Mornings on the Mall

Monday, April 20, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Joe diGenova, Newt Gingrich, Steve Moore and Roger Stone joined WMAL on Monday!

5am – A/B/C DRONES AND SPYING ON RESIDENTS DURING THE PANDEMIC:

• EYES IN THE SKY ENFORCE SOCIAL DISTANCING… One US City Is Deploying A Chinese Firm’s Drones To Police Americans Who Are Not Social Distancing. Elizabeth, New Jersey, is using a Chinese company’s drones to police citizens who fail to employ social distancing guidelines. Past reports suggest the drones are feeding China data. Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage is deploying drones from Chinese-based company DJI to warn Elizabeth citizens who are walking outdoors not to get too close in physical proximity to other people. The drones blare sirens and issue this warning: “Stop gathering, disperse and go home.” Bollwage is dismissing critics of his approach. “If these drones save one life, it is clearly worth the activity and the information that the drones are sending,” the mayor said Friday in an MSNBC interview. […] Past reports suggest DJI poses a substantial security threat to U.S. infrastructure. A 2017 memo from the Los Angeles office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau said officials had “moderate confidence” that DJI’s commercial drones are giving critical U.S. “infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.” The memo cited first- and second-hand anonymous sources inside the drone industry. ICE has not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about the memo, which was initially reported in November 2017 by The New York Times.
• MSNBC REPORT… “The drones, donated by DJI, a Chinese company, have gone to 43 agencies in 22 states, all to help enforce social distancing rules.”
• CAN YOU SHOOT DOWN A DRONE OVER YOUR PROPERTY? U.S. law favors drone operators…
• FLASHBACK… 1983: Kremlin counts on informers to keep Soviet society in line. The Kremlin is on a major law-and-order drive, drawing on police, civilian militiamen, and a figure long prominent in Soviet life: the informer. Official concern over public drunkenness and street crime – and other ”antisocial” acts like absences from work – has been building for several years. Yet new Soviet leader Yuri Andropov has from the start made ”social order” a particular priority.The police seem to have got the message: In Moscow, 3 million fill-in cards have been printed for distribution to city residents. A visiting policeman asks whether residents have had any problem with neighborhood drunks or other unruly elements. He takes out a card, fills in his name and phone number, and asks his hosts to call in case of any such nuisances. […] Although the practice is nowhere near so deadly now as in the Stalinist 1930s , conversations with Russians suggest that, in Moscow, at least one routine ”informer” is quartered in each of the city’s thousands of apartment blocks. Much more irregular reporting on neighbors or work-mates by others also goes on, and it is sometimes encouraged by the Soviet news media.

5am – D         Big restaurant chains take $30M in coronavirus loans meant for small businesses. (NY Post) –Large restaurant chains have gobbled up $30 million in federal loans meant to shore up small businesses during the coronavirus crisis. The companies behind Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Ruth’s Chris Steak House each got sizable loans under the feds’ Paycheck Protection Program, the $349 billion small-business aid package that ran out of money Thursday. Florida-based steakhouse operator Ruth’s Hospitality Group inked deals April 7 for $20 million in loans administered by the US Small Business Administration under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed last month, records show. And Chicago-based Potbelly Corporation got a $10 million loan from the program on April 10, the company said in a regulatory filing. Both firms said they received the money through JPMorgan Chase Bank. The so-called PPP loans were aimed at helping companies with up to 500 employees cover payroll and overhead costs. But lawmakers expanded eligibility for restaurants so that companies could apply as long as they had no more than 500 workers at any single location.

Shake Shack to return $10M government loan. It is the first major firm to hand back money aimed at helping small businesses ride out the coronavirus impact. (Fox Business) – Shake Shack Inc will return the small business loan it received from the U.S. government, the burger chain’s chief executive said on Monday, making it the first major firm to hand back money aimed at helping small businesses ride out the coronavirus impact.The company will immediately return the entire $10 million SBA loan as it was able to raise additional capital, CEO Randy Garutti and founder Danny Meyer said in a blog post on Monday. Last week, it raised about $150 million in an equity offering. Low-paid workers in the retail, restaurant and hotel industries have been among the hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Of the $342 billion small business bailout fund, the combined industry was allocated 18% of the total fund. SBA, which is a key part of the government’s $2.2 trillion aid package, is aimed at helping small companies keep paying their employees and their basic bills during the shutdowns, so that they are able to reopen quickly when public health allows.

5am – E         STEELE DOSSIER McClatchy ‘Taking A Close Look’ At Its Cohen-Prague Reports In Wake Of New Evidence. McClatchy news service says it is reviewing two reports published in 2018 that claimed to validate a key part of the infamous Steele dossier after declassified information showed that Russian operatives may have fed disinformation to dossier author Christopher Steele.“We are taking a close look at this new information and will update or correct our story based on its merits. Until then, we continue to stand by our reporting,” McClatchy said in a statement to The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple. Greg Gordon and Peter Stone, the two McClatchy reporters behind the stories, were not as quick to concede problems with their reports. “We will stand by the information that we reported concerning Michael Cohen’s alleged trip to Prague unless clear evidence demonstrates that it is false,” Gordon and Stone told Wemple.

• ERIK WEM’PLE: The Steele dossier just sustained another body blow. What do CNN and MSNBC have to say? In December 2017, for example, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow spoke in admiring tones about the “deep cover sources” deployed by Steele. Well, Steele’s main source might take issue with Maddow’s description, according to recently released material: “When interviewed by the FBI, the Primary Sub‐source stated that he/she did not view his/her contacts as a network of sources, but rather as friends with whom he/she has conversations about current events and government relations.” […] We’ll pause to consider the CNN account, which carries the headline, “GOP seizes on newly declassified material to raise further questions about Steele dossier.” The article’s first sentence reads, “Senate Republicans are touting newly declassified information that suggests Russian disinformation, in two instances, may have been passed onto ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele when he compiled an opposition research dossier on Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.” Factual? Yes. Slanted? Yes, that too. Republicans are “touting” the footnotes in part because media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC and others “touted” the dossier with flimsy corroboration in the early months of the Trump presidency. (The chatter is the focus of previous installments in this series.) One CNN anchor, for instance, went so far as to assert in December 2017 that the U.S. intelligence community has “corroborated all the details” of the dossier. […] The Erik Wemple Blog asked CNN and MSNBC whether they have reviewed their coverage of the dossier. We will update with any response. Until then, we’ll continue to “tout” the journalistic breakdowns surrounding the dossier.
• CNN: GOP seizes on newly declassified material to raise further questions about Steele dossier. Senate Republicans are touting newly declassified information that suggests Russian disinformation, in two instances, may have been passed onto ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele when he compiled an opposition research dossier on Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.  The newly unredacted footnotes from a Justice Department inspector general report bolster criticisms of the FBI’s handling of the dossier, and two Senate Republican chairmen received the material with the help of senior Trump administration officials skeptical of the FBI’s Russia investigation into Trump. The new information provided to the Republicans this week and earlier this month comes from previously classified footnotes in DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants obtained on former Trump adviser Carter Page. The inspector general report outlined 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the four applications for the Page warrants in 2016 and 2017, including the use of Steele’s unverified intelligence reports. Despite the problems in handling Steele, the inspector general found that the FBI investigation was properly initiated, with enough predication to probe suspicious ties between people associated with the Trump campaign and suspected Russian agents. The Mueller investigation also found evidence that people inside and associated with the Trump campaign welcomed and encouraged Russian activity that they thought could help their candidate win.
• CHUCK ROSS: This “conservatives seize” framing is so damn pure I can barely look at it. It’s a work of art.
• SATURDAY… JOE CONCHA: President Trump calls on New York Times WH correspondent Maggie Haberman to give back her Pulitzer Prize awarded for Russia reporting during coronavirus task force briefing.

6am – A/B/C YOUR RIGHTS BEING TRASHED:

• WOMAN IN NJ CHARGED FOR ORGANIZING PROTEST: (NJ.com) – Kim Pagan, of Toms River was charged by the New Jersey State Police with violating the emergency orders, according to a release from New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.
• DE BLASIO ASKS NEIGHBORS TO REPORT NEIGHBORS FOR NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING:  (Daily Mail) – Mayor Bill de Blasio wants New Yorkers to rat out their fellow citizens who are not following social distancing orders during the coronavirus pandemic by taking a photo of the violators on their cell phones and texting it to the city. ‘It’s simple: just snap a photo and text it to 311-692,’ the mayor tweeted Saturday.
• NYC MAYOR URGES RESIDENTS TO PHOTOGRAPH, REPORT THEIR NEIGHBORS… ‘TEXT A PHOTO AND ACTION WILL ENSUE…” BILL DEBLASIO: How do you report places that aren’t enforcing social distancing? It’s simple: just snap a photo and text it to 311-692. #AskMyMayor
• AMERICA REVOLTS:
  • SD GOV VOWS TO KEEP HER STATE OPEN: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem accused Americans across the nation of giving up their ‘liberties for a little bit of security’, vowing to go against the grain and keep her state open as protests against lockdown orders are staged nationwide.
  • KY & MINN SEE PROTESTS: President Donald Trump urged government officials in Michigan, Virginia and Minnesota to “liberate” in a series of tweets Friday and described in one post how Second Amendment rights are “under siege.” “Liberate,” “Liberate the USA” and multiple other versions of the phrase were trending on Twitter as of Friday afternoon.
  • MINNESOTANS PROTEST OUTSIDE GOV’S MANSION: At least 400 protesters honked horns, waved American flags and donned Trump 2020 gear. Outside in the sun, the protestors held signs reading “Stop the Shutdown,” “We do not consent” and “Walz is the virus,” according to reports from KMSP-TV/FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul.
  • CALIFORNIANS PROTEST: A pro test of more than 200 demonstrators broke out in Southern California on Friday against the state’s stay-at-home-orders in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, according to reports. The action in Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, was similar to others staged this week in Michigan, Ohio and other locations as Americans seek a return to a more normal life after more than a month of mitigation measures intended to slow the spread of the virus, also known as COVID-19.
  • MD PROTESTS: Maryland residents gridlocked the streets of Annapolis Saturday in a caravan-style protest against the state’s lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic. Lilly Price, a reporter for the Capital Gazette, an Annapolis newspaper, tweeted out a video of the protest: “The Reopen Maryland protest is gathering by car rather than on foot. Lots of horns and heckling.”
• JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA BEACHES REOPEN: Decision to reopen Jacksonville beaches draws national media attention, scrutiny. The national media coverage drew a series of critical tweets from Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.
• SOUTH CAROLINA TO REOPEN: South Carolina to reopen public beaches, retail stores next week amid pandemic

6am – D/E     DEMOCRATS FINALLY RELENTING ON MORE SMALL BUSINESS RESCUE CASH… WAPO: Trump administration, congressional leaders near deal on virus aid that includes major boost for small businesses:  The Trump administration and congressional leaders closed in Sunday on a $400 billion-plus deal to renew funding for a small business loan program that ran out of money under crushing demand, aiming to pass the agreement into law within days. The deal would also boost spending for hospitals and coronavirus testing by about $100 billion. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNN he hoped to see the agreement pass the Senate on Monday and the House on Tuesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also expressed optimism a deal was near, with Schumer saying he was “very hopeful we could come to an agreement tonight or early tomorrow morning.” The deal would add around $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses that was swamped by demand in the three weeks since Congress created it as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill. It also would add $60 billion to a separate emergency loan program for small businesses that also is out of money, Schumer said. The agreement also would include $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, which have been major Democratic demands. Some of the money in the small business program would be directed specifically to rural and minority businesses, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.

• SHIFT COMES AFTER A WEEK OF ALMOST NO MEDIA PRESSURE ON PELOSI… MCCONNELL ON SATURDAY… MITCH MCCONNELL: The Paycheck Protection Program ran dry on Thursday and Democrats continue to block more funding. Democrats must let us reopen this crucial program before more Americans are laid off needlessly and more small businesses are shuttered that could have survived.
• JAMES HASSON: If the shoe were on the other foot and Republicans were blocking relief that small businesses desperately need because they were trying to leverage it to pass unrelated conservative priorities, every journalist would be tweeting about it nonstop and it would lead every news show.
• PELOSI SAYS SHE DECIDED TO CALL TRUMP ‘WEAK’ & A ‘POOR LEADER’ BECAUSE SHE ‘WAS VERY PRAYERFUL ON EASTER’: Pelosi also addressed Tuesday comments where she called Trump a “weak person” and a “poor leader.” Wallace noted that Trump “goes after” Pelosi, making it “a two-way street.” He asked if Pelosi thinks if “those kinds of partisan attacks” by her “are constructive in the middle of a national crisis.” “Well, I’ll tell you why it came to that,” Pelosi responded. “I was very prayerful on Easter. It was one of the first days I didn’t have to be working every minute. And I could reflect and be prayerful. And what I decided was that the president’s made many mistakes.”

6am – F         MICHELLE OBAMA AND THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN:

• Michelle Obama in talks with Biden team on endorsement, campaign involvement: report. (Fox News) – Former Vice President Joe Biden’s team is speaking with former first lady Michelle Obama about winning her endorsement and having her play a role in his campaign, according to a report. Former President Obama endorsed Biden last week soon after Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race and Biden emerged as the apparent Democratic nominee.While the former president is still popular with his party, Michelle Obama’s star power among progressives may well eclipse her husband’s. “We know what pretty much everyone in America does: Michelle Obama is probably the most beloved member of the Democratic Party and her support is a big deal,” a Biden aide told The Hill. “Any future announcement would reflect the incredible impact her voice has.”
• How the Obamas could easily win eight more years in the White House. (Michael Walsh / NY Post) — As the president of the United States shelters in place with the White House press corps, and Joe Biden gibbers senselessly into the GoPro camera in his Delaware basement, this fall’s national election has been thrown into a cocked tricorn by the coronavirus. Many of Donald Trump’s retail-politicking strengths — the huge rallies, his command of crowds — have been neutralized, and while he still has control of the narrative from his bully pulpit in the West Wing, the national media remains dead set against him, and puts the worst possible spin on every word he speaks. Meanwhile, Biden and his wandering hands are safely confined to quarters instead of out on the campaign trail, which shields the Democrats from more possible fallout over not only his past behavior but his full-throated endorsement of Communist China throughout his career. The donkey party is thus free to market the cardboard-cutout version of its candidate, having finally accomplished their mission of running a generic Democrat against Orange Man Bad, without ever having to expose him to the general public. No wonder there’s talk on the Left of canceling the conventions and running an all-mail election. The further away the country stays from reopening, the better their chances.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed Grenell’s dossier bombshells, Michael Cohen and Roger Stone’s trial.

• Richard Grenell, new intel chief, pivotal in releasing classified dossier bombshell
• McClatchy ‘Taking A Close Look’ At Its Cohen-Prague Reports In Wake Of New Evidence
• Washington Post’s ERIK WEMPLE: The Steele dossier just sustained another body blow. What do CNN and MSNBC have to say?
• CNN: GOP seizes on newly declassified material to raise further questions about Steele
• President Trump calls on New York Times WH correspondent Maggie Haberman to give back her Pulitzer Prize awarded for Russia reporting during coronavirus task force briefing.
• Roger Stone denied new trial and gag order lifted

7am – D         INTERVIEW – NEWT GINGRICH – Former Speaker of the House, host of “Newt’s World” podcast and author of book “Trump Vs. China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat” and author of new book “Shakedown” (a novel) – discussed the Trump administration’s phased plan, Pelosi-Schumer holding up small business funding and the latest on how Italy has its fewest coronavirus deaths in a week.

7am – E         HOLLYWOOD RAISES CASH FOR CHINESE PROPAGANDA PUSHERS… $55 MILLION FOR W.H.O.:

• ABOUT CONCERT:  One World: Together At Home, described on its website as a “global broadcast & digital special to support frontline healthcare workers and the WHO.” The event — which will feature dozens of celebrities and musicians — will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
• Global concert ‘One World’ raises $127 million to fight coronavirus pandemic. A cadre of renowned musicians on Saturday helped raised more than $127 million for the World Health Organization (WHO) and other regional charities working to address the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The massive fundraising haul came via “One World: Together At Home,” an 8-hour virtual concert organized by international advocacy group Global Citizen and Lady Gaga and broadcast around the world. The event, which featured performances from John Legend and Sam Smith as well as appearances from former first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, raised $55.1 million for the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and $72.8 million for local and regional charities responding to the pandemic, Global Citizen said.
• Laura Bush and Michelle Obama share hopeful message on Global Citizen concert special (CNN) Former first ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama made an appearance Saturday night on the Global Citizen “One World: Together At Home” televised concert special, separately, from their own homes, sharing messages of thanks and hope. “Michelle and I are thrilled to join you tonight in your homes for this special program,” said Bush. The two women took turns speaking.
• Lady Gaga calls WHO chief ‘superstar,’ praises media — as Trump looks to defund agency

8am – A         INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – former campaign economic advisor to President Trump, economist at The Heritage Foundation and author of book “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy”  — discussed how to reopen the economy.

8am – B/C     FRANCHOT STAFFER GETS BACKLASH AFTER SUGGESTING THAT PROTESTING MAGA SUPPORTERS SHOULD BE PUT IN A WAREHOUSE:

• Maryland Republican Party Chairman Calls For Peter Franchot’s Chief Of Staff Len Foxwell To Resign Over Facebook Post. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — The chairman of the Maryland Republican Party is calling for the chief of staff of the state’s comptroller to be fired over controversial comments he made on social media. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot’s chief of staff Len Foxwell Saturday responded to criticism of the controversial Facebook post in which he wrote that members of a right-wing group opposed to stay-at-home orders and other coronavirus-related restrictions should be put in a warehouse “and then let Darwin work his magic.” “Let’s lure them into a big, big warehouse (we’ll call it something real classy to suit their refined sensibilities, like “America MAGA Platinum Palace”) with the promise of all the unfiltered Camels they can smoke, all the Salisbury steak and banana moonpies they can eat, washed down by all the Old Crow and Icehouse they can drink. “Plus, autographs from Scott Baio and pics with Tawny Kitean, posing all sexy and everything on a sportscar, just like in that old Whitesnake video! Get them in, bar the door and then let Darwin work his magic.”
• Dirk Haire, chairman of Maryland Republican Party’s statement: “Comptroller Franchot, after masquerading as a moderate for the last few years, has now shown the entire State that he is no moderate.  The Maryland Republican Party will be ready to deploy significant amounts of advertising and communications dollars in the 2022 Governor’s race to make sure every Maryland voter is aware of Comptroller Franchot’s views, assuming he doesn’t lose in the Democrats’ primary.”
• Peter Franchot’s Facebook post statement about his staffer: Over the past few hours, I’ve fielded a few angry messages and texts from people who are demanding that my Chief of Staff, Len Foxwell, resign or be fired. This, in response to satirical comments that he made on his personal social media feed about the Patriot Movement and their willingness to violate “Stay at Home” orders imposed by the Governor of Idaho. It has never been my policy to comment on social media content posted by members of my staff, so long as it is done on their own time. I won’t start now. Suffice to say, however, that I remain 100 percent supportive of Len Foxwell and the exceptional work he continues to do for me and for the people of Maryland. He is an exceptional public servant, a dear family friend, and I look forward to his continued service as my Chief of Staff for years to come.mEnjoy your evening and the rest of this weekend. Stay safe, everyone!
• SCOTT BAIO RESPONDED ON TWITTER OF A CARE PACKAGE HE’S SENDING LEN FOXWELL: Scott Baio @ScottBaio: I’m sending my biggest fan #LenFoxwell a care package.

8am – D/E     INTERVIEW – ROGER STONE – former adviser to President Trump  https://stonedefensefund.com/

• Roger Stone denied new trial and gag order lifted. (CNN) Roger Stone does not deserve a retrial, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, after the longtime friend of President Donald Trump had attempted to claim jury misconduct. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court in DC ruled Stone’s jury forewoman had not lied to the court about her opinions when she was screened for bias before the trial, as Stone alleged. Instead, Jackson said Stone’s legal team failed to fully research and question her. The judge’s 81-page, extensively detailed opinion is the latest high-profile debunking of a Trump-backed conspiracy theory — and one that’s likely to unleash another right-wing political furor about the court and justice system. After Stone’s conviction, for lying to Congress about his efforts for the 2016 Trump campaign, the President and his allies claimed the jury was tainted, the foreperson was biased and the verdict was therefore void. But Jackson’s ruling, and all of her factual findings, showed otherwise, setting up Stone to serve his sentence, absent a presidential pardon or successful appeal.
• Roger Stone to Tucker Carlson: With coronavirus, my jail time is ‘essentially a death sentence’ (Joe Concha/The Hill)  Roger Stone told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday night that his upcoming prison sentence would essentially be a “death sentence” due to underlying health problems amid the coronavirus pandemic. Stone’s interview with Carlson came after a 16-month gag order on the longtime Republican operative was lifted this week. The order was lifted as a federal judge on Thursday rejected Stone’s motion for a new trial. Stone, 67, was sentenced to more than three years in prison in February for lying to Congress and witness tampering.