Jonathan Schanzer, John Lott, James O’Keefe, Stuart Varney and Jake Tapper joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C San Bernardino Shootings Update: politicians and prayers

5am – D/E     Ted Cruz: When it comes to dictators, U.S. should mind its own business. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says the United States is safer if we leave Bashar Assad in power in Syria. The GOP presidential hopeful told the Associated Press that while Assad is a “bad man” who has “murdered hundreds of thousands of his own citizens,” toppling him would be “materially worse for U.S. national security interests.” He faulted the Obama administration as well as one of his Republican rivals, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, for wanting to get rid of the Syrian leader. “If President Obama and Hillary Clinton and Sen. Rubio succeed in toppling Assad, the result will be the radical Islamic terrorist will take over Syria, that Syria will be controlled by ISIS, and that is materially worse for U.S. national security interests,” Cruz said.

6am – A         San Bernardino Update: Media’s Coverage of the Attack

6am – B         INTERVIEW – JONATHAN SCHANZER – vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury

• What is the U.S. doing about going after the money trail that funds ISIS? Why isn’t the U.S. being tougher on taking on their money supply?
• ISIS’ biggest source of cash appears to be the people it rules. Three times a month, Mohammad al-Kirayfawai hands $300 to fighters from the Islamic State for the privilege of driving his refrigerated truck full of ice cream and other perishables from Jordan to a part of Iraq where the militants are firmly in charge. The fighters who man the border post treat the payment as an import duty, not a bribe. They even provide a stamped receipt, with the logo and seal of the Islamic State, that Mr. Kirayfawai, 38, needs for passing through other checkpoints on his delivery route. Refuse to pay and the facade of normality quickly falls away. “If I do not,” Mr. Kirayfawai explained, “they either arrest me or burn my truck.” Across wide expanses of Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State, with the goal of building a credible government, has set up a predatory and violent bureaucracy that wrings every last American dollar, Iraqi dinar and Syrian pound it can from those who live under its control or pass through its territory.
• Turkey’s president Erdogan ‘involved’ in ISIS’ illegal oil trade: Russia. MOSCOW — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family are “involved” in ISIS’ illegal oil trade and personally benefit from it, Russia alleged Wednesday. “Turkey is the main destination for the oil stolen from its legitimate owners, which are Syria and Iraq,” Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told journalists in Moscow. “Turkey resells this oil. The appalling part about it is that the country’s top political leadership is involved in the illegal business — President Erdogan and his family.”

6am – C         House panel finds Secret Service rife with problems. WASHINGTON (AP) — There have been 143 security breaches or attempted breaches at facilities secured by the Secret Service in the last 10 years, according to a lengthy House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report critical of the agency released early Thursday. The committee concluded that the Secret Service is an “agency in crisis” after a series of high-profile embarrassments over several years, including a South American prostitution scandal and multiple security breaches involving President Barack Obama and the White House. The report faults both leadership failings within the agency and budget cuts imposed by Congress that have led to what the committee concluded was a “staffing crisis.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW – JOHN LOTT- President, Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) and author of the famous book “More Guns, Less Crime”

• Dr. Lott’s analysis of the cumulative effect of shootings on gun rights
• Obama Should Stop Claiming That Mass Shootings ‘Don’t Happen’ in Other Countries’

6am – E         2016 News:

• Trump on Defeating ISIS: We Have To Take Out Their Families. DONALD TRUMP: My policy has always been the same. We’re fighting ISIS and Assad is fighting ISIS, but we’re backing rebels to fight Assad. You can’t fight everybody, you have to pick who you want to fight. And now you’ve got Turkey, who like ISIS more than they like others, no one really knows because we don’t have people that know what they’re doing. So in my opinion, you go along, and Russia does not like ISIS, and people are starting to find out. I mean in all fairness lost an airplane, got blew out of the air. So Russia is not a fan of ISIS. Russia is bombing the hell out of them, starting to bomb them.
• Trump rally in Manassas draws supporters, opponents. WASHINGTON — Presidential hopeful Donald Trump visited the D.C. region Wednesday night. His rally at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas attracted people who both like him, and loathe him. Scott Knuth, who has attended Trump rallies in Richmond and Norfolk, was first in line to get in. “Mr. Trump tells it like it is, OK — where other politicians don’t want to,” he said.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JAMES O’KEEFE – conservative journalism group Project Veritas

 Maryland Deputy AG Reveals Secrets In Hotel Meetings With Undercover O’Keefe Reporter/ (Daily Caller) — New undercover video released by the conservative journalism group Project Veritas shows a high-ranking Democratic official with the Maryland attorney general’s office speaking candidly about his strong opposition to gun rights and spilling official secrets during bar and hotel-room meetings with a 21-year-old undercover female reporter. The sting, video of which was shared exclusively with The Daily Caller, centers on deputy attorney general Thiruvendran “Thiru” Vignarajah. The 38-year-old former Harvard Law Review president has already made a name for himself at the AG’s office, having worked recently to shoot down an appeal filed by Adnan Syed, whose 2000 murder conviction was the subject of the popular NPR show “Serial.” In the video, Vignarajah expresses strong anti-gun views, telling the undercover reporter, who was posing as a law school applicant, that “we should ban guns altogether, period.” Vignarajah also spilled the beans on a secret plan that was brewing inside the attorney general’s office to side against his state’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, by backing President Obama in supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.

7am – B/C     San Bernardino News Update

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Anchor of Varney and Company, Fox Business Network

• Stuart is an American citizen now!
• Stuart thinks there will be a huge demand for guns after San Bernardino. Stuart also believes this NOT workplace violence
• Stuart’s thoughts on our ISIS strategy and how we’re not being aggressive enough on the money trail.

7am – E         Christmas Trees News:

• National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony to bring traffic disruptions Thursday. Reese Witherspoon, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Fall Out Boy, Miss Piggy headline National Christmas Tree lighting. WASHINGTON (AP) – Actress Reese Witherspoon will host the annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree. Witherspoon was announced Tuesday as the headliner of Thursday’s lighting ceremony on the Ellipse near the White House. The National Park Service also announced that actress and singer Bellamy Young, who appears on the ABC series “Scandal,” will appear. Also scheduled to perform are Crosby, Stills and Nash; Fall Out Boy; Trombone Shorty; Andra Day; and Miss Piggy of “The Muppets,” among others. Witherspoon won an Academy Award for her performance in “Walk the Line.” Her other credits include “Legally Blonde” and “Wild.”
• No car, no worries: More Christmas trees being delivered this year. WASHINGTON — In a busy city where many residents don’t have vehicles, fewer Washingtonians have the ability to brave the elements and pick up a Christmas tree. Now, they don’t have to. Just order it online and have it delivered to your home. It’s Hugh Rodell’s job to anticipate Christmas tree deliveries each year. So far, maybe because of the rain, this season’s demand is the highest North Star Tree Company has ever seen. “Our delivery demand has been going through the roof,” Rodell says. “We’re just about at capacity. We will sell out.” For $135, the 40-year-old local company will bring a 7-foot tree to your home and set it up.
• Trees 4 Troops to deliver Christmas trees to service members at more than 65 military bases. NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — About 400 live Christmas trees will be delivered to Fort Eustis to help active-duty U.S. service members and their families celebrate the holidays. The Joint Base Langley-Eustis said in a news release Monday that the 11th annual “Trees for Troop” program is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 4. FedEx, the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation and tree famers across the country will deliver about 18,000 live Christmas trees to service members stationed at more than 65 military bases across the U.S. and overseas. “Trees for Troops” is part of a national program that supports local organizations by donating transportation services and other assistance to help them fulfill their goals. Over 157,000 Christmas trees have been donated since 2005.

8am – A/B/C San Bernardino Shootings Update: politicians and prayers

8am – D         INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of The Lead and CNN’s State of the Union every Sunday

• TRUMP will be on State of the Union this SUNDAY
• Jake did extensive coverage of the shootings of San Bernardino

8am – E         Government News:

• ICE gives away $113 million, says not enough illegal immigrants to deport. Congress: More Than 179,000 Criminal Illegal Immigrants Roaming Free in U.S. New crimes are committed every day’ More than 179,000 illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes, including violent ones, continue to roam free across the United States, with reports indicating that these illegal immigrants commit new crimes “every day,” according to lawmakers and the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE. Sarah Saldana, ICE’s director, disclosed to Congress on Wednesday that the agency is apprehending and removing fewer illegal immigrants than in past years.
• Chinese government has arrested hackers it says breached OPM database. The Chinese government recently arrested a handful of hackers it says were connected to the breach of Office of Personnel Management’s database this year, a mammoth break-in that exposed the records of more than 22 million current and former federal employees. The arrests took place shortly before a state visit in September by President Xi Jinping, and U.S. officials say they appear to have been carried out in an effort to lessen tensions with Washington. The identities of the suspects — and whether they have any connection to the Chinese government — remain unclear.

• House panel finds Secret Service rife with problems. WASHINGTON (AP) — There have been 143 security breaches or attempted breaches at facilities secured by the Secret Service in the last 10 years, according to a lengthy House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report critical of the agency released early Thursday. The committee concluded that the Secret Service is an “agency in crisis” after a series of high-profile embarrassments over several years, including a South American prostitution scandal and multiple security breaches involving President Barack Obama and the White House. The report faults both leadership failings within the agency and budget cuts imposed by Congress that have led to what the committee concluded was a “staffing crisis.”
• No Child Left Behind revision easily passes House, heads to Senate. WASHINGTON – Long outdated and widely criticized as unrealistic, the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law is on track for a major revision after the House voted to dramatically limit the federal government’s role in education policy but keep the annual testing requirements for the nation’s public schoolchildren. A bipartisan compromise measure worked out between House and Senate negotiators passed the House easily, 359-64. The bill would return to the states the authority to decide how to use students’ test performance in assessing teachers and schools, and it would end federal efforts to encourage academic standards such as Common Core. The 1,000-plus page measure, which the House passed on Wednesday, now heads to the Senate for a vote early next week. President Barack Obama is expected to sign it. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who led the House-Senate conference committee on the legislation, said Washington has been micromanaging the nation’s classrooms for too long.