Ann Coulter, Jessica Vaughn, KT McFarland and John Fund joined WMAL on Wednesday!

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Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

Executive Producer: Heather Smith

5am – A/B/C DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – ANN COULTER- author of “Adios America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole” – discussed the backlash against Trump’s Mexico comments.

5am – D         Jimmy Carter: U.S. In “Inevitable Decline of Worldwide Influence,” China Will Succeed As Number One Economic Power. (RCP) –On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, former President Jimmy Carter said the United States is suffering “an inevitable relative decline in role influence” around the world. Carter predicted China will “succeed the United States as the number one economic power in the world.” “We’re in an inevitable relative decline in role influence,” Carter said. “Not because of any fault of ours, but it’s as I said it’s inevitable.” “I think economically, China will soon, you know, succeed the United States as the number one economic power in the world,” Carter declared. “So we’re having whether we like it or not to accommodate that necessity of realizing other people are going to be as powerful and as influenced as we are in some aspects of life,” Carter conceded.

5am – E         Carter: US trains only 60 Syrian rebels. (CNN) – The United States has only trained approximately 60 Syrian rebel fighters as of July 3, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, saying the number is “much smaller” than the administration hoped to train at this point. “I said the number 60, and I can look out at your faces and you have the same reaction I do, which is that that’s an awfully small number,” he said. Carter’s admission highlights the increasing concern over the effectiveness of a program to train a local fighting force to combat ISIS in Syria. The low numbers are blamed on a strict vetting process that includes ensuring the fighters are committed to combat ISIS, as opposed to the Assad regime, and passing a counter-intelligence screening. “We make sure that they, for example, aren’t going to pose a green-on-blue threat to their trainers; that they don’t have any history of atrocities,” Carter said.

6am – A/B/C Hillary Invited People To Sign Up To Have Dinner With Her. If you won a dinner with Hillary, who would you bring along? Enter now for your chance! https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/posts/931883960201467

6am – D/E     D.C. Residents Say Take Down Jefferson Memorial, Rename Washington, D.C. (PJ Media) — Asked to weigh in on Confederate controversy, one man suggests renaming the capital “Black City” or “Mixed City.” District of Columbia residents and tourists weighed in on the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag, some saying the nation should go as far as renaming Washington, D.C. CNN anchor Don Lemon recently floated the idea of re-thinking the Jefferson Memorial, dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, since he was a slave owner. “There may come a day when we want to re-think Jefferson, I don’t know if we should do that, but when we get to that point, I’ll be happy to partake in that particular discussion,” Lemon said. “It should come down,” one D.C. resident told PJ Media, referencing the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. “If we do that, though, George Washington owned slaves. Should we rename Washington, D.C.?” he was asked. “You have to draw the line at some point, I guess, maybe take a poll across the country and see what people think about it and if they want to rename the city, do it,” he said. “I would support changing the American flag as well. America is based on a lot of mass killings and slavery and the history is just – look at the Germans, they own up to the Holocaust, nobody is proud of their history. Americans, at least, you should not be proud of any mass killing. You should not be proud of anything wrong that’s been done in the past or any symbols that represent that and that’s all.”

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JESSICA VAUGHN – Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, DC-based research institute that examines the impact of immigration on American society and educates policymakers and opinion leaders on immigration issues.

• More Than 347,000 Convicted Criminal Immigrants At Large In U.S.

7am – B        Valerie Jarrett Says Michelle Obama Was Skeptical Of Husband’s Plan To Sing ‘Amazing Grace’ (Daily Caller) — President Obama’s plan to sing “Amazing Grace” during the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of a Charleston, South Carolina church who was among the nine murdered at Emanuel African Methodist Church last month, was initially met with skepticism from first lady Michelle Obama, according to the family’s close confidante, Valerie Jarrett. Jarrett gave the backstory to Obama’s decision to sing the Christian hymn during a question-and-answer session at the Aspen Institute last week. The senior advisor recalled that during the helicopter ride to Pinckney’s service, which was held at the College of Charleston, Obama informed her and Michelle that he was considering singing the song. “Hmm,” Jarrett said she replied. The first lady’s response was more critical. “Why on earth would that fit in?” she asked, according to Jarrett. “I don’t know whether I’m going to do it, but I just wanted to warn you two that I might sing,” Obama said. “I think if I sing, the church will sing with me,” he continued, adding, “we’ll see how it feels at the time.”

7am – C        Internal poll shows Anthony Brown with large lead in congressional race. (Capital Gazette) — Former lieutenant governor Anthony G. Brown has a wide lead over lesser known opponents in the contest for Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, according to poll summary released by his campaign Monday — the first such survey made public in the crowded race for the Prince George’s County-based district. Brown, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor last year, has support from 42 percent of respondents in the poll, compared with 20 percent for former Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey and 5 percent or less for the other candidates. Nearly three in 10 Democrats remain undecided, the poll said. The Ivey campaign dismissed the results of Brown’s poll and released their own internal survey, in response, that showed the race closer. “That’s the same thing Brown told voters last year, and Hogan crushed him just a few months ago,” Ivey campaign manager Jesse Hassinger said in a statement. “Our internal poll shows that this race is neck-and-neck between Glenn and Brown, and Brown just spent nearly $20 million in an epic loss.” The Ivey campaign’s poll puts Brown at 33 percent and Ivey just 6 percentage points behind, at 27 percent.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – KT MCFARLAND – Fox News National Security Analyst

• Iran Deal Deadline Delayed – The talks now look set to continue at least until Friday, past the July 9 date by which Congress was to receive a copy of the agreement for its review. According to legislation, Congress would have had 30 days to examine the deal and pass a resolution of disapproval to block its implementation, but with talks passing that deadline, they will have 60 days.
• Jimmy Carter: U.S. In “Inevitable Decline of Worldwide Influence,” China Will Succeed As Number One Economic Power
• Ash Carter: US trains only 60 Syrian rebels

7am – E         Entertainment News:

• Star Wars hero Han Solo will get his own stand-alone film, Walt Disney Co has announced. The currently untitled film will be released on May 25 2018 and be made by the team behind the international hit Lego Movie. It will be the second ‘anthology film’ of the Star Wars franchise. The first film, Rogue One, follows the group of Rebel soldiers who steal the Death Star plans in the period of time directly before A New Hope. It will star British actress Felicity Jones who was nominated for an Oscar for The Theory of Everything. The anthology films will explore a separate part of George Lucas’ intricate intergalactic universe and will intersperse the new trilogy of Star Wars movies that begins with December’s highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The new Han Solo film will focus on the early story of the character made famous in the Star Wars films by actor Harrison Ford, who will reprise that role in The Force Awakens.

• Harry Shearer returning to The Simpsons. Mr. Burns is back! Shearer signs new deal. (CNN) Exxxxx-cellent. Looks like Harry Shearer isn’t leaving “The Simpsons” after all. Shearer — who had apparently left the show over a contract dispute in May — will be returning to the show for its 27th season this fall. The actor’s “Simpsons” characters include Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner.
• Subway has suspended relationship with Jared amidst child porn investigation: According to local news outlets, the FBI raided the Indiana home of longtime Subway spokesman Jared Fogle in connection with a child pornography investigation.

8am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – JOHN FUND – Columnist, National Review Online – analyzed Hillary’s CNN interview.

8am – D         Should Ben’s Chili Bowl Drop Their Support for Bill Cosby?

• The new Ben’s on H Street is the most important Chili Bowl since the original. (Washington Post) – The Ben’s Chili Bowl at the corner of H and 10th streets NE has that new car smell. The red retro-vinyl chairs, the Formica tables, the giant stainless-steel griddle, the ketchup-and-mustard-colored interior, everything inside the latest location feels familiar, yet foreign, as if a Hollywood production company had tried to recreate the original Ben’s on U Street NW piece by piece.
• D.C.’s Ben’s Chili Bowl appears to distance itself from Bill Cosby. (Washington Post) — In the District, Ben’s Chili Bowl and Bill Cosby have long been linked. A mural featuring him adorns the side of the historic U Street greasy spoon. A sign behind the counter says the legendary actor eats for free. And for decades, major events at Ben’s have been announced with the actor as emcee. When Ben’s opened its first outpost in Virginia last year, Cosby helped cut the ribbon. But when the newest and biggest Ben’s opens Wednesday, it’s not clear whether Cosby will have his usual outsize imprint on the burgeoning Washington-area chain.       Sonya Ali, who helps run Ben’s with her husband, brothers and sister-in-law, declined to comment on whether Cosby would attend. “We are only talking about the opening of Ben’s on H Street,” she said.
• Walt Disney World Resort Confirms Removal of Bill Cosby Statue. (NBC News) — A statue of the embattled comedian Bill Cosby has been removed from the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, a Disney spokesman confirmed early Wednesday. The bust at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park was removed when it closed on Tuesday night, the spokesman told NBC News. More than a dozen women have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them. The 77-year-old, who has never been charged with a crime, denies the allegations and is trying to get several court cases thrown out.
• Bill Cosby Show Reruns Pulled from 2 Networks. (Variety) — Bounce TV Pulls ‘Cosby’ Reruns, BET’s Centric Yanks ‘The Cosby Show.’ UPDATE: In the wake of the latest news regarding comedian Bill Cosby’s rape allegations, African-American-skewing network Bounce TV has announced that it will immediately cease airing reruns of television series “Cosby,” while the BET-owned Centric Network has pulled “The Cosby Show.” Cosby came under more scrutiny yesterday after news broke that he admitted to drugging women for sex. Since last year, he has been openly battling multiple allegations of rape. A competitor of BET, Bounce TV is an African-American focused, advertiser-supported digital multicast channel carried by broadcast TV stations around the country. It was co-founded by Martin Luther King III and Georgia politician Andrew Young. “Cosby” was a CBS sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2000. It starred Bill Cosby and his “Cosby Show” co-star Phylicia Rashad, as well as Madeline Kahn, Jurnee Smollett and others.

TOMORROW: Brad Thor and Stuart Varney