Mornings on the Mall 02.14.19

🎙️ @carrielukas @IWF and @thedcvince are talking all the morning headline news. Tune to @WMALDC through 9aE. Listen live online > https://t.co/QdgzbP6iCo pic.twitter.com/FCptHelFc3

— Independent Women (@IWF) February 14, 2019

Andie Zuniga, Daily Caller’s Henry Rodgers, Sen. Joni Ernst, former Obama Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, and guest host Carrie Lukas joined WMAL on Thursday!

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Hosts: Vince Coglianese and Carrie Lukas

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

5am – A/B/C Q &A with CARRIE LUKAS

Carrie L. Lukas is the president of Independent Women’s Forum. Lukas is the co-author of Liberty Is No War on Women, and the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism, which was published by Regnery Publishing. She is also a contributor to National Review, Forbes.com, and Acculturated; and the vice president for policy and economics at Independent Women’s Voice. Before joining IWF in 2003, she worked on Capitol Hill as the senior domestic policy analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee and at the Cato Institute. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She lives with her husband and five children in Virginia.

5am – D President Trump installed his own $50,000 golf simulator in the White House. (Golf Digest) – President Trump gets his share of golf in, making over 150 trips to his courses since taking office in 2017. But those visits are mostly confined to the weekends, and the Washington, D.C. weather is not conducive to working on one’s game in the winter. So Trump did what any hacker with means would do: he installed his own simulator in the White House. According to the Washington Post, Trump recently put in a $50,000 Trackman golf simulator in his personal quarters. A White House official told the Post Trump paid for the simulator out of his own pocket. The Post’s story coincides with an Axios report around Trump’s “Executive Time,” which accounts for 60 percent of his scheduled hours. Axios said that Trump usually did not leave his residence for the Oval Office until about 11 a.m. Now, before you go connecting the dots, a White House official said Trump has not used the simulator since it was installed. Which, hey, we get running the world is a time-consuming job, but you’re going to install a freakin’ simulator and not use it? Talk about government waste, amirite? Following the report, Trump tweeted, “When the term Executive Time is used, I am generally working, not relaxing.” Which is what every golfer has told their significant others after spending hours grinding away on the driving range. Virtual or otherwise.

5am – E TRUMP VS COONS

POLITICO: ‘He was in his face’: Trump fumes over abortion, courts evangelicals. The night before last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump was hosting religious leaders and lawmakers for dinner at the White House when he spotted Democratic Senator Chris Coons — and pounced. Trump confronted the Delaware lawmaker — who attended the event as the Prayer Breakfast’s official Democratic co-chair — over the issue of abortion, creating a tense scene in the White House’s Blue Room, according to three sources familiar with the exchange. Trump leaned in close to Coons, who calls himself “a practicing Christian and a devout Presbyterian,” and laced into the Democratic senator over controversial moves to change statewide policies on abortion that have roiled New York and Virginia politics in recent weeks. “He was in his face about it,” said one person familiar with the exchange. The person described Trump as extremely “worked up.” “He saw a Democrat in the room, a Democrat who’s known to be a person of faith, and he was like, ‘Why aren’t you speaking out about this?’” the source added. Another source who was in the room confirmed the account, describing the moment as both “awkward” and attention-grabbing. Rarely has Trump been so vocal about abortion when the masses aren’t watching, this person said. (A Coons spokesman declined to comment.) The private episode underscored Trump’s recent public focus on abortion, which has delighted his evangelical Christian supporters. During his State of the Union address last Tuesday, Trump used vivid imagery to claim that New York’s new abortion law would “allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.” And he accused Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who’s backed similar legislation in his state, of wanting to allow medical providers to “execute” babies after birth.
SEN. LANKFORD DENIES POLITICO STORY ABOUT TRUMP CONFRONTING SEN. COONS: Sen. James Lankford @SenatorLankford Replying to @GabbyOrr: I was in that dinner-POTUS did not “lace into Coons” he was not “in his face” and POTUS was not “worked up.” There was a conversation about abortion but POTUS simply asked a question to understand Sen Coons perspective- @ChrisCoons shared his thoughts and so @realDonaldTrump 7:55 PM – Feb 13, 2019
SCOOP: Trump confronted Sen. Coons over abortion at a White House dinner last week. Sources in the room described the moment as “awkward,” saying Trump got in Coons face & yelled for 10 mins
Also confronted Andrew Cuomo earlier this week…

6am – A/B/C Have four or more babies in Hungary and you’ll pay no income tax for life, prime minister says. Hungary wants to promote family support schemes. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has unveiled measures to boost the birth rate. The nationalist government is anti-immigration and has fallen out with the EU over migrant quotas. (CNBC) — Hungary’s prime minister has announced a raft of measures aimed at boosting the country’s declining birth rate and reducing immigration. Giving his annual State of the Nation address Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a seven-point “Family Protection Action Plan” designed to promote marriage and families. Measures announced included waivers on personal income tax for women raising at least four children for the rest of their lives and subsidies for large families to buy larger cars. The ‘action plan’ also extended a loan program to help families with at least two children to buy homes. Every woman under 40 will also be eligible for a preferential loan when she first gets married. The government has also said it will spend more on Hungary’s heathcare system and will create 21,000 creche places. In addition, grandparents will be eligible to receive a childcare fee if they look after young children instead of the parents, Orban said. “There are fewer and fewer children born in Europe. For the West, the answer (to that challenge) is immigration. For every missing child there should be one coming in and then the numbers will be fine,” Orban said, Reuters reported. “But we do not need numbers. We need Hungarian children,” he said, announcing the incentives program. Referring to the action plan, Orban said “this is Hungary’s answer (to challenges) rather than immigration,” he said, according to English-speaking news service Daily News Hungary. Orban is a well-known critic of immigration and Hungary’s government caused controversy in the European Union, of which Hungary is a member, when it (along with its eastern European neighbors) refused to allow asylum seekers to enter the country during the migration crisis in the continent in 2015.

6am – D “Empire” star Jussie Smollett says he’s “pissed” people don’t believe his account of attack (Variety) — In his first interview since he was attacked on Jan. 29, Jussie Smollett sat with ABC News’ Robin Roberts to share his feelings about the incident and address the rumors that he might not be telling the truth about the attack, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime. The full segment will air Thursday morning on “Good Morning America.” “I’m pissed off,” the actor told Roberts. “It’s like, you know, at first, it was a thing of, like, ‘Listen, if I tell the truth then that’s it,’ ’cause it’s the truth. Then it became a thing of like, ‘Oh, how can you doubt that? Like, how do you — how do you not believe that? It’s the truth,’” he said. “And then it became a thing of like, ‘Oh, it’s not necessarily that you don’t believe that this is the truth, you don’t even want to see the truth.” Smollett, 36, plays a gay man on the Fox series “Empire,” and came out as gay himself in 2015. The police report details that the attackers approached him at 2 a.m., made homophobic slurs against him and hit him in the face with their hands. The attackers have yet to be identified. According to the report, “The primary aggressor was wearing a black mask concealing any facial features and both offenders were dressed in black. The victim does not remember any other distinguishing features of the offenders, or in which direction they fled.”

6am – E GREEN NEW DEAL ISN’T GOING WELL IN DC: Next to Rock Creek Park, neighborhood resistance to District’s rain gardens on city streets. In a verdant Northwest neighborhood named after its woods, residents are vowing to resist the city’s efforts to add more greenage with over two dozen rain gardens on local streets. As part of the District’s plan to clean waterways of pollution, engineers are installing “green infrastructure” able to capture stormwater throughout the city. The objective is simple: Collect rainwater at the source before it sloshes down asphalt roads, gathering toxins and eventually depositing the polluted mix into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. One environmental trouble spot is in Barnaby Woods, a northern section of DC’s Chevy Chase neighborhood adjacent to Rock Creek Park. Rainwater there flows down the neighborhood’s steep ridges and deposits into the creek, bringing along contaminants. For more than two years, the DC Department of Transportation has worked on a project to build 29 gardens in this area to collect stormwater before it has a chance to pollute the creek. But opposition is strong in the neighborhood, where many residents believe these curb-out gardens would be too densely packed and create various traffic, parking and quality-of-life problems. Nineteen blocks would receive at least one garden, with some intersections getting three or four nearby. “In a residential neighborhood, in fact adjacent to woods, where we have wildlife and plenty of yard and bushes and trees, this is not welcomed,” said Carolyn Cook, a resident and former advisory neighborhood commissioner. “In fact, it doesn’t beautify our neighborhood at all.”

6am – F 1,159-page bipartisan border compromise completed, Dems worry Trump blow up (Fox News) — Congressional bargainers late Wednesday completed a 1,159-page border security compromise that gives President Trump less than a quarter of the $5.7 billion he wanted to build a wall with Mexico. Democrats say they are confident about having the votes to pass the bill — but not everyone is at ease. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said there is still “worry” that Trump could try to blow up the deal at the last minute because “we have seen that before.” With Trump’s halfhearted signature widely expected but hardly guaranteed, congressional leaders planned votes Thursday on the sweeping package. Summaries of the legislation say that besides nearly $1.4 billion to build new barriers, there’s over $1 billion for other border security programs. That includes money for inspection equipment for border ports of entry. There is more than $400 million in humanitarian aid for detained migrants plus funds to buy aircraft and to hire 600 more customs officers and additional immigration judges. Democrats say they are confident about having the votes to pass the bill — but not everyone is at ease. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said there is still “worry” that Trump could try to blow up the deal at the last minute because “we have seen that before.” Congressional negotiators announced Monday that they’d reached “an agreement in principle” on border security funding that includes more than $1.3 billion for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House initially requested $5.7 billion for the border wall.

7am – A INTERVIEW — ANDIE ZUNIGA – Legislative Director & Counsel for “Paid Leave for the United States” (PL+US) — Discussed how paid family leave is gaining momentum with both Democrats and Republican lawmakers, and what both sides are proposing for family leave.

BIO: Andie Zuniga, Legislative Director & Counsel served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Federal Affairs for Mayor Bill de Blasio and assisted with the development and implementation of his personnel order that provided New York City employees six weeks of fully paid parental leave that can be combined with existing accrued leave for a total of twelve weeks. Experienced with moving legislation on the federal, state, and local level, Andie has coordinated multi-organization coalitions on immigration, infrastructure and workers rights. As a Legislative Representative, she played a key role in the historic AFL-CIO and US Chamber of Commerce agreement on the future flow of guest workers that passed the Senate as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
FAMILY Act: Gillibrand renews push for national paid leave program
YESTERDAY: Senator Bill Cassidy will host Ivanka Trump and Senators Marco Rubio, Joni Ernst, Todd Young and Mike Lee to “plot the path forward on enacting paid family leave legislation” according to a Senate Republican aide. The meeting will be closed to press
Ivanka to make a new appeal for a federal paid family leave program on Capitol Hill – jump-starting a legislative push at a meeting with GOP senators.

7am – B Esquire Ripped for ‘American Boy’ Profile. The cover story profiles a high school senior from Wisconsin and his experiences growing up “in the era of social media, school shooting, toxic masculinity, #MeToo, and a divided country.” Many on social media mocked the piece and magazine, lambasting the fact that it was published during Black History Month.

7am – C Northam postpones Black History Month reception amid fallout. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration has postponed a reception to celebrate Black History Month as the governor continues to deal with the fallout from a racist yearbook photo. Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said the reception has been moved from Wednesday to later this month. She said the administration is thinking through better ways to honor Black History Month. Black leaders said Monday that they would stage a large protest outside the reception. Northam has ignored calls to resign. A photo of a man in blackface standing next to someone in Ku Klux Klan robes surfaced in his 1984 medical school yearbook. He denies he’s in the photo, but admitted to wearing blackface in 1984. Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby says it would be “poor timing” to have the reception now.

7am – D/E INTERVIEW – HENRY RODGERS – Daily Caller News Foundation’s Capitol Hill reporter

Menendez threatens to call police on reporter asking about Green New Deal: report. (Fox News) – U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., had a fiery exchange with a reporter on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when asked to comment on the Green New Deal. Henry Rodgers, the Daily Caller’s Capitol Hill reporter, approached the senator at a subway station and asked him if he supported Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s legislative proposal. Menendez avoided the question and asked where Rodgers worked. Rodgers said that when he told Menendez he worked for the Daily Caller, the Democrat responded by saying he would not answer any questions. An intern who was with Rodgers asked a follow-up question, and tensions apparently rose. The reporter followed the tweet with an audio clip from their back-and-forth. “I am wondering why you won’t answer questions on the Green New Deal?” Rodgers asked. “I won’t answer questions to the Daily Caller, period! You’re trash,” Menendez responded. “Why do you think we’re trash, sir?” the reporter followed. “Don’t keep harassing me anymore or I’ll race to the Capitol Police,” the New Jersey Democrat threatened. Rodgers told Fox News he had no prior interaction with Menendez and was working on a story that was to include the responses of Senate Democrats regarding the Green New Deal.
Ocasio-Cortez Living in Luxury Navy Yard Apartment Building. (Washington Free Beacon) — After fretting about whether she’d be able to afford rent, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has moved into a luxury apartment building in the District of Columbia’s Navy Yard neighborhood, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, got a big raise with her election to Congress, a job that comes with a $174,000 annual salary. She told the New York Times she was concerned about how she would get an apartment before that salary kicked in. She ended up moving into a luxury apartment building with a wide array of amenities where rent for even a studio apartment exceeds $2,000 a month. The Washington Free Beacon is not disclosing the exact building Ocasio-Cortez lives in due to safety concerns expressed by her office.

8am – A INTERVIEW — SENATOR JONI ERNST – junior United States Senator for Iowa since 2015 – discussed her meeting with Ivanka Trump yesterday and her efforts to push for paid family leave.

Ernst and GOP paid leave backers claim pro-woman, pro-family mantle with bill rollout. (Washington Examiner) — Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, says she is ready to speak out more on issues of particular relevance to women, starting with the lack of paid parental leave in the U.S. Ernst, who is now the fourth-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, is working alongside a group of male GOP counterparts to write conservative legislation that would let new parents take paid time off from work after the birth or an adoption of a child. “We have shared the same concerns about issues for years and years and years, we just maybe aren’t as vocal about those issues,” Ernst said of Republicans, speaking in the first interview in her new office. “Most of the conservative women I work with, they’re very modest. They don’t want to be out at the forefront. Some of those issues are very hard to talk about. I think now is the time. If we need to speak up, we need to speak up. We’ll find our way forward with our new voice.” Democrats long have claimed paid family leave as their cause, but that has been changing — with the blessing of the Trump White House. Part of the reason for the shift is that Republicans believe they’ve found a conservative approach to paid family leave by letting new parents draw from Social Security early in exchange for delaying retirement. It’s still a new development. Ernst described the effort as being in its “infancy stages” and said she didn’t yet have specific commitments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. She stressed, however, that Republicans were gaining traction with the idea by presenting it as a boon to small businesses and to families who need time to bond with their infants.
FAMILY Act: Gillibrand renews push for national paid leave program
YESTERDAY: Senator Bill Cassidy will host Ivanka Trump and Senators Marco Rubio, Joni Ernst, Todd Young and Mike Lee to “plot the path forward on enacting paid family leave legislation” according to a Senate Republican aide. The meeting will be closed to press
Ivanka to make a new appeal for a federal paid family leave program on Capitol Hill – jump-starting a legislative push at a meeting with GOP senators. Ivanka Trump is making a new appeal for a federal paid family leave program. The senior adviser to the president, who is also his daughter, will sit down with GOP lawmakers on Wednesday morning to discuss a legislative push Trump is meeting with Sens. Bill Cassidy, Marco Rubio , Joni Ernst, Todd Young and Mike Lee on Capitol Hill. President Trump has raised the issue each year in his speeches to Congress. The GOP has been unable to drum up support for a bipartisan plan. Democrats put out a proposal on Tuesday to create a new entitlement. hey would create a new tax to pay for a national family leave program that would be open to adults caring for sick relative, as well as new parents

8am – B Valentine’s Day gifts: How much men really plan to spend. (Fox Business) — It’s been dubbed one of the most romantic days of the year, but depending on what stage your romantic relationship is at, Valentine’s Day Opens a New Window. could end up being a real doozy — especially if you’re married. According to a new study by Lendingtree.com, while most men polled on average said they plan to spend $95 on the holiday, that price point dropped to $57 for married couples. However, that average gained a big boost when polling engaged couples — they plan to spend an average of $92 with a slight decrease for couples who are dating, at $88. The biggest overall spending gap was seen between the genders. Men said they expect to spend an average of $95, while women said they plan to dish out less than half that amount, averaging $41. LendingTree also found that “overspending” for Valentine’s Day to be much riskier than underspending. Only 4 percent of all respondents polled — both men and women — said they would be disappointed if their partners spent less than they expected, while one in four said they would be irritated if their partner spends too much. More than one in three don’t expect their partners to spend a single cent this year on the holiday, while more than one in three admitted they really didn’t have any plans to either. Generation Z plans to spend the most this year — $113 — while millennials are averaging $49. A third of baby boomers polled said they would be upset if their partners spent a lot of money on them.

8am – C ‘50 Shades of Maple Glen.’ Neighbors hot, bothered over sale of home with ‘sex oasis’ (Kansas City) — It is apparently safe to assume that the neighbors who live near the stately brick Colonial at 1612 Norristown Road in suburban Philadelphia were never invited over for dinner. Or if they were, they didn’t go down to the basement. Because they are in a lather now over how real state agent Melissa Leonard is selling the home, which from the outside looks a lot like Macaulay Culkin’s “Home Alone” house. Leonard has nicknamed it “50 Shades of Maple Glen” because of the “sex oasis” in the basement – and as a wink to the “50 Shades of Grey” book/movie series depicting the sweaty, erotic underbelly of physical attraction. The whips and chains come with the house. “It’s a beautiful house in a great neighborhood, a great school district,” Leonard said, according to Slate magazine. The home’s listing on the Coldwell Banker website refers to it as a “one of a kind suburban home.” The asking price: $750,000. “Private quiet lane of 3 homes leads you to a secluded 4 bedrooms upstairs plus 1 bedroom in basement 2.5 bath colonial home located just 15 miles outside Philadelphia in the suburb of Maple Glen,” the listing reads. The house has three fireplaces, hardwood floors, a newly updated gourmet kitchen and a big deck, according to the listing. “In addition to the home gym, the basement has been outfitted so that you and your (partner/spouse/guest/friend) can enjoy a fun and exciting evening of BDSM play,” writes Philadelphia magazine. “You’ll find all the furniture and equipment you need to tie up your intended and have your way: stocks in the four-poster bed, a rack, whips, chains, the whole nine yards.” “The owner currently rents it out on Airbnb for $750 a night during the week and $2000 a night on weekends,” Leonard said, Philadelphia magazine reported. “He just started this and has made $5,000 in his first month. He’s getting constant bookings, and he even was hired to film a rap video there.” KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia reported that some real estate websites removed photos of the sexy basement when they listed the house, “which bothered Leonard.” “I am very comfortable with it, talking about it, showing it,” she said, according to the Philadelphia radio station. “It’s portraying the realness of the house. I don’t want to lie and say it’s not there, that’s why I left (the listing) the way it was.” Since the listing went public – and quickly viral – Leonard has been tied up by reporters, lookie-loos and steamed neighbors.

8am – D INTERVIEW — MARK MORGAN – who served as chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Obama administration – discussed the latest on border negotiations.

1,159-page bipartisan border compromise completed, Dems worry Trump blow up. Congressional bargainers late Wednesday completed a 1,159-page border security compromise that gives President Trump less than a quarter of the $5.7 billion he wanted to build a wall with Mexico. Democrats say they are confident about having the votes to pass the bill — but not everyone is at ease. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said there is still “worry” that Trump could try to blow up the deal at the last minute because “we have seen that before.” With Trump’s halfhearted signature widely expected but hardly guaranteed, congressional leaders planned votes Thursday on the sweeping package. Summaries of the legislation say that besides nearly $1.4 billion to build new barriers, there’s over $1 billion for other border security programs. That includes money for inspection equipment for border ports of entry. There is more than $400 million in humanitarian aid for detained migrants plus funds to buy aircraft and to hire 600 more customs officers and additional immigration judges.

8am – E Marco Rubio Discovers ‘Pure Native American’ Relative on PBS. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) was featured on the PBS show Finding Your Roots and was told he has a distant relative who was a “pure Native American,” giving him at least twice as much Native American ancestry as his Democratic Massachusetts Senate colleague Elizabeth Warren. Rubio was shocked to learn from host Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, that his great-great-great-grandmother was a Native American. “When we analyzed his mitochondrial DNA, a genetic fingerprint passed down unchanged from mother to child for thousands of years, we found that his direct maternal line was Native American,” Gates told Rubio. The ancestral line accounts for 4.2 percent of Rubio’s genetic makeup, Gates revealed on the show. “Thank you for including me, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “My Native American heritage was an amazing discovery.” The results were in sharp contrast with Warren, who had long presented herself during her professional career as a Native American and attempted to take a DNA test to prove her claims last year. Though the results were initially presented as proof of her claims, a closer look revealed the results were largely inconclusive. The genealogist was able to say only that there was “strong evidence” that Warren may have Native American in her family tree “dating back 6 to 10 generations,” meaning she was between .097 and 1.56 percent Native American.