Daily Mail’s Francesca Chambers, VA Speaker of the House Kirk Cox, Stuart Varney and FAIR’s Dave Ray joined WMAL on Wednesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Wednesday June 5, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C DC bill aims to decriminalize prostitution involving consenting adults. (WTOP) — D.C. could become the first U.S. city to decriminalize prostitution involving consenting adults. Councilmember David Grosso introduced a bill to make it happen in 2017, but it died in committee. He will reintroduce the bill Tuesday in a slightly different form, this time with three co-sponsors instead of just one. “It is long past time for D.C. to reconsider the framework in which we handle commercial sex, and move from one of criminalization to a new approach that focuses on human rights, health and safety,” Grosso said during a news conference. He was surrounded by several people holding signs. One read, “Everyone Deserves to Feel Safe in Their Work,” while another said, “Sex Workers Matter”.

5am – D         Gov. Ralph Northam will convene special session of Virginia legislature to take up gun control.  (Washington Post) – RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam (D) is calling lawmakers back to Richmond for a special session of the General Assembly to take up a package of gun-control bills in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting in Virginia Beach.

“We must do more than give our thoughts and prayers,” Northam said Tuesday, indicating that he will schedule the session for late June. “We must give Virginians the action they deserve.”

5am – E         MANAFORT TO RIKERS:

• BLM activist stands up for Manafort, calls out those ‘excited’ about news
• Manafort will have same rights as anyone at infamous jail, de Blasio says

6am – A         INTERVIEW — Francesca Chambers – Senior White House Correspondent, Daily Mail – recapped Day 2 and previewed Day 3 of President Trump’s Europe trip.

• DAY 2 RECAP: Trump calls ‘Resistance’ protests in Britain a ‘flop,’ believes he’s dominate polls if media were fair.
• On Tuesday, Mr Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May hosted a business breakfast attended by the Duke of York at St James’s Palace. Trump met with business leaders.
• Mr Trump then visited Downing Street for talks with Theresa May, followed by a joint press conference.
• In the evening, the Trumps hosted a dinner at the residence of the US ambassador in Regent’s Park attended by Charles and Camilla on behalf of the Queen.

• CHAMBERS: London loves me! Trump says he WILL give UK a ‘great’ trade deal, calls outgoing prime minister Theresa May a ‘tremendous professional’ then thanks Britain for ‘spirit and love’ – and dismisses over-hyped protests as ‘fake news’
• CHAMBERS: Ivanka enters the world stage: The first daughter accompanies her father to meeting with Theresa May as he hails ‘outstanding’ relationship with the Prime Minister and promises trade deal with her successor CHAMBERS: Trump tells May to ‘stick around’ long enough for the U.S. and U.K. to negotiate a trade deal and claims he’s had an ‘outstanding’ relationship with prime minister who resigned over Brexit
• CHAMBERS: America IS committed to a ‘phenomenal’ trade deal and Brexit ‘will happen and should happen’, says Trump as he pays emotional tribute to Theresa May at their last joint press conference together

6am – B         Joe Biden is embracing the framework of the Green New Deal in his new climate plan and calling for:

• Spending $1.7 trillion in clean energy
• Net-zero emissions goal by 2050
• (Undo “excesses” of TrumpTax law)
• Re-enter Paris accord, rally world
• New exec actions + pollution limits
• Won’t take $ from oil/gas/coal
• Joe Biden’s climate plan appears to directly copy multiple lines from other organizations — but his campaign says it was a mistake. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden released a climate-change proposal on Tuesday.  In at least three instances, Biden’s plan appears to directly copy language from letters and websites for other climate-change advocacy organizations.  Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign largely failed because of plagiarism accusations after he copied a speech from a UK member of parliament. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.  (Business Insider) — Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden released on Tuesday a comprehensive proposal to combat global climate change, adding to the mix of candidates who have made rolling back dangerous emissions a central tenet of their campaigns. But multiple sentences in Biden’s proposal appear to lift passages from letters and websites for different organizations. The copied sentences are particularly notable because of Biden’s past history of plagiarism, which played a major role in tanking his 1988 presidential campaign.   The potential plagiarism instances were first flagged by Josh Nelson, the vice president of Credo Mobile, a telecommunications company that also raises money for liberal activist groups and causes. INSIDER found another instance as well. In Biden’s plan, the campaign wrote about carbon-capture technology: “Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) is a rapidly growing technology that has the potential to create economic benefits for multiple industries while significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.” But in a letter that BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Kim Glas sent to the Senate Committee on Environment and  Public Works, the sentence is virtually the exact same: “Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a rapidly growing technology that has potential to create economic benefits for multiple industries while significantly reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.” Another instance of copied lines appears where the Biden campaign wrote about its goals regarding carbon capture: “Biden’s goal is to make CCUS a widely available, cost-effective, and rapidly scalable solution to reduce carbon emissions to meet mid-century climate goals.” That line is almost identical to the “our work” section of the website for the Carbon Capture Coalition’s Center for Climate and Energy Solutions: “Its goal is to make carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) a widely available, cost-effective, and rapidly scalable solution to reduce carbon emissions to meet mid-century climate goals.”

6am – C         Trump administration puts new restrictions on Cuba travel. (ABC News) — The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed major new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens, including a ban on many forms of educational and recreational travel. The Treasury Department said in a statement that the U.S. will no longer allow the group educational and cultural trips known as “people to people” travel to the island. Those trips have been used by thousands of American citizens to visit the island even before the U.S. restored full diplomatic relations with the communist government in December 2014. Treasury said it would also deny permission for private and corporate aircraft and boats. However, commercial airline flights appear to be unaffected and travel for university groups, academic research, journalism and professional meetings will continue to be allowed. “It kills the people-to-people category, which is the most common way for the average American to travel to Cuba,” said Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the measures are a response to what it calls Cuba’s “destabilizing role” in the Western Hemisphere, including support for the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

6am – D         INTERVIEW – Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox

• Gov. Ralph Northam will convene special session of Virginia legislature to take up gun control.   RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam (D) is calling lawmakers back to Richmond for a special session of the General Assembly to take up a package of gun-control bills in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting in Virginia Beach. “We must do more than give our thoughts and prayers,” Northam said Tuesday, indicating that he will schedule the session for late June. “We must give Virginians the action they deserve.”
• Statement of House Speaker Kirk Cox on Special Session: Republicans will put forward package of legislation to toughen penalties and mandatory minimums for those who use firearms to commit crimes. Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox released the following statement Tuesday after Governor Ralph Northam announced he would call a Special Session following the tragic shooting in Virginia Beach.  “The terrible shooting that occurred in Virginia Beach just four days ago is still painfully fresh for everyone, especially the 12 families that lost loved ones. First and foremost, we continue to pray for the victims, thank the first responders, and extend our gratitude to law enforcement for their dedication to the safety of that community.  “The Governor’s call to Special Session is hasty and suspect when considered against the backdrop of the last few months. While the Governor can call a special session, he cannot specify what the General Assembly chooses to consider or how we do our work. We intend to use that time to take productive steps to address gun violence by holding criminals accountable with tougher sentences — including mandatory minimums.

6am – E         Man wins $344M Powerball jackpot after playing fortune cookie numbers. (Fox News) — A North Carolina man who says he based his Powerball entry on a fortune cookie he got from his granddaughter now has a fortune to celebrate. WRAL in Raleigh reports retired retailer Charles W. Jackson Jr. stepped forward at North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters on Tuesday to claim last weekend’s $344.6 million jackpot. Jackson chose the $223 million lump sum payment and said he would donate some of it to several charities and give $1 million to his brother to make good on a deal they made. Jackson initially thought he had won just $50,000 and was heading to Raleigh to collect, but looked again and saw he’d won a lot more. “I said, ‘Dang, I got them all,'” he said at the news conference. He also said he had to find the jackpot amount on Google because he doesn’t watch television news. Once he did, he told his wife, “You ain’t going to believe this — I got it all.” Jackson said he hopes the windfall doesn’t change him. He added, “I’m still going to wear my jeans — maybe newer ones.”

6am – F         This landfill might become the world’s longest indoor ski slope. LORTON, Va. (ABC7) — Millions of tons of trash lie at a landfill in Lorton that may be turned into the world’s longest indoor ski slope.  ABC7 was granted special access to tour the Lorton landfill, which was permanently covered in 1996. We also flew SkyTrak7 above the 350-acre site, which the company Alpine-X wants to lease from Fairfax County for the resort. Renderings show what the hotel and indoor ski slope would look like–complete with a sky-bar and terrace at the top.  The summit would be 280-feet tall, towering above the Occoquan with spectacular views of the Potomac River. The 1,700-foot slope would be the longest in the world. The resort would also have a zip-line, a gondola and bunny hills for beginners. Fairfax County resident Justin Sand says his six-year-old is learning to ski and would love to see the project come to life. “Being able to snowboard and ski year-round with an indoor ski park would be really cool because he would be able to do it year-round, not just five times during the winter time when we get out to the slopes,” Sand said. Supervisor Pat Herrity says the resort could pump $40 million directly into the county with more than 400,000 annual visitors. “What [the company] will be doing is actually paying rent for this landfill that currently sits unused,” said Supervisor Herrity. “So no taxpayer money would go into this,” asked ABC-7 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Tim Barber. “No taxpayer money would go directly into this,” replied Supervisor Herrity, who added the county would have to pay for transportation improvements around the site. The project could take up to 48-months to build if it is approved.

7am – A/B/C Former Parkland security officer Scot Peterson charged with neglect for not entering school. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a news release that Peterson’s inaction cost people their lives. (NBC News) — A former Parkland, Florida, school safety officer who failed to confront the gunman when 17 people were fatally shot at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year, was arrested Tuesday on multiple charges, including child neglect and perjury. Scot Peterson, who worked as a security officer at the campus, was charged with seven counts of neglect of a child and three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. The charges carry a maximum potential sentence of 96 and a half years in state prison, the Broward State Attorney’s Office said. Lawyers for Peterson denounced the charges as “unprecedented” and “spurious.” “The State’s actions appear to be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at politically motivated retribution against Mr. Peterson,” attorney Joseph DiRuzzo said in a statement to NBC News. “The charges against Mr. Peterson should be dismissed immediately.” Seventeen students, teachers and staff were killed in the shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, and another 17 were injured. A former student, Nikolas Cruz, is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Cruz has pleaded not guilty although his public defenders said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors want the death penalty. Peterson, 56, was the only other person at the school with a gun when the shooter opened fire. He was taken into custody in Broward County after a 15-month investigation that showed he “refused to investigate the source of the gunshots, retreated during the active shooting while victims were being shot and directed other law enforcement who arrived on scene to remain 500 feet away from the building,” the state law enforcement department said.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – STUART VARNEY – Anchor of Varney and Company on Fox Business – shared his take on the President’s visit to the UK.

7am – E         House Passes Mass Amnesty Bill Which Would Give Millions Of Illegal Immigrants A Path To Citizenship

(Daily Caller) – The House passed a vote Tuesday that would grant protection from deportation to illegal immigrants and give millions a path to permanent citizenship status. The American Dream and Promise Act passed the House with a vote of 236-187. The legislation was brought forward by California Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and will provide permanent status to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as minors, as well as to those living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, Newsweek reported.

8am – A         Baltimore anticipates 90 percent recovery from ransomware by week’s end. (StateScoop) — Baltimore officials said Tuesday that the city’s 10,000 municipal employees are gradually regaining access to their government email accounts in the wake of a ransomware attack, with as many as 90 percent getting back online by the end of the week. Sheryl Goldstein, a deputy chief of staff to Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, said during a city hall press conference that the Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology has made a “big push” in the past week to rebuild servers and issue new credentials to the city’s workforce as it continues to repair the damage caused by the RobbinHood virus, which infected city systems May 7, encrypting computers and servers unless officials paid a 13 bitcoin bounty. Goldstein also said BCIT’s workforce is split into two functions in addressing the ransomware attack. One team is focused on the forensic investigation of how the malware entered the city’s networks and how widely it spread. She said the city is working with outside cybersecurity experts and the federal government, though on Monday U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said Baltimore should “more fully” engage the Department of Homeland Security as it investigates the cyberattack. The rest of BCIT is working on the recovery, Goldstein said, including the re-authentication of city employees to access their email accounts and other restored applications. When asked by a reporter why Baltimore Chief Information Officer Frank Johnson was not at the press conference, Goldstein said “he’s working.” But despite the progress, many of Baltimore’s digital services remain offline, including the processing of real-estate transactions and billing for city-owned utilities. The city has resorted to issuing paper liens to get home sales moving again, and the city’s public works director said Wednesday that while his department cannot issue or receive water bills online, residential water meters are continuing to take readings. Baltimore officials are also sticking to an estimate that the total cost of the RobbinHood attack could top $18 million, the city’s finance director, Henry J. Raymond, said Tuesday. About $10 million of that sum will cover replacement hardware and software and additional personnel, with the remainder coming from lost or delayed revenue. But Raymond said the cash-strapped city will be able to weather the costs.

8am – B/C     Some smartphone-carrying millennials and Gen Zers are so used to texting upon arrival that the sound of a ringing doorbell freaks them out; ‘it’s terrifying’ (WSJ) —  Chanan Walia, a sophomore at University of California, Berkeley, can’t remember the last time he used a doorbell or even knocked on a door. At home, his father installed a fancy, Wi-Fi-connected doorbell. Mr. Walia, 19 years old and a computer science major, says he just isn’t comfortable ringing them.  He and his friends have become so accustomed to texting one another upon arrival, he says, that the sound of a doorbell feels like an unexpected jolt. “Doorbells are just so sudden. It’s terrifying,” says Tiffany Zhong, 20, the founder of Zebra Intelligence, which helps companies conduct custom research and gather insights on people born in the past two decades. There’s no published research about doorbell phobia, but it’s a real thing.  In a poll by a Twitter user earlier this month that got more than 11,000 votes, 54% of respondents said “doorbells are scary weird.” Some millennials and Gen Zers say they won’t even consider answering a ring at the door until they’ve checked the security camera. The doorbell freak-out reflects the ascendance of mediated communication, which means people interacting through technological devices rather than directly. It’s not so much about screen time versus face time as it is a merger of the two. Smartphones provide extra information thought by users to be vital to day-to-day interactions. Without smartphones to help, encounters can feel fraught. “Typically, doorbells are for outsiders,” says Ms. Zhong, whose LinkedIn profile describes her as a “teen whisperer.” “A text signifies it’s a friend.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – DAVE RAY – Communications Director, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

• House Passes Mass Amnesty Bill Which Would Give Millions Of Illegal Immigrants A Path To Citizenship. (Daily Caller) – The House passed a vote Tuesday that would grant protection from deportation to illegal immigrants and give millions a path to permanent citizenship status. The American Dream and Promise Act passed the House with a vote of 236-187. The legislation was brought forward by California Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and will provide permanent status to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as minors, as well as to those living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, Newsweek reported.

8am – E         STEELE / SUBPOENAS:

• Dossier author Christopher Steele willing to meet with DOJ inspector general team. (Washington Examiner) — Christopher Steele is reportedly willing to be interviewed by the Justice Department inspector general’s team that is conducting an investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses. The British ex-spy, whose unverified dossier was used to obtain surveillance against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, has agreed to meet with U.S. officials if they come to London where he lives and runs an investigative firm called Orbis Business Intelligence, a source told the Sunday Times in the United Kingdom. Steele is only willing to talk about his relationship with the FBI, for whom he was a confidential source, and wants the U.S. to get permission from the U.K. government first. The report came out as President Trump is in the country for a state visit.  As recently as April it was reported that Steele declined to meet with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s team due to concerns about being undermined. Although he is coming around, Steele still appears dead set against meeting with officials connected to Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
• The White House Isn’t Cooperating With Subpoenas From House Democrats. (Daily Caller) — The White House has directed former administration aides Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to cooperate with subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee as part of its far-reaching probe of President Donald Trump. The panel issued subpoenas to Hicks and Donaldson on May 21 for documents and testimony. Those orders asked Hicks to appear for testimony on June 19, while Donaldson is to appear on June 24. Both women were directed to submit records to the committee by Tuesday. “As part of President Trump’s continued obstruction of Congress, the White House has instructed both Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to turn over records in response to subpoenas issued by our committee last month,” Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler said in a Tuesday statement. “I note that Ms. Hicks has agreed to turn over some documents to the Committee relating to her time working for the Trump campaign, and I thank her for that show of good faith.” “The president has no lawful basis for preventing these witnesses from complying with our request. We will continue to seek reasonable accommodation on these and all our discovery requests and intend to press these issues when we obtain the testimony of both Ms. Hicks and Ms. Donaldson.” The news was relayed to the committee in a letter from White House counsel Pat Cipollone. He invited Democrats to negotiate directly with the administration over the scope of their subpoenas, according to The Washington Post.  The Hicks subpoena sought documents relating to her service in the White House as a top communications aide, as well as records from the Trump campaign. Though the administration can block release of White House documents, it cannot shield campaign records using executive privilege.