Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Hosts: Vince Coglianese  and Tony Shaffer

5am – A/B/C    House leaders strike deal to renew surveillance law (Politico)  House leaders have struck a bipartisan deal to renew a set of expiring surveillance tools — giving a huge boost to efforts to extend the law five days before the deadline. Senior aides for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) started negotiating after it became clear that committee leaders in both parties weren’t going to come together on a proposal to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ahead of the March 15 expiration date. The Senate, however, was not involved in the House discussions, leaving the fate of the law unresolved. But without a solution of their own — and a broad desire to not let the surveillance authorities lapse — senators may be forced to accept the agreement hammered out by House leaders and President Donald Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill. The contours of a deal started to come together in recent days, even as Congress has been grappling with how to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. And after meeting with Attorney General William Barr in the Capitol Monday night, House Republicans sent the Democrats a counteroffer Tuesday morning that included a list of proposed changes. McCarthy huddled with his Democratic counterpart, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.), to discuss the agreement on the floor Tuesday afternoon. “They’re just finishing up. I feel like we’re there,” McCarthy said outside the House chamber. “I just talked with Steny and staff. I think we’re about there. Just have to confirm everywhere.” The House Rules Committee will prepare the bill for floor debate Tuesday evening, with a vote expected sometime this week.

5am – D/E 2020 PRIMARIES:

• The End For Bernie? Joe Biden Solidifies Front-Runner Status With Near-Sweep On Primary Night. Former Vice President Joe Biden beat out Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in nearly all six Democratic state primaries Tuesday night, solidifying his front-runner status in the wake of Super Tuesday. Election trackers called Mississippi and Missouri for Biden almost immediately as polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, with Michigan following soon after. The closest race of the night was in Washington, where projections gave Sanders a 0.1% lead with 67 percent of the vote in, according to the New York Times at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. North Dakota was too early to call. […] Sanders declined to address his supporters after the votes came in. Both candidates had cancelled larger rallies due to the coronavirus, but Biden still took the opportunity to make a speech. “Just a few weeks ago many of these pundits were saying this candidacy was dead. Now we’re very much alive,” Biden said after securing a majority of the night’s available delegates.
• Michigan Primary Results To Be Delayed Until Wednesday A spokesman for Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Tuesday that the final results for the state’s primary election will not be ready until Wednesday, due to a large number of absentee ballots. Spokesman Jake Rollow said the results might not even come in until “early afternoon” Wednesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are expected to be in a close race in Michigan, a state Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Biden remained ahead in the polls closing in on election day. “In terms of having all jurisdictions fully done and reported, I think we’re looking at early afternoon Wednesday at this point,” Rollow said on a call with reporters. “It would be great if it gets done before that. Given the workload that we see on people’s plates we know that they’re doing their best to try and take all this on.”

• Watch Wolf Blitzer React When CNN’s Video Team Incorrectly Projects Bernie Sanders As Mississippi Winner (VIDEO) Instead of correctly displaying former Vice President Joe Biden as the state’s projected winner during the network’s Democratic presidential primary coverage, CNN’s video team put a picture and a checkmark beside the name of Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “We have our first projection of the night, Bernie Sanders …” Blitzer said before realizing the mistake and switching gears. “Not, not, not happening right now. Joe Biden, Joe Biden, uh, is the winner of Mississippi primary. Joe Biden carries Mississippi.”

6am – A/B/C CORONAVIRUS:

• There will be NO LIVE AUDIENCE and NO SPIN ROOM at the next Democratic debate on Sunday in Phoenix
• Both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden cancelled rallies in Cleveland out of concern the coronavirus could spread to their supporters while they waited for vote totals from 6 states. Bob has been following the action in Michigan, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington. In less than a week, contests will be held in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Arizona.
• Pentagon enacts ‘social distancing’ rules for reporters by adding space between chairs at presser
• Matt Gaetz slept in Walmart parking lot to avoid infecting others with possible coronavirus. On board Air Force One on Monday, as soon as he got his chief of staff’s message, Gaetz told someone that he needed to go into isolation immediately. “I was very matter of fact,” Gaetz said Tuesday. He was placed in an unoccupied office aboard Air Force One, with the door closed, for the flight back to Washington, D.C. By late Monday afternoon, Gaetz left Washington by private vehicle. “I couldn’t stay in a hotel,” he said from the car as he arrived in Okaloosa County at mid-morning Tuesday, where he plans to spend the remainder of his self-imposed quarantine. Instead, he said, “I slept in a Walmart parking lot somewhere off (Interstate) 85.”
• The National Guard has been sent to New Rochelle, New York to create a one-mile “containment” area where more than 100 of the state’s approximate 173 confirmed coronavirus cases are located. Nationwide, there are 30 deaths and more than 950 confirmed cases. President Trump’s Coronavirus task force says the centers for Disease Control and Prevention will unveil recommendations within the next 24 hours aimed at containing the spread of the disease for the four states hardest hit (Washington, New York, Florida and California).

6am – D INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist and author of new book “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers . . . and the Future of the United States”

TOPICS:

1) Primary results

2) The politics of coronavirus. Under Obama the H1N1 put 20,000 in hospital and killed 1000. Obama didn’t address it for FOUR months, but major media ignore that because they see this as a way to get Trump out of office.

6am – E DC sniper Lee Malvo gets married in prison (Fox News) Lee Boyd Malvo, who is serving life in a Virginia prison for his role in a 2002 sniper spree that left 10 people dead in the Washington, D.C., area, got married last week.  The ceremony between Malvo, 35, and an unidentified woman took place at Red Onion State Prison, said Carmeta Albarus, who has served as an adviser and mentor for Malvo. “Over the past 17 years, he has grown despite his conditions of confinement,” she said in a phone interview. “He has grown into an adult, and has found love with a wonderful young lady. … It was a beautiful ceremony.” Malvo and mastermind John Allen Muhammad randomly killed 10 people and injured three others during a three-week rampage in October 2002. They were arrested near Frederick, Md., after an intense search that gripped the nation and the world.

6am – F Playboy Magazine To End 60-Year Tradition Of Playmate Of The Year In Favor Of ‘More’ Inclusivity (Daily Caller)  Playboy magazine has announced the end of 60 years of tradition of the honoring of its Playmate of the Year in favor of “more” inclusivity. Started in 1960, the gentlemen’s magazine has honored its favorite playmate of the month from the previous year, but now all that is changing to celebrate “all twelve diverse Playmates of the month” with “a more inclusive celebration,” a rep for the magazine shared with Page Six in a piece published Tuesday.  “The point of this change was to not exclude anyone and instead of honoring one Playmate they’re honoring all 12 diverse Playmates of the year for each of their unique contributions to the brand,” the rep added. “They had an exceptional group of impressive diverse women join the Playboy family as Playmates for 2019.”  The rep concluded, “These women are accomplished advocates and admirable personalities in their own right. We wanted to raise the group up as a whole and felt that there was a need to commemorate each of them one more time.” In the past, such honors have gone to such famed celebrities as Jenny McCarthy, Anna Nicole Smith and Karen McDougal, just to name a few.

7am – A INTERVIEW – SAAGAR ENJETI — Host of THE HILL TV SHOW “Rising w/ Krystal and Saagar” and co-author of new book “The Populist’s Guide to 2020: A New Right and New Left are Rising”

TOPIC:  analyze Tuesday’s primaries results and latest 2020 news

7am – B/C Global Population Control

7am – D/E Biden, on video, lashes out at Detroit worker in profanity-laced gun dispute (Fox News) Former Vice President Joe Biden got into a heated and profanity-laced argument with a worker at a Fiat-Chrysler auto plant in Detroit on Tuesday, after the individual accused the Democratic presidential candidate of trying to take away his Second Amendment rights. “You’re full of sh– … I support the Second Amendment,” Biden shot back, stressing he’s not going to take guns away. The worker then told Biden, “You’re working for me, man,” and told Biden that he saw an online video supporting his claim that Biden is hostile to the Second Amendment. Biden, pointing at the individual as they were mere inches apart in the middle of a crowd, said he’s not working for him and told him not to be “such a horse’s a–.” Biden, at one point mistakenly referring to “AR-14’s,” went on to press the individual to acknowledge that machine guns are illegal. Biden appeared to then misspeak in saying AR-15’s are illegal, before questioning why anyone needs “100 rounds.” The dispute, caught on camera, happened at the Fiat-Chrysler plant as Biden stumped for votes in Michigan, the biggest prize among the states voting Tuesday with 125 delegates at stake.

8am – A INTERVIEW –  SUSAN FERRECHIO – chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner

TOPIC: Congress / Coronavirus

• • Trump, Congress struggle for economic deal under coronavirus threat
  • President Donald Trump pitched his proposed payroll tax break Tuesday on Capitol Hill
  •  Report: Trump Pitched 0% Payroll Tax For Rest of Year to Combat Coronavirus
  • Democrats to counter Trump coronavirus tax cuts with their own economic stimulus plan
  • Pelosi rejects calls to shutter Capitol: ‘We’re the captains of this ship’
  • Schumer: ‘We Are Very Worried About the President’s Incompetence’

8am – B/C Democrats calling different names for the corona virus are racist

8am – D/E  INTERVIEW -JENNA PORTNOY – local reporter for The Washington Post, covering Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

TOPIC: Discuss the local impact of the Coronavirus: latest on the growing number of cases, impact to metro & transit, impact to local schools and canceled events

• • • D.C., Md., Va. report 21 coronavirus cases, including 3 linked to church
    •  Metro, other transit systems on high alert to prevent coronavirus spread
    • Schools close over coronavirus threat, raising concerns about disruption
    •  Fairfax Co. Public Schools prepare for ‘distance learning,’ cancel overnight field trips. FCPS scheduled a student holiday March 16 to allow staff to prepare for “distance learning” if schools must close due to coronavirus. Field trips are modified. 
    • American University is latest college to halt in-person instruction
    • The University of Maryland is extending spring break and then conducting online-only classes to help stop the spread of coronavirus
    • Maryland nursing homes urged to restrict visitors, colleges prep for two weeks of remote instruction
    • The Washington Post has told all employees to work from home if possible