Joe diGenova, Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage, The Hill’s Saagar Enjeti and Peter Baker joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, May 6, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NEWS ROUND-UP:

• OBAMA’S HEAD OF CBP WILL NOW HEAD ICE FOR TRUMP ADMIN (Fox News) — “I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!”
• WH CONSIDERING PROPOSAL TO MAKE IT EASIER TO DEPORT ILLEGALS COLLECTING BENEFITS: (Daily Caller) — The Department of Justice has written a draft regulation that, if implemented, would greatly expand the number of immigrants in the U.S. who could be subject to deportation for using public benefits, Reuters reported Friday. The new proposal is part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to limit immigration from low-income foreign nationals.  Such benefits include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as “food stamps;” Supplemental Security Income (SSI) doled out to the elderly and disabled people; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Section 8 housing vouchers and various Medicaid benefits.
• ADMIN REVIVES PROGRAM TO EXCLUDE ILLEGALS FROM JOBS. (Breitbart) — The so-called “no-match” letter warns employers that their employees’ claimed Social Security Numbers are suspect — and so allows the employers to minimize their legal risks by quietly firing the employees who do not have a right to work. The program was stopped by President Barack Obama mainly because it was so effective at warning employers.
• 1/3 OF GUATEMALANS PLAN ON IMMIGRATING TO THE US (Washington Examiner) — The study, released Thursday by the Association for Research and Social Studies and Barometro de las Americas, found that almost 40% of Guatemalans intend to migrate, with 85% of those planning on immigrating to the United States.
• PROGRAM TO TRAIN AFGHAN PILOTS ENDED AFTER ALMOST HALF GO AWOL. (Airforce Times) — More than 40 percent of the Afghan Air Force students enrolled in the U.S.-based training program to fly the AC-208 Combat Caravan, a light attack combat aircraft, went AWOL, according to a quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.

• 5am – D         SHOULD MUELLER TESTIFY? Trump: Mueller should not testify, no do-overs for Dems. (Fox News) — President Trump is not in favor of Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15 and answering questions about his findings on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., told “Fox News Sunday” that a tentative date of May 15 has been set for Mueller to appear before the House Judiciary Committee and face questioning over his report. The Rhode Island lawmaker said that while there is no guarantee that Mueller will show up to the hearing, he heard nothing from either Mueller’s representatives or the White House to indicate that the special counsel would not testify. On Twitter on Sunday, the president questioned why Democrats wanted Mueller to testify and stated again that there was “No collusion” between his campaign in 2016 and Russia. “Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!” Trump tweeted.

5am – E         Comey defends FBI’s investigation in response to NYT ‘spying’ report.

6am – A/B/C DEMS WORRIED ABOUT ‘STOLEN’ ELECTIONS:

• Pelosi Warns Democrats: Stay in the Center or Trump May Contest Election Results. WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not believe President Trump can be removed through impeachment — the only way to do it, she said this week, is to defeat him in 2020 by a margin so “big” he cannot challenge the legitimacy of a Democratic victory. That is something she worries about. “We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,” Ms. Pelosi said during an interview at the Capitol on Wednesday as she discussed her concern that Mr. Trump would not give up power voluntarily if he lost re-election by a slim margin next year. Sitting in her office with its panoramic view of the National Mall, Ms. Pelosi — the de facto head of the Democratic Party until a presidential nominee is selected in 2020 — offered Democrats her “coldblooded” plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump: Do not get dragged into a protracted impeachment bid that will ultimately get crushed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and do not risk alienating the moderate voters who flocked to the party in 2018 by drifting too far to the left. “Own the center left, own the mainstream,” Ms. Pelosi, 79, said.
• Hillary Says The Election Was ‘Stolen’ From Her. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a Los Angeles event Saturday that the 2016 election was stolen from her. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee spoke with her husband at “An Evening With The Clintons” event. “You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you,” she said, according to CNN.

6am – D         NORTH KOREA: North Korea’s missile launches Saturday “didn’t present a threat to the United States” and its allies, nor did it derail the Trump administration’s attempts to reach a denuclearization deal, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week”, Pompeo stressed that the missiles were short-range and therefore did not violate the agreed to a moratorium on missile launches.

6am – E         PAPADOPOULOS’ SPY WAS LIKELY CIA: Reporter won’t say if ‘sexy blonde’ who targeted Papadopoulos worked for FBI.

6am – F         KENTUCKY DERBY: For the first time in the history of the race, the horse who crossed the finish line first at the Kentucky Derby was disqualified for interference and stripped of his title. On Saturday, Maximum Security won America’s most famous race on the track.  Until he didn’t. Country House was declared the winner after racing stewards ruled that Maximum Security interfered with other horses. The colt’s owner is still considering an appeal.

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

• SHOULD MUELLER TESTIFY: Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)  says Mueller Agrees to Tentatively Testify Before House on May 15… THEN WALKS IT BACK. TWEET: TRUMP Says Mueller Shouldn’t Testify

• CNN ANCHOR LOSES IT: CNN’s Alisyn Camerota lets her anti-Trump bias fly in wake of Mueller report: ‘Sorry if I sound like they’ve broken my spirit’
• Comey defends FBI’s investigation in response to NYT ‘spying’ report.
• PAPADOPOULOS’ SPY WAS LIKELY CIA: Reporter won’t say if ‘sexy blonde’ who targeted Papadopoulos worked for FBI.

7am – B/C     NEW BOOK: Obama Took 2016 Election as ‘Personal Insult,’ Blamed Hillary’s ‘Soulless, Scripted Campaign’

7am – D         INTERVIEW – JACOB BOGAGE – Sports writer, Washington Post

• KENTUCKY DERBY: For the first time in the history of the race, the horse who crossed the finish line first at the Kentucky Derby was disqualified for interference and stripped of his title. On Saturday, Maximum Security won America’s most famous race on the track.  Until he didn’t. Country House was declared the winner after racing stewards ruled that Maximum Security interfered with other horses. The colt’s owner is still considering an appeal.
• Kentucky Derby 2019: Why were objections raised after Maximum Security’s finish?
• People are ticked off about Kentucky Derby disqualification
• ‘The best horse did NOT win!’ Trump blasts controversial Kentucky Derby reversal as ‘political correctness’
• Donald J. Trump ‏ @realDonaldTrump 17h17 hours ago: The Kentucky Derby decision was not a good one. It was a rough & tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby – not even close!

7am – E         Trump’s or Obama’s? Whose economy is it? (Fox News) — National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow denounced Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sunday after the 2020 White House candidate said President Trump was “taking credit for a recovery that started under [former President Barack] Obama.” “What Mr. Booker and some others are saying is simply not true factually,” Kudlow told Fox News’ “America’s News HQ.” Kudlow spoke two days after the publication of the April jobs report, which showed that the American economy added 263,000 jobs last month while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest since 1969. Despite the rosy numbers, Booker insisted that the boom’s effects were not being felt across all economic levels.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI – Chief Washington Correspondent & Host at The Hill – discussed the latest political/WH news: Mark Morgan for ICE, N. Korea, etc

• IRAN: US Deploying Carrier, Bombers to Middle East in Warning to Iran
  • Saagar Enjeti ‏@esaagar 11h11 hours ago: NEW from @AmbJohnBolton: US is deploying carrier strike group to Middle East in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran
  • U.S. sending Iran a ‘clear and unmistakable message.’ The U.S. is sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in order “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime,” National Security Adviser John Bolton announced Sunday night. Bolton said the deployment was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” on the part of Tehran, but did not elaborate. “[A]ny attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” Bolton said. “The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.”
• MARK MORGAN TO HEAD ICE: Trump: Morgan Will Head US Immigration Enforcement Agency. Trump has named Mark Morgan, a career FBI official and the former head of Border Patrol during the last few months of the Obama administration, as the new director of ICE.
• Saagar Enjeti ‏@esaagar 18h18 hours ago: Mark Morgan was head of Border Patrol under Obama. He chose to come forward publicly in support of POTUS during the border crisis and has been a vocal defender of his since
• Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 18h18 hours ago: I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE. Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!
• NORTH KOREA: North Korea’s missile launches Saturday “didn’t present a threat to the United States” and its allies, nor did it derail the Trump administration’s attempts to reach a denuclearization deal, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week”, Pompeo stressed that the missiles were short-range and therefore did not violate the agreed to a moratorium on missile launches.
  • Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump May 4: Anything in this very interesting world is possible, but I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. “will exhaust every diplomatic opportunity there is” for North Korea denuclearization: “It would be the best outcome for the world”
• DE BLASIO 2020: De Blasio expected to announce 2020 presidential run next week: sources.
  • Saagar Enjeti Retweeted: Bill de Blasio Expected to Throw His Hat Into 2020 Ring. Remember When He Threw a Groundhog to Its Death?

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – PETER BAKER – New York Times White House Correspondent and author of new edition of his 2017 biography, “Obama: The Call of History”

• BOOK: Obama Took 2016 Election as ‘Personal Insult,’ Blamed Hillary’s ‘Soulless, Scripted Campaign’ (The Hill) — Former President Obama viewed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to President Trump as a “personal insult” and a defeat of his own legacy, according to new updates to a 2017 book. Updates to New York Times correspondent Peter Baker’s history of the Obama presidency, “Obama: The Call of History,” published by the Daily Mail, detail how the president was overcome with anger in the days following Clinton’s defeat to Trump, which Obama saw as a result of her inability to translate his policy successes into a winnable message. “Obama may not have been on the ballot, but it was hard not to see the vote as a ‘personal insult,’ as he had called it on the campaign trail,” Baker writes, according to Fox News. “This stings,” Obama said after the election, according to Baker. “This hurts.” Struggling with the results of the election, Obama found himself thinking that the American people “simply could not have decided to replace him with a buffoonish showman whose calling cards had been repeated bankruptcies, serial marriages and racist dog whistles,” Baker continued. “I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon,” he told one aide after the election, according to the book. Baker wrote that Obama directed much blame at his former secretary of State, who the former president thought ran a “soulless” campaign. “No one forced her to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other pillars of Wall Street for speeches,” Baker writes, according to the Mail. “No one forced her to run a scripted, soulless campaign that tested eighty-five slogans before coming up with ‘Stronger Together.’ “

8am – D/E     RUSSIA CONSPIRACY FALLOUT:

• SHOULD MUELLER TESTIFY:
  • Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)  says Mueller Agrees to Tentatively Testify Before House on May 15… THEN WALKS IT BACK
  • TWEET: TRUMP Says Mueller Shouldn’t Testify
• CNN ANCHOR LOSES IT: CNN’s Alisyn Camerota lets her anti-Trump bias fly in wake of Mueller report: ‘Sorry if I sound like they’ve broken my spirit’
• Comey defends FBI’s investigation in response to NYT ‘spying’ report. In a lengthy interview with a Los Angeles radio station, Charles Feldman mentioned the New York Times report and asked Comey about Trump supporters’ reaction to it.
• PAPADOPOULOS’ SPY WAS LIKELY CIA: Reporter won’t say if ‘sexy blonde’ who targeted Papadopoulos worked for FBI. A reporter who exposed how the FBI sent a blond bombshell to question a Trump campaign about suspected collusion with Russia won’t say if she’s actually a G-woman — fueling suspicion the woman may work for the CIA or another spy agency. During an interview on CNN, New York Times reporter Adam Goldman didn’t answer directly when asked if the woman, who called herself Azra Turk, was “an FBI agent.” “I’m just, what I’m gonna, I’m just gonna leave it at right now as a government investigator,” Goldman stammered.