Joe Mantegna, WJLA’s NAthan Baca, Raheem Kassam, MD State Highway’s Charlie Gischlar and Rolling Thunder’s Mike Wolff joined WMAL on Friday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, May 24, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Trump gives Barr the green light to unseal documents on the 2016 surveillance of the Trump campaign. President Trump on Thursday night issued a memo giving Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify any documents related to surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016. Trump also ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr. U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the move as an attempt to “weaponize law enforcement and classified information.” Trump has long claimed his campaign was the victim of “spying,” though the intelligence community has insisted it acted lawfully in following leads in the Russia investigation. Last month, Barr ran into a buzz saw of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and media figures for testifying that “spying did occur” against the Trump campaign. But despite the backlash, the attorney general appeared to be referring to intelligence collection that already has been widely reported and confirmed.

• Trump Gives Attorney General Authority To Declassify Russia Probe Documents. (Daily Caller/Chuck Ross) — President Donald Trump has directed the heads of several government agencies to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr’s investigation of the origins of the Russia probe. In a memo sent out Thursday, Trump also authorized Barr to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation. The memo grants Barr the authority to “declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence” related to the Russia probe as he sees fit. Barr has said that he is investigating whether government agencies improperly surveilled members of the Trump campaign. In testimony to Congress, Barr has asserted that the FBI and other agencies spied on the campaign by using informants and surveillance warrants. Trump’s memo directs the heads of several federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI and State Department, to “promptly” provide assistance and information to Barr to complete his review. “Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information.” It is not clear from the memo when information will be declassified, and whether it will be made public soon.

5am – D         WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange charged in new US indictment with receiving and publishing classified information. WASHINGTON (AP) — In a case with significant First Amendment implications, the U.S. filed new charges Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources. The Justice Department’s 18-count superseding indictment alleges that Assange directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. It says the WikiLeaks founder, currently in custody in London , damaged national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.

5am – E         Media Reports On Transgender Athletes All Seem To Be Missing One Thing. (Daily Caller/Rachel Stoltzfoos) — A slew of liberal reports on the dispute over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports have one thing in common — they don’t include the voices of the female athletes they want to compete with. Story after story celebrates the record-smashing successes of transgender athletes in a range of women’s sporting events, including wrestling, track and field and powerlifting. Sometimes the reports include criticism from parents or high-profile athletes who have weighed in on the dispute, but they don’t include anything from the female athletes these biological men are dominating, or even indicate the reporters have made an effort to talk to them. An ABC News report on two biological boys who destroyed the female competition in a Connecticut track and field championship is perhaps the best example of this trend. The network sent a reporter in person to talk to the students, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, after they finished first and second in the competition, and put together a five minute video sympathetic to their views. A brief interview with one parent who thought it was unfair for them to compete with girls is also included in the video, but the girls themselves appear only in footage of them losing to Yearwood and Miller. Instead, the segment ends with the reporter inviting Yearwood and Miller to consider the situation from the perspective of a hypothetical version of girls they are competing against: “Just imagine that you were both born girls, and then all of a sudden you had two boys who identify as being girls, and they said ‘Hey, we’re going to be on your team.’ And maybe now you’re not performing as well, because they are better.”

6am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE MANTEGNA – Co-host of The National Memorial Day Concert

• Tony winner Joe Mantegna and stage and screen star Mary McCormack will co-host the 30th annual broadcast of PBS’ National Memorial Day Concert, airing live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol May 26 at 8 PM ET. The line-up of performers and presenters includes Hamilton Tony nominee Christopher Jackson, Olivier-winning Dreamgirls star Amber Riley, Grammy winner and Broadway alum Patti LaBelle, General Colin L. Powell, singer and songwriter Gavin DeGraw, Grammy-winning bluegrass icon Alison Krauss, Golden Globe-nominated actor Dennis Haysbert, country music star Justin Moore, American Idol finalist Alyssa Raghu, TV star Jaina Lee Ortiz, and Patrick Lundy & The Ministers of Music. The performers will be backed by the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Pops conductor Jack Everly. Also participating in the event are the U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff with the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets, the U.S. Army Chorus and Army Voices, the Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band, the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters, the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants, the Armed Forces Color Guard and Service Color Teams provided by the Military District of Washington, D.C.

6am – B/C     USDA staffers quit en masse as Trump administration eyes moving offices out of DC. (Fox News) — Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers. “This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents ERS workers, told Fox News. “Employees don’t want to move, and it doesn’t make sense for them to move.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW – NATHAN BACA – Investigative Reporter, ABC7 News WJLA-TV Washington

• Preview the Metro summer shutdown and Metro summer shutdown platform project: It’s coming. Six Blue and Yellow Line Metro stations in Virginia close this Saturday for the entire summer.  WASHINGTON (WJLA) — Metro is preparing the final stages of a major summer shutdown that will impact all Blue and Yellow Line stations south of Reagan National Airport from May 25 until Sept. 8. The 100-plus-day shutdown will allow crews to work around the clock, expediting repairs that would otherwise take years to complete. Metro has timed the shutdown during its lowest ridership with the goal of impacting as few riders as possible. Metro plans to close and rebuild crumbling station platforms at Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn.
• Here’s what you need to know about riding the VRE during the Metro shutdown. by Nathan Baca/ABC7 / WOODBRIDGE, Va. (ABC7) — 7 On Your Side joined passengers riding VRE Train 300 leaving just after 5:40 a.m. at the Woodbridge station. Finding a seat was easy, although it was the first train into Washington, and some decided to extend their sleep in the train car’s upper deck. “It’s a more direct route. You can read, watch your phone, you can do work if you have to. It’s a pretty calm, peaceful ride when you take the VRE,” said Tina Vey, a commuter from Woodbridge to L’Enfant. VRE is not without problems. Its own CEO admitted in a letter to Manassas-area delegate that on-time performance has slipped these past months, blaming track maintenance and problems switching to a new federally mandated safety system called Positive Train Control. Riders tell us delays are worse in the afternoons. Because all freight and passenger trains have to share one narrow bridge to cross the river, VRE simply can’t add more trains to its service. The CEO’s letter calls for additional funding to build a second bridge.

6am – E/F      TRUMP-PELOSI FEUD:

• POLITICO: Why Pelosi is so good at infuriating Trump. The speaker stands firm against the president like few others. “It’s a disaster,” said a senior Republican on the Trump-Pelosi confrontations. “It plays right into her hands.”
• Washington Post’s Aaron Blake: Does President Trump actually want to be impeached?
• Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson: Pelosi has Trump frantic and rattled — again
• PELOSI TROLLING TRUMP: Nancy Pelosi: “I pray for the President of the United States. I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”
• Nancy Pelosi Calls for Trump Family Intervention During Weekly Presser
• Speaker Pelosi: “There’s a question of the American people understanding that what [President Trump’s] doing is an assault on the Constitution of the United States.”
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I truly believe that the President has a bag of tricks and the White House has a bag of tricks that they save for certain occasions.”
• Speaker Pelosi: “In any event, to inoculate against presentation, [President Trump] pulled a stunt.”
• “I’m an EXTREMELY stable genius!’ Trump fires back at Pelosi after she demands his family stage an ‘intervention’
• Trump uses event with farmers to have aides vouch that he didn’t storm out of Pelosi meeting
• “Very sort of a nasty type statement,” President Trump says when asked about Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying Trump’s family should stage an intervention. “I have been watching her for a long period of time. She’s not the same person. She’s lost it,” he adds
• “You were very calm.” Pres. Trump asks multiple aides to describe his demeanor at yesterday’s White House meeting on infrastructure. They told him he was “calm and straightforward” and there was “no temper tantrum.
• Trump says Robert Mueller and his “group of 18 killers” has gone over virtually every aspect of his life. “They don’t feel they can win the election, so they’re trying to do the thousand stabs. Keep stabbing.”
• Donald Trump had Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow and Mercedes Schlapp — all present at yesterday’s meeting — give their accounts of the event. They all affirmed he was “calm,” refuting Schumer and Pelosi’s claim he had a “temper tantrum”
• “She is a mess,” Trump says of Pelosi
• “I think she’s got a lot of problems,” Trump said of Pelosi when explaining his account of yesterday’s White House meeting with top Democrats. “She is a mess,” he continued
• Trump says he has been predictable since getting elected President. “I haven’t changed very much. Been very consistent. I am an extremely stable, genius.”
• Trump rips “crying Chuck” and “crazy” Nancy Pelosi, who he calls “a mess.” He says he was very calm during their meeting yesterday and asks members of his staff to give their version of what went down.
• Trump: Every time I go into a room, if there aren’t cameras, [Democrats] come out and say ‘Oh he was yelling, he was screaming.’ Kellyanne, what was my temperament yesterday? Kellyanne Conway: Very calm. No temper tantrum

7am – A         INTERVIEW – RAHEEM KASSAM – Editor-in-Chief of Human Events

• Theresa May says she’ll quit as Conservative leader June 7. British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Friday that she will resign — ending her months-long struggle to keep her job despite seething anger from her own Conservative Party over her handling of Brexit. “I believe it was right to persevere even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead that effort,” she said outside 10 Downing Street.
• Raheem Kassam @RaheemKassam 33m33 minutes ago: Theresa May did indeed serve the thing she loved.  With duty, and steadfastness, and resolve. It’s just a shame that thing was the European Union, not Britain.
• European elections polls: Brexit Party forecast to win the most votes. With the public having voted in the European Parliament elections on Thursday, the last polls (taken before voting day) show that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party was likely to gain the most votes in the UK. Although the vote took place in the UK on Thursday, the results are not expected until Sunday evening due to most other EU member states casting their votes that day. The Conservatives are on course for their lowest ever share of the vote in a nationwide ballot and could even slip into fifth place behind the Greens.

7am – B/C     Trump Gives Attorney General Authority To Declassify Russia Probe Documents.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – CHARLIE GISCHLAR – Spokesperson for MD State Highway Administration – looked ahead to post-Memorial Day summer beach getaway traffic and how the 404 has gotten easier:

• Route 404 construction projects complete. State officials say commute to Ocean City just got easier

7am – E         Pizza Is A Healthier Breakfast Than Cereal, Nutritionists Say. (Yahoo Finance) — From Cosmopolitan:  Pizza for breakfast is an American classic. Whether it’s cold and taken straight from the box or served after an early morning reheat, it’s basically a delicacy all on its own. However, I’ve never characterized the tradition in any way, shape, or form as healthy. In fact, I’m pretty sure I haven’t ever heard ‘pizza’ and ‘healthy’ in the same sentence…until now.  According to New York-based nutritionist Chelsey Amer, a cheesy, greasy, carb-filled slice is better for you than your favorite breakfast cereal. So, I guess it’s time for us all to rethink our a.m. eating habits-and to celebrate. Amer credits the high sugar content in most cereals for its poor reputation, while The Daily Meal adds the lack of protein and healthy fats are contributing to its “nutritionally bleak” standing.  “You may be surprised to find out that an average slice of pizza and a bowl of cereal with whole milk contain nearly the same amount of calories,” Amer told the site. “However, pizza packs a much larger protein punch, which will keep you full and boost satiety throughout the morning.” While it still might be a little far-fetched to call your early morning pizza indulgence a healthy option, it’s definitely healthier. That counts for something, right!?  Amer does credit its protein content and admits, “a slice of pizza contains more fat and much less sugar than most cold cereals, so you will not experience a quick sugar crash.”

8am – A/B/C TRUMP-PELOSI FEUD

8am – D         INTERVIEW – MIKE WOLFF – Rolling Thunder Board member and 2003 Iraq War veteran – discussed Rolling Thunder to Mark Final Memorial Day Event This Weekend.

• Rolling Thunder makes last ride Sunday. The annual roar of motorcycles over Memorial Day weekend will soon be a memory. This year’s Rolling Thunder national rally, the 31st, will be its last. Event founder Artie Muller made the announcement in December, saying rising costs and issues with Pentagon police led to the decision. “It has been a hard decision to make,” Muller wrote in a letter sent. “After much discussion and thought over the last six months, Rolling Thunder National Officers have concluded to end our 32-year annual D.C. Memorial weekend event.” Since 1988, the roar of motorcycles has been a welcome tradition in the D.C. area, as hundreds of thousands of bikes arrive to honor military service members. The annual ride began as a way to draw attention to Vietnam veterans being held as prisoners of war or missing in action, and grew to more than half a million participants the last few years. Bikers rallied at the Pentagon and headed into D.C. to visit the Vietnam Memorial.

8am – E         JOHN WALKER LINDH RELEASED:

• John Walker Lindh, dubbed the “American Taliban”, has been released from prison. He’s a convicted terrorist said to still be radicalized with extremist beliefs and now he’s expected to reside in northern Virginia.
• A U.S. official told NBC News he would live in Northern Virginia
• “I don’t like it at all,” President Trump says when asked about the release of John Walker Lindh, dubbed the “American Taliban,” “We’ll be watching him, we’ll be watching him closely … Am I happy about it? Not even a little bit,” he adds