Fairfax County Republican Chairman Tim Hannigan, Washington Examiner’s Alana Goodman, Dr. Marc Siegel, Ken Cuccinelli and Washington Post’s TV critic Hank Steuver joined WMAL on Tuesday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C EMERGENCY DECLARATION:

• Rand Paul says ‘at least’ 10 GOP senators are ready to vote against Trump’s emergency declaration. (The Hill) — Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said Monday that “at least” ten of his fellow GOP senators are prepared to vote for a resolution blocking President Trump’s emergency declaration at the southern border. “By my count, I’ve had at least 10 people coming up to me saying they will vote to disapprove on this,” Pauls told reporters, referring to GOP colleagues. The comments came just days after Paul became the fourth GOP senator to announce he’d vote against Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a border wall. Paul’s announcement clinched a bipartisan majority in favor of blocking Trump’s declaration.  “I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress. We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing,” Paul said while speaking at the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have also said they would vote for the resolution. Trump declared an emergency last month after Congress passed a spending bill without the $5.7 billion he had demanded for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the executive action has been met with opposition from several Republican lawmakers.
• White House works to limit GOP defections, criticism ahead of vote to nullify Trump’s emergency declaration. The White House told Senate Republicans on Monday to “keep their powder dry” ahead of a vote to nullify President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border as the administration worked to limit defections on a measure rebuking the president. The message was delivered by Zach Parkinson, White House deputy director of government communications, in a meeting Monday morning with Senate Republican communications staffers, according to two people who attended the meeting. It came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that the resolution to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration would pass in the Republican-led Senate — but not survive a veto. Over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) became the fourth Republican to announce he would vote for the disapproval resolution, ensuring its passage with unified Democratic support. But the White House is eager to contain further defections from members of Trump’s party on his signature issue of building a wall along the southern border. The emergency declaration is aimed at getting additional money for border barriers after Congress refused to grant Trump’s funding request. At Monday’s meeting, Parkinson cautioned GOP Senate communications aides against public criticism from their bosses over the emergency declaration, saying that if senators are planning to vote to overturn it, they should contact the White House to get further information on Trump’s rationale, according to the two people.

5am – D         DEMOCRATS LAUNCH NEW, WIDE-REACHING PROBE INTO TRUMP: House Democrats on Monday opened a huge new avenue in their investigations into President Trump, with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee firing off document requests to dozens of figures from the president’s administration, family and business … Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Monday the committee served document requests to 81 agencies, entities and individuals, as part of a new probe into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump.” Nadler said the investigations were necessary to make sure the Trump presidency isn’t a dictatorship. In addition to the White House, Nadler is also seeking information from Trump family members, like Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Jared Kushner; from former administration figures like former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former national security adviser Mike Flynn, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks; and from Trump campaign figures like Brad Parscale and Corey Lewandowski. In addition, Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel, and Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings on Monday formally demanded interviews with any translators who witnessed Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Inauguration Day — a request that comes as part of a sweeping series of inquiries virtually certain to be met with legal pushback by the White House. The only good news Trump received on the investigation front was that Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from Russia probe.

5am – E         Google Finds It’s Underpaying Many Men as It Addresses Wage Equity.

SAN FRANCISCO — When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found, to the surprise of just about everyone, that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work. The study, which disproportionately led to pay raises for thousands of men, is done every year, but the latest findings arrived as Google and other companies in Silicon Valley face increasing pressure to deal with gender issues in the workplace, from sexual harassment to wage discrimination. Gender inequality is a radioactive topic at Google. The Labor Department is investigating whether the company systematically underpays women. It has been sued by former employees who claim they were paid less than men with the same qualifications. And last fall, thousands of Google employees protested the way the company handles sexual harassment claims against top executives. Critics said the results of the pay study could give a false impression. Company officials acknowledged that it did not address whether women were hired at a lower pay grade than men with similar qualifications.

6am – A/B/C Instant karma! Impatient drivers annoy other motorists by speeding down the shoulder in bad traffic – but they don’t get far as cops pull them all over just seconds later. (Daily Mail) — Dash-cam footage shows grey Ford Focus follow several vehicles that pulled on to the right shoulder in Doswell, Virginia, to avoid the traffic. Backlog was caused by an accident on the I-95 near Kings Dominion theme park.  Car among eight vehicles stopped by Virginia State cops for using the shoulder.   (Daily Mail) — It can be tempting to break the rules of the road when stuck in traffic on a highway. But these impatient drivers faced ‘instant karma’ when they were pulled over by cops for using the shoulder in Doswell, Virginia. The clip, shot on February 28, shows a backlog of cars barely moving after an accident on the I-95. But a flood of vehicles can be seen taking to the shoulder to bypass the queue.  The dash-cam footage shows a grey Ford Focus reverse and pull out on to the side of the road. Yet after the accident is cleared and cars return to normal speeds, a line of vehicles remain at a stand-still in the shoulder. Included in this is the grey Focus, and other vehicles that were pulled over by cops near the entrance to Kings Dominion amusement park at 4pm. Virginia State police can be seen walking between the cars, which includes three hatchbacks, three SUVs, a truck and a van.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – Fairfax County Republican Chairman TIM HANNIGAN  — discussed how a public school in Arlington is teaching Kindergarteners about transgenderism and how Fairfax County led the crusade locally on this.  

• In a Virginia school, a celebration of transgender students in a kindergarten class. When Jaim Foster began teaching nearly two decades ago in Nebraska, he said he was discouraged from being an openly gay educator. He had championed LGBT causes at his liberal arts college but suddenly found himself switching pronouns when telling students about his boyfriends. “I was told I had to stop being that advocate, and I had to go back into the closet because it wasn’t really safe,” the teacher recalled. “You could be fired.” On Thursday, Foster reflected on how far the country has progressed, he said, as dozens of kindergarten students sat cross-legged in his classroom at Ashlawn Elementary School in Arlington, listening as an advocate for transgender rights paged through a children’s picture book about a transgender girl. “I have a girl brain but a boy body. This is called transgender. I was born this way,” the advocate, Sarah McBride, read to the students from the storybook “I Am Jazz.” McBride, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, who drew national attention when she came out as transgender the day after her term as American University’s student body president ended, wanted to relay a message of tolerance on a national day of reading led by the country’s largest teachers union. After her reading, McBride told the children, “I’m like Jazz. When I was born, the doctors and my parents, they all thought that I was a boy.” “Why?” asked a girl in a blue sweater and ponytail. “Because society, people around them told them that was the case,” McBride said. “It took me getting a little bit older to be able to say that in my heart and in my mind, I knew I was really a girl.”  The kids began discussing hair. “Can some girls have short hair?” McBride asked. “And can some boys have long hair?” Yes, the youngsters seemed to agree, answering in unison. “Anyone can be anything,” one girl chimed in.

6am – E         PARENTING STORIES:

• Working parents are an endangered species. That’s why Democrats are talking child care.  Parents make up a smaller share of the U.S. labor force now than at any other time in at least a century, according to our analysis of Census Bureau and Labor Department data. But it’s not because parents aren’t working. It’s because workers aren’t becoming parents.
• How to Save Americans From the Hell of Work.  Elites are “miserable” in their jobs. Millennials are burned out. Can religion, loosely defined, help us reclaim our free time and find meaning in our lives?

6am – F         REMEMBERING LUKE PERRY: Hollywood luminaries and fans are remembering actor Luke Perry as a television icon, childhood staple and an overall kind-hearted person — personally and professionally … Perry, who gained fame as a teen heartthrob on “Beverly Hills, 90210” and became a fan-favorite TV dad with his starring role on the hit series “Riverdale,”died Monday at age 52, days after suffering a massive stroke. “He was surrounded by his children Jack and Sophie, fiancé Wendy Madison Bauer, ex-wife Minnie Sharp, mother Ann Bennett, step-father Steve Bennett, brother Tom Perry, sister Amy Coder, and other close family and friends,” a rep for Perry told Fox News. “The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning. No further details will be released at this time.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – ALANA GOODMAN – Investigative Political Reporter, The Washington Examiner

• AOC’s chief of staff ran $1M slush fund by diverting campaign cash to his own companies. (Alana Goodman / Washington Examiner) Two political action committees founded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide funneled over $1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. The cash transfers from the PACs — overseen by Saikat Chakrabarti, the freshman socialist Democrat’s chief of staff — run counter to her pledges to increase transparency and reduce the influence of “dark money” in politics. Chakrabarti’s companies appear to have been set up for the sole purpose of obscuring how the political donations were used.  The arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions from federal PACs to candidates, according to the complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group. Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as “really weird” and an indication “there’s something amiss.” They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went — meaning they could have been pocketed or used by the company to pay for off-the-books campaign operations. PACs are required to disclose how and when funds are spent, including for expenditures such as advertisements, fundraising emails, donations to candidates, and payments for events and to vendors.

7am – B/C     Virginia AG says he wants to repair harm from blackface. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Monday defended his handling of a blackface scandal, and he did not rule out a future run for governor at the same time he promised to repair the harm he’s caused. Speaking on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, the 57-year-old Herring apologized repeatedly for dressing up like a rapper with a wig and brown makeup while attending a party in 1980. The interview marked his first in nearly a month since he admitted to wearing blackface while a student at the University of Virginia — an admission that came just days after he’d condemned Gov. Ralph Northam for similar behavior. “It was a one-time occurrence, and it is something that has haunted me for decades, and I’m so very sorry for the hurt that I’ve caused,” Herring said. Herring is one of Virginia’s top three Democrats, all of whom have been embroiled in scandal recently. Like Herring, Northam has apologized for wearing blackface decades ago. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, meanwhile, has vehemently denied sexual assault allegations from two women. Many of the Democrats who called for Northam’s resignation have been more forgiving of Herring, who would be replaced by a Republican if he stepped down. Northam would be replaced by Fairfax. Herring defended his decision to call for the governor’s resignation, saying he only did so when it became clear that Northam had lost the public’s trust. The governor initially apologized for being in a racist picture that surfaced in his 1984 medical school yearbook. A day later, Northam said he wasn’t in the picture but had dressed in blackface during a dance competition the same year. “For me, it was really about the public trust and I want to be clear about this: I would hold myself to the same standard,” Herring said.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – DR. MARC SIEGEL – Professor of Medicine at NYU and  Fox News medical correspondent @DrMarcSiegel doctorsiegel.com

• Dr. Marc Siegel: Strokes and what you need to know in the wake of Luke Perry’s death. (Fox News) — America is talking about strokes because famed “Beverly Hills 90210” actor Luke Perry died Monday of a massive stroke. His death at the young age of 52 has saddened us, but if Perry’s response to having cancerous colon polyps removed in 2015 is any indication, he would want this to be a medical teaching moment. So here goes: Strokes are all too common in the U.S., with 795,000 people suffering from them each year according to the Centers for Disease Control, and approximately 140,000 of these patients dying.  Almost 90 percent of these strokes are ischemic, meaning that blood flow to the brain is blocked. A person can also have a bleed into the brain, which is often associated with high blood pressure. An irregular rhythm of the heart (atrial fibrillation) can also cause a blood clot to break off and travel to the brain (emboli). Strokes are more common as a person gets older, though more than a third occur in people under the age of 65. Common risk factors for stroke include diabetes, being overweight, high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol – problems that are rampant here in the U.S. and that are fairly easily treatable. A neighbor reported that Perry was having back problems, and it should be noted that being sedentary can increase a person’s risk of a stroke, though overall he appeared to be quite active. Family history can play a role, including a tendency to form clots, though here again, there is no specific knowledge of this in Perry’s case. Stroke is the number one cause of long term disability in the world, and being alert to the symptoms of stroke can help reduce or prevent this. Clot dissolvers can be used to re-open the culprit artery, especially in the first few hours after the symptoms start.

7am – E         Rand Paul says ‘at least’ 10 GOP senators are ready to vote against Trump’s emergency declaration. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said Monday that “at least” ten of his fellow GOP senators are prepared to vote for a resolution blocking President Trump’s emergency declaration at the southern border. “By my count, I’ve had at least 10 people coming up to me saying they will vote to disapprove on this,” Pauls told reporters, referring to GOP colleagues.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – KEN CUCCINELLI – former VA Attorney General and President of Senate Conservatives Fund

• On Kojo Show interview, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring defends his handling of a blackface scandal, doesn’t rule out future run for governor. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Monday defended his handling of a blackface scandal, and he did not rule out a future run for governor at the same time he promised to repair the harm he’s caused. Speaking on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, the 57-year-old Herring apologized repeatedly for dressing up like a rapper with a wig and brown makeup while attending a party in 1980. The interview marked his first in nearly a month since he admitted to wearing blackface while a student at the University of Virginia — an admission that came just days after he’d condemned Gov. Ralph Northam for similar behavior.
• Virginia Dems Won’t Say Whether They Want Northam, Fairfax on Campaign Trail. ‘It’s way too early to make decisions about who you’re campaigning with’ (Free Beacon) — The end of Virginia’s legislative session last week brings to the fore a closely watched campaign season, with control of both chambers of the legislature in contention. Republicans currently hold two-seat advantages in both the House of Delegates and state Senate, and after big gains in 2017 the momentum appeared to be squarely on the side of Democrats. That all changed a month ago when the two Democrats at the top of the 2017 ticket, Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, each found themselves on the hot seat—Northam due to a racist picture on his medical school yearbook page and Fairfax due to multiple allegations of rape.
• DEMOCRATS LAUNCH NEW, WIDE-REACHING PROBE INTO TRUMP: House Democrats on Monday opened a huge new avenue in their investigations into President Trump, with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee firing off document requests to dozens of figures from the president’s administration, family and business … Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Monday the committee served document requests to 81 agencies, entities and individuals, as part of a new probe into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump.” Nadler said the investigations were necessary to make sure the Trump presidency isn’t a dictatorship. In addition to the White House, Nadler is also seeking information from Trump family members, like Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Jared Kushner; from former administration figures like former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former national security adviser Mike Flynn, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks; and from Trump campaign figures like Brad Parscale and Corey Lewandowski.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – HANK STEUVER – (stoo-ver) – Washington Post TV Critic – discussed the controversial ‘Leaving Neverland.’

• How ‘Leaving Neverland’ puts Michael Jackson’s cultural legacy and $2 billion empire in jeopardy. (Washington Post / By Lavanya Ramanathan and Elahe Izadi) — When Michael Jackson died in 2009, the singer had hit a low point, dogged by personal scandals and diminishing star power that paled in comparison to the rarefied heights he achieved in his record-setting career. But the decade since his death has seen a wholesale rehabilitation of his image, returning the King of Pop to prominence as both a cultural icon and financial powerhouse whose afterlife became a billion-dollar brand. Now, a documentary detailing graphic allegations of child sexual abuse has created a new wave of public outrage against Jackson, imperiling his legacy as a music superstar — and the business that his estate has rebuilt into an empire. The entertainer’s estate, once roiled by hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, has flourished remarkably since his death from an overdose, pulling in a reported $2 billion through posthumous deals, including the forthcoming Broadway musical “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” a Cirque du Soleil tribute spectacle performed five nights a week in Las Vegas, and the $287.5 million Sony paid for Jackson’s share of EMI Music Publishing. In the two-part documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which began airing Sunday on HBO, former child actor James Safechuck, 41, and choreographer Wade Robson, 36, revive the child abuse claims that have followed Jackson since the early 1990s. They accuse Jackson of plying them with gifts and attention when they were boys, then sexually abusing them for years. In interviews, the men describe impropriety at Jackson’s legendary Neverland Ranch, including that Jackson gave them alcohol, showed them pornography and even purchased a wedding ring for the underage Safechuck.

8am – D/E     2020 NEWS:

• 2020 DEM LIST UPDATED: Running for president as a Democrat in 2020: • Cory Booker • Julián Castro • John Delaney • Tulsi Gabbard • Kamala Harris • John Hickenlooper • Jay Inslee • Amy Klobuchar • Bernie Sanders • Elizabeth Warren • Marianne Williamson • Andrew Yang
• Colorado’s John Hickenlooper enters presidential race. The former Colorado governor touted his state’s success at implementing progressive priorities like gun control and expanding Medicaid. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Monday that he is running for president, positioning himself as fighter for progressive priorities who won’t shy away from a brawl with President Donald Trump.
• CLINTON MAKES HER DECISION: Apparently, there will not be a Trump-Clinton rematch in 2020 … Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, said in an interview Monday that she has ruled out a bid for the 2020 presidential election. The former first lady and secretary of state told News 12 Westchester that she will not be running for president next year. “I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton told the station, in the first local television interview since the midterm elections. Clinton also said she is “not going anywhere.”
• Clinton camp stews over Sanders 2020 campaign. Former Hillary Clinton aides and allies are scrutinizing Bernie’s flaws and vulnerabilities — much as he once did to her. (Politico) — Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton formally made peace at a New Hampshire unity event in July 2016 where the two rivals sought to put the acrimonious Democratic primary behind them. Clinton staffers, however, weren’t party to that agreement. And now that Sanders is embarking on a second run for president, they’re making their true feelings about the Vermont senator known. Both on the record and on background, on Twitter and on cable television, Clinton’s former aides and allies are taking pains to lay out what they see as all of Sanders’s flaws, imperfections and vulnerabilities — much as he once did to their ex-boss during a primary that saw mud flying on both sides. “I would say — and for all I know, the Sanders people might take this as a compliment — among a lot of the major donors in the party, there’s concern that he could emerge,” said David Brock, a longtime Clinton ally who founded a pro-Clinton super PAC in the 2016 campaign and later authored a public apology to Sanders for some of his bare-knuckled criticisms during the primary. “There are some very dyed-in-the-wool Democrats that wouldn’t at all be enthusiastic about supporting him in a general election.”
• Brock said Sanders would be hard-pressed to unite the different wings of the Democratic Party, and his ability to raise vast sums of money through small donations could ultimately result in him staying in the race past the point when he can win, which “is not necessarily good for the eventual nominee and therefore could be helpful for” President Trump.
• Hillary Clinton: I Lost Wisconsin After Voters Were Turned Away at the Polls ‘Because of the Color of Their Skin’ / In her speech to mark the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, AL, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said because the Supreme Court “gutted” the Voting Rights Act, she lost the state of Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential election due to people being turned away because of their skin color. Clinton said there are people in the country who are determined to undermine voting rights.