Joe diGenova, Erick Stakelbeck, Eagle Foundation’s Al Cecere and Noah Pollak joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, March 21, 2016

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B     AIPAC Preview: Does Support for Israel Still Matter To You?

•  Hillary Clinton and all three Republicans still in the presidential race will be at AIPAC.
• Bernie Sanders confirms he won’t attend AIPAC. Bernie Sanders will be the only presidential candidate not speaking before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he confirmed on Friday. The Vermont senator’s campaign announced he had sent a letter to the pro-Israel lobbying group explaining why he will not be able to attend next week’s AIPAC’s policy conference — a major annual gathering point for the Jewish state’s American supporters.  “I would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference. Obviously issues impacting Israel and the Middle East are of the utmost importance to me, to our country and to the world,” Sanders, who is Jewish, wrote to AIPAC President Robert Cohen. “Unfortunately, I am going to be traveling throughout the West and the campaign schedule that we have prevents me from attending.”
• Many prominent Jews are calling for a boycott of Trump’s speech at AIPAC. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump single-handedly tanked a scheduled Fox News presidential debate by saying he’d skip it in order to speak Monday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference. But as the big day approaches, more and more prominent Jews are calling for a boycott of the contentious candidate’s speech. Jane Eisner, editor of the Jewish-American newspaper Forward, called for a boycott of the speech in column published Wednesday, according to The Hill. Her column, headlined “13 Ways To React When Trump Takes the Stage at AIPAC,” suggested rescinding the Republican frontrunner’s invitation or otherwise scheduling his speech for the highly inconvenient time slot of 3-3:45 a.m. If neither of those things are possible, Eisner suggested scheduling his speech right before Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s.
• Trump: My Israel peace deal is “not an Obama-type deal”‘  – Donald Trump dodged questions on the particulars of his plan for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday, but insisted that what he does have is “not an Obama-type deal.” The Republican presidential front-runner declined to share on Sunday’s “This Week” any details of his planned speech Monday before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

5am – C         Report: North Korea fires projectiles into waters. (USA Today) — North Korea on Monday fired five short-range projectiles into waters off the country’s east coast, a South Korea official said. The projectiles launched from a site near the northeastern city of Hamhung flew about 125 miles before landing in waters off North Korea’s east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The launches came three days after North Korea fired a medium-range missile into the Sea of Japan, the first time the country fired a medium-range missile since early 2014. The country has fired several short-range missiles off its east coast since the U.N. imposed broad sanctions in response to its nuclear and missile tests.

5am – D         Hulk Hogan Gets $115M Verdict Against Gawker at Sex Tape Trial. (Hollywood Reporter) – The outcome comes after two weeks of testimony in a first-of-its-kind case where discussions of newsworthiness and decency dominated. Weighing free speech against privacy, a Florida jury has decided to uphold the sanctity of the latter by turning in a $115 million verdict against Gawker over its 2012 posting of a Hulk Hogan sex tape. Hogan brought the case three years ago after Gawker, a 13-year-old digital news site founded by Nick Denton, an entrepreneur with an allergy to celebrity privacy, published a video the wrestler claimed was secretly recorded. The sex tape was sensational, showing Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — engaged in sexual intercourse with Heather Cole, the then-wife of his best friend, Tampa-area radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge (real name: Todd Alan Clem). Gawker’s posting of the Hogan sex tape was accompanied by an essay from then–editor-in-chief A.J. Daulerio about celebrity sex and a vivid play-by-play of the encounter between Hogan and Cole. In an era when digital networks have reshaped culture, raising tough questions about sharing and prying in society, the jury got to hear two weeks of testimony in a first-of-its-kind sex tape case where discussions of newsworthiness and decency dominated. Hogan, the first to take the witness stand, attempted to separate his public persona from his true and private self. “It’s turned my world upside down,” he testified about Gawker’s posting. His many interviews with press outlets, some addressing his sexual boasts and endeavors, became the subject of a heated cross-examination. “The person sitting here under oath is Terry Bollea, and I don’t lie under oath,” said Hogan.

5am – E         Obama in Cuba

6am – A/B/C             Bernie Sanders knows he needs to get older voters. (CNN) — Vancouver, Washington (CNN) In a candid campaign trail admission Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Sunday said that he is “not doing well with older people.” As the Vermont senator implored a rally audience about the importance of young people’s involvement in his campaign — part of his standard stump speech — he paused a moment and added, “If I can make a political statement here, it’s interesting as we go along this campaign, we are not doing well, we are working on it, I cannot tell you why, we are not doing well with older people.” The crowd, mostly younger attendees who turned out in drizzling rain, listened as he continued. “But we are doing phenomenally well with younger people,” he added. Recent CNN exit polls from Ohio, a primary that Sanders lost to Democratic front-runner Clinton by 15 points, confirms Sanders’ view. He won the 18-29 year old demographic by 81%. In a near-mirror result, Clinton won voters 65 years and older in that state by 77%. The catch for Sanders is that more older voters turn out at the polls than youngsters.

6am – D         Trump Protesters:

• Protester sucker punched during Donald Trump rally in ‘physical pain’ after violent Tucson, Ariz., event. (NY Daily News) — Another day, another beatdown at a Trump rally. With the GOP frontrunner on stage, a Trump supporter at a rally in Tucson viciously assaulted a protester who was being led away. The disturbing melee pitted a kicking, punch-throwing Trump loyalist against Bryan Sanders, 33, a protester kicked out of the rally at 3 p.m. Saturday for chanting “liar” amid a rabid crowd. It was yet one more slice of mayhem following Trump and his screwball campaign across the country. Bryan Sanders sent the Daily News a picture of his roughed up face (r.) after being sucker punched at the Trump rally. He held up a sign of Trump’s face as he was being led out of the event. Pettway continued with a flurry of five to six punches before kicking and stomping on Sanders in a Tucson Arena stairwell. “I have nothing against the guy that attacked me,” said Sanders, who was waving a picture of Trump overlaid with the Confederate flag when Pettway walloped him. “I don’t know him. He’s just an angry person and his anger is being accentuated by the political movement.”
• Anti-Trump protesters block Arizona road; march in New York. (Reuters) — Demonstrators briefly shut down an Arizona highway leading to a campaign rally for Donald Trump on Saturday while protesters rallied outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan to voice their opposition to the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Television news footage of the demonstration outside Phoenix showed dozens of protesters blocking traffic while holding signs that read “Dump Trump” and “Shut Down Trump.” The demonstrators eventually started marching down the highway. Later, some were seen nearing the rally at Fountain Hills, Arizona, before Trump arrived. Three people were arrested, according to police in Maricopa County, where Joe Arpaio, a well-known critic of U.S. immigration policy and an ardent Trump supporter, serves as sheriff.

6am – E         Separate but equal? Wealthy county’s plan would concentrate low-income, Hispanic students (Washington Post) — A wealthy Virginia county is weighing a plan that would concentrate children from a poor, largely Hispanic neighborhood into two schools, rolling back a policy of economic integration and stoking arguments reminiscent of the “separate but equal” debate a generation ago. Tasked with redrawing enrollment boundaries in fast-growing Loudoun County to ease overcrowding, some school board members have suggested doing away with the practice of dispersing students from a cluster of high-density Leesburg apartment complexes to several affluent schools, some up to three miles away. The board members have argued that it may be better to keep those students — many of whom are underprivileged — closer to home in two schools that could qualify for more resources. The proposal would mean that a majority of students at both schools — Frederick Douglass and Leesburg elementaries — would come from impoverished households and about half of each school’s population would be English-language learners. It would make their former schools wealthier and less diverse. The board members argue that grouping those students will allow teachers to focus on their specific needs, and they say that neighborhood-based schools are more conducive to building community. “I think there are a lot of benefits in allowing a natural grouping of the students according to their neighborhood,” school board member Jill Turgeon (Blue Ridge) said at a recent board meeting.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

• Petraeus gives closed-door testimony Saturday on Hill about Benghazi attacks
• Will FBI Director Comey Quit in Protest If the Justice Dept. Does Not Pursue Charges Against Clinton?  (Charlie Gasparino/NY Post) — FBI chief James Comey and his investigators are increasingly certain presidential nominee Hillary Clinton violated laws in handling classified government information through her private e-mail server, career agents say. Some expect him to push for charges, but he faces a formidable obstacle: the political types in the Obama White House who view a Clinton presidency as a third Obama term. With that, agents have been spreading the word, largely through associates in the private sector, that their boss is getting stonewalled, despite uncovering compelling evidence Clinton broke the law.
• Video Shows Hillary Acknowledging Risk Of China And Russia Hacking Her BlackBerry

7am – B         John Kasich guarantees brokered GOP convention. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a message for everyone who’s worrying that Donald Trump is close to securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to win Republican nomination outright: it’s not going to happen, for him nor any other candidate. “Nobody’s going to have the delegates they need going to the convention,” he said. “Everyone will fall short.” He said said once the delegates arrive in Cleveland, they’ll focus on which candidate has the best chance of winning in November.

• Kasich on a brokered convention: ‘Everybody chill!’ John Kasich has a message for members of the Republican Party unnerved over the prospect of a brokered convention: Chill! “I don’t think anybody is going to get there with the delegates that they need to win,” the Ohio governor said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “So, let’s just everybody chill out.” Kasich, with 143 delegates, trails GOP frontrunner Donald Trump (678) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (423) in the race for the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — who suspended his campaign after losing the primary in his home state — has 169.

7am – C         Critical Update: Your Kindle Will Lose Internet if You Don’t Do This Today. (CNBC) Kindle users will lose Internet connectivity on their devices if they don’t install a crucial update before March 22, Amazon has warned. This would mean services such as downloading books, accessing the Kindle Store and other Internet-dependent tasks would not work. The Amazon update applies to Kindles sold in 2012 and before. If the update is not done before March 22, users will receive the following message on their devices: “Your Kindle is unable to connect at this time. Please make sure you are within wireless range and try again. If the problem persists, please restart your Kindle from the menu in settings and try again.” If users miss the deadline, they will have to manually install the update by downloading it on a computer or laptop, then plugging in the Kindle via a USB connection and transferring the software to the device.

7am – D/E     OBAMA IN CUBA:

• White House: Castro wasn’t expected at airport. (ABC) — The White House says it’s taking no offense that Cuban President Raul Castro didn’t greet President Barack Obama upon arrival in Havana. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, says it was “never contemplated or discussed” that Castro would be at the airport. He said the Cubans consider Monday morning’s ceremony with Obama and Castro to be the official welcome event. Several dignitaries were on hand at the airport, including Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Cabanas.
• Obama jokes with popular Cuban comedian in video ahead of historic Cuba visit. (Daily Mail) – On the eve of his visit to Cuba, President Barack Obama cracked jokes with the communist country’s most loved comedian in a surprise exchange broadcast online. Luis Silva plays Panfilo, an elderly character on a wildly popular show that often uses biting humor to comment on social reality and lampoon the failings of Cuba’s government and centrally planned economy. In the three and a half minute video sketch released on the Facebook page of the US embassy in Havana on Saturday, the comedian acted out calling the White House and asking to speak to Obama. It starts with Panfilo calling to see about the weather for a baseball game during Obama’s trip to Cuba. Obama answers the phone call, leaving Panfilo shocked that he got the actual president on the line.
• Obama will also deliver a speech “to the Cuban people” that will be broadcast on state-run television.
• Cuba arrests dissidents hours before Obama’s arrival. (Slate) – Dozens of people protesting the Cuban government in Havana were arrested on Sunday, mere hours before President Obama was set to arrive on a historic three-day visit to the island. The detentions follow a pattern that repeats itself every Sunday when the Ladies in White group, made up by wives of former political prisoners, take to the streets to protest. About 300 government supporters surrounded the 50 members of Ladies in White before police officers detained the protesters and loaded them into buses, reports the Associated Press. “Although the arrests are an almost weekly feature and the protesters are quickly released, the incident was embarrassing ahead of Obama’s landmark visit,” notes AFP. The number of protesters and counter-protesters appears to have been the same as in previous weeks.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — ERICK STAKELBECK

— Director of Christians United for Israel’s CUFI Watchman Project.

— He is also a host of The Watchman show on Thursdays at 11:30 pm EST on TBN.

— Terrorism analyst

– AND author of new book: “ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam”

• TOPIC: Latest ISIS news:
• Captured American ISIS fighter says, ‘I was not thinking straight’
• ISIS jihadi behind Paris attacks has been captured alive in Brussels
• Pizzeria owner who recruited for ISIS sentenced to more than 22 years in prison
• ISIS supporter convicted in failed plot targeting Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas
• Kerry determines that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians
• U.S. Marine killed in Iraq after rocket attack  (CNN)A U.S. Marine was killed in a rocket attack by ISIS on a base at Makhmur in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday.

8am – B         INTERVIEW – AL CECERE – President and Founder of the American Eagle Foundation, the foundation who works with the Arboretum to run DC Eagle CAM.

• Second eaglet hatches on D.C. Eagle Cam. NEW YORK — Just after 3 a.m. Sunday morning, the eaglet known as DC3 finally appeared on a live web cam. Its parents immediately scrounged up some food for the new baby and its two day old sibling DC2. Social media is celebrating both births using #DCEagleCam. The proud parents are known as Mr. President and the First Lady because they’re the first mating pair to nest in Washington DC’s National Arboretum, in nearly 70 years. Proud parents are known as Mr. President and the First Lady.

8am – C         Sports News:

• TERPS/SWEET 16: After up-and-down season, Terps and their fans celebrate Sweet 16 appearance. A season that began with high expectations for the Maryland men’s basketball team will continue in a place the Terps haven’t been to in 13 years: the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. With a 73-60 victory Sunday over No. 13 seed Hawaii at Spokane Arena, fifth-seeded Maryland advanced to Thursday’s South region semifinals in Louisville, Ky. The Terps, one of 16 teams remaining from the original 68-team field, will face the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, Kansas, at the KFC Yum Center. The last time Maryland reached the Sweet 16 was in 2003, a year after its only national championship.
• ACC puts record six teams in Sweet 16: Seven ACC teams earned bids, only one, Pittsburgh is out of the tournament after two rounds.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – NOAH POLLAK – The Weekly Standard

• AIPAC preview: Who will be the top speeches at AIPAC? Why is important for presidential candidates to make their pitch at AIPAC? What issues are the top topics this year at AIPAC? What do you make of some prominent Jews calling for a boycott of Trump’s AIPAC speech? What do you think about Bernie Sanders being the only presidential candidate to not attend?
• Hillary Clinton and all three Republicans still in the presidential race will be at AIPAC.
• Bernie Sanders confirms he won’t attend AIPAC. Bernie Sanders will be the only presidential candidate not speaking before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he confirmed on Friday. The Vermont senator’s campaign announced he had sent a letter to the pro-Israel lobbying group explaining why he will not be able to attend next week’s AIPAC’s policy conference — a major annual gathering point for the Jewish state’s American supporters.  “I would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference. Obviously issues impacting Israel and the Middle East are of the utmost importance to me, to our country and to the world,” Sanders, who is Jewish, wrote to AIPAC President Robert Cohen. “Unfortunately, I am going to be traveling throughout the West and the campaign schedule that we have prevents me from attending.”
• Many prominent Jews are calling for a boycott of Trump’s speech at AIPAC. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump single-handedly tanked a scheduled Fox News presidential debate by saying he’d skip it in order to speak Monday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference. But as the big day approaches, more and more prominent Jews are calling for a boycott of the contentious candidate’s speech. Jane Eisner, editor of the Jewish-American newspaper Forward, called for a boycott of the speech in column published Wednesday, according to The Hill. Her column, headlined “13 Ways To React When Trump Takes the Stage at AIPAC,” suggested rescinding the Republican frontrunner’s invitation or otherwise scheduling his speech for the highly inconvenient time slot of 3-3:45 a.m. If neither of those things are possible, Eisner suggested scheduling his speech right before Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s.
• Trump: My Israel peace deal is “not an Obama-type deal”‘  – Donald Trump dodged questions on the particulars of his plan for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday, but insisted that what he does have is “not an Obama-type deal.” The Republican presidential front-runner declined to share on Sunday’s “This Week” any details of his planned speech Monday before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

8am – E         Scott Baio endorses Donald Trump: “We need somebody to relentlessly attack Hillary.”  Scott Baio has added his name to the list of celebrities who are getting behind Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. The actor revealed his endorsement of Trump to Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, calling himself “fed up” with the Republican party. When asked why he supports Trump, Baio, who identifies as a conservative independent, said Trump “communicates with people very well.” “It’s very simple, because when he speaks I understand him,” Baio said. “He speaks like I speak, he communicates with people very well. I want him, as any one person can do, to go into Washington and blow it up.” The “Charlies in Charge,” “Happy Days” and “Joanie Loves Chachi” actor went on to say that the right needs someone to “relentlessly” take on democrat Hillary Clinton. “They’re going to attack whomever the Republican nominee is,” he said. “We need somebody to relentlessly, relentlessly attack Hillary. It’s the only way we’re going to win. I’m trying to be a classy guy, but to win elections nowadays, the Democrats and liberals attack viciously.”