Mornings on the Mall

Monday, November 11, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

David Shulkin, Joe diGenova, Amy Loony Heffernan and Stephanie Seldin Howard joined WMAL on Monday!

5am – A/B/C IMPEACHMENT PUSH:

• Battle over impeachment inquiry witness list gives possible preview of fireworks awaiting televised public hearings this week.  (Fox News) — The battle between House Democrats and Republicans over the list of witnesses for public testimony as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry of President Trump may be a harbinger of the partisan rancor that awaits the hearings that will come to television screens nationwide this week. House Republicans over the weekend submitted a list of witnesses they would like to call for public testimony during the impeachment inquiry. That list included list Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden,  and his former business partner Devon Archer, former Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa, and the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led to the impeachment inquiry. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who runs the inquiry, was quick to reject the GOP’s request to have the whistleblower testify, citing whistleblower protection laws and stating that other witnesses’ testimony has already been more substantive than what was stated in the complaint. In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Schiff of not caring about the truth and said impeachment efforts will go nowhere unless he calls the anonymous whistleblower to testify.
• Three witnesses are expected to testify:
  • Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at approximately 10:00 a.m. (ET): The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent.
  • Friday, November 15, 2019 at approximately 11:00 a.m. (ET): Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
• Mulvaney seeks to join lawsuit questioning House subpoena power, sidestepping impeachment testimony. (Fox News) – Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney filed a motion late Friday to join a lawsuit slated to test the House’s power to subpoena executive branch officials during the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Mulvaney, who did not show for his scheduled testimony Friday morning, is asking a federal court to decide whether he’s obligated to follow executive branch orders not to comply with the impeachment probe or follow through on a subpoena he received to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. His motion claims House Democrats threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress or pursue other actions against him for essentially following through with directives from his boss — the president. According to a copy of the motion obtained by Fox News, Mulvaney seeks to join as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by former White House Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman, who sued last month ahead of his scheduled testimony before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees.
• Trump complains ‘corrupt politician’ Adam Schiff won’t let Republican list of witnesses testify in impeachment hearing. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump tweet: Corrupt politician Adam Schiff wants people from the White House to testify in his and Pelosi’s disgraceful Witch Hunt, yet he will not allow a White House lawyer, nor will he allow ANY of our requested witnesses. This is a first in due process and Congressional history!
• Schiff’s Committee Published Name Of Alleged Whistleblower Last Week. (The Federalist) – Last Wednesday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), chaired by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, published the unredacted name of a man alleged to be the so-called whistleblower who helped launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. During HPSCI testimony, William Taylor, the charge d’affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, was asked by a staff lawyer on the committee whether the name Eric Ciaramella was familiar to him. “Does a person by the name of Eric Ciaramella ring a bell for you?” asked Steve Castor, a committee staff counsel asked Taylor during a deposition on October 22.
• BOMBSHELL: Schiff’s Star Witness Admits His Only ‘Source’ Was The New York Times. Star witness to Rep. Adam Schiff’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, U.S. diplomat William Taylor, admitted behind a closed-door testimony that his only source for his claims that he had made were from the New York Times. Amazing back and forth:

Zeldin: “Your source is The New York Times?”

Taylor: “Yes.”

Zeldin: “Do you have any other source?”

Taylor: “I have not talked to the president. I have no other information…”

• Transcript reveals how Schiff took steps to block Republicans, like Jim Jordan, from questioning Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman about leaks damaging to Trump during his closed-door testimony. (Washington Examiner) – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff took steps to block Republicans from questioning Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman about leaks damaging to President Trump during his closed-door testimony. The California Democrat blocked GOP lawmakers from questioning Vindman about his conversations with other members of the intelligence community following a July 10 meeting with Ukraine government officials and after Vindman listened in on a July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At the July 10 meeting, Vindman reported, the Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, told the Ukrainians they must first pledge to investigate actions by former Vice President Joe Biden to protect the Burisma gas company and also allegations that Democrats interfered in the 2016 elections with the help of Ukraine. Rep. Jim Jordan asked Vindman if, following the meeting, he “related the Sondland comments … with any other individual.” Republicans are interested in determining who provided the information to the whistleblower, who did not listen to the July 25 call.
• House Republicans ask for Hunter Biden and whistleblower to testify in impeachment probe. House Republicans have revealed a list of witnesses they plan to call before the Intelligence Committee for the impeachment probe including the former vice president’s son Hunter Biden and the anonymous Ukraine whistleblower.  Under House rules in place over the impeachment inquiry, Democrats have the final say in approving the witnesses placed on the GOP list.
• Adam Schiff rejects Hunter Biden, ‘whistleblower’ as impeachment witnesses.
• Nunes demands Schiff testify in private as part of House impeachment inquiry
• ANOTHER TRANSCRIPT RELEASE: Trump will release transcript of first call with Ukraine’s president ‘probably on Tuesday. President Trump says he will “probably” release the transcript of another phone call with the president of Ukraine next week as the House impeachment investigation enters a new, public phase. The call occurred months before the July call that kick-started the inquiry into Trump.
• John Bolton has information about ‘many relevant meetings and conversations’ related to Ukraine but will only testify in impeachment inquiry if a court ORDERS him to.  John Bolton has $2 million book deal, which could explain his impeachment silence.

5am – D/E     VETERANS ‘UNCOMFORTABLE’ WITH ‘THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE,’ ASK FOR MORE CIVILIAN SUPPORT THIS VETERANS DAY. (Newsweek) — Almost half of U.S. veterans and active service members feel uncomfortable with being thanked for their service, a new survey has revealed. According to a poll commissioned by the Cohen Veterans Network (CVN), a national not-for-profit network of mental health clinics for post-9/11 veterans and military families, 49 percent of active and former members of the armed services feel uneasy with the expression “Thank you for your service.” It comes as 91 percent of Americans used the expression, according to the survey, and as the country prepares to commemorate its former military service members on Monday for Veterans Day. “I feel very uncomfortable when civilians say thank you for your service, because I don’t know what to say back,” said a veteran employed at a Cohen Clinic in Washington. The poll found that instead of saying the simple thank you, most veterans and service members preferred gratitude that went beyond simple platitudes and that tried to connect with them on a more personal level.

6am – A         INTERVIEW – DAVID SHULKIN – Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs – discussed Veterans Day and his new book “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Serve Your Country: Our Broken Government and the Plight of Veterans”

 

6am – B/C     Nikki Haley Recounts How John Kelly And Rex Tillerson Allegedly Undermined Trump. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly often undermined President Donald Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reportedly noted in her upcoming book.  Tillerson once said that people would die if the president was left unchecked, Haley wrote in “With All Due Respect,” her book out Tuesday describing what life was like inside the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Both officials had an obligation to carry out Trump’s policies, she added. “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” the former South Carolina governor wrote, noting also that Kelly and Tillerson often couched their resistance in patriotic terms.

6am – D         BEZOS NEWS:

• Jeff Bezos could help Redskins with new stadium: report. Amazon founder interested in owning NFL team. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is interested in owning an NFL team and has become close with league owners, including Washington’s Dan Snyder, according to a new report from CBS Sports.  Jason La Canfora reported Sunday that “some believe” Bezos could help the Redskins’ pursuit of a new stadium, as well.  “Perhaps even with an Amazon sponsorship,” La Canfora writes.  The Redskins are in the midst of trying to build a new stadium with FedEx Field’s lease set to expire in 2027. Team president Bruce Allen said over the summer that an announcement for the new venue could come “within a year.” He said the deadline to make a decision is 2022.  Bezos, meanwhile, is moving to the District, according to CBS Sports. The Amazon CEO has strong support from the league’s owners for purchasing a team, though no club is up for sale at the moment. Bezos has reportedly spent “considerable time” with Snyder and others.
• VOX: Jeff Bezos asked Michael Bloomberg months ago if he’d consider running for president. Sometime after Amazon pulled the plug on plans for a New York City headquarters in February of this year, the city’s former Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a call from a top company executive. It wasn’t just any Amazon executive — it was Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO and the world’s richest man.  Bezos was calling with a question for his fellow billionaire and media mogul: Would Bloomberg consider entering the 2020 presidential race?  Bloomberg told Bezos no at the time, according to a person briefed on the phone conversation.  But he had a question of his own for Amazon’s CEO: Would Bezos reconsider his decision to cancel plans for an Amazon headquarters — dubbed HQ2 — in New York City? Bezos’s response matched Bloomberg’s — he wouldn’t.  A spokesperson for Bloomberg confirmed the conversation. An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

6am – E         IMMIGRATION NEWS:

• NY Times: ‘Tidal Wave’ of Mass Immigration Hands Virginia to Democrats. (Breitbart) — A “tidal wave” of mass immigration has “tilt(ed) the field toward the Democrats” in the state of Virginia, the New York Times admits. Last week, Democrats took control of Virginia’s House of Delegates and the State Senate. Now, the Democrats hold power over the state’s legislature, the governor’s seat and the lieutenant governor’s seat — the first time since 1993 that this has occurred. The New York Times now admits that four to five decades of mass immigration — where about 1.2 million legal immigrants are admitted to the United States every year — has shifted Virginia into a blue state: Not long ago, this rolling green stretch of Northern Virginia was farmland. Most people who could vote had grown up here. And when they did, they usually chose Republicans. [Emphasis added]  The fields of Loudoun County are disappearing. In their place is row upon row of cookie-cutter townhouses, clipped lawns and cul-de-sacs — a suburban landscape for as far as the eye can see. Unlike three decades ago, the residents are often from other places, like India and Korea. And when they vote, it is often for Democrats. [Emphasis added]
• ICE: Montgomery Co. releases accused child molester on bond despite immigration detainer. (by KEVIN LEWIS/ABC7 News) — ROCKVILLE, Md. (ABC7) — The press office for Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) claims jail staff followed protocol when they released an undocumented immigrant accused of child sex abuse despite an immigration detainer on file. The case, which ABC7 first reported Friday, follows months of mounting tension between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the politically left-leaning county of 1.1 million residents. On Tuesday, Luis Fredy Hernandez-Morales, 48, of West Springfield, Va., was booked at the Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville on a charge of sex abuse of a minor. That same day, ICE lodged an immigration detainer against the Guatemalan national who is living in the U.S. illegally. On Wednesday, Montgomery County District Court Judge Marina Sabett issued Hernandez-Morales a $20,000 (post 10 percent) bond. Within hours, he managed to obtain the $2,000 required to be set free. Around 6 p.m. that same day, jail staff called ICE to notify agents about Hernandez-Morales’ imminent release, the federal law enforcement agency told ABC7. As ICE scrambled to send personnel to the detention center, the jail reportedly called again around 6:15 p.m. with an update: Hernandez-Morales was already gone. “You need to give us a fair chance to get down there,” said Frank Madrigal, Acting Director of ICE’s Baltimore Field Office, which oversees the entire state of Maryland. “I assure you, we’re going to do everything we can to respond to a facility whether it’s in Hagerstown, Maryland, or Rockville, Maryland, or Ocean City, Maryland.”

6am – F         CBS Fired Young Producer For No Reason. Project Veritas: She’s Not The Leaker. Ashley Bianca, fired by CBS after ABC told them she had access to the Amy Robach Epstein tape, tells Megyn Kelly that she had never heard of Project Veritas and that “I wasn’t even given the professional courtesy to defend myself… It was humiliating. It was devastating.”

7am – A/B/C JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia – discussed the latest on impeachment and the upcoming hearings this week.

• Battle over impeachment inquiry witness list gives possible preview of fireworks awaiting televised public hearings this week.  (Fox News) — The battle between House Democrats and Republicans over the list of witnesses for public testimony as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry of President Trump may be a harbinger of the partisan rancor that awaits the hearings that will come to television screens nationwide this week. House Republicans over the weekend submitted a list of witnesses they would like to call for public testimony during the impeachment inquiry. That list included list Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden,  and his former business partner Devon Archer, former Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa, and the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led to the impeachment inquiry. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who runs the inquiry, was quick to reject the GOP’s request to have the whistleblower testify, citing whistleblower protection laws and stating that other witnesses’ testimony has already been more substantive than what was stated in the complaint. In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Schiff of not caring about the truth and said impeachment efforts will go nowhere unless he calls the anonymous whistleblower to testify.
• Three witnesses are expected to testify:
  • Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at approximately 10:00 a.m. (ET): The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent.
  • Friday, November 15, 2019 at approximately 11:00 a.m. (ET): Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

7am – D/E     AMY LOONEY HEFFERNAN – co-author of “The Knock at The Door” – IN STUDIO

• ABOUT CO-AUTHOR: Amy Looney Heffernan is the surviving spouse of LT Brendan Looney, a West Coast-based Navy SEAL who was killed in Afghanistan on September 21, 2010. Brendan was also the best friend and Naval Academy roommate of Travis Manion. Amy has a Masters in Public Administration and serves as the Vice-President of the Travis Manion Foundation.
• The Knock at the Door: Three Gold Star Families Bonded by Grief and Purpose Hardcover – November 5, 2019 (by Ryan Manion  (Author), Heather Kelly (Author), Amy Looney (Author) Three Gold Star women, linked forever by unimaginable loss, share their inspiring, unlikely journey that began on the worst day of their lives. What happens when tragedy knocks on your front door? For us, it was a literal knock, with two men standing in crisply pressed uniforms. They had news. News that gutted us to the core — the death of our loved ones, a brother and two husbands — in combat zones. The thing about those moments is that it’s almost inconceivable that they can happen to you. That is, until they do. This book is for anyone who has ever received a knock at the door. And if you live long enough and have the courage to love others, you will. Maybe it’s a cancer diagnosis. Maybe it’s the death of your best friend. The betrayal of a spouse. The loss of a child. The implosion of a professional career. Or any tragedy that takes the person we love the most away from us too soon. Life is not without its challenges. The key is how you respond. This is our story. The story of three women, bonded by grief and purpose. Grief because we lost our best friends in war. Purpose because we resolved — together — to do something about it. To turn loss into inspiration for others and to channel the love that we had for the men in our lives into love for others through service. It was the only way we could escape the trap of despair and inaction, and we believe it offers a roadmap for anyone else who has ever had to answer a knock at the door.

8am – A         CBS FIRES THE WRONG PERSON IN THE ABC LEAK:

• CBS Fired Young Producer For No Reason. Project Veritas: She’s Not The Leaker: Ashley Bianca, fired by CBS after ABC told them she had access to the Amy Robach Epstein tape, tells Megyn Kelly that she had never heard of Project Veritas and that “I wasn’t even given the professional courtesy to defend myself… It was humiliating. It was devastating.”
• James O’Keefe: Leaker of Epstein Coverup Tape ‘Still Working for ABC News’: Project Veritas on Friday published an open letter from the alleged ABC News “insider” who leaked video of an anchor revealing the network had killed a bombshell report on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The letter, signed with the alias “Ignotus,” addresses the fallout from the recently-released video showing Good Morning America co-anchor Amy Robach venting that ABC News quashed a report on Epstein, which also implicated former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew. The alleged network insider writes that he or she did not seek  personal gain from leaking the tape and feels remorse for the company’s apparent pressure on Robach since its release.
• CNN’s Stelter continues network on-air blackout on ABC News not running Epstein story

8am – B/C     GOP OUTREACH TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY:

• ‘BLACKS FOR TRUMP!’ In Atlanta, Trump rallies black supporters ahead of 2020. President Trump sought Friday to demonstrate support within the black community ahead of his reelection bid next year, vowing to campaign for “every last African American vote.”  The president rallied a few hundred supporters at a Black Voices for Trump campaign event at the Georgia World Congress Center, where he boasted about economic gains and criminal justice reform and denounced Democratic leadership in major American cities.
• Trump’s appearance in Atlanta was “a gangsta move,” Shelley Wynter, a black conservative radio host, told The New Yorker, given that the event was held in the congressional district represented by the civil-rights icon John Lewis.  (Hours before the rally, Lewis posted a video of himself on Instagram, saying, “Atlanta, my city, is too busy to hate.”)
• KLACIK TO RUN FOR CUMMINGS SEAT IN BALTIMORE: GOP activist Kimberly Klacik running for Elijah Cummings’ seat after turning Trump on him. The Maryland Republican who set off President Trump’s Twitter tirade against the late Rep. Elijah Cummings over conditions in his Baltimore district is now vying for the Democrat’s seat in Congress. “I’ve seen firsthand what a lot of people are going through,” GOP activist Kimberly Klacik told the Baltimore Sun. “Our violent crime is up 52 percent in Baltimore County and it’s rising in Baltimore City, too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.” Klacik, 37, posted a series of videos to Twitter in July showing vermin, trash, and abandoned homes in Baltimore. Trump retweeted them over three days — adding pointed digs at Cummings, a sharp Trump critic. “Elijah Cummings has failed badly!” he wrote July 28. “Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action!” Trump added the next day.
• Flashback: Kanye says he’s running for president in 2024.
• Heritage Foundation President Reaches Out To Kanye To Prep Him For 2024: Kay Coles James @KayColesJames: Nov 8: .@kanyewest, if you’re considering running for office, it’s important to get a good grounding in public policy so you can serve the people well. I welcome you to @Heritage to learn ways to solve poverty, create jobs, protect the environment, & keep America a land of opportunity.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – Stephanie Seldin Howard – Director/Producer, “The Weight of Honor” http://TheWeightofHonorMovie.com

• Upcoming screening on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at University of Maryland: https://theweightofhonormovie.com/calendar/university-of-marylandgeorge-washington-university-joint-screening
• ABOUT THE FILM: In most depictions of wounded warriors, the women stand stoically in the background. No longer silent, The Weight of Honor gives them a voice, following them as they struggle, triumph, and wonder about the challenges that lie ahead. The Weight of Honor is the first comprehensive documentary to chronicle the lives of families caring for their catastrophically wounded returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Over the course of five years we follow the arc of what happens when some of America’s best and strongest volunteer to protect our nation, but return home physically and emotionally broken and disillusioned. What happens when they return is not only a personal journey but also that of their family caregivers who have no training other than the love for their wounded.  What does it take for a mother to guide her young son through a painful rehabilitation from severe burns and amputation? How does a young child comfort his father who is a shell of himself, fearful of even their own home? Who has the strength to wash the wounds of her catastrophically burned husband when he howls in pain with every drop of water? What responsibility weighs on a young wife who must now care for her war-wounded husband as well as their newborn baby? Our military does not prepare families for the return of a wounded warrior. The Weight of Honor tells their stories of strength, exhaustion, conflict, and even humor as they chart a course through the unknown.

 

8am – E         BON JOVI HELPS D.C. AREA HOMELESS VETERANS: Homeless veterans set to move into permanent digs: Jon Bon Jovi’s charitable organization helped fund a new facility for homeless veterans. Known as the Walter Reed Veteran Apartments, the complex will house 77 single people in efficiency units and provide services for vocational training, job placement, substance abuse, psychiatric issues, physical health, family relationships and legal concerns. The vets range in age from their 20s to their 70s, and many have served in conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan.