Mornings on the Mall

Friday, January 24, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and guest co-host Beverly Hallberg with Independent Women’s Forum

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

Denise Harle, Victoria Cobb, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

5am – A/B/C Supreme Court justices spar over major school-choice case. (Fox News) – The Supreme Court appeared closely split during oral arguments Wednesday in a case with potentially major implications for the school choice movement, as the justices — including Chief Justice John Roberts, who presided over President Trump’s impeachment trial the previous night until 2 a.m. — sparred with the lawyers and each other. The case, Montana Department of Revenue v. Espinoza, centers around a tax-credit scholarship program passed in May 2015 that gave Montanans up to a $150 credit for donating to private scholarship organizations, helping students pay for their choice of private schools. The state’s revenue department made a rule banning those tax-credit scholarships from going to religious schools before the state’s Supreme Court later struck down the entire law.

5am – D         DOJ Concedes That Two Of Its Carter Page FISA Orders Were ‘Not Valid.’ The most serious errors laid out in the IG report occurred after the FBI obtained its first warrant renewal in January 2017. The report said that days after the renewal was granted, Steele’s primary source disputed information in the dossier during an interview with FBI agents. The source, who was not identified, told agents that Steele misrepresented and embellished information attributed to him in the dossier. The IG report documented other errors before the FBI applied for its first warrant on Page. It said that in August 2016, the FBI agent who led the investigation into Page failed to disclose information from the CIA that Page had been an “operational contact” for the spy agency.   The FBI also failed to disclose that Steele told agents during a meeting on Oct. 3, 2016 that he believed a key sub-source for the dossier was a “boaster” and “embellisher.”

5am – E         BIRTH TOURISM:

• White House Rolls Out New Rules To End ‘Birth Tourism.’     The Trump administration will implement new rules that aim to prevent pregnant foreign nationals from visiting the U.S. for the sole purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil. The White House announced rules Thursday meant to crack down on “birth tourism,” where foreign pregnant women enter the U.S. on a tourist visa in order to give birth, giving their child automatic citizenship. Under the upcoming guidelines, pregnant women applying for B visas — otherwise known as nonimmigrant visitor visas — may have to prove that they have a specific purpose for traveling to the U.S. other than giving birth.
• AOC WANTS ANCHOR BABIES: AOC defends Russian oligarchs trying to have anchor babies. (Washington Examiner) – Trump has missed the mark on immigration plenty of times, but this is certainly not one of them.  Russian elites regularly shell out tens of thousands of dollars to deliver their children in Miami. AOC wants that to continue.

6am – A         INTERVIEW – DENISE HARLE — Legal Counsel for the leading pro-life legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) – discussed the fight against abortion on the day of the March for Life in D.C.

• BIO: Denise Harle serves as Legal Counsel at ADF. Harle’s litigation efforts focus on First Amendment freedoms in the pro-life space, defending pro-life legislation nationwide. She served as the lead role in drafting briefs for U.S. Supreme Court case NIFLA v. Becerra, a free speech victory in California pro-life pregnancy centers.
• President Trump plans to address an annual rally of prolife demonstrators today in Washington, which will be the first appearance by a sitting president at the March for Life.  The event is in its 47th year, having taken place every year since the passage of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The president made the announcement via Twitter, writing, “see you on Friday…Big Crowd!”

6am – B/C     SOROS NEWS

• SOROS SPREADS CONSPIRACY THEORY… George Soros Says Facebook Is Conspiring to Re-Elect Trump. (Bloomberg) — Billionaire George Soros said that nothing is keeping Facebook Inc. from spreading disinformation and the company may be in cahoots with President Donald Trump to get him re-elected.  “I think there is a kind of informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook,” Soros, 89, said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Facebook will work together to re-elect Trump, and Trump will work to protect Facebook so that this situation cannot be changed and it makes me very concerned about the outcome for 2020.”
• THE SOROS CURRICULUM… WSJ: Soros Commits $1 Billion to Educational Initiative. (WSJ) –  DAVOS, Switzerland— George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager-turned-philanthropist, said he was committing $1 billion to fund a loose network of universities around the world to help educate young people and promote “personal autonomy.”  Mr. Soros, 89 years old, used his annual dinner and speech at the World Economic Forum here to announce the initiative, calling it the most important one of his life. Soros deputies described the plan, called the Open Society University Network, as a collaboration of universities around the world that would work to foster a traditional liberal-arts education for students, while instilling in them an appreciation for living in, and fighting for, a free society. The endowment is “the most important and enduring project of my life,” Mr. Soros said. He asked other philanthropists to contribute.
• FLASHBACK: Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election. (WSJ) –  Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election. […]  Mr. Soros was cautious about the market going into November and became more bearish immediately after Mr. Trump’s election, according to people close to the matter. Mr. Trump has raised the possibility of tariffs on Chinese imports and other steps that could upend global trade, which had some money managers forecasting a move lower in stocks. The stance proved a mistake—the stock market has risen over the past two months on expectations that Mr. Trump’s proposed economic policies will boost corporate earnings and the overall economy.   As a result, some of Mr. Soros’s personal trading positions incurred losses approaching $1 billion, the people say. Mr. Soros adjusted his positions and exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses, the people added.

6am – D         Mnuchin knocks Greta Thunberg’s activism: Study economics and then “come back” to us. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday dismissed Greta Thunberg’s call for countries around the world to immediately divest from fossil fuel investments, saying that the teen climate activist should study college economics before making such requests. “Is she the chief economist? Who is she, I’m confused,” Mnuchin said during a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The Guardian reported.  Mnuchin added that his remark was a “joke.” But he then continued to push back on Thunberg’s credentials to speak on problems related to climate change and fossil fuel investments. “After she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us,” Mnuchin said, echoing the sentiments that President Trump has expressed about Thunberg. Trump earlier this week described the Swedish teen as “very angry.” Mnuchin also argued that divestment would significantly hurt the economy and jobs.  “Many economies are transitioning to more efficient and cleaner energy. That doesn’t have to be all renewables,” he asserted.

• Greta Thunberg hits back after Treasury Secretary Mnuchin tells her to study economics. The 17-year-old climate activist responded to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury on Twitter. “My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1.5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up.”

6am – E         BLOOMBERG GAINING MOMENTUM:

• Bloomberg’s ad spending up to a quarter-billion dollars. (Fox News) – ith the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump dominating political news coverage, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is up this week with a new national TV commercial in which he declares “it’s time for the Senate to act and remove Trump from office.” “In 2016, I warned that Donald Trump was a dangerous demagogue,” the former New York City mayor and billionaire business and media mogul says in the ad before vowing that if the senators “won’t do their jobs, this November, you and I will.” loomberg’s presidential campaign says the 30-second spot is running on national cable on CNN and MSNBC, as well as in 27 states across the country. And the campaign touts that among those states are Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas, where Republican senators could face competitive re-elections bids.
• Bloomberg rises to 4th place in new national poll. The Monmouth University poll found Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg continues to rise in the Democratic primary field, according to a new nationwide poll out Wednesday, as he plows his personal fortune into widespread advertisements for his last minute bid for the White House. The Monmouth University poll found Bloomberg polling at 9 percent nationally among Democratic voters — good for a distant fourth place among a still-crowded field. The former mayor’s showing in the poll represents an increase of 4 points since a Monmouth survey conducted in December and the highest he’s registered in a national poll since jumping into the race late last year.

6am – F         Trump to become first president in history to speak at March for Life. (Washington Examiner) – President Trump will deliver an in-person speech on Friday at the March for Life, an annual rally held in Washington protesting the legalization of abortion. Trump will be the first president in history to appear at the march, one of the highest-profile events of the anti-abortion movement. March for Life is in its 47th year, having taken place every year since the passage of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Last year, Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise appearance at the march before roughly 100,000 attendees. The president also gave a message of support for the cause to attendees through a live video. Jeanne Mancini, president of the organizing group, celebrated the announcement in a statement, saying Trump had been loyal to the anti-abortion movement.

7am – A/B/C IMPEACHMENT TRIAL:

• House Democrats wrap up their opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump today.  Yesterday was spent focusing on the President’s alleged abuse of power, one of the two articles of impeachment approved last month by the House. The trial could wrap up by late next week if the White House decides not use its full 24 hours for opening arguments and if Republicans block the introduction of new witnesses and documents.
• Impeachment trial Day 3: Senator clashes with key Dem witness, Republicans turn to fidget spinners, and everything else you may have missed. As the third day of the ongoing impeachment trial of President Trump wrapped up in the Senate chamber, most of the drama was elsewhere — with one witness for the Democrats accusing a Republican senator of “defamation” and “slander” after she questioned his patriotism and implicated him in a scheme to take down Trump from inside the White House.
• Senators considering short morning-only impeachment session on Saturday. (CNN) Senators and aides in each party say there is an effort in the works to hold a short, morning-only impeachment trial session on Saturday to hear the beginning of the opening arguments from President Donald Trump’s defense counsel and then allowing senators to leave town for the weekend. The plan is not finalized but seemed to be gaining steam on Thursday as word of the plan circulated through the Republican and Democratic caucuses.An early start is possible, in part, because Chief Justice John Roberts would not need to do his day job presiding over the Supreme Court on a Saturday, something he’s done all week before presiding over the impeachment trial in the afternoon and into the night.One senator who asked not to be named told CNN that Roberts is amenable to the plan.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – Victoria Cobb – President, The Family Foundation of Virginia – discussed the radical pro-abortion proposals going through the Virginia General Assembly.

• The Virginia March for Life is coming up in downtown Richmond t the Virginia State Capitol on Thursday, February 13th. http://www.familyfoundation.org/
• Virginia Senate committee passes bill easing abortion restrictions. RICHMOND, Va. — With a newly empowered Democratic majority at the Virginia General Assembly, abortion-rights advocates say the state has a chance to roll back decades of restrictions and become a “safe haven” for women in neighboring conservative states. Pro-choice groups are pushing to undo Republican-backed laws, including a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, requirements for ultrasound and counseling as well as eliminating regulations holding abortion clinics to the same standards as hospitals and expanding who can perform a first-trimester abortion. A Senate committee passed that bill Thursday, a day after a House committee advanced that chamber’s version. “These laws have been about shaming women, stigmatizing abortion, shutting off access, discouraging doctors from providing this care,” Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said. “They only serve to put up barriers to the access of care and actually shut down abortion providers around the state and they’ve been somewhat successful.” Pro-choice groups said those restrictions injected politics into a decision that should be made by a woman and her doctor and made obtaining an abortion overly burdensome.

7am – E         SEN. BLACKBURN HAD LIBERAL HEADS SPINNING YESTERDAY:

• CNN host and Sen. Richard Blumenthal talk about Blackburn’s tweet about Vindman and they are appalled.
• Sen. Marsha Blackburn @MarshaBlackburn: Adam Schiff is hailing Alexander Vindman as an American patriot.   How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America’s greatest enemy? 4:06 PM · Jan 23, 2020
• Sen. Marsha Blackburn @MarshaBlackburn: It makes sense that Alexander Vindman leaked the July 25th phone call to his friend (aka the “whistleblower”). They both have lots in common: —Held the same NSC job   —Liberals who worked under Obama  —Wanted to take out Trump 6:07 PM – Jan 23, 2020
• Sen. Marsha Blackburn @MarshaBlackburn: Vindman’s commanding officer, Army Lt. Col. Jim Hickman: “Do not let the uniform fool you. He is a political activist in uniform.” 8:01 PM – Jan 23, 2020
• Dem impeachment witness Vindman unloads on Blackburn as Dems wrap 3rd day of Trump’s trial.  As the third day of the ongoing impeachment trial of President Trump wrapped up in the Senate chamber, most of the drama was elsewhere — with one witness for the Democrats accusing a Republican senator of “defamation” and “slander” after she questioned his patriotism and implicated him in a scheme to take down Trump from inside the White House.
• Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn was spotted reading a book during the trial. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, was spotted reading a book during the trial today. She revealed on Twitter this afternoon what the book it is: Kimberley Strassel’s latest, “Resistance (At All Costs): How Trump Haters Are Breaking America.”  “It provides good insights into today’s proceedings. Second – busy mamas are the best at multi-tasking. Try it,” Blackburn tweeted.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SENATOR MARSHA BLACKBURN – United States Senator from Tennessee – shared her thoughts on the impeachment trial.

8am – B/C     President Trump plans to address an annual rally of prolife demonstrators today in Washington, which will be the first appearance by a sitting president at the March for Life.  The event is in its 47th year, having taken place every year since the passage of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BRET BAIER – Anchor of “Special Report” on Fox News Channel weekdays at 6 pm and author of the latest book “Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win World War II” — discussed the latest news on the impeachment trial.

• Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 59m After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V.

8am – E         NY TIMES: Stress Really Does Make Hair Go Gray Faster. The same nerves involved in the fight-or-flight response can cause permanent damage to the cells responsible for producing hair color in mice, scientists have found.