Fox's James Rosen, Huffington Post's Michael Calderone, Washington Times reporter Jeff Shapiro and guest host Dan Bongino.
Mornings on the Mall
Friday, February 6, 2015
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Dan Bongino
5am – A/B/C NBC stays silent, but privately stands behind news anchor Brian Williams. (Washington Post) — NBC News went into damage-control mode a day after the public symbol of the network, anchor Brian Williams, faced a torrent of derision and criticism for telling a story about his wartime reporting that has proved to be untrue. As public disapproval roared on social media, NBC sought to protect and defend Williams, its lead anchor since 2004 and the most popular anchor in the nation. Williams conceded Wednesday that he confused an incident in March 2003 as he and an NBC crew were embedded with U.S. troops at the start of the invasion of Iraq. Williams has said on several occasions that he was traveling in a U.S. military helicopter when it was damaged by rocket fire. Instead, Williams acknowledged this week, he was in a second helicopter that was not damaged and that he had “conflated” his memory of the two aircraft. He apologized on Wednesday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams.”
NBC's Tom Brokaw reportedly wants Brian Williams fired over fabricated Iraq helicopter story. (FoxNews.com) — Longtime "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw reportedly wants his successor, Brian Williams, thrown out of the big chair after he admitted fabricating key portions of a story he repeatedly told about his reporting experience during the Iraq War in 2003. The New York Post, citing sources at the network, reported that Brokaw, 74, has been "making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report." Brokaw was the anchor of NBC's flagship evening newscast when Williams filed his initial report in March 2003. In it, Williams described how he was traveling in a group of helicopters forced down in the Iraq desert. On the ground, Williams said, he learned the Chinook in front of him "had almost been blown out of the sky"; he showed a photo of the aircraft with a gash from a rocket-propelled grenade.
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams left out key facts in war story apology, report says. Army flight crews said Thursday that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, in his apology over a false Iraq War story he had told for more than a decade, left out key facts in his admission, the latest development in an embarrassing episode for the face of the news network. On Wednesday, Williams, 55, admitted that he was not aboard a helicopter that was hit and forced down during the invasion of Iraq on March 24, 2003, instead claiming that he was flying in a Chinook helicopter behind the formation that took fire. But on Thursday, Stars and Stripes, the armed forces newspaper that first broke Williams' admission, reported that Williams was flying with a different helicopter company altogether, in a different direction, and linked to the attacked unit only by radio.
5am – D Tom Cotton Wants Terror Detainees To 'Rot In Hell,' But He'll Settle For Gitmo. WASHINGTON — If new Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had his way, the detainees at Guantanamo Bay would "rot in hell" instead of being held in the prison. Delivering a remarkably passionate declaration in an Armed Services Committee hearing on the Cuban detention facility, Cotton, who is an Iraq War veteran, appeared to become enraged by the administration's argument that Gitmo should be closed because it has become a recruiting tool for terrorists. Although Defense Department and intelligence officials offered evidence of how Gitmo is used in recruitment videos by the Islamic State group and other terrorists, Cotton said the administration's desire stems purely from political considerations.
5am – E RadioShack, The Electronics Chain, Files For Bankruptcy. (NPR) — RadioShack, the electronics chain that has hung on for years despite a steep decline in its business, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday. According to the AP, the company plans to sell up to 2,400 of its stores nationwide. As The Washington Post puts it, RadioShack had tried to remake its analog business in the digital age, but it never quite became a destination store. Instead of buying TV sets there, people went for spare parts.
6am – A/B/C Obama At National Prayer Breakfast: ’People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name of Christ.’ (Breitbart) — At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well. Obama said that even though religion is a source for good around the world, there will always be people willing to “hijack religion for their own murderous ends.” “Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.” Obama also denounced Islamic State terrorists for professing to stand up for Islam when they were actually “betraying it.” “We see ISIL, a brutal vicious death cult that in the name of religion carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism,” he said criticizing them for “claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.”
6am – D Q & A with DAN BONGINO – former Secret Service agent and former congressional candidate in Maryland
- Maryland governor to push for redistricting reform. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday he will form a bipartisan commission to explore reforming Maryland's legislative redistricting process. Hogan said his goal is to give the authority of redrawing the state's legislative districts to an independent, bipartisan commission. Currently, the shaping of legislative districts every 10 years in Maryland is largely in the hands of the governor, who submits a proposed map to the Legislature, which votes on it. Critics say Maryland has some of the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the country. Gerrymandering is the process in which state officials draw congressional districts to benefit their party. "This is not a distinction that we should be proud of," Hogan said near the end of his first State of the State speech.
6am – E Alexandria Wegmans to open in June. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON — Alexandria residents, get your shopping bags ready. Wegmans plans to open its store near Fort Belvoir at 7 a.m. Sunday, June 14. The 126,000-square-foot store will anchor the Hilltop Village Center, a 350,000-square-foot retail and office complex at Telegraph Road and Beulah Street. The Fairfax County store will be the seventh Wegmans Food Markets in Virginia and the first in the state to feature a full-service restaurant called The Pub. The company continues to hire and train workers. “Though the opening is months away, we’re training our team now so that they receive some of the most in-depth culinary, customer service, and product education in the industry,” Mike Dempsey, store manager, said in a news release. The store will employ a total of 550 people, 300 of which will be part-time. Of the 550, 500 employees will be new to the company and hired locally, Wegmans says. Wegmans also plans to open Virginia stores in Chantilly, Charlottesville and in the Greater Richmond area.
Alexandria makes Amazon’s most romantic cities list. Alexandria once again makes Amazon’s annual list of Most Romantic U.S. Cities, coming in at No. 4 this year. Amazon compiles its list based on orders per capita of everything from romance novels and romantic comedy DVDs to romantic music and sexual-wellness products. Knoxville, Tennessee, reclaimed the No. 1 spot this year, followed by Miami and Orlando. Five cities fell off the top 20 this year, including San Antonio, Seattle, Spokane, San Jose and Sioux City, Iowa.
7am – A INTERVIEW – JAMES ROSEN — Fox News chief Washington correspondent – discussed Brian Williams and his ‘chopper whopper.’
7am – B MD Community College Offers College Course on the Business of Pot. Business Opportunities Related to Marijuana Legalization. Anne Arundel Community College is introducing a new course this spring to help students take advantage of business opportunities related to the legalization of marijuana. “Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Emerging Markets: Marijuana Legalization” (BPA 282) begins Monday, Feb. 2 and meets from noon to 1:25 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays on the Arnold campus. Prof. Shad Ewart, an assistant professor of business management at AACC, developed the course. “I like to compare business opportunities associated with marijuana legalization with the success of businesses that grew out of the Gold Rush,” he said. “It wasn’t the miners who panned for nuggets who got rich. It was the people who sold them the picks, the shovels, made the blue jeans, opened the banks.” Students will look at possible product and service opportunities. The course will include:
· The history of marijuana in the United States, including controversies and ethical issues.
· The economic and tax impact of marijuana legalization.
· Job creation as an outgrowth of marijuana legalization.
· The medical use of marijuana and its acceptance.
· The legalities and regulatory issues of these businesses.
· Demographics of potential customers.
· Challenges bringing these products and services to market, including getting financing.
7am – C George Takei To Make Broadway Debut In 'Allegiance' Musical About Japanese-American Internment Experience. (Huffington Post) — "Star Trek" icon and outspoken lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocate George Takei is Broadway-bound. The 77-year-old star will make his debut on the Great White Way in "Allegiance," a musical about Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II, the Associated Press reported. Featuring a score by Jay Kuo and a book by Marc Acito, Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, "Allegiance" weaves dual love stories with a Japanese-American war veteran's memories of his family's time in a Wyoming internment camp. The show will begin previews on Oct. 6 and open Nov. 8 on Broadway at a yet-to-be-announced Shubert theater.
7am – D INTERVIEW _ MICHAEL CALDERONE – Huffington Post senior media reporter
- NBC's Brian Williams Admits He Was Never On Helicopter Forced Down In Iraq. NEW YORK — "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams said Wednesday that he had not been aboard a helicopter that was struck and forced down in Iraq in 2003, as he has previously claimed. Williams recanted his original story to Star and Stripes, telling the military paper that he doesn't know "what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.” As Stars and Stripes noted, NBC has repeated Williams' initial account of the incident for years. Most recently, in a Friday "Nightly News" segment featuring Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpack, Williams described being aboard a helicopter that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and forced down at the beginning of the Iraq War. Williams said that his NBC team was then "rescued, surrounded and kept alive" by a platoon led by Terpack. The newscast showed footage of Williams accompanying Terpack to a New York Rangers hockey game, where the arena announcer repeated Williams' account of events.
7am – E White House says Obama will ask Congress to authorize military force against ISIS. (Fox News) — President Obama is expected to formally ask Congress to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State terror group in the coming days, even as lawmakers said crafting and passing such a measure would be a challenge. The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes against the terrorists, most commonly known as ISIS, in Iraq and Syria since August and September, respectively. In doing so, Obama has been relying on congressional authorizations that President George W. Bush used to justify military action after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Critics have called the White House's use of post-9/11 congressional authorizations a legal stretch, though Obama has previously argued that a new authorization isn't legally necessary. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday that the administration is dedicated to getting a new authorization with bipartisian support. He declined to comment on specific provisions, including how long the authorization will last, what geographical areas it will cover and whether it will allow for the possibility of ground troops. Earnest said those details were still being worked out. "When it comes to fighting a war, the Congress should not tie the president's hands, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday morning. However, Boehner later added, "It's also incumbent on the president to make the case to the American people on why we need to fight this fight. This is not going to be an easy lift." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said talks with the administration are focusing on an authorization time frame of three years, while the other issues are still being worked out. Pelosi added that she ultimately expects a compromise on the outstanding issues to be reached and added that she hopes Congress will repeal the 2002 congressional authorization for the war in Iraq while retaining the 2001 authorization for military action in Afghanistan.
8am – A INTERVIEW – JEFFREY SHAPIRO — Washington Times legal analyst and writer – discussed his exclusive reports on the war in Libya.
- Part 1: Exclusive: Secret tapes undermine Hillary Clinton on Libyan war. Top Pentagon officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2011 march to war in Libya that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime in an effort to halt the escalating crisis, according to secret audio recordings recovered from Tripoli. The tapes, reviewed by The Washington Times and authenticated by the participants, chronicle U.S. officials’ unfiltered conversations with Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s son and a top Libyan leader, including criticisms that Mrs. Clinton had developed tunnel vision and led the U.S. into an unnecessary war without adequately weighing the intelligence community’s concerns. Mrs. Clinton’s main argument was that Gadhafi was about to engage in a genocide against civilians in Benghazi, where the rebels held their center of power. But defense intelligence officials could not corroborate those concerns and in fact assessed that Gadhafi was unlikely to risk world outrage by inflicting mass casualties, officials told The Times. As a result, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, strongly opposed Mrs. Clinton’s recommendation to use force. If Mrs. Clinton runs for president next year, her style of leadership as it relates to foreign policy will be viewed through the one war that she personally championed as secretary of state. Among the key questions every candidate faces is how they will assess U.S. intelligence and solicit the advice of the military leadership. Numerous U.S. officials interviewed by The Times confirmed that Mrs. Clinton, and not Mr. Obama, led the charge to use NATO military force to unseat Gadhafi as Libya’s leader and that she repeatedly dismissed the warnings offered by career military and intelligence officials.
- Part 2: Hillary Clinton’s ‘WMD’ moment: U.S. intelligence saw false narrative in Libya. The intelligence community wasn’t the only one concerned that Mrs. Clinton was selling the war on exaggerated pretenses. In secretly tape-recorded conversations, an emissary sent by the Pentagon and Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich openly discussed with Gadhafi regime officials in 2011 concerns that there was a false narrative being used to sell the war, The Washington Times reported Thursday. In one pointed conversation, the officials suggested Mrs. Clinton was engaging in the same misleading tactics as the George W. Bush administration when it went to war with Iraq in 2003 claiming the country had large stocks weapons of mass destruction, a claim that proved to be inaccurate. “It was like the WMDs in Iraq. It was based on a false report,” Seif Gadhafi, the son of the Libyan leader, said in a May 2011 phone call with Mr. Kucinich. “Libyan airplanes bombing demonstrators, Libyan airplanes bombing districts in Tripoli, Libyan army killed thousands, etc., etc., and now the whole world found there is no single evidence that such things happened in Libya.”
8am – B Super Bowl news:
- Richard Sherman's father still works as a garbageman. Richard Sherman signed a $56million contract in the off-season last year. (Daily Mail) — Kevin Sherman, 51, has been driving a garbage truck in the streets of Los Angeles, and not even his son's multimillion-dollar contract could change that. The father of Seahawks corner Richard Sherman says he still wakes up at 3.45am and works holidays for the overtime because he doesn't want his son to worry about taking care of him. 'People say, "Let your son take care of you,"' the elder Sherman, who lost an eye in a go-karting accident when he was 14, told the paper. 'Yeah, but I've got a few years left until I retire. Why would I mess up my own retirement? 'I have a medical plan that will cover me. Why should my son have to pay my medical bills? It doesn't make sense to me.' SI reports that Sherman is now only 18 months from retiring after 26 years on the job driving the streets of Compton. 'It's something to keep busy, and it's easy now,' he said. 'If I take a day off, I don't need to worry about where my money is coming from.'
- Richard Sherman 'ecstatic' over baby. (ESPN) — Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was having a tough week up until Thursday morning — when his girlfriend gave birth to the couple's first child. Sherman's jersey number is 25. The baby's arrival — and Sherman's participation — had been a hot topic before Super Bowl XLIX as his girlfriend, Ashley Moss, was in Arizona for the game. Before the game, Sherman said that "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I think he will be a disciplined young man and stay in there a while longer." Peter King of MMQB.com reported that Sherman's son has been named Rayden. That may disappoint Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, who joked before the Super Bowl that he "can't wait to see little Petey." Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson offered his congratulations — and babysitting help — on Twitter.
- Katy Perry’s ‘Left Shark’ lawyers are going after businesses. (CNBC) — Within days the dancing sensation inspired cookie cutters, t-shirts, onesies, and a slew of other merchandise on craft and e-commerce websites. This included Fernando Sosa's Left Shark figurines that were being sold on Shapeways, an online 3-D printing marketplace. On Wednesday, the site was served a cease-and-desist order from Perry's lawyers and immediately deleted the Left Shark design from its catalog. The company canceled orders for the product and refunded customers. "I honestly don't know why they made a big deal of it. I sold like 10," Sosa told CNBC. "I asked if I could license them they told me they don't have any licensing right now. I wouldn't mind paying them royalties." According to Sosa, the cease-and-desist letter stipulated that Perry owns the rights to the dancing beach balls, palm trees, and sharks that appeared in her halftime performance.
8am – C Grammys Are This Sunday:
- ELO reuniting for Grammys, will perform with Ed Sheeran. ELO – aka Electric Light Orchestra – will reunite at the Grammys and play with Ed Sheeran, according to Ultimate Classic Rock website. Frontman Jeff Lynne has occasionally brought his band out of mothballs since the 1980s, when he Lynne focused on his solo career and producing other artists. The band's last record was 2001's "Zoom," featuring mostly new members. Singer-songwriter Sheeran's 'x' album is up for best pop vocal album and album of the year. He's also nominated for the best song written for visual media for "I See Fire," from 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.' In 2014, Lynne reunited ELO for a U.K. show and, while saying it was a great time, has since been ambivalent about taking the band on tour. That may change once the Grammys give the band's back catalog a bump.
- What to watch for at the Grammys. Beyonce, Kanye to perform. (CNN) —Yes, some awards are given away at the Grammys, but the most exciting part of the evening is always the performances. The 57th annual Grammy Awards looks to be all about the duets and group performances with Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett pairing up as well as Common and John Legend, Hozier and Annie Lennox, Mary J. Blige and Sam Smith, Beck and Coldplay's Chris Martin, and Tom Jones with Jessie J. There will also be trio and group performances including Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, as well as Herbie Hancock, John Mayer and Questlove with Ed Sheeran.
8am – D Obama At National Prayer Breakfast: ’People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name of Christ.’
MONDAY: Dr. Gridlock, Joe diGenova and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan
