Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Sen. Rand Paul, Kristy Swanson, Susan Ferrechio, Cal Thomas and Ray Stagich joined WMAL on Wednesday!

5am – A/B/C LATEST ON THIS WEEK’S PUBLIC HEARINGS: NY POST COVER: ‘GUILTY! NOW FOR THE TRIAL’

• Historic Trump impeachment hearings set to begin, as Dems predict ‘phenomenal week.‘ (Fox News) – In a pillared House chamber at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, in the shadow of the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, House Democrats are set to host the first public hearing involving the potential impeachment of a president since Nov. 19, 1998 — and, they insist, they aren’t happy about it. However, behind the scenes, House Democrats were predicting a “phenomenal week,” Fox News is told. At the same time, Republicans have been preparing a methodical and vigorous cross-examination of Democrats’ witnesses, whose accounts of President Trump’s alleged wrongdoing have been based largely on hearsay and intuition, critics say.
  • The allegations: With the bang of a gavel, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., will open the impeachment hearings Wednesday into Trump’s alleged pressure on Ukraine to investigate 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden’s dealings in the country. The former vice president has boasted about pressuring Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, as his son Hunter Biden held a lucrative role board of a Ukrainian natural gas company despite having little relevant expertise. An anonymous whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignited the impeachment investigation. During the hearing Wednesday, a key exchange during that 30-minute call, which has been outlined in a Sept. 24 transcript released by the White House, is expected to take center stage. Democrats say Trump wanted the investigations in exchange for the release of about $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. The president, Democrats allege, tried to use the power of his office to pressure a foreign government into helping him politically. Zelensky has said he felt no pressure during the call. Trump has said the call was “perfect” and contained no “quid pro quo,” or this for that.
  • Key Witnesses: Democrats chose Ambassador Bill Taylor, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe, to kick off the public hearings. The two likely will describe the foreign policy toward Ukraine led by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and other White House officials. Democrats also told Fox News that Taylor had “the best view of the scheme. He is a habitual note-taker. He is your worst nightmare. Very prepared.” Still, Taylor wasn’t on the phone call between Trump and Zelensky. Fox News is told Republicans will cross-examine Taylor repeatedly over his lack of “first-hand knowledge” about the call. Kent, a career foreign service officer, testified Oct. 15 there were three words Trump wanted to hear from the Ukraine president: “Investigations, Biden and Clinton.” He also told the investigators about the “campaign” of smears Giuliani led against former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. That led to her being recalled from the position. Yovanovitch is set to testify Friday.
• Three witnesses are expected to testify:
  • Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at approximately 10:00 a.m. (ET): The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent.
  • Friday, November 15, 2019 at approximately 11:00 a.m. (ET): Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

• MORE HEARINGS NEXT WEEK: The Intelligence panel announced it would hold five impeachment hearings next week over three days, all for officials who have already appeared for closed-door depositions:

• • Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council aide next Tuesday morning
  • Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a National Security Council aide, next Tuesday afternoon
  • US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on the morning of November 20
  • Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense and David Hale, the under secretary of State for political affairs, on the afternoon of November 20
  • Former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill on the morning of November 21

5am – D         No. 1 Milk Company Declares Bankruptcy Amid Drop In Demand. (WMAL/AP) — Dean Foods, America’s biggest milk processor, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday amid a decades-long drop-off in U.S. milk consumption blamed on changing trends and a growing variety of alternatives. The Dallas company said it may sell itself to the Dairy Farmers of America, a marketing cooperative owned by thousands of farmers. “Despite our best efforts to make our business more agile and cost-efficient, we continue to be impacted by a challenging operating environment marked by continuing declines in consumer milk consumption,” CEO Eric Berigause said in a statement. Since 1975, the amount of milk consumed per capita in the U.S. has tumbled more than 40%. Americans consumed around 24 gallons per year in 1996, according to government data. That dropped to 17 gallons in 2018. An increasing variety of beverages, including teas and sodas, has hurt milk consumption. So have protein bars and other on-the-go breakfasts, which take the place of a morning bowl of cereal. More recently, health and animal-welfare concerns have also contributed, as more shoppers seek out non-dairy alternatives like almond milk. Oat milk, for example, saw U.S. sales rise 636% to more than $52 million over the past year, according to Nielsen data. Sales of cow’s milk have dropped an average of 6% per year over the last four years, Nielsen said. That has hit dairy farms and milk sellers hard, leading some smaller family farmers to quit the business.

5am – E         INTERVIEW – RAY STAGICH – Weather Channel Meteorologist — discussed the cold blast hitting the D.C. area.

• Wednesday: Mostly sunny skies cannot overcome this cold air mass, as temperatures only top out in the mid- to upper 30s. Winds at least lighten up to about 5 to 10 mph from the northwest. The air is very dry, with dew points dropping to about 8 to 12 degrees in the morning.

6am – A/B/C WHISTLEBLOWER NEWS:

• Schiff Warns GOP: Name Whistleblower In Public Hearings, And Face Possible Ethics Probe. Rep. Adam Schiff suggested Monday that any lawmaker who identifies the alleged Trump whistleblower during public congressional hearings could be subject to a House ethics investigation. Schiff made the thinly-veiled threat in a memo laying out the procedures for testimony that begins this week in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, referred to federal laws that protect intelligence community whistleblowers from “reprisal or the threat of reprisal.” He then cited the Committee on Ethics, which investigates lawmakers’ abuse of office. “The Committee has a long, proud, and bipartisan history of protecting whistleblowers—including from efforts to threaten, intimidate, retaliate against, or undermine the confidentiality of whistleblowers,” Schiff wrote.
• Inspector General Complaint: Trump Whistleblower May Be Soliciting Illicit Donations. The anonymous whistleblower at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump is allegedly soliciting illicit donations through a GoFundMe account, according to a complaint filed with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG). The complaint claims that the whistleblower, who reportedly works at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), violated federal law by collecting over a quarter of a million dollars from largely anonymous sources. Fox News first reported on the complaint, which was filed last week. Federal law prevents government employees from soliciting donations “given because of the employee’s official position” or donations from “prohibited sources,” meaning individuals who may have been substantially affected by the employee’s performance or agency. The complaint argues that the GoFundMe donations were clearly made due to the whistleblower’s “status, authority or duties,” and that the 6,000 donors couldn’t possibly have been screened to make sure they aren’t prohibited sources.
• ‘Saw everything’: Alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella had extensive access in Trump White House. (Washington Examiner) – Eric Ciaramella , the alleged Ukraine whistleblower, was long suspected of deliberately attempting to damage President Trump’s foreign policy from the inside and had access to policy information far beyond his regional expertise, according to former National Security Council officials. “The person that I always felt extremely uncomfortable around was Eric Ciaramella. He was one of the few guys around who seemed to know where the filing cabinets were, so to speak,” one former official told the Washington Examiner, adding that Ciaramella was antagonistic at an early Trump administration gathering when it was said that the goal was to turn Trump’s campaign promises and platform into policy.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist

• THIS WEEK’S PUBLIC HEARINGS: Historic Trump impeachment hearings set to begin, as Dems predict ‘phenomenal week.’ In a pillared House chamber at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, in the shadow of the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, House Democrats are set to host the first public hearing involving the potential impeachment of a president since Nov. 19, 1998 — and, they insist, they aren’t happy about it. However, behind the scenes, House Democrats were predicting a “phenomenal week.”  Key Witnesses: Democrats chose Ambassador Bill Taylor, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe, to kick off the public hearings. The two likely will describe the foreign policy toward Ukraine led by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and other White House officials.
• REMINGTON LAWSUIT: The Supreme Court has ruled that a survivor and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people at the Newtown, Connecticut school in 2012. The justices rejected an appeal from Remington Arms, which argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes.
• DACA: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems prepared to allow the Trump administration to end DACA, the program that allows some immigrants to work legally in the United States and protects them from deportation. There did not appear to be any support among the five conservatives for the challengers to the administration’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The program currently protects an estimated 660,000 immigrants who came to the United States as children. The high court’s decision is expected by June, at the height of the 2020 presidential campaign. Prior to the justices hearing the arguments, President Trump tweeted “many of the people” benefitting from DACA are “no longer very young,” and “are far from angels.”

6am – E         More than 100 Marylanders opt for ‘X’ gender on driver’s licenses. (Baltimore Sun) More than 100 Marylanders opted to list their gender as “X” or “unspecified” on their driver’s licenses and identification cards under a state law that went into effect on Oct. 1. In the first month that Marylanders had the option of “X” — in addition to “F” for female and “M” for male — 88 people changed their gender identification, according to the Motor Vehicle Administration. Another 15 new licenses and identification cards were issued with the “X” designation. State lawmakers passed a law earlier this year requiring the additional gender option to accommodate the needs of residents who are “non-binary,” meaning they don’t identify as male or female. An individual does not need to provide proof of gender when selecting among F, M and X. Sen. Will Smith, who sponsored the bill, said he was pleased to see the change making a difference in people’s lives. The Montgomery County Democrat said the bill was a relatively low-cost way “to make us a more radically inclusive place.” Several other states and the District of Columbia have adopted the unspecified choice for licenses and ID cards.

6am – F         Cyclists beware: Someone may be smearing feces on the undersides of Bikeshare bike handles. (WUSA9) — A Twitter user tweeted someone near 15th and W Streets Northwest has been spreading feces on the handles. If you’re a user of Bikeshare, you may want to check the handles before you hop on. There has been a report of someone smearing feces on the underside of Capital Bikeshare handles. A Twitter user tweeted that someone near 15th and W Streets Northwest has been spreading feces on the handles.  Capital Bikeshare said the affected bikes have been removed from service. “Capital Bikeshare takes any incidence of vandalism very seriously,” a Bikeshare spokesperson said. “The affected bikes have been removed from service and thoroughly inspected and cleaned by staff who are trained in hazmat recovery and removal.” Capital Bikeshare said the bikes reported in the tweet have been fully cleaned in their warehouse and were inspected again before they’re deemed ready to ride. Capital Bikeshare said they have specific staff trained in “Hazmat recovery and removal.” Martha Spieker @martha_spieker eighborhood heads up: someone near 15 and W NW has been spreading poop on the undersides of @bikeshare bike handles for the last two Sundays. Gross and a health hazard. Glad @bikeshare is fixing it, but bikers beware @PoPville Bikeshare bikes also are routinely inspected. And if you ever see something wrong with a bikeshare bike, you can report it.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner – previewed the public hearing today on Capitol Hill.

• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., will open the impeachment hearings Wednesday into Trump’s alleged pressure on Ukraine to investigate 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden’s dealings in the country.
• Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at approximately 10:00 a.m. (ET): The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent.

 

7am – B/C     Maryland, Virginia To Expand American Legion Bridge, One Of The Region’s Worst Traffic Bottlenecks. (WAMU) – Maryland and Virginia are partnering to expand the American Legion Bridge, one of the worst chokepoints in the region, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday. The project aims to rebuild the existing eight lanes and add two new Express Lanes in each direction, creating a 12-lane bridge. Hogan said the expansion will ease traffic, bring cleaner air and better quality of life. Officials touted the project as a “once-in-a-generation” endeavor for the region. The American Legion Bridge spans the Potomac River, connecting Fairfax County in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland, the region’s two largest jurisdictions. The bridge opened in 1962, but both states say it’s been operating beyond its capacity for nearly four decades. More than 235,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. It’s often a site of lengthy backups. “More than 40% of the region’s population travels this segment of the Capital Beltway, and the region expects to grow by another 1.2 million people by 2040,” Virginia’s press release said. “Both governors have made it a top priority to identify a long-term, seamless solution for the Capital Beltway.” Hogan and Northam dubbed the project the “Beltway Accord” during a surprise announcement made at Tuesday morning’s Capital Region Transportation Forum, but many details are still to be determined.  A joint interstate agreement such as the American Legion Bridge expansion is rare and complicated — both states have been trying to work out a solution for decades, Hogan said.

7am – D         2020 NEWS:

• Hillary Clinton: ‘I’m under enormous pressure’ to run in 2020. (Washington Examiner) — Hillary Clinton said she is fielding a plethora of calls urging her to rethink her decision to sit out of the 2020 race. “As I say, never, never, never say never,” the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee told BBC Radio 5 Live host Emma Barnett when asked if she was ruling out a future in public office. “I will certainly tell you, I’m under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it,” Clinton said. “But as of this moment, sitting here in this studio talking to you, that is absolutely not in my plans.” Clinton, 72, admitted that she thinks “all the time” about what kind of president she would have been if she had won the 2016 election instead of President Trump. “Of course I think about it. I think about it all the time,” Clinton said.
• Mark Sanford suspends GOP primary challenge to President Trump. WASHINGTON — Former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said on Tuesday that he was ending his long-shot primary challenge to President Trump just two months after announcing it, arguing that the impeachment inquiry had made it impossible for his message of fiscal conservatism to break through. “You’ve got to be a realist and what I did not anticipate is an impeachment,” Mr. Sanford said at a news conference in Concord, N.H., where he announced the end of his campaign.  Mr. Sanford conceded that his bid had been “a long shot, but we wanted to try and interject this issue, how much we’re spending, into the national debate, which comes along once every four years.” He said he found no “appetite for a serious nuanced debate with impeachment in the air.”
• ED O’KEEFE: NEW IOWA POLL by @MonmouthPoll: Buttigieg 22% (+14 since Monmouth Aug. poll) Biden 19% (-7) Warren 18% (-2) Sanders 13% (+5) Klobuchar 5% Harris 3% (-9) Steyer 3% Yang 3% Booker 2% Gabbard 2% Another 7 candidates earn 1% or less. … “Less than 3-in-10 likely caucusgoers (28%) are firmly decided on their candidate choice. Most are open to the possibility of supporting a different candidate on caucus night, including 16% who say there is a high possibility that they could change their minds.”

7am – E         Disney+ Slaps Trigger Warnings on ‘Dumbo,’ ‘Lady and the Tramp’ over ‘Outdated Cultural Depictions’ (Breitbart News) – The new Disney+ streaming service has added social justice trigger warnings to some of its classic movie titles, telling subscribers that beloved Disney movies including Dumbo, Swiss Family Robinson, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, and the original Lady and the Tramp may contain “outdated cultural depictions.” The generic trigger warnings appear in the plot synopses that users see on the Disney+ interface before clicking to play a title. “This program is presented as originally created,” the warnings say. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” The warnings appear to focus on titles that depict indigenous people, African Americans, Asians, and other minorities in ways that some now regard as stereotypical. The original animated Dumbo, which was first released in 1941, features a supporting cast that includes a flock of black crows whose mannerisms and voices are now considered to be racist depictions of black Americans. Contemporary cultural critics have also cited the portrayal of Native Americans in Davy Crockett (1955) and Southeast Asians in Swiss Family Robinson (1960) as racist. Lady and the Tramp, the original 1955 animated movie, features the musical sequence “We Are Siamese,” performed by a pair of Siamese cats in whispery, Asian-accented voices. Disney+ has even slapped a trigger warning on the 1942 animated short film How to Fish, featuring Goofy. It remains unclear how the seven-minute film could be construed as offensive. The new streaming service, which debuted Tuesday, is one of the multimedia giant’s most ambitious efforts to date.

8am – A         Historic Trump impeachment hearings set to begin, as Dems predict ‘phenomenal week.‘ (Fox News) – In a pillared House chamber at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, in the shadow of the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, House Democrats are set to host the first public hearing involving the potential impeachment of a president since Nov. 19, 1998 — and, they insist, they aren’t happy about it. However, behind the scenes, House Democrats were predicting a “phenomenal week,” Fox News is told. At the same time, Republicans have been preparing a methodical and vigorous cross-examination of Democrats’ witnesses, whose accounts of President Trump’s alleged wrongdoing have been based largely on hearsay and intuition, critics say.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – SEN. RAND PAUL – author of new book  “The Case Against Socialism” – discussed his new book, shared his thoughts on the whistleblower and the upcoming public hearing today on Capitol Hill.

• NEW BOOK: In The Case Against Socialism, Rand Paul outlines the history of socialism, from Stalin’s gulags to the current famine in Venezuela. He tackles common misconceptions about the “utopia” of socialist Europe. As it turns out, Scandinavian countries love capitalism as much as Americans, and have, for decades, been cutting back on the things Bernie loves the most.
• Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul named the alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella and called for him to testify as part of the impeachment hearings. During a Wednesday interview on Washington, D.C.-based WMAL, Paul was asked about a controversial remark he made last week when he called for the press to name Ciaramella as the whistleblower but refused to do so himself. On Wednesday, Paul named Ciaramella himself and said he should be brought in testify to clarify whether he is indeed the whistleblower. “I think Eric Ciaramella needs to be pulled in for testimony, and then I think it will be ultimately determined at that point,” said Paul. “But I think he is a person of interest in the sense that he was at the Ukraine desk when Joe Biden was there when Hunter Biden was working for the Ukrainian oligarch. So simply for that alone, I think he’s a material witness who needs to be brought in.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – KRISTY SWANSON – Actress, famously known for her role as Buffy in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and recently performed as Lisa Page in the play “FBI Lovebirds”  https://twitter.com/KristySwansonXO

• Discussed receiving an award tonight from The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF): Independent Women’s Forum is its 2019 Annual Awards Gala tonight. This year’s program will honor three influential leaders who are dedicated champions of women: Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education; Larry Kudlow, assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council; and actress Kristy Swanson, star of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Kristy will be honored with IWF’s “Resilience Award.”
• Talked her latest work acting in the “FBI Lovebirds” play. Swanson’s latest project was appearing live-on-stage in Washington, D.C., in “FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers,” a play Politico dubbed “Hamilton for the MAGA crowd.” It was the brainchild of filmmaker Phelim McAleer, who created the script of the four-person play using transcripts of the email messages, and subsequent congressional testimonies, of two Trump-loathing former FBI employers and lovers, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page—the lovebirds. Dean Cain, another conservative actor, was Strzok and Swanson was Page.
• Discussed being a Hollywood conservative in the Trump era: Around 2008, something happened to get Swanson in touch with other Hollywood conservatives—she met the late Andrew Beitbart, conservative writer and founder of Breitbart, at a party. The meeting was a game-changer. Breitbart introduced her to other conservatives. ““There’s this whole Hollywood underground of conservatives. There are more of us than people realize. We’d have lunches and events and talk about things we couldn’t talk about at work, where you can’t be open about your conservatism. You can lose jobs if you’re a conservative, and that is a big threat. I became part of that group—it’s like a fellowship, basically. And I really enjoyed meeting all these people.” Swanson might have remained part of this silent minority—except that Trump hatred was permeating every facet of life in Hollywood.