Ray Stagich, Cal Thomas, Amber Athey and Brent Bozell joined WMAL on Wednesday morning!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A         INTERVIEW – RAY STAGICH – Weather Channel – latest on the snow

5am – B         BANNON NEWS:

• Former White House strategist Steve Bannon will be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller before a grand jury looking into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Bannon was questioned by the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday about President Trump’s reasons for firing FBI Director James Comey. Members say there’s concern about his use of executive privilege to avoid answering some questions.
• Bannon refused to answer House committee’s questions about time in White House
• Lawmakers vow to force answers from Bannon in Russia probe after he defies subpoena. His attorney told the committee that he wouldn’t discuss anything about his time in the White House or during the transition after the 2016 election. Lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election vowed Tuesday to force answers from Steve Bannon after the former senior strategist to President Donald Trump stonewalled their inquiries — even after the committee issued a subpoena with bipartisan support. Lawmakers in both parties attributed Bannon’s silence to the White House, which they said told him to refuse to discuss his time in the West Wing or on Trump’s transition team. Bannon’s refusal to speak clearly angered lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, who vowed to make him speak.

5am – C         Va. mother-daughter duo fight off carjackers with hot cocoa. WOODBRIDGE, VA. (AP) – Police in Washington, D.C.’s suburbs say two would-be carjackers fled from their intended victims when a splash of hot cocoa and a dash of resourcefulness entered the mix. Prince William County police say in a statement that a 50-year-old woman exited a 7-Eleven convenience store Saturday night with some purchased items when two men, one with a handgun, approached and demanded her vehicle. Police say the woman struck one man with her bag before her 22-year-old daughter threw her hot chocolate toward both men. No one was injured and no property was taken.

5am – D/E     DACA HEARING ON THE HILL:

• Durbin presses Nielsen over Trump’s language at DACA meeting
• Graham: “This has turned into an s-show.” Pledges to DACA recipients: “We’re not going to leave you behind … you’re going to be taken care of.”
• Cory Booker Had ‘Tears Of Rage’ When He Heard ‘S***hole’ Comment: I HURT!

6am – A/B/C White House doctor peppered with questions as reporters hunt for evidence of a Trump illness

• President Trump received a perfect score on a cognitive test after asking his physician for the exam to push back concerns he is unfit for office. Dr. Ronny Jackson says the 71-year old President is in good health, stands 6’ 3” and weighs 239 pounds, which is just below the obese range on the body mass index. Jackson says Mr. Trump should lose 10-15 pounds and would benefit from a better diet and more exercise.
• PRESS FISHES FOR ILLNESS – ANY ILLNESS – ON TRUMP: The White House’s physician was slammed with questions regarding President Trump’s health in a bizarre press briefing on Tuesday that raised eyebrows as the press fished for maladies …  Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, who was White House physician for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said Trump was in “excellent health” after conducting the  president’s physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, but the positive results weren’t enough for the reporters in attendance. Jackson answered questions for more than 50 minutes, running the gamut from the odd to the conspiratorial. White House correspondents asked about everything from whether Trump wears dentures to how to gauge his mental health.
• Liberal media embarrass themselves over Trump’s clean bill of health
• DOCTOR: President’s overall health is excellent
• DOCTOR: he would like to lose 10-15 pounds. We’ll make a plan to meet those goals
• DOCTOR lists off his medications
• DOCTOR: his cardiac health is excellent
• DOCTOR : We picked an involved cognitive health exam and he did exceedingly well on it
• DOCTOR: President got 30 out of 30 on cognitive test
• DOCTOR: He’s fit for duty
• CNN’s JIM ACOSTA Suggests WH Doctor Could Be Withholding Information About Trump’s Health. “One question,” Acosta posed to Jackon. “There isn’t anything that’s part of the president’s health records or his overall physical fitness or any medications that he’s taking that you’re not permitted to tell us? Is there anything you’re keeping from us for privacy reasons?” Jackson assured Acosta that there was no information about Trump’s health being withheld, negative or otherwise.
• Trump’s doctor dismisses dementia fears: ‘That’s just tabloid psychiatry’
• Trump doctor is asked about only sleeping 4-5 hours and Doctor says yes he should sleep more but “it works for him…that’s just the way he’s wired”
• DOCTOR: it’s GENETICS! REPORTER: Can you explain to me how a guy who eats mcdonald’s and diet cokes and never exercises is in as good of shape as you say he’s in? DOCTOR: it’s called genetics. i don’t know. some people have great genes. i told the president if he had a healthier diet over the next 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old. i don’t know. [laughter] he has incredible genes. i mean, if i didn’t watch what i eat, i wouldn’t have the cardiac and overall health that he halls so he’s very healthy despite those things.
• FLASHBACK 2016: CNN’s BRIAN STELTER and JEFF ZELENY tried to call questions about Hillary’s health “Conspiracy theories”
• FLASHBACK AUG 2017: BRIAN STELTER – IS TRUMP FIT TO BE PRESIDENT, IS IT TIME FOR OBJECTIVE JOUNALIST TO ADDRESS THIS? IF SO, HOW?
• TRUMP DOCTOR IS ASKED ABOUT 25TH AMENDMENT: REPORTER: the philosophy on the fitness of the president, the 25th amendment. a lot of people have been talking about it. it basically contemplates that a set of laymen can decide if the president is able to discharge the duties of the office. you as a physician have given this some thought. on what base i would you, this is a philosophical question, advise the cabinet that the president is unable to discharge his duties? how does that bar get met?
• REPORTER: is he limited to one scoop of ice cream now?

6am – D         INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – syndicated columnist – discussed the DACA-Durbin drama, and Trump’s physical and mental health test.

6am – E         INTERVIEW – RAY STAGICH – Weather Channel – discussed the latest on the snow.

6am – F         Georgetown adviser resigns after ‘wishing’ a ‘#MeToo moment’ on female commentator. (The Hill) — A Georgetown University adviser has resigned after publicly wishing a “#MeToo moment” on a female conservative commentator. “Wishing you a #MeToo moment. Maybe then you won’t be so insensitive,” wrote Jeff Bernstein to former Blaze TV host Allie Beth Stuckey on Saturday.  Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen: Hi @Georgetown — someone on your MSFS board just told me he hopes I get sexually harassed or assaulted. Is this the kind of standard your university holds for your advisors? 7:29 PM – Jan 13, 2018 // Bernstein served as a expert in Georgetown’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program until resigning on Monday.   Stuckey informed the university of Bernstein’s sentiment via her personal Twitter account on Saturday.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – AMBER ATHEY (AY-thee) – Media reporter, The Daily Caller – discussed CNN going nuts over DACA/s-hole, media pestering Trump’s medical doctor and latest on the Fake News Awards.

7am – B/C     SANCTUARY STATES:

• SANCTUARY NEW JERSEY: Incoming NJ Gov Plans to Establish Agency for ‘Defensive Protection’ of Illegal Immigrants. Former Ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy took office as New Jersey’s new governor Tuesday, and said he plans to establish a state agency geared toward aiding undocumented immigrants, the Washington Post reported Monday. Murphy, a Democrat who held the ambassador post under President Barack Obama after several years as a Goldman Sachs executive, said the agency would be called the Office of Immigrant Defensive Protection. Murphy previously vowed to make New Jersey a sanctuary state if President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “We will stand up to this president. If need be, we will be a sanctuary not just city but state. This is America… Mr. President, not in the state of New Jersey,” he said at the time. Murphy told the Post the new agency will be an office that undocumented immigrants could “call with questions about their status.”
• SANCTUARY CALIFORNIA: New California could become the 51st state as a separation group wants the new state to be rural areas and the existing state to be the large cities along the California coast. Founders Robert Paul Preston and Tom Price say high taxes and people not being represented is why a split from the existing state is essential. They’re at work on a petition to put it to a vote.
• Trump’s 2020 Census May Cost California Congressional Seat by Counting Citizens. Democrats fear the Trump administration’s re-reinstatement of citizenship questions on the 2020 U.S. Census will cost California a Congressional seat and billions in funding. The number of U.S. House of Representative seats was fixed by law in 1911 at 435. The “enumeration” requires at that each state have at least one Representative, and the other Representatives are allocated according to population as determined by the U.S. Census every ten years. Based on the 2010 Census data, California received the most, at 53. But Politico reports that could change with the Department of Justice sending a letter on December 12 to the Census Bureau asking that the citizenship question eliminated in 2010 during the Obama administration be reinstated for the 2020 Census.
• Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America? CA IS NOW THE POOREST STATE IN THE COUNTRY. Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income

7am – C         PUERTO RICO CAUGHT HOARDING EQUIPMENT & NOT DISTRIBUTING IT: Armed Federal Agents Seize ‘Massive Store’ Of Rebuilding Materials Kept From Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Victims. Puerto Rico electricity provider was “hoarding” critical items needed to restore electricity to the island. (Daily Wire) — Months after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, nearly half the island’s residents are still without power. Despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency sending hundreds of workers to the area to help restore the electrical grid, they’ve been at a loss as to where critical construction items, shipped to the island as part of the recovery effort, have gone. Now, armed federal agents are reportedly taking the situation into their own hands. Over the weekend, FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began raiding warehouses, where the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority has been “hoarding” these “critical materials” out of reach of aide workers. According to The Intercept, FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used their security details to break into a Palo Seco warehouse where they found hundreds of tension steel sleeves and nearly 3,000 items critical to U.S. contractors who are trying to help Puerto Rico restore power. Both agencies quickly inventoried and distributed the items. The Associated Press reported last week that FEMA has been desperately importing electrical rescue crews, trying to get the island back to full power. But the crews themselves have faced a massive shortage of equipment and necessary parts — a shortage which puzzled the emergency management agency which has been importing the parts and materials since just days after Hurricane Maria hit.

7am – D/E     DACA HEARING ON THE HILL:

• Durbin presses Nielsen over Trump’s language at DACA meeting
• Graham: “This has turned into an s-show.” Pledges to DACA recipients: “We’re not going to leave you behind … you’re going to be taken care of.”
• Cory Booker Had ‘Tears Of Rage’ When He Heard ‘S***hole’ Comment: I HURT!

8am – A         INTERVIEW – BRENT BOZELL – President of the Media Research Center – previewed the Fake News Awards.

8am – B/C/D/E  White House doctor peppered with questions as reporters hunt for evidence of a Trump illness