Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese 

5am – A/B/C    SUPER TUESDAY

• On Tuesday, six more states hold primaries, in a mini-version of last week’s Super Tuesday-Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington.  Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders are the top candidates in the Democratic primaries worth a combined 352 delegates. After a Super Tuesday comeback, Biden looks to extend his lead in delegates, while Sanders will try to close the small gap and overtake him.
•  What to watch for in the March 10 primaries: A week after Super Tuesday, the Democratic field has winnowed to two main candidates, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, who will be fighting for delegates in six states on Tuesday. The most closely-watched of these upcoming six states is Michigan. With 125 delegates, it offers the biggest prize of the night. Voters in six states are going to the polls on Tuesday, March 10, with 349 delegates up for grabs. There are three candidates left in the race: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard
•  Detroit Free Press poll: Biden holds huge 24-point edge over Sanders in Michigan
• Republican mayor drops Donald Trump for Joe Biden in key swing state of Michigan  —  With Tuesday’s Democratic primaries hours away, former Vice President Joe Biden has found an unexpected supporter in Sterling Heights, Michigan Mayor Michael Taylor, a Republican.
• Kamala Harris Looks Like A VP As She Brings Down The House At Biden’s Michigan Rally  —  California Sen. Kamala Harris – seen by many as a top contender for a vice presidential slot – brought down the house at Joe Biden’s jam-packed Detroit rally on Monday night.
• Biden, Sanders continue campaigning amid coronavirus concerns

5am – D Harvey Weinstein ‘Miserable’ At Rikers, Feeling ‘Humbled’ (Hot Air) The ambulance carrying Weinstein to Rikers on Monday was diverted to Bellevue Hospital due to heart palpitations and high blood pressure, his attorney Donna Rotunno said. Weinstein remained in Bellevue’s prison ward Tuesday morning, the hospital said… There is no update on when Weinstein will go to Rikers. He is very secure but is not handcuffed to the bed, according to Aidala. Weinstein has family with him, Aidala said. But it appears that Weinstein’s condition was serious enough that doctors at Bellevue placed a stent in his heart. He was finally transferred to Rikers one day after the heart procedure. He is now in a special wing of the infirmary for inmates who would be in danger if placed among the general population. According to Weinstein’s spokesman, he is “miserable” at Rikers after a fall that left him complaining he had a concussion. He is also expressing something like regret: “He’s miserable but trying to be optimistic as best he can,” Engelmayer said. “He has had a lot of time to think about his life and be humbled, but he thinks it’s going to be a long, uphill battle from here.”… On Saturday night, Weinstein took a tumble after trying to walk on his own. “He fell on his head and thinks he has a concussion,” Engelmayer said. “His head has been pounding since yesterday.”

5am – E  Prince Andrew ‘shut the door’ on Epstein probe cooperation: U.S. prosecutor (Reuters) Britain’s Prince Andrew has declined to cooperate with a U.S. investigation into possible co-conspirators of deceased financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said on Monday. “Contrary to Prince Andrew’s very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epstein’s co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation and our office is considering its options,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said when asked about Epstein at a news conference about an unrelated case. Berman’s spokesman James Margolin declined comment on the options being considered. He said the prince’s lawyers had said Andrew would not submit voluntarily to an interview. He said this was after Jan. 27, when Berman told a news conference Andrew had not offered any cooperation. Andrew, 60, had said in a public statement in November that he was stepping down from public duties and would be willing to help “any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”

6am – A/B/C Are you doing anything different because of the coronavirus?

CORONAVIRUS NEWS:

• Italy extended its quarantine measures to the whole country on Monday night, only two days after it imposed a lockdown on much of the country’s north, making it the first country in the world to place its entire territory under quarantine to contain the coronavirus epidemic.
• Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz both announced Monday afternoon that they would be self-quarantining themselves after learning that they interacted with a coronavirus-infected person in late February. The announcement comes after Collins just spent Friday with President Donald Trump visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Gaetz was reportedly on Air Force One on Monday.
• Mark Meadows, President Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, may have come in contact with the Conservative Political Action Conference attendee who was diagnosed with the coronavirus and “out of an abundance of caution” will self-quarantine over the next two weeks.
• DC News Outlets Ask Reporters Who Covered CPAC to Self-Quarantine Due to Coronavirus Concerns. Politico, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, and Mother Jones have asked reporters who covered CPAC to self-quarantine and work remotely due to concerns that they may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Both the Post and Politico say they’ve taken measures to clean and sanitize public areas. The Post has asked employees who were at CPAC to self-quarantine for seven days. All newsrooms tell Washingtonian they’ve taken such measures out of an abundance of caution.
• Fordham University announced Monday that it is “suspending face-to-face instruction” on its New York-area campuses amid the coronavirus outbreak — and Princeton University in New Jersey is taking similar action.
• Cuomo unveils state’s hand sanitizer made by prisoners. It has a “floral bouquet,” the governor added.He said that while the CDC recommends products with 60 percent alcohol and private manufacturers such as Purell contain 70 percent, New York’s version is 75 percent. He said the state will be churning out 100,000 gallons a week and will ramp up production as needed.

6am – D INTERVIEW – GORDON CHANG – author of “Coming Collapse of China” and can find him on Twitter at @GordonGChang

TOPIC: Coronavirus and China

• • Xi Jinping visits Wuhan, in major show of confidence as China turns corner on coronavirus. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made his first visit to Wuhan since the novel coronavirus outbreak began more than two months ago, as new cases of the virus slowed to a trickle in the country where the disease first emerged. Xi’s visit to Wuhan — which has been on lockdown for weeks now, with tens of thousands of confirmed cases of the virus and hundreds of deaths — is a major show of confidence in China’s response to the pandemic, underlining a message which has been building in state media that the country has turned a corner.
  • Could the coronavirus spark drug shortages in the US? The outbreak is exposing vulnerabilities in how America gets its drugs, but potential backlogs really depend on the course of the virus.

6am – E ST PATRICK’S DAY:

• • • Ireland cancels St. Patrick’s Day festivities over coronavirus concerns (NBC News) St. Patrick’s Day festivities in the Republic of Ireland have been canceled amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus. The cancellations have come at the advice of health officials to help slow the spread of the virus, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday. There have been 19 cases of COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, in the Republic of Ireland. The canceled events include the national St. Patrick’s Festival parade in Dublin on March 17.
    • Boston cancels St. Patrick’s Day parade amid coronavirus concerns (The Hill) Boston on Monday announced the cancellation of its annual St. Patrick’s Day parade over rising fears about the coronavirus outbreak. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) said he worked with state and city officials to make the decision to cancel the parade, which had been scheduled for Sunday.
  • • In the U.S., New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Monday that there were no plans to cancel the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators.

6am – F Florida boy sent at least 40 of his classmates to the hospital when he mistook a of pepper spray for body fragrance spray and sprayed himself with it at school. A student at Highlands Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida caused the school’s gymnasium to be evacuated after dispersing the spray last week, according to a Friday report in The Gainesville Sun. The boy had taken the pepper spray from the belongings of another student before deciding to help himself to a generous spritz. “Thinking it was body spray, the student who took the canister actually sprayed himself as if he were applying a body fragrance product,” Principal Evan Daniels said to parents in a pre-recorded phone message, according to the outlet. “The gymnasium was evacuated and ultimately 41 students were transported to area hospitals for care.

7am – A INTERVIEW – RONNA MCDANIEL – Chair of the Republican National Committee and former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party

TOPIC: Preview of TUESDAY’S PRIMARIES

• • • On Tuesday, six more states hold primaries, in a mini-version of last week’s Super Tuesday-Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington.  Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders are the top candidates in the Democratic primaries worth a combined 352 delegates. After a Super Tuesday comeback, Biden looks to extend his lead in delegates, while Sanders will try to close the small gap and overtake him.
    • What to watch for in the March 10 primaries: A week after Super Tuesday, the Democratic field has winnowed to two main candidates, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, who will be fighting for delegates in six states on Tuesday. The most closely-watched of these upcoming six states is Michigan. With 125 delegates, it offers the biggest prize of the night. Voters in six states are going to the polls on Tuesday, March 10, with 349 delegates up for grabs. There are three candidates left in the race: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard
    • RNC fundraising: Trump, GOP raise $86M in February

7am – B/C INTERVIEW – DR. AMESH ADALJA – Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity.

Topic: Latest on coronavirus/Do quarantines work?

7am – D/E  Hillary Clinton may be angling to be Biden’s VP: John Sununu (Fox News) Who do you think the Dems will choose for VP? Hillary Clinton may be angling for a spot on Joe Biden’s presidential ticket, Fox News contributor John Sununu said Monday. “I think as almost everything the Clintons do, there is a bigger purpose behind what’s going on,” Sununu told “America’s Newsroom.” “I think she is actually angling to be the vice presidential nominee hoping the party will understand that if Biden is the nominee, they have to have a backup there that the public has confidence in.”

8am – A 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”

TOPICS:

• • • • Analysis of Tuesday’s primaries / 2020 race
      • Thoughts on coronavirus – handling of virus and his perspective on Italy’s situation

8am – B/C James Biden’s health care ventures face a growing legal morass (Politico) The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided a health care business linked to Joe Biden’s brother in late January, seizing boxes of documents. The raid of an Americore Health hospital represented a deepening of the legal morass surrounding James Biden’s recent venture into health care investing at a time when questions about the business dealings of Joe Biden’s relatives, and their alleged connection to the former vice president’s public service, continue to dog his presidential campaign. In the weeks since the raid, two small medical firms that did business with James Biden have claimed in civil court proceedings to have obtained evidence that he may have fraudulently transferred funds from Americore “outside of the ordinary course of business,” and a former Americore executive has told POLITICO that James Biden had more than half a million dollars transferred to him from the firm as a personal loan that has not yet been repaid.

8am – D/E  INTERVIEW -MATT SCHLAPP – chairman of the American Conservative Union

TOPIC: Latest on CPAC and the coronavirus

• • • • • CPAC: No new virus cases and only a dozen touched by infected guest
        • Matt Schlapp @mschlapp: Tonight we crossed an important threshold:  @CPAC ended 9 days ago. According to the experts we consulted that timing

w NO NEW corona cases and NO attendees w symptoms is a huge turning point. Over 10,000 in a hotel w the virus present and no one is  positive.