Mornings on the Mall

Monday, February 10, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Joe diGenova, Kidd O’Shea and Rep. Louie Gohmert joined WMAL on Monday!

5am – A/B/C VINDMANS AND SONDLAND GONE:

• Trump fires two impeachment witnesses: Vindman and Sondland. Ouster whistle-blower’s twin brother was also fired by the administration. (CNN) — President Donald Trump fired two key impeachment witnesses Friday, dismissing Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, and US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
• Trump also fired the twin of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in apparent retaliation for his brother’s testimony. The twin brother of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was fired from the White House on Friday in an apparent act of retaliation by President Donald Trump. Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman worked as a senior lawyer and ethics official. He was also part of the National Security Council, which his brother served on. Unlike his brother, he did not take part in the impeachment process. He was escorted off White House grounds “suddenly and with no explanation, despite over two decades of loyal service to this country,” Alexander’s lawyer David Pressman said in a statement to Insider’s Sonam Sheth. “He is deeply disappointed that he will not be able to continue his service at the White House,” Pressman added. Yevgeny Vindman was fired on the same day as his brother. Trump told reporters earlier that day he was “not happy” with Alexander Vindman after he testified against him in the impeachment hearings.

5am – D         BERNIE MADOFF WANTS OUT… Feds ask Madoff victims for input on request for sentence reduction:  The Justice Department has asked victims of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff to give their input on his request for a sentence reduction due to his bad health.  “If you are a victim of Madoff’s crimes and you wish to provide your views to Judge [Denny] Chin with respect to Madoff’s motion for a sentence reduction, you may do so,” the Department said in a statement on Friday.  In a court filing obtained by FOX Business, Madoff’s attorney Brandon Sample filed a “Motion for Compassionate Release” last week, stating:     “Madoff presents ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ for compassionate release and the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) recognizes that Madoff meets the criteria for a reduction in sentence based on his end-stage renal disease.”     “This Court must now consider whether keeping Madoff incarcerated, in light of his terminal kidney failure and a life expectancy of less than 18 months, is truly in furtherance of statutory sentencing goals and our society’s value and understanding of compassion,” Sample said.    His victims, nearly 5,000 people, may feel differently. Madoff is in jail for running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, ripping off more than $64 billion. Madoff’s scheme lured investors by guaranteeing amazingly high returns, but he was in fact paying early investors with the investments of later investors.

5am – E         Appeals court hands Trump win, rules Dem lawmakers cannot sue over business payments (Fox News)- A federal appeals court on Friday unanimously ruled that more than 200 Democratic congressional lawmakers do not have standing to sue President Trump over allegations he violated the Emoluments Clause over foreign payments to his businesses. “Because we conclude that the Members lack standing, we reverse the district court and remand with instructions to dismiss their complaint,” the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in its ruling. “The [House] Members can, and likely will, continue to use their weighty voices to make their case to the American people, their colleagues in the Congress and the President himself, all of whom are free to engage that argument as they see fit,” the court continued. “But we will not – indeed we cannot – participate in this debate.” The court added that “the Constitution permits the Judiciary to speak only in the context of an Article III case or controversy and this lawsuit presents neither.” Holding up a copy of the ruling as he departed Washington for a North Carolina event, Trump blasted the suit as a “phony” case. “It was a total win,” he declared.

6am – A         LYING DOG-FACED PONY SOLDIER: After a New Hampshire voter asks Joe Biden why they should trust he can turn his campaign around, he asks if she’s ever been to a caucus before; when she says yes, Biden snaps: “No you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”

6am – B/C     ROMNEY FACES HEAT IN UTAH:

• ROMNEY: Senator returns to Utah to face critics. (Newsmax) – Mitt Romney was back in Utah Thursday explaining his vote to convict President Donald Trump amid pushes by some angry GOP state legislators to censure or recall the senator. Romney did not speak publicly in the state and his meetings with legislative leaders were held behind closed doors. Many legislators disagreed with his decision on Trump and were concerned about repercussions for the state. Still, some said his quick trip back to Utah from Washington to elaborate on voting his conscience helped ease their frustration with the politician who holds celebrity status in Utah. “It was a very frank conversation, and people shared their opinions back and forth,” Republican House Speaker Brad Wilson said. Utah is deeply conservative, but many voters remain wary of Trump’s behavior and his comments about women, immigrants and on other issues. Trump won the state in 2016, and his move to downsize two sprawling national monuments in the southern part of the state the following year earned him lasting appreciation from many state leaders.
• UtahGOP @UtahGOP Feb 5: The Utah Republican Party is pleased to see President Trump completely acquitted by the United States Senate. We appreciate the service rendered to our state by Utah’s two senators.  As a party, we strongly disagree with the vote cast today by Senator Romney.
• Angry Utah Republicans eye recall of Mitt Romney after impeachment vote. (Washington Times) – SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney was back in Utah Thursday explaining his vote to convict President Donald Trump amid pushes by some angry GOP state legislators to censure Romney or create a way to recall the senator. Romney did not speak publicly in the state and his meetings with legislative leaders were held behind closed doors. Many legislators disagreed with his decision on Trump and were concerned about repercussions for the state. Still, some said his quick trip back to Utah from Washington to elaborate on voting his conscience helped ease their frustration with the politician who holds celebrity status in Utah.

6am – D/E/F  OSCARS HIGHLIGHTS:

• Janelle Monae kicks off the Oscars with an opening number with a set of Mr Rogers Neighborhood… then a dance sequence turns into a dance sequence with characters from the various films featured
• JANELLE MONAE says she is celebrating BLACK HISTORY as a BLACK QUEER artist
• Steve Martin and Chris Rock, presenting together at the Oscars, mock the Iowa caucuses fiasco
• Steve Martin and Chris Rock, presenting together at the Oscars, mocks LA homelessness, jokes about Jeff Bezos …Brad Pitt Wins an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Immediately Talks Impeachment Acquittal
• Brad Pitt’s Academy Awards acceptance speech: “They told me I only have 45 seconds up here—which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.”
• Josh Gad – aka Frozen’s OLAF — Mocks ‘Climate Deniers’ with ‘Frozen 2’ Joke and makes a Canadian health care joke at Oscars
• Joaquin Phoenix has a rambling Best Actor acceptance speech but basically his speech is saying Stop stealing cows’ milk:  ‘We Feel Entitled To Artificially Inseminate A Cow,’ ‘We Steel Her Baby,’ ‘We Take Her Milk’
• At the Oscars, “American Factory” took home the golden statue for best feature-length documentary on Sunday night. “American Factory” producer Julia Reichert cites Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto”: “Working people have it harder and harder these days and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.” Worth noting Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, acquired “American Factory” — the film that won. Barack and Michelle Obama react to their production company’s win for ‘American Factory’: Barack Obama@BarackObama: Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – shared his thoughts on the impeachment acquittal and the firing of the Vindman brothers and Sondland/

• Trump fires two impeachment witnesses: Vindman and Sondland. Ouster whistle-blower’s twin brother was also fired by the administration. (CNN) — President Donald Trump fired two key impeachment witnesses Friday, dismissing Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, and US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
• Trump also fired the twin of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in apparent retaliation for his brother’s testimony. The twin brother of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was fired from the White House on Friday in an apparent act of retaliation by President Donald Trump. Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman worked as a senior lawyer and ethics official. He was also part of the National Security Council, which his brother served on. Unlike his brother, he did not take part in the impeachment process. He was escorted off White House grounds “suddenly and with no explanation, despite over two decades of loyal service to this country,” Alexander’s lawyer David Pressman said in a statement to Insider’s Sonam Sheth. “He is deeply disappointed that he will not be able to continue his service at the White House,” Pressman added. Yevgeny Vindman was fired on the same day as his brother. Trump told reporters earlier that day he was “not happy” with Alexander Vindman after he testified against him in the impeachment hearings.
• ‘Anonymous’ author identified as White House official and will be promptly removed, Joe diGenova says. The White House has identified the Trump administration official behind the anonymous tell-all book and critical New York Times opinion piece about the White House and will part ways with that person, according to former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova. DiGenova, a lawyer whose work has been caught up in the Ukraine-impeachment controversy, said on Monday that he and his wife, Victoria Toensing, were told by “a senior government official” that “Anonymous” had been identified as an official working in the White House and would be removed “soon.” DiGenova declined to reveal more details in an interview with WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall, but his comments come days after the White House dismissed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an impeachment witness, and his identical twin brother from the National Security Council. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this report. DiGenova declined to comment to the Washington Examiner. DiGenova has been in the news lately as details emerged about his and Toensing’s work with President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to uncover evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden held up to $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine to help his son escape a potential corruption investigation. Trump pressing Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals, including the Bidens, was the subject of impeachment, which ended in an acquittal of the president in the Senate last week.

7am – B/C     2020 NEWS / DEM DEBATE:

• AT FRIDAY NIGHT’S DEM DEBATE: DEMS RIPPED ON BIG MONEY/BILLIONAIRES INFLUENCING THE ELECTION:
  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said candidates who are trying to buy the election, whether through their status as a billionaire or their willingness to “suck up” to billionaires, should not be able to do so.
  • Amy Klobuchar complained about BIG MONEY in politics
  • BERNIE SANDERS says we should have PUBLIC FUNDING for Campaigns and makes a dig at MAYOR PETE for having billionaires contributing to his campaign

7am – D         AOC, boyfriend talk about ‘combating racism as a white person’ in Instagram stories. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a rare appearance with boyfriend Riley Roberts while taking questions from fans in an Instagram story Friday night. The Bronx-Queens Democratic socialist enlisted her man to talk about the issue of “combating racism as a white person.” AOC and boyfriend Riley Roberts discuss tips for “combating racism as a white person.” “I think it’s helpful and important to talk to other white people about racism, and I think a lot of people, they don’t want to be racist,” Roberts, 30, offered as Ocasio-Cortez sat beside him. “They don’t think that they’re racist, but they also don’t know some of the things they believe or say are and can be racist.”

7am – E         Bloomberg’s campaign bus tour makes stop Virginia. RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – It was nearly a packed house in an old West Broad Street storefront Sunday morning, now the Richmond office for Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. “We need Mike Bloomberg to have a national common-sense gun reform agenda for our country,” said Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to the crowded room. This was the second stop on the campaign’s ‘End Gun Violence’ tour, which drew in speakers like Mayor Bowser, backing a fellow mayor of a major US city. “A big-city Mayor myself, our responsibility is to keep neighborhoods safe, and we can’t do that if we have unregulated guns coming into our city to be used for crime,” she said.Gun reform has been a topic on the former New York City mayor’s docket and in order to push that agenda the tour brought along those with a firsthand stake in the matter.

8am – A         2020 NEWS:

• After a New Hampshire voter asks Joe Biden why they should trust he can turn his campaign around, he asks if she’s ever been to a caucus before; when she says yes, Biden snaps: “No you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
• Biden goes on to explain what happened in Iowa and how he has support in other states besides Iowa
• MSNBC’s Matthews Goes After Socialist Bernie — ‘Reds’ Would Have Executions in Central Park
• Biden in New Hampshire: “Those who say ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots’ — a great line, well, guess what: The fact is, if you’re going to take on the government you need an F-15 with Hellfire Missiles. There is no way an AK-47 is going to take care of you.”

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – KIDD O’SHEA – Lifestyle/Entertainment Reporter at ABC 7 — recapped the Oscars.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – REP. LOUIE GOHMERT – R-TX, member of the House Judiciary Committee – shared his thoughts on impeachment acquittal and the firing of the Vindman brothers and Sondland.