Joe diGenova, Tim Burt, Liz Clarke and guest host Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, February 6, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Trump On Putin Being A ‘Killer:’ ‘You Think Our Country Is So Innocent?’ President Trump repeated his sentiment that he has respect for Vladimir Putin. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly that will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the president said America is not “so innocent” when he was asked about the Russian leader’s murderous reputation. “I do respect him,” Trump said. “Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them. He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not. If Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all around the world, major fight. That’s a good thing.” “But, [Putin] is a killer,” O’Reilly said. “There are a lot of killers,” Trump responded. “We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

5am – D         Setback for Trump: Appeals court rejects demand to resume travel ban — for now. Washington (CNN) A federal appeals court early Sunday morning denied the US government’s emergency request to resume President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked for both sides to file legal briefs before the court makes its final decision after a federal judge halted the program on Friday. What this means is that the ruling by US District Court Judge James Robart, who suspended the ban, will remain in place — for now. The US Justice Department filed an appeal just after midnight Sunday, asking to pause Robart’s sweeping decision that temporarily halted enforcement of several key provisions of Trump’s executive order. The order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — from entering the US for 90 days, all refugees for 120 days and indefinitely halts refugees from Syria.

5am – E         Iran Carries Out New Missile Tests After Trump Imposes Sanctions. (Bloomberg) — Iran carried out further missile tests during an annual military exercise, a day after President Donald Trump imposed fresh sanctions on a raft of individuals and companies in response to the country test-firing a ballistic rocket last week. The country successfully tested a range of land-to-land missiles and radar systems during the drills in a 35,000 square-kilometer stretch of desert in the northern Iranian province of Semnan, the semi-official Tasnim agency reported Saturday, citing Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ aerospace division.

6am – A/B     BEST AND WORST OF THE SUPER BOWL:

• Were you happy or sad the Patriots won?
• Were you pleased that Lady Gaga didn’t get political?
• What did you think of the ads?
• Patriots complete biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, win fifth title. Houston (CNN) For the first time, a Super Bowl needed overtime, and for the fifth time, the New England Patriots are Super Bowl champions. This time, it took the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history to do it, rallying from a 25-point deficit and defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 at NRG Stadium in Houston in Super Bowl LI. Tom Brady became the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl titles. He was named Super Bowl MVP for the fourth time, the most all time. “It was a hell of a football game,” Brady said. Atlanta had a 28-3 lead midway through the third quarter. But a costly Atlanta fumble by quarterback Matt Ryan midway through the fourth quarter helped set up the Patriots to come all the way back to tie it at 28.

6am – C         Super Bowl could take $1B bite out of worker productivity. WASHINGTON — Fewer workers this year are expected to call off work or come in late the day after Sunday night’s big game, according to one big survey. Still, the dreaded “Super Bowl hangover” is expected to take a big bite — by one count, a billion-dollar bite — out of office productivity. About 10 percent of workers are planning to take off work or come in late after the New England Patriots face off against the Atlanta Falcons in Houston on Sunday. That’s according to a survey of about 6,500 U.S. business professionals conducted by Captivate Office Pulse, a New York-based company that studies workforce trends. Still, that’s only about half the number of people who said they planned to stay home or clock in late after their Super Bowl celebrating last year, said Heather Chigas, the company’s research director. This year, about 6 percent of workers said they plan to stay home on the Monday, while 4 percent said they plan on heading in to work late, according to the survey.

6am – D         The Washington Post Walks Back Report Of Steve Bannon ‘Confrontation.’ “It’s a patently false, made up story,” said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. (Huffington Post) — The Washington Post no longer stands by its account of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon personally confronting Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week ― an incident the White House says never took place. “It’s a patently false, made up story,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told The Huffington Post. Post columnist Josh Rogin reported Saturday morning that Bannon “paid a personal and unscheduled visit” to Kelly’s office on Jan. 28 and urged him not to issue a waiver for lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, to President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order on immigration. Kelly “refused to comply,” Rogin wrote, attributing the information to “two administration officials familiar with the confrontation.” Spicer reached out to the Post Saturday morning and said there was no Bannon-Kelly faceoff, as had been reported, and disputed other details of the story. In an interview with HuffPost, Spicer said Bannon was not on a 2 a.m. Sunday conference call with senior staffers, as Rogin reported, and took issue with the columnist’s framing of a DHS press conference held on Tuesday. Spicer said he personally urged DHS to hold the press conference, though believed the columnist suggested the agency did so on its own.

6am – E         What to Watch in Congress: Confirmation Votes (NY Times) — WASHINGTON — Emboldened by weeks of protests across the country, congressional Democrats are digging in as Republicans try to swiftly remake a government shaped by the Obama administration. Tensions over President Trump’s early efforts to deliver on a long menu of campaign promises have spilled into the halls of Congress, turning once-routine debates into a proxy battle over a combative president. With the Senate already hinting it could work through the weekend, expect another busy week at the Capitol. Let us get you up to speed.

• Vice President Mike Pence could well be needed to break a 50-50 tie in the Senate over the nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary.

• Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, could be confirmed by the end of the week.
• Republicans in Congress will also vote to roll back Obama-era regulations.
• Pence may be summoned to the Capitol early this week to cast the 51st vote to confirm Ms. DeVos as education secretary over vociferous, now bipartisan objections. The Senate could vote on her nomination as late as Tuesday.
• Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, the federal appeals court judge nominated by Mr. Trump for the Supreme Court, will continue his courtesy meetings with senators. Judge Gorsuch is expected to meet on Monday with Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, after having sat down last week with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

6am – F         Neiman Marcus piles on: The retail chain follows Nordstrom in dropping Ivanka’s line. (Blaze) – Just after Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s fashion line due to sagging sales, high-end retailer Neiman Marcus also opted to stop sales of the first-daughter’s jewelry consignment pieces citing “productivity” concerns. A representative for the retailer released the following statement: “Neiman Marcus has a very small Ivanka Trump precious jewelry business which is comprised 100 percent of consigned merchandise (merchandise owned by the vendor). Based on productivity we continuously assess whether our brands are carried in stores, on our website, or both.”  The decision by Neiman Marcus was reportedly influenced by a tip from one of the organizers of a boycott of Trump’s products called “Grab Your Wallet,” according to fashion insider magazine “Racked”: “ Shannon Coulter, one of the women behind the #GrabYourWallet boycott, tipped Racked off to Nordstrom dropping the Ivanka Trump line yesterday, and noticed the jewelry was missing from Neiman’s site earlier this morning.” Coulter later said there are 21 products for sale earlier this week, including a $12,000 diamond bracelet. Those have all disappeared and “Ivanka Trump” is no longer a successful search term on the retailer’s website. She has also been removed from the list of designers on Neiman Marcus’s master list.

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

• Setback for Trump: Appeals court rejects demand to resume travel ban — for now. A federal appeals court early Sunday morning denied the US government’s emergency request to resume President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked for both sides to file legal briefs before the court makes its final decision after a federal judge halted the program on Friday. What this means is that the ruling by US District Court Judge James Robart, who suspended the ban, will remain in place — for now. The US Justice Department filed an appeal just after midnight Sunday, asking to pause Robart’s sweeping decision that temporarily halted enforcement of several key provisions of Trump’s executive order.

7am – B         SNL Highlights:

• Alec Baldwin returns as Trump on SNL, where an evil Bannon is actually president. Is this how every “Saturday Night Live” cold open will go during the rest of the Donald Trump presidency — cramming jokes from an unbelievably busy news week into a 4-minute takedown? This week, there were references to the “Bowling Green massacre” (more on what that is, or rather isn’t, here). “The Apprentice” ratings came up — just as they did during the real life National Prayer Breakfast. Even Frederick Douglass got a mention as “a very important up-and-comer.” Alec Baldwin returned to the role of President Trump, and places some pretty disastrous phone calls to fellow world leaders — all while egged on by an evil Stephen K. Bannon character.
• Melissa McCarthy was the perfect choice to play White House’s Sean Spicer on SNL. (Washington Post) – NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has no shortage of white guys to play White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But this time, producers went outside of their cast roster to fill the role with a guest appearance by Melissa McCarthy — who absolutely crushed it. McCarthy displayed her commanding comedic presence as a fed-up, unhinged Spicer who scolded reporters in a sketch that stretched well beyond seven minutes. She didn’t just imitate a real-life person — McCarthy embodied an outrageous character so effectively that, judging by the studio audience’s delayed reaction at her presence, she was unrecognizable at first. McCarthy yelled. She chugged gum by the mouthful. She shifted her eyes and gesticulated wildly and went through a rapid-fire series of props to punctuate the press secretary’s point about President Trump’s refugee executive order. “Settle down, settle down, settle down!” she yelled. “Before we begin, I know that myself and the press have gotten off to a rocky start.”

7am – C         D.C. elementary school to close after ‘threats of pests and bed bugs’ (Washington Post) — A Southeast Washington ­elementary school building will close next week, and students will attend classes elsewhere for ­several weeks because of ­problems with pests and bed bugs. In a statement Friday, D.C. Public Schools said it would close Savoy Elementary in Anacostia on Monday and Tuesday for “a thorough cleaning of the ­building” and to “replace all soft materials in the building, ­including rugs, cots, blankets and pillows.” After the cleaning, the ­statement said, DCPS would work with the D.C. Department of Health “to ensure that the building passes a rigorous safety and health inspection.” Students will be told Sunday where they should plan to attend school for the next several weeks. The closure comes after ­problems with rodents and other pests at the school last month — problems addressed in a Facebook post Jan. 16 by Savoy Principal Donyale Butler. “A mass trapping was ­conducted over the winter ­holiday,” the note read. “The pest control company has performed an extensive assessment of the school and identified areas of concentration that need to be cleaned up and entry paths that need to be plugged in the building structure.” Although the note said there was no problem with bed bugs, a letter sent home Friday to Savoy ­families referenced “the recent threat of pests and bedbugs.”

7am – D         INTERVIEW – TIM BURT – Advertising expert – recapped the Super Bowl ads.

7am – E         Trump On Putin Being A ‘Killer:’ ‘You Think Our Country Is So Innocent?’ (Daily Caller) — President Trump repeated his sentiment that he has respect for Vladimir Putin. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly that will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the president said America is not “so innocent” when he was asked about the Russian leader’s murderous reputation. “I do respect him,” Trump said. “Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them. He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not. If Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all around the world, major fight. That’s a good thing.” “But, [Putin] is a killer,” O’Reilly said. “There are a lot of killers,” Trump responded. “We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

8am – A         INTERVIEW — LIZ CLARKE — Sports Reporter, The Washington Post –recapped the Super Bowl highlights: game highlights, halftime, ads, etc.

• Patriots complete biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, win fifth title

Houston (CNN) For the first time, a Super Bowl needed overtime, and for the fifth time, the New England Patriots are Super Bowl champions. This time, it took the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history to do it, rallying from a 25-point deficit and defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 at NRG Stadium in Houston in Super Bowl LI

8am – B/C  Calls on Super Bowl highlights

8am – D         Setback for Trump: Appeals court rejects demand to resume travel ban — for now. Washington (CNN) A federal appeals court early Sunday morning denied the US government’s emergency request to resume President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked for both sides to file legal briefs before the court makes its final decision after a federal judge halted the program on Friday. What this means is that the ruling by US District Court Judge James Robart, who suspended the ban, will remain in place — for now.

8am – E         The Washington Post Walks Back Report Of Steve Bannon ‘Confrontation.’ “It’s a patently false, made up story,” said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. (Huffington Post) — The Washington Post no longer stands by its account of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon personally confronting Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week ― an incident the White House says never took place. “It’s a patently false, made up story,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told The Huffington Post. Post columnist Josh Rogin reported Saturday morning that Bannon “paid a personal and unscheduled visit” to Kelly’s office on Jan. 28 and urged him not to issue a waiver for lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, to President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order on immigration. Kelly “refused to comply,” Rogin wrote, attributing the information to “two administration officials familiar with the confrontation.” Spicer reached out to the Post Saturday morning and said there was no Bannon-Kelly faceoff, as had been reported, and disputed other details of the story. In an interview with HuffPost, Spicer said Bannon was not on a 2 a.m. Sunday conference call with senior staffers, as Rogin reported, and took issue with the columnist’s framing of a DHS press conference held on Tuesday.