Stuart Varney, Bill Kristol, Jake Tapper and guest host Scottie Nell Hughes joined WMAL on Thursday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Hosts: Larry O’Connor and Scottie Nell Hughes

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A    INTERVIEW: CULLY STIMSON – former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs and Manager, National Security Law Program and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation  //  Why I Took My Daughter to Lay Wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery

5am – B/C     Trump convenes Pentagon brass ‘to bring costs down.’ Several of the military leaders who met with Trump oversee nuclear weapons and strategy. Donald Trump on Wednesday convened more than half a dozen top military officers, including for a discussion about “trying to bring costs down” on the controversial F-35 fighter jet and other high-priced Pentagon projects. Trump heard directly for the first time from Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35 project, which the president-elect has repeatedly slammed for its “out of control” cost and repeated schedule delays. The Pentagon also brought along some props: models of the three versions of the F-35 under development for the Air Force, Navy and Marines. As Trump escorted the military officials out, he told reporters his talks were “primarily the F-35, trying to get the costs down — a program that is very, very expensive.” Trump met separately with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. Lockheed produces the F-35, the most expensive weapons program in history, and Boeing is the contractor for the new fleet of Air Force One, a project Trump has threatened to cancel due to its price tag. Several of the generals and admirals who met with Trump also oversee nuclear weapons and strategy — a major flash point during the presidential campaign, when Trump’s opponents questioned whether he has the proper judgment to have authority to launch atomic arms.  The attendees included Vice Adm. James Syring, head of the Missile Defense Agency; Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein, deputy Air Force chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear Integration; Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson; Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran; Air Force Gen. Carlton Everhart, commander of the Air Mobility Command; and Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, head of the the Naval Sea Systems Command.

5am – D/E     It’s Going To Take Men With Guns To Stop The Suburban Deer Uprising. (Federalist) – In recent weeks, a spate of deer incidents nationwide should be a wakeup call: if we want to stop the deer uprising, we’d better start hunting  more deer. We need to talk about the deer uprising. Across the country, deer are starting to fight back, imposing themselves on us in our cities and suburbs, sometimes even in our homes. Consider the events of the the past week. A Maryland teenager shot and killed an adult deer after it broke down the door of his house. In South Carolina, a deer smashed through the window of a Gold’s Gym and raced through the weight room as terrified humans scattered. In New York City, the beloved Harlem deer that somehow made its way into the heart of America’s largest city died after police tranquilized and captured it.

6am – A/B/C Why Churches Shouldn’t Cancel Services On Christmas Day. Jesus has invited us to his birthday celebration, but many are staying home and opening their presents, instead. “Merry Christmas” or “happy holidays”? That was the big question in the ongoing “Christmas wars.” Last year’s skirmish over Starbucks’ seasonal red coffee cups proved there are still a few Christmas warriors out there, on both sides. Of course, the majority of Christians have no interest in chewing out minimum-wage baristas. We don’t mind when neighbors, coworkers, or grocery store clerks wish us “happy holidays.” But we do want to lovingly proclaim the reason behind the season. That’s why it’s so strange that this year, many churches—particularly megachurches—are cancelling services on the Lord’s Day because it coincides with Christmas. There are no exact figures on how many American churches are locking their doors on the 25th. But a quick search shows that most of the churches Christianity Today listed as closing up shop in 2005 are doing so again this year (Willow Creek and Mars Hill have, thankfully, opted to hold services on Christmas). Other influential megachurches like Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, and Buckhead Tower Point in Atlanta, have stuck to their guns. Obviously, this is still an issue, even in the heart of the Bible Belt. The number of churches hopping on this bandwagon may be higher than many think. As soon as word got out that I was writing about this, emails from friends and coworkers who said their churches are also cancelling Sunday services began filling my inbox. One colleague told me that she and her husband want to honor the Lord’s Day, but said they’d have to find a different church if they want to worship Jesus on Christmas morning.           

6am – D         What To Get Your Spouse Last Minute For Christmas?

6am – E         INTERVIEW – CHRIS BURNS – CNN Correspondent in BERLIN

• Tunisian suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack faced past German terror probe, official says
• Berlin attack suspect was ‘willing to serve as suicide bomber’
• Berlin Christmas market attack suspect was monitored by security services

7am – A/B/C Best Christmas Films?

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Anchor of Varney and Company, Fox Business Network – discussed Trump’s pro-business cabinet and his pick of Carl Icahn.

• Trump taps Carl Icahn for regulations busting post. Donald Trump once suggested he wanted Carl Icahn to be his Treasury secretary. But with that job gone, he instead has tapped Icahn to serve as a special adviser on regulatory reform. Trump’s transition office said Wednesday that activist investor Icahn “will be a leader in helping American entrepreneurs shed job-killing regulations that stifle economic growth.” Trump named Icahn as the type of person he wanted in his administration early in his campaign, telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in June 2015 that as Treasury secretary he would “love to bring my friend Carl Icahn.” It was a suggestion that Icahn quickly declined.

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• Bill Murray, brothers to open ‘Caddyshack’ bar in Chicago suburbs. Two new restaurants, including a golf-themed sports bar run by Bill Murray and his brothers, are in the works to open in Rosemont, officials said. The bar would be within the Crowne Plaza hotel at River Road and Balmoral Avenue, across the street from the Rosemont Theatre box office, according to Mayor Brad Stephens. The Murrays have a verbal agreement for an 11,000-square-foot space inside the hotel and are now working to get a written lease, Stephens said. Blueprints for the restaurant would have to be submitted for village review before construction could begin. It’s still unknown when that might occur. The Murrays — actor/comedian Bill, chef Andy, financial executive Ed and actors Brian, Joel and John — opened the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant/bar at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, in 2001.
• Morgan Freeman voices Mark Zuckerberg’s AI assistant, Jarvis.
• Metallica’s James Hetfield says he moved out of San Fran because of the city’s ‘elitist attitude’ / James Hetfield, founder and frontman of the world-famous metal band Metallica, says he recently moved out of his home city of San Francisco because he simply couldn’t deal with the city’s “elitist attitude” any longer. Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast, Hetfield explained that, despite calling Northern California home for the last several decades, he had to move because he could no longer take being looked down upon for his lifestyle choices and political views. Instead, Hetfield says that liberal San Francisco residents accept “diversity” only if you’re like them. “I kind of got sick of the Bay Area, the attitudes of the people there, a little bit,” Hetfield said. “They talk about how diverse they are, and things like that, and it’s fine if you’re diverse like them. But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn’t fly in Marin County.”

8am – A         INTERVIEW — BILL KRISTOL – Editor at Large – The Weekly Standard

• CASE FOR THE STAR WARS EMPIRE:
  • Bill Kristol Verified account ‏@BillKristol Dec 18: When I first saw Star Wars in 1977, I was inclined to root for the empire. 25 years later, @JVLast proved me right.
  • Bill Kristol Verified account ‏@BillKristol 16h16 hours ago: The Empire is Good because the Empire is Great.
  • Bill Kristol Verified account ‏@BillKristol Dec 14: Happy Holidays to the Empire! Since 1977 some of us have seen through media bias and been inspired by its pursuit of a civilizing mission…
• TAPPER AND KRISTOL ON “LOVE ACTUALLY”:
  • Jake Tapper ‏@jaketapper 18h18 hours ago: All this twitter fighting about the obvious fact #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie has crowded out the important “Love, Actually sucks” debate
  • Bill Kristol Verified account: ‏@BillKristol: .@jaketapper Actually no one cares about “Love, Actually.” While there’s of course so much at stake in the #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie debate.

8am – B         Hate Hoaxes:

• Parishioner Arrested For November Arson Of Black Church In Mississippi. Nearly two months after a black church in Greenville, Miss., was torched and painted with pro-Trump graffiti, a member of the church has been arrested and charged with the crime. “The Mississippi Department of Public Safety says 45-year-old Andrew McClinton is charged with arson of a place of worship in connection to the fire at the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville on Nov. 1,” Mark Rigsby of Mississippi Public Broadcasting reports. “Vote Trump” was spray-painted on the side of the church. The church burning, just days before the election, received widespread attention. But the Wednesday arrest of a man with a criminal record, 45-year-old Andrew McClinton, quickly dispelled those assumptions. McClinton, church and law enforcement officials told the Associated Press, is an African American member of the burned church. According to authorities, the blaze was not motivated by the presidential race.

• Hate Hoax: NYC Muslim Arrested After Claiming Attack by Trump Fans. A Muslim woman who drummed up mainstream media hysteria claiming she was attacked on a New York City subway by President-Elect Donald Trump supporters is now under arrest for fabricating the hate crime and filing a false police report. Yasmin Seweid, 18, has been charged by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for filing a fraudulent police report after she claimed Trump supporters called her a terrorist and attempted to pull her hijab off her head, the New York Daily News reported. A source with the New York Daily News said Seweid stood by her story until NYPD continued to press her on the matter after finding no evidence that the attack occurred. Seweid admitted that she had fabricated the story, claiming she had family problems.
• Man Claiming He Was Kicked Off Plane For Speaking Arabic Has History of Hoaxing People. YouTube celebrity Adam Saleh when viral Wednesday morning when he posted a video claiming to show he was being kicked off a Delta Airlines flight because he “spoke Arabic” on the phone and to a friend. The claim quickly took off, and media outlets reported the allegation without question. But Saleh has a history of hoax videos, including being caught just last week by another airline claiming he was lying about “smuggling” himself onto a plane by hiding in a suitcase. Saleh’s claim of racism has garnered more than 250,000 retweets. Just last week, however, Saleh claimed, “I Smuggled Myself On A Plane To Another City and IT WORKED!! (IN A SUITCASE).” This claim was quickly debunked by the airline, Tiger Air, which had surveillance video of Saleh boarding the plane. This wasn’t the first time Saleh was caught in a hoax. In 2014, Saleh admitted to staging a video hoax of police harassment of Muslim men as a “dramatization” to “raise awareness for Racial Profiling.”
• Another hijab hoax: University of Michigan student claimed man threatened to set her on fire. A University of Michigan student claimed last month that a man had threatened to set her on fire unless she removed her hijab. Now police say the story was a hoax. From the Detroit Free Press:     According to a statement from the Ann Arbor Police Department, detectives worked along with the U-M Division of Public Safety and the FBI to investigate the case, which had been classified as ethnic intimidation.  “Investigators conducted witness interviews and reviewed multiple surveillance videos of the area in question,” the department said. “During the course of the investigation, numerous inconsistencies in the statements provided by the alleged victim were identified. Following a thorough investigation, detectives have determined the incident in question did not occur.” The student, who has not been identified yet, could face charges for filing a false police report. She originally claimed the incident took place on Novermber 11th, just a few days after the election. Here is how the Free Press reported it at the time: Ann Arbor police are looking for a man who demanded that a University of Michigan student remove her hijab, a headscarf often worn by Muslim women, or be set on fire with a lighter.   The woman complied, according to a crime alert from the university’s division of public safety.

8am – C         Thursday is your last day to secure any gifts with Amazon Prime. Wait. What do you mean we’re exchanging gifts in a couple of days?! Thanksgiving is long gone, you scrambled to get the decorations up, and maybe you were able squeeze in a search for the perfect ugly sweater. Now it’s time to tackle those dreaded hard-to-shop-for people on your list. But you’d better get moving, today is your last day to secure any gifts with Amazon Prime.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – JAKE TAPPER – Anchor of CNN’s THE LEAD AND STATE OF THE UNION

• Jake Tapper ‏@jaketapper 18h18 hours ago: All this twitter fighting about the obvious fact #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie has crowded out the important “Love, Actually sucks” debate
• Kellyanne Conway lands top WH job in Trump administration. (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump tapped former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as “counselor to the president,” the presidential transition team announced Thursday morning. The transition team said Conway, the first female campaign manager to win a presidential race, will work with White House senior leadership on messaging and to help execute the administration’s legislative priorities. “In her position, Conway will continue her role as a close adviser to the President and will work with senior leadership to effectively message and execute the Administration’s legislative priorities and actions,” the Trump transition said in a statement. Conway’s role would be similar to Karen Hughes’ position in the Bush 43 administration — placing her close to the President, and handing her responsibility for much of the big-picture communication duties for the White House, a transition source told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

8am – E         DC Metro breaks tradition, won’t include Trump’s face on Inauguration Day card. (Washington Examiner) – President-elect Trump will not be featured on D.C. Metro’s special Inauguration Day card this year unlike his predecessors, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority acknowledged Wednesday. Instead, this year’s one-day unlimited ride card has a photo of the American flag and the White House on it, but no sign of the man being sworn into office. WMATA blamed the president-elect’s team for not including a photo of Trump on the card. “Metro requested permission to use a photo, but received no response from the campaign,” the agency told DCist. “Due to the long lead time to produce the cards, the new pass commemorates the national celebration of the 58th presidential inauguration.” WMATA created inauguration cards for both of President Obama’s ceremonies in 2008 and 2012. It even had one drawn up for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney before he lost in November. The cards will sell for $10, approximately 40 percent lower than the normal unlimited day passes.