Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Saagar Enjeti, ABC7’s Kidd O’Shea and White House’s Tony Sayegh joined WMAL on Thursday!

5am – A/B/C ROMNEY THE LONE VOTE:

• The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted President Trump on both articles of impeachment with only Republican Mitt Romney siding with Democrats on abuse of power. While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the opposing party’s case was “constitutionally incoherent,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says “the President has been impeached forever.”
• Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was the sole Republican to break from the caucus and vote yay on either article of impeachment. He explained why he was voting to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge in a floor speech earlier on Wednesday.     “I believe that attempting to corrupt an election to maintain power is about as egregious an assault on the Constitution as can be made,” the former Republican presidential nominee stated. “It is a high crime and misdemeanor, and I have no choice under the oath that I took but to express that conclusion.”
• FOX NEWS: Mitt Romney defends vote to convict Trump on abuse of power
• ROMNEY, ON NOT LEAVING IT TO VOTERS… “The reason the Senate is to do this is because the people at large would have partisan instincts…”

5am – D         MORE INVESTIGATIONS COMING:

• NADLER PLANS TO SUBPOENA BOLTON: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Re p. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., warned Wednesday that investigations into President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine may not end after the Senate’s afternoon vote in the impeachment trial, and that he may issue a subpoena for former national security adviser John Bolton.
• REPUBLICAN SEEK HUNTER BIDEN TRAVEL RECORDS: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., announced in a letter Wednesday they are seeking “records of Hunter Biden’s travel while he was under U.S. Secret Service protection as they continue to investigate potential conflicts of interest to boost his business ventures in Ukraine and China.”

5am – E         Van Jones Warns Democrats: Trump Is Helping African-Americans ‘In Real Life’ (Breitbart News) – CNN contributor Van Jones warned fellow panelists, and Democrats in general, on Tuesday evening that President Donald Trump was helping African-Americans “in real life” and reaching out to them for their vote in 2020.  Jones was reacting to the president’s State of the Union address, in which the president mentioned several efforts to help African-Americans specifically:    “What he was saying to African-Americans can be effective. You may not like it, but he mentioned HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities] — our black colleges have been struggling for a long time, a bunch of them have gone under — he threw a lifeline to them, in real life, in his budget. He talked about that. He talked about the criminal justice reform. He talked about opportunity zones. He talked about school choice.” The party failed to report results after Monday’s crucial, first-in-the-nation contest, and has still not fully reported results as of Wednesday morning. Jones added that the State of the Union address came against the backdrop of Democrats’ mishap in the Iowa caucuses the day before.

6am – A         Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in virtual tie in Iowa with 97% of precincts reporting. (NY Post) – Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg were in a virtual dead heat in the Iowa caucuses as the results from 97 percent of precincts in the state were reported on early Thursday, officials said. Sanders narrowed the gap on Buttigieg’s lead when results from three of the four satellite caucuses in the Hawkeye State were recorded soon after midnight. Buttigieg has 550 state delegate equivalents, while Sanders trails by three with 547, according to results from the Iowa’s Democratic Party. Sanders performed extremely well in the satellite caucuses, which were set up for caucus-goers who couldn’t make their assigned precinct in each of Iowa’s four congressional districts. The party said the results from the final precinct were “in transit” and would not be released until later Thursday. “The IDP has reported 1,711 precincts across the state, nation, and overseas – accounting for 97 percent of the precincts. We have collected information from all but one precinct, and those records are in transit,” they said in a statement. Caucus night on Monday descended into chaos into Tuesday morning, as reporting “inconsistencies” in the caucuses ended with zero results being announced.

6am – B/C     CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:

• WERE THE REAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS ACCIDENTALLY PUBLISHED? On late Saturday evening (Feb. 1), Tencent, on its webpage titled “Epidemic Situation Tracker”, showed confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019nCoV) in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure. The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day.
• HONG KONG USING ELECTRONIC MONITORS ON PEOPLE UNDER HOME QUARANTINE: If the person wearing the tag unplugs the phone and leaves the quarantine zone with it, or if the distance between the tag and the phone exceeds 20 meters, an alert will be sent to the Department of Health and the police.

6am – D/E     TRUMP ACQUITTED / ROMNEY THE LONE RANGER:

• AS EXPECTED… Senate Votes To Acquit President Trump: The Senate voted on Wednesday to acquit President Donald Trump after months of investigations and testimonies. There were votes on the two separate articles of impeachment. The first vote was on the abuse of power article and the second was obstruction of Congress. The abuse of power vote final vote count was: 52 not guilty and 48 guilty.    The obstruction of congress final vote count was: 53 not guilty and 47 guilty.
• Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was the sole Republican to break from the caucus and vote yay on either article of impeachment. He explained why he was voting to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge in a floor speech earlier on Wednesday. “I believe that attempting to corrupt an election to maintain power is about as egregious an assault on the Constitution as can be made,” the former Republican presidential nominee stated. “It is a high crime and misdemeanor, and I have no choice under the oath that I took but to express that conclusion.”
• FOX NEWS: Mitt Romney defends vote to convict Trump on abuse of power:   ROMNEY, ON NOT LEAVING IT TO VOTERS… “The reason the Senate is to do this is because the people at large would have partisan instincts…”
• JAKE TAPPER: Romney told Fox that he “through another person contacted the White House before the trial began that said ‘Please provide affidavits. Please let Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton and others provide affidavits so that you can raise reasonable doubt, so that you can prevent someone from having to vote in a way that will be awful for them and awful for the president.’ They didn’t do that. They could have provided those things and that was not provided.”
• EDDIE SCARY: Romney close to power in 2012 — Media called him racist, out of touch, too rich, entitled. Romney with no real power in 2020 — He now “stands on principle”!
• FLASHBACK: Top Romney Adviser Worked With Hunter Biden On Board Of Ukrainian Energy Company. According to web archives, top Mitt Romney adviser Joseph Cofer Black, who publicly goes by “Cofer Black,” joined Burisma’s board of directors while Hunter Biden was also serving on the board.   According to The New Yorker, Hunter joined Burisma’s board in April of 2014 and remained on it until he declined to renew his position this past May. Meanwhile, according to Burisma’s website, Black was appointed in February of 2017 and continues to serve on its board. The timelines would indicate that Black and Biden worked together at Burisma, and indeed, web archives from late 2017 show Black and Biden listed simultaneously on the board.
• RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL: This is not the first time I have disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last. The bottom line is President Trump did nothing wrong, and the Republican Party is more united than ever behind him. I, along with the @GOP, stand with President Trump.
• SEAN DAVIS: Romney’s vote today also shows how dishonest his vote for witnesses was last week. He clearly didn’t believe more evidence or testimony was necessary since he’s voting to convict today. He just wanted a long, drawn-out process to damage his nemesis.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — SAAGAR ENJETI — Host of THE HILL TV SHOW “Rising w/ Krystal and Saagar” and co-author of new book “The Populist’s Guide to 2020: A New Right and New Left are Rising” – shared his thoughts on the impeachment acquittal and his new book.

• IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IS OVER: Trump to make statement on ‘country’s victory’ after Senate acquits him of impeachment charges. President Trump on Thursday is expected to give a “victory” speech after the Senate overwhelmingly voted to acquit him of both articles of impeachment Wednesday afternoon. “I will be making a public statement tomorrow at 12:00pm from the @WhiteHouse to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” the president tweeted Wednesday. The White House declared that Trump had received “full vindication and exoneration” from a “sham impeachment.” By a final vote of 52-48 against conviction on the abuse of power charge and 53-47 against conviction on the obstruction charge, the Senate fell far short of the two-thirds, 67-vote supermajority needed to convict and remove the president. Swing-vote Republican senators — including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — voted to acquit on both counts.

7am – B/C     WRIST SLAPS? Wray: FBI Agents Involved In FISA Debacle Have Been Referred To Bureau’s Disciplinary Office. (Daily Caller) — FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the FBI agents involved in the surveillance of Carter Page who are still at the bureau have been referred to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action.  During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray noted that most of the FBI officials who oversaw Crossfire Hurricane, which involved surveillance of Page, have left the bureau and are no longer subject to disciplinary review. He said the FBI personnel who worked on that probe and who still have jobs at the FBI are mostly line-level agents.     “Those people have all been referred to our disciplinary arm,” Wray testified, referring to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

7am – D         INTERVIEW – KIDD O’SHEA – Lifestyle/Entertainment Reporter at ABC 7— discussed ABC7’s Oscars coverage this weekend and their special tonight at 7:30 PM.

• TONIGHT: ABC 7 News Special will focus on local DC ties to the Oscars including:
  • DC Woman Nominated: A Malaysia woman who lives and works in D.C. has an incredible reaction when she learns her film is nominated for an Oscar in the documentary short section. She’s a producer for the documentary St. Louis Superman (which is about a young black man, Ferguson activist, who runs for office) She believes in a lot of ways, D.C. can relate. They will be attending the Oscars.
  • Checking in with Arch Campbell: For almost 40 years Arch was THE DC film critic for WRC-TV and WJLA-TV. Now in his 70’s Arch is still reviewing movies but in a totally different way! We will catch up with Arch and go behind the scenes of his weekly podcast which broadcasts from the basement studios of longtime radio personality Loo Katz.
  • Hollywood Glamour Secrets from Carl Ray: He is Michelle Obama’s official makeup artist and has worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest names and now we are going to find out what it takes to get a star ready to to walk the red carpet. We will find out how a job at the Four Seasons in DC took him all the way to top!
  • The Matthews’ Brothers: These local brothers just received national attention for their new film “Lost Holiday” which is being recognized as at top Indie film of the year. The Film was shot at a local studio which is has a history with the Oscars. The brothers grew up right here in the DMV and now they’re making films with dreams of someday making it all the way to the Oscars.
  • Motion Pictures Association of America in D.C.: Did you know some of the most famous Hollywood memorabilia is stored just blocks from The White House? We will show you the private collection that the public rarely gets to see! https://twitter.com/ABC7Kidd/status/1225555453930811397

7am – E         BEZOS NEWS:

• Jeff Bezos racks up $16,800 in parking fines during DC castle renovation. (Fox5DC) –  The richest man in the world is being forced to pay hundreds of parking fines amounting to $16,840 while renovating his lavish Washington, D.C., mansion. Jeff Bezos — whose fortune currently hovers around $126 billion, according to estimates by Forbes — was handed 564 citations over the three-year renovation period, according to D.C. Department of Public Works records obtained by WUSA9. Bezos was issued the fines between October 2016, when he purchased the former Textile Museum in the Kalorama neighborhood, to October 2019, when the renovations began to wrap up, according to the records.  Over 90 tickets were reportedly issued in April 2018 alone. The Kalorama neighborhood is known as one of the most expensive and exclusive areas in the District of Columbia, with many notable figures calling the enclave home including the Obamas and Ivanka Trump. Bezos purchased the 27,000 square-foot property for $23 million in an all-cash deal, $1 million more than the asking price, according to The Washington Post. After purchasing the property, the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner began the $12 million renovations to finish with a 34,000-square-foot abode featuring 11 bedrooms, ballroom, wine cellar, whiskey tasting room, movie theater and scores of light fixtures, WUSA9 reported. An investigation revealed the tickets were issued for ignoring the city’s “no parking signs” and for parking in spots that are solely reserved for residents, WUSA9 reported.  Vehicles found blocking crosswalks were also ticketed. One truck owned by a company doing work on the property reportedly received over a dozen tickets spanning three weeks. Over $5,000 worth of tickets remain unpaid, according to the report. However, a source close to the construction project told the outlet the unpaid fines had been addressed.
• Jeff Bezos sold $1.8 billion worth of Amazon stock as it eclipsed $1 trillion in market value. (USA Today) — Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, just got richer.  Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, cashed out of his shares as the stock skyrocketed recently. He sold more than $1.8 billion of shares in his company over the past week, new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. He began selling his shares on Jan. 31, through Feb. 3, according to a pre-arranged sales plan. Bezos sold 905,456 shares in the company for $1.84 billion, the filings show. To be sure, Bezos has made similar sale disclosures in the past. Last summer, he sold nearly $3 billion of his stock. Bezos has previously said that he would sell $1 billion in stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin. Bezos still owns about 12% of Amazon.  The disclosure comes after Amazon’s market value eclipsed $1 trillion, a threshold it first touched in 2018. The company joins three other tech peers to top the milestone including Apple, Google parent company Alphabet and Microsoft. Shares have jumped 11% so far this year, outpacing a 3% rise in the broader Standard & Poor’s 500.

8am – A         CHINA UPDATE: CORONAVIRUS AND TARIFFS

• WERE THE REAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS ACCIDENTALLY PUBLISHED?
• On late Saturday evening (Feb. 1), Tencent, on its webpage titled “Epidemic Situation Tracker”, showed confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019nCoV) in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.
• The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day.
• HONG KONG USING ELECTRONIC MONITORS ON PEOPLE UNDER HOME QUARANTINE: If the person wearing the tag unplugs the phone and leaves the quarantine zone with it, or if the distance between the tag and the phone exceeds 20 meters, an alert will be sent to the Department of Health and the police.
• Two jets carrying 350 Americans from China have landed at a Northern California Air Force base where they face two weeks of quarantine. Federal officials say more American evacuees from China will arrive this week at military bases in Nebraska and Texas.
• Wisconsin reports first coronavirus case, bringing US total to TWELVE. Wisconsin has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, state officials said on Wednesday.  The new patient, of undisclosed age and gender, is the twelfth confirmed case in the US after testing positive for the virus at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.  According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS), the patient was in Beijing, China sometime in the past two weeks, where they came into contact with people now known to be infected with coronavirus.  It’s unclear if the patient would have been aware that these contacts were sick. The patient is being isolated at home, said to be doing well, and not in need of hospitalization.  It comes the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it’s distributed coronavirus tests to more than 100 labs around the country. The patient’s test came back positive on Wednesday, and Wisconsin officials said the person is ‘doing well,’ according to local Channel 3000.
• China halves tariffs on $75 billion worth of US goods, as coronavirus outbreak escalates. Hong Kong/Beijing (CNN Business) China announced on Thursday that it will halve additional tariffs on $75 billion worth of US imports, as the world’s two largest economies continue to step back from a years-long trade war that has hurt both countries and dented global growth. The move comes as China is grappling with the escalating coronavirus outbreak. The disease has killed 565 people, mostly in China, and infected more than 28,000 people in over 25 countries and territories. The reduction affects US goods that China imposed tariffs on last September. Starting next week, China will cut the additional 10% tariff rate it enacted back then on some goods to 5%. Other goods that were taxed an extra 5% will now be levied 2.5%, according to a statement from China’s State Council Tariff Commission. The commission added that other tariffs on US goods will be maintained while it continues to work on exemptions. “China hopes that both sides will abide by bilateral agreements and make an effort to implement relevant provisions so that we can boost market confidence, promote bilateral trade relations and global economic growth,” the statement said. These tariff rollbacks had been widely expected and were a gesture in response to the United States cutting its September round of tariffs by half in the “phase one” trade deal, according Tommy Wu, an economist with Oxford Economics.

8am – B/C     Nancy Pelosi ‘pre-ripped’ pages of Trump’s SOTU speech, video shows. (NY Post) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently made tiny tears into her copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address — so that her speech-ripping moment could go off without a hitch. As Trump introduced cancer-stricken radio host Rush Limbaugh — who received the Medal of Freedom during the speech — Pelosi could be seen grabbing the pages off the table. Video shows her making what seemed to be a tearing motion and then placing the pages back on the table. Photos of the sheets of paper show them face down on the table with small slits on the side, near where Pelosi would eventually rip them into pieces.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – TONY SAYEGH – Senior Advisor for Strategy at The White House – reacted to the impeachment acquittal.

• IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IS OVER: President Trump plans to make a statement at Noon (ET) today regarding what he calls the nation’s “VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax.” President Trump was acquitted by the Senate Wednesday on both Articles of Impeachment passed by the House in December. House leaders say they plan to continue investigating alleged wrongdoing by the President.

8am – E         Virginia moves closer to total ban on use of handheld mobile devices while driving. (Washington Post) – Virginia lawmakers grappling with how to crack down on distracted driving Wednesday moved closer to a total ban on the use of handheld mobile devices while driving. The House approved legislation that would prohibit motorists from using cellphones and other handheld devices while driving; the Senate approved a similar bill last week. While the two chambers approved bills with slightly different language, lawmakers say they expect to agree on legislation to send to Gov. Ralph Northam for signing. Northam (D) has said he supports the measure, which would bring Virginia law in line with the District, Maryland and nearly two dozen other states. “This is one of the few bills we are going to pass this session that will save lives,” said Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), lead sponsor of the Senate bill that passed 33-to-7 on Jan. 29. The House bill passed 72-to-24. Virginia law already prohibits texting and emailing while driving, but phone use is otherwise not restricted, except in highway work zones. Efforts to apply the ban more broadly last year were unsuccessful. Police say the law is difficult to enforce. The measure approved this session includes exceptions for emergency vehicles, drivers reporting an emergency and those who are parked.  Violators could be fined $125 for a first offense and $250 for a second or subsequent offense.