Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Cal Thomas, Spencer Brown, Barry Manilow, ABC7’s Ashlie Rodriguez, Robert Burton, and White House’s Russ Vought joined WMAL on Thursday!

5am – A/B/C House Intel Republicans Boycott Hearing, Citing Schiff’s Failure To Hold Hearing On FISA Abuse

5am –B/C      Judiciary Committee Dems hit with ethics complaints over ‘suspicious’ conduct.

5am – D         Video shows black woman shouting she is ‘uncomfortable’ by ‘too many whites’ at UVA multicultural center. (Washington Examiner) – A video shows a woman announcing that she felt “uncomfortable” by the presence of white students at a new Multicultural Student Center on the campus of the University of Virginia. The clip of the incident was shared Wednesday on social media by the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth group. “Public service announcement,” the woman, who appears to be black, said as she paced in the center. “If y’all didn’t know, this is the MSC, and, frankly, there’s just too many white people in here, and this is a space for people of color, so, just be really cognizant of the space that you’re taking up because it does make some of us POCs uncomfortable when we see too many white people in here.”

5am – E         ROGER STONE NEWS:

• The four lawyers who prosecuted Roger Stone have quit the case after the Justice Department overruled them and said it would lower the amount of prison time it would seek for President Trump’s longtime ally. President Trump blasted the original sentencing recommendation as “horrible and unfair.” On Wednesday, Trump tweeted congratulations to Attorney General William Barr “for taking charge” of the case, but both the President and the Justice Department insist there was no communication between them on the matter.
• Roger Stone jury foreperson’s anti-Trump social media posts surface after she defends DOJ prosecutors.  Former Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart revealed Wednesday that she was the foreperson of the jury that convicted former Trump adviser Roger Stone on obstruction charges last year — and soon afterward, her history of Democratic activism and a string of her anti-Trump, left-wing social media posts came to light.
• Chuck Schumer calls for IG investigation into DOJ decision to reduce Roger Stone’s recommended sentence
• Eric Swalwell suggests Democrats could impeach Trump over Stone/DOJ ‘controversy’
• BARR TO TESTIFY: Attorney General William Barr to testify before House Judiciary Committee. The arrangement comes as Democrats have demanded answers about Barr’s apparent intervention in the sentencing of Roger Stone.

6am – A/B/C BALLOONS AND PLASTIC BAGS BAN IN MARYLAND:

• Bill Banning Balloon Releases Statewide Passes In Maryland Senate. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — A bill that would ban balloon releases statewide has passed in the Maryland Senate. SB28 would prohibit balloon releases in the state except for those used for scientific or government purposes. People who “knowingly and intentionally” organize or take part in balloon releases would face a penalty of up to $250. Last year, Queen Anne’s County became the first county in the state to ban balloon releases. The bill now moves to the House.
• Maryland could join eight other states in banning the sale of plastic bags — and state retailers support the measure. The Plastics and Packaging Reduction Act prohibits a store from providing any plastic bags and requires a store to charge a minimum of 10 cents for paper bags. The head of the Maryland Retailers Association said stores would prefer statewide legislation to a piecemeal approach. “This bill will pre-empt six different localities that have fees or bans that have become too burdensome for multijurisdictional operators to keep up with,” the organization’s president, Cailey Locklair, told the House Environment and Transportation Committee Tuesday. Takoma Park, Chestertown, Westminster, Montgomery County, Howard County and most recently Baltimore City, have all passed legislation that either prohibits the sale of plastic bags or charges a fee for them.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist and author of new book “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers . . . and the Future of the United States” – analyzed the uproar over Roger Stone.

6am – E         Trump says what he learned from impeachment is that ‘Democrats are crooked.’ President Trump told reporters Wednesday that he learned from his impeachment that Democrats are “crooked” and “vicious.” Trump was asked by reporters in the Oval Office what he had learned from his impeachment by the Democrat-controlled House.   “That the Democrats are crooked,” Trump replied. “They’ve got a lot of crooked things going, that they’re vicious, that they shouldn’t have brought impeachment and that my poll numbers are 10 points higher because of fake news like NBC.” The president was acquitted of charges he abused his power and obstructed Congress in two votes that fell almost strictly along party lines last week in the GOP-controlled Senate. Trump made the remarks during an Oval Office meeting with Ecuador’s president Wednesday afternoon.  

6am – F         Iowa Democratic Chair Troy Price Resigns After Caucus Night Debacle. The head of the Iowa Democratic party filed his resignation Wednesday, as the organization is still picking up the pieces from last week’s caucus debacle. Troy Price had been head of the state party since 2017, but after his role in overseeing a process widely panned as disorganized and opaque, it became an open question whether he would stay on in his job. “While it is my desire to stay in this role and see this process through to completion, I do believe it is time for the Iowa Democratic Party to begin looking forward, and my presence in my current role makes that more difficult,” Price said, in a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party State Central Committee. Prior to being elected head of the state party in July 2017, Price worked on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Last week’s contest was Price’s first presidential caucus as chairman, and he had long made it clear he hoped to use technology to make the caucus process more accessible and quick. But those efforts ran into issues at almost every step of the way. Last year, the state party was forced to scrap a plan that would have allowed for remote caucusing, over security concerns. And then Monday night, a technology decision that was implemented turned disastrous. Precinct leaders across Iowa were told to use a smartphone app to report their results to the party. The app experienced a coding error, and then the backup phone lines set up to take results became clogged for hours.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – SPENCER BROWN – Young America’s Foundation Spokesman

• Video shows black woman shouting she is ‘uncomfortable’ by ‘too many whites’ at UVA multicultural center. (Washington Examiner) – A video shows a woman announcing that she felt “uncomfortable” by the presence of white students at a new Multicultural Student Center on the campus of the University of Virginia. The clip of the incident was shared Wednesday on social media by the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth group. “Public service announcement,” the woman, who appears to be black, said as she paced in the center. “If y’all didn’t know, this is the MSC, and, frankly, there’s just too many white people in here, and this is a space for people of color, so, just be really cognizant of the space that you’re taking up because it does make some of us POCs uncomfortable when we see too many white people in here.”

7am – B/C     ROGER STONE NEWS:

• Yesterday: President Trump on a potential pardon for Roger Stone: ” I want to thank the Justice Department for seeing this horrible thing — and I didn’t speak to them by the way.”
• Hogan Gidley: Trump never spoke to AG Barr about reducing Roger Stone’s sentence. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday that President Trump never spoke to Attorney General Bill Barr about reducing Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone’s recommended sentence. When host Ed Henry directly asked Gidley if the president or anyone at the White House pressured Barr or others at the Justice Department to reduce Stone’s sentence he answered, “Unequivocally no.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – BARRY MANILOW – legendary music artist has a new album coming out this month “Night Songs II”

• Barry is promoting the release of his forthcoming album, “Night Songs II” (Street Date 2/14 – Valentine’s Day).  This is the follow-up to his 2014 GRAMMY Nominated album, ‘”Night Songs.”

7am – E         SOCIALISTS OF THE WORLD CAN’T UNITE… Vanity Fair reports friction between the AOC and Sanders camps, w/ grievances on both sides. AOC wasn’t happy with the Rogan endorsement. Sanders isn’t happy with her not mentioning him once during a stump speech and calling for non-cooperation with ICE.

• VANITY FAIR: AOC’S SPEECH SNUB, ICE REMARKS RANKLE BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN
• FLASHBACK, JAN. 25: AOC never mentions Bernie Sanders’ name as she and Michael Moore pinch-hit for candidate at Iowa rally.   Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and liberal filmmaker Michael Moore shared the duties for the 2020 presidential candidate in Iowa City. But in her speech closing out the event, Ocasio-Cortez — who first endorsed Sanders back in October — never once mentioned his name.  The Iowa rally — in the home city of the University of Iowa — was held one day after Sanders faced backlash from many Democrats after tweeting support for controversial podcast host Joe Rogan.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW: ASHLIE RODRIGUEZ and ROBERT BURTON – anchors of WJLA’s ‘Good Morning Washington’ (IN STUDIO)

• Robert Burton, Ashlie Rodriguez To Co-anchor WJLA’s ‘Good Morning Washington’ (TVNewsCheck) – Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate WJLA Washington (DMA 7) said today that anchor Robert Burton and the station’s newest anchor Ashlie Rodriguez will co-anchor Good Morning Washington beginning Monday, Feb. 3. Burton and Rodriguez will join meteorologists Veronica Johnson and Eileen Whelan, TrafficWatch7 reporter Julie Wright, and Alert Desk anchor Lindsey Mastis on the morning anchor desk. Burton makes the move to mornings from anchoring and covering sports at WJLA the past six years, and Rodriguez joins from KUSI San Diego, where she has been an award-winning anchor and reporter for more than three years. Burton comes from a family of journalists and has called Washington his home for the past five years. Prior to covering sports at WJLA, Chicago native Burton worked at KATV Little Rock, Ark., and began his TV career at WAND Decatur, Ill. He graduated from Millikin University in Illinois. Rodriguez fell in love with the Washington area as a young print reporter at the National Journal magazine. She also worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, Voice of San Diego and the Los Angeles Times. Before KUSI, San Diego native Rodriguez worked as an anchor and reporter at KVIA El Paso, Texas, and as a general assignment reporter and multimedia journalist at KFBB Great Falls, Mont.

Hung out with @VinceCoglianese and @MaryWalterRadio and they were awesome! So glad to have met them w/@ABC7Robert and been a part of @wmalnews! @ABC7GMW pic.twitter.com/9eFMfky0xy

— Ashlie Rodriguez ABC7 (@ABC7Ashlie) February 14, 2020

8am – D         INTERVIEW – RUSS VOUGHT – Acting White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget – discussed the President’s budget that was rolled out this week.

• Budget Balances in 15 years:
  • $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction
  • $4.4 trillion in spending cuts
  • 21% cut to foreign aid
• White House Budget Director Doubles Down: Trump’s 2021 Budget Won’t Cut ‘Social Security And Medicare.’ President Trump’s 2021 Budget Is Printed At The Government Publishing Office. (Daily Caller) – Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought told reporters at the White House on Monday that President Donald Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2021 will not cut funding to “Social Security and Medicare for seniors.” Earlier in the day, Trump told governors at the White House he would not “touch Medicare” or Social Security, despite Sunday reports claiming the opposite. Vought conceded that OMB proposes “good government reforms” that will “lower drug prices, root out improper payments, and address wasteful and inefficient spending,” but claimed that “reducing the cost of healthcare is not a cut.” He would go on to add that, under the proposal, Medicare would grow at a rate of 6% yearly, and Medicaid would grow at a rate of 3% yearly. Additionally, Vought claimed that the budget proposal would balance the budget by 2035, a consistent promise made by Trump on the 2016 campaign trail, and would result in a national surplus by 2035. When asked if the budget sought to “defund Planned Parenthood,” he added that there are “provisions” in the proposal that “do not allow taxpayer resources to clinics that perform abortion.” Vought claimed that the proposal is not a “green eyeshade” budget and focuses on funding areas the president is prioritizing, including modernization of the nuclear weapons program, NASA, and fighting the opioid crisis.