Joe diGenova, KT McFarland, GW Parkway’s Aaron LaRocca and Abby Johnson joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, May 13, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Runaway? Biden Leads By 31 In New Poll Of South Carolina. Charleston’s Post and Courier has it Biden 46, Bernie 15, Harris 10 in its home state of South Carolina, where black voters made up 61 percent of the electorate in the 2016 Democratic primary. That’s a 14-point bounce for Biden since last month. How’s he doing it? Electability, mainly.

• ON ABC THIS WEEK panel, NY TIMES reporter MAGGIE HABERMAN: Trump’s political advisers ‘aggravated’ he’s ‘elevating Joe Biden

5am – D         Judicial Watch: Records Obtained in Court-Ordered Discovery Reveal Obama White House Tracking FOIA Request for Clinton Emails. (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained 44 pages of records from the State Department through court-ordered discovery revealing that the Obama White House was tracking a December 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records concerning then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of an unsecure, non-government email system. Months after the Obama White House involvement, the State Department responded to the requestor, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), falsely stating that no such records existed. Judicial Watch’s discovery is centered upon whether Clinton intentionally attempted to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by using a non-government email system and whether the State Department acted in bad faith in processing Judicial Watch’s FOIA request for communications from Clinton’s office. U.S District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered Obama administration senior State Department officials, lawyers, and Clinton aides, as well as E.W. Priestap, to be deposed or answer written questions under oath. The court ruled that the Clinton email system was “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.” The State Department’s Office of Inspector General issued a report in January 2016 saying “At the time the request was received, dozens of senior officials throughout the Department, including members of Secretary Clinton’s immediate staff, exchanged emails with the Secretary using the personal accounts she used to conduct official business.” Also, the IG “found evidence that [Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills] was informed of the request at the time it was received …” The State Department produced records in response to court-ordered document requests that detail Obama White House involvement in the Clinton email FOIA request.

5am – E         Syrian hospitals bombed by Assad, Russian troops after coordinates were shared with the UN. (Fox News) — Over the past two weeks, Syrian and Russian warplanes have hammered the last remaining rebel-held bastion in the country’s north – killing dozens and prompting almost 200,000 people to flee. Not only is the renewed offensive raising red flags that a final showdown might be underway in the long-running civil war, but that government forces may have misused data provided to them by the United Nations to gain an advantage and target hospitals. “This is alarming for us. Five of our 12 hospitals have been attacked, and what is very concerning is that these centers were supposed to be de-conflicted areas. The coordinates of their locations were handed over the U.N. to give the (Russian) government,” Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, President of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told Fox News. “This was direct targeting, not collateral damage.” The controversial “notification system” of handing over GPS coordinates of medical centers, schools, and other civilian locations started in early 2018, with NGO’s and aid groups providing their coordinates to the U.N which then passed it on to Russia, Turkey, and the U.S in a quest to deter civilian casualties. But the practice quickly came under fire after a hospital on that list was abruptly attacked by Assad and Russian aircraft.

6am – A         Giuliani cancels Ukraine trip, says he’d be ‘walking into a group of people that are enemies of the US’ (Fox News) — Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, said Friday on “Fox News @ Night” that he will not be traveling to Ukraine as previously announced. Giuliani, a former Republican mayor of New York City, said that he believed he would be “walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president, and in some cases, enemies of the United States and in one case, an already convicted person who has been found to be involved in assisting the Democrats with the 2016 investigation. “There was a great fear that the new [Ukrainian] president would be surrounded by, literally, enemies of the president [of the United States] who were involved in that and people who are involved with other Democratic operatives,” he told host Shannon Bream. “I’m convinced from what I’ve heard from two very reliable people tonight that the president [Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky] is surrounded by people who are enemies of the president [Trump], and people who are — at least [in] one case — clearly corrupt and involved in this scheme,” Giuliani said. Giuliani said that his decisions had nothing to do with the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election. Bream asked about “pushback” Giuliani received for announcing his original decision to go, including from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who demanded that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee open an inquiry into the situation.

6am – B/C      State Department Under Pressure Over Christopher Steele Contacts. (Daily Caller) — Three Republican senators are pressing the State Department to provide information about a meeting between dossier author Christopher Steele and a State Department official before the 2016 election. Steele met on Oct. 11, 2016 with Kathleen Kavalec. Kavalec’s notes from that meeting have been released. They show that Steele claimed he had contact with the media and that his client was “keen” to see anti-Trump information published before the election. The State Department has largely avoided scrutiny from GOP-led investigations of the Steele dossier, but that changed this week with the release of notes that a State Department official took during an October 2016 meeting with dossier author Christopher Steele. In letters this week to Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, GOP  Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pressed Pompeo for details about the Oct. 11, 2016 meeting, which was held at Foggy Bottom between Steele and Kathleen Kavalec, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Steele, a former British spy, was investigating President Donald Trump and his campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.

6am – D/E     PROLIFE RALLY ON FRIDAY:

• Hundreds of Demonstrators Flock to Planned Parenthood Clinic Protest After Video Shows Pa. State Rep. Berating Women, Teens. (NBC Philadelphia) — Dozens of people flocked to a Planned Parenthood office in Center City, Philadelphia after a Pennsylvania lawmaker posted video of himself berating pro-life women and teen girls who were demonstrating and praying outside the clinic. Demonstrators from the pro-life group Live Action blocked Locust Street outside the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center as they rallied in support of anti-abortion initiatives. Some at the “Pro-Life Rally Against Bullying” chanted “resign now” as they demanded Rep. Brian Sims’ ouster. Some supporters of the legislator also appeared, one with a sign “I vote 4 Brian Sims.” Sims, a Philadelphia Democrat, posted an eight-minute-plus video on social media that showed him peppering a woman with questions and criticism.
• Abby Johnson calls out Brian Sims: ‘We are not going to be bullied.’ Former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson was one of several women to address the cheering crowd at Live Action’s rally at an abortion facility in Philadelphia today. The rally was held in response to Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims’ harassing of peaceful pro-life protestors at the same location.
• After attempting to dox children, Brian Sims has now hidden his own Twitter account

6am – F         Sinkhole Repairs Shut Down Stretch of Northbound George Washington Parkway. (NBC Washington) — Rain has delayed repairs, but the National Park Service hopes to open one lane in time for the Monday evening rush hour. A stretch of northbound George Washington Memorial Parkway will remain closed at least through the Monday morning rush after a sinkhole opened up on Friday. Both northbound lanes between Virginia Route 123/Chain Bridge Road and I-495/Capital Beltway are closed for repairs, the National Park Service said Sunday. Southbound lanes are not affected. Steady rain on Saturday and Sunday prevented the NPS from making repairs, but the agency hopes to open one lane in time for the Monday evening rush hour. Getting that lane open is weather-dependent, NPS says. A preliminary investigation showed that the sinkhole was caused by a 60-year-old, 40-foot deep brick inlet that failed, NPS says. Heavy rain also likely played a factor. The sinkhole is 10 feet deep, 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, NPS says. A U.S. Park Police officer spotted the new sinkhole on Friday in the same area near Dead Run where a 10-foot sinkhole opened in March, shutting down the road for about a day. Those repairs finished ahead of schedule. A short-term fix is in the works now, and NPS says they are awaiting a federal grant to fund a complete rehabilitation of the GW Parkway. More than 85,000 people use the road to travel north daily, NPS says.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former US Attorney to the District of Columbia

• DON JR: Senator Lindsey Graham advises Donald Trump Jr. to Avoid Testifying Over Russia Deal: “Call it a Day.” During an appearance on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Senator Lindsey Graham brushed off the Senate Intelligence Committee’s attempts to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. to give further testimony regarding efforts to build a Trump Tower in Russia. “If I were Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, I would tell him you don’t need to go back into this environment anymore,” Graham said. “You’ve been there for hours and hours, and nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation. I would call it a day.”
• UKRAINE TRIP: Giuliani cancels Ukraine trip, says he’d be ‘walking into a group of people that are enemies of the US.’ (Fox News) — Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, said Friday on “Fox News @ Night” that he will not be traveling to Ukraine as previously announced.
• BIDEN / UKRAINE: Rand Paul: Americans Will Be ‘Shocked’ to Know What Biden’s Son Was Up To. Sunday on ABC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) discussed a report from The New York Times on questions of former vice president Joe Biden’s potential conflict of interest.
• STEELE DOSSIER: State Department Under Pressure Over Christopher Steele Contacts. Three Republican senators are pressing the State Department to provide information about a meeting between dossier author Christopher Steele and a State  Department official before the 2016 election. In letters this week to Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, GOP  Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pressed Pompeo for details about the Oct. 11, 2016 meeting, which was held at Foggy Bottom between Steele and Kathleen Kavalec, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
• DEMS NOT READING THE FULL MUELLER REPORT: CNN’s SARAH WESTWOOD tweet: Five Republicans and no Democrats have so far read the less redacted version of the Mueller report that DOJ made available to 12 congressional leaders, @LauraAJarrett reports. This version of the Mueller report only contains redactions of grand jury material.
• Robert Mueller won’t testify next week, date is up in the air.  (CNN) House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller will not testify before his committee next week and that the exact date for Mueller to come speak publicly before Congress is under discussion. “It won’t be next week,” Nadler told reporters. “But we’re negotiating with him, we’re talking to him and the Justice Department.” The move was not unexpected as Nadler said Thursday evening that Mueller was unlikely to testify before the committee on May 15, the target date that the New York Democrat had floated earlier this month. Nadler said this week that negotiations with Mueller’s team at the Justice Department to finalize the hearing continue amid President Donald Trump’s various stated positions on whether the special counsel should testify.

7am – D         AOC NEWS:

• Ocasio-Cortez Walks Back Claim on World Ending in 12 years. (Washington Free Beacon) — Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Sunday attempted to downplay her claim that the world will end in 12 years unless Congress acts on climate change by mocking Republicans and saying, “You’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it’s literal.” “This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and ‘fact check it,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Like the ‘world ending in 12 years’ thing, you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it’s literal.”
• Bernie Sanders to join AOC at Green New Deal rally in DC. (Washington Examiner) – Sen. Bernie Sanders will join Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a rally next week sponsored by a group of young activists in D.C. to promote a Green New Deal. Sanders, I-Vt., a 2020 presidential candidate, will headline the Sunrise Movement’s final stop of its “Green New Deal Tour” on Monday night at Howard University, the group announced Saturday.
• Ocasio tells her story on Instagram this weekend about getting her nails done and the woman tells her that her eyebrows are too big and she has a mustache.

7am – E         INTERVIEW — AARON LAROCCA – Chief of Staff of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, National Park Service.

• Sinkhole closes northbound lanes on the GW Memorial Parkway; southbound lanes remain open. FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (ABC7) — The U.S. Park Police and National Park Service have closed the northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway from Route 123, Chain Bridge Road, to I-495 — the Capital Beltway. The NPS estimates the closure will last several days.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – KT MCFARLAND – Former deputy national security adviser for President Trump, and before the White House, KT was a Fox News national security analyst for nearly a decade and WMAL national security analyst for many years.  She also worked in Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. 

• KT analyzed the latest foreign policy events in China trade, Iran, Venezuela, Syria and North Korea.
• CHINA TRADE WAR: Kudlow: We expect China to retaliate for hiked tariffs. China expected to retaliate, Trump likely to meet with Xi at G-20, Kudlow says. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he expects China to retaliate against the U.S. after President Trump increased tariffs last week on Chinese goods. “The expected countermeasures have not yet materialized,” Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday.” “[But] Yes, I reckon they will. We will see what they come up with. So far, we haven’t heard on that basis.” The U.S. increased tariffs Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent after trade negotiators from both countries failed to come to an agreement. In addition, Trump called for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin raising tariffs on “essentially all remaining imports from China, which are valued at approximately $300 billion.” Kudlow said trade talks will continue, though there are no set plans yet. The likelihood of Trump meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month during the G-20 summit in Japan is “pretty good,” he added.
• IRAN: US Navy fleet sent to Middle East to ward off threats represents a target, Iranian commander says. U.S. Navy fleet sent to the Persian Gulf to ward off a potential threat to American commercial interests represents a target instead of a serious threat, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said Sunday. The Pentagon on Friday announced plans to send the USS Arlington and the Patriot missile battery to the Middle East in an effort to deter actions from Iran. The maneuver came after national security adviser John Bolton said the U.S. was sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East. “An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past but now it is a target and the threats have switched to opportunities,” said Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRG’s aerospace division, according to Iranian media.
• VENEZUELA: Venezuelan general tells military to ‘rise up’ against Maduro regime. (CNBC) – A Venezuelan general called on the country’s armed forces on Sunday to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who has relied on the backing of the military to hold on to power despite an economic collapse. Ramon Rangel, who identified himself as an air force general, said the Venezuelan government is being controlled by the “communist dictatorship” in Cuba — a key Maduro ally. “We have to find a way to get rid of the fear, to go out into the streets, to protest, and to seek a military union to change this political system,” Rangel, dressed in a suit with a copy of the constitution in his hand, said in a video posted on YouTube. “It’s time to rise up.” While Rangel’s pronouncement marks another blow to Maduro after a handful of similar defections by senior officers this year, there is little to indicate that he will tip the scales. Officers who have disavowed Maduro have fled the country and the military top brass — most notably those who command troops — continues to recognize Maduro. The information ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Reuters was also unable to obtain comment from Rangel. Air Force Commander Pedro Juliac posted a picture of Rangel on Twitter on Sunday with the words “traitor to the Venezuelan people and the revolution” printed across the image.
• SYRIA: Syrian hospitals bombed by Assad, Russian troops after coordinates were shared with the UN. (Fox News) — Over the past two weeks, Syrian and Russian warplanes have hammered the last remaining rebel-held bastion in the country’s north – killing dozens and prompting almost 200,000 people to flee. Not only is the renewed offensive raising red flags that a final showdown might be underway in the long-running civil war, but that government forces may have misused data provided to them by the United Nations to gain an advantage and target hospitals. “This is alarming for us. Five of our 12 hospitals have been attacked, and what is very concerning is that these centers were supposed to be de-conflicted areas. The coordinates of their locations were handed over the U.N. to give the (Russian) government,” Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, President of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told Fox News. “This was direct targeting, not collateral damage.” The controversial “notification system” of handing over GPS coordinates of medical centers, schools, and other civilian locations started in early 2018, with NGO’s and aid groups providing their coordinates to the U.N which then passed it on to Russia, Turkey, and the U.S in a quest to deter civilian casualties. But the practice quickly came under fire after a hospital on that list was abruptly attacked by Assad and Russian aircraft.
• NORTH KOREA: Trump downplays North Korea missile tests amid stalled nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un. (NBC News) —  “They’re short-range and I don’t consider that a breach of trust at all,” Trump said in an interview with Politico. President Donald Trump has downplayed a series of recent missile launches by North Korea, saying he doesn’t consider the tests a setback amid stalled nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un. “They’re short-range and I don’t consider that a breach of trust at all,” Trump said in an interview with Politico on Friday. “And, you know, at some point I may. But at this point no,” he added. “These were short-range missiles and very standard stuff. Very standard.” On Thursday, the Pentagon said that North Korea “flight-tested multiple ballistic missiles” in the country’s second launch of weapons in less than a week. The missiles flew for more than 186 miles before landing in the ocean.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – ABBY JOHNSON – Former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist – discussed Friday’s prolife rally in Philadelphia.

• Her memoir, Unplanned, was made into the 2019 movie of the same name.
• Hundreds of Demonstrators Flock to Planned Parenthood Clinic Protest After Video Shows Pa. State Rep. Berating Women, Teens
• Abby Johnson calls out Brian Sims: ‘We are not going to be bullied’
• Alyssa Milano calls for sex strike to protest abortion bans.
• Bette Midler Joins Sex Strike to Protest Georgia ‘Heartbeat’ Law

8am – E         2020 NEWS:

• BIDEN: Runaway? Biden Leads By 31 In New Poll Of South Carolina. Charleston’s Post and Courier has it Biden 46, Bernie 15, Harris 10 in its home state of South Carolina, where black voters made up 61 percent of the electorate in the 2016 Democratic primary. That’s a 14-point bounce for Biden since last month. How’s he doing it? Electability, mainly.
• ON ABC THIS WEEK panel, NY TIMES reporter MAGGIE HABERMAN: Trump’s political advisers ‘aggravated’ he’s ‘elevating Joe Biden
• In an interview with Politico released on Friday, Trump derided Buttigieg’s 2020 run, saying, “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.” The reference may have confused many younger voters, including the 37-year-old Buttigieg. He admitted to reporters on Friday that he didn’t get Trump’s joke.
• Mayor Pete Buttigieg responds to ⁦President rump⁩ slam that he is “Alfred E Neuman” —“I had to Google that..I guess it’s a generational thing.”
• MAD Magazine @MADmagazine:  Who’s Pete Buttigieg? Must be a generational thing. 1:04 AM – May 11, 2019
• NO ONE CARES ABOUT ELIZABETH WARREN: Elizabeth Warren gets on an airport shuttle and nobody cares, even though they recognize her