Leland Vittert’s War Notes: One-Trick Pony

NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.

Both Parties Have One Trick

This morning, the weekend looked amazing for Republicans:

Democrats would continue to focus on taking Trump Tower and other Donald Trump assets.
The unfairness of it all would only further irritate his base, bringing home disaffected Republicans.
As legendary pollster Frank Luntz told CNN, in seizing Trump’s assets, Democrats “are going to elect Donald Trump.”

That is until noon — when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., blew up a proverbial nuclear bomb on the House floor.

Just before the House voted on an absurd government funding bill, Greene put in a motion to vacate the chair — in other words, kick out House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

To be fair: Greene blowing things up isn’t anything new, and there are lots of legitimate grievances from Republicans’ perspective to be had with the government funding bill.
“The clock has started. It’s time for our conference to pick a new speaker,” she said, as quoted by Politico.
- Thought bubble: Yes, because the last motion to vacate worked out so well for Republicans.
Per an excellent MSNBC write-up from Steve Benen, Greene filed her motion without privilege, meaning it may never come up for a vote, but Greene isn’t known for backing down.
- Benen writes, “I wrote a book a few years ago about Republicans abandoning their role as a governing party. It’s good to see so many GOP officials take steps to prove the thesis true.”

Two lessons:

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE REPUBLICANS’ ABILITY TO SCREW THINGS UP.
Both parties have only one trick: For Democrats, it’s attacking Trump, and for Republicans, it’s doing something to focus attention on their dysfunction.

Watch tonight: We’ll discuss this all with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with retired General Alfred Gray, former commandant of the Marine Corps., during a reception commemorating the 35th anniversary of the attack on Beirut Barracks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. Families of U.S. Marines killed in the 1983 Beirut bombings visited the White House on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the attack. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Pool via Bloomberg

A Marine’s Marine

If you read one thing: The Washington Post obituary, written by Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe), for retired Marine Commandant Alfred (Al) Gray.

Lamothe writes about Gray’s “lack of polish,” adding, “He had enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private in 1950 and had no college degree. He spent years at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Okinawa, and Quantico, Va., and was an expert in electronic warfare, but he had limited time in the kind of Washington staff positions that mark one for advancement to the highest level. He had an abundance, even an overabundance, of field experience, including two years fighting in Korea and five years in Vietnam, where he received the Silver Star.”

Serious question: Would Al Gray make general much less become commandant in today’s military?

A different generation:

“Gen. Gray, as a two-star general overseeing 2nd Marine Division in North Carolina, was alerted shortly after midnight Oct. 23, 1983, of the attack in Lebanon, which killed 241 American service members, mostly Marines. A subsequent Pentagon investigation faulted officers on the ground and more senior commanders for various missteps. Gen. Gray, who had no direct responsibility over the mission, was one of only a few officers who offered to resign, the Chicago Tribune reported in 1987. His request was declined.”

You can’t watch the “60 Minutes” profile on him without getting chills.

At one point, they show him saying, “I have had it up to here with organizations and people who are afraid to let their people do things.”
He said there were “tough, hard decisions that have to be made now, and they cannot be made if your commandant wants to run a popularity contest.”

Among the legendary stories told to me about Gray from an admiring former Marine officer:

“When he commanded the 2nd Marine Division, there was a unit out on patrol at night, and they were lost. He of course had a helicopter. He went out in his helicopter and wrote the azimuth (compass heading) they should take on a note, stuffed the note in his helmet, and dropped his helmet on the patrol. Then he flew off.”
“Also, when you’re a patrol leader, you count the number of guys as you leave the wire and also as you return. As a general, he used to sneak into patrols so that the patrol leader was surprised by the inequality of patrol members as he was counting his guys on return.”

America’s First Progressive-Values Generation

The early results of America’s progressive-value shift reveal a generation “feral,” “illiterate” and “doomed,” so says a new article from the Los Angeles Times.

Children born from 2010 to 2024 are part of “Generation Alpha,” the demographic successor to Gen Z, raised by iPads and millennial parents.

The culture war: In the early 2000s, Bill O’Reilly warned of the culture war between traditional and progressive values.
Ground truth: The Gen Alpha results make it unclear if we lost the war or just the opening battle.
Warning bells: Mike Allen used his entire must-read “AM” newsletter to warn. “Kids are dying inside.”
The data he cites from Jonathan Haidt is terrifying on many fronts, from anxiety to suicides.

But WHY? The same progressive culture that wants to coddle every child refuses to contemplate that its values and parenting style are causing many of the problems rather than solving them.

Where are the parents? Behind every tape of a school bully (or bullies) slamming a girl’s head into the ground are parents who don’t teach or discipline their children.

Watch tonight: Former inner-city school teacher and author Robert Pondiscio will discuss saving Gen Alpha before it is too late.

Will Fentanyl Decide the Election?

A new Bloomberg poll shows swing-state Americans rank the fentanyl crisis as more important than “abortion, climate change, labor and unions or the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.”

Now, it is the No. 1 killer for Americans between 18 and 45, and it’s getting worse. The CDC reports drug overdoses kill 300 people a day. That’s a Sept. 11-like loss of life every ten days.
At least 40% of Americans report knowing someone who died of a drug overdose.

Hot take: There are no simple answers. It’s like the national debt … the real solutions require a lot of uncomfortable compromises.

“Closing the border” won’t fix it, nor will making drugs legal like in Oregon.

Bottom line: Those impacted are mostly working-class voters who nobody cares about. There is little money to be made in fixing the problem, and there are no powerful lobbying groups in D.C. working towards a solution.

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.