Marc Morano, Joe diGenova, Saagar Enjeti and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, March 18, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Young Americans Hilariously Explain Why Lowering the Voting Age to 16 Is a Terrible Idea. (Grabien) — ‘When I was 16, my friends and I bought a live lobster, put it on a leash, and walked it around the neighborhood at 2am.’ On Thursday I posted a clip of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsing an effort from her colleague, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), to lower the voting age to 16. “I myself personally — I’m not speaking for my caucus, I myself have always been for lowering the voter — the voting age to 16,” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference. “I think it’s really important to capture kids when they’re in high school, when they’re interested in all of this, when they’re learning about government to be able to vote. … But my view is that I would welcome that. But I had been in that position for a long time.” Since then, young Americans have begun sharing stories of what they were doing as 16-year-olds, and why this doesn’t bode well for this demographic shaping the course of foreign and domestic policy.

5am – D         Chelsea Clinton confronted at NYU vigil for mosque victims over her remarks about Omar. Chelsea Clinton received an earful in New York City on Friday night from a college student who said the former first daughter “stoked” the hatred behind the massacre earlier in the day in Christchurch, New Zealand. It happened at a vigil on the New York University campus for the 49 people killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack. “I’m so sorry that you feel that way,” Clinton responded. “Certainly, it was never my intention. I do believe words matter. I believe we have to show solidarity.” Some of the NYU students told Clinton she wasn’t welcome at the vigil. One of the students referred to Clinton’s recent condemnation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, over the congresswoman’s anti-Semitic remarks. “We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism,” Clinton tweeted on Feb. 10. “This, right here, is a result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you put out into the world,” one student told Clinton. “And I want you to know that and I want you to feel that deep down inside. Forty-nine people died because of the rhetoric you put out there.”

• Donald Trump Jr. comes to Chelsea Clinton’s defense after NYU video:
• Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr Mar 16: It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism. We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.
• Activist who confronted Chelsea will be on Maddow on Monday: IPA @Esor__Fasa 1h: Will be on @maddow tommorrow. Always speaking truth to power and this will be biggest platform yet. Thank you Rachel.
• Activist compares herself to Nick Sandman: IPA @Esor__Fasa 13h: I’m the female Nick Sandman.
• Buzzfeed publishes op ed by student activists who confronted Chelsea Clinton: Opinion: We Confronted Chelsea Clinton At The Christchurch Vigil. Here’s Why. “So when we saw Chelsea, we saw an opportunity to have her ear and confront her on her false charge of anti-Semitism against our only Black, Muslim, Somali, and refugee member of Congress. We took our chance to speak truth to power. Chelsea hurt our fight against white supremacy when she stood by the petty weaponizers of antisemitism, showing no regard for Rep. Omar and the hatred being directed at her.”

5am – E         Christopher Steele admitted using posts by ‘random individuals’ on CNN website to back up Trump dossier. (Washington Examiner) — Former British spy Christopher Steele admitted that he relied on an unverified report on a CNN website for part of the “Trump dossier,” which was used as a basis for the FBI’s investigation into Trump. According to deposition transcripts released this week, Steele said last year he used a 2009 report he found on CNN’s iReport website and said he wasn’t aware that submissions to that site are posted by members of the public and are not checked for accuracy. A web archive from July 29, 2009 shows that CNN described the site in this manner: “iReport.com is a user-generated site. That means the stories submitted by users are not edited, fact-checked, or screened before they post.”

6am – A         2020 NEWS:

• Biden accidentally sort of announcing he is running for president is the most Biden way to actually announce. Former VP claims he’s ‘most progressive’ Dem ‘running’ — despite in-party critics, not declaring candidacy. Former Vice President Joe Biden told a Delaware audience Saturday he has the “most progressive” record of any Democrat “running” — or at least considering a run, as Biden isn’t yet officially in the race. The apparent slip-up came during a speech to members of the state’s Democratic Party, where he argued that recent criticism he’d received from progressives was unfounded. “I’m told I get criticized by the ‘New Left,’ ” Biden told the audience.”I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the … anybody who would run.”
• ‘Let’s prove that brave wins’: Kirsten Gillibrand officially launches 2020 bid

6am – B         Ocasio-Cortez faces backlash as her ‘unfavorable’ rating jumps FIFTEEN percentage points since she shot to fame during election campaign. (Daily Mail) —   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old freshman congresswoman from New York, has a growing approval gap that points in the wrong direction.  In September, 24 per cent of Americans viewed her favorably and 26 per cent viewed her unfavorably; fully 50 per cent had never heard of her. Last month those numbers were at 41 per cent negative, 31 per cent positive and 28 with no opinion. ‘Unfavorables’ jumped 15 points while ‘favorables’ grew by just 7 points. Gallup’s poll numbers indicate that the more Americans learn about the socialist wunderkind, the less they like. But she still has a ‘net positive’ standing among women, americans age 18-25 and self-identified Democrats — the same demographics she organized to win.

6am – C         She’s baaaaack: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planking again!  Trainer reveals Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planking again at #PlankLikeRBG event honoring her birthday. (Washington Examiner) — Trainer reveals Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planking again at #PlankLikeRBG event honoring her birthday. Hundreds of people gathered at the Supreme Court on Friday to honor Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by doing an exercise the 86-year-old is known for: the plank. Ginsburg has resumed her rigorous workouts involving planks and pushups after undergoing lung surgery in December, her personal trainer revealed at the #PlankLikeRBG event. Bryant Johnson revealed the news at a gathering outside the Supreme Court for Ginsburg’s 86th birthday, according to a reporter present at the event.  Ginsburg had surgery to remove cancer cells from her lungs, which were discovered after she took a fall in her office in November last year and fractured three ribs. The eldest Justice on the bench of the highest court in the country, she missed six days of arguments and three closed-door conferences while she was at home recuperating. According to the court, she continued to work from home despite her ailment and physical absence. She made her first post-surgery public appearance in February. The “Plank Like RBG” Facebook event indicates more than two thousand people were interested in the event and hundreds attended.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – MARC MORANO – executive director of ClimateDepot.com and author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change” – discussed Beto O’Rourke campaigning on climate change, McConnell setting up a Senate vote on Green New Deal and Friday’s worldwide climate walkout.

6am – E/F      AXIOS: Scoop: Trump hates “crazy” driverless cars. In President Trump’s view, self-driving cars are a menace to society. A skeptic of cutting-edge technology — as his tweets about Boeing’s “complex” planes emphasized — Trump has privately said he thinks the autonomous vehicle (AV) revolution is “crazy” and that he’d never let a computer drive him around. Why it matters: Most Americans share Trump’s view: 71% of U.S. drivers would be afraid to ride in a self-driving vehicle, per AAA. Yet his own administration is encouraging AV development by removing barriers and issuing voluntary guidance instead of regulations. And we see no evidence Trump has imposed his personal views on the policy process.     For Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the challenge amid heightened fears about automation is to manage safety concerns while promoting U.S. innovation. Behind the scenes: In conversations on Air Force One and in the White House, Trump has acted out scenes of self-driving cars veering out of control and crashing into walls. He’s said he doesn’t think autonomous vehicles make sense, according to four sources who’ve heard him discuss the subject.     “You know when he’s telling a story, and he does the hand motions,” said a source who has heard Trump talk about hypothetical accidents involving self-driving cars. “He says, ‘Can you imagine, you’re sitting in the back seat and all of a sudden this car is zig-zagging around the corner and you can’t stop the f—ing thing?’”     “He’s definitely an automated car skeptic,” the source said. Another source said Trump told him self-driving cars “will never work.”

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

• Judge Unseals Portions Of Christopher Steele’s Deposition In Dossier Lawsuit — 43 pages out of 145.  A federal court unsealed 43 pages Thursday of a deposition that former British spy Christopher Steele gave as part of a lawsuit over his infamous anti-Trump dossier.
• Christopher Steele admitted using posts by ‘random individuals’ on CNN website to back up Trump dossier. Former British spy Christopher Steele admitted that he relied on an unverified report on a CNN website for part of the “Trump dossier,” which was used as a basis for the FBI’s investigation into Trump. According to deposition transcripts released this week, Steele said last year he used a 2009 report he found on CNN’s iReport website and said he wasn’t aware that submissions to that site are posted by members of the public and are not checked for accuracy.
• Court files reveal role of McCain, associate in spreading anti-Trump dossier. (Fox News) — The filings were unsealed as part of an ongoing libel case against BuzzFeed by a Russian businessman. In his deposition, David Kramer — a former State Department official and McCain associate — said that McCain gave a copy of the dossier to then-FBI Director James Comey on Dec. 9. Kramer told investigators that it was the sense from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson that “having Senator McCain provide it to the FBI would give it a little more oomph than it had had up until that point.” II think they felt a senior Republican was better to be the recipient of this rather than a Democrat because if it were a Democrat, I think that the view was that it would have been dismissed as a political attack,” he said.
• Washington Times: Robert Mueller pursues new Trump-Russia collusion leads despite talk of probe winding down – • Court filings in the prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort show that Mr. Mueller is still investigating a fall 2016 meeting at a Manhattan cigar bar where the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Russia was discussed. • Mr. Mueller still has questions about the Ukraine amendment to the 2016 Republican Party platform.

7am – B/C     NEW ZEALAND TERROR ATTACK

• Death toll in the deadly mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand has risen to 50, according to officials. (Washington Post) — Leaders are considering a total ban on semiautomatic weapons like the one avowed neo-Nazi Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, is accused of using to kill 50 people in attacks on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. An additional 34 people are in Christchurch Hospital, with 12 in critical condition in intensive care. A 4-year-old girl has been moved to a dedicated children’s hospital in Auckland, where she is also in critical condition.
•  ‘Let’s get this party started’: New Zealand shooting suspect narrated his chilling rampage (Washington Post)  The recording blinked to life shortly after 1:30 p.m. Friday to reveal the ordinary gray interior of a Subaru Outback. The overcast skies of the late New Zealand summer filtered through the windshield, casting pale light on three rifles lying across the passenger seat. With the camera mounted on the driver’s helmet, all that was visible of him were legs beneath the steering wheel, clad in tactical protective wear, and flashes of green, fingerless gloves as he fumbled with his gear. An occasional glimpse of a fair, clean-shaven chin crossed the rearview mirror. “All right,” he said before putting the car in gear. “Let’s get this party started.” It was a short drive toward downtown Christchurch, a historic, English-flavored city on New Zealand’s South Island. “Take the second left toward city center,” the windshield-mounted navigator intoned, and the man — later identified by police as a 28-year-old Australian named Brenton Harrison Tarrant — put on his turn signal. He drove carefully. At one red light, he reached to turn on a strobe attached to the military-style rifle resting between his leg and the door. Five minutes into the live Facebook video, the attacker pulled into a driveway on Deans Avenue, turned around in a small parking area and finally positioned the Subaru at the end of the drive, pointing outward, ready for a fast exit.
• Facebook says it removed 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand shooting in the first 24 hours after the mosque attack. The suspect appeared to film the shooting on a head-mounted camera which was live-streamed on the social network. Facebook removed 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand shooting in the first 24 hours after the mosque attack, the company said late on Saturday. The suspect appeared to film the shooting on a head-mounted camera which was live-streamed on the social network, renewing scrutiny over tech companies’ role in society. “In the first 24 hours we removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of which over 1.2 million were blocked at upload,” Facebook said in a tweet. The company said it is also removing all edited versions of the video that do not show graphic content out of respect for the people affected by the mosque shooting and the concerns of local authorities. “We continue to work around the clock to remove violating content using a combination of technology and people,” said Mia Garlick of Facebook New Zealand.
• Mick Mulvaney: “The president is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”
• On Friday: Trump: I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems”
• SALON: Does anyone doubt that Donald Trump inspired the New Zealand massacre? Trump didn’t pull the trigger in Christchurch. But the man who did praise

7am – D/E     BETO’S FIRST WEEKEND ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL:

• “No, I’ve never taken acid,” Beto O’Rourke says. “Thanks for asking!” As Beto O’Rourke signed a skateboard for Tyler Baggins in Madison, Baggins asks Beto if he’s ever dropped acid. “No, I’ve never taken acid,” Beto O’Rourke says. “Thanks for asking!”
• BETO’S FUNDRAISING: Beto O’Rourke raised massive $6.1 million his first day in the 2020 race, campaign says.  (CNN)Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his presidential campaign, his campaign said Monday, in what amounts to the largest announced first-day haul of any 2020 Democratic contender to date. The former Texas congressman raised $6,136,763 in online donations from all 50 states in the first day, his campaign said. That tops the $5.9 million one-day total Sen. Bernie Sanders announced after he launched his campaign. The closest other 2020 Democratic candidate to publicize their first-day fundraising total was California Sen. Kamala Harris at $1.5 million. The first-day total shows O’Rourke has the potential to recreate the record-smashing fundraising prowess he exhibited during his 2018 US Senate campaign. A more complete picture of what candidates have raised — and how much they spent, particularly on social media advertisements, to raise that money — will come in April, when reports covering the first fundraising quarter are due.
• O’Rourke calls America’s capitalist economy ‘racist’. MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa — Beto O’Rourke said Friday that America’s capitalist economy is “racist,” while he praised a proposal to give infants so-called baby bonds to address systemic inequalities. Responding to a question at a meet-and-greet in Iowa about whether he is a socialist, O’Rourke reiterated that “I consider myself a capitalist” and said capitalism is necessary to meet myriad “historic challenges” facing the country. “It won’t be government intervention or policy alone that makes it possible,” he said. However, O’Rourke added at a coffee shop here, “Having said that, it is clearly an imperfect, unfair, unjust and racist capitalist economy.”
• BETO’S BOOTY CALL: Beto O’Rourke Was On ‘A Booty Call To An Ex’ When He Was Arrested For Drunk Driving In 1998. (Daily Caller) – Beto O’Rourke was on a date with an ex-girlfriend while he was arrested for drunk driving in 1998. The former Senate candidate was arrested after a car crash in which he even tried to flee the scene, but the reason for the ill-fated trip seems to have escaped media attention. O’Rourke was on “a booty call to an ex,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Deputy Digital Director Sami Gilkes pointed out in a tweet Friday. n her tweet, Gilkes quoted a Vanity Fair profile published Wednesday about the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate by Joe Hagan, titled “Beto O’Rourke: ‘I’m Just Born To Do This.’” The police report describes O’Rourke driving at high speed and sideswiping a truck going in the same direction, then jumping the median into the oncoming lane at about two in the morning. According to a police witness, he tried to drive away from the scene of the accident. O’Rourke maintains that this isn’t true. I asked O’Rourke to describe the events of that night. He was at home listening to music that evening, he says, when his dad called and asked to meet for a drink at the Cincinnati Bar & Grill. The O’Rourkes drank a couple of Jameson whiskeys and afterward O’Rourke called up a college student in Las Cruces that he had dated once: “And I said, ‘Hey, I know this is really late, or late notice, but any chance you’re free tonight?’ and she was, but she says, ‘I don’t have a ride.’ So I said, ‘I’m happy to come pick you up.’” Hagan writes that O’Rouke was “taking his date, named Michelle, back to Las Cruces when the accident happened.”
• BETO’S FANTASY MURDER / REUTERS: Beto O’Rourke  was an early member of the oldest computer hacking group in U.S. history: The Cult of the Dead Cow. A new Reuters profile on Democrat Beto O’Rourke states that he wrote a “murder fantasy in which the narrator drives over children on the street.” Beto “wrote a murder fantasy in which the narrator drives over children on the street.” According to new Reuters report, he wrote: “One day, as I was driving home from work, I noticed two children crossing the street. They were happy, happy to be free from their troubles. As I neared the young ones, I put all my weight on my right foot keeping the accelerator pedal on the floor until I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two. I was so fascinated for a moment.
• BETO’S POETRY: Beto O’Rourke wrote poem asking cow to ‘wax my ass’ and ‘scrub my balls.’ Beto O’Rourke’s youthful artistic experiments included a poem pleading for genital grooming and a sacred cow to lactate, according to newly unearthed documents. At age 16 in 1988, under the pseudonym – “Psychedelic Warlord” – O’Rourke, now 46, authored “The Song of the Cow” — a bizarre piece of experimental writing that included lines asking for a cow to “buff” and “scrub my balls.”  As a teenager, @BetoORourke (then known informally as “Psychedelic Warlord”) wrote a poem pleading for genital grooming from a cow:
• Beto O’Rourke apologizes for teen writings, rhetoric towards wife – Business Insider 

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – White House correspondent, The Daily Caller – discussed the latest White House news.

• TRUMP BLAMED FOR NZ MASSACRE:  Media spent weekend trying to connect Trump to New Zealand shooting… SALON: Does anyone doubt that Donald Trump inspired the New Zealand massacre? Trump didn’t pull the trigger in Christchurch. But the man who did praised him as a symbol of “white identity”
• White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney: “The president is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”
• On Friday: Trump: I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems”
• MCCAIN AND DOSSIER: Court files reveal role of McCain, associate in spreading anti-Trump dossier
• Trump attacks John McCain for “spreading the fake and totally discredited dossier” months after his death
• Meghan McCain slams Trump for bashing her father: “No one will ever love you the way they loved my father”
• Trump goes after McCain for second straight day
• TRUMP AND FOX NEWS: ‘Stay strong and fight back’: Trump urges Fox News to dig in on Carlson and Pirro
• TRUMP WENT TO CHURCH: Trumps attend church services on second Sunday of Lent

8am – B         Australian Senator Slaps Teen For Cracking An Egg On The Back Of His Head During Live Interview. (Daily Caller) — Australian Senator Fraser Anning responded to having an egg cracked against the back of his head by turning around and slapping the perpetrator during a live television interview. The Queensland senator, who previously called for a ban on Muslim immigration and is currently under fire for blaming New Zealand’s lax immigration policies for recent mosque shootings, was in Melbourne giving an interview to reporters on Friday when a young man started recording, then smashed an egg into the back of his head. Anning quickly turned around and slapped the individual, who reportedly turned out to be a 17-year-old. Then he did it again before being separated from the altercation by a staffer. The unnamed teen was subsequently arrested by Victoria police, then reportedly released without charges.

8am – C         Twitter Mob Comes For Dean Cain Over Egg Attack Comments — He Fires Back. “Superman” actor Dean Cain made an offhand comment about what he would do if someone blindsided him with an egg attack, and the Twitter mob came for him. Dean Cain @RealDeanCain: I would have knocked that kid cold.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – DR. ZUHDI JASSER – President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy and Author, A Battle for the Soul of Islam – discussed his thoughts on the New Zealand attacks. He’s currently in Australia right now.

• BIO: M. Zuhdi Jasser: President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy (www.AIFDemocracy.org)… Former US NAVY Lieutenant-Commander… Host, Blaze Radio Podcast: “REFORM THIS!”… Founder, Take Back Islam (http://takebackislam.com/)… Co-Founder, Muslim Reform Movement (www.muslimreformmovement.org)…Author, A Battle for the Soul of Islam

8am – E         PARIS JACKSON:

• Fans flood Paris Jackson with support after alleged suicide attempt. Paris Jackson’s fans took to social media Saturday to express their support for her after TMZ reported she had attempted suicide. Paris, Michael Jackson’s daughter, quickly tweeted a profane denial that she’d tried to kill herself: “f–k you you f–king liars.” Soon, after some 10,000 Twitter “likes” were recorded, fans started trashing the websites. But later reports cited the Los Angeles police confirming that they’d responded to an attempted suicide at her home at 7:28 a.m. Saturday. She was transported to a local hospital; TMZ reported that she had slit her wrists.
• Paris Jackson says it’s ‘not my role’ to defend father Michael Jackson after ‘Leaving Neverland’ backlash.  Paris Jackson tweeted that it was not her “role” to defend father Michael Jackson following the backlash from the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.” Jackson, 20, appeared to be responding to a social media user, who pointed out that she hasn’t spoken out about the documentary and remarked “tabloids are mad they need to provoke you.” “There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said in regards to defense. Taj [Jackson, Paris’ second cousin] is doing a perfect job on his own. And I support him. But that’s not my role. I’m just tryna get everyone to chill out and go with the flow,  be mellow and think about the bigger picture. That’s me,” Jackson wrote.
• Paris Jackson is Michael Jackson’s second-born child and only daughter. His other children are Michael J. Jackson, Jr. and Prince Michael “Blanket” Jackson II. The explosive documentary “Leaving Neverland” detailed how Wade Robson, James Safechuck and their families came to know and trust the “Thriller” singer at the height of his fame in the 1980s and early 1990s. The two men alleged Jackson sexually abused them as children. Before his 2009 death, the singer denied similar and repeated allegations against him.