Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Cal Thomas, Michael Anton, Mark Krikorian and Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer joined WMAL on Wednesday!

5am – A/B/C HIGHLIGHTS OF PUBLIC IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS:

Potentially problematic figure for Democrats set to testify as key Trump impeachment witnesses undercut claims of ‘quid pro quo,’ ‘bribery’ and ‘cover-up.’ (Fox News) – Republicans sounded a celebratory note as House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry wrapped up another day of public hearings Tuesday evening, saying the day’s witnesses had served only to highlight fundamental problems in the case against President Trump. “Did anyone ever ask you to bribe or extort anyone at any time during your time in the White House?” House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., asked at one point in Tuesday’s afternoon hearing. Former National Security Council (NSC) aide Tim Morrison: “No.” Former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker: “No.” Later, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., covered similar ground in asking Morrison and Volker about Trump’s fateful July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. When asked whether there were indications of quid pro quo, bribery or extortion, they each repeatedly answered, “No.” The answers underscored a problem facing House Democrats in the second week of public hearings in their impeachment inquiry. With more witnesses testifying, more soundbites have emerged that may help Republicans and the Trump campaign argue that the proceedings were politically motivated theater, long in the works and foreshadowed openly by Democrats for months, if not years

• NUNES QUESTIONS LT COL VINDMAN: did you discuss the phone call? Vindman: I talked to two individuals not in the White House… Nunes? two individuals? … Vindman mentions an “individual in the intel community”… Nunes: what agency was this individual from?

• SCHIFF INTERRUPTS NUNES: want to make sure there is NO EFFORT TO OUT THE WHISTLEBLOWER…
• LT COL VINDMAN BEGINS ANSWERING REP JORDAN’S QUESTION… SCHIFF INTERRUPTS STOPS QUESTIONING ABOUT WHISTLEBLOWER
• Jordan: The witness has testified that he does not know who the whistleblower is. You have said, even though no one believes you, you have said you don’t know who the whisleblower is. So how is this outing the whistleblower?
• LT COL VINDMAN CORRECTS NUNES TO CALL HIM BY HIS RANK – Lt. Col.
• VINDMAN DIDN’T GO TO HIS BOSS BECAUSE IT WAS A BUSY WEEK:
• JORDAN: Why didn’t you go directly to your superior with your concerns?
• VINDMAN: It was a really busy week. Also the lawyer told me not to talk to anyone else.
• JORDAN: And yet you talked to your brother, to George Kent, and a CIA person you won’t name.
• Rep Jim Himes Col Vindman, would you call yourself a NeverTrumper. Vindman I’d call myself NeverPartisan
• VINDMAN admits to being asked THREE TIMES to become the UKRAINE DEFENSE MINISTER
• Morrison & Volker agree no quid pro quo, no bribery, no extortion. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., covered similar ground in asking the witnesses about Trump’s fateful July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: She spoke to former National Security Council (NSC) aide Tim Morrison and former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker: “Mr. Morrison, you were on that call, and there was no quid pro quo, correct? No bribery? No extortion?” “Correct,” Morrison replied in response to each question. “And, Ambassador Volker, I presume you got a readout of the call. … Was there any reference to withholding aid? Any reference to bribery? Any reference to quid pro quo? Any reference to extortion?” “No, there was not,” Volker replied, again and again. Stefanik continues her ‘quid pro quo’ questioning of Morrison and Volker — discussed how Ukraine didn’t even know their aide was on hold while on the phone call… Stefanik notes Adam Schiff got the facts wrong. “Did anyone ever ask you to bribe or extort anyone at any time during your time in the White House?” House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., asked at one point in Tuesday’s afternoon hearing. Former National Security Council (NSC) aide Tim Morrison: “No.” Former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker: “No.”

5am – D/E     EPSTEIN NEWS — Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, was grilled on Capitol Hill

• Senators clash with Bureau of Prisons director over Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
• Sen John Kennedy: “Christmas ornaments, drywall and Jeffrey Epstein – name three things that don’t hang themselves. That’s what the American people think…and they deserve some answers.”
• Two Epstein jail guards plead not guilty to falsifying records about the night he died in his cell and are released on $100,000 bond, as it’s revealed they told a supervisor they had ‘messed up’ and ‘didn’t do any checks’

6am – A/B/C IMPEACHMENT HEARING HIGHLIGHTS           

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist – shared his thoughts on the impeachment hearings.

6am – E         Trump press secretary claims departing Obama aides left nasty notes. The former president’s staffers quickly denied Trump adviser Stephanie Grisham’s accusation, calling it an “outrageous lie.” (NBC News) — White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed on Tuesday that departing former aides to President Barack Obama left notes saying “you will fail” and “you aren’t going to make it” for the incoming staff of Donald Trump. Former Obama aides quickly denied Grisham’s claim, reacting to a tweet from a CNN reporter that Grisham had said during an earlier radio interview, “Every office was filled with Obama books and we had notes left behind that said ‘you will fail,’ ‘you aren’t going to make it.'” “This is another bald faced lie,” Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice wrote on Twitter. Grisham clarified to NBC News that she didn’t mean to suggest that the notes were left in every White House office, only in a press area. “I’m not sure where her office was, and I certainly wasn’t implying every office had that issue,” Grisham wrote, referring to Rice’s office. “In fact, I had a lovely note left for me in the East Wing, and I tracked the woman down and thanked her. I was talking specifically about our experience in the lower press office — nowhere else. I don’t know why everyone is so sensitive!”

6am – F         NBC must clean up ‘toxic culture,’ 2020 Democratic candidates demand ahead of MSNBC presidential debate. (Fox News) – Democratic presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have called on the Democratic National Committee to hold NBC accountable for its “toxic culture” ahead of MSNBC’s Democratic debate on Wednesday. NBCUniversal and parent company Comcast have been accused of multiple abuses of power amid ongoing scandals related to Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. UltraViolet, a leading national women’s organization, organized an effort for key 2020 Democratic hopefuls to address the issues with DNC chairman Tom Perez through a harshly worded letter obtained by Fox News. “We, the undersigned candidates, are very concerned about the message it would send to sexual assault survivors if our next debate is sponsored by MSNBC without clear commitments from Comcast, the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, to conduct an independent investigation into the toxic culture that enabled abusers and silenced survivors,” the letter begins. After the Weinstein and Lauer bombshells were reported in 2017, NBC refused to hire an outside investigator to determine who knew about Lauer’s alleged sexual misconduct and whether NBC executives looked the other way. NBC relied on in-house general counsel Kim Harris despite widespread calls for an outside law firm to conduct the review.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – MICHAEL ANTON – Lecturer in Politics and Research Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C. And former National Security Official in the Trump Administration – shared his thoughts on the impeachment hearings and analyzed the problems plaguing the National Security Council and how we can fix them.

• How To Make The National Security Council Great Again. (Michael Anton/Daily Caller) – Very few political problems can actually be solved by Washington’s favorite solution: throwing more money at it. Here’s one that can: the much-in-the-news turmoil on the National Security Council (NSC) staff. But first, you may ask: what’s the problem? If you interpret the recent spate of anti-Trump leaks and congressional testimony from NSC staffers as “heroic military officers and civil servants standing up to a dastardly illegitimate president,” then clearly you think the current system is fine. But if you think elections should have consequences that presidents should be entitled to hire B two core functions. Fundamentally, its job is to act as a central node and clearinghouse for all national security policy information and deliberation. It’s there to ensure that all participants carrying out American foreign and defense policy understand what that policy is, do what they’ve been ordered to do by the president, not work at cross purposes with one another or send contradictory signals abroad, and keep infighting to a minimum. Its second role is to provide direct support to the president on foreign and defense matters. When the president wants to send a head of state a letter, the NSC drafts it. When he calls a foreign leader, welcomes one to the White House, or travels abroad, the NSC takes the lead in planning and prepares the briefing book. When he wants to set or change policy, the NSC convenes the “interagency,” shepherds the policy formation process, and presents the president with options. And when the president has decided, the NSC prepares the “decision memo” that directs the cabinet to carry out his directives. It should be obvious, then, that to fulfill both these roles the NSC staff needs to be well-aligned with the president’s views. Yet if one thing is clear from the impeachment brouhaha, it’s that a great many former and current staffers on the Trump NSC do not agree with his views. Nearly all of the recent leaks and public statements from disgruntled staffers don’t, in fact, allege that the president broke the law or abused his power but rather complain that he’s pursing “wrongheaded” policy. In particular, the opening statement of Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, the former NSC “country director” for Ukraine, made clear that his real beef with President Donald Trump was that the president might set a policy “inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – MARK KRIKORIAN – Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)

• Another D.C. area community making it harder to work with ICE: Prince George’s Council bans agencies from working with ICE. The Prince George’s County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to bar all county agencies from engaging in immigration enforcement — a change that council members say is necessary to reduce fear among a growing immigrant population. The bill, sponsored by 10 of the council’s 11 members, was opposed by the Prince George’s County Police Department, which says it’s unnecessary because of an existing policy barring officers from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless individuals face criminal warrants. The council proposed the bill following the revelation that several county residents were nevertheless placed in deportation proceedings after contact with police — actions that Police Chief Hank Stawinski said were mistakes. Stawinski joined County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) this summer in issuing the current administrative policy, more clearly barring cooperation with ICE, after those erroneous arrests were brought to the attention of the executive branch. But members of the all-Democratic council say the policy needed to be codified into law and extended to apply throughout the county government. “There is an incredible amount of fear,” said council member Deni Taveras (D-District 2), who sponsored the legislation. “These people pay taxes . . . we need to be doing better at all levels of government in terms of protecting them.” Immigrants, advocates and local officials packed the hearing room Tuesday to support the bill, saying it is necessary to ensure that immigrants feel comfortable interacting with police, including reporting crimes and serving as witnesses. Alsobrooks spokesman John Erzen said he anticipates she will sign the bill. The bill was part of a package supported by Casa de Maryland, the state’s largest immigrant advocacy group, that also included bills to require residents to be alerted when they are placed in a gang database and to require police to wear body cameras. Those bills did not advance. Several municipalities in Prince George’s, including Hyattsville, Greenbelt and Forest Heights, have passed their own cooperation bans at the urging of immigrant advocates, who are seeking to strengthen local protections for undocumented residents as the Trump administration tries to increase enforcement.

7am – E         With unanimous vote, Montgomery passes wide-ranging racial equity bill. (Washington Post) — The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a sweeping racial equity bill Tuesday, joining dozens of liberal jurisdictions across the country attempting to use legislation to address long-standing racial disparities. The Racial Equity and Social Justice Act, which some advocates commend as one of the strongest of its kind, will mandate racial equity training for more than 8,000 full-time government employees in the suburban county of 1 million people. It requires that every bill considered by the council include a statement detailing the proposal’s impact on equity among different demographic groups, and it establishes an Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice with an annual operating budget of $375,860. The legislation also requires every government agency and department to develop an action plan by Sept. 30 to address racial disparities, which include a poverty rate for black and Latino residents that is nearly triple that of white residents. “This is significant,” said Julie Nelson, co-director of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, which works with city and county leaders on racial equity. “This is an in-depth piece of legislation. . . . It’ll be useful for other counties to take a look.” The bill, which County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said he will sign, was finalized after a year’s worth of community forums and public hearings.  It marks Montgomery’s formal entry into the relatively uncharted territory of racial equity legislation, which has sparked heated discussions in various communities, including in Minnesota, New York and most recently Northern Virginia. Fairfax County was the first jurisdiction in the D.C. area to approve equity legislation, in 2017. The “One Fairfax” initiative mandates equity considerations in policymaking for the county of 1.1 million, Virginia’s most populous jurisdiction.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – LT COL. TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and president of the London Center for Policy Research – analyzed the impeachment hearings.

8am – B/C     Former Baltimore mayor Catherine E. Pugh indicted on federal charges over book scandal. Federal prosecutors announced 11 charges of wire fraud and tax evasion charges against Pugh (D), who was paid about $800,000 by entities connected to city and state government for her self-published Healthy Holly book series. Pugh resigned in May after weeks of public scrutiny, a bruising setback for a city recovering from a series of police corruption scandals and rioting in 2015.

8am – D         EPSTEIN NEWS — Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, was grilled on Capitol Hill

• Senators clash with Bureau of Prisons director over Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
• Two Epstein jail guards plead not guilty to falsifying records about the night he died in his cell and are released on $100,000 bond, as it’s revealed they told a supervisor they had ‘messed up’ and ‘didn’t do any checks’

8am – E         Reuters, AFP Retract Migrant Children Articles That Were Based on Obama-Era Figures. No, the U.S. is not currently detaining 100,000 children. (Washington Free Beacon) — On Wednesday several news outlets were forced to retract stories lamenting the number of migrant children detained by U.S. authorities after it emerged the pieces were based on Obama-era figures. In a Tuesday press conference ahead of the release of the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, independent expert Manfred Nowak told reporters that the United States “still [has] more than 100,000 children in migration-related detention.” Nowak also told AFP, “The total number currently detained is 103,000.” That figure also formed the basis of articles from NPR and the wire service Reuters, whose version was then picked up by outlets such as NBC News, the New York Times, and HuffPost. Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee quickly seized upon the figures, tweeting, “These numbers are horrifying. The Trump administration’s child separation policy is cruel and shameful.” But some immigration reporters and activists immediately cried foul. “I… don’t think that number is accurate,” tweeted BuzzFeed’s Hamed Aleaziz.