Joe diGenova, Joe Concha, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore and former ICE chief Tom Homan joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, July 15, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C TRUMP TWEETS ABOUT “THE SQUAD”

• Trump tells four liberal congresswomen to ‘go back’ to their countries, prompting Pelosi to defend them. (Washington Post) — President Trump said Sunday that four minority, liberal congresswomen who have been critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” prompting other Democrats — including Pelosi — to leap to their defense. Pelosi denounced Trump’s tweets as “xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation,” while the four congresswomen promised to continue fighting Trump’s agenda and accused him of trying to appeal to white nationalists. Trump’s remark swiftly united a House Democratic caucus that had been torn apart in recent days by infighting between Pelosi and the four freshman women of color — Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.). It also comes after Trump announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were preparing to round up migrant families that have received deportation orders across the country. Trump kicked off the furor with a string of tweets before heading to his golf club in Sterling, Va., on Sunday morning. “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Trump tweeted. Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Tlaib was born in Detroit and Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York — about 20 miles from where Trump was born. Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia; her family fled the country amid civil war when she was a child, and she became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. All four women won election to Congress in 2018. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” Trump continued in the tweets. “Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
• Trump’s comments prompted a sharp response from Pelosi, who described them as racist and divisive.  “When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again,” she said in a tweet. “Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.”
• AOC unloads on Trump after he tells progressive congresswomen to ‘go back’ to home countries (Fox News) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, fresh from a bitter public spat with top House Democrats, unloaded on President Trump Sunday afternoon after he suggested that unnamed progressive congresswomen “go back” to their own “corrupt” and “crime infested” countries of origin, then “come back and show us how it is done.” “You can’t leave fast enough,” Trump had written. Ocasio-Cortez’s fiery Twitter return barrage could be the call to action that unifies a party currently divided along establishment and progressive lines, observers said, even as some analysts blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for laying the groundwork for Trump’s remarks. “Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet.”

5am – D FLAG RIPPED DOWN AT ICE FACILITY:

• Protesters Tear Down American Flag From ICE Facility, Replace It With Mexican Flag And Deface Blue Lives Matter Flag (Daily Wire) — Demonstrators at a protest outside an Aurora, Colorado Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on Friday removed an American flag and replaced it with the Mexican flag. They also defaced a Blue Lives Matter flag before flying it upside down next to the Mexican flag. CBS4 reported that the Blue Lives Matter flag was spray-painted with the words “Abolish ICE” in red.

5am-E COURT RULINGS / TRUMP WINS:

• 9th Circuit rules in favor of Trump admin in ‘sanctuary city’ case (The Hill) — The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s efforts to prioritize federal dollars for local policing to towns and cities that complied with certain immigration policies. The ruling, a split 2-1 decision, said the Department of Justice (DOJ) was within its rights to withhold Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants from sanctuary cities and states over their refusal to work with federal immigration enforcement authorities and instead prioritize agencies that focused on unauthorized immigration and agreed to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to jail records and immigrants in custody.
• 9th Circuit Court sides with Trump administration on banning Title X funds for abortion (Washington Times) — A federal appeals court refused Thursday to block the Trump administration’s Title X family-planning rules from taking effect, keeping in place newly instated requirements preventing grant recipients from referring clients for abortions.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plea from 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, to impose an emergency stay after lifting June 20 preliminary injunctions ordered by lower courts in California, Oregon and Washington. In February, the Department of Health and Human Services overhauled rules governing Title X grants for family-planning services to low-income patients, prohibiting recipients from using the funds to “perform, promote, refer to, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” The rule change could cost Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, as much as $60 million per year, although the Title X grants represent only a small percentage of the organization’s half-billion in annual federal funding.

6am – A/B/C   Starbucks will stop selling newspapers in September (New York Post) — If you want to read the paper at Starbucks, you’ll have to start bringing your own. Beginning Sept. 1, the Seattle-based coffee giant will no longer sell The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or USA Today at its more than 8,600 shops nationwide, Media Ink has learned. According to a source, Starbucks is trashing newspapers partly because of a chronic problem with “shrinkage” — industry lingo for lost and stolen goods. Starbucks has been selling the papers in its stores for nearly two decades, starting with the Times in 2000 and expanding to add the Journal and USA Today in 2010. But many Starbucks customers take them off the rack, read them while they finish their lattes, and then either leave them on the table or walk off with the daily paper without paying.

6am – D/E  HEATED TOM HOMAN HEARING:

• Former ICE official trades heated words with lawmakers at hearing (CNN) — Former acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan starkly defended the Trump administration’s border policies Friday during a House Oversight Committee hearing about separations of undocumented migrant families. Homan, who’s also a Fox News contributor, repeatedly exchanged fiery words with members of Congress, voicing frustration with what he believed was an ignorant and one-sided view of what lawmakers of both parties are calling a crisis at the southern US border. Homan testified before the committee as a witness. He expressed frustration with comments by some members of the committee because, he said, “I’m the only one in this room who has worn a green uniform and been on that line. I’m the only one in this room who’s found dead aliens on a trail that were abandoned by smugglers.
• Former ICE Director Tom Homan Leaves Ocasio-Cortez Speechless On Immigration. Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan left New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speechless during Congressional hearings Friday on the topic of family separations at the border.
• Thomas Homan to Rep Chuy Grcia: “Your comments are disgusting…I’ve served my country 34 years and yes, I held a five-year-old boy in my arms…for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love of my country and for children, that’s why this whole thing needs to be fixed.”
• Gerry Connolly (D-VA) ripped on the TERRIBLE conditions and former acting ICE Director Tom Homan responded that HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO’S ACTUALLY BEEN DEALING WITH IT during a House Oversight hearing on conditions in migrant facilities on the southern border.

6am – F  NYC BLACKOUT:

• Con Ed can’t explain what caused the Manhattan blackout (New York Post) — Con Edison has yet to figure out why a large swath of Manhattan’s West Side was plunged into darkness by the blackout that lasted more than five hours on Saturday night. In a statement released late Sunday morning, the power company said it “will be conducting a diligent and vigorous investigation to determine the root cause of the incident.” “Over the next several days and weeks, our engineers and planners will carefully examine the data and equipment performance relating to this event, and will share our findings with regulators and the public,” the company said. Con Ed spokesman Alfonso Quiroz blamed the blackout on a “disruption on the transmission side” of the company’s power grid.
• NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio balks on decision to leave Iowa when massive power outage hits at home (Washington Examiner) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio would not commit to returning home from Iowa hours after a massive blackout hit the Big Apple that has put tens of thousands of people in the dark. The 2020 candidate for president was on the campaign trail in Waterloo when power outages struck a wide swath of Manhattan in the early evening Saturday. Asked by CNN if he would return to New York City, de Blasio said, “I’m going to get more information in the next hour or so. And we’ll adjust my schedule accordingly depending on what I hear.”
• Show must go on: Unafraid of the dark, Broadway performers play the streets in New York power outage. The cast of “We Come From Away” performs at the stage door as NYC experiences a blackout
• Joe Concha @JoeConchaTV 21h: Absentee Mayor Bill de Blasio Speaks from Iowa While NYC Experiences Outage 
• Power has been restored in New York City, after a huge outage struck disrupted the subway service, forced road closures and plunged many Times Square billboards into darkness

7am – A/B/C   INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – WMAL legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed the delay of the Mueller hearing and pro-Trump court rulings on a sanctuary city case and abortion case.

• Robert Mueller public hearing to be delayed one week (CNN) — Robert Mueller’s long-awaited testimony has been delayed a week, until July 24, to allow more time for Mueller to testify, House Democrats said in a statement late Friday. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said in a joint statement that Mueller’s public appearance had been pushed back at the former special counsel’s request, and that Mueller had agreed to appear for an extended period. “The House Judiciary Committee will convene on July 24 at 8:30am with Special Counsel Mueller testifying in public for three hours. After a brief break, the House Intelligence Committee will convene for additional public testimony beginning at 12:00pm,” the chairmen said in a statement. “All members — Democrats and Republicans — of both committees will have a meaningful opportunity to question the Special Counsel in public, and the American people will finally have an opportunity to hear directly from Mr. Mueller about what his investigation uncovered.”
• 9th Circuit rules in favor of Trump admin in ‘sanctuary city’ case (The Hill) — The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s efforts to prioritize federal dollars for local policing to towns and cities that complied with certain immigration policies. The ruling, a split 2-1 decision, said the Department of Justice (DOJ) was within its rights to withhold Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants from sanctuary cities and states over their refusal to work with federal immigration enforcement authorities and instead prioritize agencies that focused on unauthorized immigration and agreed to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to jail records and immigrants in custody.
• 9th Circuit Court sides with Trump administration on banning Title X funds for abortion (Washington Times) — A federal appeals court refused Thursday to block the Trump administration’s Title X family-planning rules from taking effect, keeping in place newly instated requirements preventing grant recipients from referring clients for abortions.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plea from 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, to impose an emergency stay after lifting June 20 preliminary injunctions ordered by lower courts in California, Oregon and Washington. In February, the Department of Health and Human Services overhauled rules governing Title X grants for family-planning services to low-income patients, prohibiting recipients from using the funds to “perform, promote, refer to, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” The rule change could cost Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, as much as $60 million per year, although the Title X grants represent only a small percentage of the organization’s half-billion in annual federal funding.

7am – D  INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media reporter at The Hill – discussed Washington Post calling Lion King fascist, shared his thoughts on the NYC Mayor too busy campaigning in Iowa during the massive blackout and discussed the coverage of the Pelosi-AOC catfight.

• Dan Hassler-Forest: ‘The Lion King’ is a fascistic story. No remake can change that. (Washington Post) — No matter how you look at it, this is a film that introduces us to a society where the weak have learned to worship at the feet of the strong. Last November, Disney set the Internet aflame with its teaser trailer for “The Lion King.” The 93-second video gave millions of people chills by faithfully re-creating key moments from the original film’s beloved opening number. But as nostalgic as “Circle of Life” may make us feel, this bombastic scene is also a painful reminder of the film’s ideological agenda: It introduces us to a society where the weak have learned to worship at the feet of the strong. As we watch the herbivores congregate to bow down before their newborn ruler, “The Lion King” presents a seductive worldview in which absolute power goes unquestioned and the weak and the vulnerable are fundamentally inferior. In other words: “The Lion King” offers us fascist ideology writ large, and there is no obvious way out for the remake. As a fable, “The Lion King” isn’t really about lions — or any other animal species. Instead, a variety of cute and cuddly creatures stand in for a deeply human way of organizing society. But mapping our own social hierarchies onto the pristine and “neutral” animal kingdom makes these power dynamics seem natural, common-sense and even desirable. And by using predator-prey relationships to allegorize human power structures, the film almost inevitably incorporates a worldview in which the rulers’ power derives from their biological superiority.
• NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio balks on decision to leave Iowa when massive power outage hits at home (Washington Examiner) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio would not commit to returning home from Iowa hours after a massive blackout hit the Big Apple that has put tens of thousands of people in the dark. The 2020 candidate for president was on the campaign trail in Waterloo when power outages struck a wide swath of Manhattan in the early evening Saturday. Asked by CNN if he would return to New York City, de Blasio said, “I’m going to get more information in the next hour or so. And we’ll adjust my schedule accordingly depending on what I hear.”
• Trump tells four liberal congresswomen to ‘go back’ to their countries, prompting Pelosi to defend them. (Washington Post) — President Trump said Sunday that four minority, liberal congresswomen who have been critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” prompting other Democrats — including Pelosi — to leap to their defense. Pelosi denounced Trump’s tweets as “xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation,” while the four congresswomen promised to continue fighting Trump’s agenda and accused him of trying to appeal to white nationalists.
• Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) ripped on the TERRIBLE conditions and former acting ICE Director Tom Homan responded that HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO’S ACTUALLY BEEN DEALING WITH IT during a House Oversight hearing on conditions in migrant facilities on the southern border.

7am – E  ENTERTAINMENT NEWS:

• The New 007 Is A Woman In The Upcoming ‘James Bond’ Movie (Daily Caller) — The newest 007 is actress Lashana Lynch. After years of debate about who would replace Daniel Craig in the iconic film series, it now looks like fans have some answers. However, it’s not as straight forward as it seems. Lynch won’t be playing Bond in the films, but she will have the famous 007 callsign. The Daily Mail reported the following late Saturday: In what’s been called a ‘popcorn-dropping moment’, British star Lashana Lynch, will be given Bond’s license to kill in the 25th movie in the franchise, currently being shot in Italy and the UK. However, traditionalists can relax: she’s not the new Bond, but a new character who takes over his secret agent number after he leaves MI6. A movie insider said: ‘There is a pivotal scene at the start of the film where M says ‘Come in 007’, and in walks Lashana who is black, beautiful and a woman. ‘It’s a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he’s been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman.
• Scarlett Johansson Speaks Out About Political Correctness and Casting. (Entertainment News) — Johansson also addressed the criticism she faced when she was set to play a transmasculine male in “Rub & Tub” (which she later withdrew from) or her part in the popular Japanese manga film “Ghost In The Shell”. Mostly having stayed quite surrounding the criticism, the actress said she doesn’t like the “political correctness” that people are placing on her when picking her roles. “You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job,” Johansson explained. “I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions.” She added, “I think society would be more connected if we just allowed others to have their own feelings and not expect everyone to feel the way we do.” Johansson’s comments were met with backlash, and on Sunday she issued a statement to ET Canada insisting her words were “taken out of context” but remains steadfast in her belief that “any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness.” “An interview that was recently published has been edited for click bait and is widely taken out of context,” says Johansson in her statement. “The question I was answering in my conversation with the contemporary artist, David Salle, was about the confrontation between political correctness and art. I personally feel that, in an ideal world, any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness. That is the point I was making, albeit didn’t come across that way.” She continues: “I recognize that in reality, there is a widespread discrepancy amongst my industry that favours Caucasian, cis gendered actors and that not every actor has been given the same opportunities that I have been privileged to. I continue to support, and always have, diversity in every industry and will continue to fight for projects where everyone is included.”
  

8am – A         INTERVIEW — LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE – known for his work as the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina – discussed Hurricane Barry’s impact  to the region. There were concerns about already high water levels from the Mississippi River causing epic flooding for millions of people this weekend.

• Tropical Storm Barry, downgraded from a hurricane Saturday, slogs through Louisiana, leaving more than 160K without power, concerns of flooding. (USA Today) — Barry slowly swept through Louisiana and into Arkansas on Sunday, producing thunderstorms and torrents of rain that may cause widespread flooding.  Reclassified from a tropical storm to a tropical depression late Sunday afternoon, Barry spared New Orleans and did not cause any major damage as it weakened from a Category 1 hurricane. No fatalities have been reported. After making landfall Saturday, Barry moved toward Shreveport on Sunday. The National Hurricane Center warned of possible flooding from Louisiana northward through the lower Mississippi Valley. Eight inches of rain fell Sunday in parts of the Mississippi counties of Jasper and Jones, with more possible into the night. As more rain pounded already devastated agricultural areas, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant called on the federal government to install pumps. “The Mississippi River has been at flood stage for 150 days,” Bryant said at a press conference. “This is a historical, disastrous flood and this is just making it worse.”
• Barry weakens to a tropical depression, but authorities still warn of dangerous flooding (CNN) — Barry weakened to a tropical depression Sunday as it crawled north across Louisiana at about 9 mph — slower than a bicyclist, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm system hovered over the state where it made landfall Saturday, dumping rain on already deluged cities. Millions of people were under the threat of epic flooding. Barry is forecast to produce an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain from the lower Mississippi River Valley through portions of Arkansas, west Tennessee and northwest Mississippi. Some areas in this region could see storm totals upward of 15 inches by the time the remnants of Barry push into the Ohio Valley by midweek.

8am – B/C     O’Rourke says he and wife descended from slave owners, has ‘more personal connection’ to slavery. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke revealed on Twitter Sunday that he and his wife Amy are both descended from slave owners. “Something that we’ve been talking about in town hall meetings – the legacy of slavery in the United States – now has a much more personal connection,” O’Rourke said. “I was recently given documents showing that both Amy and I are descended from people who owned slaves.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – TOM HOMAN – the former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – discussed his epic confrontation with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Friday.

• Former ICE Director Tom Homan Leaves Ocasio-Cortez Speechless On Immigration. Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan left New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speechless during Congressional hearings Friday on the topic of family separations at the border.
• Thomas Homan to Rep Chuy Grcia: “Your comments are disgusting…I’ve served my country 34 years and yes, I held a five-year-old boy in my arms…for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love of my country and for children, that’s why this whole thing needs to be fixed.”
• Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) ripped on the TERRIBLE conditions and former acting ICE Director Tom Homan responded that HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO’S ACTUALLY BEEN DEALING WITH IT during a House Oversight hearing on conditions in migrant facilities on the southern border.
• Homan’s Fox News op-ed: Tom Homan: Democrats are lying to the American people about ICE and immigration — here’s why that’s dangerous. (By Tom Homan | Fox News) — What is going on in this country right now, especially on Capitol Hill, is nothing short of deceitful behavior which intentionally distorts the truth in order to win a political battle. I saw it firsthand when I testified on Capitol Hill this past Friday, in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.  Aside from the six minutes I was given to read my opening statement, there was an attempt by most  Democrats on that committee to silence me. The issues surrounding zero tolerance and the conditions of confinement at Border Patrol stations is an important one and it is vital that the American people know the facts. But every time one of the witnesses or members of Congress said something that was downright wrong – a lie, an intentional mis-truth – and I attempted to speak up and correct the record, I was refused many times the opportunity to speak. They didn’t want to hear from me. They didn’t want the truth. They simply wanted to continue to push their false narrative about the Border Patrol and ICE.  They wanted to continually attack our president. The hearing was nothing but political theater to misinform the American people. It was politics at its worse. Toward the second half of the hearing, I finally decided that I was not going to be silenced any longer. If they didn’t want to hear what I had to say, then I was going to interject, interrupt and speak to the American people.  I refuse to be bullied, and I will not be silenced in my support of the Border Patrol and ICE or in support of the truth. Further, as ICE prepared to conduct a nationwide operation, Democratic leaders such as Nancy Pelosi held a press conference to instruct those who have violated our nation’s laws on how they can evade federal law enforcement.  How they can evade the law.  How what ICE is doing is un-American and they need to resist.