or is this a State of the Union?” She is set to unveil a massive “Green New Deal” with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey next week.
• OCASIO-CORTEZ CRITICIZES TRUMP’S SOTU ADDRESS: ON MADDOW: Ocasio-Cortez on Trump’s speech: “I think that the president was unprepared. I don’t think that he did his homework”
• Peggy Noonan says Ocasio-Cortez has ‘rare bad night,’ freshman rep responds

 

7am – A         INTERVIEW – KEN CUCCINELLI – Former Virginia Attorney General

• Ken was a signatory to the Right on Crime statement of principles. He was very active in getting the First Step Act passed, and crim justice reform will come up in the speech. http://rightoncrime.com/right-on-crime-signatories
• Thoughts on State of the Union (particularly First Step Act guests at SOTU) and on Northam refusing to resign

7am – B         Elizabeth Warren listed race as ‘American Indian’ in newly revealed Texas State Bar card from 1986. (Fox News) — Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren indicated that her race was “American Indian” in a handwritten registration form filed in 1986 with the Texas State Bar, according to a new report on Tuesday that documents the presidential hopeful’s efforts to identify as a minority during her earliest days as a law professor. The revelation, initially reported by The Washington Post, is the first known instance of Warren claiming Native American ancestry in an official document or in her own handwriting. It threatened to add more ammunition to already-frequent attacks by Republicans, including President Trump, deriding Warren for claiming such ancestry to bolster her academic career. Warren’s office, questioned by The Post, did not dispute the authenticity of the bar card. Last week, Warren apologized to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test in an attempt to prove she had Native-American ancestry, and on Tuesday, she again more broadly apologized for identifying as Native American “for almost two decades,” according to The Post.

7am – C         Daily Caller’s HENRY RODGERS followed around BERNIE SANDERS:

• HENRY RODGERS catches BERNIE as he’s getting off the escalator and Bernie pretends to take a fake phone call while Henry asks if he believes Lt. Gov Justin Fairfax’s accuser…

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW — NOAH ROTHAMN —  associate editor of Commentary and author of new book “Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America”

• “Unjust is about today’s social justice ideology that activists are try to embed into America’s political system.
• ABOUT BOOK: There are just two problems with “social justice”: it’s not social and it’s not just. Rather, it is a toxic ideology that encourages division, anger, and vengeance. In this penetrating work, Commentary editor and MSNBC contributor Noah Rothman uncovers the real motives behind the social justice movement and explains why, despite its occasionally ludicrous public face, it is a threat to be taken seriously.American political parties were once defined by their ideals. That idealism, however, is now imperiled by an obsession with the demographic categories of race, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, which supposedly constitute a person’s “identity.” As interest groups defined by identity alone command the comprehensive allegiance of their members, ordinary politics gives way to “Identitarian” warfare, each group looking for payback and convinced that if it is to rise, another group must fall. In a society governed by “social justice,” the most coveted status is victimhood, which people will go to absurd lengths to attain. But the real victims in such a regime are blind justice—the standard of impartiality that we once took for granted—and free speech. These hallmarks of American liberty, already gravely compromised in universities, corporations, and the media, are under attack in our legal and political systems.  

8am – A         SOTU REACTION / HIGHLIGHTS

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter for The Hill – analyzed the media coverage of State of The Union.

• CNN’s Van Jones on Trump’s State of the Union address: “A psychotically incoherent speech mixing cookies with dog poop.”
• NPR INVENTS A FAKE FACT CHECK: FACT CHECK: President Trump praised the record number of women in Congress, but that’s almost entirely because of Democrats, not Trump’s party.

8am – D         KAMALA AND CORY