Ed Henry, Raheem Kassam, ABC7’s Tom Roussey and Amber Athey joined WMAL on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects. (NY Times) –  WASHINGTON — The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds. “These things would be out there all day,” said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. “Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect.” In late 2014, a Super Hornet pilot had a near collision with one of the objects, and an official mishap report was filed. Some of the incidents were videotaped, including one taken by a plane’s camera in early 2015 that shows an object zooming over the ocean waves as pilots question what they are watching. “Wow, what is that, man?” one exclaims. “Look at it fly!”

5am – D         Ocasio-Cortez hits NYT over story on Hope Hicks: It’s framed ‘as some Lifetime drama’ (The Hill) — Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) criticized The New York Times on Sunday over an article on President Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks, saying their coverage of her decision to comply with a subpoena read “as some Lifetime drama called ‘Hope’s Choice.'” The freshman lawmaker wrote two tweets echoing media figures’ criticism of the article, which looks at Hicks’s history in the White House and how she might respond to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) recent subpoena for her to testify as part of a sprawling investigation into the Trump administration. “What gets me is news breaks that this woman is weighing committing a crime before Congress &it’s getting framed by the NYT as some Lifetime drama called ‘Hope’s Choice,'” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in one tweet. “In the immediate aftermath of shootings, media routinely post menacing photos of people-of-color victims + dredge up any questionable thing they’d ever done,” she wrote in another tweet. “But when Hope Hicks considers not complying w a subpoena, it’s glamour shot time.”

6am – A         As Metro shutdown arrives, dread pervades the Yellow and Blue lines. (Washington Post) — Patrick Hearn was worrying about the coming week as he sat having a beer after work one night last week at Dos Amigos Mexican restaurant near the Braddock Road Metro station. He wasn’t thinking about the corporate fraud cases he prosecutes at the Justice Department, but about how painful it was going to be to get to and from work during the 107-day shutdown of six Blue and Yellow line stations south of Reagan National Airport for platform reconstruction. He didn’t sound confident that his commute would only be a half-hour longer, as Metro predicts. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said. A recent poll by The Washington Post found that more riders feel positive about Metro than a couple of years ago. But as the start of the shutdown on Saturday neared, there was a sense of dread on Yellow and Blue line trains and around the stations. Years of problems at Metro will do that.

In interviews, some of the estimated 19,000 riders who take Metro from the six stations during a typical morning commute were sorting through a vast array of travel alternatives — from taking morning local buses, VRE, Amtrak, bicycles, scooters, slug lines, carpools or one of Metro’s five shuttle routes, to even boating to work on a water taxi.

6am – B/C     Measles cases reach more than half of U.S. states. (Axios) — Since the start of 2019, the U.S. recorded 940 cases in 26 states, with Maine and New Mexico reporting their first patients in the week ending May 24 and New York continuing to have the highest number of new infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. What’s new: In an effort to halt the spread of the extremely contagious disease, the CDC recently threatened to use its Do Not Board list on 8 infected people, as first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by Axios, in a move that successfully persuaded them from boarding their scheduled flights. As the summer season starts with increased travel via airports plus attendance at amusement parks and summer camps, public health officials are concerned that this outbreak will continue spreading.

6am – D/E     Groundbreaking new Gillette ad shows transgender man shaving for the first time with the support of his father. (Daily Mail) — Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, of Ontario, featured in the new inclusive advert. As he prepares to shave for the first time his father says: ‘Now don’t be scared.’   Some social media users have shown support while others aren’t so keen on the diverse message. This is the groundbreaking new advert by Gillette which shows a transgender man shaving for the first time. Supported by his father, Samson Bonkeabantu Brown is filmed discussing his transition before moving to the bathroom to shave for the first time.  Mr Brown, of Ontario, says to the camera: ‘Growing up, I was trying to figure out what man I wanted to become.  ‘I went into my transition just wanting to be happy.’ After Mr Brown and his father move to the bathroom, he is seen getting out a Gillette razor. Before he takes the razor to his face his mimics how he will do it and says: ‘South, south, north, north, east, west. Never in a hurry.’   While his fingers tremble his father says: ‘Now don’t be scared.  ‘Shaving is about being confident.’ He then says: ‘Oh you’re doing fine, you are doing fine.’ At the end of the advert Mr Brown says: ‘I am finally at the point in my manhood where I’m actually happy.’ In a post on Facebook Mr Brown wrote: ‘With the help of Gillette, I was able to share an  important milestone in every man’s life with my father. ‘This moment overwhelmed me during filming and again today seeing the ad since it’s been launched. ‘I’m keenly aware of how blessed I am to be able to exist in this world being supported by my family in ways that all too often many of my trans brothers, sisters, and siblings who exist outside the binary are not always as fortunate.’  The advert sent social media users into a frenzy as they flocked to Twitter to show their support.  One user, Wayne Rogers, said: ‘This is so good, wonderful story and advert together. Well done Gillette for getting out there. Congrats Samson.’ Another said: ‘This is the kind of representation transgender people need and deserve. Also, a great example of positive masculinity. Good on you Gillette.’

6am – F         Bannon’s group built the wall — a mile of it, anyway — over the weekend. (Yahoo News) — BARCELONA, Spain — In what might be seen as a Memorial Day gift to President Trump, residents of a mountain range outside of El Paso today woke up to a new vista—a mile-long wall of metal slats constructed along the border with Mexico that just shot up over the weekend.  The secret project, which started on Friday evening and was completed by Monday morning, was the work of We Build the Wall, a new group whose director is the former White House strategist Steve Bannon.  The CEO is Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who had raised $20 million to build the wall through his GoFundMe project, but it appeared to be floundering until Bannon took the helm. Bannon, who for much of the weekend was in Kazakhstan for a geopolitical seminar, says the project, overseen by construction mogul Tommy Fisher of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, involved hundreds of workers and cost $6 million. He says his group asked local authorities what is the most dangerous part of the border with Mexico, and they were pointed to this precarious mountain strip, “where the cartels and asylum seekers are coming in” through a gap between two 21-mile strips of completed wall. The group hastily “purchased the rights” to the land and went at it Friday evening. “We had to catch them by surprise,” says Bannon, who predicts residents are “gonna freak out” when they see what was erected over the past two days.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – ED HENRY –  chief national correspondent for Fox News Channel – discussed President Trump’s trip on Japan and also talked about his Fox Nation new show called “Ed Henry’s Front Row seat” — more sports focused show

7am – B/C     LOOK AHEAD TO 2020 DEM DEBATE AT THE END OF JUNE:

• First Democratic presidential primary debate to be held in Miami in June. The debate will take place on back-to-back nights on June 26 and 27 and broadcast live on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, which will have real-time Spanish translations.
• DNC boss says candidates to be involved in debate lottery. (The Hill) — Democratic candidates for president or their representatives will be involved when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) does a lottery to determine who stands on stage during the party’s initial two-day debate, DNC Chairman Tom Perez told The Hill in an exclusive interview. Perez said the DNC hadn’t determined the “precise methodology” for the random draw yet, but he said the process would be transparent and the candidates or their representatives would be involved. “We’ll certainly make sure we do it in a way that is transparent for all of the candidates involved because obviously we want them to see for themselves that we meant what we said,” Perez said, seated on a brown leather couch in his DNC office overlooking South Capitol Street. It appears increasingly likely that 20 of the candidates will make the stage for the June 26 and June 27 debates in Miami — 10 on each night. That makes the lottery to determine who debates when a pivotal moment and leaves presidential candidates in a high-stakes lottery, like NBA teams hoping to get a favored spot. Some fear that the random lottery could result in a leading contender, such as former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), getting grouped with nine people polling at 1 percent.
• Here are the candidates who have qualified for the 2020 Democratic debates. (CBS News) — Former Vice President Joe Biden became the 21st Democratic candidate for president Thursday morning. But not every candidate has met the thresholds for support and donations to qualify for the party’s debates.
  • Here is a rundown of how candidates can qualify for the first two debates, and who has qualified so far: How candidates qualify for the debates In an effort to give most candidates the chance to appear on the debate stage, the Democratic National Committee has scheduled 12 debates in total, with the first one set for June. The debates will be split up into two consecutive nights, with candidates randomly chosen to appear on each date. To qualify for the first two debates, candidates have to fulfill one of two criteria: either get 65,000 donors to their campaigns, with at least 200 donors in 20 different states, or obtain at least 1 percent in three polls recognized as legitimate by the committee. If more than 20 candidates qualify for the debate, the DNC has said it will choose participants with “a methodology that gives primacy to candidates meeting both thresholds, followed by the highest polling average, followed by the most unique donors.”
  • The candidates who have fulfilled both criteria and qualified for the debates: Several of the most high profile candidates have met both the donation and polling thresholds.  

• Joe Biden: The former vice president had qualified for the debates before he even entered the race on Thursday, as he has been steadily leading the polls. His campaign said that he reached the fundraising threshold in the first 12 hours of the campaign.
• Bernie Sanders: Sanders has consistently been near the top in national and state polls, usually behind former Biden. Sanders raised around $18 million with 525,000 individual contributors.
• Kamala Harris: Harris has also generally been polling well, often in third place behind Biden and Sanders. She raised $12 million from 218,000 individual contributions in the first quarter.
• Elizabeth Warren: Warren is typically behind the top three in the polls, but has remained a steady figure in the middle. She raised $6 million from 135,000 donors.
• Beto O’Rourke: The telegenic former Senate candidate for Texas is averaging in fourth place in Democratic primary polls, according to FiveThirtyEight. O’Rourke has raised over $9 million from roughly 218,000 individual donations.
• Pete Buttigieg: The South Bend mayor has surged in recent polls and emerged as an early contender for the nomination. He raised an unexpectedly large sum in the first quarter, $7 million from roughly 159,000 donors.
• Andrew Yang: Yang, the tech entrepreneur running a grassroots campaign fueled by social media, is polling in the low single digits nationally, according to RealClearPolitics. But he raised $1.7 million from 80,000 individual donors in the first quarter.
• Tulsi Gabbard: Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, was initially the only candidate who qualified for the debates by having received over 65,000 individual donors alone. More recently, she has appeared at or above 1 percent in a few polls.
• Julián Castro: Castro announced that he had received donations from over 65,000 donors on the same day as one of his competitors, Cory Booker.
• Cory Booker: Booker has hovered around the low single digits in the polls. He announced that he had received donations from over 65,000 donors on the same day as Castro.
• Marianne Williamson: According to Politico, Williamson met both thresholds after a Monmouth University poll released showed her at 1 percent — the third poll to do so this year.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – RAHEEM KASSAM – Editor-in-Chief, Human Events – discussed Brexit’s stunning victory.

• FARAGE: The Brexit Party’s stunning victory is just the beginning.  “…The parties of the Westminster establishment are terrified of us. The European election results show they are right to be. The Brexit Party is here to stay and to change politics for good.”
• Europe’s centrists lose majority in EU elections, Brexit Party surges. (NY Post) — Europe’s centrist parties took a beating in the European Union’s parliamentary elections over the weekend — losing ground to environmental and liberal groups as well as far-right and populist parties. The upending of the traditional order was particularly noticeable in the UK, where Nigel Farage’s single-issue Brexit Party took a third of the votes — while outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party won just 9 percent, putting it in fifth place. Farage said Monday the result makes the case that Britain should leave the EU, even if an agreement on that exit isn’t reached. He added that he doubts the Conservatives will manage to extricate the country from the 28-member body by October’s deadline while they struggle to replace May — and said his party would “stun everybody” in the next British election if it doesn’t happen on time. “The Conservative Party are bitterly divided and I consider it to be extremely unlikely that they will pick a leader who is able to take us out on the 31st October,” he said. May, who is stepping down in June after she failed to cement a Brexit deal, called the loss “disappointing” and said it “shows the importance of finding a Brexit deal.” The four-day election among the EU countries delivered the highest turnout in 20 years, with almost 51 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot.
• EUROPEAN RESULTS: Anti-establishment mood grips globe. THE RIGHT WINNING ALL OVER THE WORLD:

USA – Donald Trump

Australia – Scott Morrison

Brazil – Jair Bolsonaro

France – Marine Le Pen

Hungary – Viktor Orban

India – Narendra Modi

Italy – Matteo Salvini

Poland – Andrzej Duda

UK – Nigel Farage

7am – E         Taylor Swift Shuts Down Interview Question About ‘Settling Down’: Men Aren’t ‘Asked That Question’ (People.com) — With the “ME!” singer’s 30th birthday approaching in December, Swift was asked during a recent interview about whether she plans on becoming a mother one day — a question she viewed as sexist. Quickly shutting it down, Swift shared that she didn’t think the outlet would likely have brought up the topic of parenthood had she not been a woman. “I really do not think men are asked that question when they turn 30,” she told German outlet RTL, according to translations. “So I’m not going to answer that now.” The singer — who has been dating actor Joe Alwyn for more than two years — did, however, continue with a rumination on her milestone birthday, explaining that she’s learned plenty from her 20s that she hopes to take with her into her next decade.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – TOM ROUSSEY – Reporter covering DC, MD & VA for ABC7

• ROUSSEY: Metro Summer Shutdown: Why Metro’s station closures are bringing complications to travelers this summer.  ALEXANDRIA, Va. (ABC7) — Since the Metro summer shutdown began on Saturday, trains are no longer running south from Reagan National Airport. They are only heading north. The six stations south of Reagan are closed through September 8th so crews can replace their platforms. ABC7 went to Reagan Airport’s Metro station Monday to see how things were going. Although there have been a number of Metro employees helping riders at all the shutdown stations, it seemed like Reagan had more than the others. The employees helped direct riders to the shuttle buses that have replaced trains at the airport. Help is especially needed at the airport, since many people from out of town know very little about Metro to begin with, let alone that it has six stations shut down. Still, tourists and locals, we talked to generally had good things to say to us about the help they were receiving.
• WAPO: As Metro shutdown arrives, dread pervades the Yellow and Blue lines

8am – B/C     2020 NEWS:

• Trump agrees with Kim Jong Un, rips “low IQ” Biden at press conference in Japan
• Swalwell: I may be ‘another white guy’ but ‘I know when to pass the mic’ (The Hill) — Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) explained that, as a white man, he knows when to promote other people’s voices when asked in an interview why he should be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2020. The California congressman told Vice News that he understood that he had gaps in his knowledge of racial issues in America and would seek advice from people of color on such issues if elected. “A white guy who doesn’t see other identities or understand other experiences should not be president,” he says in the interview. “I do,” Swalwell continued. “And where there would be gaps in my knowledge or my experience, I will pass the mic to people who do have that experience.” Swalwell echoed those comments on Twitter, writing, “I may be ‘another white guy,’ but I know where there are gaps in my knowledge or my experience and I know when to pass the mic.” A video of the interview accompanied the tweet.
• Iowa voters are confused by de Blasio’s crusade against ‘toxic whiteness.’ Iowa voters appear a bit befuddled by Mayor de Blasio’s latest progressive battle — his fight against “toxic whiteness” in city schools. “This is not an issue on anybody’s radar here,” said Greg Guelcher, vice-chair of the Woodbury County Democratic Club in Sioux City, which hosted Hizzoner’s first official campaign stop on May 17.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – AMBER ATHEY – White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller – recapped President Trump’s Japan trip and looked ahead to what’s on the president’s agenda.

• Trump concludes Tokyo visit as Japanese trade official plays down August deal chances. (CNBC) – U.S. President Donald Trump concluded his four-day visit to Japan on Tuesday amid uncertainty about whether a trade deal between the two countries could come within months. Trump had indicated during the trip that there will be trade announcements between the two sides “probably in August,” and that the trade gap between the two countries could be “straightened out rapidly.” But Japan’s economy minister sought to play down expectations for a fast deal, saying Tuesday that the U.S. leader’s comments reflected Trump’s hopes for quick progress in negotiations.
• Trump and First Lady Melania kicked off Monday’s formal visit in Japan, meeting Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako. Trump is in Tokyo ahead of the G20 Summit to be held in Japan for the first time. Trump is first head of state to meet Japan’s new emperor
• Trade beef aside, Trump and Abe bond over burgers, sumo and golf.
• “We’ve come a long way with North Korea,” Trump says during his state visit in Japan
• North Korea calls John Bolton ‘war monger’ and ‘defective human product’ over missile comment. SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Monday called U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton a “war monger” and “defective human product” after he called the North’s recent tests of short-range missiles a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
• Trump: African Americans won’t be able to vote for Biden over crime bill. President Trump accused former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Monday of ushering in a “dark period in American history” with the 1994 crime bill that rival Democrats blame for mass incarcerations.
  • TRUMP TWEET: ….Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing. That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!
  • TRUMP TWEET: Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you. I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, & helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!

8am – E         New Abortion Laws Reportedly Affecting College Enrollment Decision. The New York Post reports: “‘Scared’ students are rejecting colleges in states with strict abortion laws” (NY Post) — One Upper East Side family is sending Washington University in St. Louis a big, fat rejection letter. On Friday, the governor of Missouri, where the well-respected school is located, signed a bill outlawing abortion after eight weeks. The legislation was a deal-breaker for Ellen Bender and her daughter, Eliza, a junior at Horace Mann prep school, who planned to visit the school in June. “These laws are not really good for women,” said Ellen, a retired litigator. “It puts my child into a situation [where] I might think twice about her safety.” Missouri joins five other states — Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia and Louisiana — that have passed so-called “heartbeat bills” this year. In April, Alabama passed a bill where doctors who perform abortions in the state could face 99 years in prison. The bans, which are not yet in effect, are being vehemently fought by everyone from lawmakers and Hollywood celebrities to high-schoolers making college plans. “This is a serious thing,” said Amanda Uhry, a private-school admissions consultant in New York City. “I’ve had 61 college-admission clients remove Georgia and Ohio schools from their list for next year,” she said, adding that one of these clients is a double legacy at Emory, in Atlanta. An Upper West Sider who asked to remain anonymous said she nixed Oberlin — her teenage daughter’s dream school — after a heartbeat bill was passed in Ohio last month. “For someone who is studying music, Oberlin was always on her list of colleges,” the mother, who works in media, said of her daughter. “She texted me and was like, ‘WTF,’ when the Ohio law was passed. She wants to have control over her body and her rights.” “People are shocked and scared,” Uhry explained. “They were like, ‘What are we going to do if we send our daughter there and she gets pregnant?’ ”