Mornings on the Mall 03.07.19

Dr. Jay Richards, Joe Concha, Sen. James Lankford, Raheem Kassam and Henry Rodgers joined WMAL on Thursday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 


5am – A/B/C SOCIALISM COMING TO AMERICA?

  • Thomas Sowell Warns U.S. May Not Resist Calls For Socialism: “I Wouldn’t Bet On It”: Economist Thomas Sowell, in an interview Tuesday with Fox Business Network’s David Asman, warned that the U.S. may not resist growing calls for socialism.   DAVID ASMAN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Professor, I almost hate to ask you this question because you are so honest about things, you see things straight on. The future of America — do you think that we are destined to go through a period of socialism, a period where these ideas that have not worked wherever they have been tried and will not work here, will be tried here, and could bring down our country? THOMAS SOWELL: The predictions of economists do not encourage me.  But I do have a great fear that, in the long run, we may not make it. I hate to say that. The one thing that keeps me from being despairing is that we don’t know. There are so many things that we can’t possibly know. And so, we may make it, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
  • CNN Panel of Democratic Voters Go Nuts Over ‘Bad Ass’ AOC: ‘She Is the Candidate of the Future!’ Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) received unanimous applause on Wednesday when she became the leading topic among CNN’s panel of Democratic voters. As Alisyn Camerota asked her panel for their thoughts about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the conversation evolved into how the Democrats are debating how much they ought to stick with the experienced political establishment. When Camerota asked them for their thoughts on Ocasio-Cortez, the panel lit up as they called her “badass” “amazing” and a litany of other positive reactions.

5am – D         COHEN ON CAPITOL HILL:

  • COHEN UNDERMINES RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY AGAIN: Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee records that undercut allegations that President Trump’s attorneys made critical edits to alter the timeline of failed negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow – another hole in another aspect of the Russian collusion theories that have dogged the president … Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney provided documents that showed that “the original date in the original draft” of Cohen’s false congressional testimony on the conclusion of failed Trump Tower negotiations was January 2016, a source familiar with the documents told Fox News. Cohen acknowledged in a guilty plea last year that he misled lawmakers in 2017 by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016, when in fact he pursued it for months afterward as Trump campaigned for the presidency. Cohen’s latest act of cooperation with authorities comes amid reports that he directed his attorney last year to seek a possible pardon from President Trump.
  • Cohen docs undercut claims Trump lawyers made edits to alter critical timeline. (Fox News) — President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee records showing that “the original date in the original draft” of Cohen’s false congressional testimony on the conclusion of failed negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow was January 2016, a source familiar with the documents told Fox News — undercutting allegations that Trump attorneys made critical edits to alter the negotiation’s timeline. Cohen acknowledged in a guilty plea last year that he misled lawmakers in 2017 by saying he had abandoned the project in January 2016, when in fact he pursued it for months afterwards as Trump campaigned for the presidency. The documents provided by Cohen in a closed-door interview with the panel on Wednesday are not public, but two sources confirmed to Fox News that they included edits from the president’s legal team. It’s unclear who exactly edited the documents or what exactly was changed. Neither Cohen nor House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., responded when asked by Fox News after the hearing about the January 2016 date that Cohen provided in his original draft. In a statement Wednesday evening, Schiff wrote that “while we will not discuss the substance of his testimony at this time, Mr. Cohen cooperated fully with the Committee, answered every question we asked of him during both interview sessions, and provided important testimony and materials relevant to the core of our probe and that will allow us to advance our investigation substantially.”
  • CNN ADDS MAJOR UPDATE TO MICHAEL COHEN STORY: (Daily Caller) — CNN has bungled another story that was based on leaks the network received while a House Intelligence Committee witness was testifying behind closed doors. CNN reported Wednesday that Michael Cohen provided documents during a House Intelligence deposition showing that President Donald Trump’s Russia lawyers made edits to false testimony the former Trump fixer gave to Congress in 2017. Cohen said in a public House Oversight Committee hearing last week that one of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, made changes to the testimony. “There were changes made, additions — Jay Sekulow, for one,” Cohen said. “There were several changes that were made including how we were going to handle that message, which was — the message of course being — the length of time that the Trump Tower Moscow project stayed and remained alive.” Cohen pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s investigation on Nov. 29 to making several false statements in his House and Senate Intelligence testimony, including that he ended negotiations to build a Trump Tower Moscow in January 2016. Instead, Cohen continued working on the project through June 2016. CNN’s initial report raised the possibility that Trump’s lawyers suborned perjury from Cohen, who will begin a three-year prison term on May 6. But CNN ran an update at 7:35 p.m. Eastern time that drastically changed the implications for its story. Lanny Davis, an attorney for Cohen, told CNN that Cohen himself, and not a Trump lawyer, claimed in a draft of his 2017 testimony that the Trump Tower negotiations ended in January 2016. Cohen’s lawyer at the time of his initial testimony, Stephen Ryan, helped him edit the document, according to CNN’s update. Ryan shared the draft with other lawyers who were party to a joint defense agreement with Cohen. Those lawyers provided suggested changes, which Cohen and Ryan approved, CNN’s sources said.

5am – E         R. Kelly Taken Into Police Custody for Failure to Pay Child Support. (Variety) — Just hours after R. Kelly’s emotional appearance on “CBS This Morning” today, the embattled singer was taken into custody in Chicago after a child-support hearing, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The singer — pictured above arriving in court today — left the courtroom in handcuffs and a rep for the sheriff’s office told the paper he is returning to Cook County Jail, where he spent three days after being arrested on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims — three of whom were minors — on Feb. 22. Last month, a Cook County judge issued an order that would send Kelly to jail if he did not pay $161,663 he owes his ex-wife, Drea Kelly, by 10 a.m. today. Drea was among multiple women who alleged sexual misconduct against the singer in the recent Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.” Kelly is estranged from the three children from his 10-year marriage to Drea, which ended in divorce in 2009. During his interview on “CBS This Morning,” he became quite emotional when talking about his children. “I’m not really fighting for my career here — I’m fighting for my rights and I’m fighting to have a relationship with my kids, more than anything, because I missed a lot of years of their life. They love me, I love them,” he said, welling up. When interviewer Gayle King asked whether the children want to have a relationship with him, Kelly replied, “I bet you they do. I bet my breath on it. [But] they’re pressured [not to see him], and I get it.” Steven Greenberg, Kelly’s attorney, recently said Kelly has been struggling financially and the spent three days in jail after his arrest last month before he was able to raise the $100,000 required to secure his release on $1 million bail. A female fan ultimately put up the money. 


6am – A         FIREWORKS FOR DHS SECRETARY AT HOUSE HEARING: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. faces a “real, serious and sustained crisis at our borders.” However, she was caught in a series of heated exchanges with lawmakers while being questioned over family separations at the border, with one Democrat accusing her of having “no feeling, no compassion.” …  Nielsen was grilled by members of the Democratic majority over claims that the Trump administration went out of its way to separate families. “I think it’s really important, Madam Secretary, that you talk about it and you use the right language. This was not the law, OK?,” Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said. “This was a policy that the attorney general of this country announced was a new policy that they were going to rip kids away from their parents. So I think it’s very important that the record reflect that.”

  • DHS Defends Emergency Declaration: Agents Expect to Encounter ‘Close to 1 Million Illegal Aliens’ at Border in 2019: “Make no mistake, this chain of human misery is getting worse. Yesterday, we announced that the numbers of apprehension at our southern border have spiked again substantially,” Nielsen said. “Since late last year, we have been seeing 50,000 to 60,000 migrants arrive at our southern border each month. But in February, we saw a 30 percent jump over the previous month, with agents apprehending or encountering nearly 75,000 aliens. This is an 80 percent increase over the same time last year… “The projections are dire,” she said. “The agency is now on track to apprehend more migrants crossing illegally in the first six months of this fiscal year than the entirety of [fiscal year 2017]. And at the current pace, we are on track to encounter close to one million illegal aliens at our southern border this year.”
  • NIELSEN: “This is not a manufactured crisis. This is truly an emergency.”
  • DHS Sec. Nielsen: Cartels Are ‘Recycling’ Children Across The Border: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico border are using “recycling rings,” a process in which children are passed back across the border in order to help multiple adults gain illegal entry. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen mentioned the practice Wednesday during a hearing with the House Committee on Homeland Security, stating, “The children are being used as pawns to get into our country.” “We have encountered recycling rings, where innocent young people are used multiple times to help illegal aliens gain illegal entry,” she explained.
  • DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says that due to the extreme level of violence that occurs on migrants’ trek to the southern border that DHS has “to give every girl a pregnancy test over 10”

6am – B/C     Democratic National Committee rejects Fox News for debates, citing article that suggested the network is ‘propaganda’ for Trump: The Democratic National Committee has decided to exclude Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle as a result of published revelations detailing the cable network’s close ties to the Trump administration. In a statement Wednesday, DNC Chairman Tom Perez cited a story in the New Yorker magazine this week that detailed how Fox has promoted President Trump’s agenda. The article, titled “The Making of the Fox News White House,” suggested that the news network had become a “propaganda” vehicle for Trump. “I believe that a key pathway to victory is to continue to expand our electorate and reach all voters,” said Perez in his statement to The Washington Post. “That is why I have made it a priority to talk to a broad array of potential media partners, including Fox News. Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”

6am – D/E     ANTI-SEMITISM VOTE:

  • Daily Caller’s RODGERS: PELOSI WALKED OUT OF MEETING WITH DEMOCRATS ON ANTI-SEMITISM, REPORT SAYS
  • Democrats are no longer planning on condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) anti-Semitic hate, now they plan on condemning “all hate” / (Daily Beast) — House Democrats spent Wednesday scrambling to put to bed a debate about anti-Semitism that no one wants after advancing a symbolic resolution condemning it that pleased no one.
  • PELOSI FACES DEM REVOLT OVER RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN ANTI-SEMITISM: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “taken aback” by the growing dissent and anger among rank-and-file Democrats over a possible resolution to formally condemn anti-Semitism, stemming from a controversial Muslim freshman lawmaker’s recent comments
  • A vote on the resolution, which was originally planned for earlier this week, did not appear on the House’s official docket for Thursday.
  • Pelosi: Omar’s Comments Were Not ‘Intentionally Anti-Semitic’ / Pelosi also said she is unsure a resolution condemning anti-Semitism will get a vote this week, as reported by Politico‘s Jake Sherman.
  • 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Defend Ilhan Omar:
  • Bernie Sanders Defends Ihlan Omar: Don’t Equate ‘Anti-Semitism’ With ‘Legitimate Criticism’ of Israel
  • Kamala Harris: Attention surrounding Omar puts her at risk of violence
  • Elizabeth Warren defends Omar from threats of violence over comments on Israel

6am – F         TREBEK HAS CANCER: Longtime ‘Jeopardy!’ host reveals he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, vows to ‘fight.’ “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek revealed in a YouTube video Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek, 78, learned of his condition this week, he said in the video. “Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working,” he said. “And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”


7am – A         INTERVIEW – DR. JAY RICHARDS – Executive Editor of The Stream, is a Business & Economics Professor at Catholic University and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute @DrJayRichards

7am – B         SOCIALISM COMING TO AMERICA?

  • Thomas Sowell Warns U.S. May Not Resist Calls For Socialism: “I Wouldn’t Bet On It”
  • CNN Panel of Democratic Voters Go Nuts Over ‘Bad Ass’ AOC: ‘She Is the Candidate of the Future!’

7am – C         DC cherry blossom 2019 peak bloom dates predicted from April 3-6, National Park Service says. WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) – The National Park Service has released their predictions for the 2019 DC cherry blossom peak bloom dates. Officials say the peak bloom dates will be between April 3 and April 6. FOX 5 sent cameras down to the Tidal Basin Wednesday and found that some of D.C.’s famous trees have reached the first stage in the bloom cycle. Green buds have already started forming which means we could see clusters of cherry blossoms by the end of the month. In 2017, peak bloom was on March 25 and in 2018 the trees reached peak bloom on April 5. The average peak bloom date is April 4.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media reporter, The Hill @JoeConchaTV ‏

  • Democratic National Committee rejects Fox News for debates, citing article that suggested the network is ‘propaganda’ for Trump. The Democratic National Committee has decided to exclude Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle as a result of published revelations detailing the cable network’s close ties to the Trump administration.
  • Concha: Why DNC barring Fox News from debates hurts party candidates

7am – E         Man Accused Of Punching Conservative Activist At UC Berkeley Pleads Not Guilty. (Daily Caller) –  Zachary Greenberg pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attacking conservative activist Hayden Williams at the University of California at Berkeley on Feb. 19. “He was using the library at UC Berkeley to study,” Greenberg’s attorney Alanna Coopersmith said. “He has a clean record. I realize that many people observing this case are interested in constitutional freedom. I would remind them that one important constitutional freedom is the presumption of innocence, due process of law, due process in a courtroom, not on social media or the internet.” Williams’s attorney Harmeet Dhillon was not surprised by the not guilty plea.  “It is customary for criminal defendants to enter a not guilty plea, so I’m not surprised by that,” Dhillon told The Daily Caller News Foundation over the phone. Greenberg was ordered to not contact Williams and is not allowed within 100 yards of UC Berkeley’s campus, Dhillon said.

 


8am – A         INTERVIEW – SEN. JAMES LANKFORD – (R-Oklahoma) — member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

  • TOPICS: Sen. Lankford’s ‘Federal Fumbles’ spending report and thoughts on President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration
  • FEDERAL FUMBLES REPORT: Russian wine study, mariachi program top Lankford’s ‘Federal Fumbles’ spending report. Sen. James Lankford on Tuesday released his latest “Federal Fumbles” report intended to highlight waste and efficiencies in government spending, which included federal dollars going toward items ranging from a study on Russian wine to a mariachi apprenticeship program. Mr. Lankford said the report is intended in part to spark a broader debate about finding solutions to rein in a federal debt that recently topped $22 trillion.
  • NATIONAL EMERGENCY: GOP senators are torn over Trump’s national emergency declaration. Many Republican senators have not yet said how they’ll vote, including Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Marco Rubio of Florida, Mitt Romney of Utah, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mike Lee of Utah, Martha McSally of Arizona, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Ted Cruz of Texas, Roy Blunt of Missouri, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts of Kansas.
  • Senator James Lankford said yesterday on “Morning Joe” he’s awaiting more documentation from the WH before deciding on the national emergency declaration disapproval vote, but calls the border situation a “serious problem.”

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – RAHEEM KASSAM – Global Editor-in-Chief of HumanEvents.com @RaheemKassam @HumanEvents – discussed big tech censorship.

  • Twitter’s Jack Dorsey says company was probably ‘way too aggressive’ in banning certain accounts. (Fox News) — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the platform has been too aggressive in banning certain accounts during a wide-ranging discussion about how right-wing activists have been treated. During an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the tech executive and his chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, discussed a range of controversies surrounding Twitter’s banning of accounts in the wake of harassment, hate speech or other violations of its policies. The company has been accused by people on all sides of the political spectrum of allowing extremism to flourish and having policies that are not enforced or are applied arbitrarily. The discussion touched on several controversial topics but focused mostly on the “learn to code” tweets that were sent to journalists as part of a coordinated harassment campaign last month. The memes, which originated on 4chan, were then shared by a wider number of Twitter accounts and contained threatening or violent language and images. Dorsey told Rogan that the company had researched the incidents, finding there were “thousands and thousands” of tweets being directed at a small number of journalists and that many of those sending them were accounts that had been specifically created to evade a ban. Gadde explained that their research showed how the phrase was apparently part of what the company calls a “pile-on,” during which a vast volume of tweets is being sent to one person. She reportedly defended the fact that many of the people had been kicked off the platform since many of the tweets were being used alongside harassment and threats. Twitter’s legal chief also said that the company would learn from its past mistakes.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – HENRY RODGERS – Capitol Hill Reporter for The Daily Caller @henryrodgersdc

  • RODGERS: PELOSI WALKED OUT OF MEETING WITH DEMOCRATS ON ANTI-SEMITISM, REPORT SAYS. (Daily Caller) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly walked out of a meeting with a group of Democrats discussing anti-Semitism Wednesday after facing criticism for not responding to Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments about Israel. In a meeting with Democratic colleagues, Pelosi was reportedly confronted by a number of members of Congress for not reaching out to the party in regards to Omar’s comments on Israel. In the meeting, Pelosi was challenged for getting her talking points from MSNBC by freshman Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes, according to Politico. “Well if you’re not going to listen to me, I’m done talking,” Pelosi reportedly said, before putting down her microphone and walking out of the room. After the meeting Pelosi reportedly told a Politico reporter that she did not believe Omar’s comments were “intentionally anti Semitic” and that she is not sure a resolution will get a vote this week, saying the foreign affairs committee is writing it.

8am – E         Brennan Predicts Mueller Report, More Indictments On Friday: “I Don’t Have Inside Knowledge” / (RealClearPolitics) — Former CIA Director John Brennan said that, “not knowing,” he would not be surprised if indictments produced by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were delivered this Friday. In an interview Tuesday night with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, Brennan said if a Trump family member is indicted that would signal the end of Mueller’s investigation because Trump would probably fire him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if for example this week on Friday, not knowing anything about it, but Friday is the day the grand jury indictments come down and also this Friday is better than next Friday because next Friday is the 15th of March, which is the Ides of March,” Brennan said. “And I don’t think Robert Mueller will want to have that dramatic flair of the Ides of March when he is going to be delivering what I think are going to be are his indictments, the final indictments as well the report.” “I do think also if anybody from the Trump family, extended family is going to be indicted, it would be the final act of Mueller’s investigation because Bob Muller and his team knows if he were to do something, indicting a Trump family member or if he were to go forward with indictment on criminal conspiracy involving U.S. persons, that would be that would basically be the deathknell of the special counsel’s office because I don’t believe Donald Trump would allow Bob Mueller to continue in the aftermath of those types of actions,” Brennan said on MSNBC’s ‘The Last Word.’

 

 

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