Cal Thomas, Joe Concha, Tom Fitton, VA State Senator Adam Ebbin and Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer joined WMAL on Wednesday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C IRS STRIKE: Hundreds of IRS employees are skipping work. That could delay tax refunds. But IRS employees across the country — some in coordinated protest, others out of financial necessity — won’t be clocking in, according to Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, and several local union officials. The work action is widespread and includes employees from a processing center in Ogden, Utah, to the Brookhaven campus on New York’s Long Island.

5am – D/E     AOC NEWS

• Poll: 3/4 Dems would consider backing Ocasio-Cortez for president. 74% OF DEMS WOULD VOTE FOR AOC FOR POTUS. A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds that 74% of Democrats (and people who lean Dem) would consider voting for Ocasio-Cortez if she were old enough to run for president. (She’s 29; you have to be at least 35.)
• Greg Gutfeld Says Media Making Same Mistake With Ocasio-Cortez They Made With Trump: ‘Laugh, Laugh, Laugh, Until…’ / Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld today observed some similarities in media reactions to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Donald Trump.
• Ocasio-Cortez claims that she did not say last night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that she gives “zero” f*cks about pushback from Democrats
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC 17h17 hours ago: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Retweeted The Hill: I actually didn’t say this, so while I know “brown women cursing” drives clicks, maybe you accurately quote the whole exchange instead of manipulating people into thinking I said this sentence instead of just the word “zero.”

6am – A/B/C COVINGTON CATHOLIC COVERAGE:

• ON TODAY show: SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: “Do you feel from this experience that you owe anybody an apology? Do you see your own fault in any way?” NICK SANDMANN: I had every right to stand there…I respect him… looking back, I would have walked away
• Savannah Guthrie Tweet Got Ratio’d Hard… Bluecheck Lefties Are Furious That The Kid Got An Interview At All…
• WAPO Gives Covington Catholic Story The ‘CONSERVATIVES POUNCE’ Treatment:  A viral story spread. The mainstream media rushed to keep up. The Trump Internet pounced.
• WAPO’s ABBY OHLHEISER: Viral stories take time to develop, this creates challenges for actual reporters, and the pro-Trump Internet is good at pouncing in the gap. We know this. The Covington story has become a really sticky example of all of that at work
• Whoopi Goldberg on the media smearing the Covington Catholic boys: “So many people admitted they made snap judgments before all these other facts came in. … Why is that? Why do we keep making the same mistake?” Joy Behar: “Because we’re desperate to get Trump out of office.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist –discussed the latest AOC news and the SOTU faceoff with Pelosi .

6am – E         Maryland Man Opened Fire Over Parking Spot, Police Say. (NBC Washington) — A Maryland man was charged with attempted murder after police say he opened fire on a driver who parked in his assigned spot.  Cornelius H. Harcum, 47, is accused of shooting three times at a man who he said had parked in his spot in Columbia, the Howard County Police Department said in a statement released Tuesday.  The victim, who was not identified, told police he parked in a residential parking lot while visiting a friend early Monday morning.  As he stood outside his car, Harcum approached him, told him to move and then fired three shots in his direction, police say the victim said. He had never met the man.  The victim was not hit, but two bullets struck his car.

6am – F         D.C. Council overrides Bowser veto, votes to decriminalize Metro fare evasion. The D.C. Council voted 11-2 Tuesday to override Mayor Muriel Bower’s veto of the Fare Evasion Decriminalization Act. The act makes the penalty for not paying to ride Metrobus or Metrorail a $50 civil fine. The bill still has to undergo a 30-day Congressional review before it becomes law. The new law will replace what advocates say were unfair punishments for fare evasion, which included the possibility of a fine up to $300, 10 days in jail and a criminal record. According to Metro, most fare evaders are given only a $50 fine. Under the new law, Metro transit police can still enforce fare evasion, but the punishment is much less severe. The Council only needed nine votes to overturn the mayor, who used only the second veto of her career to stop the law from moving forward.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JOE CONCHA – Media Reporter, The Hill – discussed the media coverage of the Covington Catholic story and White House press briefings.

• ON TODAY show: SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: “Do you feel from this experience that you owe anybody an apology? Do you see your own fault in any way?” NICK SANDMANN: I had every right to stand there…I respect him… looking back, I would have walked away
• Savannah Guthrie Tweet Got Ratio’d Hard… Bluecheck Lefties Are Furious That The Kid Got An Interview At All…
• WAPO Gives Covington Catholic Story The ‘CONSERVATIVES POUNCE’ Treatment:  A viral story spread. The mainstream media rushed to keep up. The Trump Internet pounced.
• Trump: I told Sarah Sanders to stop holding press briefings because media covers her “rudely” / President Trump on Tuesday said he directed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop holding regular briefings, citing unfair treatment by the news media.  — Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump  The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News! 10:28 AM – Jan 22, 2019
• White House Correspondents’ Association statement on White House briefings: “This retreat from transparency and accountability sets a terrible precedent.”

7am – B/C     SOTU / SHUTDOWN:

• President Trump is moving forward with plans to deliver a State of the Union address from the Capitol Jan. 29 — despite Speaker Pelosi’s request that he delay the speech or submit it in writing
• Nancy Pelosi refused to allow White House officials access to the House floor for a State of the Union walkthrough. Under Pelosi’s directive, a scheduled walkthrough last week for White House officials in preparation for the State of the Union was canceled. Fox News first reported the canceled walkthrough and the written letter from the White House to the sergeant-at-arms on Tuesday requesting another chance to survey the House chamber.
• A showdown has been set in the Senate — on the Trump proposal to end the shutdown, and a House-passed Democratic alternative. The key votes will begin at 2:30pm Thursday. Each measure would need 60 votes to advance, but neither are expected to.

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW – TOM FITTON – President of Judicial Watch (in studio)

• ADAM SCHIFF admits to leaking Don Jr’s private testimony about the Trump Tower meeting: “He’s been making this claim all along. What upsets Don Jr., and I can understand why he’s upset, is he was saying publicly, ‘I’m fully cooperating with Congress, I’m answering all their questions,” Schiff said. “Then he goes before our committee and refuses to answer a whole host of questions, making completely fallacious claims of privilege, and we called him out on it as we have done with other witnesses.” Trump told Fox News earlier in the day he believes “there’s a 99.9 percent chance [Schiff is] the guy” who has been leaking private testimony that he gave in 2017 when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee to discuss the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting.
• Byron York: What if Mueller doesn’t give Democrats what they want?
• When Mueller poured water on the BuzzFeed report claiming that Trump directed fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, pledged to take up where BuzzFeed left off, no matter what Mueller said.
• “Are you still going to investigate the claims?” Schiff was asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Absolutely, absolutely,” Schiff said.
• Former top FBI lawyer personally involved in FISA warrant for Trump aide, other Russia probe irregularities, transcript shows

8am – A         AOC NEWS

• Poll: 3/4 Dems would consider backing Ocasio-Cortez for president. 74% OF DEMS WOULD VOTE FOR AOC FOR POTUS. A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds that 74% of Democrats (and people who lean Dem) would consider voting for Ocasio-Cortez if she were old enough to run for president. (She’s 29; you have to be at least 35.)
• Greg Gutfeld Says Media Making Same Mistake With Ocasio-Cortez They Made With Trump: ‘Laugh, Laugh, Laugh, Until…’ / Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld today observed some similarities in media reactions to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Donald Trump.
• Ocasio-Cortez claims that she did not say last night on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that she gives “zero” f*cks about pushback from Democrats

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW – VA STATE SENATOR ADAM EBBIN – (Democrat) – member of the Senate of Virginia, representing the 30th district in Northern Virginia since January 2012. 30th district is comprised of Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County

• Virginia Exploring Ranked Choice Voting for Local Elections. RICHMOND (WMAL) — A new form of voting may start deciding local elections in Virginia, with a bill pending in the State Senate that would allow localities to allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than just voting for one. Its called ranked-choice voting — sometimes instant run-off voting — and advocates say that it creates greater consensus, preventing candidates winning without securing a true majority of votes. One of those advocates is freshman State Senator Adam Ebbin (D-30th) who is sponsoring the bill. He argues that ranked choice voting is the antidote for so-called “strategic voting,” where voters skip over candidates who they might agree more with because they don’t think they have a chance of winning.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and the New York Times best-selling author of ” Operation Dark Heart.” @T_S_P_O_O_K_Y ‏

• Supreme Court Lets Trump’s Transgender Military Ban Take Effect. A divided U.S. Supreme Court cleared President Donald Trump’s administration to start barring most transgender people from serving in the armed forces. The justices, voting 5-4 Tuesday, put on hold lower court decisions that had blocked the administration’s planned ban from taking effect. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented. Neither side provided any explanation. The court stopped short of agreeing to hear arguments on an expedited basis, as the administration sought. But by letting the ban take effect, the court gave the administration a major victory and hinted the justices ultimately will uphold the restrictions. “We are pleased the Supreme Court granted stays in these cases, clearing the way for the policy to go into effect while litigation continues,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in an emailed statement. “Due to lower courts issuing nationwide injunctions, our military had been forced to maintain a prior policy that poses a risk to military effectiveness and lethality for over a year.” Transgender troops have been serving openly since June 2016, when President Barack Obama’s administration began lifting a longstanding prohibition. Opponents of the ban say reinstating it would violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause.