Mornings on the Mall
Monday July 25, 2016
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor
5am – A/B/C
Hillary Clinton says that there is a double standard for law and justice in America, though conservative critics would strongly disagree with her about to whom it is most unfair.
During her sit-down with Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, the CBS anchor asked Clinton how she felt about those who repeatedly argue that she’s a corrupt political elitist who isn’t held to normal ethical standards. Clinton attributed all smears about her being “crooked” and “corrupt” to Republicans who are determined to paint her in a negative light to undermine the truth of her political accomplishments.
“I often feel like there’s the Hillary standard and then there’s the standard for everybody else,” Clinton said. When asked to explain, Clinton pointed to the rhetoric against her at the Republican Convention, calling it “unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited attacks with no basis in truth, reality, which take on a life of their own.”
Now, when it comes to the Benghazi attacks, the private email scandal, and various other matters, there are plenty who say that Clinton operates as though the law is beneath her, even though she has never been found guilty for any specific criminal act. As such, conservatives took notice of Clinton’s words, and they were not forgiving.
5am – D
“Heat Dome” roasting much of the U.S.
By: Matt Gray
Posted: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Updated: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Brutal heat continues to bake the the country from California to Florida and New England, and the worst of the heat will reach the Atlantic coast on Monday.
Temperatures topped over 100 degrees with head index values near 115 degrees across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas Saturday. Detroit hit a sizzling 98 while the South was treated to upper 90s and oppressive humidity. Sunday brought little relief as temperatures refused to cool down overnight.
The hottest may be yet to come for the East Coast. Washington D.C. is bracing for possible record highs on Monday with highs around 100 degrees and highs in the 90s for much of the week.
5am – E
Fort Myers Nightclub Shooting: 2 Dead, at Least 14 Others Wounded
by ERIN DEAN, ALEXANDER SMITH and KURT CHIRBAS
At least two people were killed and more than a dozen others injured in a shooting outside of a Florida nightclub early Monday, officials said.
Gunshots were fired in the parking lot of Club Blu in Fort Myers at around 12:30 a.m. ET.
Police said “at least 14-16 people” were wounded in the shooting, with their injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening.
A person of interest was detained at another location, and shots were fired — lightly injuring another person — five blocks away from the nightclub, police said.
NBC station WBBH reported that both of those killed were male.
More than two dozen yellow evidence markers were visible outside the club, which WBBH said indicated where bullet casings had fallen.
The aftermath of a shooting at Club Blu in Fort Myers, Florida, early Monday.
WBBH reporter Gabrielle Shirley reported that “a big crowd of people scattered everywhere taking cover” when the gunshots began.
She added that an employee at the club was too shocked to speak.
“He was just shaking his head, and through tears giving me the indication again that this is a very, very traumatic experience here, he could not even form words,” Shirley added.
In a statement, authorities said the Fort Myers Police Department and Lee County Sheriff’s Office were “actively canvassing the area looking for other persons who may be involved in this incident.”
Detectives had yet to determine a motive early Monday.
6am –A/B/C
Debbie Wasserman Schultz to Resign D.N.C. Post
By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALAN RAPPEPORTJULY 24, 2016
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, at a rally for Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, in Miami on Saturday. Credit Scott McIntyre for The New York Times
PHILADELPHIA — Democrats arrived at their nominating convention on Sunday under a cloud of discord as Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, abruptly said she was resigning after a trove of leaked emails showed party officials conspiring to sabotage the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The revelation, along with sizable pro-Sanders protests here in the streets to greet arriving delegates, threatened to undermine the delicate healing process that followed the contentious fight between Mr. Sanders and Hillary Clinton. And it raised the prospect that a convention that was intended to showcase the Democratic Party’s optimism and unity, in contrast to the Republicans, could be marred by dissension and disorder.
The day also veered extraordinarily into allegations, not easily dismissed, that Russia had a hand in the leaks that helped bring down the head of an American political party.
Despite those concerns, Democrats are hoping that focusing on Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, will galvanize the party to rally around Mrs. Clinton, and on Sunday those efforts received a major boost when Michael R. Bloomberg, the former Republican and independent mayor of New York, said he would endorse her.
In her resignation statement, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, a representative from Florida, said she would continue to fight for Mrs. Clinton from the sidelines.
“I know that electing Hillary Clinton as our next president is critical for America’s future,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “I look forward to serving as a surrogate for her campaign in Florida and across the country to ensure her victory.”
She added, “Going forward, the best way for me to accomplish those goals is to step down as party chair at the end of this convention.”
Donna Brazile, a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, will be the interim chairwoman through the election, the committee said.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz has faced a flurry of negative stories during her five-year tenure as the committee’s chairwoman, with critics charging that she was more focused on promoting her career than on the party, but she had resisted calls to quit.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation after a private meeting with advisers and senior aides to Mrs. Clinton at a hotel here a day before the party’s convention was set to begin. She had faced growing calls for her resignation over the weekend.
“In politics, you need to not only know when to draw your sword, but also when to fall on it,” said James Carville, a longtime friend and adviser to the Clintons.
The breach of the Democratic committee’s emails, made public on Friday by WikiLeaks, offered undeniable evidence of what Mr. Sanders’s supporters had complained about for much of the senator’s contentious primary contest with Mrs. Clinton: that the party was effectively an arm of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. The messages showed members of the committee’s communications team musing about pushing the narrative that the Sanders campaign was inept and trying to raise questions publicly about whether he was an atheist.
Mr. Sanders said the situation was an “outrage” on Sunday before the resignation was announced, and called for Ms. Wasserman Schultz to step down. Afterward, he said it was the right decision.
“The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race,” he said in a statement.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign aides ignored questions as they quickly left a hotel a few minutes after the resignation was announced. Ms. Brazile emerged soon after the Clinton aides had left and said in a brief interview that Ms. Wasserman Schultz had called her Sunday afternoon and asked her to come to the hotel where the Florida delegation was staying.
Convention organizers had expressed nervousness on Sunday about the specter of Ms. Wasserman Schultz appearing onstage at all during the four-day convention. They were worried that what they intended to be a well-choreographed event, which officials hoped would contrast with the sometimes chaotic Republican National Convention, could be marred by Mr. Sanders’s backers booing and heckling her.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz recognized the magnitude of the problem on Saturday and initially planned to offer an apology, one of her advisers said. But it became clear to her on Sunday that contrition was insufficient.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign handled the situation delicately, not wanting the chairwoman to feel intense pressure and dig in. The Clinton aides told Ms. Wasserman Schultz the choice to resign was hers to make, but they gently warned her that she would face jeers from Mr. Sanders’s supporters this week in the convention hall, said the adviser to Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
A supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont assembled an effigy of him on Sunday in Philadelphia as demonstrators called for the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times
The nudge was enough to force Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s hand.
The Clinton campaign also suggested on Sunday that Russia had been responsible for the leak as part of an effort to help Mr. Trump, who has made flattering comments about President Vladimir V. Putin.
The convention will feature a host of prominent attendees, and Monday will be headlined by speeches by Mr. Sanders and Michelle Obama, the first lady. President Obama and former President Bill Clinton will address the delegates later in the week, bringing the kind of presidential firepower that the Republican convention could not muster because of opposition to Mr. Trump.
The unexpected decision by Mr. Bloomberg to endorse Mrs. Clinton reflected his increasing dismay about the rise of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Sanders’s supporters were elated by Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision, which they said had been long overdue.
6am – D
INTERVIEW — DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA – counter-terrorism and irregular warfare expert and author of new BOOK: Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War
>> SPIKE IN ATTACKS IN GERMANY:
18 July: An axe-wielding teenage asylum seeker from Afghanistan is shot dead after injuring five people in an attack on a train. IS claims the attack, releasing a video recorded by the attacker before the incident
22 July: A German teenager of Iranian extraction goes on a shooting rampage in the Bavarian state capital, Munich, killing nine people, most of them migrants, before shooting himself. He is said to have been obsessed with school shootings
24 July: A Syrian asylum seeker is arrested in the town of Reutlingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, after allegedly killing a Polish woman with a machete and injuring two other people. Police suggest it was probably a “crime of passion”
24 July: A failed Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the small Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring 12 other people. Motive not immediately clear
6am – E
“Heat Dome” roasting much of the U.S.
By: Matt Gray
Posted: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Updated: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Brutal heat continues to bake the the country from California to Florida and New England, and the worst of the heat will reach the Atlantic coast on Monday.
Temperatures topped over 100 degrees with head index values near 115 degrees across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas Saturday. Detroit hit a sizzling 98 while the South was treated to upper 90s and oppressive humidity. Sunday brought little relief as temperatures refused to cool down overnight.
The hottest may be yet to come for the East Coast. Washington D.C. is bracing for possible record highs on Monday with highs around 100 degrees and highs in the 90s for much of the week.
7am – A/B
INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst
Clinton says there is ‘Hillary standard’ for her on campaign trail
Published July 25, 2016 FoxNews.com
Hillary Clinton brushed aside Sunday night the wrongdoings that have dogged her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president — including her reckless use of a private email system that the FBI determined involved the passing of classified information, which she continues to deny — claiming the allegations have “no basis in truth,” and represent the “Hillary standard.”
“I often feel like there’s the Hillary standard, and then there’s the standard for everybody else,” she told CBS News “60 Minutes” in an interview that included her new running mate, Tim Kaine.
When asked to explain, Clinton claimed that allegations against her — that include those made by a Republican-led investigation into her role in the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead — are “unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited” and “take on a life of their own.”
She went on to say that, “People are very willing to say things about me, to make accusations about me that are, I don’t get upset about them anymore, but they, they are very regrettable.”
When asked in the interview about what she calls Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in response to his repeated use of the term “Crooked Hillary,” Clinton said she has no nickname.
Clinton said she won’t “engage in that kind of insult-fest that he seems to thrive on.”
She then went on to criticize the just-ended Republican National Convention, claiming, “I seem to be the only unifying– theme that they had,” attacking the GOP speakers, claiming they painted a negative picture of the country “that I did not recognize. So I was saddened by it.”
Clinton added that she will focus her campaign on telling voters that Trump “has hurt people in business time after time after time,” and will also call attention to the “total disregard that he has shown toward large groups of people in our country.”
Kaine said the repeated use of the term “Crooked Hillary,” and chants of “lock her up” at last week’s Republican convention was ridiculous.
The Virginia senator and former governor added that “most of us stopped the name-calling thing about fifth grade.”
When asked by CBS’s Scott Pelly if he would be ready to be president if needed, Kaine said he was “ready to lead.”
“I think I’m ready to lead. I– I’m ready first to be a supportive vice president so that the presidency of Hillary Clinton is– is a fantastic one,” Kaine said. “But if something were to put that in my path, as much as any human being would be ready, I’d be ready.”
7am –C
Getting people exercise at airport: BWI plans to open gym
By ANDREA K. MCDANIELS –
Associated Press – Sunday, July 24, 2016
BALTIMORE (AP) – Amy Hough and Craig Lennon are avid hikers, runners and vegetarians. But they leave their healthy ways at home when they head to the airport – where, like many, they behave more like couch potatoes.
‘It’s very easy to fall into an unhealthy rut when you’re traveling,” Lennon said as the couple waited for a flight at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. “Like I keep looking over there at Cinnabon.”
Officials at BWI are working to change that. The airport, already lauded for offering walking trails and bike rentals, and pushing restaurant tenants to offer healthier fare, now plans to open a full-service gymnasium this fall.
Such efforts have been a hard sale elsewhere. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, for instance, closed one gym intended for travelers (but has opened another one for airport workers). Philadelphia International Airport removed stationary bikes.
But BWI officials are convinced that health-conscious travelers are looking for ways to stay active, and say they are using a model that other airports have not tried.
7am – D
INTERVIEW – LANNY DAVIS – former Clinton White House Counsel
Clinton says there is ‘Hillary standard’ for her on campaign trail
Published July 25, 2016 FoxNews.com
Hillary Clinton brushed aside Sunday night the wrongdoings that have dogged her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president — including her reckless use of a private email system that the FBI determined involved the passing of classified information, which she continues to deny — claiming the allegations have “no basis in truth,” and represent the “Hillary standard.”
“I often feel like there’s the Hillary standard, and then there’s the standard for everybody else,” she told CBS News “60 Minutes” in an interview that included her new running mate, Tim Kaine.
When asked to explain, Clinton claimed that allegations against her — that include those made by a Republican-led investigation into her role in the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead — are “unfounded, inaccurate, mean-spirited” and “take on a life of their own.”
She went on to say that, “People are very willing to say things about me, to make accusations about me that are, I don’t get upset about them anymore, but they, they are very regrettable.”
When asked in the interview about what she calls Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in response to his repeated use of the term “Crooked Hillary,” Clinton said she has no nickname.
Clinton said she won’t “engage in that kind of insult-fest that he seems to thrive on.”
She then went on to criticize the just-ended Republican National Convention, claiming, “I seem to be the only unifying– theme that they had,” attacking the GOP speakers, claiming they painted a negative picture of the country “that I did not recognize. So I was saddened by it.”
Clinton added that she will focus her campaign on telling voters that Trump “has hurt people in business time after time after time,” and will also call attention to the “total disregard that he has shown toward large groups of people in our country.”
Kaine said the repeated use of the term “Crooked Hillary,” and chants of “lock her up” at last week’s Republican convention was ridiculous.
The Virginia senator and former governor added that “most of us stopped the name-calling thing about fifth grade.”
When asked by CBS’s Scott Pelly if he would be ready to be president if needed, Kaine said he was “ready to lead.”
“I think I’m ready to lead. I– I’m ready first to be a supportive vice president so that the presidency of Hillary Clinton is– is a fantastic one,” Kaine said. “But if something were to put that in my path, as much as any human being would be ready, I’d be ready.”
7am-E
“Heat Dome” roasting much of the U.S.
By: Matt Gray
Posted: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Updated: Jul 24, 2016 09:52 PM MDT
Brutal heat continues to bake the the country from California to Florida and New England, and the worst of the heat will reach the Atlantic coast on Monday.
Temperatures topped over 100 degrees with head index values near 115 degrees across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas Saturday. Detroit hit a sizzling 98 while the South was treated to upper 90s and oppressive humidity. Sunday brought little relief as temperatures refused to cool down overnight.
The hottest may be yet to come for the East Coast. Washington D.C. is bracing for possible record highs on Monday with highs around 100 degrees and highs in the 90s for much of the week.
8am – A
INTERVIEW — KEN CUCCINELLI – former Virginia Attorney General
TOPICS:
– Virginia Court Overturns Order That Restored Voting Rights To Felons
– Clinton Picks Kaine for VP
– His thoughts on the RNC rules fight and what really happened
8am-B/C
INTERVIEW — SARAH WESTWOOD – Investigative Reporter for the Washington Examiner
Wasserman Schultz to resign amid DNC email hack
By SARAH WESTWOOD (@SARAHCWESTWOOD) • 7/24/16 4:09 PM
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Will No Longer Chair DNC
Inform
PHILADELPHIA — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, announced her decision to resign Sunday amid controversy over leaked emails that exposed the DNC’s underhanded efforts to stifle Sen. Bernie Sanders’ popularity during the primary.
Her resignation will become effective at the end of the convention, where she had already been stripped of her prime-time speaking role as calls for her to step down grew louder over the weekend.
Wasserman Schultz cited her desire to focus on boosting Hillary Clinton in Florida, where she is running for re-election, in a statement announcing her decision to step down just one day before the Democratic convention begins here in Philadelphia.
“Going forward, the best way for me to accomplish those goals is to step down as party chair at the end of this convention,” she said. “As party chair, this week I will open and close the convention and I will address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans.”
Stay abreast of the latest developments from nation’s capital and beyond with curated News Alerts from the Washington Examiner news desk and delivered to your inbox.
Wasserman Schultz had faced pressure to leave the DNC since Friday, when a massive leak of internal documents suggested DNC officials had conspired to attack Sanders on his religion ahead of primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky. Her stewardship of the party has been under near-constant fire throughout this primary season, with supporters of Sanders smelling collusion long before WikiLeaks released stolen DNC emails.
DNC Vice Chair Donna Brazile will preside over the party until the election, a DNC spokesman said Sunday.
The DNC leak that felled Wasserman Schultz cast a cloud over the convention as Democrats gathered to nominate Clinton later this week. Sanders supporters had only recently — and begrudgingly — shifted their allegiance to Clinton when the Vermont senator threw his full weight behind her earlier this month.
The news that the DNC’s pattern of favoritism toward Clinton was more than just a progressive conspiracy theory could threaten to unravel the party unity Clinton’s camp has worked hard to secure in the weeks before the Democratic convention.
Wasserman Schultz repeatedly fended off criticism over her handling of the 2016 primaries. For example, she argued the DNC’s decision to cap the number of debates was not a move that favored the former secretary of state, even though Clinton’s detractors felt the smaller debate slate unfairly punished Sanders.
8am – D/E
INTERVIEW — DONNA SMITH – Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America, which has an estimated 220 Sanders delegates.
Furious Sanders backers weighing challenge to Kaine nomination
Trying to find alternative to Kaine
Wasserman Schultz won’t speak at convention
Delegates considering protests on floor
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
JULY 24, 2016 11:34 AM
Bernie Sanders delegates, furious over Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick and leaked emails showing the Democratic Party was helping Hillary Clinton, said Sunday they’re seeking their own vice presidential candidate and weighing protests on the floor.
They have no alternative to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Clinton’s running mate in mind yet. And they’re thinking about walking out during the Clinton or Kaine acceptance speech, or perhaps sitting silently.
“We feel that here at the Democratic National Convention is absolutely the appropriate place to argue out these issues in a democracy,” said Donna Smith, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, which has an estimated 220 Sanders delegates.
“She’s clearly damaged party unity” with the Kaine choice, added Norman Solomon, coordinator of the national Bernie Delegates Network. They spoke Sunday at a downtown Philadelphia news conference.
The delegates have not yet heard from Sanders. He plans to meet with his delegates Monday afternoon, just before the convention begins.
But the combination of the Kaine choice and WikiLeaks revelations about how the Democratic Party helped Clinton in her battle against Sanders during the nominating season have Sanders delegates angry. Among the emails are those from Democratic National Committee staffers trying to raise questions about Sanders’ Jewish religion before primaries in Kentucky and West Virginia.
“It’s just shameful,” said Solomon of the news.
Sanders has long wanted Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz removed, and he reiterated that view Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I don’t think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC not only for these awful emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don’t think her leadership style is doing that,” he said.
Wasserman Schultz no longer has a speaking spot at the convention and will no longer chair the convention. She’s only due to gavel the convention in and out.
Sanders, though, has not gone as far as many of his delegates in calling for convention insurgency.
“The focus, though, that I am going to go forward on right now is to make sure that Donald Trump — perhaps the worst Republican candidate in the history of this country; somebody that by temperament, somebody that by ideology, must not be president of the United States,” he told CNN.
“I am going to do everything I can to defeat him, to elect Hillary Clinton, and to keep focusing, keep focusing, on the real issues facing the American people.”
Kaine bothers the liberals for several reasons, including his support for bank deregulation. They seem to have no specific alternative candidate in mind, but they’re looking.
