Joe diGenova, SBA List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser, Christian Toto and Salena Zito joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, February 25, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Ocasio-Cortez: “Isn’t $10 Million Enough? Like, When Does It Stop?”

5am – D         Trump administration moves to cut off some Planned Parenthood funding. The Trump administration posted a final rule Friday that would require family planning clinics to be housed in separate buildings from abortion clinics, a move that would cut off Planned Parenthood from some federal funding. The rule applies to a $286 million-a-year grant, known as Title X, that pays for birth control, testing of sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screenings for 4 million low-income people. It requires the “physical and financial” separation of family planning services and abortion. Federal funds are not permitted to go toward abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, or if a woman’s pregnancy threatens her life. Abortion foes, however, have long fought for rules along the lines of the one advanced Friday because they say allocating federal funds toward clinics such as Planned Parenthood frees up additional funds to provide abortions. The organization receives between $50 million and $60 million from Title X. Planned Parenthood vowed to do everything it could to fight back, including through the courts.

5am – E         JUSSIE SMOLLETT UPDATE:

• JUSSIE ADJUSTS HIS VICTIMHOOD: The “Empire” star divulged his alleged drug problem after turning himself in Thursday morning on charges he filed a false police report involving a hate crime.
• SMOLLETT’S $3500 CHECK SAYS IT WAS FOR TRAINING: A check written by Jussie Smollett to two brothers who ‘staged his attack’ seem to imply that he paid them $3,500 for a ‘training fee’ The memo line on the check reads: ‘5 week Nutrition/Workout program Don’t Go’

6am – A/B/C BILL MAHER MOCKS RED STATE VOTERS, INSISTS THEY ARE JEALOUS OF LIBERALS. (Daily Caller) — Comedian Bill Maher mocked red state voters on his show Friday night, insisting that they are merely jealous of the liberal elite lifestyle. During a segment about Amazon’s new headquarters on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the HBO host said he knows red state voters want a more cosmopolitan lifestyle because their local governments submitted proposals to bring Amazon to their cities. “There are no red carpets in Wyoming and no one ever asks you, ‘who are you wearing?’ because the answer is always Target,” Maher said as the audience laughed. “We have orchestras, theater districts, world class shopping, we have Chef Wolfgang Puck, they have Chef Boyardee.” The host continued, “Our roofs have solar panels, theirs have last year’s Christmas lights … the flyover states have become passed-over states, that’s why red state voters are so pissed off.” “They don’t hate us. They want to be us. They want to go to the party. It’s like we’re the British royal family and they’re Meghan Markle’s dad,” Maher asserted.  Maher concluded the brutal mocking by suggesting Amazon relocate to a red state in order to bring those voters more prosperity. “If you leave the red states behind, they’re going to keep getting angrier, crazier,” Maher declared.

6am – D/E/F  With women in combat roles, a federal court rules male-only draft unconstitutional. (USA Today) — A federal judge in Texas has declared that an all-male military draft is unconstitutional, ruling that “the time has passed” for a debate on whether women belong in the military. The decision deals the biggest legal blow to the Selective Service System since the Supreme Court upheld the draft registration process in 1981. In Rostker v. Goldberg, the court ruled that a male-only draft was “fully justified” because women were ineligible for combat roles. But U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled late Friday that while historical restrictions on women serving in combat “may have justified past discrimination,” men and women are now equally able to fight. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service.  The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men’s rights group, and two men who argued an all-male draft was unfair. Men who fail to register with the Selective Service System at their 18th birthday can be denied public benefits such as federal employment and student loans. Women cannot register for Selective Service. The ruling comes as an 11-member commission is studying the future of the Selective Service System, including whether women should be included or whether there should continue to be draft registration at all. The U.S. has maintained an all-volunteer military after the draft was discontinued in 1973, but the Selective Service System was reactivated in 1980 as a contingency in case military conscription becomes necessary again. The National Commission on Military, National and Public Service released an interim report last month giving no hints on where it would come down on those questions. But, commission chairman Joe Heck told USA TODAY, “I don’t think we will remain with the status quo.”

 

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

• Democrats plan House vote Tuesday on measure to stop Trump’s declaration of emergency at the border
• 58 ex-national security officials slam Trump over border
• Adam Schiff: Dems prepared to sue Trump administration, subpoena Mueller to obtain report
• Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify for three consecutive days on Capitol Hill this week. (PUBLICLY ON WEDNESDAY)

7am – B/C     OSCARS HIGHLIGHTS:

• Adam Lambert opens Oscars with singing Queen songs
• Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph mock Trump, Hollywood during their not-a-monologue at the Oscars
• Maya Rudolph: “Just a quick update, in case you’re confused. There is no host tonight, there won’t be a popular movie category, and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”
• Spike Lee at Oscars: Americans Must ‘Mobilize’ Against Trump in 2020
• JAVIER BARDEM introduces BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM category by speaking in SPANISH: “There are no borders or walls that can restrain ingenuity and talent…”
• Local DC celebrity Chef José Andrés: Roma, the Oscar-nominated film, “reminds us of the understanding and compassion that we all owe to the invisible people in our lives: immigrants and women, who move humanity forward!”
• Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper wow Oscars with “Shallow” performance from their film A Star Is Born

7am – D         INTERVIEW – Marjorie Dannenfelser – President of the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), a prolife organization that seeks to advance pro-life women in politics. @marjoriesba @SBAList

• Trump administration moves to cut off some Planned Parenthood funding. The Trump administration posted a final rule Friday that would require family planning clinics to be housed in separate buildings from abortion clinics, a move that would cut off Planned Parenthood from some federal funding. The rule applies to a $286 million-a-year grant, known as Title X, that pays for birth control, testing of sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screenings for 4 million low-income people. It requires the “physical and financial” separation of family planning services and abortion

7am – E         Klobuchar ate salad with her comb, then made aide clean it. After an aide to Sen. Amy Klobuchar forgot to get her a fork with the salad he brought her on a flight, she scolded him and then ate the salad with a comb when the crew did not have any utensils on board. When she had finished eating, the Minnesota Democrat, who is running for president in 2020, made the staffer clean the comb she had brought with her in her bag, the New York Times reported Friday. Accusations that Klobuchar has mistreated her staff have been piling up, starting days before she announced her bid for the Democratic nomination for 2020. The report is the latest of several describing how she created a hostile work environment, sending degrading emails and berating staff for minor missteps. Klobuchar is said to have been known to throw office supplies when she became upset, and staffers were asked to wash her dishes or perform other chores – possibly violating Senate ethics rules. Klobuchar, 58, has tried to brush off the claims by saying she can be a demanding boss. “I am tough. I push people, that is true,” she said. “But my point is, is that I have high expectations for myself, I have high expectations for the people that work for me, and I have high expectations for this country.” Her press secretary Carlie Waibel said some of the stories were “just plain ridiculous,” without addressing any specifics.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — CHRISTIAN TOTO – Film Critic, HollywoodInToto.com and Host of “The Hollywood in Toto” podcast  (available on iTunes) @HollywoodInToto – recapped the Oscars.

• Oscar night’s biggest winner: Diversity. (NBC News) — The feel-good road-trip drama “Green Book” drove through a cloud of controversy to score the Oscars’ top prize.  The film’s big win came as a shock at the end of a brisk, host-free night filled with historic milestones for diversity and representation.  SpikeLee, the revered 33-year industry veteran, won his first competitive Oscar — best adapted screenplay — for his fiery docudrama “BlacKkKlansman.”  Rami Malek took best actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Olivia Colman landed the best actress award for “The Favourite.”  Alfonso Cuarón won his second best director Oscar for “Roma,” the Netflix-produced movie also was honored as best foreign-language film.

8am – B/C     STUFF AOC SAYS:

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Talks Tax Rates, Suggests ‘$10 Million’ Is ‘Enough’: On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appeared on the series premier of SHOWTIME’s “Desus & Mero.” During her segment, Ocasio-Cortez talked about the Green New Deal, and explained her support for a marginal tax rate of 70% on individuals making more than $10 million a year.
• In a stream-of-consciousness livestream video yesterday and talked about the green new deal:  Ocasio-Cortez: Probably time to stop having kids because ‘there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children will be very difficult’
• Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the Green New Deal: “The whole premise is we’re screwed on climate…If we do nothing there is no hope, that’s just a principle across the board.” “We are dying now”

8am – D         INTERVIEW — SALENA ZITO — National Political Reporter for The Washington Examiner and author of the NY bestselling book “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” @SalenaZito

• Bill Maher mocks Middle Americans as less ‘affluent and educated,’ saying ‘they want to be us’
• Bill Maher says red state voters are jealous of blue states: “We have chef Wolfgang Puck, they have Chef Boyardee”
• SALENA ZITO: While national media carried water for Jussie Smollett, local media did it right

8am – E         Fairfax Compares Himself To Lynching Victims

• Justin Fairfax: “And we talk about hundreds, at least 100 terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia … And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing.”