Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

KT McFarland, Marc Lotter, Mark Levin and Susan Ferrechio joined WMAL on Wednesday!

5am – A/B/C House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will begin a formal inquiry into whether President Trump should be impeached. Pelosi says President Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president about political opponent Joe Biden marked a breach of constitutional responsibility. Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dismissed the decision saying it’s time to put the public, above politics. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says the whistleblower would like to speak with his committee this week.

5am – D         Justice Department ends investigation of Tony Podesta, Vin Weber without charges. The lobbyists were being investigated for possibly violating foreign lobbying rules for work on a Ukrainian public relations campaign organized by Manafort. (NBC News) – Federal prosecutors have ended an investigation into Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., in a case connected to lobbying for Ukraine and Paul Manafort without filing criminal charges, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The investigation by the Southern District of New York, which focused on whether several prominent Washington lobbyists violated foreign lobbying rules, grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into the finances of Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman who is now serving a 7.5 year sentence in federal prison. Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a nonprofit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, which promoted Ukraine’s image in the West from 2012 to 2014. Podesta’s Democratic-leaning lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, including Weber’s firm, Mercury Public Affairs. NBC News was the first to report in 2017 that Podesta and his firm had been ensnared in Mueller’s probe because of their work on the campaign.

5am – E         So how are you getting home, Greta? Eco-warrior will overland travel to Chile for a December UN summit while crew that sailed her to the US FLY back across the Atlantic. (Daily Mail) – Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has already caused a sensation on her trip to North America, tearing into world leaders yesterday in an emotional speech at the United Nations and giving a death stare to Donald Trump.  What is not yet clear is how the 16-year-old will get back to Sweden, because she refuses to travel on fuel-guzzling planes and the 60ft racing boat she travelled on is already back in Europe.  Two crew members have flown to the U.S. to sail the Malizia II back across the Atlantic and it is not yet clear exactly when Thunberg will be going home.   When she set off from Britain last month she admitted: ‘I don’t know yet how I will get home.’

6am – A/B/C TRUMP AT THE UN:

• President Trump winds up his 3-day stay at the United Nations with meetings. In his third speech to the UN General Assembly, the President urged member nations to act against Iran’s “bloodlust,” while taking aim at China’s trade policies and asking for support of Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido.
• Donald Trump rallies against abortion and for gun ownership and his border wall in speech to United Nations filled with political bait for his supporters. (Daily Mail) – Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday was to the international community but it had plenty of red meat to appeal to his conservative base ahead of next year’s election. Among the various warnings he issued in his 37 minutes of remarks was a defense of the pro-life movement – the top priority of the evangelical voters who embraced him in 2016. ‘We want to support religious freedom for all. And Americans will never tire of defending innocent life.   ‘We are aware that many United Nations projects assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand. Right up until the moment of delivery. ‘Global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life.  ‘Like many nations, we in America believe, that every child, born and unborn, is a sacred gift from God. There’s no circumstance under which the United States will allow international entities to trample on the rights of our citizens,’ he said.

6am – D/E/F  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – KT MCFARLAND – Former Deputy National Security Adviser for President Trump and she also worked in Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. KT analyzed President Trump’s speech at the UN and the new push for impeachment over Ukraine.

7am – B/C     Rep. Tlaib Goes on Bizarre Tirade Against Vape Activist at Hearing: ‘Are You a Conspiracy Theorist? … Why Were You Winking?’  (Mediaite) –

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) went on a bizarre tirade during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the dangers of vaping, Tuesday. In the odd exchange between Tlaib, who took an anti-vaping stance, and former smoker Vicki Porter, who supports vaping as a tool to quit smoking, Tlaib asked Porter whether she was a conservative conspiracy theorist— citing a wink she had spotted between Porter and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI). “Ms. Porter, I was reading because I want to know more about you and your beliefs, and I respect that we all have different beliefs, but you call yourself a converted conservative and reformed Marxist? Are you a conspiracy theorist?” asked Tlaib. Porter, bewildered by the question, replied, “I think my politics are entirely irrelevant to this hearing.” “Okay, why were you winking at one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle? You winked,” Tlaib pushed, prompting Porter to respond, “Because I know Glenn Grothman… He introduced me. He’s a friend of mine.” Tlaib, supposedly realizing her mistake, declared, “Oh, okay, I understand. I didn’t know what the winking was, because I thought maybe there was something like a conspiracy thing going on there. I didn’t know.” After Porter then asked, “You think there’s a conspiracy in this hearing, ma’am?” Tlaib shouted, “No! No!” before the two then continued to argue about vaping.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – MARC LOTTER – Director of Strategic Communications for President Trump 2020 Campaign and fmr Special Assistant to President & Press Sec to VP – reacted to Speaker Pelosi’s impeachment push.

7am – E         FRAN DRESCHER IN TALKS TO REBOOT ‘THE NANNY’ FEATURING CARDI B. (The Source) – There has been a lot of talk about rebooting some of our favorite 90’s television shows from Boy Meets World to The Nanny, which if reprised could possibly star Cardi B. Earlier this week, Fran Drescher, who played Fran Fine role in the sitcom, said she recently met with Cardi B’s team to talk about the benefits of the show. “That was just kind of laying out groundwork,” Drescher said. “I do think she’s great, and she would be kind of like my top choice if she’s disciplined to do this show every week. It can be a grind, but she’s got a baby now and it could be a very comfortable, lovely way to, you know, work, be seen worldwide, and still do mini-concert tours when you’re on hiatus.” While Drescher didn’t mention any storylines, she says she can come back as Sylvia, the mother. “We would have to write it for somebody else, which I would be excited to do actually,” she said. “I could play Sylvia, the mom. And John Leguizamo could play [Fran’s dad], Morty. So, you know, we’ll see. There’s a lot of opportunities to do something fantastic with it and bring it right into the 21st century.” We think Cardi would be perfect for the role and so does she. She has previously compared her style to Drescher’s style on Instagram. 

8am – A         INTERVIEW – MARK LEVIN – The Great One – host of Mark Levin weekdays from 6 to 9 pm on WMAL – reacted to Speaker Pelosi’s impeachment push.

8am – B/C     Washington Nationals clinch MLB playoff berth, completing turnaround from 19-31 start to claim wild-card spot. Washington will play in the National League wild-card game on Oct. 1 with Max Scherzer as the expected starter. The winner of the wild-card game will face the league’s top seed in the NL Division Series, beginning Oct. 3. (Washington Post) – When they won, when it was almost official that a once-lost season would end with at least one postseason game, the Washington Nationals could only look up at the giant videoboard and wait. They had done their part. Now they needed the Pittsburgh Pirates to record one more out, beat the Chicago Cubs and, by doing so, give Washington one last nudge into the playoffs. They stood and watched. So did the crowd. The Nationals high-fived and hugged, a bit prematurely, but didn’t celebrate until the end of another game. Then it was over in Pittsburgh. Then the Nationals were in, following a 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park, following a doubleheader sweep Tuesday that clinched their spot in the National League wild-card game. They won the first game, 7-2, in the afternoon. Their two wins, combined with the Cubs’ seventh straight loss, were the final results needed to secure the Nationals a fifth playoff berth in eight seasons.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner — analyzed what’s next in Congress for the Democrats efforts to impeach President Trump.

8am – E         Man who created labradoodle compares breed to ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ (NY Post) – An Australian man who created the world’s first labradoodle says he regrets creating the popular hybrid breed — claiming the majority are “either crazy or have hereditary problems” in a recent interview. Wally Conron successfully bred the first labradoodle — a cross between a poodle and labrador — in 1989 for a blind woman who couldn’t have a guide dog because her husband was allergic to dog hair, Conron told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. Fast forward three decades and the labradoodle has become one of the most popular mixed-breed dogs in the world — a fact that doesn’t sit so well with the man who made them. “I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein’s monster,” said Conron, a former breeding manager with the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia. Conron said he fears people are over-breeding the dog, creating versions of their own including groodles — a mixture of golden retrievers and poodles — and spoodles — a cross between a spaniel and poodle.