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Mornings on the Mall

Thursday July 7, 2017

Hosts: Mary Walter and Hans von Spakovsky

5am – A/B/C CNN Staff Reeling After Personal Info Leaked (Daily Caller) Is this taking things too far? Several anchors and reporters at CNN have had their home addresses published and have received threats of rape and other violence in the wake of a story published by Andrew Kaczynski, who heads up the network’s investigative K-FILE team. Anti-network trolls are encouraging viewers to wrongly accuse CNN staffers of pedophilia and child pornography. There is also “tons of anti-Semitism.” Frustration” is the predominant feeling inside CNN, The Mirror has learned. Kaczynski published a story on the 4th of July in which he appeared to threaten to publish the name of a Reddit user who parades around anonymously as “HanAssholeSolo.” HanA******Solo claimed to be the originator of the wrestling video tweeted by President Trump in which POTUS flattened a wrestler whose face was a CNN logo.

5am – D  Trump in Poland: West’s Will to Survive is ‘Fundamental Question of our Time’ (Breitbart) President Donald Trump in Poland on Thursday declared the paramount importance of defending our values, protecting our borders, building strong families, and preserving Western civilization. It was a speech that could have been given by President Ronald Reagan, reminiscent of Reagan’s historic “Tear Down This Wall” speech. Addressing cheering throngs in the capital city of Warsaw, President Trump gave a serious speech about the serious threats facing the West as a whole: the United States, Poland, and more broadly the dozens of nations in Europe and North and South America that share a democratic form of government and typically hold to a Judeo-Christian moral philosophy. His 35-minute speech covered a broad range of issues, praising Poland for its many accomplishments, pledging U.S. support for its ongoing endeavors, and thanking Poland for being one of the few NATO members that makes its full financial contributions to the alliance. But then President Trump took a deeply philosophical turn, surveying the dangers to peace and stability facing not just the United States and Poland but scores of other nations across the globe. “The fundamental question of our time is: whether the West has the will to survive,” he declared poignantly.

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5am- E Infidelity is on the Rise (Independent Co) Extra-marital sex is on the up. And you’d be forgiven for thinking the younger generations, what with their swiping and their apps and their commitment issues, are the ones driving this. But you’d be wrong.A new study has found that older people are cheating on their husbands and wives much more than their younger counterparts. According to the research published by the Institute for Family Studies, 20 per cent of married Americans aged over 55 admit to extra-marital sex, compared to just 14 per cent of those under 55.It’s easy to assume that this is simply because older people are likely to have been married longer and have thus had more time to cheat – the majority were married between 20 and 30 years – but the study reveals that instances of adultery in older marriages has soared since 2000.At the same time, the rate of extra-marital sex amongst 18-55 year-old married couples has declined, showing a divergence.

6am – A/B/C One reason the GOP health bill is a mess: No one thought Trump would win (Washington Post) Is this an acceptable excuse? Sen. Patrick J. Toomey offered a simple, remarkable explanation this week for why Republicans have struggled so mightily to find a way to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation,” the Pennsylvania Republican said Wednesday night during a meeting with voters hosted by four network affiliates across his state. Toomey, now playing a critical role in negotiations over the GOP health-care bill, spent most of last year criticizing Trump’s personal behavior and the fights he picked on social media. Toomey did not announce his support for Trump’s candidacy until polls closed in Pennsylvania on Nov. 8, fully aware that no Republican presidential candidate had won his state since 1988 — and assuming that Trump would continue the streak.

6am – D INTERVIEW – CHRIS DEATON – Deputy Online Editor for The Weekly Standard

Topic: Has Donald Trump killed comedy? 

• Back in December of 2015 the Economist—which is as conventional as wisdom gets—proclaimed that “Jokes about Donald Trump aren’t funny anymore.” What was true then is true now, in many cases—only more so as the jokes have gotten older.
• Trump resistors have tried other mediums, often looking to the past. Orwell’s 1984has seen a resurgence, as has The West Wing, which is suddenly listed among the top streaming programs on Netflix. And then there’s the original art. Or, maybe that’s “art.”

6am – E Who is Hans von Spakovsky? Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues – including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform — as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. As manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative, von Spakovsky also studies and writes about campaign finance restrictions, voter fraud and voter ID, enforcement of federal voting rights laws, administration of elections and voting equipment standards. Heritage’s election reform project examines not only how to protect the integrity of campaigns and elections but to achieve greater fairness and security.  “In an era of razor-thin election margins, these issues are vital to the preservation of our republican form of government and the rule of law,” von Spakovsky says. Previously, as manager of the think tank’s Civil Justice Reform Initiative, von Spakovsky studied how plaintiffs’ attorneys and activists attempt to manipulate the courts for their own ends — at the expense of the public. He is the co-author with John Fund of the book “Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” (Encounter Books, 2012) and “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” (HarperCollins/Broadside June 2014). Before joining Heritage in 2008, von Spakovsky served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission, the authority charged with enforcing campaign finance laws for congressional and presidential elections, including public funding. Previously, von Spakovsky worked at the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, providing expertise in enforcing the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

6am – F Pregnant Woman Arrested For Cupcake Battery A pregnant Florida woman was arrested for domestic battery after pelting her brother with frosted cupcakes during a 1:45 AM argument Saturday in the family’s Vero Beach residence, report. According to cops, Latonya Daugherty, 24, was quarreling with her 30-year-old sibling when the “verbal argument escalated.” Daugherty allegedly “picked up frosted cup cakes and threw them at” Eddie Yaddow.

7am – A INTERVIEW – JOHN MERRILL – Alabama’s Secretary of State

Topic : Trump Voter Data Request 

• In the past week election officials in dozens of states have rejected a request from the newly-formed Presidential Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity to provide voter records for a study on the extent (if any) of election fraud.
• President Trump created the commission by executive order on May 11. Vice President Mike Pence is the chairman, and the vice chairman is Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and gubernatorial candidate. Kobach is the one who sent the request to officials in all 50 states.

7am – B ACLU Sues Miami for Complying with Trump’s Immigration Detainer Policies (Breitbart) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Miami-Dade County, Florida, and its mayor for complying with President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration detainers. A Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch identified Miami-Dade County as not honoring immigration detainers, Breitbart Texas reported. Following President Trump’s executive order withholding federal law enforcement grants from jurisdictions not in compliance with immigration officials, Miami-Dade County reversed its sanctuary city policy and began honoring immigration detainers. The ACLU urges, perhaps warns, “other cities large and small across the country” to “refus[e] to serve as tools of overzealous immigration enforcement policy.” The group is seeking money damages because their client spent an extra night in jail “solely for a suspected civil immigration violation.” The ACLU of Florida issued a statement from Amien Kacou that called the county’s decision “to cave in to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant threats” “premature.”

 7am – C Home Depot worker says he was fired for helping police track down suspected kidnapper (Buisness Insider)  Former Home Depot employee Dillon Reagan claims he was fired from his job with the retailer after helping police with a suspected kidnapping. The next day, he was told by a manager that he did the wrong thing and should not have left work to follow the suspect. A month later on June 19, he was fired and told that he broke a safety violation by leaving the store to assist police while he was still on duty. After filing for unemployment assistance, he got a letter from the the Oregon Employment Department dated June 29 that confirmed he was fired because he “assisted the police in preventing a kidnapping,”

7am – D INTERVIEW – DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA – Deputy Assistant to Donald Trump

Topic: G-20 summit meetings

• On Thursday, Mr Trump used a speech in the Polish capital Warsaw to call on Russia to stop “destabilising” Ukraine and other countries, and “join the community of responsible nations”
• Setting out his own G20 agenda in German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, Mr Putin called for US-led sanctions, imposed in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, to be lifted on his country
• Mr Putin also argued strongly in favour of the Paris climate agreement, saying it was a “secure basis for long-term climate regulation” and Russia wanted to make a “comprehensive contribution to its implementation”. President Trump, of course, has taken America out of the agreement.

7am – E Fairfax County Police Search for School Vandals Fairfax County Police Department are searching for the vandals that caused over $20,000 in damages to White Oaks Elementary School. A construction crew found destruction and signs of arson around the school in Burke early Monday morning. The damage was both inside and outside, including on the newly installed playground. The Fairfax County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fires. The crimes are believed to have happened overnight Sunday into Monday. School is out of session for the summer, and the building is under construction.

8am – A INTERVIEW – JOHN BOLTON- Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Topic: Trump’s meeting with Putin

• All eyes were on President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday when the two controversial world leaders meet for the first time.
• After months of questions about their relationship, President Donald Trump shared his first handshake with Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit Friday, according to the Kremlin.
• Allegations of collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government hang over the much-anticipated meeting between the two leaders. These accusations, which Trump calls “fake news,” are being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as well as House and Senate intelligence committees allegations.

 8am – B Walter Shaub Resigns (CBS News) “I really felt like I’ve achieved all I can achieve under current circumstances,” Shaub told CBS News’ Julianna Goldman Thursday, in his first television interview since announcing his resignation. He says that unless Mr. Trump eliminates all financial ties to his businesses, the American people can never be certain his policy decisions are based on what’s best for the country. “Do you think the president and his family are using the office to enrich themselves?” Goldman asked Shaub. “I can’t know what their intention is,” Shaub said. “I know that the effect is that there’s an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency. And appearance matters as much as reality. So even aside from whether or not that’s actually happening, we need to send a message to the world that the United States is gonna have the gold standard for an ethics program in government, which is what we’ve always had.”

8am – C Indiana Neighbors Settle Argument With An Old Fashioned Shootout (Daily Caller) An argument escalated into a gunfight between two neighbors in Indiana Wednesday after one of the men, who was riding his lawnmower at the time, drew a handgun. An Indiana prosecutor’s office released footage of the gunfight, showing Jeffery Weigle, 59, and his neighbor, Dean Keller, 49, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Weigle reverses his lawnmower in the video, brandishing what looks like a revolver.

Keller, an Indianapolis firefighter, reacts quickly, drawing his own handgun, firing and hitting Weigle in the chest, according to police reports. The exchange of fire continues for 30 seconds before Weigle is seen walking off screen. Keller was unharmed. Keller will not be charged in the shooting because he was acting in self defense, County Prosecutor Brad Cooper told the Indianapolis Star Wednesday.

8am – D Trump in Poland: West’s Will to Survive is ‘Fundamental Question of our Time’ (Breitbart) President Donald Trump in Poland on Thursday declared the paramount importance of defending our values, protecting our borders, building strong families, and preserving Western civilization. It was a speech that could have been given by President Ronald Reagan, reminiscent of Reagan’s historic “Tear Down This Wall” speech. Addressing cheering throngs in the capital city of Warsaw, President Trump gave a serious speech about the serious threats facing the West as a whole: the United States, Poland, and more broadly the dozens of nations in Europe and North and South America that share a democratic form of government and typically hold to a Judeo-Christian moral philosophy. His 35-minute speech covered a broad range of issues, praising Poland for its many accomplishments, pledging U.S. support for its ongoing endeavors, and thanking Poland for being one of the few NATO members that makes its full financial contributions to the alliance. But then President Trump took a deeply philosophical turn, surveying the dangers to peace and stability facing not just the United States and Poland but scores of other nations across the globe. “The fundamental question of our time is: whether the West has the will to survive,” he declared poignantly.

8am – E  Amelia Earhart Survived Crash, Claims New Documentary with Photo Evidence (TMZ) Amelia Earhart survived what everyone thought was a fatal flight and ended up a prisoner of war … this according to a new documentary. As everyone knows, almost 80 years ago to the day, Earhart took off in her Lockheed Electra from New Guinea and vanished. Neither her plane nor her body were ever found. She was presumed dead. But a new documentary — “Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence” — shows a photo taken on a South Pacific island days after she disappeared. The doc claims Amelia is in the photo, sitting on a dock, surrounded by people who might be her captors. The documentary — which airs Sunday on the History Channel — claims the U.S. government covered it all up to save face.