Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Amb. Ric Grenell, Red Maryland’s Brian Griffiths, Tevi Troy, Ken Cuccinelli, and Newt Gingrich joined WMAL on Tuesday!

5am – A/B/C CAN BARR SAVE THE DOJ? Barr taps network of prosecutors to review Russia-Ukraine cases:     Attorney General Bill Barr has tapped a growing number of federal prosecutors across the country to review high-profile Russia probes involving Trump associates and consider emerging allegations tied to Ukraine, in a bold but risky move that comes as he faces mounting criticism and even resignation calls from congressional Democrats who allege he’s protecting the president.    On Friday, Fox News reported that Barr appointed Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, to review the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Justice Department officials told Fox News Jensen would be working hand-in-hand with Brandon Van Grack, the lead prosecutor in the case. It marked the latest example of Barr bringing on a federal prosecutor to examine a politically charged case. […]    Federal prosecutors last week recommended a sentence of between 87 and 108 months in prison for Stone after he was convicted on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress on charges that also stemmed from Mueller’s probe.     But in a stunning reversal, as Fox News first reported, the DOJ overruled the prosecutors on the case, scaling back the proposed sentence for Stone, which immediately led Democrats to accuse Trump of interfering in the process by earlier tweeting about his displeasure with the Justice Department. Trump denied it. […]

5am – D          Source: Democrat Senator Held Secret Meeting In Munich With Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. (The Federalist/By Mollie Hemingway) — Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democratic senators had a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week, according to a source briefed by the French delegation to the conference. Murphy’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment by press time. Such a meeting would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government that he accused Trump officials of doing as they prepared for Trump’s administration. In February 2017, Murphy demanded investigations of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn because he had a phone call with his counterpart-to-be in Russia. “Any effort to undermine our nation’s foreign policy – even during a transition period – may be illegal and must be taken seriously,” Murphy said in 2017 after anonymous leaks of Flynn’s phone call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kisylak were published. He also strongly criticized the open letter some Republican senators sent Iranian leaders during the Obama administration’s campaign for a nuclear agreement. However, Murphy has previously defended rogue meetings if they’re done by Democrats such as former Secretary of State John Kerry. “Unless it was authorized by the president or secretary of state, conducting independent foreign policy sends mixed signals to our adversaries,” said Christian Whiton, former State Department senior advisor in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations. “It seems very unpalatable. If we want to talk to Iranians, they know how to reach us and they don’t need to go through an intermediary.” A State Department official who spoke on background said that the State Department was not aware of any side meetings with Iranian officials that Murphy was engaged in.

5am – E         Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid wave of potential lawsuits. Facing a wave of lawsuits over sexual abuse allegations, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in an effort to protect the future of the embattled century-old organization. The long-anticipated Chapter 11 filing will allow the Boy Scouts to keep operating as it reorganizes its finances and creates a trust to pay hundreds of potential victims. It will also give alleged victims a limited amount of time to come forward before being barred indefinitely from seeking compensation. The declaration sets the stage for what could be one of the country’s most complicated bankruptcy cases in history, lawyers say, and raises questions about the possible impact on local Boy Scout councils, which are independently corporated and offer programming to troops across all 50 states and U.S. territories. In the bankruptcy petition, the organization reported $1 billion to $10 billion in assets and $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities.

6am – A/B/C Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has qualified for Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. Mike Bloomberg has qualified for Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, setting up the first face-to-face showdown between the self-funding billionaire and the other top candidates for the nomination. Bloomberg, whose late entry has roiled the race, met the Democratic National Committee’s criteria by earning at least 10 percent in four qualifying polls — including an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey Tuesday morning that showed the former New York City mayor at 19 percent. That placed him second only to the national leader, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and ahead of the former frontrunner, Joe Biden, who was in third place.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – AMBASSADOR RIC GRENELL – United States Ambassador to Germany – discussed the concerns about 5G.

• Trump’s Germany envoy warns countries against using ‘untrustworthy’ 5G vendors amid Huawei tensions. (The Hill) – President Trump’s ambassador to Germany warned Sunday against other countries using “untrustworthy” 5G vendors amid the tensions involving Chinese company Huawei. Ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that the president called him from Air Force One to tell him to “make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share Intelligence and information at the highest level.”
• TWEET: Richard Grenell @RichardGrenell: @realDonaldTrump just called me from AF1 and instructed me to make clear that any nation who chooses to use an untrustworthy 5G vendor will jeopardize our ability to share Intelligence and information at the highest level.
• World must ‘wake up to the challenges presented by China,’ says Defense Secretary. Munich, Germany (CNN) Defense Secretary Mark Esper called on the international community to “wake up to the challenges presented by China,” telling an audience of world leaders and top policymakers on Saturday that America’s concerns about China should also be Europe’s concerns. “It is essential that we — as an international community — wake up to the challenges presented by China’s manipulation of the long-standing international, rules-based order,” Esper said, adding that China is now the Pentagon’s top concern. The Trump administration had been pressing European allies for a total ban on Huawei products, alleging that Beijing could use the equipment for snooping.

6am – E         INTERVIEW – BRIAN GRIFFITHS – Editor-in-Chief of RedMaryland.com, Maryland’s leading news conservative news website

• FREXIT: Brian Griffiths: “Frexit” Is a Silly Concept.  there’s a movement for “Frexit” in 2020. The idea, ostensibly, is to return Frederick County from charter government, which was instituted in 2014, back to commission government. The ringleader is, unsurprisingly, 2017 Red Maryland Least Valuable Conservative Kirby Delauter, who seems like he is on his way to competing for a second LVC award https://redmaryland.com/2020/02/frexit-is-a-silly-concept/
• BLOOMBERG IN MARYLAND: Bloomberg’s Billions Trying to Sway Legislators Before Primary. Michael Bloomberg may be sitting in an advantageous position when it comes to the Democratic Presidential Primary, but it appears he is leaving nothing to chance. Bloomberg’s anti-gun front group Everytown for Gun Safety is inviting the members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee out for dinner on February 26^th https://redmaryland.com/2020/02/bloombergs-billions-trying-to-sway-legislators-before-primary/

6am – F         NASCAR:

• Trump ratings bump at Daytona 500? Viewership hits 5-year high | President Trump’s attendance at the Daytona 500 may have helped to rev up ratings at NASCAR’s flagship event on Sunday despite roan-soaked conditions that forced an early stoppage of the race. President Trump’s attendance at the Daytona 500 may have helped to rev up ratings at NASCAR’s flagship event on Sunday despite rain-soaked conditions that forced an early stop to the race. With Trump on hand to serve as grand marshal and give the order for NASCAR drivers to start their engines, the Daytona 500 drew an initial audience of 11.2 million viewers for the start of the race, Sports Business Journal reported. Viewership at the race start was up 32 percent compared to last year and was the highest at the Daytona 500 in five years.
• Denny Hamlin won his second straight DAYTONA 500 and third overall, beating Ryan Blaney in an overtime photo finish marred by a terrifying crash that sent Ryan Newman to the hospital. NASCAR driver Ryan Newman’s injuries ‘not life-threatening’ after fiery Daytona 500 crash, family says. NASCAR driver Ryan Newman was in serious condition after a fiery crash at the finish line of the Daytona 500 on Monday night, but his family said his injuries were “not life-threatening.” Newman flipped several times; his car ultimately crossed the finish line engulfed in flames. Fortunately, his injuries were not life-threatening, according to NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell, who read a statement from Roush Fenway Racing Monday night.
• Joe Gibbs apologizes: NASCAR owner Joe Gibbs apologized on Monday for his team’s Daytona 500 celebration that took place just moments after a driver was involved in a fiery crash at the finish line and rushed to the hospital. Gibbs — speaking in the Victory Lane at the end of the race — apologized on behalf of his driver Denny Hamlin, saying Hamlin did not know the extent of the crash of driver Ryan Newman. He added that he and his driver were not focused on the crash, but focused on the car that was winning the race and did not realize how bad the crash was. “I apologize to everybody, but we really didn’t know,” Gibbs said at a media event after the race.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – TEVI TROY – Former White House staffer, presidential historian and author of new book “Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump”

• BIO: Tevi Troy is the author of What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House and Shall We Wake The President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management From The Oval Office. He served as a senior White House aide in the George W. Bush administration from March 2005 to July 2007 and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services from August 2007 until January 2009.
• Cutthroat White House Rivalries Didn’t Start with Trump. Former White House staffer and presidential historian Tevi Troy unveils infamous brawls in Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump (Regnery History; February 11, 2020; $29.99), giving readers ringside seats to the dramatic clashes within both Republican and Democratic administrations as their heavyweight personalities went head-to-head. Troy packs a punch as he unfolds the juiciest, nastiest, and most consequential administration rivalries in modern American history. From the presidency of Harry S. Truman—when the modern White House staff took shape—to Donald Trump’s, the White House has always been filled with ambitious people playing for the highest stakes and bearing bitter grudges.
• Fight House pulls back the curtain on presidents and staffers duking it out over their differences. You’ll read how:

• The gender and age divide disrupted the “No Drama Obama” administration
• The revolving door of Trump’s White House staff is not without precedent
• Kennedy’s “Camelot” was a nest of vipers
• Dr. Henry Kissinger displaced other national security advisers to gain President Richard Nixon’s ear
• The contrasting management styles of President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan led to epic White House staff clashes
• Lyndon B. Johnson ran his White House with an iron fist to prevent leaks, sowing discord among the staff         

7am – D/E     ‘I Can Teach Anybody … To Be A Farmer’: Bloomberg Once Belittled Agriculture And Factory Workers. At a 2016 business forum, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg belittled farmers and factory workers, saying “I can teach anybody … to be a farmer.” Speaking to the Distinguished Speakers Series at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, Bloomberg was explaining why he believed there was a cultural and political divide in America: farmers and factory workers just didn’t have the “gray matter” to adjust to the information age. “The agrarian society lasted 3,000 years and we could teach processes. I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that. Then we had 300 years of the industrial society. You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow and you can have a job. And we created a lot of jobs.” But the multi-billionaire businessman said the information economy is not so simple because “the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze” and that is “fundamentally different,” from agriculture or manufacturing, he told the audience. “You have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter. It’s not clear the teachers can teach or the students can learn, and so the challenge of society of finding jobs for these people, who we can take care of giving them a roof over their head and a meal in their stomach and a cell phone and a car and that sort of thing.” Bloomberg has been plagued of late by comments he made before announcing his presidential bid. His previous political experience has been as mayor of New York City, where he promoted the “stop and frisk” policy that targeted minorities when police stopped people on the street to search for weapons or drugs.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – KEN CUCCINELLI – Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security

• The Trump administration says it is preparing to deploy elite Border Patrol tactical units to sanctuary cities to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams to boost arrests and deportations. The specially trained officers are being sent to cities including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and others. The deployment of the teams will run from February through May.

8am – B/C     VIRGINIA GUN BAN REJECTED:

• Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapon ban. A Senate committee killed a bill that would have banned certain assault weapons in the Commonwealth after the House of Delegates passed it last week. RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s push to ban the sale of assault weapons has failed after members of his own party balked at the proposal.  Moderate Democrats joined Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday in rejecting legislation that would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, including popular AR-15 style rifles, and banned the possession of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds. The bill was a top priority for Northam, a Democrat who has campaigned heavily for a broad package of gun-control measures.
• SENATOR AMANDA CHASE JUMPING IN TO RUN FOR VA GOVERNOR: Trump supporter and state Sen. Amanda Chase announces bid for Virginia governor. RICHMOND — State Sen. Amanda F. Chase, a Trump-style Republican at odds with both parties in Richmond, announced on Monday that she will run for governor next year as a Republican — and failing that, as an independent. “I can’t take it anymore,” Chase (Chesterfield), said, referring to “the liberal, socialistic agenda that has taken control of the Capitol.” She said she would seek the GOP nomination but would pursue an independent bid if the party denies her the nod. Chase, 50, made the announcement on the sunny South Portico of the state Capitol before a cheering crowd of more than 100 supporters, many wearing orange “Guns Save Lives” stickers. Chase first won attention last year for wearing a holstered .38 special on her hip on the Senate floor.  But Chase — who embraced the criticism as a proof of fearless, politically incorrect straight talk — easily won a second term. “People look at me and they say, ‘You know what? This girl’s got some brass balls,’ ” she said to laughs. “So you can throw whatever you want at me. … I know with God, all things are possible and I won’t back down for anybody.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – NEWT GINGRICH  – Former Speaker of the House, host of “Newt’s World” podcast and author of new book “Trump Vs. China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat” – shared his thoughts on the national security threat of 5G and weighed in on Bloomberg rising in the Democratic primary.

8am – E         Harvey Weinstein’s case might be too weak to convict: Devine.  (NY Post) — The trial of Harvey Weinstein has provided ample evidence that he is a grotesque pig lacking empathy for the many women he preyed upon, but probably not enough to prove he should be convicted as a rapist. Prepare for an acquittal or a deadlock after the jury goes out Tuesday, because anyone who has sat through the trial can see the prosecution has struggled to prove its case. If Weinstein does walk, it will be a tragedy for his accusers, who at the very least were degraded by their association with him and have suffered brutal courtroom cross-examination. But it will be a well-overdue check on the power of the #MeToo movement that was spawned by the Weinstein case, and which depends on his guilt. What started as a reasonable comeuppance for a powerful movie producer who preyed on aspiring actresses went too far when it mutated into a toxic feminist movement designed to demonize all men. […] At least 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual predation, but, in the end, this jury was told to consider the cases of only two. Jessica Mann, now 34, an aspiring actress from a dairy farm in Washington state, met Weinstein at a Hollywood party when she was 25 and testified that he raped her in 2013at a hotel in Manhattan. Yet she continued a relationship with him for several years afterward, during which time she had consensual sex with him, attended Oscar parties as his guest and sent hundreds of affectionate messages, some of which Rotunno read aloud to the court. In the weeks after the alleged rape, Mann emailed Weinstein to thank him for arranging an audition for a vampire movie: “I appreciate all you do for me, it shows.” “Miss you big guy,” she wrote six months later.