Mornings on the Mall
Friday, June 26, 2020
Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese
Executive Producer: Heather Hunter
Guests: Mark Krikorian,Melissa Robey, and Rep. Jody Hice
7:05AM – MARK KRIKORIAN – Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies
TOPIC: Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on process to remove asylum seeker
7:35AM – MELISSA ROBEY – Organizer for the We Back Blue Rally in Manassas VA this Saturday
8:05AM – REP. JODY HICE – Representative (GA 10th District)
TOPIC: DC STATEHOOD VOTE
5AM HOUR:
5A/B/C – POLICE REFORM:
- DEMS POLICE REFORM BILL DOESN’T BAN CHOKE HOLDS The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on which the Democratic-led House is scheduled to vote Thursday does not ban chokeholds on the state and local level. The bill defines a “chokehold or carotid hold” as “the application of any pressure to the throat or windpipe, the use of maneuvers that restrict blood or oxygen flow to the brain, or carotid artery restraints that prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air of an individual.” According to the bill’s text, “a state or unit of local government may not receive funds under the Byrne grant program or the COPS grant program for a fiscal year if, on the day before the first day of the fiscal year, the State or unit of local government does not have in effect a law that prohibits law enforcement officers in the state or unit of local government from using a chokehold or carotid hold.” The legislation prohibits federal law enforcement officers from using “deadly force against a person unless it is “necessary, as a last resort, to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death to the officer or another person; the use of the form of deadly force creates no substantial risk of injury to a third person; and reasonable alternatives to the use of the form of deadly force have been exhausted.”
- MEDIA COMPLETELY IGNORES DEMS BLOCKING POLICE REFORM BILLAfter turning a blind eye to the roll-out of the Justice Act from Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the only black conservative in the chamber, and refusing to report on the death threats and racial slurs being left on his office voicemail, the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) made it full circle Wednesday evening when they completely ignored how Senate Democrats sank the police reform legislation. And they were still uninterested in casting a critical lens at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who claimed the GOP had killed George Floyd.
- Tim Scott releases racist voicemails, death threats he received while working on GOP police reform bill Republican Sen. Tim Scott received multiple threatening voice messages using racial slurs and vulgar language threatening his life as he worked to craft the Republican JUSTICE Act — a police reform measure Democrats rejected this week. “You coon motherf—– you,” a person says in one of the messages provided to the Washington Examiner by Scott’s office. “I hope you choke on your tongue tonight b—-. You are the lowest piece of s— this country ever produced.” The caller identified himself as calling from “the sunshine state” before mentioning Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. “[Rubio] turned on his own people and … Rick Scott is a God d— crook,” the caller said. “So all you motherf—— are gonna burn in hell together. So take your ticket one way straight to hell.” Scott’s office confirmed the senator played the voicemails for other GOP members during Senate lunches on Tuesday and said the messages have been reported to U.S. Capitol Police.
5D/E – DOJ:
- FBI Refuses To Disclose Records On Source Who Undermined Steele Dossier The FBI is refusing to release documents related to the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, saying in response to a public records request that the information is classified and risks identifying a confidential FBI source. The source, whose identity remains a mystery, holds key information that could shed light on apparent inaccuracies in Steele’s dossier, which the FBI cited extensively in applications for surveillance orders against Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The decision, which the FBI made in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Daily Caller News Foundation, comes as Republican lawmakers have increasingly accused the FBI and its director, Christopher Wray, of withholding documents relevant to the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. The DCNF sought all FBI records for an individual identified as “Primary Sub-Source” in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released on Dec. 9.
- SULLIVAN CANCELS FLYNN HEARING Sullivan’s decision to cancel a hearing, which had been scheduled for July 16, along with other related deadlines, does not necessarily mean that he is ready to dismiss the case against Flynn, who was accused of providing false statements to the FBI related to his contact with a Russian ambassador. Sullivan could opt to challenge the ruling by seeking a review from the full D.C. Circuit Court roster.
- DOJ WILL NOT OPPOSE STONE’S REQUEST TO DELAY START OF SENTENCE Stone, 67, cited potential health risks in prison — which he termed a “DEEP STATE DEATH SENTENCE” — as the reason for requesting the delay. Earlier this week, he filed the motion to delay his report date to a federal correctional facility from June 30 until Sept. 3. “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is currently the U.S. Department of Justice’s policy … to not oppose a defendant’s request to extend a voluntary surrender date for up to 60 days, unless the defendant poses an immediate public safety or flight risk.” prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington D.C. wrote in Thursday’s filing.
6AM HOUR:
6A/B/C – VIOLENT PROTESTERS/ STATUES:
- BILL BARR: There Are Roughly 500 Active Investigations Into Arson, Destruction Of Property Stemming From Riots Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that the Department of Justice is conducting about 500 investigations into acts of arson and destruction associated with the protests and riots over the past several weeks. The DOJ is ramping up investigations into the activists who participated in destruction of private and public property over the last several weeks, Barr said during an episode of the Verdict podcast with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “We’ve had scores of indictments so far for such things as arson, destruction of federal property,” Barr said, adding that the DOJ is going full bore on a probe. “We have right now about 500 investigations underway, so it’s picking up pace. We are committed to holding accountable the people who engaged in this.” He added: “State and local are not doing their jobs.”
- Black Lives Matter leader states if US ‘doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system’ Greater New York Black Lives Matter president Hawk Newsome joined “The Story” Wednesday to discuss the direction of the movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody and the subsequent demonstrations across the country, many of which have sparked destruction and violence. “You … have said that violence is sometimes necessary in these situations,” host Martha MacCallum told Newsome. “What exactly is it that you hope to achieve through violence?” “Wow, it’s interesting that you would pose that question like that,” Newsome responded, “because this country is built upon violence. What was the American Revolution, what’s our diplomacy across the globe? “We go in and we blow up countries and we replace their leaders with leaders who we like. So for any American to accuse us of being violent is extremely hypocritical.” MacCallum clarified that her question was based off comments she had heard Newsome utter in various interviews. “I said,” Newsome told the host, “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking … figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.
- In Racist Screed, NYT’s 1619 Project Founder Calls ‘White Race’ ‘Barbaric Devils,’ ‘Bloodsuckers,’ Columbus ‘No Different Than Hitler’ In an indication of what was to come, the founder of the New York Times’ 1619 Project penned a lengthy racist screed attacking all white people in 1995. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the lead essayist on New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, wrote a letter to the editor in Notre Dame’s The Observer stating that “the white race is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world.” Hannah-Jones claimed that the actions of European settlers and explorers such as Christopher Columbus were “acts of devils” and likens them to Hitler. “[The whites] lasting monument was the destruction and enslavement of two races of people,” Hannah-Jones wrote. […] “The descendants of these savage people pump drugs and guns into the Black community, pack Black people into the squalor of segregated urban ghettos and continue to be bloodsuckers in our community,” she writes. […] “But after everything that those barbaric devils did, I do not hate them,” she wrote. “I understand that because of some lacking, they needed to [sic] constantly prove their superiority.”
- HENRY RODGERS: NEW: @DailyCaller reached out to the Biden campaign and asked them if Biden agrees with Democrats who want to tear down statues of George Washington, Grant, Roosevelt, and depictions of Jesus. The campaign was given over 24 hours to respond. They did not.
- SHELBY TALCOTT: Apparently the attempt to take down the Emancipation Memorial has been moved to tomorrow [FRIDAY], according to reports. Police are currently out here putting up fencing around the statues in the park.
- DC LEARNS DEFUNDING THE POLICE ISN’T ENOUGH… ‘Allen, Wake The F**k Up’: Protesters Harass DC Councilman’s House Protesters gathered in front of what they claimed was a Washington, D.C. councilman’s home Thursday night to call for more substantial police reforms and budget cuts. “Allen, wake the f**k up,” someone in the crowd of about 40 or 50 protesters yelled through a megaphone in front of a residence identified by protesters as the home of D.C. City Council Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Allen, according to a Daily Caller reporter on the scene. The judiciary committee voted Thursday to reduce the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) proposed 2021 budget by $15 million. Even with the cut, the proposed budget, reportedly introduced by Democratic Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in mid-May, would still increase the MPD’s funding by $9 million overall. […] “When we say abolish the police, we mean abolish the police. Not 2%. We mean abolish the police,” she said, apparently taking issue with the size of the budget reduction.
- ‘I’m sick of this s**t!: Fed-up man turns over tables, tosses barricades at CHOP — and appears to pull gun when someone with knife object One man apparently fed up with downtown Seattle’s autonomous zone, now known as CHOP, recently was caught on video dismantling barricades and signs blocking one of the occupied streets. But someone else didn’t like that very much — and appeared to pull a knife on the fed-up man. Problem is, the disgruntled individual forgot that it’s never wise to bring a knife to a gun fight. Yup, the man tearing down part of CHOP appeared to be armed with something a lot more potent than a blade. […] As the man walked past and prepared to toss the barricade, the observer asked, “So, black man versus black man? This is what they want!” The man replies, “Who gives a f***?” As he tossed more barricades, the fed-up man declared, “I’m sick of this s**t! F*** all you guys! Go home!”
- NYC PROTESTERS SET UP CAMP OUTSIDE CITY HALL The group of about 100 protesters, calling themselves “Occupy City Hall,” gathered at a nearby park around 5 p.m. Tuesday and haven’t left. They have vowed to stay until their demand to slash one -sixth of the New York Police Department’s $6 billion budget is met. The protesters say the money saved should be redistributed to social and community services as well as health care and education.
- ERNST BILL WOULD CUT FUND TO CITIES & STATES THAT ALLOW LAWLESS ZONES Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced legislation on Thursday to end federal funding for states and localities that “obstruct the rule of law” by allowing autonomous zones to exist outside of police control. Ernst, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed withholding taxpayer funding from any city or state that allows “anarchist jurisdictions — like CHAZ — to continue,” she said.
- WISC RIOTS GET VIOLENT As chaos erupted a t the Wisconsin State Capitol Tuesday night, protesters beat and robbed a black man while a biracial woman was later burned with lighter fluid by men she described to authorities as white. A 28-year-old man was assaulted around 10:30 p.m. after he inadvertently turned his car into the path of protesters while driving to pick up his girlfriend at a hospital, police said in a news release.
6D – COVID:
- TRUMP IGNORING MURPHY’S QUARANTINE ORDER THIS WEEKEND Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey joined Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Ned Lamont of Connecticut Wednesday to announce that visitors must quarantine when arriving any of the three states, but Trump will not follow the new rule for his planned trip to New Jersey, White House spokesman Judd Deere told CNBC in a statement. “The president of the United States is not a civilian,” said Deere, CNBC reported.
- BIDEN CLAIM 120 MILLION DEAD FROM COVID Republicans are slamming Joe Biden after the presumptive Democratic nominee made a verbal gaffe during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania and said 120 million people had died from the novel coronavirus. “People don’t have a job, people don’t know where to go, they don’t know what to do,” Biden said Thursday. “Now we have over 120 million dead from COVID.”
- Texas Pauses Reopening as Virus Cases Soar Across the South and West Just 55 days after reopening Texas restaurants and other businesses, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday hit the pause button, stopping additional phases of the state’s reopening as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared and as the governor struggled to pull off the seemingly impossible task of keeping both the state open and the virus under control. The announcement by Mr. Abbott — which allows the many shopping malls, restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses already open to continue operating — was an abrupt turnaround and came as a growing number of states paused reopenings amid rising case counts. […] Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday that the number of people in the United States who have been infected with the coronavirus is actually about 10 times higher than the 2.3 million cases that have been reported. “We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak,” Dr. Redfield said in a call with reporters. Dr. Redfield added that between 5 and 8 percent of Americans have been infected to date.
6E – BET FOUNDER SAYS DEMS TAKE BLACK VOTE FOR GRANTED CALLS BLM TO FORM PARTY “I propose that an independent party formed by Black Lives Matter should echo the founding principles of the original Congressional Black Caucus members in 1971 who … said black Americans should have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests,” Johnson said. Johnson suggested that Black Lives Matter run candidates for various offices and leverage their power in battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where black voters staying home or breaking with Democrats can determine the outcome of the presidential election. He recently publicized this idea in an open letter to the BLM movement.
6F – South Park is now on HBO Max—with five episodes missing You might remember an incident from way back in 2010 when a radical Muslim group threatened the lives of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Their crime was depicting Muslim prophet Muhammad as a cartoon in a season 14 episode, a choice that forced terrified Comedy Central brass to slap black bars and bleepsall over it. The full episode eventually resurfaced online, but it’s remained absent from all reproductions, including the show’s DVDs. That remains the case on HBO Max, but a few other episodes join it in hiding. In total, the removed episodes include season 14’s “200″ and “201,” season 10’s “Cartoon Wars Part I and Part II,” and season five’s “Super Best Friends.” All of the episodes either feature or reference a character based on Muhammad.
7AM HOUR:
7A – INTERVIEW – MARK KRIKORIAN – Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies
TOPIC: Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on process to remove asylum seekers
7B/C – NAME CHANGES:
- THERE GO THE DIXIE CHICKS! A statement on The Chicks’ website said “We want to meet this moment.” The term Dixie refers to Southern U.S. states, especially those that belonged to the Confederacy. The Chicks also dropped a new song “March March” from th eir comeback album “Gaslighter” that features videos and images from the recent Black Lives Matter rallies.
- LOOKS LIKE WASHINGTON & LEE UNIV IS NEXT! Washington and Lee University faculty discussed a resolution to remove all references to the Confederacy from the campus of the small liberal arts college in Lexington as well as to the school’s name. No action was taken during the virtual meeting Wednesday evening. But the more than 100 undergraduate and law school professors who attended the meeting plan to send a formal request to the school’s president and its Board of Trustees by the end of the month.
- Disney Will Re-Imagine Controversial Splash Mountain Ride, Re-Theme With ‘Princess And The Frog Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks are slated to re-open to the public in just a few short weeks, but at least one iconic ride, Splash Mountain, may be off-limits to visitors until the park completes a full renovation, replacing the ride’s “controversial’ subject matter. Splash Mountain is a narrative log flume-style ride that currently takes visitors on a tour of the Briar Patch, home to Brer Rabbit and other traditional African-American folk characters, some of whom the Walt Disney company’s animation studios immortalized in the early-1940s film, “Song of the South.” Now, Disney says, it’s time for the ride to get a makeover, and it will soon close to be “re-imagined” as a new experience featuring characters from the New Orleans-set Disney animated film, “The Princess and the Frog. “Splash Mountain has been a mainstay at Disney parks since its creation in 1989. The new changes to the ride will be implemented at Disneyland park in California and Magic Kingdom park in Florida,” CNN reported Thursday. Thursday’s “move comes amid fans urging Disney to retheme Splash Mountain because of the racial stereotypes from the film it is based upon. ‘Song of the South’ — which is best known for the song ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’ — has long been criticized for its stereotypical and offensive portrayals of African Americans as well as a romanticized view of the antebellum South,” CNN explained.
7D – INTERVIEW – MELISSA ROBEY – Organizer for the We Back Blue Rally in Manassas VA this Saturday
7E – Brothers flip, agree to cooperate in Jussie Smollett case Two brothers who admitted helping actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago last year are again willing to help in the case after initially saying they were done cooperating with prosecutors, their attorney said Thursday. In yet another strange twist in a story that has been full of them, attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez said in a statement that Abimbola (Abel) and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo changed their minds after a 9mm handgun that was seized during a search of their home last year was located after it went missing. “Abel and Ola will recommence their cooperation in the Smollett case now that the handgun has been produced by the Special Prosecutor’s Office,” Schmidt Rodriguez wrote, referring to Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, who is now handling the case. The two, she wrote in a separate letter to Webb, “stand ready to testify at trial.” The about-face by the brothers came just hours after various media outlets reported that the brothers at the center of the case against the actor were, according to their lawyer, finished cooperating because of the missing gun and their feeling that the police department’s lawyers were treating them like suspects.
8A – INTERVIEW – REP. JODY HICE – Representative (GA 10th District)
TOPIC: DC STATEHOOD VOTE
- Hoyer sets June 26 date for historic House vote on D.C. statehood bill https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-statehood-vote-june-26/2020/06/15/6ff29e00-af22-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html
- House to vote on DC statehood, but Senate will block it https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/house-to-vote-on-dc-statehood-but-senate-will-block-it
- “I think our Founders wisely gave us a Federal City,” said Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), who joined other Republicans in saying the only way a change could be made is by a Constitutional Amendment. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/politics/in-congress-washington-dc-leaders-make-pitch-for-statehood/988228591/
8B/C – FEMINISTS BACK TRUMP’S CAMPUS SEX ASSAULT RULES… NYT: Trump Overhaul of Campus Sex Assault Rules Wins Surprising Support Ms. DeVos’s actions won praise from a surprising audience: an influential group of feminist legal scholars who applauded the administration for repairing what they viewed as unconscionable breaches in the rights of the accused. “The new system is vastly better and fairer,” said Prof. Janet Halley, who specializes in gender and sexuality at Harvard Law School. “The fact that we’re getting good things from the Trump administration is confusing, but isn’t it better than an unbroken avalanche of bad things?” […] Professor Halley, the first gender and sexuality theorist to get tenure at Harvard Law School, has long been a woman willing to stick a dissenting head into a lion cage of liberal orthodoxy. Too many feminists, in her view, have abandoned liberating freedoms for the allure of governmental power and punishment. As she puts it, these activists have traded the megaphone for the gavel. […] Professor Halley experienced her own epiphany on these questions years ago: She had a female colleague, she said, who lodged complaints against several male faculty members. Ms. Halley and other professors believed her at first, before coming to doubt her allegations. “We feminists were surprised; we assumed no woman would step forward without wrongdoing,” she said. “It was all about our acceptance of prevailing dogma.”
8D – Calif. city bans church from meeting at its own property, says it doesn’t fit in downtown A federal court in the San Francisco Bay Area recently sided with the city of Salinas, ruling that churches generate limited interest, do not draw tourists, and therefore detract from the city’s goals of vibrancy, said the Pacific Justice Institute, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of New Harvest Christian Fellowship. “We have appealed this case to the Ninth Circuit, and we are optimistic that a different result will be reached upon review by a higher court,” PJI added, noting that while the church is banned from gathering, the city is allowing theaters and live entertainment venues to operate, as well as non-entertainment businesses Federal magistrate judge Susan Van Keulen said on May 29 that the city of Salinas did not violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects houses of worship from discrimination in zoning laws, because Salinas’ rule is aimed at “[stimulating] commercial activity within the city’s downtown, which had been in a state of decline, and to establish a pedestrian-friendly, active and vibrant Main Street.”This continues to be one of the most striking examples of unequal treatment of a church in the land use context that we have seen in the past 20 years,” PJI President Brad Dacus commented. PJI also pointed out that while the city insists it must have only fun, tourist-friendly and tax-generating entities downtown, it has allowed nursing homes and post offices to operate in the area. However, the court waved off “this discrepancy,” PJI said.New Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has rented space along Main Street in Salinas for more than 25 years, bought the building in early 2018 because its congregation outgrew a previously rented space.
8E – Newsweek mocked for claiming conservatives are ‘weaponizing’ cancel culture to ‘tame anti-Trump celebrities’ Earlier this week, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was under fire for newly-surfaced audio obtained by Fox News where he could be heard repeatedly using the N-word while impersonating Snoop Dogg in a 1996 comedic Christmas album. Kimmel issued an apology that largely focused on his past use of wearing blackface and suggested that his critics are attempting to “bully” him into silence and that they are the real “racists.” However, a report published by Newsweek on Wednesday suggested that cancel culture is solely wielded by the right, using the headline: “Conservatives Weaponize Cancel Culture to Tame Anti-Trump Celebrities.” “Cancel culture. It’s here, it’s happening and it seems like every day, there are calls to cancel more famous faces on social media — but not always from the voices you would expect,” writer Emma Nolan began the article before alluding to Kimmel and NBC host Jimmy Fallon’s blackface controversies. “Among the multitude of voices calling for these celebrities to face consequences for their past actions are a number of conservative figures and media outlets.” […] “It’s not a fun game when we have to play by our own rules,” conservative commentator Stephen Miller wrote in response to Milano’s tweet.
