Cal Thomas, Sen. Tom Cotton, Tom Fitton and Joe Concha joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Alabama state Senate passes near total abortion ban in direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. (NBC News) — The bill’s sponsor in the Alabama House says it’s specifically designed to get the Supreme Court to “revisit their decision on Roe vs. Wade.” The Alabama state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill essentially banning abortion in the state, a move specifically aimed at challenging more than 40 years of federal abortion protection under Roe v. Wade. The bill would make it a felony for a doctor to perform or attempt an abortion during any stage of pregnancy. The House approved a version of the bill that had an exception for the mother’s health, passing 74-3, then a Senate committee added an exception for rape and incest. Republicans in the Senate, however, suddenly tabled the rape and incest exemptions last week, leading to swift and vocal opposition from Democrats. Shouting erupted as Democratic Sen. Bobby Singleton, other Democrats and at least one Republican objected to the motion being gaveled through without a roll call vote. “You’ve got 27 men over on the other side ready to tell women what they can do with their bodies,” Singleton said. “You don’t have to procedurally just try to railroad us.” The session was adjourned after Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, a Republican, suggested the lawmakers take the weekend to cool down.

5am – D         Judicial Watch Obtains DOJ Documents Showing Andrew Weissmann Leading Hiring Effort for Mueller Special Counsel.  Judicial Watch announced today the U.S. Department of Justice released 73 pages of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) containing text messages and calendar entries of Mueller special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann showing he led the hiring effort for the investigation that targeted President Trump.

5am – E         Men DO have a ticking biological clock: First-time fathers in their 40s ‘are less fertile, their partners suffer more complications, and their babies have poorer health,’ study finds. (Daily Mail) — Men should start having children before 35 to avoid harming the health of their partner and children, according to new research. The study by Rutgers University is the latest in a growing field that suggests men, like women, may have a ticking biological clock.  Reviewing 40 years of research, the team found men over 45 are less fertile, and the women they impregnate have higher risks of pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-related hypertension), gestational diabetes and preterm birth.  Babies of older fathers were more likely to arrive prematurely or stillborn, to have poor overall health and a low birth weight, to suffer seizures, heart issues, and birth defects, and to develop childhood cancers or autism later in life.

6am – A         Trump Jr. reaches deal to testify with Senate Intelligence. Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a second round of questions, complying with a subpoena from Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who came under fire from fellow Republicans for demanding the testimony. Trump Jr. struck the deal Tuesday to interview with the panel next month for between two and four hours. The committee had originally a set a 5 p.m. deadline on Monday for him to respond. Questions about the Trump Tower project in Moscow and the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya are fair game, according to a source who was briefed on the deal. Another source said the committee outlined 10 topics it hoped to discuss with Trump Jr., but the scope of the interview was negotiated down to six topics. The two sides also agreed this would be Trump Jr.’s last appearance before the committee.

6am – B/C     IRAN NEWS:

• Iranian presidential aide says Trump will ‘get a war’ for listening to ‘the mustache’ John Bolton
• NEWSWEEK: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PREPARES MULTIPLE MILITARY OPTIONS FOR IRAN, INCLUDING AIRSTRIKES AND SETTING UP GROUND INVASION

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist

• CAL: Doris Day was a friend of mine and attached is a copy of the column I wrote about her for Thursday.
• RIP TIM CONWAY: *Six-time Emmy-winner Tim Conway is being remembered as a wildly talented comedian and loving person. Carol Burnett, whose show gave the beloved funnyman his most memorable stage, says her heart is broken by the loss of a performer she describes as “one in a million.” The quirky improv actor died yesterday in Los Angeles after a long illness at age 85.
• His column for today on Joe Biden wanting to take us back to the past

6am – E         WARREN DISSES FOX:

• ELIZABETH WARREN REJECTS FOX TOWN HALL: Elizabeth Warren is turning down a Fox News town hall and calling the network “a hate for profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”
• JOHN DELANEY HITS LIZ WARREN FOR REFUSING FOX NEWS TOWN HALL: ‘NOT USING YOUR TOWN HALL, I WILL’ / Henry Rodgers ‏@henryrodgersdc: John Delaney’s spox just me sent this statement regarding Liz Warren refusing to do a town hall with Fox News: “Democrats have to meet voters where they are. Do we agree with everything Fox’s opinion side does, of course not. That doesn’t mean we can just ignore their viewers.”

6am – F         BIDEN – AOC FEUD:

• ON MONDAY AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY: Ocasio-Cortez Decries Biden ‘Middle-Of-The-Road Approach’ On Climate Change. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted “middle of the road” approaches on climate change, an apparent criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden. “I will be damned if the same politicians who refused to act then are going to try to come back today and say we need to find a middle-of-the-road approach to save our lives,” the 29-year-old freshman Democrat, who introduced the Green New Deal framework earlier this year, said Monday night at an event in Washington, where she was trying to rally support for her climate change proposal. “That is too much for me,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
• Yesterday: Joe Biden Claps Back at AOC Over Climate Change Criticism Tell Her to Look at My Record:  “I’ve never been middle of the road on the environment.. [Rep @AOC will] find that nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and the Green revolution than I have.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SEN. TOM COTTON (R-Arkansas) – author of new book “’Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington Cemetery‘”

• Sen. Cotton tells story of serving with ‘The Old Guard’ at Arlington National Cemetery. (Fox News) – Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., says one of his biggest honors in life was serving in the Army with “The Old Guard” as a funeral escort at Arlington National Cemetery. Cotton was a member of the Army’s elite ceremonial unit between tours of duty as an infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was elected to the Senate in 2014. “If I wasn’t in Iraq or Afghanistan leading troops in combat, I can’t think of anything more meaningful than serving at Arlington National Cemetery with The Old Guard, honoring our nation’s fallen heroes and everything that means to America,” he said. Cotton’s new book is “’Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington Cemetery.’” The Old Guard is the nickname for the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the oldest active-duty infantry unit in the Army. The unit’s beginnings date back to 1784. “The story of The Old Guard is kind of the story of America as a nation,” Cotton said. The senator said that one Arlington funeral in particular that he remembers escorting was the funeral for 12 Americans who were killed in 2007 when a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq.

7am – B/C     Beto O’Rourke attempts to reboot campaign on ‘The View,’ bemoans his ‘privilege’ and ‘elitist’ campaign launch

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – President, Judicial Watch (IN STUDIO)

• Judicial Watch Obtains DOJ Documents Showing Andrew Weissmann Leading Hiring Effort for Mueller Special Counsel. Judicial Watch announced today the U.S. Department of Justice released 73 pages of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) containing text messages and calendar entries of Mueller special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann showing he led the hiring effort for the investigation that targeted President Trump.
• President Trump: “Even Mueller — not a friend of mine — even Bob Mueller came out. No collusion. And he had 18 people that didn’t like Donald Trump that were Hillary Clinton fans… It was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the people of this country.”
• Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection efforts targeting the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate,” a person familiar with the situation told Fox News on Monday evening. John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, will conduct the inquiry, the source said. The move comes as the Trump administration has pushed for answers on why federal authorities conducted the surveillance — as well as whether Democrats were the ones who improperly colluded with foreign actors.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter for The Hill

• BETO’S MEDIA TOUR: Beto O’Rourke attempts to reboot campaign on ‘The View,’ bemoans his ‘privilege’ and ‘elitist’ campaign launch
• ELIZABETH WARREN REJECTS FOX TOWN HALL: Elizabeth Warren is turning down a Fox News town hall and calling the network “a hate for profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”
• JOHN DELANEY HITS LIZ WARREN FOR REFUSING FOX NEWS TOWN HALL: ‘NOT USING YOUR TOWN HALL, I WILL’ / Henry Rodgers ‏@henryrodgersdc: John Delaney’s spox just me sent this statement regarding Liz Warren refusing to do a town hall with Fox News: “Democrats have to meet voters where they are. Do we agree with everything Fox’s opinion side does, of course not. That doesn’t mean we can just ignore their viewers.”
• UPCOMING DEM TOWN HALLS: Once-leading contenders like Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., , whose momentum was sapped by South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and then by Biden, have conducted a string of new interviews and plan town hall events over the next few weeks. Harris was interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper last weekend and will appear on MSNBC on May 28. O’Rourke has been interviewed by Rachel Maddow and on “The View” this week and will be featured in a CNN town hall on May 21. Buttigieg will be on a Fox News town hall next Sunday, May 19.

8am – B/C     Alabama state Senate passes near total abortion ban in direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. The bill’s sponsor in the Alabama House says it’s specifically designed to get the Supreme Court to “revisit their decision on Roe vs. Wade.” The Alabama state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill essentially banning abortion in the state, a move specifically aimed at challenging more than 40 years of federal abortion protection under Roe v. Wade. The bill would make it a felony for a doctor to perform or attempt an abortion during any stage of pregnancy. The House approved a version of the bill that had an exception for the mother’s health, passing 74-3, then a Senate committee added an exception for rape and incest. Republicans in the Senate, however, suddenly tabled the rape and incest exemptions last week, leading to swift and vocal opposition from Democrats.

8am – D/E     2020 News:

• Host Joe Rogan pondered on “who is paying to listen to Hillary Clinton talk,” which prompted Gabbard to ask “What are they getting out of it?”
• Tulsi Gabbard becomes the FIRST and ONLY Democratic Candidate to defend FREE SPEECH on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
• Tulsi dropping TRUTH BOMBS about New Knowledge — The “Russian Bot” catching business that was actually CREATING fake Russian bots. They were often cited to smear her campaign…
• Tulsi explains why she’s running for president
• New Hampshire voter to Joe Biden: “I have a very severe case of what’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome.