Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano, Center For Immigration Studies director Mark Krikorian, and Heritage Foundation’s Steve Moore joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Twitter is “shadow banning” prominent Republicans like the RNC chair and Trump Jr.’s spokesman (Vice News) – Twitter is limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans in search results — a technique known as “shadow banning” — in what it says is a side effect of its attempts to improve the quality of discourse on the platform.  The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned. It’s a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform — and it’s the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility. The profiles continue to appear when conducting a full search, but not in the more convenient and visible drop-down bar. (The accounts appear to also populate if you already follow the person.)

5am – D/E Pompeo faces tough questions on Russia, North Korea (ABC News) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fiercely defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy on Capitol Hill Wednesday, facing tough questions from Republican and Democratic senators about North Korea, Russia, Iran, and more.  But it was the divide in U.S. foreign policy between President Trump’s comments and his administration’s actions that underlaid the contentious hearing, with Pompeo at one time seeming to suggest that the administration’s actions mattered more than Trump’s words. He was quick to correct himself later, saying that he misspoke, but blasting what he called Democrats’ “glee” at his mistake and their efforts “to make a political point from that.”

6am – A/B/C Trump bans a CNN reporter, and Fox News takes a firm stand on it (The Blaze) – CNN’s White House reporter Kaitlyn Collins said that she was barred from a White House event, and was told by deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine that her behavior earlier in the day was the cause for the action.  “They said ‘You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,’” Collins said on CNN Wednesday. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue.”  “And they said I was shouting,” she added.

6am – D INTERVIEW – James Carafano – Vice President for foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation – discussed Mike Pompeo’s hearing at the Capitol     

6am – E Family separation crisis continues on border even as court-ordered deadline nears (LA Times) – The calls for help started coming in to immigration lawyers across the country just before Memorial Day. Immigrant detainees, many fleeing gangs and violence and seeking legal asylum in the U.S., were flooding courtrooms along the Southwest border.  Dozens were parents reporting that Border Patrol agents had taken away their children, and many were under the impression they would see their sons and daughters again within hours.  “We had to break the news to them that that wasn’t true,” said Efrén C. Olivares, who was among the attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project to come to the aid of public defenders in McAllen. “And then the question became, ‘If not today, then when?’  “We didn’t have an answer to that.”

6am – F Alan Dershowitz: Michael Cohen could be in tourble over leaked Trump tape (Washington Examiner) – Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday that if President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen leaked the tape of his private conversation with Trump when that conversation was still subject to attorney-client privilege, he could be in trouble.  “If it fact this material was originally leaked by Cohen when it was still privileged … remember, a judicial officer found it to be privileged, it then was leaked only after it was leaked did [Rudy] Giuliani waive the privilege as to this in order to protect the privilege as to any other possible conversations … if Cohen is the source of the leak, he has a serious problem,” Dershowitz said on Fox News, indicating that Cohen may have violated attorney-client privilege.

7am – A INTERVIEW – Mark Krikorian – Director of Center for Immigration Studies –discussed rise of MS-13 crime and ICE crackdowns in the D.C. area, as well as the deadline for family separations 

7am – B Trade and Tariffs News:

• Trump announces an agreement with European Union on some tariffs (ABC News) – President Donald Trump announced an agreement with the European Union on tariffs – an effort to dial back what had been an escalating trade feud.  “We agreed today, first of all, to work together toward zero tariffs, zero nontariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods,” Trump said during his remarks in the Rose Garden as he stood next European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “We will also work to reduce barriers and increase trade and services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical products as well as soybeans. Soybeans is a big deal. And the European Union is going to start almost immediately to buy a lot of soybeans.”
• Coca-Cola says it’s raising soda prices after Trump tariffs (The Hill) – Coca-Cola Company on Wednesday said they will raise the price of their signature sodas this year in part because of the financial strain caused by President Trump’s tariffs.  Coca-Cola’s Chief Executive James Quincey told the Wall Street Journal that they are stepping up prices in response to the rising costs of delivery and metal prices after the U.S. slapped $50 billion duties on Chinese products earlier this year.

7am – C Trump didn’t ask North Korea’s permission, sent plane immediately to save Otto Warmbier (Western Journal) – Donald Trump serves many roles as president of the United States — chief executive, chief administrator, chief diplomat — but when he learned of the dire medical condition of North Korean prisoner and American college student Otto Warmbier, he adopted the role of a father and fought for Otto like he would for his own son.  According to a recent report from GQ, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Joseph Yun learned in early June 2017 that Warmbier — who was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to hard labor in the communist nation — was unconscious.  “I was completely shocked,” Yun said. “I came back immediately, and I told Secretary Tillerson … and we determined at the time that we needed to get him and the other prisoners out as soon as possible, and I should contact Pyongyang and say I wanted to come right away.”

7am – D Rod Rosenstein accused of hiding info from Congress in impeachment articles (Washington Times) – Conservative House lawmakers introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday, saying he’s led the Justice Department in “hiding” information from Congress on investigations into Russian election meddling and Hillary Clinton’s secret emails.  The Justice Department vigorously pushed back against claims of lack of transparency, saying it’s provided a historic amount of documents to Congress.

7am – E Soccer ball Putin gave Trump contains transmitter chip – but for Adidas: report (The Hill) – The Adidas soccer ball Russian President Vladimir Putin gave to President Trump at their summit in Finland appears to contain a chip that can transmit information to nearby cellphones, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.  The publication noted that photos of the ball show a logo for a near-field communication (NFC) tag, a chip that is included in the Adidas 2018 FIFA World Cup ball. Russia hosted this year’s World Cup.  Adidas AG soccer balls, similar to the one Putin presented to Trump during a joint press conference last week, contain a small chip that can send content to mobile devices. Users can hold their phones close to the ball to access videos and competitions, according to Bloomberg.

8am – A INTERVIEW – Steve Moore – Heritage Foundation economist – discussed tariffs and trade 

8am – B/C/D Pompeo faces tough questions on Russia, North Korea (ABC News) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fiercely defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy on Capitol Hill Wednesday, facing tough questions from Republican and Democratic senators about North Korea, Russia, Iran, and more.  But it was the divide in U.S. foreign policy between President Trump’s comments and his administration’s actions that underlaid the contentious hearing, with Pompeo at one time seeming to suggest that the administration’s actions mattered more than Trump’s words. He was quick to correct himself later, saying that he misspoke, but blasting what he called Democrats’ “glee” at his mistake and their efforts “to make a political point from that.”

8am – E Maxine Waters: ‘The democratic party is not a socialist party’ (The Hill) – Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that the rise of more socialist candidates doesn’t mean the entire Democratic Party is embracing socialism.  In an interview with journalist John Harwood at CNBC’s Capital Exchange event, Waters, one of President Trump’s most vocal critics, said that democratic socialists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are simply Democrats who focus more on protecting Americans from Wall Street.