Mornings on the Mall

Friday, August 30, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Cal Thomas, Tom Fitton, Trevor Matich, James Hasson and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

5am – A/B/C A Justice Department watchdog says former FBI Director James Comey violated FBI policies in his handling of memos about private conversations with President Trump. But the inspector general said Comey’s conduct didn’t merit prosecution and no information shared by Comey or his attorneys was classified. Comey tweeted at his detractors, saying, “A quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice.”

James Comey bruised by inspector general’s ‘damning’ report — but he should prepare for worse, critics warn. The reputation of James Comey took a hit Thursday with the release of a scathing inspector general’s report on his handling of memos about contacts with President Trump. However, the fired former FBI director should be wary of what Connecticut federal prosecutor John Durham may find in his probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, critics warn. “Obviously, today was a bad day for James Comey,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. and chairman of the influential House Freedom Caucus, on “Hannity.” He added it was unbelievable that Comey was nonetheless going on Twitter, seeking apologies from his detractors. Republicans on Capitol Hill warned the inspector general’s report could be only the start of a series of blows to the reputations of key law enforcement figures. The inspector general report said Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting private discussions with President Trump. The Justice Department’s official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were, in fact, “official FBI records,” and said he set a “dangerous example” with his actions.

5am – D         Sixth Illegal Immigrant Arrested In Montgomery County For Sexual Abuse. A sixth illegal immigrant was arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland, this month for sex crimes; this time, a Salvadoran national accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl and her younger brother. Nestor Lopez-Guzman, 21, was arrested by Montgomery County Police on Aug. 18. A friend of the 12-year-old victim told a school counselor that her friend had been molested by Lopez-Guzman, according to the police report. The victim then confirmed that the abuse had been occurring over the past six months. Lopez-Guzman also confessed to touching the “private parts” of the victim’s brother, but insisted it was a cultural joke in El Salvador used to make fun of men.

5am – E         UCSF researchers prove genetics allow some people to function on less than 6 hours of sleep. (San Francisco Gate) – Renowned inventor Thomas Edison famously slept for only three or four hours a night. Maybe this was all his body needed due to his genetics? Researchers at UCSF discovered in 2009 that some people can feel rested after less than 6.5 hours of sleep due to a gene mutation. Now, 10 years later, the scientists have isolated a second “short sleep gene,” and the leader of the study, UCSF Professor Ying-Hui Fu, says several others are being examined by the research team. “Before we identified the first short-sleep gene, people really weren’t thinking about sleep duration in genetic terms,” says Fu, a professor of neurology. With the latest research, the role of genetics is becoming increasingly clear, she says. In 2009, Fu’s team conducted a study finding people with a gene mutation called DEC2 averaged only 6.25 hours of sleep per night and felt rested. Study participants without the mutation averaged 8.06 hours. In the latest study, researchers focused on a family with three successive generations of natural short-sleepers. None of them had the DEC2 mutation, but scientists were able to isolate another mutation called ADRB1 that’s also associated with natural short sleep. People with the gene mutations don’t suffer any of the negative health effects associated with sleep deprivation. Instead, Fu says they tend to be more energetic and more flexible sleepers, meaning they can feel rested even when their sleep schedules change. 

6am – A         Washington Post: As he campaigns for president, Joe Biden tells a moving but false war story. As Joe Biden campaigns for president he tells a moving story about a military hero. Almost every detail in the story is incorrect. According to the Washington Post, Biden appeared to have “jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened” during a campaign stop in Hanover, New Hampshire, last Friday. He told the crowd about a Navy captain in Afghanistan who climbed down a ravine under fire to rescue a fellow service member who had been shot, later attempting to refuse a medal from the vice president because the man had died.

6am – B/C     HURRICANE UPDATE:

• Trump cancels Poland trip to monitor hurricane.
• Florida’s governor has extended a state of emergency to the entire state, as what could be a Category 4 Hurricane takes aim at Florida and the East Coast. Forecasters say Hurricane Dorian may command 130 mile-an-hour winds by Monday, possibly churning across dozens of Space Coast launchpads owned by NASA, the Air Force and companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
• With Hurricane Dorian bearing down on Florida’s east coast, President Trump is canceling a weekend trip to Poland and sending Vice President Mike Pence in his place. In a last-minute announcement from the White House, the President said the change of plans was “very important” so he could deal with the federal response to the storm. Dorian is expected to reach Category 4 strength before making landfall.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated Columnist

• Happy Cal Thomas Day (Wednesday)
• A Justice Department watchdog says former FBI Director James Comey violated FBI policies in his handling of memos about private conversations with President Trump. But the inspector general said Comey’s conduct didn’t merit prosecution and no information shared by Comey or his attorneys was classified. Comey tweeted at his detractors, saying, “A quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice.”
• Trump’s personal assistant resigns from White House amid tensions. A personal assistant to President Trump who had been with the administration since Trump took office, Madeleine Westerhout, abruptly resigned Thursday, reportedly after it was determined she shared private information about the president with reporters. Westerhout allegedly shared intimate details about the president’s family and life during an off-the-record dinner with reporters near Bedminster, N.J., where Trump was on vacation. Her desk sat outside the Oval Office and she was often seen alongside Trump.

6am – E         He drove Uber 7 days a week for a better life, now he’s dead | The price of senseless violence: 4 kids lose father.  Beaudouin Tchakounte, 46, of Frederick, Maryland was an immigrant from Cameroon who wanted his children to have the father he never had growing up. FREDERICK, Md. (FOX 5 DC) – An immigrant from Cameroon working as an Uber driver to help support his wife and four children was murdered in Prince George’s County Tuesday. Police say a man high on PCP called an Uber pool on Indian Head Highway in Oxon Hill only to shoot Beaudouin Tchakounte, 46, of Frederick and his passenger Casey Xavier Robinson, 32 of Accokeek. Tchakounte’s wife said her husband had been driving for Uber for three years but had worked as a driver for much longer. “Since I’ve known him he’s been driving,” said Carole Tchatchoua. “He loved driving.” She described her husband as a jokester who took pride in caring for his children.“Brushed their teeth in the morning, give them showers and wash their clothes, iron it,” said Tchatchoua. “He loved to do that.” She said her older son, who’s 7, knew right away something was wrong when he woke up Wednesday morning. “He went out the window and was like, ‘My dad is supposed to be here at this time. His car is not outside, what’s going on?’” said Tchatchoua. She had to tell her kids why their dad never came home from work.

6am – F         Census Bureau abruptly ends just-announced partnership with Muslim advocacy group CAIR. (Fox News) —  The Commerce Department on Thursday terminated its just-announced planned partnership with the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, after Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” asked about the arrangement — given CAIR’s reported ties to the terrorist group Hamas, and its repeated attacks on the president. “Based on further review, the Census Bureau is no longer partnering with CAIR,” the Commerce Department said in a statement to “Tucker.” The plan, according to the group, was to enhance outreach efforts to Muslims using CAIR’s network of local offices. The census, conducted once a decade, has been used not only to determine congressional apportionment, but also as a critical planning tool for state, local and federal agencies. However, CAIR and the Trump administration would have been strange bedfellows — and tension in the relationship was evident earlier Thursday. Reached by Fox News prior to the Census Bureau’s decision, CAIR openly derided the Trump administration as “white supremacist” despite the partnership. “The Census Bureau, like CAIR, is nonpartisan,” the organization said. “CAIR is not receiving any government funding as part of this project to promote Muslim participation in the U.S. census. We continue to believe that President Trump and his administration promote a white supremacist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic agenda.” 

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – President of Judicial Watch – IN STUDIO — analyzed the latest on the IG report about James Comey.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – WMAL’s Redskins Analyst — recapped the Redskins final preseason game vs. the Baltimore Ravens. The Washington Redskins got bit by the injury bug a little bit on Thursday in their last preseason game of the year, but things could have definitely been worse. Linebackers Cassanova McKinzy and Andrew Ankrah both left the game against the Baltimore Ravens with concussions, which will likely lead to some interesting cut-day decisions in Washington. On a brighter note, rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins showed more improvement and comfortability in the offense, an undrafted free agent made his case for staying on the squad, and the team got one day closer to Week 1 at Philadelphia. The Washington Redskins will cut their roster to 53 players by 4 p.m. ET Saturday.

7am – E         George Washington U Kills ‘Colonials’ Mascot After Students Offended. (Breitbart News) – George Washington University has quietly begun removing references to its “Colonials” mascot after students argued earlier this year that the mascot represents “oppression.” According to a report by the Young America’s Foundation, George Washington University has been slowly removing references to its popular “Colonials” mascot. Breitbart News reported in February that students at the university started a petition which argued that the “Colonials” mascot has a problematic “connection to colonization” and “systematic oppression.” The petition, which received over 500 student signatures, argued that the “Colonials” mascot is “extremely offensive.” “We, as students of the George Washington University, believe it is of great exigence that the University changes its official mascot,” the petition read, “The use of ‘Colonials,’ no matter how innocent the intention, is received as extremely offensive by not only students of the University, but the nation and world at large.” “The historically, negatively-charged figure of Colonials has too deep a connection to colonization and glorifies the act of systemic oppression,” the petition added, “Alternative nickname recommendations are ‘Hippos,’ ‘Revolutionaries,’ or ‘Riverhorses.’ Breitbart News reported in April that a majority of students participated in a referendum at George Washington University voted to end the use of the “Colonials” mascot. Of the 5,000 students that voted in the referendum, 54 percent voted against the continued use of the mascot. The university initially took no action on the vote, as late as two months after the petition the university still had “no comment” on the student’s demands. Now, George Washington University has slowly started its process of removing the mascot from campus. In one example, the student center for registration and financial services was renamed from “Colonial Central” to “Student Services Hub.” A student organization that encourages students to attend university athletic events recently changed its name from “Colonial Army” to “George’s Army.” However, the organization claims that the recent referendum did not influence their decision to change the name.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JAMES HASSON – author of “Stand Down: How Social Justice Warriors Are Sabotaging America’s Military” and a former Army captain and a decorated Afghanistan veteran..

• “Safe space” stickers on office doors at the Naval Academy. Officers apologizing for “microaggressions” against Air Force cadets. An Army “gender integration study” urging an end to “hyper-masculinity” in combat-arms units. Power Point presentations teaching commanders about “male pregnancy.” A cover-up, as senior officials placed their thumbs on the scales to ensure the success of the first female candidates at the Army’s legendary Ranger School. These are just a few of the examples documented in this explosive book, Stand Down: How Social Justice Warriors are Sabotaging the U.S. Military by former Army Captain, Afghanistan veteran, and attorney James Hasson.   Hasson exposes the relentless campaign by powerful Obama administration ideologues to remake the culture and policies of the U.S. military, even over the explicit objections of military leaders. He presents evidence—drawn from government documents and exclusive interviews with more than forty sources, including high-ranking officers and Pentagon insiders—that progressive activists in the Obama Administration used the U.S. Military as their preferred vehicle to advance the progressive agenda. The stories paint a troubling picture of what happens when leftwing political operatives impose a political agenda on our nation’s military: they render our forces less effective, place our military men and women in greater danger, and compromise the military’s sole objective: to protect America by winning the nation’s wars. “Military readiness” is a term politicians and pundits often use in the abstract to describe our military’s ability to defeat its adversaries. But it ultimately describes how well we have prepared and equipped a young soldier or sailor to prevail over an enemy determined to do them harm. Hasson makes a compelling case that our nation has a moral obligation to ensure that the sons and daughters it sends to war have the best possible chance of victory—which means we must embrace only the policies that help us win wars and reject those that don’t. Political agendas of any kind invite corruption, jeopardize lives, and undermine the mission. They have no place in military policy—a principle that the Obama administration either disdained or failed to understand.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BRET BAIER – Anchor of Special Report on Fox News Channel — discussed the IG and Comey.

8am – E         Biden defends his telling of a harrowing war story after report he got facts wrong. The vice president said the “central point” of his tale was “absolutely accurate.” (NBC News) — Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the “central point” of a war story he told on the campaign trail last week as “absolutely accurate” after a report exposed a slew of incorrect details. According to the Washington Post, Biden appeared to have “jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened” during a campaign stop in Hanover, New Hampshire, last Friday. He told the crowd about a Navy captain in Afghanistan who climbed down a ravine under fire to rescue a fellow service member who had been shot, later attempting to refuse a medal from the vice president because the man had died. The Washington Post report — based on interviews with more than a dozen troops, commanders, and Biden campaign officials — traced the details of Biden’s recounting to three different tales of bravery. While Biden had awarded a medal to a brave soldier, it wasn’t the medal he said it was, the soldier didn’t do what Biden recounted, and the incident didn’t occur where Biden said it had. “I don’t understand what they’re talking about, but the central point is it was absolutely accurate what I said,” Biden said of the Post’s report in an interview with the South Carolina newspaper Post & Courier. “I was making the point how courageous these people are, how incredible they are, this generation of warriors, these fallen angels we’ve lost,” he later told the Post’s Jonathan Capehart. “I don’t know what the problem is. What is it that I said wrong?” Biden, who was campaigning Thursday in the Palmetto State, told the newspaper that there are two war stories from Afghanistan he routinely tells, but denied he conflated the details.