Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Will Trump Take the Bait?

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.

State of play:

76 days to the election
20 days to the debate set for Sept. 10
31 days since Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the candidacy, and she still hasn’t had a meaningful interaction with the press
Decision Desk HQ average: Harris +3, as of around 12 p.m. ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.

Audience of One!

Generational talent: The Obamas’ speeches last night reminded us:

They are GREAT political performers
They deeply understand the American electorate
They harbor deep hatred, scorn and loathing for former President Donald Trump.

Thought bubble: At the presidential level, politics is personal. Alex Thompson and Hans Nichols of Axios are out with reporting on the battle between two giants.
Look back: Obama’s 2011 White House Correspondents’ dinner performance humiliated Trump in a way that required revenge, so he ran for president. Without Obama, there would be no Trump.
- Watch here: Obama’s timing and Trump’s glare.
Last night, one can imagine Trump watching Obama again with his joke about crowd size and then an unmistakable hand gesture.
In 16 years, we’ve come a long way from “when they go low, we go high.”

“The Obamas’ Approach to Trump: Make Him Small,” explains John Harris of Politico.

Question of the week: Will Trump take the bait?

Yes. Both Obamas’ jokes brought down the house, but former President Barack Obama especially understands that when Trump “counterpunches,” Trump loses.
- The cycle: Obama (or anybody) hits Trump, and the media roars with laughter
- Trump says something outrageous back, and the media lights their hair on fire
- For the next week, Trump’s “racist” comments dominate the news cycle
- Nobody talks about Harris’ policies for a week
- Rinse and repeat

Look back: We predicted this last night before the speech with Bill O’Reilly.

BUT! Both Obamas warned that being against Trump wasn’t enough.

“Do something,” Michelle Obama implored the crowd in a roaring call-and-response session.

Barack Obama explicitly “passed the torch” to Harris

Talks of “hope,” being “fired up” and “Yes, we can” are the same themes of 2008. Highlighting them in his speech is giving her license to use them.
- “Yes, we can” turned into “Yes, she can” last night.
  - Isn’t that a little like “I’m with her,” which was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 slogan that reminded voters Clinton thought it was about her, not them?

Watch tonight: The DNC is increasingly a reflected image of the RNC’s grievance fest.

Class war: The Obamas’ speeches in particular spoke to a near-socialist view of the world.

Tim Young highlights on X, “Michelle Obama says her parents were ‘suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.’”
- Yet, they are owners of multiple multimillion-dollar homes, including in Martha’s Vineyard

Race war: Increasingly, the Obamas describe America as a racist country. This is a long way from 2004 when he said, “There’s not a Black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

Thought bubble: Isn’t the Obamas’ success story proof of how great America is, rather than it being the racist and stratified country they describe?
Last thought: Michelle Obama decried the “affirmative action of generational wealth”
- Look that up in the dictionary and you see a picture of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who spoke a few hours before!

Supporters are seen during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 20, 2024. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

What about Us?!

Yes! Us, the voters!

Last night remained heavily focused on Trump (which fires up the base)
“Democrats just can’t quit Donald Trump,” headlines Politico.
Fact check: Nothing fires up Democrats like hating Trump
More facts: Talking about his “threat to democracy” and warnings about Trump have done nothing for swing voters — just ask Biden!
Trump — rather than inflation, crime, the border or the fentanyl crisis — continues to dominate the DNC.
- “A search of the transcript of last night’s events shows that ‘Trump’ was mentioned 55 times, the ‘border’ was mentioned 5 times, and ‘inflation’ was mentioned 2 times,” says a Trump press release.
  - They found similar statistics in Night 1’s transcript

Watch tonight: When (if ever) will Democrats pivot to the issues voters say they care about?

Be fair: Even The Washington Post Editorial Board roasted Harris for her first major policy proposal — maybe they have PTSD.

YIKES: The Biden-Harris administration just had to revise DOWN the number of jobs “created” last year by nearly one million.

Click here to watch CNBC’s reaction to the biggest revision in 15 years.
Look forward: Yes, Team Harris will have to rewrite their speeches for the week, but if this means the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates before the election, it’s a huge win for her campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, during a campaign event at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fish Stories!

Governor Tim Walz, from Minnesota (the state of ten thousand lakes), likes to tell politically convenient fish stories

Like saying he served in combat when he didn’t
Saying he and his wife conceived a child through IVF

When you run for Congress or even governor, one can get away with it.

But you can’t when you’re running for vice president.

Be fair: Team Harris only had a few weeks to vet Walz

A right-wing Twitter-ite confronted former Obama Attorney General and Harris chief vetter Eric Holder — it ended with, “F*** you.”

Bigger picture: For all the liberal policies Harris championed during her disasterful first presidential run, Walz implemented many such policies in Minnesota. The Wall Street Journal lays out a helpful list:

“From January to May 2023, Walz signed legislation to:
- mandate pricing transparency for prescription drugs
- ban so-called forever chemicals
- guarantee tuition-free college for students from lower-income families, including undocumented migrants
- allow undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses
- provide free breakfast and lunch for K-12 students in public schools
- protect broad access to abortions
- restore voting rights for felons
- strengthen background checks for gun purchases
- allocate funding for new affordable housing
- create a state-level child tax credit
- establish paid family and medical leave
- increase state capital-gains taxes on the rich
- establish protections for trans patients seeking gender-affirming care and those who deliver it
- approve funding to replace lead pipes across the state
- provide an additional $300 million for local governments to fund police and public safety
- establish a goal to move the state utilities to 100% clean energy by 2040
- legalize recreational marijuana for adults”

No doubt some of those are broadly popular populist moves and others wildly expensive.

It’s a record he hasn’t had to defend in an interview.

Watch tonight: What are the stories he tells in his introduction to America and how true are they?

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Which Freedoms?

The Democratic Party appears to be trying to rewrap DEI and intersectional politics in freedom and patriotism — it’s proving more complicated than the storyboard.

Tonight’s DNC theme is “Fight for our freedoms”: