Campus Reform’s Sterling Beard, NFL player Burgess Owens, Amity Shlaes and CPAC’s Matt Schlapp joined Brian and Mary at CPAC on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Day 1 – Live From CPAC

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Washington Post Rolls Out Ominous New Slogan. ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’ (NEWSER) – The Washington Post has rolled out an ominous new slogan—”Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The phrase, one of Bob Woodward’s favorites, now appears under the paper’s logo on its home page and might be introduced to the print version in the weeks to come. Shani George, the Post’s communications director, tells CBS News that the slogan offers a “good, concise value statement” to new readers on Snapchat and other platforms. The move has been met with general hilarity among other members of the media, the Hill reports.

5am – D Townhall Meetings Getting Testy With Congressman and Senators. Trump Says They Are Liberal Protesters.

5am – E Brzezinski: Controlling What People Think ‘Is Our Job’. UPDATE: Brzezinski took to Twitter to clarify her remarks, saying, “Today I said it’s the media’s job to keep President Trump from making up his own facts, NOT that it’s our job to control what people think.” She added, “Of course, that is obvious from the transcript but some people want to make up their own facts. SAD!” On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski stated President Trump “could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.” Brzezinski said, “I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he’s is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that, while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”

6am – A Trump revokes Obama guidelines on transgender bathrooms. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday revoked landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice, reversing a signature initiative of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Reversing the Obama guidelines stands to inflame passions in the latest conflict in America between believers in traditional values and social progressives, and is likely to prompt more of the street protests that followed Trump’s Nov. 8 election. Obama had instructed public schools last May to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. Transgender people hailed the step as victory for their civil rights. Trump, a Republican who took office last month, rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference. The Justice and Education departments will continue to study the legal issues involved, according to the new, superseding guidance that will be sent to public schools. About 200 people gathered in front of the White House to protest against Trump’s action, waving rainbow flags and chanting: “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.” The rainbow flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people.

6am – B CNN Leaks: James O’Keefe to ‘publish hours of secretly recorded newsroom material.’ A Conservative activist and “guerrilla journalist” announced he will leak hours of secretly recorded material from CNN’s newsroom this Thursday (23 February). James O’Keefe has garnered himself a mixed reputation – with some hailing his findings and others questioning his methods – by carrying out secret stings and publishing the findings on his online platform known as Project Veritas. “Just like Julian Assange has people come to him, we’ve had people, sources, come to us and give us this information,” he said to Sean Hannity’s radio show on Wednesday. He has previously targeted Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in his so-called exposes and Thursday’s release is set to allegedly ask serious questions of the international media company. O’Keefe announced he planned to make the all of the leaks public in the style of Wikileaks. “Just like Julian Assange has people come to him, we’ve had people, sources, come to us and give us this information,” he said to Sean Hannity’s radio show on Wednesday. The 32-year-old also tweeted a picture of himself editing footage, with the simple caption that read: “Tomorrow. #CNNLeaks.” In the interview with the broadcaster themselves, O’Keefe outlined why CNN was a target. “My audience, the American people, are deeply upset at the media. We think our media needs to be held to account, and CNN is kind of the leader of that. CNN has a very important role as an arbiter of news.”

6am – C Astronomers discover 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star. (CNN) Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington. This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life. “This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star,” said Michaël Gillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium. The seven exoplanets were all found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g, and may even have oceans on the surface. The researchers believe that TRAPPIST-1f in particular is the best candidate for supporting life. It’s a bit cooler than Earth, but could be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases. If TRAPPIST-1 sounds familiar, that’s because these researchers announced the discovery of three initial planets orbiting the same star in May. The new research increased that number to seven planets total. “I think we’ve made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there,” said Amaury Triaud, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. “I don’t think any time before we had the right planets to discover and find out if there was (life). Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to what we have on Earth, we will know.” Life may begin and evolve differently on other planets, so finding the gases that indicate life is key, the researchers added.

6am – D/E INTERVIEW – STERLING BEARD – Campus Reform, a division of Leadership Institute

• Sterling can discuss the recent campus violence
• There have been anti-Trump protests
• Milo’s resignation and CPAC’s rescinding of invite for Mile
• Most of the students on college campus grew up with 8 years of a Democrat president, what is it like for them to finally have a GOP president like Trump?

6am – F Sen. Gillibrand predicts Gorsuch will be confirmed. One way or another, Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand predicted on Tuesday evening. The New York Democrat said either Gorsuch will garner 60 votes or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will rewrite the Senate rules to allow Gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority. It’s a rare concession that Republicans will win what’s shaping up to be a vicious fight between a Democratic base urging party leaders to fight President Donald Trump’s pick and Republicans who have said they will confirm Gorsuch by any means necessary. While Gillibrand urged her colleagues to “vote their conscience” on Gorsuch during an interview with New York news channel NY1, she said that regardless of Democratic tactics, “ultimately, yeah I believe he will be” approved. The senator said she opposes his nomination “because he is so ultra-right-wing conservative.” “I hope we do vote him down. But make no mistake: If we do hold the line with 60 votes, Mitch McConnell will change the rules the next day,” Gillibrand said. “I do not have any hope that he won’t change the rules the minute he doesn’t get his way. So it likely will be 51 votes, regardless, at any given time that a nominee is blocked.” Gillibrand, the subject of much speculation as a 2020 presidential contender, also said that she plans to serve a full six-year term if reelected to the Senate next year. She’s voted against most of Trump’s nominees and was the sole “no” vote against Defense Secretary James Mattis.

7am – A INTERVIEW – BURGESS OWENS – author of “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps”

• BIO: Burgess Owens is a former Super Bowl champion who played ten seasons in the National Football League for the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. Author of “Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps”
• ABOUT BOOK: The Black middle class—saviors of the American way. Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps documents the role of the 21 white, self-avowed socialist, atheist and Marxist founders of the NAACP and their impact on the Black community’s present status at the top of our nations misery index. It highlights the decades of anti-Black legislation supported by liberal black leaders who prioritized class over race in their zeal for the promises of socialism. Their anti-Black legislation, dating back with the 1932 Davis-Bacon Act, continues today to suppress inter-community Black capitalism, federal construction related Black employment, work and job experience for Black teenagers, quality education access for urban black children, and the role of black men as leaders within the family unit. Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps highlights the strategy, used in 1910, to inject the atheist ideology of socialism into a once enterprising, self-sufficient, competitive and proud Christian black community. A portion of that community, the conservative Black middle class, is positioned to pull our nation back from this abyss.

7am – B/C INTERVIEW – AMITY SHLAES – NY Times Bestselling author of “The Forgotten Man” and “Coolidge” – discussed the theme of The Forgotten man.

• She wrote an important book “THE FORGOTTEN MAN” a few years ago and President Trump’s campaign really focused on and won over voters with the theme of THE FORGOTTEN MAN
• Amity Shlaes is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man: Graphic, a full length illustrated version of the same book drawn by Paul Rivoche, Coolidge, a full-length biography of the thirtieth president and The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americas Crazy. National Review called the Forgotten Man “the finest history of the Great Depression ever written.” The Economist wrote of Coolidge that the book “deserves to be widely read” and made it an editor’s choice for 2013. The Forgotten Man: Graphic reached the number 1 spot in its bestseller category. Miss Shlaes is under contract to write “The Silent Majority,” a third volume on the twentieth century.
• Defining ‘Forgotten Man’ Is Key to Trump’s Presidency. (Bloomberg) – By Amity Shlaes. “The Forgotten Man” is not likely to be forgotten in the Trump presidency. In his inaugural address, the new chief executive promised that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now.” Trump was reprising a mention of “forgotten men and women” made back in November, in his victory speech. It’s clear why Trump hopes to build a presidency on service to the “forgotten.” The quality of the economic recovery after the financial crisis of 2008 was poor, and to this day many Americans feel they are not back where they were in 2007. It is all too obvious that the “too big to fail” doctrine favored Wall Street behemoths like Goldman Sachs, as has post-crash statute. Laws such as Dodd-Frank force all kinds of negative consequences upon smaller financial institutions — call them forgotten banks — as Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, noted at the confirmation hearing for Steven Mnuchin, the nominee for Treasury secretary and former Goldman executive. So who precisely is this Forgotten Man? In fact, two opposing Forgotten Men figure in American history. Which one Trump actually backs will determine what kind of presidency his ends up being. The more familiar Forgotten Man was the brainchild of another populist campaigner, Franklin Roosevelt. During the 1932 presidential campaign, a point when two in 10 workers were unemployed, Roosevelt expressed concern for “the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” The New York governor meant the poor man, whose poverty he blamed on a failure of Wall Street.

7am – D/E INTERVIEW – MATT SCHLAPP – CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION, the organization that hosts and organizes CPAC —PREVIEWED CPAC’s events and highlights.

• Here is the Schedule for CPAC 2017. The 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference began yesterday and will proceed until Saturday, February 25. This conference is an annual celebration and workshop for conservative activism. Various elected officials, media personalities, and Republican figures are expected to attend after Wednesday’s kickoff. Donald Trump will be speaking at the event, and the conference will focus on discussions to advance the president’s conservative agenda throughout the country.
• Thursday: 9:10 a.m. – Kellyanne Conway (White House Special Counselor), 9:30 a.m. – Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), 10:05 a.m. – Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY), 11:10 a.m. – Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mark Levin (The Mark Levin Show), 11:30 p.m. – Dana Loesch (The Blaze), 12:10 p.m. – Sheriff David Clarke, 12:50 p.m. – Betsy DeVos (Secretary of Education), 1:05 p.m. – Matt Schlapp (American Conservative Union chairman), Reince Priebus (White House Chief of Staff), Steve Bannon (White House Strategist), 2:10 p.m. – Todd Starnes (Fox News), 4:40 p.m. – Joel Pollack (Breitbart), Ed Schultz (RT Media), 7:20 p.m. – Judge Jeannine Pirro (Fox News), 7:30 p.m. – Vice President Mike Pence
• Friday: 9:55 a.m. – Lou Dobbs (Fox Business Network), 10:10 a.m. – Matt Schlapp (American Conservative Union chairman), 10:20 a.m. – President Donald Trump, 11:55 a.m. – Nigel Farage (UKIP, Fox News), 12:55 p.m. – Wayne LaPierre (NRA), 1:35 p.m. – Katie Pavlich (Townhall), 2:00 p.m. – Sebastian Gorka (White House Advisor), 2:20 p.m. – John Bolton (Former Ambassador to the United Nations), 2:30 p.m. – Alex Marlow (Breitbart), 3:00 p.m. – Carly Fiorina, 4:15 p.m. – Governor Paul LePage (R-ME), 7:30 p.m. – Michael Reagan

8am – A Democrats are days away from choosing a new party leader. Last night their candidates for leadership were on display on CNN in a debate.

• Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez: “The Democratic Party needs to take the fight to Donald Trump”
• Keith Ellison: “Trump has done a number of things which legitimately raise the question of impeachment.”
• Peter Peckarsky: Voter ID laws are “in violation of the US Constitution”
• Jehmu Greene: “Every Democrat and most Americans … know which election was rigged.”
• Tom Perez: “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare” is a unified Democratic Party
• Jehmu Greene: The DNC “has to be that last line of defense” if Trump commits an impeachable offense
• Democratic divisions on display at DNC debate. Atlanta (CNN) For all the marches and protests the left has generated since Election Day, the debate over who will lead the Democratic Party in the early stages of Donald Trump’s presidency is underscoring the divisions still lingering within its ranks. Eight candidates to become the next Democratic National Committee chair — led by former Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison — struggled during a debate sponsored by CNN Wednesday to define a vision of how they would effectively counter Trump’s administration and break through in clear opposition to his message. Perez and Ellison, recently spotted dining together, said they didn’t cut any deals ahead of the 447 DNC members’ vote for chair Saturday in Atlanta and pledged to confront Trump with a unified party. But the debate showed the party hasn’t settled questions over just how vigorously to oppose Trump, or how to settle division within its own ranks. Ellison said Trump’s actions so far “legitimately raise the question of impeachment.” He said Trump has already violated the Constitution and called for an investigation to “make sure that nobody can monetize the presidency and make profit off it for our own gain.” “We have seen from the get-go that this person wants to turn the clock back, and the Democratic Party needs to take the fight to Donald Trump,” Perez said. “When we lead with our values, when we lead with our conviction, that’s how we succeeds.” But another candidate cautioned against focusing too much energy on Trump.

8am – B Trump revokes Obama guidelines on transgender bathrooms. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday revoked landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice, reversing a signature initiative of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Reversing the Obama guidelines stands to inflame passions in the latest conflict in America between believers in traditional values and social progressives, and is likely to prompt more of the street protests that followed Trump’s Nov. 8 election. Obama had instructed public schools last May to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity, threatening to withhold funding for schools that did not comply. Transgender people hailed the step as victory for their civil rights. Trump, a Republican who took office last month, rescinded those guidelines, even though they had been put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and public schools should have the authority to make their own decisions without federal interference. The Justice and Education departments will continue to study the legal issues involved, according to the new, superseding guidance that will be sent to public schools. About 200 people gathered in front of the White House to protest against Trump’s action, waving rainbow flags and chanting: “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.” The rainbow flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people.

8am – C Effort to Turn Bethesda Parking Lots Into Parks Gains Momentum. News 4’s Transportation reporter Adam Tuss looks at the debate over a grassroots effort to turn hundreds of parking lots in downtown Bethesda into parks.

Momentum grows to turn Bethesda parking into parks. WASHINGTON — An effort to turn parking lots in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, into community parks is gaining momentum as a coalition pushing for the change has gathered hundreds of signatures with an online petition. As of Thursday, more than 640 people had signed the petition in support of turning four Montgomery County-owned lots off Wisconsin Avenue into new green space. The petition is being circulated by the Coalition of Bethesda Area Residents and has the attention of county leaders. At a briefing with reporters last week, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner indicated that he was supportive of the group’s proposal and said the council would be discussing it. “We own these surface parking lots. Do I think they are a prime candidate for parks? I do,” said Berliner. “It is hard to get parks in downtown Bethesda. Where do you have the opportunity?” he asked. “This will be a serious conversation, and I am predisposed.” But the proposal could make parking even more difficult in an area that already sees a lot of traffic. It would turn 500 parking spots into about five acres of green space, although county officials say the spots might not be lost entirely. There is the possibility of moving parking underground or relocating it to another area, officials say. Berliner sent a letter to the county’s transportation director to evaluate the area’s parking needs. “You need to get your mind around, ‘how many parking spaces do we need?’” said Berliner, who expressed interest in having businesses and members of the community near new “wonderful parkland.” The petition calls outdoor recreational space “necessary” as thousands of new residents and office workers move to the area in the coming years. “These lots — two near East Bethesda and two adjacent to the Farm Woman’s Market — should continue to serve the public by remaining open spaces,” the petition states. “The alternative is that these lots will be sold for new building development. Our Montgomery County Council and Executive must ensure green open space in downtown Bethesda for generations to come by establishing parks on the land it already owns.”

8am – D Media News:

• Washington Post Rolls Out Ominous New Slogan. ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ (NEWSER) – The Washington Post has rolled out an ominous new slogan—”Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The phrase, one of Bob Woodward’s favorites, now appears under the paper’s logo on its home page and might be introduced to the print version in the weeks to come. Shani George, the Post’s communications director, tells CBS News that the slogan offers a “good, concise value statement” to new readers on Snapchat and other platforms. The move has been met with general hilarity among other members of the media, the Hill reports
• Brzezinski: Controlling What People Think ‘Is Our Job’. UPDATE: Brzezinski took to Twitter to clarify her remarks, saying, “Today I said it’s the media’s job to keep President Trump from making up his own facts, NOT that it’s our job to control what people think.” She added, “Of course, that is obvious from the transcript but some people want to make up their own facts. SAD!” On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski stated President Trump “could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.” Brzezinski said, “I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he’s is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that, while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”
• CNN Leaks: James O’Keefe to ‘publish hours of secretly recorded newsroom material’ (International Business Times) – A Conservative activist and “guerrilla journalist” announced he will leak hours of secretly recorded material from CNN’s newsroom this Thursday (23 February). James O’Keefe has garnered himself a mixed reputation – with some hailing his findings and others questioning his methods – by carrying out secret stings and publishing the findings on his online platform known as Project Veritas. “Just like Julian Assange has people come to him, we’ve had people, sources, come to us and give us this information,” he said to Sean Hannity’s radio show on Wednesday. He has previously targeted Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in his so-called exposes and Thursday’s release is set to allegedly ask serious questions of the international media company. O’Keefe announced he planned to make the all of the leaks public in the style of Wikileaks.

8am – E PELOSI BREAKDOWN? NANCY RATTLES SERIES OF MISTAKES: Repeats words, tells audience to clap, calls Kasich ‘governor of Illinois’ Pelosi began by thanking the person who introduced her for his “recanting of what happened at the time” Democrats and activist groups rammed through Obamacare. She recalled telling her fellow Democrats that the Affordable Care Act was going to be a major achievement for government programs, and “stand there with Social Security and Medicare and Medicare,” apparently meaning to say “Medicaid.” She attempted to butter up the audience by heaping praise on Families USA. After attendees didn’t clap after she congratulated them for her work, she said, “When I said we could not have done it without Families USA, that is an applause line for you.” She added, “Applause line!” after she said she looked forward to continuing to work with the activist group. Pelosi even attempted to convey what she thought was a deep point. “By the way, do you know who the poorest people in America are? Infants and children. Infants and children,” she said. While Pelosi attempted to underscore bi-partisan support for Medicaid, she said, “Don’t take it from me. John Kasich, the governor of Illinois said, ‘Thank God for Medicaid.’” Kasich is governor of Ohio — another flyover state that starts with a vowel in the eyes of a West Coast liberal. Pelosi flubbed MLK’s name, calling him “Martin Luther Sing.” Nevertheless, the liberal activists gave the House Minority Leader a standing ovation.