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.  

Somehow we’ve gotten used to crazy things happening…let’s just review the past two weeks: 

• There was an assassination attempt on a former president
• At the RNC, the Republican nominee picked a firebrand and woefully inexperienced 39-year-old senator as his VP  
• The head of the Secret Service resigned during the organizations’ busiest time for protecting leaders and candidates
• The president disappeared for six days with COVID-19
• Far left, pro-terrorist, anti-Israel protests march through Washington saying they will kill the Jews and burn American flags 
• The sitting president dropped out of the race for the first time since 1968 
• Democrats turned their backs on leader of Israel when he addresses Congress 
• Chinese and Russian aircraft teamed up for the first time flying nuclear capable aircraft near Alaska. Click here to see NORAD’s pictures. Click here to see the Russian view 

This isn’t about how fast the news cycle moves; These are all massive events happening in rapid succession — there is a BIG difference. 

It’s still very unclear how this will play in the presidential race — it undoubtedly helped Trump when it was Trump vs. Biden. Can Harris distance herself from the feeling of disorder caused by Biden’s policies and the fear from his appearance last night? 

Who Defines Kamala Harris?

The next two weeks will likely decide the presidential race — long before the debates, the DNC, and even the announcement of Kamala Harris’ VP pick.  

Much like any political issue who defines the field of battle will win…

Is Kamala Harris a:

• Transformational progressive leader who will finish the job of Joe Biden
• Woman of color who will finally crash through the glass ceiling after representing America on the world stage
• Pro-labor, pro-reproductive rights crusader who can finally deliver the last parts of the Great Society (universal healthcare, childcare and college and a green utopia) all while making the rich pay their fair share and break the back of a patriarchy that still controls America through racism and sexism. 
• Candidate able to speak truth to the far left while convincing traditional America she isn’t a threat. 

Or is she a…

• Vice president, who like all VPs were chosen for political reasons, not because they were the second best person in the country to run the country?  
• Candidate whose far liberal policies (as described by herself in this video) put her out of touch with most of America, especially working class America. 
• Former senator who came up in a one party state and then failed spectacularly in the big leagues on her three biggest portfolios – the border, Ukraine and voting rights. 
• Poor candidate who is fantastic at rallying the base but can’t get through even relatively friendly interviews without a major gaffe – such as Lester Holt 
• Candidate whose far left values are exposed as way too out of touch for traditional America to even give her a chance 

Look forward: Tell me which Kamala Harris emerges two weeks from now and I’ll tell you who wins the election.  

From Chris Cillizza’s Substack quoting a conversation with his buddy Damon Linker about “Why you’d still rather be Donald Trump” in the election: “Biden had been running even to slightly behind Trump for months when the debate knocked the president onto a downward trajectory. It makes sense that an alternative candidate who is unburdened by what has been (to coin a phrase) would return the race roughly to the status quo ante June 27. Then the question becomes whether the race will stabilize in that place or Harris will end up a few points above or below where Biden was through the spring and first week of summer.”

Watch tonight: Cillizza is back from summer baseball in Cooperstown for the show. He will join Jasmine Wright to discuss the battle to define/redefine Harris for a general election audience.  

Look back: On Sunday she became the nominee…today is day five. 

• Harris hasn’t spoken to America or swing voters
• She hasn’t told us what she thinks about Russia and China
• Or why she skipped Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and where she stands on Israel
  • “Kamala Harris Faces Skepticism from Pro-Israel Jewish Democrats,” writes David Drucker. 
• Or when she knew Biden couldn’t run anymore and what she did about it
• Or what her qualifications are for her VP pick
• Or whether she still supports all the far-left policies that made her the most liberal senator in 2019. 

For lack of a better term, she’s running from the basement but not in a basement… Brilliant. 

• She’s done zero interviews
• She spoke at a Black sorority gathering
• She held a rally in Milwaukee
• She attended a teachers union gathering in Houston

So far, so good: The polls coming out hourly can be found here. There is no reason to dissect them at this point except to say the Harris honeymoon is real. She’s doing better than Biden. 

• Our friend Julia Manchester lays out some of the swing state polling that basically brings us back to before the debate. 
• CNN’s Harry Enten says, “Kamala Harris is doing SIGNIFICANTLY better than Joe Biden is among Black and Hispanic voters.”
  • Black men moved far more than Black women toward Trump. Now that there is a Black female at the top of the ticket, how much pressure will Black mothers and grandmothers put on Black men to come back? 
• Morning Consult has her up and doing better with their tracking group than Biden ever did. 

Biggest question: Does Harris get more or less popular when you get to know her? 

• The best day of her 2020 campaign was the day she launched — have they figured out how to fix that? 
• Do these videos of her saying “Everybody should end up in the same place” or other ultraliberal talking points cause her problems?  
• Is she a better retail politician, off prompter and in interviews, than she was in 2020?
  • Thought bubble: Retail politicking, handling hostile interviews and doing swing voter events are a natural talent a la former President Bill Clinton. They are also a practiced skill.
    • Because of the pandemic she didn’t do that in the 2020 race. 
  • Biden doing so few events, press conferences, and interviews during his presidency meant Harris did even fewer. Especially in mainstream media, this might prove disastrous as she will be forced to actually be a candidate this time around 

Burn That S—

Yesterday’s flag burning, vandalism of “Hamas is Coming” on the statue outside Union Station and chants for the death of Jews in D.C. were a dry run for the DNC in Chicago where there will be four days of this. Progressives are not happy. 

• Look at the crowd: Most were young, white women who are pro-Hamas, pro-abortion and pro-free college. She needs them. 

Important question: What does Harris do about the far left?

• Her statement after the protests was strong. You can read it here.
  • Strong statements and ordering mass arrests to stop violence, tearing down flags and vandalizing statues with pro-terrorist slogans are different things. 
  • Thought bubble: Even still, there is no way she can pick Josh Shapiro, the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania. 

Kamala and the Jews: Like so many issues, Harris will be caught between her personal views and political necessity.  

Drucker quotes an anonymous Jewish democrat saying, “Until now, she has been the Biden administration’s ambassador to the progressives, trying to mute Biden’s strong support for Israel. If she’s going to have the strong support of Jewish voters and donors, she needs to change course…And it wouldn’t hurt if she was more forceful on the issue of a nuclear Iran.”

The other side: Trump wrote on Truth Social, “If those people rioting in Washington yesterday were Republicans/Conservatives, they’d all be in jail right now, facing 10 to 20 year sentences. Under this Crooked Administration, nothing will happen to them!”

• Fair question: Is he wrong?

The Border Czar That Wasn’t

Repeat after me: “She isn’t the border czar, wasn’t the border czar, and never was. If you call her the border czar, you are part of a right wing conspiracy.”

Peter Savodnik writes in The Free Press about the gaslighting by the media that now say she never had the job they reported she did. It’s some true Orwellian stuff. 

• Read the article or watch the NewsBusters’ piece here. 

The Free Beacon also notes the new orthodoxy.

Maybe it doesn’t matter whether she was the czar or not — the border crisis happened on Biden’s watch. 

Zoom out: We told you weeks ago the media would deify whoever replaced Biden on the ticket and the rewriting of history is part one in said movement. 

How Do Republicans Keep the Anti-Biden Voter?

All of this brings us to a truly existential problem for Republicans: How do they keep the anti-Biden voter?

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board headlines, “Kamala Harris Confounds the Republicans.”

• “The Vice President’s strong start seems to have caught the GOP and Trump campaign by surprise.”
• “They’re grasping for attack lines that aren’t likely to work or are counterproductive. One bad argument is that Ms. Harris is ‘a DEI candidate.’ That may literally have been true in 2020 when Mr. Biden promised to appoint a woman as his running mate. But diminishing her in this way now, after she’s been VP for four years, will alienate women and the minority voters the GOP is trying to attract.”

Important question: Will Harris reach out to Nikki Haley voters. Biden didn’t and — at least so far — Harris isn’t either. 

Now, Harris and team can play the age card. Click here to see Team Harris’s response to Trump’s appearance on “Fox and Friends”: “Trump is old and quite weird?”

Important reading: Erick Erickson writes on the folly of Republicans attacking Harris as the “DEI” hire.

Forget whether it’s true or not, the DEI attack is bad politics.

• Let’s be honest: Every VP pick is for a reason other than merit; they always check some kind of box. 

The flip side: From President Biden last night: Vote for Harris or you don’t like democracy. It’s good politics for your base, but it annoys the middle, even those likely to support you.

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.