Larry Kudlow, fmr Margaret Thatcher aide Nile Gardiner, House Armed Services Cmte Chair Mac Thornberry and Northern VA Transportation Authority’s Marty Nohe joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Rubio gets new wave of establishment endorsements. (CNN) Sen. Marco Rubio racked up a slew of establishment endorsements on Monday, days after one of his top competitors exited the presidential race. Former Sen. Bob Dole, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, along with three senators and a coterie of members of the House all endorsed Rubio just two days after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ended his bid for president, after a poor showing in South Carolina.

5am – D         Cruz fires spokesman over ‘inaccurate’ Rubio video. (CNN)Ted Cruz asked his communications director Rick Tyler to resign Monday after Tyler distributed a video that falsely depicted Marco Rubio dismissing the Bible.

5am – E         MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski Says Donald Trump Didn’t Dictate Questions At Town Hall. But off-camera banter may reinforce perceptions of chumminess between the “Morning Joe” co-hosts and the Republican front-runner. The “Morning Joe” co-hosts moderated last week’s MSNBC town hall amid criticism they’re not tough enough on Trump. NEW YORK — “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski rejected any suggestion Monday that she allowed Republican front-runner Donald Trump to dictate questions at last week’s MSNBC town hall. “I am absolutely 100 percent certain that I did not connect with Donald Trump on any level about the questions I’d be asking him,” Brzezinski told The Huffington Post on Monday.

6am – A/B/C John Kasich: Women ‘left their kitchens’ to help me get elected to office. Ohio Gov. John Kasich retold the story about how he was first elected to the Ohio Senate and thanked the “many women, who left their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door and to put yard signs up for me.” During a campaign town hall event Monday in Fairfax, Virginia, Kasich said, “And how did I get elected? Nobody was — I didn’t have anybody for me. We just got an army of people who, um, and many women, who left their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door and to put yard signs up for me. Later during the rally, a female attendee told Kasich, “First off, I want to say — your comment earlier about the women came out the kitchen to support you? I’ll come to support you, but I won’t be coming out of the kitchen.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW — MARTY NOHE – chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and a supervisor on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors for the Coles District

• U.S. Route 1 widening starting soon in Prince William Co. WASHINGTON — Congestion relief on U.S. 1 in Prince William County, Virginia is now a big step closer to reality. On Wednesday, the Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded $43.2 million to D.C.-based Fort Myer Construction Corporation to turn U.S. 1 from four lanes into six lanes between the Occoquan River Bridge to Mary’s Way. Construction is expected to begin in a few months, though the project is expected to take several years to finish.

6am – E         FLASHBACK 1992: Biden: No Senate Hearings For SCOTUS Vacancy In Election Year. Sen. Joe Biden says the Senate Judiciary Committee should “seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings” for a Supreme Court nomination in a presidential election year.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – REP. MAC THORNBERRY – (R-TX) – CHAIRMAN, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

• Pentagon to unveil plan to close Gitmo prison. WASHINGTON – U.S. officials say the Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the United States calls for up to $475 million in construction costs, but would save as much as $180 million per year in operating costs.

7am – B         Sports News:

• Caps hold on for 3-2 win over #Coyotes on goals by Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov & Mike Richards. 4-straight wins and 9-of-10 for Caps
• Trump warns Chicago Cubs owner about spending against him. CHICAGO — A member of the Ricketts family is giving millions to a super PAC targeting Donald Trump. USA Today reports Marlene Ricketts, the wife of T.D. Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, gave $3 million to Our Principles PAC. It’s been airing ads against trump and sending out mailers ahead of states’ primaries. Trump responded a tweet that reads: “I hear the Rickets family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending money against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!”

7am – C         Facebook’s new personal way to say ‘Happy Birthday.’ (NEW YORK) — You can now take your “happy birthday” wishes on Facebook to an entirely new level. The social network announced its new “birthday cam” on Monday that will allow users to record snappy 15-second videos wishing their friends a happy birthday. Here’s how it works: Users with iOS devices can visit their friend’s profile, tap a birthday prompt in the celebrating friend’s profile and hit record. Once you’re satisfied with your video, Facebook lets you choose from an assortment of birthday-themed frames that can be added to the message before it’s posted on their timeline.

7am – D         2016 News:

• Trump looks for third win in a row in Tuesday’s Nevada caucuses. LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump rolls into Nevada on a hot streak, while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are looking to weaken his grip on the GOP presidential race. Trump, the easy winner of primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, is the heavy favorite to win again when Nevada Republicans hold caucuses on Tuesday.
• Sanders: Pope Francis is a socialist like me. (RNS) Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been a longtime fan of Pope Francis’ positions on social justice and income inequality, and now he says the pontiff is in fact a socialist — just like himself.
• Rubio gets new wave of establishment endorsements. (CNN) Sen. Marco Rubio racked up a slew of establishment endorsements on Monday, days after one of his top competitors exited the presidential race. Former Sen. Bob Dole, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, along with three senators and a coterie of members of the House all endorsed Rubio just two days after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ended his bid for president, after a poor showing in South Carolina.
• Cruz fires spokesman over ‘inaccurate’ Rubio video. (CNN)Ted Cruz asked his communications director Rick Tyler to resign Monday after Tyler distributed a video that falsely depicted Marco Rubio dismissing the Bible. The incident comes a day before the Nevada Republican caucuses and in the wake of accusations from rival campaigns in recent weeks about Cruz’s campaign tactics. Donald Trump has called Cruz a “liar” and Rubio and Ben Carson have also blasted the Texas senator.
• Donnie Wahlberg endorsed Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, his campaign announced Sunday. Wahlberg, a Massachusetts-born singer and actor, said in his endorsement the country needs a leader like the Florida senator. “Even though we do not see eye to eye on every issue, I know that Marco is a man of principle who can be trusted to keep us safe and give each and every one of us a shot at the American Dream,” Wahlberg said in a statement. He referenced Rubio’s background and said the candidate will be able to unite the country.

7am – E         Actor Adam Baldwin Quits Twitter “For Good” In Protest Of The Platform Censoring Conservatives. (IJ Review) – Baldwin, who currently stars in the TNT hit show ‘The Last Ship,’ tells Independent Journal Review that Twitter’s new policy of punishing users for speech it finds “offensive” is the reason for his departure from the social platform. “I’ve had enough. Twitter is dead to me,” Baldwin tells us, “I’m going to find greener pastures elsewhere and I’m not coming back.” Baldwin explains:   “It’s really a shame that so-called ‘liberal thinkers’ and the so called ‘tolerant crowd’ is intolerant of varying viewpoints. They’re so afraid to hear people disagree with them. Instead of ignoring it or providing their own arguments in return, they say “shut up!” Baldwin, who has nearly a quarter of a million followers, deleted his entire Twitter history Monday morning, leaving only one tweet asking for the CEO of Twitter to be fired and the abolishment of the platforms new Trust and Safety Council.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — NILE GARDINER- Director, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation and a former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

• GARDINER: Why UK Leaving European Union Is Good for America
• Pound Plunges as Cameron Makes Pro-EU Case in UK Parliament. Boris Johnson says David Cameron’s arguments for staying in the EU are ‘wildly exaggerated.’ Boris Johnson has dismissed arguments made by David Cameron about leaving the EU as “scaremongering” and “wildly exaggerated”. The Mayor of London was taking questions in the London Assembly the day after he announced he would campaign to leave the European Union and secure a new relationship with the continent. Told by assembly members that the Prime Minister had warned Brexit would be a “leap in the dark”, he said previous predictions of calamity from resisting European integration had not come through.

8am – B         Drink News:

• Starbucks customers furious about new rewards program. Starbucks is changing its rewards program, and people are not happy about it. The company announced Monday that starting in April, customers will no longer receive one point or “star” per visit. Instead, patrons will receive two stars for each dollar spent. What’s the problem with that? Well, Starbucks is also changing how “gold” status and perks are calculated. Right now, customers receive gold status once they’ve earned 30 stars in a year. That’s loosely equivalent to visiting Starbucks 30 times, if you don’t get any bonus points along the way.
• Drinking Wine Before Bed Could Help You Lose Weight, Says Science. The best way to fight night cheese pounds? Night wine. File this under too good to be true: Two recent studies suggest that drinking wine could help encourage weight loss—especially if you drink it before bed. According to The Drinks Business, Washington State University scientists found that resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wine, can help transform stubborn white fat into burnable brown fat. A separate study at Harvard found a link between wine and weight loss. Researchers examined 20,000 women over 13 years and saw that those who drank two glasses of wine daily were 70% less likely to be overweight.

8am – C         Men who talk on their cell phones for an hour a day ‘are twice as likely to have low sperm quality.’ Men who carry their mobile phone in a trouser pocket or talk on it for just an hour a day risk suffering with fertility problems, scientists warn. Research shows that sperm count can also be reduced by talking on a phone that is charging, or even keeping it close by on a bedside table at night. The quality of sperm among men in Western countries is steadily decreasing, and is considered the factor in 40 per cent of cases in which couples have difficulty conceiving a child. Heat and electromagnetic activity which emanate from a mobile phone are thought to be ‘cook’ sperm, causing them to die. The findings have led to a leading British fertility expert to warn men about the risks of being ‘addicted’ to mobile phones. Israeli scientists monitored 106 men attending a fertility clinic for a year.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm

or the unveiling in character as President Underwood.

8am – E         House of Cards Season 4 To Premiere Next Week:

• ‘House of Cards’ Season 4 red carpet premiere in DC: Season 4 of the Netflix original series “House of Cards” is set to premiere on March 4. The stars of the show showed up in Washington D.C. for a red carpet premiere.
• ‘House of Cards’ presidential portrait unveiled at Smithsonian. Every president deserves an official portrait, even Frank Underwood. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled a new portrait of the evil “House of Cards” president on Monday night, the museum said in a press release. The portrait of actor Kevin Spacey in his role as Underwood will hang in the museum, which “houses the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside of the White House,” the museum said. Art imitated life even more so with Spacey arriving for the unveiling in character as President Underwood.