Politico’s Marc Caputo, financial guru Jill Schlesinger, Fox 5 film critic Kevin McCarthy and WMAL’s Redskins analyst Trevor Matich joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, April 26, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C BIDEN JUMPS INTO THE 2020 RACE:

• Biden Asked President Obama Not To Endorse Him. BIDEN to reporters in Wilmington, Del.: “I asked President Obama not to endorse me. He doesn’t want to — whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits.”
• BIDEN MAKE AMERICA ‘STRAIGHT’ AGAIN: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden: “America is coming back like we used to be: ethical, straight…”           

5am – D/E     Rosenstein fires back at critics over Mueller report. (Washington Post) — NEW YORK — Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein hit back hard against politicians and the press Thursday night, and warned that hacking and social media ma­nipu­la­tion are “only the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to Russian efforts to influence American elections. Speaking at the Public Servants Dinner of the Armenian Bar Association, Rosenstein unleashed his sharpest critique yet of those who have attacked his handling of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigative report into Russian election interference and President Trump’s conduct. Rosenstein’s speech, probably one of his last as a senior Justice Department official, marked his first public comments since the release of the report, and he did not hold back in discussing his tumultuous two years as the No. 2 at the Justice Department. During that time, he was castigated by both Republicans and Democrats for a variety of decisions. In the speech, Rosenstein reflected on his time on the job, spoke positively of Trump’s commitment to the rule of law and criticized the press. He also said that, even after the Mueller report documented Russian interference in the 2016 election, that is only a small part of the story. “The bottom line is, there was overwhelming evidence that Russian operatives hacked American computers and defrauded American citizens, and that is only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” Rosenstein said. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017, and has overseen the investigation since. Now that Mueller’s work is over and Trump has nominated someone else to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Rostenstein is expected to leave the job as early as next month. In his speech, Rosenstein critiqued Congress, politics and the media, and defended the Justice Department as an institution whose mission is to rise above partisanship and focus on facts. “I do not care how police officers, prosecutors and judges vote, just as I do not care how soldiers and sailors vote. That is none of my business. I only care whether they understand that when they are on duty, their job is about law and not politics,” said Rosenstein, who has worked at the Justice Department for decades. “There is not Republican justice and Democrat justice. There is only justice and injustice,” he said. In his speeches, Rosenstein often refers positively to Trump, and he did so again on Thursday, a week after the Justice Department issued nearly 200 pages of findings documenting instances in which prosecutors and federal agents were concerned the president might have obstructed justice. 

6am – A/B/C North Korea presented the US with a $2 million bill for the hospital care of Otto Warmbier. Washington (CNN) The North Korean government presented the United States with a bill for $2 million for the hospital care of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who was held as a prisoner by Pyongyang, and insisted the US sign a pledge to pay the bill before releasing him from their custody in 2017, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The bill was handed to Joseph Yun, the former State Department Special Representative for North Korea who traveled to Pyongyang in June 2017 to bring Warmbier home, the sources told CNN. Warmbier was in a comatose state at the time of his release from North Korean custody and died a few days after returning to the United States. Yun, who had orders from President Donald Trump to bring Warmbier home, signed the bill after informing then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about it. Tillerson then told Trump about the bill, according to the source. The Trump administration has not paid this bill, a third source familiar with the matter told CNN Thursday, adding that North Korea did not raise the issue as it sought to begin easing the tensions with the US in 2018 nor when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo negotiated the release of three Americans that same year, the source said. “We made clear that they were never going to get anything” when the negotiating occurred for the release of the 3 Americans, the source added. Earlier this month, at an event attended by Otto Warmbier’s family, Pompeo dismissed the idea of the US paying ransom for hostages. “Please remember that any money to a terrorist or terrorist regime gives money so that they can seize more of our people,” he said. “We cannot accept that risk. You wouldn’t ask that of us.”

6am – B/C     BIDEN JOINS RACE

6am – D/E/F  Uber Driver Fired, Threatened With Lawsuit for Refusing to Take Pregnant Woman to Abortion Clinic. (CBN) – A 20-year-old college student in New York is looking to sue her Uber driver after he refused to take her to get an abortion. Yahoo! Style reports the Uber driver was also fired after the incident.  The student detailed her version of events in a Reddit message board. “I’m 20 years old and I found out I was pregnant and subsequently decided I wanted an abortion because I’m in no position to care for a child,” she wrote. But when her Uber driver showed up to take her to her appointment at an abortion clinic an hour away, the student said she could tell he “seemed uncomfortable.” After a few minutes of driving, the driver asked her if they were going to an abortion clinic. When the student refused to answer, the driver tried to dissuade her from having an abortion. He “proceeded to mention something about his wife being pregnant, how awful the procedure was (and proceeded to explain it in graphic detail), and that ‘there is so much they don’t tell you,'” the student explained.  “He then said ‘you’re going to regret this decision for the rest of your life’ and that I was making a mistake.” The student said it took all her strength “not to cry” after hearing his warnings.  When they were halfway to the destination, the Uber driver pulled over in a rural area.  “I’m sorry, but I can’t take you the rest of the way,” the student recalled him saying. “I can take you back to (your city), but you won’t be able to find another Uber out here.” The driver repeatedly offered to take her back home where she can find another Uber driver, but the student declined, called a cab, and had her abortion.  “I reported the driver to Uber and the next day I filed a police report with my city’s police department. Someone on Uber’s team got in touch with me after I told them about the police report and called me to get a detailed account of what happened,” she said. “I told them everything on a call that was recorded, and the rep mentioned that it appeared the driver had taken a less direct route to get me to my destination prior to dropping me off.” “Within a few days they reached out again and told me the driver had been banned from Uber,” the woman added.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — MARC CAPUTO – Reporter for POLITICO @MarcACaputo – discussed Joe Biden jumping into the presidential race.

• POLITICO: Joe Biden is running as Obama’s heir. The problem: He’s not Obama.
• “I get calls from people all over the world —world leaders are calling me — and they’re almost begging me to do this, to save the country, save the world,” Joe Biden told donors Tuesday night by Marc Caputo

7am – B         MAYOR PETE NEWS:

• MAYOR PETE GETS PALTROW: Gwyneth Paltrow co-hosting fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg as his Hollywood support grows  
• MAYOR PETE IS MULTILINGUAL: Buttigieg signs message to deaf supporter who created ASL sign for “Buttigieg.” The deaf supporter expressed his support for Mayor Pete in a Twitter video and Mayor Pete responded in sign language Twitter video back.
• FLASHBACK: Mayor Pete reacted to the Notre Dame fire in French
• MAYOR PETE IS LIKE… Bradley Cooper suddenly speaking Chinese with his waiter in a restaurant in the film “Limitless.” There’s nothing he can’t do!

7am – C         BALTIMORE MAYOR SCANDAL:

• WJZ: Baltimore Mayor May Have Fled The State After FBI-IRS Raid
• Update: WJZ Now Reports Pugh Still In Baltimore
• Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Not ‘Lucid’ Enough To Make Decision About Resignation, Attorney Says. BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh continued to stay out of the spotlight Thursday, as federal agents raided her homes and several businesses. Pugh was home at the time the FBI and IRS began their raid around 7 a.m.  After the feds left, Pugh met with her legal team. An earlier report said she may have been trying to get out of town, but attorney Steve Silverman spoke to WJZ outside her home Thursday and said the mayor is physically ill and emotionally saddened. He said she apologized for letting down the people of Baltimore with any appearance of wrongdoing. However Silverman did not address whether Pugh would resign, only saying he was discussing her options with her. According to Silverman, Pugh is not mentally or physically able to make any decisions.

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – JILL SCHLESINGER – author of NEW book, “The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money” (IN STUDIO)

• About the Author: Jill Schlesinger is an Emmy-nominated and Gracie Award–winning Business Analyst for CBS News, a weekly guest on NPR’s Here and Now, and a Certified Financial Planner™. She writes a weekly syndicated column, Jill on Money, and serves as the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Jill on Money.
• About the Book: The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money: Thirteen Ways to Right Your Financial Wrongs — by Jill Schlesinger // You’re smart. So don’t be dumb about money. Pinpoint your biggest money blind spots and take control of your finances with these tools from CBS News Business Analyst and host of the nationally syndicated radio show Jill on Money, Jill Schlesinger. Do you have a “friend” who is super smart, has a great career, holds a graduate degree, has even saved a chunk of money for retirement, but who keeps making the same dumb mistakes when it comes to money? Is this “friend” you? After decades working as a Wall Street trader, investment adviser, and money expert for CBS, Jill Schlesinger reveals thirteen costly mistakes you’re probably making right now with your money without even knowing it. Drawing on heartfelt personal stories (yes, money experts screw up, too), Schlesinger argues that it’s not lack of smarts that causes even the brightest, most accomplished people among us to behave like financial dumb-asses, but simple emotional blind spots. So if you’ve made well-intentioned mistakes like saving for college for your kids before you’ve saved for your own retirement, or taken on too much risk when you invest, you’ve come to the right place. And if you’ve avoided uncomfortable moments such as sitting down to draft a will or planning long-term care for an aging parent, this is the book for you.
  

8am – A         INTERVIEW – KEVIN MCCARTHY – film critic for FOX 5 DC @KevinMcCarthyTV – reviewed the new Avengers film.

8am – B/C     BORDER NEWS:

• NYT COLUMNIST FRIEDMAN: SOLUTION TO IMMIGRATION IS A ‘HIGH WALL WITH A BIG GATE’ (Daily Caller) – New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman explained on Wednesday on CNN how he thinks the U.S. government can solve the situation at the border, following his trip there. Friedman’s appearance on the network corresponded with his op-ed from the day before, in which he described the port of entry at San Diego a “troubling scene.” “The whole day left me more certain than ever that we have a real immigration crisis and that the solution is a high wall with a big gate — but a smart gate,” Friedman wrote, which Blitzer read on the air.  “Wolf, I’m as radically pro-immigration as they come. But, it’s pretty clear to me and unless we can assure a significant number of Americans that we can control our border, we’re never going to have proper immigration flow. I think we need, we desire, and that we actually have a moral responsibility given our history as a nation of immigrants,” Friedman stated.
• EARLIER THIS WEEK: Border Agents rescue a three year old boy who agents believe was abandoned by smugglers at the border. Child found crying and scared.   (NBC News) — Border Patrol finds abandoned toddler with phone number on his shoes. Agents have taken the 3-year-old boy to a U.S. border station and are trying to find his parents using the number written on his shoes, officials said. WASHINGTON — U.S. Border Patrol agents found a 3-year-old migrant alone in a cornfield at the border between Mexico and Texas on Tuesday morning, according to Customs and Border Protection officials. The boy, who was crying when agents found him in the Rio Grande Valley near Brownsville, Texas, was identified only by a phone number and his name written on his shoes, the officials said. The agents have taken the boy to a U.S. border station and are trying to find his parents using the number on his shoes, the officials said. So far, they have been unsuccessful and are in the process of transferring the boy to the care of Health and Human Services.
• SMUGGLERS RECYCLING KIDS: House Republicans leave border tour shocked to learn immigrant children being recycled by smugglers. (Washington Examiner) — YUMA, Ariz. — Congressional Republicans who toured part of the southern border this week saw firsthand the number of families and children arriving. But the House lawmakers were shocked at the idea that smugglers recycle children across the border. “I think the entire delegation was shocked,” said Luke Ball, press secretary for Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. The Washington Examiner was riding along with Reps. John Joyce of Pennsylvania, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Gaetz Tuesday night when officials leading the tour pointed to a group of more than 40 people who had just crossed through the Colorado River south of the Morelos Dam and surrendered to Border Patrol agents less than a quarter-mile into the U.S. “Right now, they’re getting their biographical information: name, first name, last name, date of birth, nationality. Right now, they may ask them where they’re going — how many people, if it was a family unit, were they by themselves, were they minors?” an agent, who spoke on background, told the group of lawmakers. “Every one has a kid, at least one. Every one has a kid,” one congressman reacted at the scene. A Border Patrol agent speaking to lawmakers said agents in the Yuma sector, which has seen the third-highest family apprehensions of all nine sectors this year, said some children are being sent back to Central America after making it to the U.S. The agent said children are being “rented out.” “They know that’s their ticket in,” one lawmaker said.
• Massachusetts judge charged with obstruction after helping illegal escape ICE. Federal prosecutors announced charges Thursday against a Massachusetts judge who assisted an illegal immigrant in escaping from her courtroom, according to court documents, thwarting the deportation officer who had been waiting to pick him up. Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, a state judge in Newton, Massachusetts, was heard on a court recording saying she wasn’t going to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to grab the man. She ordered the ICE officer out of her courtroom, then allowed the illegal immigrant to be taken out the back where he was released through another door, prosecutors said.
• Democrats on several top House committees launched an investigation Thursday into the massive shakeup in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security due to allegations that President Trump removed top officials for refusing to carry out his desired immigration policies. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md.; Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Thursday seeking documents related to recent immigration-related actions by the president and White House aide Stephen Miller “to remove senior leaders throughout DHS who reportedly refused orders to violate the law.” The request comes amid a staffing shake-up at the agency which began earlier this month with the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “We are deeply concerned that the firing and forced resignation of these officials puts the security of the American people at risk,” they wrote. “We are also concerned that the President may have removed DHS officials because they refused his demands to violate federal immigration law and judicial orders.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – TREVOR MATICH – WMAL’s Redskins analyst – recapped NFL draft: Redskins draft: What Dwayne Haskins and Montez Sweat bring to Washington.

8am – E         MARK LEVIN EXCLUSIVE: Interview with President Trump | The Mark Levin Show. Mark Levin got an EXCLUSIVE interview with President Trump that will air during the Mark Levin Show on Friday, April 26. Here are a couple clips of what to expect: President Trump tells Mark Levin that he’ll proudly run on the position of prohibiting terrorists from voting since the Democrats have gone so far to the left. President Trump responds to Levin on why Mueller didn’t expand the scope of the investigation to include Hillary Clinton’s emails, found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, or the FISA warrant applications.