CEI’s Trey Kovacs, Weekly Standard’s Noah Pollak, CPAC’s Matt Schlapp, CNN’s Jake Tapper and guest host Vince Coglianese joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B     MICHAEL FLYNN NEWS:

• Trump blasts ‘criminal’ leaks by intelligence agencies, calls Flynn a ‘wonderful man’: (reuters) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday assailed what he said were illegal and “criminal” leaks from U.S. intelligence agencies in the controversy over contacts with Russian officials that forced his national security adviser Michael Flynn to resign. Speaking at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump called Flynn a “wonderful man” and added: “I think it’s very, very unfair what’s happened to General Flynn, the way he was treated, and the documents and papers that were illegally, I stress that, illegally leaked.”
• Trump’s new national security adviser pick a 180-degree turn from Flynn. (The Hill) — President Trump has asked a widely respected career naval officer to replace Michael Flynn, a choice that appears designed to soothe growing anxiety about turmoil on his national security team. It was not immediately clear whether Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who served on the National Security Council (NSC) under President George W. Bush, has accepted the position of national security adviser, according to multiple reports.
• Daily Caller News Foundation: Intel Hit Job On Flynn Used Tactics Usually Reserved For Enemies Of The State, Top Former Official Says. Michael Flynn’s resignation was an intelligence community hit job of the kind typically reserved for enemies of the state, former intelligence officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Daily Caller News Foundation: How The Nation’s Spooks Played The Game ‘Kill Mike Flynn’
• REPORT: Intel Officials Are Withholding Sensitive Information from Trump. (Mediaite) — A new report in The Wall Street Journal tonight says that U.S. intelligence officials have “withheld” information from President Trump. “U.S. intelligence officials have withheld sensitive intelligence from President Donald Trump because they are concerned it could be leaked or compromised, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter… In some of these cases of withheld information, officials have decided not to show Mr. Trump the sources and methods that the intelligence agencies use to collect information, the current and former officials said. Those sources and methods could include, for instance, the means that an agency uses to spy on a foreign government. There has been a lot of reported tension between Trump and many in the intel community, and the president himself has repeatedly slammed the leaks to the press this week. One White House official told WSJ, “There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening.” The anonymous officials who spoke to the paper made it clear Trump has not been kept from “crucial information about security threats or potential plotting,

5am – C   Puzder Withdraws:

• Andrew Puzder Withdraws From Consideration as Labor Secretary. WASHINGTON — The fast-food executive Andrew F. Puzder withdrew his nomination to be labor secretary on Wednesday as Republican senators turned sharply against him, the latest defeat for a White House besieged by infighting and struggling for traction even with a Republican-controlled Congress. The toppling of one of President Trump’s cabinet picks was a victory for Democrats, unions and liberal groups that had been attacking Mr. Puzder’s business record and his character since he was chosen in December. Conservative publications, including National Review and Breitbart, had also expressed resistance, zeroing in on Mr. Puzder’s employment of an undocumented immigrant as his housekeeper. And records from his 1988 divorce, disseminated Tuesday night by opponents, resurfaced spousal abuse accusations that made some Republican senators uncomfortable. His ex-wife had recanted those accusations, but senators from both parties privately screened a videotape from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that featured her laying out the charges while in disguise. In a statement, Mr. Puzder thanked the president and those who supported him for their optimism about the “policies and new thinking” he would have brought to the job.
• White House reporter for Bloomberg News @JenniferJJacobs: NEW: Trump’s labor sec finalists: 1. Catherine Templeton 2. Joseph Guzman 3. Peter Kirsanow 4. Alexander Acosta  (a white woman, a black man and two Hispanic men)
• Chad Pergram ‏@ChadPergram 9h9 hours ago: Puzder isn’t 1st LaborSec nominee to blow up. Bush43 LaborSec nominee Linda Chavez withdrew. Clinton had trouble w/Alexis Herman nomination

5am – D         List of local restaurants closing Thursday for ‘A Day Without Immigrants’ (Fox 5 DC) — WASHINGTON – Many D.C. area restaurants will be closed Thursday in support of “A Day Without Immigrants” strike. Many immigrants in the restaurant and hospitality industries are expected to skip work on Thursday in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. On Wednesday, local Chef Jose Andres announced that he will be closing his restaurants Thursday in participation of the strike. Jaleo, Zaytinya and Oyamel DC will all be closed.

5am – E         Arlington says ‘no thanks’ to Georgetown-Rosslyn gondola. A proposed gondola connecting Georgetown and Rosslyn across the Potomac River won’t be funded with money from Arlington because other transportation projects, such as Metro and Columbia Pike transit, take priority, the Arlington County Board said. “Given our identified and pressing transportation needs, along with some ongoing concerns about the long-term value of the gondola, the Board is not in favor of any further funding of the gondola project,” the board’s chairman, Jay Fisette (D), said in a letter to the gondola study committee. But the project — which has been touted by the Georgetown Business Improvement District, among others, as a cheaper way to get mass transit access between the two booming neighborhoods — is far from dead, Joe Sternlieb, president of the Georgetown BID, said.

6am – A/B/C Grocer faces boycott over Trump wines. ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Wegmans Food Markets is the latest retailer to face political pressure for carrying products connected to President Donald Trump. The Gates-based grocer is being called on to remove Trump Winery products from its Virginia stores, where it sells 237 different wines from 58 wineries in that state. The Stop Trump Wine group has asked Virginians to boycott grocers, retailers, restaurants and other organizations doing business with Trump Winery. “Events during Donald Trump’s campaign made it clear that Eric Trump, the president of Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares the views of his father,” according to the group’s website. “Let’s demonstrate through economic action that the residents and businesses of Charlottesville will not stand for the hatred espoused by Eric Trump and those like him.” Wegmans has been selling bottles from the Charlottesville winery since 2008, when it was operated by Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard.

6am – D/E     INTERVIEW – TREY KOVACS – Labor policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)

• BIO: Trey Kovacs is a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the economic impacts of labor policy. He has spent the last five years researching the adverse effects of public-sector unions on workplace choice and the economy, worker freedom, private-sector labor relations, and other labor policy reforms.
• Andrew Puzder Withdraws From Consideration as Labor Secretary. In a statement, Mr. Puzder thanked the president and those who supported him for their optimism about the “policies and new thinking” he would have brought to the job.

6am – E         Critter News:

• ‘We had a loud bang’: Jet leaving Charlotte hits deer, makes emergency landing. An American Eagle jet landed safely at Charlotte Douglas International Airport after hitting a deer on takeoff Wednesday afternoon. An American Airlines regional jet that was taking off at Charlotte Douglas International Airport struck a deer at about noon Wednesday, causing the crew to declare an emergency and return to the airport. The American Eagle plane was headed to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi with 44 passengers and four crew members aboard, American spokeswoman Katie Cody said. The CRJ-700 struck the deer during its takeoff roll. The flight crew declared an emergency and then did a flyover so personnel on the ground could inspect it for damage prior to attempting a landing. “We had a loud bang, we’re coming back,” someone who appears to be a pilot tells an air traffic controller, in a recording from the Charlotte Douglas control tower. “OK, we think you hit – somebody that was passing said it was a deer,” the air traffic worker replies, then gives the plane directions to return.
• Bidding farewell to Bao Bao: DC prepares for giant panda’s departure. The National Zoo is preparing to send one of its superstars, giant panda Bao Bao, to China next week. But her fans still have time to say goodbye. WASHINGTON — The National Zoo is preparing to send one of its superstars, giant panda Bao Bao, to China next week. But her fans still have time to say goodbye. “She was born and raised here and, you know, we kind of got a little attached so we wanted to say goodbye,” said Greg Douds, who is visiting with his wife from Pennsylvania. They made sure to visit Bao Bao before she flies FedEx to China next week. “There could be worse ways to travel! It should be first class though,” he said. On Feb. 21, Smithsonian National Zoo Asian Trail Curator Michael Brown-Palsgrove said her keepers will put the 3-year-old giant panda in a crate she can stand in for the 16-hour flight.
• Dog waste dilemma unfolds in Northern Va. Town. CENTREVILLE, VA (WUSA9) – A Northern Virginia community has found itself in a messy situation and it all has to do with the removal of several dog waste cans.

6am – F         The Washington Redskins Are Back on WMAL! (WMAL) — The Washington Redskins announced today that WMAL will carry Redskins Radio Network broadcasts in the Washington, D.C. metro area on game days, beginning with the 2017 NFL season! Team President Bruce Allen joined The Larry O’Connor Show to share the news on Wednesday afternoon, along with Larry Michael, the “Voice of the Washington Redskins: The broadcasts represent a homecoming of sorts, as the Redskins will return to the same WMAL airwaves on which the team’s broadcasts aired as early as 1942. In addition to carrying game broadcasts, WMAL will carry an hour of the Redskins Radio Network pregame show as well as an hour of Redskins Radio Network postgame programming.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — NOAH POLLAK – Writer, Weekly Standard

• Trump, Meeting With Netanyahu, Backs Away From Palestinian State. WASHINGTON — President Trump jettisoned two decades of diplomatic orthodoxy on Wednesday by declaring that the United States would no longer insist on the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for the first time since becoming president, Mr. Trump promised a concerted effort to bring the two sides together, suggesting a regional effort involving an array of Arab nations. But he said that he was flexible about how an agreement would look and that he would not be bound by past assumptions.
• Pres. Trump says he “can live with” either one- or two-state solution in Israel.
• When it comes to Israel, stakes are high for Jared Kushner. (CBS News) – President Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. It’s the prime minister’s first visit after years of frosty relations with the Obama administration. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has emerged as a quiet force in the Trump White House, serving as a main conduit for foreign contacts in Mexico, China and Canada, among others. But when it comes to Israel, the stakes are especially high, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford. For Kushner, it’s also personal.

• Chad Pergram ‏@ChadPergram 15m15 minutes ago: Senate Foreign Relations hrng today on nomination of David Friedman to be US Ambassador to Israel
• David Friedman, Trump’s pick for Israel envoy, expected to apologize for bashing liberal Jews. (JTA) — President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is expected to apologize during his Senate confirmation hearing for derogatory statements he has made against liberal Jews. Representatives of the nominee told Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., who is the senior Democratic member of the Foreign Relations Committee that will hold the confirmation hearing, that Friedman will apologize for use of the term “kapo” to attack J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Kapos are the Jewish prisoners who were forced to work for the Nazis in the concentration and death camps.

7am – B         MICHAEL FLYNN NEWS:

• Trump blasts ‘criminal’ leaks by intelligence agencies, calls Flynn a ‘wonderful man’
• Trump’s new national security adviser pick a 180-degree turn from Flynn. It was not immediately clear whether Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who served on the National Security Council (NSC) under President George W. Bush, has accepted the position of national security adviser, according to multiple reports.
• Daily Caller News Foundation: Intel Hit Job On Flynn Used Tactics Usually Reserved For Enemies Of The State, Top Former Official Says. Michael Flynn’s resignation was an intelligence community hit job of the kind typically reserved for enemies of the state, former intelligence officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Daily Caller News Foundation: How The Nation’s Spooks Played The Game ‘Kill Mike Flynn’
• REPORT: Intel Officials Are Withholding Sensitive Information from Trump. (Mediaite) — A new report in The Wall Street Journal tonight says that U.S. intelligence officials have “withheld” information from President Trump.

7am – C         Kutcher delivered a message during a Senate hearing: I’m here “to defend the right to pursue happiness.”

• Ashton Kutcher: Kids’ happiness is ‘stripped away’ by sex trafficking. (USA Today) — Ashton Kutcher delivered a powerful monologue for his latest role Wednesday: Witness at a Senate hearing titled entitled, “Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success.” The chairman and co-founder of Thorn, 39, took a break from a film to give his testimony. According to Thorn’s website, the organization partners “across the tech industry, government and NGOs and leverage technology to combat predatory behavior, rescue victims, and protect vulnerable children.” “I’m here today to defend the right to pursue happiness,” Kutcher said, beginning his testimony. “It’s a simple notion, the right to pursue happiness. It’s bestowed upon all of us by our Constitution… and I believe that it is incumbent upon us as citizens of this nation, as Americans, to bestow that right upon others upon each other a nd on the rest of the world.” “But the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away,” he continued. “It’s raped. It’s abused. It’s taken by force, fraud or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.”

7am – D/E     List of local restaurants closing Thursday for ‘A Day Without Immigrants’ (Fox 5 DC) — WASHINGTON – Many D.C. area restaurants will be closed Thursday in support of “A Day Without Immigrants” strike. Many immigrants in the restaurant and hospitality industries are expected to skip work on Thursday in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. On Wednesday, local Chef Jose Andres announced that he will be closing his restaurants Thursday in participation of the strike. Jaleo, Zaytinya and Oyamel DC will all be closed.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — MATT SCHLAPP, Chairman of The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACU), the organization that hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and also is Mr. Mercedes Schlapp

• MATT will preview the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
• WMAL will be broadcasting from there — Mornings on the Mall 5-9 AM… Chris Plante from 9-12 pm… Larry O’Connor from 3 to 6 pm
• CPAC 2017 will be held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at the National Harbor in Maryland, February 22rd through the 25th. For more information about CPAC or to get tickets to the Ronald Reagan Dinner. Please visit www.CPAC.org.
• Discussed latest political news

8am – B         Dog waste dilemma unfolds in Northern Va. Town. CENTREVILLE, VA (WUSA9) – A Northern Virginia community has found itself in a messy situation and it all has to do with the removal of several dog waste cans. The Newgate Homeowners Association Board of Directors removed dog waste cans from their Centreville subdivision last month. Ever since then, residents have complained about dog waste being left all over the neighborhood in inappropriate areas. The HOA’s board of directors noticed some problems after the removal of those waste cans too. It actually sent out a letter last week to residents that claimed people were putting dog waste in the cars owned by HOA board members. The letter also said someone got so worked up over the HOA’s removal of its disposal cans that the person tried to mail dog waste through United States Postal Service to the home of an HOA board member.

8am – C         Pres. Trump set to travel to Florida this weekend for what the White House has termed “a campaign event.” (ABC News) – President Donald Trump took office just weeks ago, but now he is set to travel to Orlando Saturday for what the White House has termed “a campaign event.” The event, which is listed on Trump’s campaign website, will take place at a hangar at the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport, the site of a previous Trump campaign rally in September. Trump repeatedly took aim at former President Barack Obama for his campaign efforts while in office. Asked about the event Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer called the rally “a campaign event” and said it is “being run by the campaign.” The White House confirmed Wednesday that Trump will fly aboard Air Force One to Florida this weekend for a previously scheduled trip to his home at Mar-a-Lago. It is not yet clear how he will travel from there to Orlando for Saturday’s event.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER, Anchor of THE LEAD and STATE OF THE UNION on CNN — discussed the fallout of Mike Flynn’s resignation and leaks.

8am – E         The Washington Redskins Are Back on WMAL! (WMAL) — The Washington Redskins announced today that WMAL will carry Redskins Radio Network broadcasts in the Washington, D.C. metro area on game days, beginning with the 2017 NFL season! Team President Bruce Allen joined The Larry O’Connor Show to share the news on Wednesday afternoon, along with Larry Michael, the “Voice of the Washington Redskins: The broadcasts represent a homecoming of sorts, as the Redskins will return to the same WMAL airwaves on which the team’s broadcasts aired as early as 1942. In addition to carrying game broadcasts, WMAL will carry an hour of the Redskins Radio Network pregame show as well as an hour of Redskins Radio Network postgame programming.