.@bevhallberg @IWF is back guest co-hosting Mornings on the Mall with @VinceCoglianese. Keep it tuned to @WMALDC from 5-9aE.

— IWF (@IWF) August 1, 2019

HUD Secretary Ben Carson, ACU’s Matt Schlapp, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Mark Morgan and guest host Beverly Hallberg joined WMAL Thursday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Guest Host Beverly Hallberg -President of District Media Group and Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum (IWF)

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C/D/E   SECOND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE NIGHT IN DETROIT:

• DNC CHAIR WARMS UP CROWD: DNC Chair Tom Perez: ‘Who Else Misses Obama!!!’
• Tom Perez: But this president is too busy tweeting. And his lap dog in Kentucky, McConnell, old McConnell had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he kept all those bills that passed the house, E-I-E-I-O.
• BIDEN TO KAMALA: GO EASY ON ME, KID: Joe Biden tells Kamala Harris on stage: “Go easy on me, kid”
• BIDEN GETS ATTACKED: Joe Biden gets hit on all sides tonight on Obama’s deportations.
• De Blasio attacked Biden for being VP during ramped up deportations during the Obama presidency and asking him if he agreed with it.
• Mayor Bill de Blasio: “There are good people on this stage, but there are real differences. Joe Biden told wealthy donors that nothing fundamentally would change if he were president. Kamala Harris said she’s not trying to restructure society. Well, I am.”
• Biden: “The fact of the matter is … if you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back. It’s a crime”
• Cory Booker: “Mr. Vice President, you can’t have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can’t do it when it’s convenient and then dodge it when it’s not”
• Julián Castro pushes back against Joe Biden’s immigration policies: “One of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn’t… What we need are politicians that actually have some guts on this issue.”
• Cory Booker to Joe Biden on criminal justice reform: “If you want to compare records, and frankly I’m shocked that you do, I am happy to do that”
• Cory Booker: “Mr. Vice President has said that since the 1970s, every major crime bill — every crime bill major and minor — has had his name on it…You claimed responsibility for those laws, and you can’t just now come out with a plan to put out that fire.”
• Booker Stuns Audience By Torching Biden on Crime Bill: You ‘Destroyed Communities Like Mine’
• Biden says Corey Booker did nothing to stop harsh policing activity while Newark Mayor. Booker says he is dipping into the koolaid and doesn’t even know the flavor
• Cory Booker to Joe Biden: “There’s a saying in my community that you’re dipping into the kool-aid and you don’t even know the flavor.”
• Biden interrupted by protestors shouting “3 Million Deportations” citing the number deported under the Obama administration
• Retro Biden brings back “bunch of Malarkey” to applause from the crowd
• Daily Mail’s Francesca Chambers @fran_chambers 13h Let it be noted that Biden called it “Obamacare” and not the Affordable Care Act.
• “This idea is a bunch of malarkey,” Joe Biden says about criticism of Obamacare. “The fact of the matter is, that there will be a deductible on their paycheck. Bernie acknowledges it.”
• Joe Biden points out that any implamentation of “Medicare for All” will require money be taken out of American paychecks in order to pay for it.
• Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden says he wants to jail private citizens who do not go along with his health care plan
• Axelrod on Debate: Good News, Bad News For Biden Is “This May Be The Best He Could Do” / Former chief strategist for former President Obama’s presidential campaign and advisor to the president David Axelrod opines on former Vice President Joe Biden’s performance at the second night of the CNN Democratic presidential primary debates.
• TULSI VS KAMALA: Tulsi Gabbard brings up Kamala Harris’ record as California AG, saying Harris “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
• Kamala Harris Fires Back at ‘Assad Apologist’ Tulsi Gabbard on CNN: She’s Polling at ‘0 or 1%’

6am – A/B/C    MORE ON THE SECOND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE NIGHT IN DETROIT

6am – D   INTERVIEW – DR. BEN CARSON – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – discussed his trip to Baltimore on Wednesday.

• Ben Carson spoke in Baltimore amid controversy over President Trump’s criticism: Sec. Ben Carson says Baltimore has “a lot of good places” and “wonderful people,” but deep problems as well.
• Elijah Cummings was invited to tour a Baltimore HUD facility with Sec. Ben Carson today but declined the offer (Daily Caller) — Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings declined an offer to tour a Baltimore Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility with HUD secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday. HUD invited Cummings to tour the facility with Carson on Tuesday, however Cummings rejected the invitation, the Daily Caller has learned. When asked about Cummings’ absence at a press conference, Carson said that he did not know why Cummings did not attend the tour but guessed there may have been a scheduling issue.

6am – E/F      Discussed cheating with a robot

6am – F          Discuss more of the debate.

7am – A   INTERVIEW – MATT SCHLAPP – Chairman of American Conservative Union

• Biden under fire from all sides on Night 2 in Detroit. (Fox News) – Joe Biden seemed better prepared Wednesday in Detroit than he was last month in Miami as nine other would-be 2020 Democratic nominees took aim at his long record during the second round of the presidential primary debates. But he also found out that, not quite three years after he and President Obama left the White House, the Democratic Party of 2019 may no longer be the party of Obama. The former vice president tried keep his focus on President Trump and preview the general election battle he hopes to wage in 2020. But every other candidate quickly looked to score points by taking him out, and Biden spent the better part of the night fighting off their withering attacks.

7am – B/C     Mario Lopez Apologizes for ‘Ignorant and Insensitive’ Comments About Parenting Transgender Kids (People) — Mario Lopez is facing backlash over comments he made in a recent interview that suggested it was “dangerous” for parents of children as young as 3 years old to definitively label their kids transgender. The incoming Access Hollywood co-host appeared on The Candace Owens Show in June, where the conservative commentator brought up “this new trend where celebrities are coming out … and saying that their child is picking their gender.” In response, Lopez told Owens he, too, was struggling to understand the mentality, and was “kind of blown away.” “Look, I’m never one to tell anyone how to parent their kids, obviously, and I think if you come from a place of love, you really can’t go wrong,” he said. “But at the same time, my God, if you’re 3 years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way, or you think you’re a boy or a girl or whatever the case may be, I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination then — ‘Okay, well then you’re going to be a boy or a girl,’ whatever the case may be. It’s sort of alarming and my gosh, I just think about the repercussions later on.”

7am – D/E     RECAP SECOND NIGHT OF DEMOCRATIC DEBATES NIGHT IN DETROIT: RACISM TALK:

• Washington Governor Jay Inslee got in and said “we’re missing two central statements we should make…. We can no longer allow a white nationalist to be in the White House, number one,” Inslee said, which drew massive cheers from the room.
• Gov. Jay Inslee: ‘I’ve Never Been A Black Teenager.’ Washington Governor Jay Inslee said during the Democratic Debate, that he approaches questions about America’s racial divide with “humility,” because he’s never been a “black teenager.”
• Gillibrand: “I can talk to white women in the suburbs who voted for Trump and explain to them what white privilege is…. whiteness is protecting men from being shot… that is what white privilege in America is today”
• Jay Inslee: ‘I’ve Never Been A Black Teenager.’ Washington Governor Jay Inslee said during the Democratic Debate, that he approaches questions about America’s racial divide with “humility,” because he’s never been a “black teenager.”
• GILLIBRAND ON HER WHITE PRIVILEGE: Gillibrand: “I can talk to white women in the suburbs who voted for Trump and explain to them what white privilege is…. whiteness is protecting men from being shot… that is what white privilege in America is today”
• BOOKER’S CONSPIRACY THEORY ON MICHIGAN AND RUSSIANS SUPPRESSING THE BLACK VOTE: Cory Booker: We lost Michigan because everyone from Russians to Republicans were trying to suppress African American voters
• DON LEMON ON TRUMP’S ‘RACIST RHETORIC’: CNN’s Don Lemon asks Sen. Michael Bennet: “Why are you the best candidate to heal the racial divide that exists in this country today which has been stoked by president’s racist rhetoric?” This is a CNN debate question.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — MARK MORGAN – acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection since July 5, 2019

• CONGRESSIONAL HEARING:
• ‘Irresponsible Rhetoric’: CBP Chief Condemns ‘False’ Attacks From Democrats. CBP Chief: ‘Demonizing of Law Enforcement Professionals Must Stop’   (CNN) Acting Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan fiercely defended Border Patrol officers at a Senate hearing Tuesday morning, saying the “demonizing of law enforcement professionals must stop.” “The men and women of CBP are not running concentration camps, making those in our custody drink from toilets, nor denying them access to toothbrushes. That is simply not true,” Morgan said directly disputing the accounts from some members of Congress. “The demonizing of law enforcement professionals must stop.” He said the attacks on the agency are “demoralizing” and deteriorate the public’s understanding of the “true issues” at the border. Morgan also denied Tuesday that there is a culture or pattern of cruel and illegal treatment of migrants in custody.
• Acting CBP Commissioner: Can’t ‘Efficiently’ Check Whether Illegals Have Criminal Record Back Home. (CNSNews.com) – Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan told Congress on Tuesday that Customs and Border Protection is not able to efficiently obtain criminal records from other countries on illegal immigrants who enter the United States illegally with children while they’re being held during the 20-day hold mandated by the Flores Agreement. During a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on what is required to improve conditions at Border Patrol facilities, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said when he visited the border, he heard that when adults cross the border with a child, “there’s a 20-day clock that is ticking at that point.”
• BORDER WALL VICTORY FOR TRUMP ADMIN: Supreme Court: Trump Can Use Pentagon Funds for Border Wall. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico. The court’s five conservative justices gave the administration the green light on Friday to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defense Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded. The court’s four liberal justices wouldn’t have allowed construction to start. The justices’ decision to lift the freeze on the money allows President Donald Trump to make progress on a major 2016 campaign promise heading into his race for a second term. Trump tweeted after the announcement: “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”
• July 11: CBP Completes Construction of 50 miles of New Border Wall. (CBP.org) WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection has completed construction of approximately 50 miles of new bollard wall projects authorized by funding from fiscal years 2017 and 2018.  Since January 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have received funding to support construction of up to approximately 201-205 miles of new border barriers through a combination of appropriations and the Treasury Forfeiture Fund (TFF). This funding is supporting the top border barrier priorities for the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP). In fiscal year 2017 CBP received $341 million for the construction of approximately 40 miles of new Bollard Wall and gates in priority areas at the San Diego, El Centro, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley Sectors. To this date, CBP has completed the construction of approximately 99 percent of the 40 miles funded in fiscal year 2017. Additionally, construction of 35 gates to close gaps in current border infrastructure in the Rio Grande Valley sector continues.
• July migrant apprehensions plummeting 25%, Mexico’s help credited. (Washington Examiner) – Federal immigration officials, citing Mexico’s help and new Trump administration initiatives, are seeing far fewer illegal immigrants at the southern border than expected and now believe that those seized this month will be 25% fewer than in June, far more than the historic average drop. What’s more, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, the number of migrants encountered at the border should continue to plummet as Mexico stretches its cooperation with the U.S. further across the southern border and changes to the asylum process kick in. In an interview, Cuccinelli said that those caught at the border will likely be below 80,000 in July, a 25% drop from June when 104,344 were apprehended or turned away. He said that the drop from June to July is typically 6%, which would result in 98,000 encountered at the border.
• FAKE FAMILIES ON THE BORDER: Child taken into custody from Honduran border-crosser after DNA test reveals they’re not related: CBP. (Conservative Review) – S. immigration authorities say they have safely brought a child into custody after a DNA proved that he was brought to the border by someone not related to him. In an Instagram post published Tuesday night, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showed a picture of a Border Patrol agent holding a small child at a border facility in Texas earlier this month. “On July 17, McAllen USBP agents encountered a group of 12 people comprised of family units and unaccompanied children who turned themselves in,” the post explains. “Record checks revealed an individual traveling with his alleged son had 2 previous immigration arrests in El Paso Sector just in the past month. Given the recent apprehensions and the age of the child, Agents requested the assistance of [Homeland Security Investigations] to administer a rapid DNA test.” “The test revealed there is no parent-child relationship,” CBP concluded. “The man admitted he was not the child’s father, but knew the mother and had permission to the take the child. The man admitted that it is common knowledge in Honduras that if you bring a child, you will be released.”

8am – B/C     SECOND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE NIGHT IN DETROIT:

• DNC CHAIR WARMS UP CROWD: DNC Chair Tom Perez: ‘Who Else Misses Obama!!!’
• Tom Perez: But this president is too busy tweeting. And his lap dog in Kentucky, McConnell, old McConnell had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he kept all those bills that passed the house, E-I-E-I-O.
• BIDEN TO KAMALA: GO EASY ON ME, KID: Joe Biden tells Kamala Harris on stage: “Go easy on me, kid”
• BIDEN GETS ATTACKED: Joe Biden gets hit on all sides tonight on Obama’s deportations.

8am – D         REPLAY: SEC. BEN CARSON’S INTERVIEW

8am – E         Osama bin Laden’s son and heir, Hamza, is dead, U.S. officials say. (NBC News) – The officials would not provide details of how Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role. WASHINGTON — The United States has obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead, according to three U.S. officials. The officials would not provide details of where or when Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role in his death. Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether the U.S. had intelligence that Hamza is dead, President Donald Trump said, “I don’t want to comment on that.” Hamza bin Laden’s last known public statement was released by al Qaeda’s media arm in 2018. In that message, he threatened Saudi Arabia and called on the people of the Arabian peninsula to revolt. Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born around 1989. His father moved to Afghanistan in 1996 and declared war against the U.S. Hamza went with him and appeared in al Qaeda propaganda videos. As leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden oversaw operations against Western targets that culminated in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 during a raid on his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound. Hamza was not found at the compound. Letters seized from the compound suggested the elder bin Laden wanted his son to join him in Abbottabad and was grooming him as a leader. In a September 2017 article, counterterror expert and former FBI agent Ali Soufan said, “Hamza is being prepared for a leadership role in the organization his father founded” and is “likely to be perceived favorably by the jihadi rank-and-file. With the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ apparently on the verge of collapse, Hamza is now the figure best placed to reunify the global jihadi movement.” In February, the State Department announced it would pay as much as $1 million for information on Hamza bin Laden’s whereabouts.