Harris Faulkner, Larry Michael, Dr. Sebastian Gorka and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, December 14, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C SCHILLING SLAMS OCASIO-CORTEZ: No. You are being scrutinized and treated with suspicion because every time you speak you say something more stupid than the last time you spoke. You are a college graduate and likely the most unintelligent person, man or woman, in our government. — Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) December 11, 2018

5am – D         VA WHISTLEBLOWER VISITED BY FBI, SENT TO PSYCH WARD, SET TO BE TERMINATED FROM JOB (Daily Caller) — A Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) whistleblower said she is living in her own real-life Twilight Zone. Jamie Fox is currently a social worker at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). Since late October, she’s been visited by federal agents who told her that the memes she had shared on Twitter months ago suddenly made her dangerous. Fox was involuntarily committed to a psych ward hours after these agents visited her home. Even though she has since been released, her Second Amendment rights have been terminated, and now she is on leave from work and being investigated. “I feel violated,” Fox said of the entire affair. “[The VA] know[s] my vulnerabilities, and they use them against me.”

 

6am – A/B/C WH CHIEF OF STAFF:

• Trump Meets With Christie as He Continues Chief of Staff Search. Donald Trump met with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Thursday evening at the White House, people familiar with the matter said, as the president continues to consider a replacement for outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly.  The Trump and Christie meeting occurred on the same night that the president and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed guests, including former aides and campaign donors, to a White House Christmas reception. Christie, who stepped down as New Jersey’s governor early this year after two terms, endorsed Trump in 2016 after his own campaign didn’t gain traction in the Republican primaries. Since the election, his name has been floated for a number of administration posts.
• President Trump tells Harris Faulkner he wants someone who is “strong” and thinks like he does to be his next chief of staff.
• David Bossie emerges as divisive chief of staff hopeful. Some White House allies say Bossie, formerly Trump’s deputy campaign manager, shot to the top of the list the minute Trump expressed an interest in having an effective political operator in the slot.
• David Bossie was just spotted entering the West Wing. 
• Trump: Search for next chief of staff is down to five “really good ones” (The Hill) — President Trump said Thursday he has narrowed down his list of candidates for White House chief of staff to five finalists. Trump said the remaining contenders are “mostly well known” and are “terrific people.” According to Trump’s account, the number of people under consideration for the job has fallen dramatically in the past 48 hours. Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he was deciding between 10 and 12 people.
• Former MLB slugger Jose Canseco makes pitch for chief of staff job in tweet to Trump. The former major league slugger has made his pitch for a big job at the White House, tweeting Wednesday to President Donald Trump: “u need a bash brother for Chief if (sic) Staff.” Canseco told his “little buddy” he has “a secret reorg plan already.” He suggested Trump send him a direct message and signed off (hashtag)yeswecanseco.The outspoken Canseco knows his way around Washington. He testified on Capitol Hill before Congress during its 2005 hearings into the use of steroids in baseball.

6am – D         7-year-old migrant girl taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, exhaustion. A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday. The child’s death is likely to intensify scrutiny of detention conditions at Border Patrol stations and CBP facilities that are increasingly overwhelmed by large numbers of families seeking asylum in the United States. According to CBP records, the girl and her father were taken into custody about 10 p.m. Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, N.M., as part of a group of 163 people who approached U.S. agents to turn themselves in. More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures at 6:25 a.m., CBP records show. Emergency responders, who arrived soon after, measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees, and according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

6am – E         Taylor Swift reportedly used facial recognition to try to ID stalkers.

(CNN)Taylor Swift reportedly has no shortage of stalkers, and an expert says she used facial recognition to try and identify them. Mike Downing, chief security officer of Oak View Group, an advisory board for concert venues including Madison Square Garden in New York and the Forum in Los Angeles, told Rolling Stone magazine a special kiosk was set up at Swift’s Rose Bowl show in May. He said fans were able to view rehearsal clips at the kiosk, while at the same time facial recognition technology was used to send images back to a Nashville “command post” and those were cross-checked against the hundreds of Swift’s known stalkers. “Everybody who went by would stop and stare at it, and the software would start working,” said Downing, whom the publication said was present at the concert as a guest of the kiosk company to view how it all worked.

6am – F         DOJ RESET STRZOK & PAGE’S PHONES MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE IG TO RETRIEVE TEXT MSGS: According to the OIG report, iPhones issued by the special counsel’s office to Strzok and Page were reset after they left the special counsel probe in July 2017, making it impossible to retrieve text messages sent and received on those devices.

 

7am – A/B/C WAPO: Workers are ghosting their employers like bad dates.

Economists report that workers are starting to act like millennials on Tinder: They’re ditching jobs with nary a text. “A number of contacts said that they had been ‘ghosted,’ a situation in which a worker stops coming to work without notice and then is impossible to contact,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago noted in December’s Beige Book, which tracks employment trends. National data on economic “ghosting” is lacking. The term, which usually applies to dating, first surfaced in 2016 on Dictionary.com. But companies across the country say silent exits are on the rise. Analysts blame America’s increasingly tight labor market. Job openings have surpassed the number of seekers for eight straight months, and the unemployment rate has clung to a 49-year low of 3.7 percent since September. Janitors, baristas, welders, accountants, engineers — they’re all in demand, said Michael Hicks, a labor economist at Ball State University in Indiana. More people may opt to skip tough conversations and slide right into the next thing.“Why hassle with a boss and a bunch of out-processing,” he said, “when literally everyone has been hiring?” Recruiters at global staffing firm Robert Half have noticed a “ten to twenty percent increase” in ghosting over the past year, D.C. district president Josh Howarth said.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – HARRIS FAULKNER —  author of new book “9 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: A Military Brat’s Guide to Life and Success” and Fox News Channel co-host of “Outnumbered” weekdays at 12pm/ET and hosts “Outnumbered Overtime” weekdays 1pm/ET @HARRISFAULKNER ‏– recapped her interview with President Trump.

7am – E         INTERVIEW – LARRY MICHAEL – Voice of the Redskins

• Preview Redskins game: Redskins vs. Jaguars
• Prince George’s Co. school board members ask Redskins’ leaders to sign Colin Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick reportedly willing to play for Redskins, but team still hasn’t reached out

 

8am – A         INTERVIEW – DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA – author of book “Why We Fight” and Fmr deputy assistant to President Donald Trump @SebGorka – discussed Flynn entrapment and thoughts on chief of staff contenders.

8am – B         KFC debuts fried chicken-scented firelogs ahead of Christmas

Is it really Christmas if the smell of fried chicken isn’t wafting from the yule log? Yes. Of course it is. But that doesn’t mean KFC is about to give up on the dream. Just in time for the holiday, the chicken chain is debuting its very own KFC-scented Enviro-Log, said to smell like the Colonel’s signature blend of 11 herbs and spices once it gets going. “At KFC, we have always been proud of our role in bringing loved ones together at the dinner table around a bucket of our world-famous fried chicken,” said Andrea Zahumensky, chief marketing officer of KFC U.S., in a press release. “Now, this winter we’re bringing all the things we love – family, friends and fried chicken – together around the fire with our scented firelog.” The holiday item – which is the product of a team up between KFC and Enviro-Log, and officially named the “11 Herbs & Spices Firelog” – promises a “hearth-warming and hunger-inducing” experience, according to the fast food chain.

8am – C         People Are Oddly Fascinated By Ted Cruz’s New Facial Hair. His latest endorsement came from Esquire, which ran a headline that read, “Damnit, Ted Cruz’s Beard Looks Tolerable Now.” When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) debuted his new beard, the initial reactions were almost as rough as his scruff. But ask some of those critics now, and they’ll tell you certain things get better with time. Let’s rewind a bit.It all started last month when Cruz made a public appearance with some stubble, igniting a firestorm of controversy. “Ted Cruz grew a beard over Thanksgiving!” Business Insider’s Joe Perticone tweeted in astonishment.

8am – D         INTERVIEW — BRET BAIER – Anchor, Special Report, Fox News Channel, weeknights at 6 PM and author of Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire” @BretBaier — discussed news of the day, potential shutdown, White House chief of Staff and Trump cancels press party.