MRC’s Brent Bozell, TX AG Ken Paxton and Washington Post’s Robert Costa joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Emily Miller

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C President Trump’s Press Conference / Calls

5am – D Hope Hicks To Be Named White House Comms Director (The Daily Caller)

President Trump has offered the job to Hicks and she has accepted the position, according to a White House insider. Hicks has been close by Trump’s side since the early days of the campaign and is one of his most trusted staffers. She has been serving on the press team in more of a behind-the-scenes role as the director of strategic communications. The communications director position has been open since President Trump fired Anthony Scaramucci in July, just ten days after the Mooch took over the position from former press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump ditched Scaramucci shortly after he decided to bring on Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new chief of staff. Hicks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

5am – E Obama team was warned in 2014 about Russian interference (Politico) The Obama administration received multiple warnings from national security officials between 2014 and 2016 that the Kremlin was ramping up its intelligence operations and building disinformation networks it could use to disrupt the U.S. political system, according to more than half a dozen current and former officials. As early as 2014, the administration received a report that quoted a well-connected Russian source as saying that the Kremlin was building a disinformation arm that could be used to interfere in Western democracies. The report, according to an official familiar with it, included a quote from the Russian source telling U.S. officials in Moscow, “You have no idea how extensive these networks are in Europe … and in the U.S., Russia has penetrated media organizations, lobbying firms, political parties, governments and militaries in all of these places.” That report was circulated among the National Security Council, intelligence agencies and the State Department via secure email and cable in the spring of 2014 as part of a larger assessment of Russian intentions in Ukraine, the official said. There was no explicit warning of a threat to U.S. elections, but the official said some diplomats and national security officials in Moscow felt the administration was too quick to dismiss the possibility that the Kremlin incursions could reach the United States.

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Never Told 21 States Russians Were Hacking Their Voting Systems. (Daily Caller) — State election officials still don’t know which 21 of their jurisdictions Russian hackers targeted, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned. Secretaries of state — who are the top election officials in 40 states — told TheDCNF they were shocked to learn of the Russian hacking when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials first divulged it at a June 21, 2017, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing.  “We can’t find any secretaries of state who say they have been told they are part of this list of ‘targeted’ states.” said a spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), which is the oldest nonpartisan professional organization for public officials, representing top state election officials in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The testimony of Jeanette Manfra, acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence stunned NAAS. “We have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted,” she said. Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, a Republican from Vice President Mike Pence’s home state, said she was shocked to learn of the hacking during the hearing and incredulous that federal officials have provided no further information.

6am – A/B Media Reactions to Trump’s Press Conference

6am – C Elaine Chao: ‘I Stand By My Man. Both of Them.’ (Roll Call) Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao weighed in Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell using unexpected choice words: “I stand by my man. Both of them,” she said. The comment came shortly after a press conference at Trump Tower in New York to announce an executive order designed to speed up the permitting process for infrastructure projects, according to a White House press pool report. Chao is married to McConnell and a member of Trump’s cabinet. While not surprising that she would express support for both men — who have exchanged jabs in recent weeks — the words she chose to defend them were.

6am – D INTERVIEW – BRENT BOZELL – President of the Media Research Center

TOPIC: the media’s reaction to Charlottesville and President Trump’s raucous presser yesterday

 MRC GALA — GET TICKETS AT www.mrc.org/gala : Gala is on Thursday, September 21, 2017, Special guests: Cal Thomas, CHRIS PLANTE, Joe Piscopo, Rep. Mark Meadows, Mollie Hemingway and RUSH LIMBAUGH (EL RUSHBO!)

6am – E Defense Secretary Mattis tells sailors ‘you’re not some pu–y sitting on the sidelines’ (Washington Free Beacon) Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is well known for having delivered some controversial quotes in the past, and he uttered yet another during a speech last week to sailors at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington. During a short speech on Aug. 9 followed by a question-and-answer period, Mattis thanked the sailors of the USS Kentucky for being in the Navy, saying they’d never regret that service. “That means you’re living,” Mattis said, according to the official Pentagon transcript. “That means you’re not some p–y sitting on the sidelines, you know what I mean, kind of sitting there saying, ‘Well, I should have done something with my life.’ Because of what you’re doing now, you’re not going to be laying on a shrink’s couch when you’re 45 years old, say ‘What the hell did I do with my life?’ Why? Because you served others; you served something bigger than you.”

6am – F Elvis fans mark 40th anniversary of his death (ABC News) Elvis Presley fans in a long line are making the slow, solemn walk up the driveway of Graceland to pay their respects to the late singer on the 40th anniversary of his death. Thousands of devotees of the rock ‘n’ roll icon lined up for hours to save their places in the procession Tuesday night. They held candles and walked along the graves of Presley and his relatives at the Meditation Garden at Graceland, his former home-turned-museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Priscilla Presley, the performers’ former wife, and Lisa Marie Presley, their daughter, thanked the crowd for their love and dedication. Fans from around the world come to Graceland each year on the anniversary of Presley’s death to honor his life and career. He died in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977. For the first time in nearly four decades, fans had to pay a fee to participate in the candlelight vigil, which runs into Wednesday. Fans were able to watch the vigil from the street in front of Graceland, free of charge. For the first time in nearly four decades, Elvis Presley fans who visit Graceland this week to commemorate the anniversary of his death will have to pay $28.75 to walk past his grave. Many fans are not happy. Graceland told the Associated Press in a written statement that visitors who attend the vigil beginning Tuesday night and running into Wednesday must have an Elvis Week Property Pass wristband. The $28.75 wristband also provides access to a new $45 million entertainment complex. Graceland, operated by Elvis Presley Enterprises, says it anticipates large crowds and it has updated its security measures for Elvis Week, the annual celebration of Presley’s life and career. Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, in Memphis. Some fans are saying they won’t attend another vigil.

7am – A/B/C President Trump’s Press Conference/Calls from listeners

7am – D CBS Touts Iceland’s Plan To ‘Eliminate Down Syndrome Through Abortion’ (The Daily Caller) Conservatives are fighting back hard after CBS reported on Iceland’s efforts to eliminate Down syndrome through abortion. CBS tweeted their report “inside the country where Down syndrome is disappearing,” explaining that most women in Iceland take prenatal tests–that are only 85 percent accurate–to determine if their child has a high risk of being born with Down syndrome. “The vast majority of women — close to 100 percent — who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy,” CBS wrote. Helga Sol Olafsdottir, who counsels women who are deciding whether or not to abort, told CBS that she tells the women, “This is your life — you have the right to choose how your life will look like.” “We don’t look at abortion as a murder,” she continued. “We look at it as a thing that we ended.”

7am – E Hope Hicks To Be Named White House Comms Director (The Daily Caller) President Trump has offered the job to Hicks and she has accepted the position, according to a White House insider. Hicks has been close by Trump’s side since the early days of the campaign and is one of his most trusted staffers. She has been serving on the press team in more of a behind-the-scenes role as the director of strategic communications. The communications director position has been open since President Trump fired Anthony Scaramucci in July, just ten days after the Mooch took over the position from former press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump ditched Scaramucci shortly after he decided to bring on Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new chief of staff. Hicks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

8am – A INTERVIEW – KEN PAXTON – Texas Attorney General

TOPIC: DACA anniversary was Tuesday and Trump deadline on DACA is looming

• Dreamers face immigration showdown over amnesty with Trump, courts. (Washington Times) – Nearly 800,000 young adult illegal immigrants have been protected by the program, giving them a chance to get driver’s licenses, legally hold a job, collect tax benefits — even to earn a law license or, in some special cases, to join the U.S. military. For opponents, the program is a symbol of Mr. Obama’s lawlessness and led directly to the surge of illegal immigrants that overwhelmed the country’s borders in 2014. They are cheering on a threat from Texas to challenge DACA in the courts if President Trump doesn’t announce a phase-out of the program by Sept. 5.
• Anniversary of DACA Deportation Protections Marked By Fear It’s Ending. (NBC News) — Rallies and demonstrations on Tuesday are taking the place of long queues as immigrant rights groups and allies mark the fifth anniversary of an Obama administration deportation relief and work permission program now in peril under President Donald Trump. On Aug. 15, 2012, the Obama administration started accepting the first applications from young immigrants for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. Hundreds of thousands of teens and young adults who came to the U.S. as children but do not have legal status lined up outside offices of lawyers and groups helping them with applications.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has led the fight to shut down DACA, saying Mr. Obama broke the law by acting unilaterally, outside of congressional approval. He has said if Mr. Trump doesn’t agree to a phase-out — allowing those already approved to serve out the rest of their two-year permits but refusing to approve new applications — he will force the issue in court. “If, by September 5, the DHS Secretary rescinds the 2012 DACA memorandum and agrees not to renew or issue new DACA or Expanded-DACA permits, then Plaintiffs will dismiss this lawsuit,” Mr. Paxton said in his latest court filing.

8am – B/C President Trump’s Press Conference And Media Reaction/Calls from listeners

8am – D INTERVIEW – ROBERT “BOB” COSTA – National political reporter, Washington Post and Moderator for Washington Week on PBS

 Discuss the results of the Alabama special election: Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore and Sen. Luther Strange advanced to a Republican primary runoff in Alabama’s special Senate race, which will put President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s political clout on the line in September. Moore had 40 percent of the vote and Strange — who was backed by Trump and McConnell — had 32 percent after The Associated Press called the race. Rep. Mo Brooks trailed at 20 percent. Alabama election laws call for the top two primary finishers to compete in a runoff if no candidate gets a majority.

Trump’s feuding base faces showdown in Alabama Senate race. (Washington Post / By Robert Costa August 13) — “On the eve of the first round of voting, Trump is clashing with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the stalled GOP agenda, and Strange, despite the Trump bump, is unlikely to win the nomination outright Tuesday. A bruising one-month runoff campaign looms for the top two finishers, and Trump’s die-hard supporters in the state are divided. For Republicans, the Alabama contest is a snapshot of the party’s churning base at this moment in the Trump presidency. In a deep-red state, the dominant squabbles are not over ideological purity — that GOP test of old — but over loyalty to Trump and over who has the most visceral connection with his core voters.”

PALACE INTRIGUE: Costa’s thoughts on the rumors about Steve Bannon possibly leaving the White House. Trump addressed it yesterday

 8am – E Gov. Hogan wants controversial statue removed from Maryland State House grounds (WTOP) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called Tuesday for the immediate removal of the statue of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote a decision upholding slavery, from the grounds of the State House in Annapolis. The monument to former Taney sits on the front law of the Maryland State House. Taney, a Maryland native, wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to black people. “While we cannot hide from our history — nor should we — the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history,” Hogan said in a statement Tuesday. The Republican governor asked that actions be made immediately to remove the statue.