Saagar Enjeti, Josh Kraushaar and Jennifer Braceras joined WMAL on Tuesday AM!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C CULTURAL SHIFTS IN AMERICA: Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most. Patriotism, religion and having children rate lower among younger generations than they did two decades ago, WSJ/NBC News survey finds. The values that Americans say define the national character are changing, as younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey finds.

5am – D         AMAZON UPDATE:

• FORBES: Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It’s The ‘Lungs Of The World,’ Is Wrong.  And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. The photo Ronaldo shared was taken in southern Brazil, far from the Amazon, in 2013. The photo that DiCaprio and Macron shared is over 20 years old. The photo Madonna and Smith shared is over 30. Some celebrities shared photos from Montana, India, and Sweden. To their credit, CNN and New York Times debunked the photos and other misinformation about the fires. “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation,” explained CNN. “These fires were not caused by climate change,” noted The Times. […]  I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim.  “It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.”
• WSJ Takes A Blowtorch To Hysterical Amazon Coverage… Far below the headlines, the press finally gets around to explaining what’s really happening: Many of these fires appear to have been set intentionally to clear land in already deforested areas, as the ground is prepared for farmers’ crops or livestock. It’s true that such fires can spread, and if any illegal activity is occurring, Brazil should stop it and punish the perpetrators. But “ecocide”?  The photographs on social-media websites often are downright deceptive. One shows a fire in 1989. Another, shared by Mr. Macron and Mr. DiCaprio and then “liked” by millions of users, is credited in a stock-photo database to a journalist who has been dead since 2003.
• Money to burn: Brazil REFUSES $20million aid from G7 to fight Amazon wildfires, and tells Macron to ‘take care of his home and colonies.’     ‘We appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,’ Onyx Lorenzoni, chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.     ‘Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,’ he added, referring to the fire in April that devastated the Notre-Dame cathedral. ‘What does he intend to teach our country?’

5am – E         Rep. Sean Duffy announces he will resign, citing baby’s heart condition. (Fox News) – Wisconsin GOP Rep. Sean Duffy on Monday abruptly announced plans to resign from Congress, saying his family recently learned that his soon-to-be born child has a serious heart condition. Duffy, who is married to Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy, is the father of eight children, with another due in October. Announcing his decision to step down on Sept. 23, Duffy wrote on Facebook, “After eight and a half years, the time has come for me to focus more on the reason we fight these battles – family.” “As you all know, raising a family is hard work,” he said. “It’s especially true for one as large and busy as mine. Being away from home in Washington four days a week is challenging and, for that reason, I have always been open to signs from God when it comes to balancing my desire to serve both my family and my country.” Duffy said that his family “recently” learned that their baby due in October “will need even more love, time, and attention due to complications, including a heart condition.” “With much prayer, I have decided that this is the right time for me to take a break from public service in order to be the support my wife, baby and family need right now,” he said. “It is not an easy decision – because I truly love being your congressman – but it is the right decision for my family, which is my first love and responsibility.” 

6am – A         BIDEN POLL AND GAFFES:

• Joe Biden’s support in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is slipping, according to a new Monmouth University poll. New poll shows Biden falling, three-way tie for Democratic lead. Biden electability argument takes hit . (The Hill) – Joe Biden’s electability argument is increasingly showing signs of weakness. A Monmouth University national poll released Monday found Biden falling by 13 points and in a three-way tie nationally with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). 
• Warren Weekend Event Draws Thousands While Biden Draws Hundreds. (Daily Caller) – 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden both held campaign events this weekend, but numbers show Warren’s event attendance heavily outnumbered Biden’s. Warren held a Sunday event in Seattle that turned out to be her biggest campaign event so far, drawing a crowd of about 15,000 according to Politico. The widely attended event followed Warren’s Minnesota success earlier that week, where her event drew an estimated 12,000.
• Biden in NH quipped that he isn’t going “nuts” because he didnt know exact location of his earlier Dartmouth speech

6am – B/C     G7 WRAPUP:

• President Donald Trump skipped a discussion on climate with other world leaders at the Group of Seven summit in France.
• Asked if he is still skeptical about climate change, President Trump says he’s an “environmentalist,” but touts U.S. energy production: “The United States has tremendous wealth … I’m not going to lose it on dreams, on windmills.”
• “I think I know more about the environment than most people.”
• Donald Trump Defends Possibly Hosting G7 Summit at Florida Property: ‘I Don’t Care About Making Money’
• Donald Trump Pivots Russia Questions to Barack Obama’s Failures.  Some reporter got upset when President Trump said Putin outsmarted Obama. President Trump: “I know you like President Obama but [Crimea] was annexed during President Obama’s term. If it was annexed during my term I’d say sorry folks I made a mistake.”
• CNN’s Jim Acosta: Trump Presser Was Like Watching a Cat Chasing a Laser Pointer. Monday on CNN, chief network White House correspondent Jim Acosta commented on President Donald Trump’s news conference at the conclusion of the G7 summit.
• Video: Trump leaving the stage and ignores Jim Acosta asking about climate change
• President Trump says he would be open to a meeting with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. “In the meantime, they have to be good players,” Trump says. Otherwise, Iran will be met with “violent force”

6am – D         LANDMARK DRUG CASE:

• An Oklahoma judge ruled on Monday that Johnson & Johnson should be held liable and forced to pay $572 million for fueling the opioid epidemic. Johnson & Johnson is responsible for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid crisis, judge rules in landmark case. The $572 million decision is the first to hold a drugmaker responsible for the opioid dispensing that sparked a nationwide epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths.
• Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572M in opioid case, setting up more trials and possible legal settlements. An Oklahoma judge found Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies liable for stoking the opioid crisis in the state and said the company must pay $572 million, far less the $17 billion that the state was seeking. Judge Thad Balkman, of Cleveland County District Court in Norman, Oklahoma, is the first judge to rule in the opioid cases brought to trial by thousands of state and local governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors. His precedent-setting ruling was being closely watched as 2,000 other pending suits await to be heard before a federal judge in Ohio in October. J&J said it plans to appeal Balkman’s ruling and that the decision was “flawed.”

6am – E         Americans Have a Complicated Relationship With Pumpkin Spice. (Food & Wine) — How do you feel about pumpkin spice? If your immediate reaction is “I don’t know,” turns out… you’re right! Two new surveys reveal something that you may inherently know: Americans appear to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with our annual pumpkin spice season. We love it because many people genuinely do love seasonal pumpkin spice products, but we hate it because plenty of people — maybe even the same people — are sick of all the hype. This week, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters revealed the results of a survey conducted by OnePoll to determine just how much people love pumpkin spice coffee.  The poll of 2,000 Americans reveals that, yes, people do like the fall flavor. In fact, 68 percent of respondents said they crave pumpkin spice before the season even starts. And on a list of the ten most exciting things about fall, “all things pumpkin spice” finished third, just barely behind “football season is back.” (Maybe the poll had a lot of Browns fans?)  Things get wilder from there, including numbers like 41 percent of those surveyed saying they would give up alcohol before they would give up pumpkin spice coffee, and 28 percent saying the same thing about chocolate. Meanwhile, 41 percent of those who said they plan to consume pumpkin spice this year said they would stand in line at the DMV once a month if they got pumpkin spice coffee for life in return. Under a similar premise, 35 percent of pumpkin spice lovers said they would name their child “Pumpkin Spice” for a lifetime of pumpkin spice coffee. But another survey from the digital storytelling content platform Apester seemed to tell a conflicting story. Speaking with about 5,500 Americans, over 62 percent of these respondents said Starbucks is releasing its PSLs too early this year. Meanwhile, nearly half of those polled said the Salted Caramel Mocha is the best fall Starbucks drink; amazingly, the Pumpkin Spice Latte finished third with just over 12 percent of the vote. Finally, when asked “Have you had enough of the pumpkin spice latte trend?” the top vote-getter was “God, please take it away forever.” So what’s going on here? Clearly, pumpkin spice maintains some level of popularity or else companies wouldn’t stick with it. This isn’t pumpkin spice for charity. But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore the backlash, as well. For that reason, the most telling stat on either survey likely comes from Green Mountain’s poll. Apparently, 79 percent of respondents said they would sign a petition to support having pumpkin spice available all year long.

6am – F         Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears strong during first speech since latest cancer revelation. (CNN) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, making her first public appearance since it was announced that she had undergone recent treatment for pancreatic cancer, appeared strong Monday when she accepted an honorary degree from the University at Buffalo. The 86-year-old liberal icon stood as she made remarks and briefly referenced her health, which has again been the focus of public speculation given her status as the court’s senior-most liberal and the potential for President Donald Trump to dramatically shift the court to the right were she to retire. “In July 2018, Wayne (Wisbaum) wrote to me that his health disabled him from playing a lead role in the arrangements for my visit here but he still hoped to attend all the events. He asked me to confirm that I would come to Buffalo in August 2019 in any event. I did so immediately and I did not withdraw when my own health problems presented challenges,” Ginsburg said, referring to a Buffalo attorney she knew in college at Cornell who invited her to Monday’s event but who passed away. She also told students in attendance that it was “beyond my wildest imagination that I would one day become the Notorious RBG.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI  – Chief Washington Correspondent & Host at The Hill – recapped the G7 summit and analyzed the latest 2020 news.

7am – B/C     CHAPELLE attacks his own audience for being a terrible mob in new Netflix special.

• Vice News: You Can Definitely Skip Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Special ‘Sticks & Stones.’ The comedian doubles down on misogyny and transphobia in both the special and the hidden bonus scene that follows.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – JOSH KRAUSHAAR – political editor at National Journal – analyzed the latest 2020 news.

• SETH MOULTON IS FOURTH DEMOCRAT TO END BID THIS SUMMER:. “I think it’s evident that this is now a three-way race between [Joe] Biden, [Elizabeth] Warren and [Bernie] Sanders, and really it’s a debate about how far left the party should go.”
• Republican Joe Walsh jumps in, loses his radio gig
• 2020 POLLS: Joe Biden’s support in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is slipping, according to a new Monmouth University poll. New poll shows Biden falling, three-way tie for Democratic lead. Biden electability argument takes hit. (The Hill) – Joe Biden’s electability argument is increasingly showing signs of weakness. A Monmouth University national poll released Monday found Biden falling by 13 points and in a three-way tie nationally with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). 
• Warren Weekend Event Draws Thousands While Biden Draws Hundreds. (Daily Caller) – 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden both held campaign events this weekend, but numbers show Warren’s event attendance heavily outnumbered Biden’s. Warren held a Sunday event in Seattle that turned out to be her biggest campaign event so far, drawing a crowd of about 15,000 according to Politico. The widely attended event followed Warren’s Minnesota success earlier that week, where her event drew an estimated 12,000.
• Biden in NH quipped that he isn’t going “nuts” because he didnt know exact location of his earlier Dartmouth speech
• DEMS FUMING AT DNC: Struggling 2020 Democrats fume at DNC over debate criteria crackdown. With the deadline to qualify for next month’s third round of Democratic presidential debates closing in, the Democratic National Committee is facing an angry chorus of criticism from the candidates not likely to make the cut. At issue is the DNC’s criteria for the contenders to take part in the prime-time showdown, including contributions from 130,000 individual donors and reaching at least 2 percent in four qualifying polls. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado were among the candidates complaining about the DNC’s process.

7am – E         ON JOY REID’S SHOW ON MSNBC: Washington Post “conservative” blogger Jennifer Rubin on the Trump administration: “We have to … burn down the Republican Party. We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again” 

8am – A         INTERVIEW – Jennifer Braceras – Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Law and Liberty and a former Commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights

• An Oklahoma judge ruled on Monday that Johnson & Johnson should be held liable and forced to pay $572 million for fueling the opioid epidemic. Johnson & Johnson is responsible for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid crisis, judge rules in landmark case. The $572 million decision is the first to hold a drugmaker responsible for the opioid dispensing that sparked a nationwide epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths.
• Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572M in opioid case, setting up more trials and possible legal settlements. (Fox News) – An Oklahoma judge found Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies liable for stoking the opioid crisis in the state and said the company must pay $572 million, far less the $17 billion that the state was seeking. Judge Thad Balkman, of Cleveland County District Court in Norman, Oklahoma, is the first judge to rule in the opioid cases brought to trial by thousands of state and local governments against opioid manufacturers and distributors. His precedent-setting ruling was being closely watched as 2,000 other pending suits await to be heard before a federal judge in Ohio in October. J&J said it plans to appeal Balkman’s ruling and that the decision was “flawed.”
• Jennifer’s POV: This ruling means that manufacturers of ALL products are now at risk for public nuisance lawsuits (i.e. carmakers for the cost of auto accidents). Judges should not be allowed to regulate the distribution of federally-controlled medicines outside of the normal regulatory process. That is, quite simply, an abuse of the system of the American justice.
• The Extortion of Big Pharma, by Jennifer C. Braceras / The National Review | August 24, 2018 : President Trump has proposed suing the drug industry over its role in the opioid crisis. Like most such suits, this one would be an opportunistic cash grab. To Donald Trump, it seems, capitalism is less a matter of the market’s “invisible hand” than of his own presidential hand on the economic scales. Mr. Trump’s threat to bring a “major” lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that produce FDA-approved pain medications not only tips the scale against Big Pharma, but undermines the rule of law. Since then, hundreds of cities, counties, states, and Native American tribes have jumped on the bandwagon looking for big payouts from the drug industry. Today, there are close to 1,000 opioid-related cases pending in courts across the country, hundreds of which have been consolidated before a single judge in Ohio. The government plaintiffs seek billions of dollars in damages, purportedly to pay for the uptick in public spending on law enforcement, prisons, treatment, and social-welfare programs since the beginning of the opioid crisis. Such lawsuits are a form of legalized extortion.

8am – B/C     MTV VMA HIGHLIGHTS:

• Taylor Swift calls out White House during VMAs acceptance speech. (CNN) Taylor Swift is certainly not taking a literal interpretation of her single, “You Need to Calm Down.” The singer got political during her 2019 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for video of the year, which she won for the pride-themed anthem, to call out the Trump administration’s current lack of acknowledgment of the Equality Act petition for LGBTQ rights. A call to sign the petition was featured at the end of her video. “It now has half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House,” Swift said, then looked at her wrist as if to gesture she was checking the time on a watch.
• Miley Cyrus stuns at MTV VMAs with emotional first performance since Hemsworth split. (Fox News) – Miley Cyrus made a huge statement during an emotional performance at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. The pop star took the stage Monday evening at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. to perform her latest single “Slide Away,” which many believe to be about her 10-year relationship with estranged husband, actor Liam Hemsworth. Cyrus wasn’t the only star making a statement at the VMAs. Taylor Swift called out the White House after she won the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards’ top prize — video of the year — for her LGBTQ pride anthem, “You Need To Calm Down.”
• MTV VMA HOST DOES MONOLOGUE RIPPING SAFE SPACES: The host of the MTV VMAs just did an opening monologue with jokes about safe spaces, trigger warnings and participation trophies. Sebastian Maniscalco’s ‘Triggered’ And ‘Safe Spaces’ Bit Falls Flat At MTV VMAs. The comedian kicked off the MTV VMAs with a “triggered” monologue that felt flat. (Huffington Post) – Sebastian Maniscalco kicked off his stint at the 2019 MTV VMA Awards by playing to the wrong crowd. The comedian insulted influencers in an influencer-heavy crowd and also joked about MTV providing a “safe space” for people in the audience if they get offended by anything the comedian says. “If you feel triggered or offended they’re providing a safe space backstage where you’ll get some stress balls and a blankie,” he said, joking that Lil Nas X was bringing his horse backstage as a support animal and that ushers could help people out if they wanted to leave.  “Personally I would remove you from the arena, put you in a car and send you home,” Maniscalco to shocked faces and limited applause. He also said if nominees got upset when they didn’t win an award, MTV wasn’t giving out “participation ribbons” and they needed to “work harder” next year.
• 2019 VMAs: John Travolta appears to mistake ‘Drag Race’s’ Jade Jolie for Taylor Swift. (Fox News) – Oops! John Travolta may have made one of the biggest gaffes of his illustrious career on Monday evening when he appeared to confuse Taylor Swift with one of her performers and pals. The “Fanatic” star, 65, set social media ablaze when he seemingly mistook “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum, Jade Jolie, for the “Look What You Made Me Do” songstress while handing out the award for video of the year alongside Queen Latifah at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

8am – D         MEDIA CRAZY TALK:

• FLASHABCK: ON CNN with BRIAN STELTER // Psychiatrist: Trump ‘may be responsible for many more million deaths’ than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Dr. Allen Frances: “may be responsible for many more million deaths” than Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong.
• MSNBC Cries Psycho Ward on Trump. On Saturday’s Up with David Gura, MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley — not a medical expert — insisted President Trump’s mental competence must be called into question.  MAYA WILEY: I just don’t understand why we not [sic] actually ask and have a confrontational conversation about whether or not there’s something more going on here with his health, because there are certain statements and behaviors that simply require some analysis because he is the leader of — of supposedly the leader of the free world. I just want to say that it’s both those things, I don’t know which one is true, I’m not making a statement of fact, but this week was a new chapter in bizarre.
• ON MSNBC: Washington Post “conservative” blogger Jennifer Rubin on the Trump administration: “We have to … burn down the Republican Party. We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again”

8am – E         Embattled Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam under fire over appointee with history of anti-Catholic tweets. (Washington Examiner) — Months after racism allegations dogged Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, the state’s top Democrat is now facing scrutiny over a political appointee with a history of anti-Catholic comments. Gail Gordon Donegan, appointed earlier this month to the Virginia Council on Women, a state body focused on women’s issues, mocked the Catholic Church’s struggle with sexual abuse among its clergy in a series of tweets going back to 2010. Northam’s appointee also targeted a sacred Catholic ritual and directed vulgar tweets at other targets, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in tweets uncovered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In 2010, she tweeted, “Abortion is morally indefensible to Catholic priests bcuz it results in fewer children to rape.” That same year, she wrote, “Saw a bumper sticker: ‘You can’t be both Catholic & Pro-Choice.’ Add: You can be a pedophile though!” A year later, she tweeted, “Go tell a Catholic they have dirt on their forehead,” apparently referencing the Catholic practice of receiving ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season of repentance. In 2013, she tweeted what she later called “my fave joke.” “Dr, lawyer & priest on Titantic [sic]. Doc: save the children! lawyer: f— the children! Priest: Is there time?” she wrote.