Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter
Cal Thomas, Sen. Rick Santorum, Susan Ferrechio, Philip Van Cleave joined WMAL on Wednesday!

5am – A/B/C LATEST ON IMPEACHMENT:

• House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump Tuesday, setting up an historic vote in the days before Christmas. The articles charge President Trump with abusing his power and obstructing Congress, and argue that he is a “threat to national security and the Constitution.” Democrats opted to focus on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, leaving out any direct mention of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
• President Trump mocked the Democratic impeachment effort as he sought to rally supporters in Pennsylvania Tuesday night, calling the process “impeachment lite” and promising it would lead to his re-election in 2020. Trump’s visit to Pennsylvania followed a momentous day at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment against him and shortly thereafter signaled their support for the President’s long-sought United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
• President Trump said Republicans are sticking together throughout the impeachment hearings, which he called a “witch hunt”:  “The Democrats they couldn’t find very much because they put up two articles that frankly are very weak, and they’re very weak.”

5am – D         USMCA / TRUMP TRADE DEAL:

• House Democrats and the White House have announced agreement on a modified North American trade pact. Both Republicans and Democrats hailed the revamped U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement – or USMCA – as a significant improvement over the original North American Free Trade Agreement, with Democrats saying they won stronger provisions on enforcing the agreement. Republicans say it will help keep the economy humming along.
• Trump, at Pennsylvania rally, says ‘stupid’ impeachment indirectly led to USMCA deal. President Trump told supporters at a rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday night that he saw a “silver lining” in his impeachment: Democrats approved the historic U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace NAFTA because they’re embarrassed by their own impeachment “witch hunt.”

5am – E         OBAMA KNEW ABOUT SPYING: July Kelly: IG Report Reveals Comey Did Brief Obama on Trump Campaign Investigation

6am – A/B/C Attorney General William Barr said he still believes the FBI may have operated out of “bad faith” when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and he contends the FBI acted improperly by continuing the investigation after Donald Trump took office. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Barr essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department’s inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist — discussed the impeachment charade.

6am – E         SAUDI MILITARY / PENSACOLA UPDATE:

• Family of Josh Watson, Pensacola attack hero, calls for arming service members on military bases. The family of one of the three heroic sailors who lost their lives in last week’s Naval Air Station (NAS) shooting in Pensacola, Fla., is calling for reform on military bases. Naval Academy graduate Joshua Watson, 23, of Enterprise, Ala., was shot at least five times by a Saudi national but still made it outside to alert the First Response team to the shooter’s identity and location. Appearing on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, Watson’s family said that their son was a marksman and they believe the situation would have turned out differently had he been allowed to have a service weapon on the base.
• US pauses training of hundreds of Saudi military personnel after deadly Pensacola shooting
• After NAS Pensacola shooting, Pentagon suspends flight training for hundreds of Saudi students, officials say. The Pentagon on Tuesday suspended more than 850 Saudi students from flight training in response to the deadly shooting by a Saudi student last Friday at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, senior defense officials told Fox News. The suspension was part of a broader Defense Department review of all international training on U.S. military bases after Friday’s massacre. The officials said all 852 Saudi military students will be immediately confined to classroom training, while all operational training in the air, land, and sea “will pause.”

6am – F         Ronny Jackson, former White House doctor and VA nominee, running for Congress in Texas. (Fox News) A former chief White House physician and one-time troubled nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is running for a congressional seat in Texas. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson filed candidate paperwork in Austin to replace outgoing Rep. Mac Thornberry hours before the Monday deadline, The Texas Tribune reported. He will face 13 other candidates for the Republican nomination. Thornberry’s 13th Congressional District in the Texas Panhandle overwhelmingly voted for President Trump in 2016. The Republican Party of Texas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News. Jackson, a Texas native, had worked as a White House physician since 2006 and was Trump’s surprise choice last year to head the VA. He retired from the Navy last week. His nomination ran into trouble when allegations of drinking on the job, creating a hostile work environment and overprescribing medications surfaced. He denied any wrongdoing and eventually withdrew his name from consideration. Trump re-nominated Jackson earlier this year for a second star amid a Pentagon investigation into his conduct. Trump called him “one of the finest men I’ve ever met,” noting that he received good evaluations from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. The promotion was not approved by the Senate.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SEN. RICK SANTORUM – Patriot Voices co-chair, CNN contributor, former United States senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and former presidential candidate in 2012 & 2016 – shared his thoughts on the ongoing impeachment process.

• House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump Tuesday, setting up an historic vote in the days before Christmas. The articles charge President Trump with abusing his power and obstructing Congress, and argue that he is a “threat to national security and the Constitution.” Democrats opted to focus on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, leaving out any direct mention of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

7am – B/C     BANANA ART UPDATE:

• Someone ate a $120,000 banana that an artist had taped to a wall. CNN) — When an artist duct-taped a banana to a wall and priced it at $120,000 this week, we should probably have known where the story was heading.  The work, by Maurizio Cattelan, was ripe for the picking — and on Saturday, it was unceremoniously taken off the wall at the Art Basel Miami Beach and eaten by a performance artist, amid a crowd of stunned onlookers, some of whom posted videos of the incident.  “I really love this installation. It’s very delicious,” David Datuna wrote on Instagram, alongside a video showing the aftermath of his stunt.
• After man eats banana ‘art work’ at Art Basel, another man vandalized the exhibit, writing: “Epstein didn’t kill himself”
• Florida Police Department Asks $200K for Donut Taped to Wall. The Tampa Police Department is selling its own version of “art” to mock the banana art installation priced at $120,000 in a Florida art gallery.
• Popeyes Is Selling One Of Its Chicken Sandwiches Taped To A Wall And Calling It Art. Popeyes Chicken Sandwich taped chicken sandwiches to a wall is being valued at around $120,000 all in the name of art.

7am – D/E     TRUMP RALLY HIGHLIGHTS

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – Washington Examiner’s Chief Congressional Correspondent

• Trump impeachment no slam dunk for moderate Democrats
• House committee to consider impeachment articles Wednesday
• Senate won’t take up trade deal until impeachment trial is over next year
• DOJ watchdog Michael Horowitz testifies on his findings before Senate Judiciary Committee.  Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will testify Wednesday about his findings that the FBI was legally justified in launching its investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

8am – B/C     TIME Person of the Year 2019: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old from Sweden has become the youngest figure to ever be named TIME’s Person of the Year in the 92-year history of the distinction. Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg has been named the 2019 TIME Person of the Year, becoming the youngest figure to receive the distinction in its 92-year history. The 16-year-old from Sweden has become a prominent face in the fight to save the environment from the effects of climate change. The magazine revealed its choice on TODAY Wednesday, making Thunberg the youngest selection since TIME began naming a Person of the Year in 1927. The Person of the Year title is not necessarily an honor or award, but representative of the influence the person has had on the news within the past year. “She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” TIME Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal said on TODAY Wednesday. Last year, TIME editors selected “The Guardians and the War on Truth,” a group of four journalists and one news organization whose work landed them in jail or cost them their lives. Thunberg, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in March, has been the catalyst in a host of student-led strikes involving more than a million students across the world in the last two years after she began spending her school days protesting climate change outside the Swedish parliament.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – Philip Van Cleave – the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) https://twitter.com/VCDL_ORG

• Philip has been behind the push for second amendment sanctuaries in Virginia and he can discuss how far reaching the effort is all over Virginia… Prince William became a sanctuary last night… ALSO SPOTYSLVNIA last night
• Phil Van Cleave VCDL ‏@VCDL_ORG: Prince William now a sanctuary by 6. To 2 vote!  Big night for gun owners !!
• Supervisors approve revised resolution declaring Prince William a ‘constitutional county’ (Prince William Times) — Supervisors approved a resolution early Wednesday declaring Prince William a “constitutional county” rather than a “Second Amendment sanctuary,” removing language barring local funds from being used to enforce state and federal gun laws. The board voted in favor of the revised resolution 6 to 2, with Supervisors Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge, and Victor Angry, D-Neabsco, voting against it. About 50 Virginia counties have passed related initiatives – some declaring themselves “sanctuary” counties, others using the more moderate “constitutional county” moniker —  in recent weeks. The resolution was introduced for the first time at about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, after the board heard about three hours of public comment on Board Chairman Corey Stewart’s proposed “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolution, which he introduced Tuesday, Dec. 3. Supervisor Ruth Anderson, R-Occoquan, read the full resolution aloud. It urges state and federal lawmakers to “preserve, uphold and protect” the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens but leaves out sections of the original resolution that stated the county’s intent not to aid federal or state agencies in enforcing measures deemed restrictive of Second Amendment rights. The revised resolution had not been posted on the board of supervisors’ website at the time of the vote, but county staffers handed out copies during the meeting. After Anderson finished reading the measure, Supervisor Marty Nohe, R-Coles, clarified that the resolution did not include the word “sanctuary” and thus asked nothing out of the ordinary from local law enforcement agencies. “I don’t see in this anything declaring us a ‘sanctuary county,’” Nohe said.  In an interview after the vote, Stewart, R-At Large, said the original resolution was modified “over the weekend” to remove the word “sanctuary,” which would imply that the county police would not enforce measures deemed unconstitutional.

8am – E         ‘Incredible Bulls**t’: Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger Faces Constituents’ Wrath Over Impeachment Support. (Daily Caller) — Democratic Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger was lambasted by constituents this week over her support for the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Spanberger has not yet announced how she will vote on the two articles of impeachment introduced Tuesday in the House of Representatives, but called the allegations against the president “incredibly serious.” Spanberger did vote in support of the inquiry in October. Those in attendance called the impeachment inquiry “incredible bullshit,” “crap,” and “all lies.” “The allegations against the president are incredibly, incredibly serious,” Spanberger told the crowd. “Incredible bull****!” one man exclaimed. “It’s crap!” “It’s a lie, it’s all a lie,” the man continued.