Mornings on the Mall

Monday, December 23, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Hans Von Spakovsky

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Legal analyst Joe diGenova, WMAL’s Redskins Analyst Trevor Matich, VA Del. Todd Gilbert and Hans Von Spakovsky joined WMAL on Monday!

5am – A/B/C FISA:

• FISA court judge demands info about FBI lawyer linked to Carter Page warrant. (Fox News) – The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s presiding judge has sent another directive to the Justice Department, ordering officials to identify previous surveillance requests from an FBI lawyer linked to the 2016 warrant from former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In an order unsealed Friday, Judge Rosemary Collyer asked the Justice Department to identify steps to ensure the accuracy of those filings and whether the unnamed DOJ lawyer was ever disciplined. DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz recently identified in a scathing public report numerous mistakes and omissions in the warrant used against Page that launched the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
• Adam Schiff: ‘It’s Hard To Be Sympathetic’ Toward Carter Page After FBI Smeared Him. (Daily Wire) – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made a series of false statements on Friday about the inspector general’s (IG) report on the FBI’s misconduct in surveilling the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, and even went as far as to say that it was hard to feel any sympathy toward a Trump campaign adviser who was smeared by the FBI. The California Democrat made the remarks on PBS’s “Firing Line With Margaret Hoover,” a show that normally asks notable figures tough questions, but did not press Schiff hard on a variety of issues over which he has been repeatedly criticized.
• Lindsey Graham Promises to Call in EVERY PERSON Who Signed Bogus Carter Page FISA Warrants …Comey, McCabe, Yates, Rosenstein… Senator Lindsey Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures. Graham promised Maria Bartiromo he will call in EVERY PERSON who signed the bogus Carter Page FISA Warrants. The list includes: James Comey — Then-FBI Director James Comey signed the first three FISA applications on behalf of the FBI… Andrew MCabe — Then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed the fourth one… Sally Yates — Then-DAG Sally Yates… Dana Boente — then Acting DAG Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein — DAG Rod Rosenstein signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of the DOJ, according to the FISA memo

5am – D/E     IMPEACHMENT:

• The White House is projecting confidence that it will prevail in a constitutional spat with Democrats over the nature of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which threatens to deprive President Trump of the swift acquittal he seeks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until Republicans provide details on witnesses and testimony in hopes of shaping the upcoming trial. Democratic and Republican leaders in the chamber remain at an impasse over the question of whether witnesses will be called.

6am – A/B/C Millennials want to ban Secret Santa. (FOXBusiness) – When Secret Santa offers Millennial office workers a present with one hand, they feel like he’s rifling through their wallets with the other. Many say they feel triggered by their workplaces honoring the tradition, in which groups of people draw names to buy Christmas presents for each other, according to research from the British job-hunting board Jobsite. Frustrated by pressure to shell out cash for presents they can’t afford, and sometimes having to dip into their savings to cover them, they’d like to see the practice banned. “Celebrating special events for our colleagues is great for morale in the workplace. However, there can be unfortunate unintended consequences,” said Dr. Ashley Weinberg, an expert in workplace psychology at the University of Salford in the UK. “The spirit of giving – especially at a seasonal time of exchanging gifts via ‘Secret Santa’ – is something we’d hope can be expressed in many ways, and it’s worth remembering that where this involves financial contributions, not all colleagues have the same disposable income.” Seventy-three percent of office workers from 23 to 28 years old have regularly have spent above their means when contributing to an office celebration, according to the report. Twenty-six percent of those younger workers have dipped into their savings or used overdrafts in order to “chip in.”  Part of the reason they do so is that not giving enough or not contributing at all can prompt co-workers to unfairly label them as “stingy,” which can cause lasting damage, according to Weinberg. In fact, 17 percent of survey participants say they have been accused of being “stingy” with gifts, leaving them ashamed. Twenty-two percent of employees between the ages of 23 and 38 reported anger toward the organizer for not considering varying financial situations; some said they have been “called out” about the size of their contributions.

6am – D         US service academies say hand gestures at Army-Navy game were a game and not racist. (CNN)The US Naval Academy and US Military Academy at West Point said Friday that the hand gesture some cadets and midshipmen were seen making on camera was part of a game known as the “circle game” and not a white supremacist symbol. The circle game is commonly played when a person forms an “OK” with their hand below their waist to trick a second person into looking at it. If the second person is caught looking at the hand gesture, that person is then punched by the person who made the gesture. The academies were investigating to see if the cadets and midshipmen were making a sign that can be associated with white nationalism, which is someone forming the “OK” sign with their fingers and thumb to symbolize the letters “WP” — which stands for white power. The academies launched internal investigations on Sunday after cadets and midshipmen were captured on ESPN’s pre-game show for the Army-Navy game making the hand gesture, which some interpreted as white nationalist and others interpreted as innocent. “We are confident the hand gestures used were not intended to be racist in any way. However, we are disappointed by the immature behavior of the two Fourth Class Midshipmen, and their actions will be appropriately addressed,” Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck said in a written statement. “The Naval Academy is fully committed to preparing young men and women to become professional officers of competence, character, and compassion in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps; in this case, we recognize there is more work to be done.”

6am – E         DC Owed $835M in Unpaid Parking Tickets. Nearly a billion dollars in unpaid tickets are due to District taxpayers. District taxpayers are due $835,750,067 in unpaid tickets, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by News4. The missing funds stem from more than 5 million tickets in Washington, D.C., some of them more than 20 years old. These include parking tickets and tickets issued via speed cameras, red light cameras or by police officers. While D.C. has reciprocity with other states to compel drivers to pay fines, parking tickets and tickets issued by cameras are generally non-enforceable because the driver’s identification details are not included.  In response to this news, Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would have to look into how the District is addressing the issue of unpaid tickets.

6am – F         STATE OF THE UNION INVITE:

• Nancy Pelosi Invites Trump To Deliver State Of The Union The Day After Iowa Caucuses. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has officially invited President Donald Trump to deliver his State of The Union address on Feb. 4, the day after the first votes are cast in the 2020 presidential election in the Hawkeye State.
• President Trump accepted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver State of the Union address on Feb. 4. (Roll Call) –  Address will be the first time Trump visits the House chamber since Democrats impeached him. President Donald Trump accepted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation Friday to deliver his State of the Union address on Feb. 4, which will be his first visit to the House since Democrats voted to impeach him. The invite came in a letter Pelosi sent to Trump citing “the spirit of our Constitution,” which calls for the president to give Congress information on the state of the union “from time to time.” The presidential State of the Union address has turned into an annual tradition — one that created some drama earlier this year

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to The District of Columbia – discussed impeachment, FISA and Admiral Rogers cooperating with Durham.

• Former NSA Director Michael Rogers Cooperating with Durham Investigation into Trump-Russia Probe. Former National Security Agency director and retired Adm. Michael Rogers has met multiple times with U.S. attorney John Durham as part of an ongoing probe into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, The Intercept reported Friday. Rogers, who served as NSA director under Obama and Trump, “has cooperated voluntarily,” according to sources. Durham, who did not agree with DOJ inspector general Mike Horowitz’s report on the predication of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, is also looking into what role former CIA director John Brennan played in the 2017 intelligence community assessment that detailed Russian interference in the election. The assessment, compiled by the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, stated that Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign” that “aspired to help” Trump and discredit Clinton. While the FBI and the CIA had high confidence in the conclusion, Rogers’s NSA reported a moderate confidence and was the “lone exception,” as Brennan testified in May 2017.
• IMPEACHMENT: The White House is projecting confidence that it will prevail in a constitutional spat with Democrats over the nature of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which threatens to deprive President Trump of the swift acquittal he seeks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until Republicans provide details on witnesses and testimony in hopes of shaping the upcoming trial. Democratic and Republican leaders in the chamber remain at an impasse over the question of whether witnesses will be called.
• FISA court judge demands info about FBI lawyer linked to Carter Page warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s presiding judge has sent another directive to the Justice Department, ordering officials to identify previous surveillance requests from an FBI lawyer linked to the 2016 warrant from former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In an order unsealed Friday, Judge Rosemary Collyer asked the Justice Department to identify steps to ensure the accuracy of those filings and whether the unnamed DOJ lawyer was ever disciplined. DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz recently identified in a scathing public report numerous mistakes and omissions in the warrant used against Page that launched the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – WMAL’s Redskins Analyst – analyzed the key moments from the Redskins’ 41-35 overtime loss to the Giants.

• NFL Week 16 recap: GIANTS 41, REDSKINS 35: Daniel Jones led the New York Giants with five touchdown passes in their overtime victory over the Washington Redskins. Jones also had 352 passing yards. His touchdown to Kaden Smith was the game-winner. Redskins rookie Dwayne Haskins started the game but left due to an injury. He had two touchdown passes before his departure.
• Dwayne Haskins says Washington owner Daniel Snyder told him not to return to Giants game after ankle injury. (Yahoo! Sports) — Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins left Sunday’s game against the New York Giants with an ankle injury early in the third quarter. He was initially listed as questionable after the sack that knocked him out of the game. He wanted to return after X-rays came back negative, but said he had to be talked down by team owner Daniel Synder.

7am – E         DEM DEBATES:

• Michael Bloomberg tells CBS News that the Democratic debates aren’t a priority for his campaign: “I don’t think the debates really matter that much. It’s good entertainment.”
• POOR RATINGS FOR THE LAST DEM DEBATE: The Hill’s media reporter Joe Concha @JoeConchaTV: Dec 20: Total viewers for the 6th Democratic debate on CNN/PBS: 6 million. Context: 18.1M tuned in for the first Democratic debate in late June. Math: More than 2/3 of the audience who watched 1st debate didn’t watch the 6th. Impeachment fatigue a factor, but still a big concern for DNC.
• Latest Democratic debate had lowest viewership yet. Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate offered more fireworks than the previous political shout-fests — but fewer Americans tuned in to watch it than any of its five predecessors. The debate in Los Angeles drew an audience of 6.17 million viewers — lowest so far of the cycle, according to early numbers from Nielsen, Deadline reported Friday. PBS NewsHour and Politico hosted the debate at Loyola Marymount University, and it also was simulcast by CNN. Nielsen reported that the debate posted 2.062 million viewers on PBS and 4.088 watched it on CNN. Despite the sinking ratings, CNN boasted that it beat its cable news rivals in the key 8 to 11 p.m. block with an average of 3.97 million viewers, compared to 3.64 for Fox News and 1.83 million for MSNBC.

8am – A         Sanders Campaign Offers ‘Family Persuasion Guide’ So Supporters Can Ruin Christmas. (Daily Wire/Emily Zanotti) – The Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) presidential campaign is struggling with voters over age 50. It turns out, those who’ve already made their money, paid off their student loans, and are eligible for actual Medicare, aren’t really up for voting for Bernie Sanders, and it’s starting to have an impact on his ability to win in states with early primaries. So, The Wall Street Journal reports, Sanders is arming his young followers with “family persuasion guides” so that they can more effectively ruin Christmas by injecting politics into the conversation at every opportunity — and it starts by suggesting that students remind their non-socialist parents and grandparents that they’ll be dead one day. “It’s up to us as students and young people to make the moral appeal to our older relatives to join us in voting for Bernie, because let’s face it: they won’t be around for as long to deal with the consequences of this election, but we will be,” the “Students for Bernie: Family Persuasion Guide” reads.

8am – B/C     EDDIE MURPHY MAKES DIG AT BILL COSBY / COSBY’S PUBLICIST FIRED BACK: A spokesman for Bill Cosby has fired back at Eddie Murphy after the comedian made jokes at Cosby’s expense during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live. Murphy compared his current situation to Cosby’s, who’s serving three to 10 years in prison after being found guilty in April 2018 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in 2004. “But if you would have told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring, stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail,” Murphy said to laughter, “even I would have took that bet.” “Who is America’s Dad now?” Murphy added, impersonating Cosby.  In a statement released Sunday, Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt criticized Murphy for the jokes, calling them “disparaging”, adding “One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation, so that he could make his own decisions; but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood Slave.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – Virginia House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (Republican) – discussed the Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement in Virginia.

• Virginia AG Herring: ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ proclamations have no force. irginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring issued an opinion Friday that there is no legal weight to the “Second Amendment sanctuary” resolutions being passed in localities around the state in reaction to potential new gun-control laws. If the General Assembly passes new gun restrictions, “they will be enforced, and they will be followed,” Herring (D) said in announcing the opinion. “These resolutions have no legal force, and they’re just part of an effort by the gun lobby to stoke fear.” House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said Herring’s opinion contradicts his stance from 2014, when the attorney general declined to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage because he considered it unconstitutional. That was 18 months before the Supreme Court struck down such bans nationally. “Attorney General Herring’s opinion is interesting, as it directly contradicts his own statements and actions regarding the supremacy of state law over the preferences of the officials who must enforce them,” Gilbert’s statement said. “His opinion today notes that ‘it has long been the indisputable and clear function of the courts . . . to pass upon the constitutionality of legislative acts.’ ”
• 9 Out of 10 Virginia Counties Declare Themselves 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries. . As of Friday, 85 counties, 9 cities, and 17 towns had formally declared themselves sanctuaries, according to Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL).

8am – E         Florida man wants to sell Trump a whole town for $1B, and Vanilla Ice is reportedly involved | Fox Business. One Florida man has big plans for President Trump: buy up a whole town and redevelop it into some sort of combination presidential library/hotel/something called a “presidential township.” The theoretical sale price for the town of Briny Breezes, Florida? Just $1 billion, the Palm Beach Post reported. Local real estate broker James Arena outlined his vision in a video he posted on Facebook this week, explaining he would pursue the plan if elected mayor of Briny Breezes. He said he wants to “allow the Trump Organization to redevelop this entire town into the first ‘presidential township’ in America, renaming it Trump Town, USA in honor of the greatest president in American history, Donald J. Trump.” Briny Breezes is located in Palm Beach County, the same county as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, which he and first lady Melania Trump recently designated as their primary residence.