George Papadopoulos, Hans Von Spakovsky, Sen. Mike Lee, Chuck Thies and Mark Kelly joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C WAPO: Supreme Court’s conservatives appear likely to let Trump add citizenship question to 2020 Census

5am – D         Cher questions Bernie Sanders for saying Boston bomber deserves right to vote. Music superstar Cher hit back at 2020 Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday after he argued that criminals serving time in prison, including the Boston Marathon bomber, should be able to vote. During a CNN town hall on Monday night, Sanders was asked by a Harvard student if he supports “enfranchising people” like Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whom she noted was a “convicted terrorist and murderer,” as well as “those convicted of sexual assault.” Sanders said he wanted a “vibrant democracy” with a “higher voter turnout.” He argued that despite being in prison for any crime, “everybody can vote” and such a right should be given “even for terrible people.”

5am – E         Wisconsin man, 24, wins $768M Powerball jackpot: ‘I was going insane.’ (Fox News) — Talk about early retirement. A millennial just won the third-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, and the second-largest in Powerball history. The 24-year-old suburban Milwaukee man said he screamed for about 5 or 10 minutes after realizing he won the $768 million Powerball jackpot. Manuel Franco, of West Allis, said his heart started racing when he realized one of the 10 individual tickets he bought a Powerball drawing last month was a winner. “I was going insane,” Franco said. “I looked back at the three other numbers, they all matched. My heart started racing, my blood started pumping, I felt warm. I started screaming.” He came forward at a news conference Tuesday in Madison, where Wisconsin’s lottery is headquartered.

6am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS – a former foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign and author of “Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump”

6am – D         INTERVIEW – HANS VON SPAKOVSKY — former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, former commissioner for the Federal Election Commission from 2006 to 2007 and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation

• WAPO: Supreme Court’s conservatives appear likely to let Trump add citizenship question to 2020 Census

6am – E         Hillary: Trump Would Be Indicted For Obstruction If He Weren’t President. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) guidelines against indicting a sitting president is the only reason President Donald Trump has not been indicted for obstruction of justice.

“If you read that part of the report, it could not be clearer,” Clinton stated during an interview at the 2019 TIME 100 Summit, according to Mediaite. “We do have checks and balances in America and there is this thing called Congress. You could not be more explicit than ‘Please, look at this. You may conclude it doesn’t rise to an impeachable offense, that’s your job, but I’m giving this to you.’”

6am – F         HOGAN RUNNING HIS MOUTH IN NH: Speaking with reporters after the event, Hogan pointed to the Mueller report and highlighted, “I think there was certainly evidence that he [Trump] attempted to” commit obstruction of justice. “It certainly did not completely exonerate the president, as he has said. There were some very disturbing stuff found in the report. And just because aides did not follow his orders, that’s the only reason we don’t have obstruction of justice,” Hogan said.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — SEN. MIKE LEE –  Republican Senator from Utah and author of new book “OUR LOST DECLARATION: America’s Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State”

• ABOUT NEW BOOK: With OUR LOST DECLARATION: America’s Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State (Sentinel, April 23), U.S. Senator Mike Lee follows up on his New York Times-bestselling work, Written Out of History, and his popular book series that brings to life the stories behind the documents that shaped America and established its traditions of limited government and rule of law. With new research into the the sources of Thomas Jefferson’s inspiration for America’s founding document and the grievances listed against King George III that forced Americans to declare independence, Lee offers readers a compelling and dramatic story of the events that led to the American Revolution. From the disbandment of elected representatives in Virginia to the trade restrictions that led to the Boston Tea Party, Lee introduces readers to the first battles in America’s fight against big government tyranny.

7am – B         Joe Biden will announce his 2020 presidential bid on Thursday.

(CNN) Joe Biden will announce his presidential bid on Thursday with an online video, sources familiar with the plans confirm to CNN, finally answering one of the lingering questions hanging over the 2020 Democratic race. The former vice president’s team has been laying the campaign groundwork for months, with Biden’s decision growing less secretive or suspenseful by the day. But now that he has given the green light to his advisers, Biden is facing one of the biggest challenges of his half-century career in politics. He is scheduled to hold his first campaign event in Pittsburgh on Monday, a source said, and plans to hit the road to the early-voting states of Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire in the coming days. His political action committee, American Possibilities, sent an email to supporters on Tuesday to urge them to sign up for the news. “We’ll cut to the chase,” the message said. “There has been a lot of chatter about what Joe Biden plans to do. As one of Joe’s top supporters, we want you to be the first to know!” He is jumping into a race already in progress, likely becoming the 20th Democrat to declare candidacy. He’s closely watched the campaign from the sidelines, aides said, following the policy debates and the introduction of rising stars less than half his age. This will mark his third run for the White House. But everything is different this time around, as he runs as a popular former vice president to Barack Obama. It’s a far loftier post than running as a Democratic senator from Delaware, which he unsuccessfully did in the 1988 and 2008 campaigns.

7am – C         Arlington raises property tax rate. (Washington Post) — The Arlington County Board unanimously voted Tuesday to raise the property tax rate by 2 cents while adopting a $1.36 billion budget that will see most of the new money directed to public schools. The new tax rate, at $1.026 per $100 of assessed value, exceeded the county manager’s recommendation of a 1.5 cent rate increase. Officials said there was still almost $5 million worth of reductions in the budget, in part to direct more resources toward education. “After hearing from hundreds of constituents and holding a work session with the School Board, this board was convinced that more funding was needed to avoid significant cuts for our schools,” said County Board Chair Christian Dorsey (D). “This budget makes strategic investments in our infrastructure and our schools, maintains our social safety net, and helps us compete regionally in attracting and retaining high-quality public safety staff.” The school system, which has seen booming enrollment for several years and recently built three new schools, will get $532.3 million, about 47 percent of the county’s tax revenue. The average Arlington County homeowner, whose home assessment jumped almost 3 percent this year to $658,600, will see a $9,023 tax bill, $281 more than last year. That bill includes stormwater, sewer and other taxes and fees as well. (Although the budget is for fiscal 2020, property taxes follow the calendar year.)

7am – D         INTERVIEW — CHUCK THIES – DC Political analyst and former Mayor Vincent Gray campaign manager – discussed a crazy email to constituents from a DC Councilmember about bicycling and gentrification.

• Email from D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman: “[A]s a DC Council member, I have gotten away from bicycling, walking, and the issue of safer streets […] to be candid, I have struggled with biking perception and reality. Bicycling has been viewed as a proxy for gentrification, and as we struggle to prevent displacement and actively work on increasing racial equity, I have wrestled with how cycling has been seen as something catering to mostly young, affluent, white residents. If you look at who has been hurt walking, cycling, scootering, and driving on our streets, however, the injuries and deaths have touched every demographic group: black and white, young and old, all incomes.  I got back on a bicycle today because we shouldn’t be divided by race or age or income when it comes to making our streets safer.”

7am – E         Virginia Democratic Party Rejects Donation From Fairfax for Table at Fundraising Gala. (Washington Free Beacon) — Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D.), who is facing two allegations of sexual assault, is being denied a table at the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Blue Commonwealth Gala fundraiser in June. Fairfax’s team was ready to donate $2,500 from its political action committee to the Democratic Party of Virginia to reserve a table, but the party said it would not accept the donation, prompting Fairfax to push back through a statement from his spokeswoman, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “The Lt. Governor’s We Rise Together PAC was planning to have a group of African-American pastors and other supporters sit at his table. He is innocent and has passed two polygraphs and repeatedly called for an investigation,” Fairfax’s spokeswoman Lauren Burke said. “DPVA has assumed he is guilty of a violent criminal act with no investigation or even a conversation to ascertain his version of events.” “This is beyond comprehension for a state party claiming dedication ‘to the preservation of all the rights enumerated in Article One of the Constitution of Virginia,” Burke said. “That Article, of course, provides for due process of law. If the Lt. Governor can’t receive due process from his own party how can we assume the average Virginian can?”

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS – a former foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign and author of “Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – MARK KELLY – ArlNow “The Right Note” columnist, 19-year Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board – discussed how the Arlington County approves property tax hike.