Mornings on the Mall 03.22.19

ICYMI: Listen here to @WMALDC’s #MOTM Friday show with @yaf’s @itsSpencerBrown, @heatherhunterdc, @JSchanzer, @TomFitton, @speech_first’s Nicki Neily, & guest host @HvonSpakovsky: https://t.co/qpfHjSAj0R pic.twitter.com/8f30176VC0

— WMAL DC (@WMALDC) March 23, 2019

YAF’s Spencer Brown, Heather Hunter, Jonathan Schanzer, Tom Fitton, Nicki Neily and guest host Hans Von Spakovsky joined WMAL on Friday!

Mornings on the Mall

Friday, March 22, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Hans Von Spakovsky

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C             Q & A with HANS VON SPAKOVSKY on immigration:

• WASHPOST: Democrats who have railed against President Trump’s national emergency as a manufactured crisis are facing a political dilemma as border apprehensions have spiked and are on pace for the highest level since 2008.
• Record $120 billion sent home to 3 top nations flooding US with illegal immigrants. Immigrants from the three Central American nation’s sourcing many illegal border crossers sent a record amount of money home last year, bringing the total this decade to $120 billion. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador all said that natives in the United States sent over $17 billion home last year alone. “These huge numbers also suggest that the United States should follow the lead of Oklahoma, and start collecting a share of the remittances to help mitigate the costs of illegal immigration. You could build a wall with some of that money, compensate victims of illegal immigration, and much more – and Congress should do it,” said immigration expert Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.
• According to new data obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) via a FOIA request, there are 644,488 illegal aliens remaining in our country who have already been served final deportation orders. And those are just from the top four countries of origin – El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. The IRLI shared much more data with CR. The total number of illegal aliens who remain in the country despite final deportation orders is 1,009,550.
• Gillibrand: Give Social Security to illegal immigrants
• Trump seeks cuts to E-Verify: President Trump’s budget proposes an 8 percent funding cut to the E-Verify program — even though the administration is usually bent on boosting spending on anything to curb illegal immigration. The White House requested roughly $122 million in discretionary funds for the electronic program in fiscal year 2020, down from the $133 million that Congress spent in the spending package approved in February, H.J. Res. 31 (116). ($133 million was what the Trump administration requested for fiscal year 2019, and also for fiscal year 2018.) Here at Morning Shift, we wondered briefly whether we were seeing things. But a USCIS spokesman assured us that the 8 percent cut was real: A higher funding level is no longer needed thanks to technological modernization. A senior administration official added that the White House still favors legislation to make E-Verify mandatory nationwide.
• ILLEGAL RELEASED BY DE BLASIO BITES OF ICE AGENT’S FINGER: “New York’s dangerous ‘sanctuary’ policies are directly responsible for the egregious and violent harm suffered by this courageous ICE officer,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement to The Daily Caller.
• CA PULLS NATIONAL GUARD OFF BORDER: Starting in April, 110 California National Guard troops will receive 11 days of training in using shovels, rakes and chain saws to help thin trees and brush, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said.
• DETENTION CTRS ARE FULL SO AGENTS RELEASE ILLEGALS: The Border Patrol released 50 recently apprehended migrants here Tuesday, the first of several hundred border-crossers who officials say will soon be freed because there is no room to hold them. Normally, the Border Patrol would transfer the migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be “processed” and in many cases placed in detention facilities. But officials said that both agencies have run out of space due to a recent influx of Central American families.
• ILLEGAL KILLS A MAN AND WILL GET LESS THAN 2 YEARS: Jamar Beach was riding his motorcycle in North Carolina on Sept. 1, 2018 when Cruz Carmona failed to yield and crashed into Beach’s bike. Beach was then decapitated, and Carmona kept driving. “At that point, yes, it was an accident,” Robinson said. “However, Mr. Cruz Carmona never stopped. He decapitated my son and kept going with his body lodged in the side of the van. And so for me, that’s not an accident. That was a choice at that point.” Carmona only received 20-33 months in prison after prosecutors said they couldn’t pursue further charges without evidence, according to WRAL. He could be released in as little as 14 months with credit for time served.

5am – D         Judicial Watch Uncovers More Classified Emails in Hillary Clinton’s Unsecure Email System. (Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch today announced it received 756 pages of newly uncovered emails that were among the materials former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to delete or destroy, several of which were classified and were transmitted over her unsecure, non-“state.gov” email system. Hillary Clinton repeatedly stated that the 55,000 pages of documents she turned over to the State Department in December 2014 included all of her work-related emails. In response to a court order in another Judicial Watch case, she declared under penalty of perjury in 2015 that she had “directed that all my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or are potentially federal records be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done.” n 2017, the FBI uncovered 72,000 pages of documents Clinton attempted to delete or did not otherwise disclose. Until the court intervened and established a new deadline, the State Department had been slow-walking the release of those documents at a rate that would have required Judicial Watch and the American people to wait until at least 2020 to see all the releasable Clinton material. The production of documents in this case is now concluded with the FBI being only able to recover or find approximately 5,000 of the 33,000 government emails Hillary Clinton took and tried to destroy. Judicial Watch obtained the documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on May 6, 2015, after the State Department failed to respond to a March 4, 2015, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00687)) seeking: All emails sent and received by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her official capacity as Secretary of State, as well as all emails by other State Department employees to Secretary Clinton regarding her non-“state.gov” email address.

5am – E         As Russia collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges. (The Hill/BY JOHN SOLOMON) — After nearly three years and millions of tax dollars, the Trump-Russia collusion probe is about to be resolved. Emerging in its place is newly unearthed evidence suggesting another foreign effort to influence the 2016 election — this time, in favor of the Democrats. Ukraine’s top prosecutor divulged in an interview aired Wednesday on Hill.TV that he has opened an investigation into whether his country’s law enforcement apparatus intentionally leaked financial records during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign about then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in an effort to sway the election in favor of Hillary Clinton. The leak of the so-called black ledger files to U.S. media prompted Manafort’s resignation from the Trump campaign and gave rise to one of the key allegations in the Russia collusion probe that has dogged Trump for the last two and a half years. Ukraine Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko’s probe was prompted by a Ukrainian parliamentarian’s release of a tape recording purporting to quote a top law enforcement official as saying his agency leaked the Manafort financial records to help Clinton’s campaign. The parliamentarian also secured a court ruling that the leak amounted to “an illegal intrusion into the American election campaign,” Lutsenko told me. Lutsenko said the tape recording is a serious enough allegation to warrant opening a probe, and one of his concerns is that the Ukrainian law enforcement agency involved had frequent contact with the Obama administration’s U.S. Embassy in Kiev at the time.

6am – A         Nebraska Faces Over $1.3 Billion In Flood Losses. (NPR) – The “bomb cyclone” that swept through the Midwest this week has caused more than $1 billion of flood damage in Nebraska, the state’s governor said Wednesday. At least three people have been killed in Nebraska and Iowa.  Heavy rainfall and rapid snowmelt have caused catastrophic flooding across the Missouri River Basin, and three-fourths of Nebraska’s 93 counties have declared an emergency, Gov. Pete Ricketts said. The cost of the damage has surpassed $1.3 billion, state officials said, according to The Associated Press. That includes $449 million in damage to roads, levees and other infrastructure; $440 million in crop losses; and $400 million in cattle losses. Ricketts estimated that more than 2,000 homes and 340 businesses were damaged or destroyed by the flood, at a cost of $85 million. The state is seeking a federal disaster declaration, which would quickly free up funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ricketts spoke with Vice President Pence this week to discuss the flood damage. In the phone call, Pence told the president “it was some of the worst flooding he had ever seen in his life,” Ricketts relayed to reporters. “I think that will help the president make the decision to sign that disaster declaration.”

6am – B         ISIS caliphate has crumbled and last stronghold liberated, Fox News has learned. (By Benjamin Hall | Fox News) — BAGHOUZ, Syria — The caliphate has crumbled, and the final offensive is over. While the official announcement hasn’t yet been made – Fox News has been told that this village, the last ISIS stronghold, is liberated. It’s the first time since we’ve been here in Syria for five days that the bombs have stopped dropping and the gunfire has disappeared. We have witnessed the end of the caliphate – the brutal empire that once ruled over 8 million people – is gone. Troops here are now bringing down the black flags of ISIS. The flags no longer fly over the town, instilling fear. The last five days, Fox News has witnessed the last major offensive up close -– with U.S.-backed SDF forces attacking ISIS from three sides, pushing the fighters back, house to house, then tent to tent, against the Euphrates River. Inside Baghouz, it’s easy to see how they hid for so long – not just in tunnels but trenches and hundreds of cubby holes covered by tarpaulins, which blend in perfectly to the dirt. In the end, the majority surrendered. In fact, since the start of the year about 60,000 have dripped into the desert, and most are now held in camps. There is a major concern about what to do with the camps though. The SDF has asked for U.S. support in setting up a tribunal here to prosecute them. This final corner of the caliphate was in the far eastern desert of Syria– it was where ISIS first captured territory, and it is where they finally lost. A clearing operation is now underway in the town– and an announcement is expected soon. None of the main surviving ISIS leaders have been caught inside Baghouz. Instead, they left their men to fight alone. It’s thought they prepared ahead for the insurgency.

6am – C         Facebook left up to 600 MILLION users’ passwords stored in plain text and searchable by thousands of employees for YEARS. Security researcher Brian Krebs reports 200-600 million users were affected Includes Facebook Lite, Facebook, and Instagram users, Facebook confirmed. The passwords were only visible internally to Facebook employees, firm says. Facebook says there’s no evidence of abuse, is not requiring password resets. (Daily Mail) – The company only first learned of the issue this past January.  Facebook has since confirmed the shocking security failure, but insists it has fixed the issue and has not found any evidence that the information was ‘abused.’ Hundreds of millions of Facebook users may have had their passwords exposed as the result of an alarming oversight by the social media company.  This includes Facebook, Facebook Lite, and Instagram users.  The shocking vulnerability was first revealed by security researcher Brian Krebs, who reports that Facebook left the passwords of 200 million to 600 million users stored in plain text. That means the information was readable and searchable by more than 20,000 Facebook employees, in some cases dating as far back as 2012.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – SPENCER BROWN – spokesperson for Young America’s Foundation @YAF — IN STUDIO — discussed President Trump signing an executive order on campus free speech.

• Young America’s Foundation introduces students to conservatism through our campus programs and conferences. The Foundation also preserves the Reagan Ranch.
• Spencer was at the executive order signing.

6am – E         INTERVIEW – HEATHER HUNTER – WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall” executive producer — responded to President Trump’s executive order on campus free speech by telling her own story about being protested by professors on her own campus when she was in college 15 years ago.

6am – F         More of Spencer from YAF in studio.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – JONATHAN SCHANZER – a former terrorism-finance analyst for the US Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. @Jschanzer

TOPICS:

• GOLAN HEIGHTS: Trump says US will recognize Israeli control of disputed Golan Heights territory, in a major shift of decades-long American policy
• Why did Trump do it? Why now? What’s it mean for US and Israeli security?
• Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!
• Alayna Treene @alaynatreene 16h16 hours ago: WASHINGTON (AP) – Trump says it is time for US to ‘fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty’ over disputed Golan Heights. Timing: Next week Trump will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu, and on April 9 Netanyahu is up for reelection
• ISIS CRUSHED: Trump accomplishes in two years what Obama was helpless or disinclined to do for his entire administration… ISIS caliphate has crumbled and last stronghold liberated, Fox News has learned. It’s the first time since we’ve been here in Syria for five days that the bombs have stopped dropping and the gunfire has disappeared. We have witnessed the end of the caliphate – the brutal empire that once ruled over 8 million people – is gone. Troops here are now bringing down the black flags of ISIS. The flags no longer fly over the town, instilling fear. The last five days, Fox News has witnessed the last major offensive up close -– with U.S.-backed SDF forces attacking ISIS from three sides, pushing the fighters back, house to house, then tent to tent, against the Euphrates River. Inside Baghouz, it’s easy to see how they hid for so long – not just in tunnels but trenches and hundreds of cubby holes covered by tarpaulins, which blend in perfectly to the dirt. In the end, the majority surrendered. In fact, since the start of the year about 60,000 have dripped into the desert, and most are now held in camps. There is a major concern about what to do with the camps though. The SDF has asked for U.S. support in setting up a tribunal here to prosecute them.

7am – B         MILLENNIALS VALUE COMPATIBLE POLITICS OVER GOOD SEX. (NY Post) — The number of millennial men and women who prioritize political party alliance over good sex has skyrocketed since 2016, according to data from OkCupid. The matchmaking company surveyed more than 8 million users, and found that interest in dating someone with similar political beliefs has gone up 165 percent since 2004, while having good sex has decreased as a priority 30 percent. Specifically, between 2016 and 2018, the number of women who consider politics more important than sex shot up from 27 percent to 42 percent, while for men that needle moved from 23 percent to 30 percent.

7am – C         Democrats Introduce Equality Act to Cement Gender Ideology into Federal Law. House Democrats introduced the Equality Act last week, a measure that would ensure gender ideology — i.e., transgender bathrooms, forced preferred pronoun use, and biological men playing women’s sports, etc. — is cemented into federal law. H.R. 5, which was introduced with 239 co-sponsors, states its purpose is to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.” The measure would essentially codify gender ideology into federal law. Prohibiting discrimination and promoting equality sound virtuous, but many serious opponents — including a coalition of conservatives, feminists, lesbians, and Christians — are warning Americans the Equality Act is dangerous legislation that will do anything but create equality. In fact, the measure would likely force American women throughout the country to relinquish their rights to privacy, safety, and the ability to compete in sports “equally.” Monica Burke of the Heritage Foundation summed up the likely effects of the Equality Act with the observation at the Daily Signal that “it actually would promote inequality by elevating the ideologies of special-interest groups to the level of protected groups in civil rights law.”

7am – D/E     INTERVIEW — TOM FITTON, President of JUDICIAL WATCH — IN STUDIO

• JUDICIAL WATCH FINDS MORE CLASSIFIED CLINTON EMAILS
  Judicial Watch today announced it received 756 pages of newly uncovered emails that were among the materials former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to delete or destroy, several of which were classified and were transmitted over her unsecure, non-“state.gov” email system.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – NICKI NEILY – President of Speech First

• Speech First is a membership association of students, parents, faculty, alumni, and concerned citizens from across the country who want to support students’ free speech rights on campus.
• Nicki was at the executive order signing.
• Trump signs executive order to promote free speech on college campuses. (Fox News) — President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to promote free speech on college campuses by threatening colleges with the loss of federal research funding if they do not protect those rights. “We’re here to take historic action to defend American students and American values,” Trump said, surrounded by conservative student activists at the signing ceremony. “They’ve been under siege.”
  “Under the guise of speech codes, safe spaces and trigger warnings, these universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity and shut down the voices of great young Americans like those here today,” he said.
  A senior administration official said the order directs 12 grant-making agencies to use their authority in coordination with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure institutions that receive federal research or education grants promote free speech and free inquiry. White House officials have said it will apply to more than $35 billion in grants.

8am – B/C/D             2020 NEWS:

• TRUMP AMASSES YUGE RE-ELECTION WAR CHEST. (Fox News) — According to recent FEC data, the Trump campaign has raised over $67 million from 2017 to 2018, with nearly $20 million on hand. Combined with the hauls from two major joint fundraising groups – Trump Victory and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee – the president has raised over $130 million as of the end of 2018, with over $35 million on hand.
• STACEY ABRAMS & BIDEN: REPORT: Biden May Choose Stacey Abrams As His 2020 Running Mate So People Don’t Think He’s Just ‘Another Old White Guy’ (Daily Caller) — Former Vice President Joe Biden is considering naming Stacy Abrams as his running mate for a potential 2020 presidential bid, according to a report published Thursday. Biden’s top advisers have discussed adding Abrams to the top of the ticket in an attempt to show Americans that the former vice president “isn’t just another old white guy,” reported Axios.
• Plot twist: Stacey Abrams, trailblazing Georgia politician … and romance novelist? (NBC News) – Under a pen name,She has published eight romantic thrillers with titles such as “Hidden Sins” and “The Art of Desire.” When she’s not legislating, she becomes Selena Montgomery, crafter of novels filled with suspense, secrets and lies. Under her nom de plume, Abrams, 44, has published eight romantic thrillers with titles such as “Hidden Sins,” “Secrets and Lies” and “The Art of Desire.”
• DEMS WANT 16 YEAR OLDS TO VOTE: DEM CANDIDATES BACK 4 POLICIES THAT WOULD REQUIRE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls have so far proposed or signaled willingness to discuss at least four major policy ideas that would require the U.S. Constitution to be amended. – Lowering the voting age to 16… – Introducing term limits for Supreme Court justices… – Dissolving the Electoral College and adopting a National Popular Vote… – Reintroducing the Equal Rights Amendment. As more and more Democrats enter the rapidly expanding field, each vying for the chance to challenge President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, it is becoming apparent that most of them are looking for ways to change the status quo — even if that means changing the Constitution as well.
• ANDREW YANG IS WEIRD: ANDREW YANG IS NUTTY AND IT’S HILARIOUS!
  • Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang to debate Ben Shapiro on circumcision
  • HICKENLOOPER WATCHED PORN WITH HIS MOM: (Daily Wire) — Hickenlooper confirmed that the incident, which he wrote about in his memoir, happened when he returned home from college to visit his mother for Thanksgiving. Hickenlooper’s dad died when he was 8-years-old, and he said that he didn’t realize that his mother was lonely until he returned home from college.
  • OBAMA BUNDLERS BACKING BETO (Washington Free Beacon) — Some bigshot Democratic donors who supported Barack Obama have declined to wade into the primary race as they await a decision from Joe Biden. Others, however, are beginning to throw their support behind Beto O’Rourke, aka the “White Obama.”
  • Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang’s 8 Most Bizarre Policy Proposals. Outsider Andrew Yang has more than 75 policy proposals, addressing everything from robo-calls to circumcision. In the crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates, Andrew Yang stands out with a lengthy and eccentric list of policy proposals. Yang, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur who has never run for a political office before, addresses more than 75 issues on his website for what he calls “A Campaign of Ideas.” Yang is a New Yorker whose parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in the 1960s. In 2011, he launched the non-profit Venture for America. It encourages and trains young entrepreneurs to work for local start-ups across the country. After announcing his presidential bid in 2017, Yang has slowly gained attention and supporters (the #YangGang) by appearing on popular podcasts such as “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The backbone of Yang’s platform is a Universal Basic Income, or what he calls the “Freedom Dividend.” Yang says he wants the government to give $1,000 every month to every American over the age of 18. He outlines the policy in his book, “The War on Normal People,” arguing UBI is the most “direct and concrete way” for the government to improve American lives. UBI is hardly a new policy idea, but Yang believes giving people money is especially needed now to combat the growing number of jobs lost to robots and automation. Writing $12,000 checks to Americans every year is an unconventional platform for president, but it’s hardly Yang’s most unique policy proposal. While other candidates like Robert Francis O’Rourke have zero policy ideas fleshed out or even listed on their websites, Yang has something for everyone, from common Democratic positions on health care and education to geoengineering and paying college athletes.
    • The American Mall Act: “We need to do all we can to find productive uses for the hundreds of American malls that are going to close in the next four years,” Yang writes on his website. He laments the death of American malls that were once hubs of economic activity, but are now closed, abandoned, and often vandalized or inhabited by homeless people. Yang proposes creating incentives and funds to entice developers to reinvent uses for these empty buildings.
    • 2. Free Marriage Counseling For All: Yang acknowledges the effects families have on the health of American society, and calls for a policy that would encourage and support couples to stay together. Studies show that not only does divorce have numerous negative effects on adults and children, but children in two-parent households average better outcomes across most metrics of happiness and success. He suggests that “marriage counseling for interested couples should be free or heavily subsidized by the government.”
    • 3. Making Tax Day a Federal Holiday: Arguably one of the most ambitious policy ideas listed on his website is “Making Taxes Fun.” Yang says, “Tax day is dreaded, not celebrated,” and he’s not wrong. Yang proposes making tax day a federal holiday, or “Revenue Day,” and, in an attempt to make it a celebration, Americans should “be able to direct 1% of their taxes to a specific project” to be highlighted and announced as part of the fun. “If someone pays taxes, that’s great and we should make him or her feel like they contributed to important things that make people’s lives better,” he writes.
    • 4. Monitor the Mental Health of White House Staff: “My brother is a psychology professor—I believe in the power and good that the discipline can do. We should be 100% confident that people in power don’t have severe psychological problems,” Yang writes. It’s unclear what his brother’s occupation has to do with the president’s mental health. Nevertheless, Yang is convinced that there should be a “White House Psychologist group” responsible for monitoring the mental health of employees in the executive branch.
    • 5. A Program For High Schoolers to Live in Different Parts of the Country: Yang is concerned about the growing divide between urban and rural Americans, and the resulting political polarization across the country. His solution? In what he calls the “American Exchange Program,” high school seniors would be able to travel to different parts of the United States “to make friends from different backgrounds and learn about American culture that they would otherwise lack exposure to.”
    • 6. National Texting Line to Report Annoying Robo-calls: This has to be the most bipartisan issue ever addressed, and Yang apparently detests the out of control robo-calls as much as the rest of us do. He proposes a robo-calling text line, where you can report the phone number of any robo-call that you feel wasted your time. The Federal Communications Commission would then investigate and potentially fine any company that receives numerous complaints. “Companies need to value our time the same way that we do. If you call me you’d better be human.”
    • 7. A Government System to Monitor and Reward Volunteer Work: “We need to create a new way of both measuring and rewarding positive behaviors that spurs people to give to and ask more of their neighbors,” Yang writes. “We could create an entire parallel economy around social good that spurs incredible levels of activity and  constitutes the fabric of our society.”
    • 8. Ending Routine Infant Circumcision: Yang believes the practice of circumcising an infant is often pushed on parents without proper education about the practice. This is not one of the policy issues addressed on his website, but was reported by The Daily Beast after Yang was asked about the practice on Twitter last week.

8am – E         Hans explains the latest news about the census citizenship question.