Mornings on the Mall 03.02.17

J. Christian Adams, Stuart Varney, Sen. Ben Cardin, and Cherry Blossom Festival’s Diana Mayhew joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Mary Walter

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C   Sarah Silverman Says She Sacrificed Motherhood for Her Career. Sarah Silverman is opening up about her decision to forgo motherhood. In a series of tweets on Monday, the 46-year-old comedian defended her choice to not have kids in order to prioritize her career. “As a comic always working & on the road I have had to decide between motherhood & living my fullest life & I chose the latter,” Silverman tweeted. “Men don’t have to do that. I’d so love to be a fun dad, coming  home from the road & being my best fun dad self.” “So this is just a lil f— all y’all bc u can’t be a woman w/out sacrifice & that’s the fact jack,” the actress added. “And I [heart emoji] my comedian brothers that acknowledge this truth. They’re my family & for a lot of us women comic sisters, our only family.”

5am – D         Sessions, Russian ambassador reportedly spoke twice during presidential campaign. (Fox News) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly had two conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during last year’s presidential campaign, while Sessions was still a senator. News of the conversations were first reported by The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. investigators had examined contacts between Sessions and Russian officials and that the Justice Department was “wringing its hands” about how to proceed in the matter.

5am – E         Revised Trump immigration order, delayed after speech, will not ban citizens from Iraq. (Washington Post) — President Trump’s new executive order on immigration will not include a blanket ban on citizens from Iraq, among a host of other revisions meant to allay legal and diplomatic concerns, people familiar with the matter said. The White House late Tuesday scrapped plans for Trump to sign a revised travel ban Wednesday afternoon, a person familiar with the matter said, marking the third time the administration has put off the matter since the president said that dangerous people might enter the country without a prohibition in place. But when it is signed, people familiar with the matter said, the order is still expected to include a host of significant changes.  The order will exempt current visa holders and legal permanent residents, and it will not impose a blanket ban on those from Iraq, where U.S. forces are working with the Iraqis to battle the Islamic State. It will not include an exception for religious minorities, which critics had pointed to as evidence it was meant to discriminate against Muslims. And it will not go into effect immediately when it is signed, people familiar with the matter said.

6am – A/B/C Md. House approves bill limiting test taking in school. ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s House of Delegates has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would limit the hours students spend filling in answer sheets with No. 2 pencils.   The House approved what supporters call the “Less Testing, More Learning” bill that would limit the time spent on testing during an academic year to 21 hours from elementary through middle school and 23 hours in high school. That includes time spent on school district, state and federally mandated exams. The bill is also designed to give a voice to parents and teachers: Each school district would have to create a committee on assessments to oversee compliance on the issue. The Maryland Senate is expected to take up the bill, and supporters — including Betty Weller, president of the Maryland State Education Association — are optimistic it will pass.

6am – D         Obama News:

• Barack Obama’s close confidante Valerie Jarrett has moved into his new DC home, which is now the nerve center for their plan to mastermind the insurgency against President Trump. (Daily Mail) — Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation’s capital – just two miles away from the White House – into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump. Obama’s goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment. And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with  the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends. Jarrett played a vital – if at times low-key – role in the Obama presidency. She lived in the White House, dined with the Obamas, and help shape his domestic and foreign policies.
• Obamas land $65M joint book deal; largest payment ever for presidential memoir. (Fox News) – It sure does pay to be the president. Former President Barack Obama has inked a $65 million deal for his memoir, a joint agreement that also will include a book written by former first lady Michelle Obama. It is the highest amount ever paid for a presidential memoir. The deal, announced Tuesday by publisher Penguin Random House, will pay for the global rights to two books to be written separately by the former president and his wife, according to the Financial Times.
• Report: Cardin received secret documents on election interference by Russia. (Baltimore Sun) — Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin received classified information about Russia’s involvement in elections when the Obama administration was attempting to disseminate that material widely across the government in order to aid in future investigations, according to a report Wednesday.  The Obama administration worked in its final days to spread intelligence it had gathered about Russian efforts to undermine the election as well as contacts that associates of then-President-elect Donald Trump had with Russian officials, according to a report in The New York Times that relies on three unnamed former U.S. officials. Obama officials were concerned, according to the report, that the Trump administration would cover up intelligence once power changed hands. Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with Russian officials, and he has blamed the Obama administration for pushing the story in an effort to undermine him. During the course of the Obama administration’s effort, the State Department sent documents marked “secret” to Cardin, the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Times reported. A Cardin spokesman said in a statement that the senator requested the documents. The spokesman declined to answer questions about whether he had shared those documents and what, specifically, they contain.

6am – E         Oprah 2020? Winfrey Hints at Presidential Run Against Trump. (NBC News) — For years she ran daytime TV — but can the “Queen of All Media” run for the highest elected office in America? Oprah Winfrey suggested that the Oval Office could be in her future in an episode of Bloomberg’s “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” that aired Wednesday.   Financier and philanthropist Rubenstein asked — given Winfrey’s popularity and the fact that a woman has yet to win the White House — would she ever consider mounting her own campaign? “I actually never thought — I never considered the question even a possibility. I just thought, oh, oh,” said Winfrey, 63, who supported Hillary Clinton in last year’s election. While the TV mogul didn’t mention Donald Trump specifically, she hinted that his roots as a businessman and reality-TV star could make her reconsider. “I thought, ‘I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough,’” Winfrey said. “Now I’m thinking, ‘Oh, oh.’”

6am – F         Trump to push Pentagon upgrade aboard US aircraft carrier. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning to meet with sailors and shipbuilders on an aircraft carrier in Virginia as he promotes his plans for a major buildup of the nation’s military. Trump is traveling Thursday to Newport News to deliver a speech aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, a $12.9 billion warship that is expected to be commissioned this year after cost overruns and delays. He also is meeting with the carrier’s builder. A draft budget plan released earlier this week by the White House would add $54 billion to the Pentagon’s projected budget, a 10 percent increase. “To keep America safe, we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war — if they must — they have to fight and they only have to win,” Trump said in his address to Congress on Tuesday night. Trump, in his 2016 campaign, repeatedly pledged to rebuild what he called the nation’s “depleted” military and told supporters at Regent University in Virginia Beach in October that the region’s naval installations would be “right at the center of the action with the building of new ships.” He often argued that the U.S. military was too small to accomplish its missions and pledged to put the Navy on track to increase its active-duty fleet to 350 ships, compared to the current Navy plan of growing from 272 ships to 308 sometime after 2020. The USS Gerald R. Ford, located at Newport News Shipbuilding, will be the first of the Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers and is expected to accommodate some 2,600 sailors.

7am – A         INTERVIEW – J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS – President, Public Interest Legal Foundation

• BIO: J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His New York Times bestselling book is Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department (Regnery).  His website is www.electionlawcenter.com. Follow him on Twitter @electionlawctr.
• McAuliffe Vetoes Bill to Investigate Virginia Voter Rolls With More Registered Than Eligible Voters. Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would require investigations of jurisdictions in the state whose voter rolls contain more registered voters than citizens who are eligible to vote. The bill, first introduced by Republican state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, was prompted by a report that shed light on eight Virginia counties that had more registered voters on their voter rolls than eligible voters. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), an Indiana-based group that litigates to protect election integrity, released the report last year that sparked Obenshain’s bill. PILF’s report found 1,046 aliens who were illegally registered to vote in a small sample of eight Virginia counties that responded to its public records requests.
• SCOTUS Hands Democrats Victory In Redistricting Battle. The Supreme Court sided with Democrats and civil rights groups in a major redistricting case on Wednesday. The opinion for the court was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito agreed with the result but dissented from certain parts of Kennedy’s opinion. The case concerned 12 state legislative districts drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature in Virginia, in connection with the redistricting process begun after the 2010 census. The legislature purposefully drew 12 districts with a Black Voting Age Population (BVAP) of 55 percent to ensure minority representation in the legislature.
• Supreme Court says Virginia redistricting must be reexamined for racial bias. (Washington Post) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday told a lower court to reexamine the redistricting efforts of Virginia’s Republican-led legislature for signs of racial bias and gerrymandered legislative districts that dilute the impact of African American voters. The justices declined to take a position on that issue. But they said a lower court had not applied the right standards when it concluded that the legislature’s work was constitutional. The decision was a win for black voters and Democrats who have challenged the General Assembly’s actions in drawing legislative as well as congressional lines. A win at the Supreme Court last term resulted in redrawing the congressional map in a way that favored the election of a second African American congressman last fall. It is unclear whether Wednesday’s technical and splintered decision would have such an impact or even whether any changes would be made in time for the fall elections. But the decision buoyed Democrats, who are making a push to field candidates in most, if not all, of the 100 seats of the House of Delegates that are up for election.

7am – B         DISNEY PUSHING GAY THEMES ON TV AND FILM:

• Disney Kids Show Subtly Airs First-Ever Same-Sex Cartoon Kiss On Channel. (Huffington Post) — The Disney Channel aired its first same-sex cartoon kiss this week during the animated adventure show “Star vs. The Forces of Evil.” The subtle yet groundbreaking moment comes when the show’s characters attend a boy band concert and a diverse array of concertgoers are shown sharing kisses ― including two men. The kiss is the latest in a long line of moves Disney has made to incorporate pro-LGBTQ messages in its programming, including featuring a lesbian couple on the show “Good Luck Charlie” in 2014. The network also showcased a same-sex couple in its animated series “Gravity Falls.”

• ‘Beauty and the Beast’ set to make Disney history with gay character (Attitude magazine) — Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast has quickly become one of the most eagerly anticipated movies in history, smashing records when its first trailer racked up more than 127 million views in just 24 hours last November. While the reimagined romantic classic, featuring Emma Watson and former Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens, might seem like the ultimate celebration of heterosexual love, it’s actually harbouring a treasure trove of gay secrets – and is set to make history with Disney’s first ever “exclusively gay moment” on film. As Emma and Dan sit down with Attitude for our brand new April issue – available to download now and in shops today (March 1) – director Bill Condon reveals the heartbreaking true story that helped shape the 1991 film, and how it inspired him to create a character who would break new ground when it comes to LGBT visibility on screen. Played by US actor Josh Gad, the character of LeFou serves as the sidekick to the film’s primary antagonist Gaston (Luke Evans), and is set to feature in a small but significant subplot of his own when it comes to his sexuality. “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” reveals Condon. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” As Attitude’s April issue arrives on newsstands and the world prepares for Beauty and the Beast to hit screens on March 17, Attitude editor-in-chief Matt Cain has welcomed the news as a landmark moment for LGBT representation. “It may have been a long time coming but this is a watershed moment for Disney,” he says. “By representing same-sex attraction in this short but explicitly gay scene, the studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural – and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay.

7am – C         SENATE CONFIRMATIONS UPDATE:

• Senate confirms Rep. Ryan Zinke as next Interior secretary. The Senate voted to confirm Wednesday Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Department of the Interior. The vote was 68-31, with all voting Republicans and 17 members of the Democratic caucus backing him. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia did not vote.

• Senate gives initial nod to Ben Carson, former presidential candidate, as housing secretary.  (AP) — The next Trump administration Cabinet nominee up for a vote in the Senate is celebrated neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Approval is expected when senators vote Thursday on President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Carson has no government or housing policy experience, and Democrats were critical early on about his credentials. Despite that, he won unanimous support in a Senate committee vote in January. On Wednesday, Carson cleared a Senate hurdle when lawmakers voted, 62-37, to move his nomination to a final vote.

7am – D         INTERVIEW — STUART VARNEY – Host of “Varney and Company” on FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

• Stuart calls what is happening with the Dow was “The Trump Rally”
• Mnuchin said on FOX BUSINESS that a tax cut will be signed by August

7am – E         BIDEN HER TIME: Biden’s Son’s Widow Finds Love With Other Son. (Daily Caller) — Remember how emotional everyone was when then-Vice President Joe Biden lost his son to brain cancer in 2015?  Beau Biden was Delaware’s former Attorney General. He also served in Iraq. Biden mentioned him any chance he got. Former President Obama gave the eulogy at his funeral. Well, things are, er, looking up as the Biden family has something new to welcome into their lives: Love between Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie, and the ex-VP’s other married son, Hunter. “Hallie and Hunter” certainly has a comfortable ring to it, but it also has a cringeworthy Flowers in the Attic aura. According to NYP‘s Page Six, which broke the news, the Bidens — Joe and Jill — have “given their blessing to the relationship.” In a statement that could make your skin crawl, Biden spoke on behalf of him and his wife, saying, “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them.” The story also quotes Hunter saying that he and Hallie are “lucky to have found love.” The report says Hunter is now separated and estranged from his wife, Kathleen.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — SENATOR BEN CARDIN – (D-Maryland) and top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

• TOPICS: Senate priorities, his Ben Carson vote, Sessions/Russia, report on Cardin getting secret docs

• Senate Post-Trump Speech: Are There Any Issues The Democrats Will Work Together With The Republicans On?
• Sen. Cardin to oppose Ben Carson for HUD. (Baltimore Sun) — Sen. Ben Cardin said Wednesday he will oppose retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson’ nomination to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “I just don’t believe he has the background in housing that I would like to see,” the Maryland Democrat said. “I don’t think it’s the right position for him.” Cardin described Carson, a former Baltimore County resident, as a “fine person” and a renowned surgeon, but questioned his knowledge of housing issues. Cardin said he did not feel Carson’s confirmation needed further delay.
• Sessions, Russian ambassador reportedly spoke twice during presidential campaign. (Fox News) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly had two conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during last year’s presidential campaign, while Sessions was still a senator. News of the conversations were first reported by The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. investigators had examined contacts between Sessions and Russian officials and that the Justice Department was “wringing its hands” about how to proceed in the matter.
• Report: Cardin received secret documents on election interference by Russia. (Baltimore Sun) — Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin received classified information about Russia’s involvement in elections when the Obama administration was attempting to disseminate that material widely across the government in order to aid in future investigations, according to a report Wednesday.  The Obama administration worked in its final days to spread intelligence it had gathered about Russian efforts to undermine the election as well as contacts that associates of then-President-elect Donald Trump had with Russian officials, according to a report in The New York Times that relies on three unnamed former U.S. officials. Obama officials were concerned, according to the report, that the Trump administration would cover up intelligence once power changed hands. Trump has denied that his campaign had any contact with Russian officials, and he has blamed the Obama administration for pushing the story in an effort to undermine him. During the course of the Obama administration’s effort, the State Department sent documents marked “secret” to Cardin, the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Times reported. A Cardin spokesman said in a statement that the senator requested the documents. The spokesman declined to answer questions about whether he had shared those documents and what, specifically, they contain.
• Daily Caller: The State Department, then led by John Kerry, also took part in the intelligence-sharing campaign. The agency sent a batch of documents classified as “Secret” to Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, just before the election.

8am – B/C     INTERVIEW — DIANA MAYHEW — President, National Cherry Blossom Festival

• Cherry blossoms lining Washington D.C.’s tidal basin to reach peak bloom historically early, between March 14 – 17.
• Cherry blossom peak bloom this year could be the earliest on record
• PREVIEW: Plans for the 2017 festival

8am – D         Kaley Cuoco and Big Bang Theory co-stars ‘offer to take $100,000 per episode pay cuts so actresses Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch can get raises’ (Daily Mail) — CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory could get renewed for two more seasons if Warner Bros. TV can reach an agreement with the cast over salaries for seasons 11 and 12. While the original five stars earn $1 million an episode, actresses Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch who joined the show in season three, only get paid $200,000 per episode. Now, according to Variety, the original five are offering to take a small pay cut of $100,000 per episode each so that the money will be there to give Bialik and Rauch $450,000 each per episode. Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg have all agreed to the plan, the trade reported Tuesday, on the condition the savings are distributed between their two lesser paid co-stars.

8am – E         Kellyanne News:

• White House Lawyer Found No ‘Nefarious Motive’ in Conway’s Ivanka Trump Promotion. (LawNewz) – Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, caught a lot of flack — as well as ethics complaints — after an appearance on Fox News during which she promoted Ivanka Trump‘s brand of products. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer later said that Conway was counseled after the Fox appearance, and a White House attorney has now confirmed that this indeed happened. Stefan Passantino, Deputy Counsel to the President for Compliance and Ethics, wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), addressing OGE’s recommendation to investigate Conway’s statements. It is a violation of ethics rules for a federal employee to endorse a product. After Ivanka Trump items had been pulled from stores like Nordstrom, Conway, in a show of support, gave Ivanka a “free commercial,” telling viewers to “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”

• Kellyanne Conway ‘inadvertently’ plugged Ivanka products: White House. (Reuters) – The White House told a government watchdog agency that Kellyanne Conway, a senior aide to President Donald Trump, acted “inadvertently” when she publicly endorsed the clothing and jewelry line of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, according to a letter the administration released on Wednesday. Conway came under criticism last month when she said on television that Americans should “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” in comments that appeared to violate government ethics rules prohibiting the use of public office to endorse products or advance personal business gains. In a letter to a government ethics watchdog agency, White House Deputy Counsel Stefan Passantino said he met with Conway after her comments and that she committed to follow the rules in the future. The Office of Government Ethics has said the White House should consider taking disciplinary action against Conway. But there was no mention in Passantino’s letter of any disciplinary action. “We concluded that Ms. Conway acted inadvertently and is highly unlikely to do so again,” Passantino said in the letter to Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub.
• Dem Rep. Says Kellyanne Conway Looks ‘Familiar’ With Being On Her Knees. (Daily Caller) — Louisiana Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond made a joke Wednesday about Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway looking “familiar” with being on her knees. The comment was in reference to a now infamous photo of Conway kneeling on an Oval Office couch in order to take a photo of President Trump with presidents of historically black colleges. The black Democrat said the joke during the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner. “You even mentioned Kellyanne and that picture on that sofa,” Rep. Richmond said during his speech to Republican Sen. Tim Scott who has at the event. “I really want to know what was going on there because she really looked kind of familiar in that position there, but don’t answer.” Richmond’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.