Mornings on the Mall 04.29.19

John Lott, Joe diGenova, Matthew Continetti, Susan Ferrechio and Steve Moore joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, April 29, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING RECAP:

• A 19-year-old man accused of opening fire on Sabbath worshippers in a deadly shooting rampage at a Southern California synagogue is believed to have acted alone, without help from any organized group, authorities said Sunday. Police say the gunman walked into the suburban San Diego synagogue late Saturday morning, the last day of the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, and killed one woman and wounded three other people inside, using an assault-style semi-automatic rifle.
• Deadly shooting at California synagogue: Synagogue shooting suspect booked on one count of murder in the first degree. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department released the following: Detectives from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department along with members of several local, state and federal agencies have been working throughout the night, interviewing approximately 100 people who were victims and witnesses to the shooting that occurred at the Chabad of Poway. Detectives also served several search warrants and processed the crime scene at the synagogue, as well as the suspect’s residence in San Diego and his vehicle. The investigation is continuing as detectives process evidence and interview additional witnesses. The suspect, 19-year-old John T. Earnest, was booked into custody on one count of murder in the first degree and three counts of attempted murder in the first degree. There is no indication at this point in the investigation that Earnest was part of an organized group. We believe he acted alone and without outside support in carrying out the attack. We are continuing to explore every investigative avenue to bring out all the facts in the case. The Sheriff’s Department would like to acknowledge another act of courage that occurred at the synagogue yesterday. Oscar Stewart, who is fifty-one-years-old and resides in Rancho Bernardo, rushed at the shooting suspect, chasing after the suspect as he fled the synagogue to a vehicle parked nearby. Mr. Stewart caught up to the vehicle as the suspect was about to drive away. While Mr. Stewart was near the vehicle, an off-duty Border Patrol Agent caught up to the vehicle and yelled for Mr. Stewart to get out of the way. The Border Patrol Agent then fired a weapon in the suspect’s direction striking the vehicle as it drove away. Mr. Stewart risked his life to stop the shooter and saved lives in the process.
• Iraq war vet who rushed toward San Diego synagogue shooter speaks out. (NY Post) — The Iraq war veteran who rushed at the San Diego synagogue shooter said instinct took over as he fearlessly ran toward the gunman while screaming at the top of his lungs, according to reports. Oscar Stewart, 51, spoke out Sunday about his heroic actions at Chabad of Poway, where he confronted suspect John Earnest, 19, who’s accused of killing one congregant and injuring three others on Saturday. “I heard gunshots,” Steward told The Daily Caller. “And everybody got up and started trying to get out the back door, so I – for whatever reason – I didn’t do that. I ran the other way. I ran towards the gun shots.” “I knew I had to be within five feet of this guys so his rifle couldn’t get to me,” Steward told the site. “So I ran immediately toward him, and I yelled as loud as I could. And he was scared. I scared the hell out of him.” By the time Stewart reached Earnest in the church’s lobby, the shooter’s assault rifle had miraculously jammed after firing off six rounds, the synagogue’s rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, told The Post. The shooter then fled the church, with Steward close behind.
• An off-duty Border Patrol agent stopped the San Diego synagogue shooter from inflicting even more damage. The agent chased him out of the worship space, and fired on him. Saturday afternoon, a 19-year-old man opened fire inside a synagogue in San Diego, only to be chased out by an armed, off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. “An off-duty border patrol agent was inside the synagogue during the shooting,” according to ABC. “The agent chased the suspect outside as he attempted to flee and fired on the suspect, striking his vehicle.” Three people were injured, and one killed when a suspect who has not officially been named opened fire inside the place of worship. The alert CBP agent – a good guy with a gun – likely prevented more damage. A manifesto attributed to a man named John Earnest is circulating online.
• SYNAGOGUE SHOOTER’S MOTIVES: (Fox News) — In the manifesto – which was posted to an internet forum and attributed to Earnest – the author said he hates “anyone who seeks the destruction of my race,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He apparently admitted to setting fire to an Escondido mosque and supported the Christchurch, New Zealand, suspect, whom Fox News has declined to name, saying that suspect’s alleged killings of 50 Muslim worshippers last month were an inspiration to him.
• MAY BE CONNECTED TO MOSQUE ARSON (Reuters) – A 19-year-old man who authorities said gave himself up to police shortly after carrying out a deadly shooting in a Southern California synagogue filled with Sabbath worshippers is also under investigation in connection with an unsolved mosque arson.
• SHOOTER HATED “JEW LOVING” TRUMP (Breitbart) — The manifesto also includes a “lightning round” — a question and answer section in which Earnest discusses his hatred of President Donald Trump and reveals he is inspired by Adolf Hitler, Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and New Zealand mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant.
• AOC IMMEDIATELY POLITICIZED THE SHOOTING (Daily Caller) — “Heartbroken to hear of the San Diego synagogue shooting, particularly so on this final day of Passover,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet, before pivoting to gun control. “We have a responsibility to love + protect our neighbors,” she wrote. “The longer the Senate delays holding a vote on #HR8, the more we put Americans at risk.”

5am – D         TRUMP’S ECONOMY

• US economy grows by 3.2% in the first quarter, topping expectations. First-quarter gross domestic product expanded by 3.2%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its initial read of the economy for that period. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the U.S. economy increased by 2.5% in the first quarter.  Gross domestic product for the first quarter was the best start to a year since 2015. The U.S. economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the first quarter and posted its best growth to start a year in four years. First-quarter gross domestic product expanded by 3.2%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday in its initial read of the economy for that period. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected growth of 2.5%. It was the first time since 2015 that first-quarter GDP topped 3%. “The upside beat was helped by net trade (exports jumped while imports contracted sharply) and inventories which combined contributed almost 170 bps of the rise,” wrote Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “Personal spending though, the biggest component was up just 1.2%, two tenths more than expected as an increase in spending on services and nondurable goods offset a decline in spending on durable goods.” Exports rose 3.7% in the first quarter, while imports decreased by 3.7%. Economic growth also got a lift from strong investments in intellectual property products. Those investments expanded by 8.6%. Disposable personal income increased by 3%, while prices increased by 1.3% when excluding food and energy. Overall prices climbed by 0.8% in the first quarter.

5am – E         Oliver North is forced to step down as NRA president. Retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North on Saturday announced that he will step down as president of the National Rifle Association. (Daily Mail) — The former military officer who took over as NRA president in May of 2018 said he was being forced out of the role due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in financial improprieties. In a letter read by an NRA board member during the gun rights group’s annual meeting in Indianapolis, North, a conservative commentator best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, said he had hoped to stand for re-election when his term ends on Monday. ‘I am now informed that will not happen,’ North said in the letter. His pending departure comes a day after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre accused North of trying to oust him from his leadership role. LaPierre wrote a letter Thursday that was published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday that said North was threatening to release ‘damaging’ information about him. NRA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. North, 75, was a pivotal figure in the Iran-Contra affair involving secret sales of arms to Iran by Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration and the unlawful diversion of the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.

 

6am – A         BORDER NEWS:

• Trump explains record migration influx, says Dems have turned border into ‘Disneyland.’ President Trump told “Sunday Morning Futures” that illegal immigrants are pouring into the country at unprecedented rates “because our economy is so good,” and “everyone wants a piece of it” — and, he asserted, Democrats have now provided major incentives for illegal immigrants to bring children with them as a legal shield.”we go out and we stop the separation,” Trump said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo. “The problem is you have 10 times more people coming up with their families. It’s like Disneyland now.”
• Beto O’Rourke says that illegal immigrants live in “modern day bondage.” He’s essentially comparing our immigration laws to slavery.
• Ocasio-Cortez says Trump is forcing illegals into being undocumented. She doesn’t care if people are undocumented. She complains that the U.S. legal system for immigration is “unjust,” she claims that Trump is creating illegal aliens in the United States, later adds: “I don’t care if you’re undocumented”

6am – B/C     Attorney General William Barr may not attend Mueller report hearing over disagreement with Democrats. A Democratic congressional aide says Attorney General William Barr objects to having to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week in a closed session dedicated to the redacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s targeted meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Barr is threatening to skip his planned appearance on Thursday according to the aide.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – JOHN LOTT – President, Crime Prevention Research Center and author of “The War on Guns”

• Oliver North is forced to step down as NRA president. Retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North on Saturday announced that he will step down as president of the National Rifle Association. (Daily Mail) — The former military officer who took over as NRA president in May of 2018 said he was being forced out of the role due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in financial improprieties. In a letter read by an NRA board member during the gun rights group’s annual meeting in Indianapolis, North, a conservative commentator best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, said he had hoped to stand for re-election when his term ends on Monday. ‘I am now informed that will not happen,’ North said in the letter. His pending departure comes a day after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre accused North of trying to oust him from his leadership role.
• JOHN LOTT: NRA turmoil is not a threat to Second Amendment but THIS could do real harm. (Fox News) — The announcement Saturday that Oliver North is stepping down as president of the National Rifle Association – following news that the New York attorney general is investigating the group’s tax-exempt status – has sparked overwrought media speculation that the NRA is in danger of shutting down. It’s not. Try as they might, those on the left cannot wish the Second Amendment out of existence. But if they can silence the NRA they will deprive the amendment – and every American – of an important defender of our freedom. Anti-gun groups regularly try to win the approval of legislation that violates our Second Amendment rights, but the NRA has gone to court and talked with elected officials to block unconstitutional restrictions on gun rights. North’s resignation was announced at the NRA Convention in Indianapolis, which I am attending. A letter from North was read in the convention hall saying he was stepping down because he was told he would not be nominated by the NRA Board for another term as president. In his resignation letter, North said the NRA faces “a clear crisis” that it should deal with “immediately and responsibly.” He said he had recently created a committee to investigate allegations of improper financial actions at the organization. What happened to force North out? It turns out that North and longtime NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre got into a power struggle. LaPierre came out on top. But don’t expect any real changes. That’s because the presidency of the NRA – the post North held – is part-time position and the president is largely a figurehead. LaPierre has run the NRA full-time for almost 30 years, and will continue to do so. The fight between North and LaPierre may be getting more attention because both men are well-known public figures. The conflict has also turned personal. LaPierre claims North extorted him by threatening to release “damaging” information if he did not resign. North’s supporters say that North was merely offering LaPierre a way out that wouldn’t require a messy battle about his handling of NRA finances.

6am – E/F      CHARLOTTESVILLE:

• CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly asks WH counselor Kellyanne Conway if President Trump thinks white nationalism is a growing threat around the world, and if she thinks his response on Charlottesville was ‘perfect’ as he says it was.
• Biden, Entire Senate Once Voted In Favor Of Restoring General Lee’s Citizenship. (Daily Caller) — Former Vice President Joe Biden was a part of the 94th Congress that voted to restore Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s citizenship over 100 years after his death, and yet Biden attacked President Donald Trump’s support of the general in his campaign announcement video earlier this week. On Thursday, Biden entered the presidential race, and he used Trump’s words about a statue of Lee and the people who attended the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 as the focal point for his announcement video.  “I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general,” Trump said to reporters on Friday in response to Biden’s video. “Whether you like it or not, he was one of the great generals.” “White nationalists had long planned a demonstration over the city’s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee,” The New York Times reported that day, seemingly supporting Trump’s claim. “But the rally quickly exploded into racial taunting, shoving and outright brawling, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency and the National Guard to join the police in clearing the area.” Following the death of Heather Heyer, 32, in Charlottesville, the president stood before reporters and issued a statement, which has been reported on extensively in the years since it took place. The infamous line from that presser was when he said, “There were good people on both sides.” But, as CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out on his show Friday, Trump’s comment was not directed at the Neo-Nazis who were shouting slurs like “Jews will not replace us.” Instead, the president was discussing the “people protesting alongside those neo-Nazis and white supremacists,” who were there to protest the removal of the General Lee statue. “He was a general that led a treasonous rebellion and fought for the right of people to own African Americans as slaves,” Tapper said of Lee. While many have began criticizing the dead former Confederate leader, in 1975 the Senate, which included freshman Democratic Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, unanimously approved the reinstatement of General Robert E. Lee’s citizenship to the U.S.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former US Attorney to the District of Columbia

• Attorney General William Barr may not attend Mueller report hearing over disagreement with Democrats. A Democratic congressional aide says Attorney General William Barr objects to having to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week in a closed session dedicated to the redacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s targeted meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Barr is threatening to skip his planned appearance on Thursday according to the aide.
• Joe thinks there’s an interesting strategy behind SALLY YATES rollout on Sunday shows: MEET THE PRESS: Former U.S. Dep Attorney Gen Sally Yates says, “I’ve personally prosecuted obstruction (of justice) cases on far, far less evidence than this” @SallyQYates: “If he were not the president of the united states, he would likely be indicted on obstruction”
• FBI KNEW STEELE WAS A QUESTIONABLE SOURCE: “There were meetings with Mr. McCabe about the Russia investigation that involved discussions of the various reports that were generated by Chris Steele that we had received, both with respect to the content of the reports as well as what we had learned about Christopher — we, I’m sorry — the FBI investigative team had learned about facts that might bear on his credibility as a source,” Anderson said in the Oct. 31, 2018 interview, a transcript of which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

7am – B/C SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING: A 19-year-old man accused of opening fire on Sabbath worshippers in a deadly shooting rampage at a Southern California synagogue is believed to have acted alone, without help from any organized group, authorities said Sunday. Police say the gunman walked into the suburban San Diego synagogue late Saturday morning, the last day of the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, and killed one woman and wounded three other people inside, using an assault-style semi-automatic rifle.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – MATTHEW CONTINETTI – editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon – discussed the crazy left-wing Disney heiress whining about her family’s company.

• NOTE: Abigail Disney is mad that Bob Iger is making too much money but he’s the one who brought in billions to Disney when he brought in Marvel. She’s complaining during the same week Disney made a $1.2 billion in their Avengers opening:
  • Avengers: Endgame’ shatters records with $1.2 billion opening. “Avengers: Endgame” shattered the record for biggest opening weekend with an estimated $350 million in ticket sales domestically and $1.2 billion globally, reaching a new pinnacle in the blockbuster era that the comic-book studio has come to dominate.
• My Least Favorite Disney Princess. Column: She’s an entitled virtue-signaling left-wing heiress (BY: Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon) — If it were not for her last name, Abigail Disney would be just another alumna of Yale (B.A.), Stanford (M.A.), and Columbia (PhD) living in Manhattan.  No one would pay much attention to her opinions, none of them especially unique or different from others shared by her class. But she is a Disney, dammit, and in America in the twenty-first century we must heed the rich and privileged, especially if they parrot the left wing of the Democratic Party.  Abigail Disney’s father was Roy E. Disney, who instigated an animation renaissance in the 1980s; her grandfather was Roy O. Disney, the co-founder of the Walt Disney Company; her great-uncle was that company’s namesake, one of the most important cultural and business figures in American, maybe world, history.  Abigail is not a fan. Uncle Walt was “hella good at making films and his work has made billions of people happy,” Disney conceded in a 2014 Facebook post, but, c’mon, he was born in 1901 and died more than a half century ago and didn’t have the enlightened views of whenever I happen to Tweet this so Meryl Streep was right to call him racist and sexist.  Granddad Roy was somewhat better, Abigail told the Cut last month, because he “gave us money directly, which was great because I never had to go to my parents and ask for anything.” Which would have been awful, since dad “lost his way in life” when he, Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg revolutionized Hollywood and made Abigail and a lot of other people incredibly rich, and mom “was somebody who really liked having nice things,” for Heaven’s sakes, “like Chanel suits.”  Nowadays it’s Robert Iger, Disney’s chairman and CEO, who’s gotten under Abigail’s skin. “I like Bob Iger,” she wrote in a Twitter rant this week. “I do NOT speak for my family but only for myself.”  And she has nothing to do with the company other than holding shares “(not that many).” But Iger’s compensation in 2018 of $65.6 million is “insane.” Someone has to “speak out about the naked indecency” of it all, she wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post, a newspaper owned by the richest man on Earth.  The Trump tax cuts are to blame. Yes, Disney is raising its minimum wage, and gave more than half of its 200,000 employees a $1,000 bonus last year. But it has spent billions more on stock buybacks to—ohmigod—”enrich its shareholders.”  Abigail Disney’s stand for the proletariat is absurd and self-righteous. There is, for starters, the fact that everyone involved in this psychodrama—from Disney to Iger to the owner of the Washington Post—is a super-affluent liberal. Everyone, that is, but many Disney employees, who are not an undifferentiated mass of drones but men and women with a diversity of political views, economic circumstances, work schedules, skill sets, and personal ambitions. Some of them probably liked their tax cut and bonus—and profited from the buybacks as individual shareholders and as holders of retirement accounts. Iger is a great chief executive. He has brought Marvel, Star Wars, and Twentieth Century Fox into the Disney fold, while maintaining quality and preparing a streaming service that will compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime. He’s just about doubled the global revenues of the company, from $34 billion in 2006 to $59 billion in 2018. Disney had more than a quarter of the total domestic box office in 2018, almost twice as much as its closest competitor. Abigail admits that Iger and his lieutenants “have led the company brilliantly.” So what’s her problem? It’s that the world doesn’t conform to her subjective vision of social justice.

7am – E         UVA basketball team rejects White House invitation amid Dem-backed petition. (Campus Reform) — The University of Virginia Men’s basketball team announced Friday that it will decline an invitation to the White House. The announcement came amid a petition calling on the university to do so. The petition was supported by the College Democrats. The University of Virginia men’s basketball team announced Friday that will not accept an invitation to visit the White House.  The announcement came amid a petition calling on the 2019 NCAA mens basketball champions to boycott visiting the president.  “We have received inquiries about a visit to the White House. With several players either pursuing pro opportunities or moving on from UVA, it would be difficult, if not impossible to get everyone back together. We would have to respectfully decline an invitation,” UVA mens basketball Coach Tony Bennett said via the team’s Twitter account.

8am – A         INTERVIEW – SUSAN FERRECHIO – chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner – previewed the week ahead in Congress.

• Barr Threatens Not to Testify Before House, but Democrats May Subpoena Him. (NY Times) — WASHINGTON — The powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee threatened on Sunday to subpoena Attorney General William P. Barr if Mr. Barr refuses to testify this week, a move that could lead to a major escalation of the long-running feud between the White House and congressional Democrats over testimony and access to documents. The threat by the chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, came on the eve of Democrats’ return to Washington after a two-week congressional recess that has been dominated by questions about the special counsel’s report. Mr. Barr is scheduled to come before Mr. Nadler’s committee on Thursday to testify about it. But Mr. Barr and Democrats are at loggerheads over the Democrats’ proposed format for questioning him, and now the much-anticipated hearing is in doubt. The dispute spilled out into the open on Sunday when Democrats revealed that Mr. Barr was threatening to skip the session if they did not change their terms. Mr. Nadler said they have no intention of doing so.
• Congress returns this week: Here’s where the Democratic investigations stand. (CNN) The long-simmering feud over Democratic investigations burst into an all-out war last week between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats.  Lawmakers weren’t in Washington last week during their Easter recess, but that didn’t stop a flurry of jostling over the Democratic investigations, after the White House and Trump administration stonewalled Democrats on multiple requests for documents and interviews and filed suit to try to stop a subpoena. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday. Democrats are now preparing their response to Trump’s refusal to cooperate, weighing steps that include holding administration officials in contempt, suing to enforce their subpoenas — and even threatening to try to fine or jail those who refuse to comply. “We will use any and all power in our command to make sure it’s backed up — whether that’s a contempt citation, whether that’s going to court and getting that citation enforced, whether it’s fines, whether it’s possible incarceration,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat. “We will go to the max to enforce the constitutional role of the legislative branch of government.” The fighting is only likely to intensify on a number of fronts, as Democrats seek to pry documents from the Trump administration, secure interviews with current and former officials and obtain the President’s tax returns.

8am – B/C  WHCD RECAP:

• The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday was a more subdued event, as the media chose a scholar over a comedian as keynote speaker. Once again, President Trump skipped the dinner, and this year ordered members of his administration to do likewise.
• The White House Correspondents’ Dinner didn’t have Trump in attendance or a comedian as host, but there were still a few jabs at the president. (BusinessInsider) — The annual White House Correspondents Dinner was held on Saturday. For the third year in a row Trump did not attend and the White House reportedly banned administration officials from attending. The event also did not feature the customary comedian, instead historian Ron Chernow was the featured speaker. Chernow offered defenses of the press and also cracked a few jokes at Trump’s expense. For the third year in a row, President Donald Trump did not attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an event designed to celebrate the press corps that covers the president. But while Trump’s absence is now a common occurrence and the White House’s reported ban made it so that no Trump administration officials attended, the night was an even more muted affair than previous years. Instead of a comedian hosting the dinner, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) chose historian Ron Chernow, whose books include the biography of Alexander Hamilton that became a hit Broadway musical. WHCA president Olivier Knox, the White House correspondent for SiriusXM radio, said the night was designed to be “more serious” and “put the focus back on journalism.” Last year’s dinner became a source of controversy after comedian Michelle Wolff delivered a searing speech, making numerous jokes at the expense of Trump administration officials — most notably Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. While the night lacked the viral flair of previous correspondents dinners, Chernow did manage to take a few swipes at Trump during his speech.
• Historian RON CHERNOW: “Campaigns against the press do not get your face carved in Mount Rushmore because when you chip away at the free press you chip away at the heart of democracy…”
• CHRIS CILLIZZA: “Campaigns against the press do not get your face carved in Mount Rushmore because when you chip away at the free press you chip away at the heart of democracy.” — Ron Chernow #WHCD2019
• DAVID HARSANYI: Reminder: press freedoms have not been chipped away, at all.

• CHARLES COOKE: Jefferson is on Mount Rushmore. He said that nothing in a newspaper, which he called a “polluted vehicle,” could ever be believed.
• WHCA President Olivier Knox gave a sanctimonious rant about press attacks under Trump era. Knox : My Crying Son Asked, Will Trump ‘Put You in Prison?’ And yet, I still separate my career into the period before February 2017 and what came after. That’s because February 2017 is when the President of the United States called us the ‘enemies of the people.’ A few days later I was driving my then-11-year-old son somewhere, probably soccer practice, when he burst into tears and asked me, ‘Is Donald Trump going to put you in prison?’ At the end of a family trip to Mexico he mused if the president tried to keep me out of the country, at ‘least Uncle Josh is a good lawyer and will get you home.’
• Under Obama, the Justice Department subpoenaed the telephone records of AP journalists as investigators pursued a leak. It also went after Fox News reporter James Rosen and named him as a “co-conspirator” in a leak about North Korea’s nuclear program. And James Risen, then a New York Times reporter, struggled for years to avoid testifying about his confidential source during the leak investigation of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer.

8am – D         INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – – former campaign economic advisor to President Trump, economist at The Heritage Foundation and author of book “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy” — discussed Trump’s economy and his fight for his Federal Reserve Board nomination.

• TRUMP’S ECONOMY: US economy grows by 3.2% in the first quarter, topping expectations. First-quarter gross domestic product expanded by 3.2%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its initial read of the economy for that period. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the U.S. economy increased by 2.5% in the first quarter. Gross domestic product for the first quarter was the best start to a year since 2015.
• POLITICO: Dems sweat Trump’s economy: ‘We don’t really have a robust national message right now.’ Anxiety on the left reached new heights last week, with the government reporting that the nation’s economy had grown at an unexpectedly fast pace in the first quarter of the year. While Trump took credit for the surging economy, Democratic presidential contenders were immersing themselves in the Mueller report and debating whether incarcerated felons should be allowed to vote.
• LAST WEEK: STEVE MOORE CLAIMED HE’S BEING KAVANAUGH’D: Embattled Trump Fed pick Stephen Moore complains: ‘They’re pulling a Kavanaugh against me’

8am – E         Biden to hold first campaign rally in battleground Pennsylvania

Former Vice President Joe Biden is give the first campaign speech of his official 2020 presidential campaign on Monday and it’s no coincidence that it will be in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Biden is a longtime former senator from neighboring Delaware, he was born in Pennsylvania, is the only primary candidate from the area, and has numerous ties there. His planned speech to an organized labor crowd in Pittsburgh comes days after he announced his candidacy and promptly went to a fundraiser in Philadelphia organized by the area’s prominent Democrats. In Pittsburgh, Biden is expected to receive the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters and speak about rebuilding the middle class. Expect President Trump to be watching closely. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he believes four left-leaning states — New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado — could be up for grabs and that the campaign understands the importance of maintaining support in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida.