Mornings on the Mall 08.24.18

Cato’s Marian Tupy, Larry Michael, Steve Moore and Bret Baier joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, August 24, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Report: Trump’s Education Dept. Considers Using Federal Funds to Buy Guns for Teachers. (Breitbart News) — The New York Times reports President Trump’s Department of Education is considering the use of federal funds to buy guns for teachers around the country. The funds would be dispersed to states that would then divide them among districts that allow teachers to carry gun for defense of themselves and their students. According to the NYT, the education department is weighing their options under the auspices of a program called Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants. While some federal education programs specifically prohibit the use of funding for firearms, the program for Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants does not. And this opens the door for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos “to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training.”

5am – D NATIONAL ENQUIRER:

• Prosecutors grant immunity to National Enquirer CEO amid investigation into hush money paid on Trump’s behalf. WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press. The detail came as several media outlets reported on Thursday that federal prosecutors had granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty this week to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the tabloid were involved in buying the silence of a porn actress and a Playboy model who alleged affairs with Trump. Five people familiar with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for Pecker, the company’s CEO. The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities’ catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people’s stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities’ embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favors in return.
• The National Enquirer kept documents relating to Trump’s hush money payments to women in a safe leading up to the 2016 presidential election. (NY Post) — The National Enquirer kept documents relating to President Trump’s hush money payments to women in a safe leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The safe also contained documents from other “catch-and-kill” stories about celebrities and was revealed on Thursday as the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., has received immunity by federal prosecutors, according to a report by the Associated Press. The safe was removed from its location when a story about Trump’s hush money payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal was published in the Wall Street Journal in 2016, the AP said. It was unclear where the safe — which could contain embarrassing information about Trump and others — was taken. Sources exposed the information to the AP days after Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations.

5am – E San Francisco “Poop Patrollers” Make $185,000. (ZeroHedge) — The latest in a string of shocking revelations to hit headlines throughout the summer exposing how deep San Francisco’s crisis of vast amounts of vagrant-generated feces covering its public streets actually runs (no pun intended). We detailed last week how city authorities have finally decided to do something after thousands of feces complaints (during only one week in July, over 16,000 were recorded), the cancellation of a major medical convention and an outraged new Mayor, London Breed, who was absolutely shocked after walking through her city: they established a professional “poop patrol”. The teams will begin their shifts in the afternoon, spotting and cleaning piles of feces before the city receives complaints in order “to be proactive” in the words of the Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, co-creator of the poop patrol initiative. While at first glance it doesn’t sound like the type of job people will be knocking down human resources doors to apply for, the SF Chronicle has revealed just how much each member of this apparently elite “poop patrol” team will cost the city: $184,678 in salary and benefits.

6am – A TRUMP VS SESSIONS:

• TRUMP Hits Sessions In FOX NEWS Interview
• Sessions: US attorney general hits back at Trump. Statement from the Attorney General Sessions… In the face of new and threatening criticism from President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back Thursday, declaring that he was in “control” of the Justice Department. “I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the president’s agenda – one that protects the safety and security and rights of the American people, reduces violent crime, enforces our immigration laws, promotes economic growth, and advances religious liberty,” Sessions said in a written statement.

6am – B/C David Horowitz: Visa, Mastercard Cut Off Payments to My Think Tank Based on SPLC ‘Hate Group’ Label. (Breitbart) — The David Horowitz Freedom Center has had their donation processing system blocked by Visa and Mastercard allegedly following a campaign by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Visa has since contacted Breitbart News to deny involvement in the blacklisting of the Freedom Center. The David Horowitz Freedom Center stated in a recent email that its ability to accept donations by credit card has been disabled by both Visa and Mastercard following a campaign by the SPLC to label the Freedom Center as a hate group. This situation comes shortly after Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch was forced off the funding platform Patreon following pressure from Mastercard. The Freedom Center is the next target of the SPLC, and they are using Mastercard and Visa again in their attempt to shut down conservative voices. In an email sent to supporters, Horowitz outlined how the SPLC had convinced Mastercard and Visa to block the Freedom Center from receiving payments and donations via credit card. In the email, Horowitz requested that supporters send donations via check to a P.O. Box. In the email to supporters, the Freedom Center lashed out at the move by Mastercard and Visa, saying: “this blow could be the end of the Freedom Center. Decades of work, down the drain because the hateful Left wants to squash free speech and silence an organization that dares to question them.

6am – D/E DUNCAN HUNTER PLEADS NOT GUILTY:

• U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret have pleaded not guilty in San Diego to charges they illegally used his campaign account for personal expenses
• Protesters chant “lock him up” at GOP lawmaker Duncan Hunter as he goes to plead not guilty
• GOP CA Rep Hunter on Fox: This is pure politics & the prosecutors can make an indictment read like a scandalous novel if they want to. They’ve had a year & a half to do this. There’s no way for me now to go out & be able to talk to my people or get this done, before my election
• GOP CA Rep Hunter on Fox: I’m gone five days a week, I’m home for two. She was also the campaign manager. Whatever she did will be looked at too. But I didn’t do it. I didn’t spend any money illegally. I didn’t use campaign money especially for Wounded Warrior stuff.
• GOP CA Rep Hunter on Fox on telling Navy to “go f&%! themselves”: I probably said that & many other things like that. I was in the Marine Corps.. I love the Navy, I love the Marine Corps..I might talk trash about the Army every now and then too. But it’s all in good fun.
• GOP CA Rep Hunter on Fox defending his HI trip: I paid for the trip to Hawaii. When I was there on my own vacation I wanted to call the Navy and said let me tour the base there. I do that all the time. Whenever we travel we go by a military installation

6am – F TRUMP / STOCK MARKET / IMPEACHMENT:

• Pres. Trump claims the stock market would tank if the Democrats win control of Congress and move to impeach him. “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job” the president said
• Giuliani: Americans would ‘revolt’ if Trump were impeached. Rudy Giuliani believes Americans would “revolt” if President Trump were impeached. “I think impeachment would be totally horrible,” Giuliani said during an interview with Sky News Thursday. “I mean, there’s no reason. He didn’t collude with the Russians, he didn’t obstruct justice, everything Cohen says has been disproved. You’d only impeach him for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that.”

7am – A INTERVIEW – MARIAN TUPY – a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at The Cato Institute. He specializes in globalization and global well-being, and the political economy of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

• Top US think-tank wants Donald Trump to act against ‘Zimbabwe-style’ land disaster in SA. A top US policy think-tank, the Cato Institute, has warned that SA is on the path to a Zimbabwe-style land disaster and has called on US President Donald Trump to take action. An editorial on the think-tank’s web site by Marian Tupy says: According to press reports, SA’s government has begun expropriating privately owned farmland without financial compensation, thereby ignoring the post-apartheid political settlement, which allows for land redistribution in the country on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis. Eighteen years ago, Zimbabwe embraced a similar policy. As a consequence, SA’s northern neighbour’s economy collapsed and the country descended into penury and political violence. This scenario is likely to repeat itself in SA. An attack on property rights will result in the destruction of SA’s farming community, dramatic reduction in agricultural productivity and mass unemployment. It could also lead to a collapse of the banking sector (which depends on land as collateral for loan-making) and the local currency, hyperinflation and even bloodshed.
• TRUMP RESPONDS: Trump requests Mike Pompeo look at South Africa land reform debate. President Trump wants Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate South Africa’s controversial land reform discussions after Fox News aired a segment on the topic Wednesday night. “I have asked Secretary of State @MikePompeo4USA to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers,” Trump wrote on Twitter, before referencing a segment by Tucker Carlson on the cable news network.
• WASHINGTON POST headline: Trump’s backing of a white nationalist conspiracy theory on South Africa prompts fierce backlash there and fresh criticism in the U.S.
• South Africa Shocked After Trump Dings Country For Seizing White Farmers’ Land. South Africa accused President Donald Trump of stoking racial division Thursday after the president suggested his administration would study the country’s policy of seizing farmers’ land. The government blasted Trump’s tweet calling out land seizures in South Africa. It called the president’s message “false information” that reflects a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.”

7am – B TRUMP TWEET TODAY ABOUT SESSIONS:

• Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: “Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr……
• Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump: ….FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems – and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!

7am – C Florida businessman targeted as ‘predator’ for renting office space to ICE. (Fox News) — For the past two days, a Florida city has been littered with fliers accusing a local businessman of being a predator who profits from “sexual violence, physical abuse and the caging of undocumented people” — all because he rents office space to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Chuck Prather, of St. Petersburg, said protesters who are angry with the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance illegal immigration policy are targeting him because he leases an office complex in Tampa to the government. It’s an agreement that goes back 21 years and was recently renewed. “They are trying to terrorize me,” he told Fox News on Thursday. On Wednesday, dozens of fliers showing his image were posted around St. Petersburg’s downtown area, where he owns several businesses, including the Birchwood Inn. “I was taking my son to school yesterday when my elderly neighbor who walks dogs for a living came up to me and said, ‘I need to talk to you,’” Prather said. “[She said] there are posters all over town. It has a big picture of you and it says that you are a predator. What is going on?’” Prather added: “They were everywhere.” The fliers, which call for people to boycott all of Prather’s businesses, say in part: “Charles ‘Chuck’ Prather of the Birchwood Inn directly profits from sexual violence, physical abuse and the caging of undocumented people in the greater Tampa community. Chuck has earned his wealth through leasing property to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as other border control offices.”

7am – D INTERVIEW – LARRY MICHAEL – The Voice of The Redskins (in studio)

• Redskins-Broncos: What To Watch For, Preseason Week 3
• Denver Broncos @ Washington Redskins tonight @ 7:30 PM
• Washington Post: Redskins get serious ahead of their third preseason game, Adrian Peterson’s debut. Redskins Park had a different vibe this week, even if the team downplayed any increased sense of urgency with the regular season on the horizon. Adrian Peterson was signed to bolster a banged-up group of running backs. Wednesday’s practice session had the fewest amount of medical absences in weeks, with just five players not on injured reserve sitting out. The structure switched from training-camp general workouts to specific game preparation for individual players, coverages and concepts. Friday’s preseason matchup with the Denver Broncos likely will be the most game action the starters see this preseason, and possibly their last as many teams don’t want to risk injury a week before the regular season begins. Coach Jay Gruden said he’s still making decisions on how much the starters will play, but safety D.J. Swearinger wants all the playing time possible. “You want to get used to dominating,” Swearinger said. “A chance to get used to dominating would be on Friday. If we can just lock in together as a whole, we can dominate.

7am – E TIBBETTS NEWS:

• BUZZFEED: Mollie Tibbetts’ (Distant, Extended) Family Is Pushing Back Against Trump And His Allies After They Seized On Her Death
• CNN’s Cuomo: Trump, Fox Concerned With Tibbetts Because She’s White
• Preliminary Autopsy Reveals How Police Believe Mollie Tibbetts Died. Mollie Tibbetts, the missing woman who was found dead Tuesday in Iowa, died from “sharp force injuries,” according to preliminary findings of her autopsy.
• The MSNBC guest who made insensitive comments about the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts apologized and then deleted her Twitter account. The MSNBC guest who made insensitive comments about the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts apologized and then deleted her Twitter account. Fordham University professor and MSNBC guest Christina Greer downplayed the significance of Tibbetts’ death on Tuesday, calling Tibbetts just “a girl in Iowa” who “Fox News is talking about.”

8am – A INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – Heritage Foundation economist

• TRUMP / STOCK MARKET: Pres. Trump claims the stock market would tank if the Democrats win control of Congress and move to impeach him. “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job” the president said
• Giuliani: Americans would ‘revolt’ if Trump were impeached. Rudy Giuliani believes Americans would “revolt” if President Trump were impeached. “I think impeachment would be totally horrible,” Giuliani said during an interview with Sky News Thursday. “I mean, there’s no reason. He didn’t collude with the Russians, he didn’t obstruct justice, everything Cohen says has been disproved. You’d only impeach him for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that.”
• VENEZUELA ECONOMIC CRISIS: Maduro will not reverse Venezuela’s economic collapse. The president’s latest measures do nothing to address the main causes of the crisis
• Venezuela’s New Currency Sows Confusion and Shutters Stores (NY TIMES) — CARACAS, Venezuela — Shuttered stores, empty streets, confusion over the cost of basic items: the day after President Nicolas Maduro introduced measures to invigorate Venezuela’s economy found the country in turmoil and its population afraid his “program for recovery, growth and economic prosperity” would lead it deeper into depression. The measures included increasing taxes, raising the price of gas for some buyers who do not register with the government, and slashing five zeros out of the devalued currency, the bolívar, which was renamed the sovereign bolívar. The currency change left many consumers — and vendors — bewildered. On Monday, the day the new economic plan was rolled out, streets were quiet and most shops were closed, as Mr. Maduro had decreed a national holiday. But most remained closed on Tuesday as shopkeepers tried to understand how to reset prices in the new currency and buyers struggled to make the conversion.
• Venezuela’s refugee exodus is the biggest crisis in the hemisphere (Washington Post) — According to U.N. figures, some 2.3 million Venezuelans — about 7 percent of the population — have left their homeland over the past couple of years. Other estimates place the number at closer to 4 million. The exodus is the consequence of severe economic deprivation and mounting desperation among Venezuelans. The country’s economy has shrunk by half in just five years, and inflation is nearing a staggering 1 million percent. Shortages of food and medicine have led to a crisis in public health, with once-vanquished diseases such as diphtheria and measles returning and the rate of infant mortality rising sharply. U.N. officials claim that some 1.3 million Venezuelans who left the country were “suffering from malnourishment.”
• The stream of refugees is straining Venezuela’s neighbors as well. Over the weekend, violence broke out in the northern Brazilian town of Pacaraima between Venezuelan migrants and local mobs, which burned a number of squalid migrant encampments. But neither the anger of locals, who resent the burden of refugees in an already-impoverished part of the country, nor a beefed-up military presence on the border stopped hundreds more Venezuelans from crossing into Brazil every day this week. While the bulk of the refugees have crossed into Colombia, many are moving on from there to other countries, including Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Peruvian officials say 20,000 Venezuelans arrived there last week. On Sunday, authorities in Ecuador closed border crossings with Colombia to Venezuelans who do not have passports. Many poor Venezuelans do not have passports, which are increasingly difficult to obtain.
• Yay, socialism!: “Latin America Tightens Borders in the Face of Venezuelan, Nicaraguan Outflows” (CIS) — Latin American states have been generous in their reception of Venezuelans and Nicaraguans fleeing their countries’ socialist policies and government repression. However, the “all are welcome” approach adopted by many of their neighbors appears to be deteriorating as emigration from the two countries continue to grow. Colombia, as the primary recipient of Venezuelan migrants, requires Venezuelans to present a passport or border-crossing card at its northern border. However, the Colombian government recently criticized Ecuador and Peru for instituting similar requirements. Colombian officials expressed concern that the new requirements would create a bottleneck for the increasing number of Venezuelans using Colombia as a bridge to reach other South American countries (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina). Last week, after declaring a state of emergency due to the influx of Venezuelan migrants, Ecuador announced it would require Venezuelans to present a valid passport to enter the country. Prior to this announcement, Venezuelans only needed to show their national identity cards. The Ecuadoran government explained that the measure was necessary for a “safe, regular, and orderly” migration flow. More specifically, the government cited the use of fraudulent national identification cards by traffickers and smugglers. Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno told local media, “Everything has its limits.” An estimated 600,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador so far this year.
• Brazil’s Border Streets Flood with Venezuelan Children.Scavenging for Food Starving Venezuelans fleeing across border to Brazil have become common sight around dumpsters of the country’s biggest border cities

8am – B REALITY WINNER GETS SENTENCED TO 63 MONTHS:

• A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to mailing a classified U.S. report to a news organization was sentenced to more than five years Thursday as part of a deal with prosecutors, who called it the longest sentence ever imposed for a federal crime involving leaks to the media. Reality Winner, 26, pleaded guilty in June to a single count of transmitting national security information. The former Air Force translator worked as a contractor at a National Security Agency’s office in Augusta, Georgia, when she printed a classified report and left the building with it tucked into her pantyhose. Winner told the FBI she mailed the document to an online news outlet.
• “When asked, ‘You don’t really hate America, right?’ she responded, ‘I mean yeah I do, it’s the literally the worst thing to happen on the planet.’” Former government contractor Reality Winner receives the longest-ever prison sentence for a media leak

8am – C WOMAN SEEKING RICH BOYFRIEND SUES DATING APP FOR NOT GIVING HER ENOUGH MATCHES. (Smokeroom) – A London woman is suing an exclusive online dating service because she didn’t receive any satisfactory matches. Tereza Burki, a 47-year-old divorced mother of three, approached Seventy Thirty dating agency in 2013 to find a wealthy bachelor. She was seeking a “sophisticated gentleman,” working in finance or some other lucrative field that could afford him a “wealthy lifestyle.” He also had to be “open to traveling internationally,” and willing to have more children. For some completely inexplicable reason, this woman could not find a satisfactory mate so she decided to sue the dating app instead. She ended up winning £12,600 ($16,000) in damages and another £500 ($635) for “distress.” Which begs the question. If this woman was trying to get rich quick, she really should have thought this through more. $16,000 goes fast in London. She should have tried to at least run away with one of the lawyers involved in this case.

8am – D INTERVIEW — BRET BAIER – Anchor, Special Report, Fox News Channel, weeknights at 6 PM and author of Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire” @BretBaier — recapped the top stories of the week.