Mornings on the Mall

Monday, January 27, 2020

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C BOLTON’S BOOK:

• NY TIMES: Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says. WASHINGTON — President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton. The president’s statement as described by Mr. Bolton could undercut a key element of his impeachment defense: that the holdup in aid was separate from Mr. Trump’s requests that Ukraine announce investigations into his perceived enemies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was in office. Mr. Bolton’s explosive account of the matter at the center of Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial, the third in American history, was included in drafts of a manuscript he has circulated in recent weeks to close associates. He also sent a draft to the White House for a standard review process for some current and former administration officials who write books. […] Key to Mr. Bolton’s account about Ukraine is an exchange during a meeting in August with the president after Mr. Trump returned from vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Bolton raised the $391 million in congressionally appropriated assistance to Ukraine for its war in the country’s east against Russian-backed separatists. Officials had frozen the aid, and a deadline was looming to begin sending it to Kyiv, Mr. Bolton noted. He, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper had collectively pressed the president about releasing the aid nearly a dozen times in the preceding weeks after lower-level officials who worked on Ukraine issues began complaining about the holdup, Mr. Bolton wrote. Mr. Trump had effectively rebuffed them, airing his longstanding grievances about Ukraine, which mixed legitimate efforts by some Ukrainians to back his Democratic 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, with unsupported accusations and outright conspiracy theories about the country, a key American ally. Mr. Giuliani had also spent months stoking the president’s paranoia about the American ambassador to Ukraine at the time, Marie L. Yovanovitch, claiming that she was openly anti-Trumpand needed to be dismissed. Mr. Trump had ordered her removed as early as April 2018 during a private dinner with two Giuliani associates and others, a recording of the conversation made public on Saturday showed. In his August 2019 discussion with Mr. Bolton, the president appeared focused on the theories Mr. Giuliani had shared with him, replying to Mr. Bolton’s question that he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation that related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.
• TRUMP Denies… I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the… …transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations… …(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations – and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.

5am – D  POMPEO vs NPR REPORTER:

• Reporter Says Pompeo Cursed Her Out After She Asked About Ukraine, Demanded She Find The Country On A Map. An NPR reporter said Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo exploded on her following an interview where she asked him about Ukraine. NPR anchor Mary Louise Kelly said during “All Things Considered” Friday that Pompeo lashed out at her and demanded she find Ukraine on a map after an interview with him. The outburst lasted “about the same amount of time as the interview itself had lasted,” Kelly said. “He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine. He asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’ He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,” Kelly told co-host Ari Shapiro. “He asked if I could find Ukraine on a map. I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing. I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He said, ‘People will hear about this.’” The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller.
• Pompeo blasts ‘shameful’ NPR reporter, claims she broke agreement reached before interview. (Fox News) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded Saturday following media reports that said he scolded an NPR reporter after they sat for an interview — one that Pompeo claimed afterward had strayed from an agreement he had reached with the journalist. In the statement, Pompeo claimed Mary Louise Kelly lied to him, called her behavior “shameful” and insinuated she mistook a country in South Asia for Ukraine on a map. “NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice,” Pompeo said in the statement. “First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record. It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency.”

5am – E         Remembering basketball legend Kobe Bryant:

• Kobe Bryant, daughter among 9 dead in helicopter crash: The five-time NBA champion died aged 41 when his private helicopter crashed in Los Angeles on Sunday morning – his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who he often called Gi-Gi on social media, was also on board and died in the crash. The point guard, who also won two Olympic gold medals, played for the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his 20-year NBA career before retiring in 2016. He is succeeded by his wife, Vanessa, and their three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri. In his last Instagram post, made hours earlier on the night before his death, Bryant praised basketball star Lebron James, who had just surpassed him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list to clinch the No. 3 spot.
• Pilot of helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, 41, and daughter Gianna, 13, was warned ‘you’re too low’ as they flew through fog. Pilot of helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, was warned ‘you’re too low’ as they flew through fog despite cops GROUNDING their fleet over safety fears as more of the nine victims of the Calabasas crash are named. Kobe Bryant’s helicopter pilot was told he was ‘too low’ as he flew through thick fog moments before slamming into a hillside in a crash which killed all nine on board. The NBA legend and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died along with seven others yesterday when the Sikorsky S-76 came down in Calabasas, California, and immediately caught fire. Flight data shows the aircraft appearing to get into trouble near the LA Zoo, where it circled for 15 minutes amid foggy weather which had forced Los Angeles police to ground their fleet.

6am – A/B/C             TRUMP’S TEAM BEGINS THEIR DEFENSE IN THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL:

• Deputy Counsel Mike Purpura Reading the 6 key facts of the case. 6-POINT DEFENSE:

1. “The transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything. The paused security assistance funds aren’t even mentioned on the call.”
2. “President Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything.”
3. “President Zelensky and high-ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know — did not even know the security assistance was paused until the end of August. Over a month after the July 25th call.”
4. “Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else.”
5. The security assistance flowed on Sept. 11, and a presidential meeting took place on Sept. 25 without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations.
6. The Democrats’ blind drive to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and stronger supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor.

• PAUSED SECURITY ASSISTANCE WASN’T DISCUSSED IN JULY 25 CALL… COUNSEL MICHAEL PURPURA EXPLAINS… There was no discussion of the paused security assistance on the July 25 call. House Democrats keep pointing to President Zelensky’s statement that, “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense.” But he wasn’t talking there about the paused security assistance. He tells us in the very next sentence exactly what he was talking about, Javelin missiles. “We are ready,” Presidents Zelensky continues, “to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically, we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.” Javelins are the anti-tank missiles only made available to the Ukrainians by President Trump. President Obama refused to give Javelins to the Ukrainians for years. Javelin sales were not part, were not part of the security assistance that had been paused at the time of the call. Javelin sales have nothing to do with the paused security assistance, those are different programs entirely. But don’t take my word for it. Both former ambassador to Ukraine, Maria Yovanovitch, and NSC Senior Director, Timothy Morrison, confirmed that the Javelin missiles and the security assistance were unrelated. The house managers didn’t tell you about Ambassador Yovanovitch’s and Tim Morrison’s testimony. Why not?
• WH COUNSEL PAT CIPOLLONE HIGHLIGHTS ‘BURDEN SHARING’… : Now, they didn’t talk a lot about the transcript of the call, which I would submit is the best evidence of what happened on the call and they said things over and over again that are simply not true. One of them was there’s no evidence of president Trump’s interest in burden sharing. That wasn’t the real reason, but they didn’t tell you that burden sharing was discussed in the call, in the transcript of the call. They didn’t tell you that. Why? Let me read it to you. Here’s the president and we’ll go through the entire transcript. I’m not going to read the whole transcript. We’ll make it available. I’m sure you have it, but we’ll make available copies of the transcripts so you can have it. The president said and they read this line. “I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time,” but they stopped there. They didn’t read the following, “Much more than European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk, and I think it’s something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel, she talks Ukraine, but she doesn’t do anything. A lot of European countries are the same way. So I think it’s something you want to look at. But the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine.” That’s where they picked up again, with the quote, but they left out the entire discussion of burden sharing.

6am – D         PARNAS LEAKED VIDEO:

• BLOOMBERG: Trump Caught on Tape Saying ‘Get Rid Of’ U.S. Envoy in 2018. President Donald Trump was recorded during a private meeting in April 2018 saying that the U.S. should “get rid of” then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, according to a video provided by an attorney for Lev Parnas, an associate of the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The iPhone video, which is more than an hour long, shows Trump walking into a room with a number of other people, before the camera pivots to the ceiling while the group has a meal. At one point, an unidentified accented voice tells Trump, “We gotta get rid of the ambassador, she’s still left over from the Clinton administration.” The person adds, “She’s basically walking around telling everyone wait, he’s going to get impeached.” Trump responds, “Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Take her out. OK? Do it.”

• In Secret Trump Recording, Lev Parnas Spoke Little, But Said A Lot. Lev Parnas said few words during an April 30, 2018, dinner with President Donald Trump and a small group of associates, according to an audio recording of the event, which Parnas’s lawyer provided the media Saturday. But what Parnas did say in the 84-minute recording could shed light on why the Soviet-born businessman might have been interested in the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. His remarks also appear to conflict with his claims in interviews earlier in January that his Ukraine-related efforts were merely intended to help Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Parnas made two main points during the event, in which attendees discussed golf, China, the border wall and other topics of the day: He and his partner, Igor Fruman, were in the process of purchasing a Ukrainian energy company, and Yovanovitch was bad-mouthing Trump and needed to be removed from her post in Kyiv. Parnas’s unprompted remarks about Yovanovitch are the first known evidence of Trump being told derogatory information about the career diplomat. His comments also raises the question of why Parnas was interested in getting rid of her.

6am – E         SANDERS IS RISING IN THE POLLS:

• Poll: Sanders leads Biden by 9 points in Iowa. (The Hill) — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) holds a commanding lead over the Democratic field in Iowa just days before the state is set to hold its first-in-the-nation caucuses, according to a new poll. An Emerson College poll released Sunday evening of registered Democrats and left-leaning independents found Sanders in the lead with 30 percent of respondents planning to support him in the caucuses, while former Vice President Joe Biden (D) followed with 21 percent. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has sunk to fourth place in the poll behind Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) at 11 percent and 13 percent, respectively, while former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg rounded out the top tier in fifth place with 10 percent. No other candidate registered above 5 percent support in the poll. Sanders’s dominance in the poll comes after a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released earlier in the day showed Biden with a slight lead over Sanders in the state.
• Bernie Sanders emerges as top Democratic presidential candidate in New Hampshire survey as he continues his polling surge ahead of former frontrunner Joe Biden. (Daily Mail) – Senator Bernie Sanders continued his poll surge in New Hampshire, the first primary state, earning 25 per cent support among more than 500 likely Democratic voters surveyed there. The new CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, which was released Sunday, shows the Democratic socialist earning more support than some of his more establishment Democrat competitors. The results come a little over two weeks before the state is set to hold the vote for the Democratic nominee they want to take on Donald Trump in November. Joe Biden, the usual front runner in the Democratic field, fell nearly 10 percentage points behind Sanders with only 16 per cent support.

7am – A/B/C             INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed the Trump Defense team’s arguments in the impeachment trial, the Bolton book leak and the Parnas tape leak where Trump says to ‘get rid of’ Maria Yovanovitch.

• THE TRUMP IMPEACHMENT DEFENSE BEGINS… 6-POINT DEFENSE:

1. “The transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything. The paused security assistance funds aren’t even mentioned on the call.”
2. “President Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything.”
3. “President Zelensky and high-ranking Ukrainian officials did not even know — did not even know the security assistance was paused until the end of August. Over a month after the July 25th call.”
4. “Not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance, a presidential meeting or anything else.”
5. The security assistance flowed on Sept. 11, and a presidential meeting took place on Sept. 25 without the Ukrainian government announcing any investigations.
6. The Democrats’ blind drive to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact, as attested to by the Democrats own witnesses, that President Trump has been a better friend and stronger supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor.

• WH COUNSEL PAT CIPOLLONE HIGHLIGHTS ‘BURDEN SHARING’… Now, they didn’t talk a lot about the transcript of the call, which I would submit is the best evidence of what happened on the call and they said things over and over again that are simply not true. One of them was there’s no evidence of president Trump’s interest in burden sharing.
• PAUSED SECURITY ASSISTANCE WASN’T DISCUSSED IN JULY 25 CALL… COUNSEL MICHAEL PURPURA EXPLAINS… There was no discussion of the paused security assistance on the July 25 call. House Democrats keep pointing to President Zelensky’s statement that, “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense.” But he wasn’t talking there about the paused security assistance. He tells us in the very next sentence exactly what he was talking about, Javelin missiles. “We are ready,” Presidents Zelensky continues, “to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically, we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.” Javelins are the anti-tank missiles only made available to the Ukrainians by President Trump. President Obama refused to give Javelins to the Ukrainians for years. Javelin sales were not part, were not part of the security assistance that had been paused at the time of the call. Javelin sales have nothing to do with the paused security assistance, those are different programs entirely. But don’t take my word for it. Both former ambassador to Ukraine, Maria Yovanovitch, and NSC Senior Director, Timothy Morrison, confirmed that the Javelin missiles and the security assistance were unrelated. The house managers didn’t tell you about Ambassador Yovanovitch’s and Tim Morrison’s testimony. Why not?
• Trump’s lawyers make Schiff credibility part of defense strategy: President Trump’s defense team hit lead impeachment manager Adam Schiffover his contacts with the alleged whistleblower Saturday, suggesting Mr. Schiff’s conduct at the start of the impeachment inquiry in the House will be a sticking point in the defense’s strategy.
• NY TIMES: Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says. WASHINGTON — President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton. The president’s statement as described by Mr. Bolton could undercut a key element of his impeachment defense: that the holdup in aid was separate from Mr. Trump’s requests that Ukraine announce investigations into his perceived enemies, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, who had worked for a Ukrainian energy firm while his father was in office. Mr. Bolton’s explosive account of the matter at the center of Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial, the third in American history, was included in drafts of a manuscript he has circulated in recent weeks to close associates. He also sent a draft to the White House for a standard review process for some current and former administration officials who write books. […] Key to Mr. Bolton’s account about Ukraine is an exchange during a meeting in August with the president after Mr. Trump returned from vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Bolton raised the $391 million in congressionally appropriated assistance to Ukraine for its war in the country’s east against Russian-backed separatists. Officials had frozen the aid, and a deadline was looming to begin sending it to Kyiv, Mr. Bolton noted.
• TRUMP Denies… I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the… …transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations… …(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations – and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.
• BLOOMBERG: Trump Caught on Tape Saying ‘Get Rid Of’ U.S. Envoy in 2018.  President Donald Trump was recorded during a private meeting in April 2018 saying that the U.S. should “get rid of” then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, according to a video provided by an attorney for Lev Parnas, an associate of the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The iPhone video, which is more than an hour long, shows Trump walking into a room with a number of other people, before the camera pivots to the ceiling while the group has a meal. At one point, an unidentified accented voice tells Trump, “We gotta get rid of the ambassador, she’s still left over from the Clinton administration.” The person adds, “She’s basically walking around telling everyone wait, he’s going to get impeached.” Trump responds, “Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Take her out. OK? Do it.”

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – ANDY POLLIN with ESPN 630 – discussed the life and legacy of basketball legend Kobe Bryant.

• Kobe Bryant, daughter among 9 dead in helicopter crash. The five-time NBA champion died aged 41 when his private helicopter crashed in Los Angeles on Sunday morning – his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who he often called Gi-Gi on social media, was also on board and died in the crash. The point guard, who also won two Olympic gold medals, played for the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his 20-year NBA career before retiring in 2016. He is succeeded by his wife, Vanessa, and their three other daughters, Natalia, Bianka and Capri. In his last Instagram post, made hours earlier on the night before his death, Bryant praised basketball star Lebron James, who had just surpassed him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list to clinch the No. 3 spot.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – NATHAN BRINKMAN – Arlington, Virginia parent and school choice advocate

• TOPIC: Virginia’s Only Private School Choice Program Under Threat. Delegate David L. Bulova (D-37) has authored a bill that would abolish Virginia’s only private school choice program. More than 4,000 students with special needs or from low-income families currently benefit from the program.

8am – B/C     GRAMMYS RECAP: Alicia Keys, the “Fallin'” singer, hosted the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles

• KOBE TRIBUTE: AT GRAMMYS: ALICIA Keys spoke about Kobe: Kobe and his daughter and all those lost today are in our thoughts and prayers in this building. Alicia Keys brought Boyz II Men on stage for an acoustic rendition of “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday” to pay tribute to late NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
• IMPEACHMENT MENTION: Singer Alicia Keys referenced President Trump’s impeachment and called for rapper Cardi B to enter politics at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards. Grammys on Impeachment feat. Alicia Keys: “Tonight we must unite, despite of all the news that we’re seeing. Commander-In-Chief impeached, y’all get out let’s bring Cardi B.” Alicia Keys soothes Grammys audience because of the divisive times we live in.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – MICHAEL PACK – Director of documentary “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words”

• ABOUT FILM: CREATED EQUAL: CLARENCE THOMAS IN HIS OWN WORDS / Coming to Select Theaters January 31, 2020 JusticeThomasMovie.com / Although Clarence Thomas remains a controversial figure, loved by some, reviled by others, few know much more than a few headlines and the recollections of his contentious confirmation battle with Anita Hill. Yet, the personal odyssey of Clarence Thomas is a classic American story and should be better known and understood. His life began in extreme poverty in the segregated South, and moved to the height of the legal profession, as one of the most influential justices on the Supreme Court. Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words tells the Clarence Thomas story truly and fully, without cover-ups or distortions. The documentary will open in movie theaters nationally on January 31, 2020, followed by a national broadcast on PBS in May 2020.