Mornings on the Mall 04.25.17

Montgomery County YR’s Dan McHugh, Dr. Stephen Farnsworth, ‘Shattered’ author Amie Parnes, Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio and Larry Kudlow joined the show on Tuesday!

Mornings on the Mall

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   WHICH ISSUE IS MORE OF A PRIORITY TO YOU FOR CONGRESS TO TAKE ON: HEALTH CARE REFORM, TAX REFORM or FUNDING THE BORDER WALL?

5am – D/E     RESTAURANTS GETTING POLITICAL: Would you avoid a restaurant if you knew they were donating proceeds to Planned Parenthood?  How about if your bill came with a little note about “immigrants”?

• SF restaurants struggle at intersection of food, politics. (SF Chronicle) — At Jardinière restaurant in San Francisco, customer receipts currently feature a small note below the signature line, subtle enough that some diners might miss it. The fine print reads: “Immigrants make America great! They also cooked and served you dinner this evening.” The small political gesture from chef-owner Traci Des Jardins acknowledges the importance of immigrant labor in the restaurant industry. Similar messages have popped up on receipts at restaurants throughout the Bay Area, including Tawla in the Mission and Zuni Cafe in Hayes Valley. Away from the kitchen, Des Jardins sits on the board of La Cocina, a San Francisco nonprofit business incubator. She also works with a number of hunger relief organizations. But in the upscale dining room at Jardinière, as well as her five other San Francisco restaurants, the chef prefers to keep her political leanings from infiltrating her dining room. “I think the politics and food situation overall is very tricky,” she said. “There’s a big part of me that thinks politics shouldn’t come into it.” In recent months, chefs and diners alike have been forced to grapple with the intersection of food and politics, and the restaurant industry is venturing into unfamiliar territory, marked both by staunch political stances and apolitical abstention.

6am – A         TV News:

• Bill O’Reilly breaks his silence, tells listeners they will be “shaken” by new information. (DC Examiner) — Bill O’Reilly resurfaced to say that he’s “sad” that he lost his nightly show on Fox News but vowed that his loyal fans have not seen the end of him, nor has the public seen the end of the sexual harassment controversy that ultimately ended his program. Speaking on a pre-recorded podcast uploaded to his website on Monday, O’Reilly said that the “truth” of the matter will eventually come out. “I am sad that I’m not on television anymore,” he said. “I was very surprised how it all turned out. I can’t say a lot because there’s much stuff going on right now. But I can tell you that I’m very confident the truth will come out, and when it does, I don’t know if you’re going to be surprised, but I think you’re going to be shaken, as I am. There’s a lot of stuff involved here.” He reiterated that he could not currently speak more about the controversy so as to not “influence the flow of information.”
• Sean Hannity Accuser Walks Back ‘Sexual Harassment’ Claim. The Fox News host categorically denies the allegations. (Fox News) — UPDATE: April 24 ― In an interview with LawNewz.com on Monday, Debbie Schlussel said she doesn’t think that what happened with Sean Hannity amounts to sexual harassment. Still, she stands by her description of events, saying, “He tried to get me to go back to the hotel after the show after he and his executive producer Bill Shine treated me horribly.” She clarified that Hannity allegedly asked her to come to his hotel, not his hotel room. PREVIOUSLY: Sean Hannity is the latest Fox News star to be accused of sexual harassment. In an interview with the Pat Campbell Show on Friday, former Fox News guest Debbie Schlussel claimed that Hannity had invited her to his hotel room — twice — when they appeared together for one of his programs. But when she rebuffed him, Schlussel said that she was never asked back on the show. Schlussel claimed the “awkward” incident began when Hannity invited her to a store where he was signing books. While there, she said Hannity asked her: “Why don’t you come back with me to my hotel?” Schlussel said she responded: “No, I have to get ready for the show.” Schlussel said Hannity pressed her again to come to his hotel room after the show taping, which did not go well. She refused.
• Megyn Kelly set for TV return in May, report says. (Washington Examiner) — Former Fox News star anchor Megyn Kelly is set to return to TV next month, according to a new report. Kelly, who left Fox News in January, will begin appearing on NBC Sunday nights in May, and her daytime show will launch in June, the New York Post reported Monday. Since Kelly’s departure, Fox’s primetime has seen several shakeups, most notably after Bill O’Reilly’s highly rated program ended last week following a sexual harassment controversy. Tucker Carlson, the plucky conservative commentator, was tapped to replace Kelly in the 9 p.m. time slot and has seen ratings success. His show is moving to replace O’Reilly’s at 8 p.m.
• Matt Drudge sends rare tweet: “Maddow #1 in TV news. Welcome to hell.” (The Hill) – Matt Drudge sent one of his rare tweets on Monday, telling his 500,000 followers “Welcome to hell,” because of flying cars, the rise of Emmanuel Macron in France and the success of Rachel Maddow. Macron, a pro-European Union candidate who has never served in elected office, won the first round of the French presidential election this weekend, setting the stage for a runoff vote against far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen on May 7. Drudge also appears to not be a fan of a flying car backed by Alphabet CEO Larry Page, which recently launched and will be available for purchase by the end of this year. Maddow, a progressive MSNBC host, is enjoying her best ratings since 2008. The success of “The Rachel Maddow Show” comes particularly in the key 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most, where she enjoyed a four-week winning streak in March at No. 1

6am – B         NORTH KOREA NEWS:

• North Korea reportedly conducts massive live-fire drill amid tensions. (Fox News) – North Korea on Tuesday reportedly conducted a huge live-fire drill that involved up to 400 artillery pieces, which may have been supervised by the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed government source, reported that Pyongyang appeared to have deployed a number of long-range artillery units in the region of Wonsan, which is a coastal North Korean area. South Korea’s military did not confirm the report, but told the news outlet that it is “firmly maintaining readiness.” There was speculation that the North might carry out another nuclear or missile test.
• Entire U.S. Senate to go to White House for North Korea briefing. (Reuters) — Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea. All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday. While administration officials routinely travel to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress on foreign policy matters, it is unusual for the entire Senate to go to the White House, and for all four of those officials to be involved. Wednesday’s briefing was originally scheduled for a secure room at the Capitol, but President Donald Trump suggested a shift to the White House, congressional aides said.
• North Korea marks anniversary of its military with massive live-fire drill. (USA Today) – North Korea staged what is thought to be its largest live-fire drill Tuesday as it marked the 85th anniversary of the founding of its military, South Korean officials said. Leader Kim Jong Un is believed to have attended the event, near the eastern port city of Wonsan, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. Experts predicted a possible nuclear test or ballistic missile launch to celebrate the anniversary, which did not occur.
• USS Carl Vinson nears Korean Peninsula. (CBS News) — The Vinson battle group is nearing the Korean peninsula, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. It is south of the Tohara Strait, which is between Okinawa and the Japanese main islands in the Philippine Sea. Two Japanese destroyers have joined the Vinson, and when it gets closer to the Korean peninsula, it will also be joined by South Korean ships. The Vinson naval strike group is also expected to pick up a Chinese intelligence trawler, which will shadow it while it is in the area. Over the next few days, the U.S. Air Force will also be conducting exercises.
• Trump holds calls with leaders of China, Japan. President Donald Trump held separate telephone conversations Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, continuing to discuss the threat posed by the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, which has ramped up military provocations in recent weeks. The White House, which typically releases readouts of phone calls between the president and foreign leaders, had not yet done so as of early Monday morning.
• Washington D.C. To Hold Massive “Coordinated Terror Attack” Drill This Wednesday. (ZeroHedge) – April 26th is shaping up to be a busy day. As we reported on Friday, that’s when Operation Gotham Shield, an exercise involving FEMA, Homeland Security and a myriad of law enforcement and military agencies and which simulates a nuclear bomb blast over Manhattan, is set to conclude. Then, as we learned earlier, April 26 is also when the entire Senate will be briefed by Donald Trump and his four top defense and military officials on the situation in North Korea at the White House, an event which Reuters dubbed as “unusual.” April 26 is also when the USS Carl Vinson is expected to finally arrive off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. Now, in a statement from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the regional association reports that “law enforcement officials and other first responders will participate in a full-scale exercise on April 26 designed to prepare for the possibility of a complex coordinated terror attack in the National Capital Region.” The statement adds that emergency managers who work together at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) planned the exercise to help protect residents by preparing for an attack involving multiple target locations and teams of perpetrators. The exercise will be conducted across a widespread geographical area. According to the release, the regional exercise will be staged at six sites in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia, and will involve hundreds of police, fire, and emergency medical service personnel and volunteer actors.

6am – C         ‘Shattered’ Revelation: Clinton Campaign Hatched Russian Hacking Narrative 24 Hours After Hillary’s Loss. (Breitbart) — The new Clinton campaign tell-all, Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign, reveals how Hillary Clinton personally placed blame for her bruising defeat on Russian meddling “within twenty-four hours of her concession speech.” The blistering behind-the-scenes book, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, illustrates how Hillary Clinton furiously blamed her defeat on the FBI investigation into her private emails, Russian interference, and Trump’s supposed support from “white nationalists.”

6am – D         INTERVIEW – DAN MCHUGH of The Montgomery County Young Republicans

• Yesterday, the Montgomery County Board of Elections held a public meeting.  Dan was there and testified, pressing MoCo on cleaning up the voter rolls.
• The Board of Elections is insisting they are already cleaning up voter rolls but it can take up to four years (two general elections) to get a name removed. However, the board says they have removed nearly 76,000 names from the voter rolls since June 2015.
• Dan questions whether the drivers licenses given to illegals are giving illegals the ability to vote in our elections — another fraud issue.
• Shalleck: ‘Zero Tolerance’ for Voter Fraud. About a dozen residents spoke before the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Monday asking for action to prune voter rolls in the wake of a statement by a watchdog group that found the county has more registered voters than voting age adults. The organization Judicial Watch believes Montgomery County, and jurisdictions in 10 other states, are not conducting reasonable maintenance of its voter lists. “Dirty election rolls can mean dirty elections,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement earlier this month. He said his organization would sue if the states fail to take steps to remove dead, moved or “non-citizen voters” from voter rolls. Elections Board President James Shalleck told the room, “Voter fraud is totally unacceptable. We have zero, zero tolerance for any voter fraud.” The board then received a presentation on the process used to clean out the voter rolls, which includes deaths from the Social Security Administration and information from the court system when individuals say they cannot serve on juries because they are not U.S. citizens. Shalleck said the board had removed nearly 76,000 names from the voter rolls since June 2015. Following state and federal guidelines, it can take four years – two general elections – before a name can be removed from the county’s list of voters.
• Montgomery election board to review registration practices. (Washington Post) —  Montgomery election officials said Monday they will review registration procedures in response to allegations from a conservative watchdog group that the county’s rolls are packed with ineligible voters. Judicial Watch said in a letter earlier this month there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that Montgomery’s lists are filled with names of voters who have died, moved out of state or are non-citizens. It said the charge is supported by data showing more registered voters in the county than there are citizens of voting age (18 and over). The group said it would sue the state of Maryland within 90 days unless officials show they have taken action to clean up voter lists and come into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act. Montgomery is one of more than 90 counties in 11 states hit with similar allegations by Judicial Watch. Montgomery County, where Democrats have a 2-to-1 registration advantage — is the only Maryland jurisdiction that was served notice. “Voter fraud is totally unacceptable. “We take this issue very seriously.” said Board President James Shalleck, a Republican appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R). Under state law, the party that controls the governor’s office holds the majority on state and local election boards. The state board, which oversees county panels, said last week that it will also review practices in response to Judicial Watch.

6am – E         Caitlyn Jenner: Trump has ‘kind of disappointed me’ on LGBT issues. (Fox News) — Caitlyn Jenner told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that President Trump has “kind of disappointed me in the first hundred days” on LGBT issues.  The former Olympic gold medalist, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, told host Tucker Carlson that Trump initially “looked like he would be pretty good on all LGBT issues,” but she criticized the administration for revoking the Obama administration’s guidelines allowing public school students to use restrooms and other facilities that correspond to their gender identity.  Jenner also hit Attorney General Jeff Sessions for refusing to prosecute the murders of transgender women as federal hate crimes and criticized Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Army, Mark Green for anti-transgender comments.  “I need to tell Mark Green I don’t have a disease, OK?” Jenner said. “He talked about fighting the bathroom issue as ‘The Bible tells me I have to go after evil,’ you know? And I’m not an evil person.” “There’s a lot of issues out there for our community that I’m fighting for and I want the Republican Party to do a better job,” Jenner added.  Jenner said she was on the “Republican-conservative side” politically, but added “what I’m fighting for is my community, the LGBT community, and particularly the trans issues that are out there, because there are many of them.”

6am – F         Now President Trump considers banning laptops from aircraft cabins on flights from the UK. (Daily Mail) — Passengers flying to the US from British airports face being banned from taking laptops and iPads in their hand luggage. President Trump’s administration is considering extending its ban on large electronic devices being carried in aircraft cabins to flights from Europe, The Times reported. Last month both the US and British governments barred passengers from bringing large electronic devices on board incoming flights from six Middle Eastern countries. The ban, which followed concerns terrorists had perfected a new type of airline bomb, means travellers have to stow gadgets larger than a mobile phone – including laptops, tablets and kindles – in the hold. British security chiefs have now been warned that the US is planning to extend these security restrictions to incoming flights from some parts of Europe and have been put on alert that Britain could be one of those affected.The newspaper reported that the move could be implemented within weeks but that no final decision had yet been taken as to whether Britain would be included in the ban.

7am – A         INTERVIEW — DR. STEPHEN FARNSWORTH – Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA  @drsfarnsworth

• TOPIC: State of the VA governor’s race:
• Four Prince William supervisors, sheriff endorse Ed Gillespie over Corey Stewart in governor’s race
• Stewart responds: ‘It’s not about the Confederate flag’
• Virginia Early Voting: In-person absentee voting runs from Fri April 28 through Sat June 10

7am – B/C     WHICH ISSUE IS MORE OF A PRIORITY TO YOU FOR CONGRESS TO TAKE ON: HEALTH CARE REFORM, TAX REFORM or FUNDING THE BORDER WALL?

7am – D         INTERVIEW — AMIE PARNES — Senior White House Correspondent, The Hill & Co-author of new book “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign”

• ABOUT BOOK: It was never supposed to be this close. And of course she was supposed to win. How Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump is the riveting story of a sure thing gone off the rails. For every Comey revelation or hindsight acknowledgment about the electorate, no explanation of defeat can begin with anything other than the core problem of Hillary’s campaign–the candidate herself. Through deep access to insiders from the top to the bottom of the campaign, political writers Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes have reconstructed the key decisions and unseized opportunities, the well-intentioned misfires and the hidden thorns that turned a winnable contest into a devastating loss. Drawing on the authors’ deep knowledge of Hillary from their previous book, the acclaimed biography HRC, Shattered offers an object lesson in how Hillary herself made victory an uphill battle, how her difficulty articulating a vision irreparably hobbled her impact with voters, and how the campaign failed to internalize the lessons of populist fury from the hard-fought primary against Bernie Sanders. Moving blow-by-blow from the campaign’s difficult birth through the bewildering terror of election night, Shattered tells an unforgettable story with urgent lessons both political and personal, filled with revelations that will change the way readers understand just what happened to America on November 8, 2016.
• ‘Shattered’ Revelation: Clinton Campaign Hatched Russian Hacking Narrative 24 Hours After Hillary’s Loss. (Breitbart) — The new Clinton campaign tell-all, Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign, reveals how Hillary Clinton personally placed blame for her bruising defeat on Russian meddling “within twenty-four hours of her concession speech.” The blistering behind-the-scenes book, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, illustrates how Hillary Clinton furiously blamed her defeat on the FBI investigation into her private emails, Russian interference, and Trump’s supposed support from “white nationalists.”
• ‘Shattered’ authors: Bill Clinton pushed for different tone in Hillary’s campaign. (ABC News) —  The 2016 Hillary Clinton team painted itself as “a joyful campaign,” Amie Parnes said. “It actually wasn’t.” In the book, the authors describe how the campaign ignored the advice of Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, to reach out to communities that weren’t already on board with Hillary Clinton’s policies. “He thought, these eggheads don’t really know politics. They don’t understand persuasion,” Allen said, adding that Bill Clinton wanted to go to suburban and rural areas where it was likely that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t win the majority. “He knew there was some power just in showing up.” Allen said that in her 2008 presidential bid, Bill Clinton was blamed for asserting himself too much in the primary campaign’s strategy and ultimately hurting her chances at the presidency and that this time around, he tried to stay behind the scenes “because he didn’t want to be blamed for defeating his wife again.” Allen and Parnes detail in the book the night of the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton chose to wait until morning to give a concession speech — a move many found odd.
• OTHER HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT THE BOOK:
• Clinton stopped polling the last month of the election.
• Clinton believed more in spending money on people who already agreed with her over trying to persuade people to vote for her. Bill Clinton disagreed and wanted to spend his time persuading.
• The book reveals how Clinton questioned her aides what was happening in the country. She didn’t understand it.
• The authors describe several people were tasked to write a speech for her but they grew frustrated because they couldn’t figure out WHY she was even running.
• The book reveals how Hillary’s people and Bill’s people frequently disagreed with each other.
• The book shows how campaign staffer roles became reduced and only the “Super 6” really ran the campaign: John Podesta, Jennifer Palmieri, Jake Sullivan, Huma Abedin and two others.
• The book authors had previously written a book about Hillary Clinton before entitled “HRC.” The first book was a sympathetic look at Hillary and they believed her to be a smart woman.  This book “Shattered” is unsparing but not unsympathetic. The book reveals a bigger picture of her campaign operation.

7am – E         NORTH KOREA NEWS

• North Korea reportedly conducts massive live-fire drill amid tensions
• Entire U.S. Senate to go to White House for North Korea briefing
• North Korea marks anniversary of its military with massive live-fire drill.
• USS Carl Vinson nears Korean Peninsula.
• Trump holds calls with leaders of China, Japan.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — SUSAN FERRECHIO — Chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner

• NORTH KOREA: Entire U.S. Senate to go to White House for North Korea briefing. (Reuters) — Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea. All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday. While administration officials routinely travel to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress on foreign policy matters, it is unusual for the entire Senate to go to the White House, and for all four of those officials to be involved. Wednesday’s briefing was originally scheduled for a secure room at the Capitol, but President Donald Trump suggested a shift to the White House, congressional aides said.

• TAXES: GOP leaders, Trump team to talk taxes on Tuesday. (Washington Examiner/Susan Ferrechio) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will host a private meeting Tuesday with top House lawmakers and Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, to discuss tax reform and other legislative priorities. “The leader will host a meeting tomorrow with House colleagues and administration officials,” said McConnell spokesperson David Popp. “This is another regular meeting he attends to discuss legislative priorities for Congress and the administration.” Popp would not list the attendees, but Hill sources told the Washington Examiner other attendees will include House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
• Trump to propose 15 percent corporate tax rate. (Politico) — President Donald Trump is expected to propose slashing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent on Wednesday, as the White House unveils its first stab at a tax plan, according to two sources familiar with the administration’s deliberations. Cutting the corporate rate to such a low level would allow Trump to follow through on a campaign promise that has been months in the making – even if policy experts argue that getting to that rate is impossible to do without imposing a new levy like a consumption tax, or blowing a hole in the deficit. Trump has been saying since early February that the administration’s release of a tax plan was just weeks away. A tax cut to 15 percent for corporations is likely to receive a mixed reaction from Congress, which must approve any overhaul of the tax code.
• BORDER WALL: Trump willing to delay border wall push. White House official signals Trump won’t insist on funding for border wall in upcoming spending bill showdown.  (CNN) Less than a week before the federal government is scheduled to shut down absent a funding bill, the White House’s battle lines remain fuzzy. That’s because, in part, President Donald Trump’s top aides sent mixed signals over the past few days about how far he would go to secure funding for his border wall, a potential poison pill for the spending fight. Hours after Trump touted the importance of building a wall, a White House official signaled later Monday that the President won’t insist on that funding in a spending bill to keep the government running past Friday. The official said that even some funding for “border security” could satisfy the President at this point, with the expectation that wall funding would come in future spending bill negotiations. “Politics is the art of compromise,” the official said. The new flexibility comes after White House officials sounded as if they were insisting on wall funding as part of any proposal to keep the government from shutting down.
• HEALTH CARE: White House says vote on health-care plan may not come for weeks. (CNBC) – A congressional vote on a Republican healthcare plan may not come for weeks as leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate continue negotiations over possible proposals, the White House said on Monday. Any vote on healthcare legislation would be determined by Republican congressional leaders and when they have enough votes to pass a plan, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters at a daily news briefing after U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he was in no rush for a vote.

8am – B         SPORTS NEWS:

• After 141 Years, Baseball Finally Chooses an Official Hot Dog. Even vegetarians know that hot dogs are the official food of baseball. And yet, while Major League Baseball has a pizza sponsorship and a taco deal, it has never had an official hot dog. Until now. MLB announced today that Nathan’s Famous Inc., the fast-food chain that started as a Coney Island stand in 1916, will be the league’s official hot dog, putting the wiener alongside other sponsorship categories including lawn care, cloud storage and insurance. “A game doesn’t feel complete without enjoying a hot dog,” Wayne Norbitz, a Nathan’s executive board member, said in a statement.
• Washington Wizards fall to Atlanta Hawks 111-101; their playoff series is now tied at 2 games apiece.
• Rox win 4th straight, end Nationals’ streak. DENVER — Charlie Blackmon extended his hit streak to nine games and hit a go-ahead homer to cap a comeback, and the Rockies powered past the Nationals, 8-4, in the opener of a four-game series on Monday at Coors Field featuring the teams with the National League’s best records. Blackmon’s deep fly was his sixth this year, and fourth during his streak, which began on April 14. The Rockies, who have won seven of their last 10, piled on another three runs in the eighth to relieve starting pitcher Tyler Anderson from another outing that began strong but ended abruptly.  The left-hander commanded his off-speed well early, but he gave up four runs in the sixth, when the Nationals collectively hit for the cycle in the span of five at-bats, capped with a two-run homer by Ryan Zimmerman, his seventh, which tied him for the team lead with Bryce Harper, who rested on Monday. “He had us eating out of his hand earlier in the game, throwing a lot of changeups and some cutters inside to keep you honest, but basically, it was his changeup that had us fishing,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “We finally made him get some balls up in the zone after chasing him down. Those are tough balls to hit, and if you do, you’re going to top them, like we did, a couple toppers to him.”
• AARON HERNANDEZ: (NESN) – And although Hernandez was convicted of the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, he technically died an innocent man under an old legal principle known as “abatement ab initio.” The principle states that if the person has not exhausted all their appeals upon their death, then the case goes back to its original state which voids Hernandez’s conviction for the murder of Lloyd. Attorney William Kennedy, who represents the families of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, whose murders Hernandez was acquitted of last week, told WBZ-TV that the New England Patriots might be contractually obligated to pay Hernandez’s estate the $3.5 million bonus that was stopped after his arrest

8am – C         IVANKA IN GERMANY:

• Ivanka Trump arrives in Berlin to work on special relationship. Berlin (CNN) It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, after all. In the wake of a mid-March White House visit characterized by awkward moments — President Donald Trump apparently declined to shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand in the Oval Office and he made an uncomfortable joke about wiretapping on live television — his most trusted adviser, daughter Ivanka Trump, arrived in Germany Tuesday. Ivanka Trump’s Berlin trip features a jam-packed day, including panel appearances and dinner with Merkel. This is her first international trip since her father assumed office. (The President has yet to travel abroad himself.) With this trip, Trump, who was invited directly by Merkel, is indicating the importance of US-German relations, perhaps solidifying the country’s fledgling relationship with the Trump administration after a rocky start.   Following an overnight transatlantic flight, Trump kicked off a whirlwind day at the US Embassy in Berlin, where she will meet with embassy staff and their families. She then participates in a panel discussion on women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship at the W-20, a summit of G-20 countries aimed at promoting women’s workforce participation and equality. She will be one of eight participants, including Merkel, Queen Màxima of the Netherlands, and International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde.
• Ivanka Trump showered in boos at W20 after praising her dad as a ‘tremendous champion’ of families. Ivanka Trump faced a hostile reception at the W20 conference in Germany on Tuesday when she praised her father as a “tremendous champion” of families. As reported by Politico’s Annie Karni, the crowd booed and hissed the first daughter after she praised her father’s desire to help families. Vanity Fair reporter Emily Jane Fox similarly reported that “the crowd audibly rumbled, booed when Ivanka mentioned her father’s support of women.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW — LARRY KUDLOW – CNBC Senior Contributor and host of The Larry Kudlow Show on WMAL Saturdays at 7 pm and author of “JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity”

• Trump to propose 15 percent corporate tax rate.
• Trump willing to delay border wall push. White House official signals Trump won’t insist on funding for border wall in upcoming spending bill showdown.
• White House says vote on health-care plan may not come for weeks.

8am – E         CRITTER NEWS:

• Welcome Home, Sunny: Virginia Police Help Reunite Magician and Lost Cockatoo. (NBC Washington) – A local magician’s heart dropped when he realized he had lost his beloved pet cockatoo, Sunny. “It was like a bomb inside of me,” Edgar Jorge Vidaurre, aka Dr. Magic, said Monday. The magician adopted the 17-year-old white bird with a yellow crest seven years ago. He has the run of Vidaurre’s Springfield, Virginia, house and is trained to let him know when he needs to go outside to do his “bird business.” “He wakes me up in the morning. He asks to be petted. He says, ‘I love you,’” Vidaurre said. Vidaurre takes Sunny everywhere, perched on his shoulder. A few days ago, he took the cockatoo to a soccer game. Vidaurre left Sunny in a tree branch while he played — but he forgot to take the bird with him after he left. Thompson held the bird “like a football” until animal rescue officials arrived to help. Police then helped reconnect the cockatoo with his owner.
• Chelsea Clinton’s favorite things to follow on Twitter? Monkeys and elephants! (People) — When Chelsea Clinton isn’t busy taking down President Donald Trump on Twitter, she’s got her eye on something a little less political — “happy pictures” of monkeys and elephants! The former first daughter spoke about her soft spot for animals in a new interview with FastForward, a San Francisco Bay Area-based magazine run by high school students, revealing that her favorite animal-related Twitter accounts include those of the World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. “The happy pictures of elephants from the Sheldrick Trust or the happy pictures of monkeys playing from the World Wildlife Fund make me very happy,” Clinton told FastForward student editor Matt Geffen. “I find [them] so joyful.”
• Names selected for cheetah cubs at Smithsonian Va. Facility. WASHINGTON — The votes have been tallied, and five of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s 10 new cheetah cubs officially have new names. CBS News, which was helping with the online vote during Earth Day weekend, announced Saturday morning that the females’ names will be Maathai, Fossey and Murie. The two male cubs will be named Leopold and Roosevelt. (The National Zoo confirmed the new names on Twitter Monday morning.)