John Lott, Joe diGenova, Cam Edwards and “Socialism Sucks” author Ben Powell joined WMAL on Monday!

 Mornings on the Mall

Monday, August 5th, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C/D/E     EXAMINING THE ROOTS OF THE WEEKEND’S MASS SHOOTINGS:

• Two mass shootings in under 24 hours—one in El Paso, Texas, and the other in Dayton, Ohio—have left at least 29 dead and 53 injured in a tragic, violent weekend
• President Trump plans to make a statement at 10 a.m. ET on the two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and what can be done in response.
• Ohio gunman described himself as pro-Satan ‘leftist’ who supported Elizabeth Warren
• At least 9 dead, 27 injured. Victims identified. What we know about the Dayton, Ohio shooting
• Ohio shooting victims include gunman’s sister, mother of two who was a nursing student
• Who is the El Paso shooter? Investigators search for links, motive in anti-immigrant screed (USA TODAY) — The North Texas man charged with capital murder for killing 20 people in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart might face federal domestic terrorism and hate-crime charges as investigators probe his suspected anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly before the attack. Patrick Crusius, 21, was booked into the El Paso County Jail early Sunday morning on a charge of capital murder. He is accused of walking into a crowded Walmart on Saturday and targeting customers and employees, leaving 20 dead and another 27 injured. Investigators believe Crusius posted a 2,356-word “manifesto” that appeared on the anonymous message board 8chan less than a half hour before the shooting. The four-page document shared widely online contains anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric, advocates a plan to divide the nation into territories by race and warns of an impending yet unspecified attack. “From the manifesto that we first saw, we attribute that manifesto directly to him,” El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said Sunday afternoon.
• ‘He didn’t show no remorse’: Survivors recount confusion, horror in El Paso
• ‘We will seek the death penalty’: District attorney in El Paso, Texas following Walmart massacre
• ‘Hispanic Invasion’: Alleged El Paso Shooter’s Manifesto Is An Anti-Immigrant Call To Arms

6am – A/B/C   2020 POLITICIZATION OF SHOOTINGS:

• Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back from a month-long recess to vote on gun control legislation in response to two mass shootings that killed 29 people in less than 24 hours.
• Trump is responsible for this’: Democrats rush to blame Trump for latest mass shootings
• Cory Booker says “Donald Trump is responsible for this” referring to shootings
• Booker: “I think at the end of the day, especially because this was the white supremacist manifesto… that Donald Trump is responsible for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry.
• Beto O’Rourke says Trump’s rhetoric to blame for mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso: we have to acknowledge the open hatred… Trump encourages it… folks are responding to this and encouraging the violence
• Julian Castro says the shooter is “responsible directly for that shooting in El Paso,” but adds that President Trump “as our national leader,” has “a role to play in either fanning the flames of division or trying to bring Americans … together”
• JAKE TAPPER: What do you think? Is Trump a White Nationalist? Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio): “Well the white nationalists think Trump is a white nationalist, and that’s the crux of the problem… that’s all you need to know”
• Buttigieg: You have case after case of white nationalist rhetoric from the White House… people feel validated and it comes from the top
• At an event this weekend: Biden: It’s been enough (of these shootings) for the past 5 years
• Confusion: Biden offers sympathy for the ‘tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan.’ Former Vice President Joe Biden misstated the locations of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, while speaking to donors at a high-dollar fundraiser in San Diego on Sunday night. Biden, 76, mistakenly referred to the shootings as “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,” but later corrected himself, according to a pool report. Biden seemingly confused Houston for El Paso and Michigan for Ohio when speaking to donors about the shootings.

6am – D INTERVIEW – JOHN LOTT – President of Crime Prevention Research Center and author of books “The War on Guns” and “More Guns, Less Crime” – reacted the weekend’s mass shootings.

6am – E         AOC aide faces federal investigation amid resignation: report (Fox News) — The controversial chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who resigned on Friday is currently being investigated by federal officials, a new report says. Saikat Chakrabarti faced a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission in March for alleged violations having to do with illegal fundraising. An investigation is currently underway, sources told the New York Post. According to the FEC, complaints only lead to investigations if there is enough evidence for them to believe there may have been a violation. “Upon finding reason to believe that a violation has occurred or is about to occur, the Commission may authorize an investigation,” an FEC enforcement guidebook says. The investigation is reportedly related to Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, two PACs Chakrabarti started to back progressive candidates. The March complaint alleged that the groups funneled more than $885,000 to the similarly named Brand New Campaign LLC and the Brand New Congress LLC — companies controlled by Chakrabarti that, unlike PACs, are exempt from reporting all of their significant expenditures. The PACs claimed the payments were for “strategic consulting.” Chakrabarti and Ocasio-Cortez were hit with another complaint in April over accusations that they used Brand New Congress LLC to illegally provide in-kind political contributions by offering consulting services for cheap rates, operating at a loss by only charging candidates a portion of the costs. Ocasio-Cortez has denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters in April: “It’s conservative interest groups just filing bogus proposals.”

6 AM – F        Bill Maher: Democrats Are ‘Blowing It’ With Open Borders, Free College Talk (Daily Caller) — Comedian Bill Maher said Friday night that Democrats are “blowing” their chances of defeating President Donald Trump in 2020 by proposing open border and free college policies. “All the Democrats have to do to win is to come off less crazy than Trump — and, of course, they’re blowing it,” Maher said in his closing monologue during his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Democrats are “coming across as unserious people who are going to take away all your money so migrants from Honduras can go to college for free and get a major in ‘America sucks,’” he said.

7AM – A/B/C  INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – WMAL legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed this weekend’s shootings, Ratcliffe’s replacement and the next moves in the investigations into the Russia investigations.

• President Trump says John Ratcliffe withdraws from consideration for DNI, will remain in Congress. Trump: Ratcliffe doesn’t deserve that treatment from the press
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to move on impeachment of Donald Trump but it may be harder to avoid now that most Democrats support it.
• Prosecutors will seek death penalty for ‘domestic terrorist’ El Paso suspect Patrick Crusius
• Ivanka Trump @IvankaTrump Congress should enact Red Flag laws/ Extreme Risk Protection Orders in EVERY state and increase resources dedicated to mental health support.
• President Trump says he plans to make a statement at 10 a.m. ET on the two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and what can be done in response. President Trump says his White House has “done much more than most administrations” when it comes to addressing gun violence but conceded that “perhaps more has to be done.”

7AM – D/E     Democratic socialists convention erupts due to ‘sensory overload,’ gendered pronoun usage (Fox News) — The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Convention in Georgia this weekend came to a screeching halt when one delegate formally complained of “sensory overload” from “guys” whispering in the room — prompting another “comrade” to grab the microphone to angrily demand an immediate end to the use of “gendered language.” The back-to-back moments of impassioned hypersensitivity at the gathering of the largest socialist organization in the United States led to bipartisan mockery from commentators, who compared the scene to something out of the sitcom “The Office” or the sketch comedy group Monty Python.

• WOKE SOCIALIST CONVENTION THIS WEEKEND: Highlights of the woke national convention of the Democratic Socialists of America this weekend:
  • Socialist activist lectures the crowd: we have quiet rooms… but don’t go into them with AGGRESSIVE SCENT…Use the proper doors! Have your credentials at all times! There are right wing infiltrators trying to get in here… Don’t let in people without credentials… Don’t talk to the press… Dont talk to cops!
  • Socialist at convention complains of sensory overload from people talking, gets reprimanded by another attendee for using gendered language for saying the word “guys”
  • Same Man JAMES JACKSON gets more triggered by a lot of sound at the convention
  • Democratic Socialists sing Solidarity Forever! FOR THE UNION MAKES US STRONG! (a twist on Glory, Glory Halleulujah) at convention: cOMRADES, THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!
  • HI i’m TREY – THEY / THEM pronouns please
  • Moderator encourages JAZZ hands (ASL applause) for applause to not DISTRACT ANYONE
  • Moderator says they will be SENSITIVE TO GENDER, RACE, ABILITY AND ORIENTATION when deciding who can talk on the mic: “We will be using marshalls at every mic. Not every oppression is visual so they will have staff at each mic to think about who has spoken via gender, race, orientation and more…
  • Moderator had to warn people quietly jumping up in down in front of the crowd was triggering
  • One delegate admits that socialists love free stuff but It Isn’t Free…On talk of the socialists sharing dues among their groups, “we all obviously like free stuff… but truth is, it isn’t free, we have to pay a healthy amount of money…
  • At Socialist convention, “thanks to whoever switched from clapping to ASL applause”
  • One of the socialists calls Jeff Bezos a Lex Luther scumbag
  • “Two comrades – both a person of color and woman were talking and people were having a discussion while they were talking. It was completely disrespectful…”

8 AM – A         INTERVIEW – CAM EDWARDS – Editor of BearingArms.com – shared his thoughts on the mass shootings this weekend.

8 AM – B/C    2020 CANDIDATES POLITICIZE THIS WEEKEND’S SHOOTING

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BEN POWELL – author of new book “Socialism Sucks”, and director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University and Professor of Economics at Texas Tech University’s Rawls College of Business.

• Economists use beer as measure to document failures of socialism in new book “Socialism Sucks” // “Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World,” by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, is billed as a “worldwide tour guide written in plain English” which takes readers on a not-so-luxurious expedition into three countries that have embraced socialism – North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba – using beer as an indicator of economic concern.