Cal Thomas, Jessica Vaughan, Steve Kastenbaum, Elizabeth Schultz, and Mark Levin joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

5am – A/B/C Trump Urges Ban on Gun Devices Like Bump Stocks (US News) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has signed a memo directing the Justice Department to propose regulations to “ban all devices” like bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre. WASHINGTON (AP) — As a grieving Florida community demanded action on guns, President Donald Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to move to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre. It was a small sign of movement on the gun violence issue that has long tied Washington in knots. “We must do more to protect our children,” Trump said, adding that his administration was working hard to respond to the shooting in Parkland that left 17 dead. After past mass killings yielded little action on tighter gun controls, the White House is trying to demonstrate that it is taking the issue seriously. The president, a strong and vocal supporter of gun rights, has not endorsed more robust changes sought by gun control activists. But the White House cast the president in recent days as having been swayed by the school shooting in Florida and willing to listen to proposals. In a tweet Tuesday night, Trump indicated he wants to strengthen the background check system, but offered no specifics. Trump said: “Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!”

5am – D/E     Russia News:

• NUNES SENT OUT LETTER TO GOVT OFFICIALS LOOKING FOR DOSSIER INFO (Daily Caller) — House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes sent letters Tuesday to more than a dozen current and former U.S. government officials asking about their knowledge of the infamous Steele dossier. In the letters, Nunes submitted 10 questions covering when the officials learned of the dossier and how they handled the salacious and unverified document written by former British spy Christopher Steele.
• RUSSIAN TROLL FARM TRIED TO FAKE AN OBAMA/HILLARY SEX TAPE (NY Post) — Many of the more eye-popping accounts of the Internet Research Agency’s activities have come from former staff members. One, Alan Baskaev, told the independent Russian television channel Rain last year that the agency made a video that looked like a U.S. soldier shooting a Quran and had even hired two actors in an abortive bid to fake a sex tape of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
• IS FLYNN GUILTY? (The Hill) — The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has ordered special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to turn over any “exculpatory evidence” to his defense team. The development generated immediate attention in conservative circles, with some seizing on the order as a potential indication that Flynn’s guilty plea had been called into question.

6am – A/B/C What is your weirdest Airplane ride story?

• Woman seen drying underwear on air vent during packed flight (NY Post) — When it comes to airplane travel, there are certain behaviors that are generally frowned upon, like taking off your shoes and socks, doing yoga in the aisle, or eating smelly foods. But sometimes a person does something on a plane no one is expecting, as was the case when one woman was caught literally airing out her dirty laundry. The woman was traveling with Ural Airlines from Antalya, Turkey, to Moscow, Russia, when she was recorded holding a pair of white cotton underwear over her head up to the air vent to dry them off. A fellow passenger on the flight told The Sun that the woman didn’t seem even remotely embarrassed as she held the underwear to the vent for at least 20 minutes. “Everybody was looking with interest and confusion, but everybody remained silent,” the passenger told the publication. After footage of the incident was shared online, the video sparked conflicting opinions from people who commented on the woman’s behavior, The Sun reports. “Maybe the takeoff was sort of extreme, so now she has to dry those,” one person commented. Another suggested that the underwear potentially belonged to a child. “Those aren’t ones of an adult. Looks like they belong to a kid.” “This is not the worst thing in the modern world,” someone else added. Others were not as understanding of the woman’s behavior. “This woman has the intellect of a dog … This is so sad … Half the country are like her.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – syndicated columnist – discussed student activists from Florida school shooting, upcoming DC anti-gun marches, and donors for these activists

6am – E         POLICE FIND GRENADES, GUNS, BALLISTIC VEST & A LIST OF GRIEVANCES AT HOME OF MD TEEN (WJLA) — Multiple guns, including an AR-15 style rifle, ammunition, grenades, a ballistic vest, and a list of grievances against fellow students were found at the home of the Maryland teen charged with bringing a loaded gun and knife to Clarksburg High School last week, according to prosecutors and a Montgomery County police officer who spoke in court Tuesday. Montgomery County Police said that on February 15, 18-year-old Alwin Chen was arrested and charged with possession of a handgun, possession of a firearm by a person under 21 years old and possession of a firearm on school property after the incident.

6am – F         DCPS Chancellor Wilson resigns after policy violation to benefit daughter (WUSA9) — D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson has resigned after breaking school policy to benefit his daughter. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in a Tuesday Wilson Building news conference, she has accepted the resignation of Wilson. “After listening to many community members, families and stakeholders, it became very clear to me over the last several days Chancellor Wilson would be unable to successfully lead the schools having not been able to regain the community’s trust,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters Tuesday afternoon. Last Friday, Mayor Bowser revealed Wilson had bypassed the school lottery process to transfer his daughter to Woodrow Wilson High School in NW D.C. In doing so, he essentially jumped over the 639 students DCPS says in on the school’s wait list as of March 31, 2017. Other reports say that number is now even higher. Last year, Wilson signed-off on a policy banning children of public officials from jumping the transfer lottery, known as a “discretionary transfer.” Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles resigned on Friday for her involvement in the violations, but Mayor Bowser did not demand Wilson to step down right away.

7am – A          INTERVIEW – JESSICA VAUGHAN – Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies – discussed Immigration and CIS report on MS-13 Wednesday morning. 

• CIS REPORT Key findings: We found 506 MS-13 members arrested or charged with crimes that were reported in 22 states. The most cases were reported in California (92), Maryland (85), New York (80), and Virginia (63). MS-13 crimes are not primarily petty nuisance crimes; 207 MS-13 members were charged with murder. In addition we found more than 100 accused of conspiracy/racketeering, and dozens of others for drug trafficking, sex trafficking, attempted murder, sexual assaults, and extortion. While most of the reports of MS-13 suspects in our case set did not include information on the immigration status of the individual, we could determine that 126 of the 506 suspects (and 38 of the 207 murder suspects) were illegal aliens. The median age of MS-13 gang members identified was 23, and suspects ranted in age from 14 to 57. The median age of their victims was 19, and victims ranged in age from 14 to 74. Sixty of the victims were under the age of 18, including 52 of the murder victims. 120 of the 506 MS-13 suspects in our case set arrived as UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Children), including 48 of the murder suspects. The location of these MS-13 crimes corresponds with locations of large numbers of UACs who were resettled by the federal government. The number of MS-13-related murders in Montgomery County, Md. has gone from about one a year to seven in the last two years.

7am – B/C     INTERVIEW – STEVE KASTENBAUM – Correspondent in Pyeongchang, South Korea – updated us on the Olympics

• Team USA’s Lindsey Vonn took the bronze medal in what is likely her final Olympic downhill. The Czech Republic eliminated the United States men’s hockey team with a 3-2 victory in the quarterfinals. In women’s figure skating, the American trio of Mirai Nagasu, Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell struggled with early mistakes in each of their programs. A 15-year-old Russian is now in the lead. The White House says Vice President Mike Pence was ready to meet with North Korean representatives during his visit to the Olympics last week, but North Korea canceled at the last minute. The U.S. State Department says Pence would have used the meeting to emphasize U.S. concerns about North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and regrets North Korea’s “failure to seize this opportunity.”             

7am – D         Trump Tax Cuts

• Dems taking heat from allies for fixation on slamming tax cuts, Trump (Fox News) — Washington Democrats are taking heat from some of their biggest financial supporters over a midterm-election strategy still focused on bashing President Trump and the Republican tax cut plan – as recent polls suggest the party’s candidates could be losing their edge. Congressional Democrats, just a couple months ago, thought they had a winning plan for taking control of the chamber by arguing the tax cuts were a gift to corporate supporters at the expense of the American worker. Within hours of the bill’s passage, Democrats returned to their districts for the holidays, ready to trumpet the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s message of “House Republicans Sign Away Their Seats.” However, the extra money in employee paychecks since early January, and bonuses related to the cuts, apparently are winning over voters. Those outside the Capitol Hill bubble are taking note, and urging Democrats to reconsider their message. “If we spend all of our cycle running against the tax bill, it’s probably going to be a mistake,” Julie Greene, a former Democratic National Committee aide who now leads midterm campaign efforts for the AFL-CIO, recently said. The most recent RealClearPolitics average of “generic” ballot polls — asking voters which party they prefer in congressional races — shows Democrats with a roughly 7-percentage-point lead over Republicans, compared with 13 points the day after Congress approved the tax law.
• ‘How Much Are You Worth, Nancy?’: Pelosi Heckled at Town Hall While Slamming Trump Tax Law (Fox News Insider) — Rep. Nancy Pelosi was heckled by a woman at a town hall event Tuesday after she continued blasting President Trump and Republicans’ tax cuts. “God never intended one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth while others live in abject deadening poverty,” the House minority leader said, adding that the quote was from Dr. Martin Luther King. As she finished her sentence, Pelosi was interrupted by a woman in the Phoenix, Arizona, audience who asked “how much are you worth, Nancy?” “Are you in abject poverty?” the woman shouted at Pelosi, who is routinely listed among the wealthiest members of Congress. Pelosi and her husband Paul Sr., a Georgetown-educated businessman who runs a venture capital firm, are worth about $100 million. “We’re not talking about that,” Pelosi responded, saying that she can talk “louder than anybody” because she is a mother of five grown children. She joined Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) at the event, continuing to rail against the new tax law’s effects on everyday Americans. Pelosi said that the federal budget and tax policy should be a “statement of national values” and that the plan forwarded by Trump is “the complete opposite.” The former House speaker drew criticism from Republicans in recent weeks after describing companies’ bonuses to workers as “crumbs.” Speaking in West Virginia a few weeks ago, Trump called out Pelosi specifically for the comment, comparing it to Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” insult toward his supporters in 2016.

7am – E         TRUMP RIPS TV RATINGS (The Hill) — President Trump went after CNN and MSNBC on Tuesday night, saying they “got scammed” into covering an anti-Trump rally that turned out to be organized by Russian groups.

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

Bad ratings @CNN & @MSNBC got scammed when they covered the anti-Trump Russia rally wall-to-wall. They probably knew it was Fake News but, because it was a rally against me, they pushed it hard anyway. Two really dishonest newscasters, but the public is wise!

8am – A         INTERVIEW – ELIZABETH SCHULTZ – Fairfax County School Board Member – discussed increasing security in our schools in the aftermath of Parkland school shootings

• Fairfax County School Board to take up more cops in public schools …Elizabeth Schultz wanting to put more cops or licensed armed security in Fairfax public schools on the board’s agenda.
• Local school boards looking for solutions to school safety post-Florida school shooting.
• Fairfax school board member calls for stricter gun control after Florida shooting. (Washington Post / Feb 20) — A Fairfax County school board member is urging federal and state officials to enact stricter gun control measures following one of the country’s deadliest school shootings.Ryan McElveen, an at-large board member, invited community members in a tweet Tuesday morning to “stand in solidarity with us in memory of all the lives lost to the plague of gun violence and to call on our legislators to act.” He said he plans to put forth a resolution Thursday at a school board meeting calling on lawmakers to better regulate access to firearms. The resolution also calls on legislators to increase mental health support and funding for public health research on issues related to firearms.

8am – B         GUN NEWS:

• CNN Columnist Argues The Solution To Mass Shootings Is Letting Children Vote (Daily Caller) — One columnist at CNN has a novel way to change America’s gun laws: give children full voting rights. “When you can’t change laws, change who decides the lawmakers” — or something like that — is the gist of Joshua Douglas’s column on CNN Tuesday.After the horrific shooting in Parkland, Fla., liberals haven’t missed a beat in their quest for stricter gun control laws. Problem is, millions of Americans like their guns and a radical cultural change likely isn’t popular through our current legislative process. One way to fix that problem is to let 16-year-old kids vote, at least according to a law professor at the University Of Kentucky College Of Law. “Lowering the voting age has the potential to increase turnout significantly. One of the biggest predictors of whether someone will vote is if they voted previously. Yet turning 18 is a tough time to expect young people to start the habit of voting. They are usually leaving home for school or the workforce, and they must navigate the hurdles of registering and requesting an absentee ballot if they are not at home,” writes Douglas

• Trump Urges Ban on Gun Devices Like Bump Stocks And Strengthening Background Checks
• Katy Tur Asks Viewers: ‘Kids Or Guns?’ (The Daily Caller) — MSNBC’s Katy Tur teased a segment on Tuesday by asking viewers what they value more: children or guns. Tur was planning to cut to commercial break before showing a bus of Stoneman Douglas High students making their way to the state capitol for an anti-gun protest, and her throwaway line presented viewers with a false binary choice.

8am – C         Clooneys, Spielbergs, Katzenbergs, Oprah Donate to Parkland Students’ March for Our Lives (The Hill) — Steven Spielberg and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg are joining the list of famous names making major donations to the gun control march being organized by the survivors of the Florida school shooting. Spielberg said in a statement that he and his wife, Kate Capshaw, would join George and Amal Clooney in making a $500,000 donation to the cause. “The young students in Florida and now across the country are already demonstrating their leadership with a confidence and maturity that belies their ages,” Spielberg said, according to Deadline. “Kate and I applaud their efforts to take a stand for the benefit of this and future generations. They are an inspiration to us all.” Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg also pledged a $500,000 donation, Deadline reported.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – MARK LEVIN — aka “The Great One” — WMAL host, nationally syndicated radio host, Host of LEVIN TV and NEW HOST of Fox News show “Life, Liberty & Levin,” on Sunday at 10 p.m. – discussed his upcoming Fox News Sunday Show, gun control, and Justice Thomas’ scathing rebuke of the Supreme Court’s position on gun rights

• Mark Levin’s new Fox News program to launch Sunday night (The Hill) — Fox News announced Tuesday it will launch the first episode of conservative commentator Mark Levin’s new weekend program, “Life, Liberty & Levin,” on Sunday at 10 p.m., according to a network release. “Hosted by nationally syndicated radio talk show personality Mark Levin, the hour-long show will explore the fundamental values and principles undergirding American society, culture, politics, and current events, and their relevance to the nation’s future and everyday lives of citizens,” reads the release. The first episode will feature an interview with Walter Williams, an economist and George Mason University professor.
• Justice Thomas Blasts Supreme Court For Undermining Gun Rights (Daily Caller) — Justice Clarence Thomas blasted the Supreme Court Monday for refusing to review a California law imposing a ten-day waiting period on the purchase of firearms. Monday’s case is only the latest in a series of pro-gun control rulings the high court has refused to review. “I still believe that the Second Amendment cannot be ‘singled out for special—and specially unfavorable—treatment,’” Thomas wrote.

Mark R. Levin @marklevinshow

9h9 hours ago

Clarence Thomas is right, again

• Mark Levin: GOP must stop playing ‘chorus to the radical-left progressives’ on guns. This is not the time for gun control. (Conservative Review) — On Tuesday, LevinTV host Mark Levin voiced opposition to a Trump administration proposal to raise the age limit for purchasing AR-15 rifles from 18 to 21. “These easy answers that brutalize these young people, they’re unacceptable to me,” Levin said. Levin explained how according to FBI statistics, the vast majority of murders are committed with handguns, not rifles. So if the Second Amendment is going to be restricted for young people, where does it end? “They can outlaw these bump stocks, they can outlaw these AR-15s at a certain age level, and it’s not going to stop a damn thing,” Levin said. “I would like to see leadership out of this White House, leadership out of the Republican Party that is serious, that doesn’t just play chorus to the radical-left progressives.”

8am – E         Facebook comments on Russian meddling