Joe DiGenova, Larry Michael and Brent Budowsky joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, October 8, 2018

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C McConnell predicts Republican ‘surge’ from Kavanaugh confirmation heading into midterms (USA Today) Do you think  the Kavanaugh confirmation has fired up Republicans? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believed the fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court would light the Republican base on fire one month before the November election, rousing conservatives who might otherwise have lacked enthusiasm. “The ironies of ironies, this has actually produced an incredible surge of interest among these Republican voters going into the fall election,” McConnell told USA TODAY in interview just before Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. “We’ve all been perplexed about how to get our people as interested as we know the other side is, well this has done it,” he said.

 5am – D Sen. Susan Collins slams possible challenger Susan Rice as she defends her Kavanaugh vote: ‘She doesn’t live in the state of Maine’ (Daily Mail) Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Sunday defended her decision to vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court and shrugged off concern her action could cost her her Senate seat in 2020.’Whatever the voters decide, but I’m going to do what I think is right,’ Collins said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

 5am – E Taylor Swift no longer mum on politics after endorsing Democrats in Tennessee midterm races (CNN) In a rare move, singer Taylor Swift has weighed in on politics in a major way, endorsing Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, who are running for Senate and House of Representatives, respectively. By her own admission, Swift has been “reluctant” to voice her political opinions in the past, but, she said in an Instagram post, “due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.”

6am – A/B/C Mail carrier leaves mail on side of New Jersey road; quits job (Fox News) If there were no consequences, how would you quit your job? A U.S. Postal Service worker abandoned bins of mail on the side of a road in south New Jersey before quitting, authorities said – and an image of the dumped deliveries has gone viral. The piles of trashed mail date back to Aug. 8, but were discovered on Sunday in Pennsauken, NJ.com reported.

6am – D/E/F  Almost a third of millennials identify as socialists (Daily Caller) Why do you think so many millenials have turned to socialism? Thirty-one percent of millennials identify as a Democratic socialist or socialist, according to a study by Maru/Blue and BuzzFeed News released Thursday. Participants were first asked what description “best reflects your current political leanings,” before being given options ranging from “Strong Democrat,” to “Strong Republican” or “Independent.” A total of 22 percent identified as “Strong Democrat,” versus 10 percent as “Strong Republican.” The pollsters then asked, “Would you call yourself a democratic socialist, a socialist or neither?” A total of 31 percent responded “yes,” with 18 percent responding “Yes, a democratic socialist,” 8 percent with “Yes, a socialist” and 5 percent with “Yes, either a socialist or a democratic socialist.” Millennial men were far more likely to identify as some kind of socialist, with a total of 40 percent responding affirmatively to the question.

7am – A  INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA –  Legal Analyst & Fmr. U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

Topic: What to expect of Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court

• Georgetown professor who wished death to GOP senators supporting Kavanaugh on leave (Fox News) An anti-Trump professor, Dr. Carol Christine Fair, is no longer teaching classes at Georgetown University following calls for the outspoken liberal educator to be fired. Fair stirred up controversy on Twitter when she wished miserable deaths upon Republican senators supporting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
• Brett Kavanaugh will bring change to the Supreme Court, but maybe not what you think (USA Today) There will be less change than you expect. Most Supreme Court decisions are boring, technical and decided by easy majorities. That will still be true with Kavanaugh on the bench.

7am – B Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour launches racial attack against ‘white woman’ Susan Collins (Washington Times) Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour on Friday launched a racial attack against Sen. Susan Collins, saying the Maine Republican was guilty of espousing “white supremacy” with her decision to support the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Ms. Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, blasted Ms. Collins on Twitter as a “white woman” and the “mother & grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency.”

 7am – C Khabib Nurmagomedov Could Face Fine and Suspension After Brawl at UFC 229 (The New York Times) When Nurmagomedov promptly hurdled over the cage fence and fought with McGregor’s taunting cornermen while his own teammates ambushed McGregor, the former champion from Ireland, in the octagon, the Russian champion and his friends might have seriously damaged careers that were just about to take off.“ These guys are in big trouble,” U.F.C. President Dana White said. “It is going to be ugly.”

 7am-D INTERVIEW – Larry Michael – Voice of The Washington Redskins

Topic: Tonight’s game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans at 8:15pm

• Saints vs. Redskins odds: Monday Night Football picks, predictions from model on 58-37 roll (CBS Sports) NFC division leaders face off under the lights as the New Orleans Saintshost the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football to close out Week 5. Kickoff from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome is at 8:15 p.m. ET. In the latest Saints vs. Redskins odds, New Orleans is favored by six points, while the over-under is 52.5. The Saints (3-1) are 2-0 at the Superdome, while the Redskins (2-1) won their lone road contest and had two weeks to prepare for the high-powered Saints offense.

7am – E Nancy Pelosi talked about “wrap up smear tactics” back in 2017

8am – A INTERVIEW –BRENT BUDOWSKY –  Political columnist for The Hill

Topic: Kavanaugh Recap (Opposing View) 

• Kavanaugh and the rights of women (The Hill) On the transcendent matter of the rights of women, the fate of American women should not be determined by Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who are all conservative men, Senate Republican leaders who are all conservative men, a Supreme Court majority of five conservative Republican men, and a Republican president whose attitudes about women are legendary.

8am – B Stephen Colbert ‘Late Show’ writer: ‘I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life’ (Fox News)  In a social media post on Saturday, a writer for CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” seemingly celebrated the damage done to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation during his bruising and bitterly partisan confirmation battle. “Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life,” the writer, Ariel Dumas, posted on Twitter. Dumas later briefly made her account private, preventing others from viewing her posts without her approval.

8am – C Melania Trump responded to criticism about wearing a ‘colonial’ hat in Africa: ‘I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear’ (Business Insider) The first lady wore a white pith helmet on her tour of Africa that many thought was an offensive symbol of colonialism. The style was frequently worn by European travelers and explorers visiting areas such as Africa, Southeast Asia, and the tropics in the late 19th Century, and by military personnel from countries such as Britain, France, Spain, and Italy while commanding colonial armies. While speaking to reporters near the Great Sphinx in Egypt, she responded to the outcry by talking about what she hoped to bring the world’s attention to on her visit instead.

8am – D Democrats and journalists call for changes to the Senate

 8am – E University Publishes Social Media Guidelines Including Not Using ‘Gendered Emojis’ (Daily Wire) Colorado State University’s social media team released an articleoutlining “10 Ways to Make Your Social Media Channels More Inclusive.”

While many of the guidelines for “university-wide social media accounts” are standard or inoffensive, the first three are golden examples of PC culture run amok