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.
Elizabeth Prann will helm the “On Balance” desk tomorrow as Rachel and I head west for wedding planning. I am taking along Batya Ungar-Sargon’s EXCELLENT new book “Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women.” Order it here from Amazon.
As you know from the show, Batya captures better than anyone the justified feelings of resentment and anger among America’s working class. If you want to understand politics in 2024, this is a MUST-READ book.
Enjoy your weekend with someone you love and the promise of spring. Barring a war, I’ll see you on Monday.
Shopping Cart Blues
In 1959, Eddie Cochran recorded “Summertime Blues” about a teenager lonely in love. “There ain’t no cure,” he sang, for the “summertime blues.”
President Biden could likely sing the same ballad, only replacing summertime with “shopping cart.”
- Spend more, get less: The cost of hundreds of grocery items has increased more than 50% since 2019 as food companies raised their prices, reports the Wall Street Journal.
- Their chart helpfully lays out that the same shopping cart that cost $100.30 in 2019 now costs $136.89.
Zoom out: Like many of Mr. Biden’s problems, including his age, the shopping cart blues have no cure.
- Legislation to eliminate junk fees or shrinkflation doesn’t work. The Soviet Union tried it, as did Venezuela more recently.
Economic reality: Inflation is down as Biden loves to brag about, yet prices keep going up!
Fundraising Facts
Donald Trump will host fellow billionaires for a Mar-a-Lago dinner. Mike Allen (@mikeallen) reports in Axios Trump will raise $43 million, a record that blows out Biden’s record haul of $26 million at his star-studded event in New York City.
- The coverage: Somehow, according to Bloomberg, Trump besting Biden by $17 million is a sign of weakness.
RED ALERT – Israel
Phones and car navigation systems in Tel Aviv now tell drivers they are in Beirut thanks to Israeli GPS spoofing to throw off a possible Iranian attack.
- CIA warning: The agency reportedly warned Israel of a coming Iranian strike within 48 hours. Who knows if that’s true.
Ground truth: Iran is emboldened by America’s continued weakness and criticism of Israel.
Look back: Tweets by senior Obama staffers and acolytes Ben Rhodes and Jon Favreau lay plain the anti-Israel feelings and politics of Barack Obama and his staff.
“It’s almost like Obama’s foreign policy geniuses were as anti-Israel as we said all along. And so was Obama’s foreign policy,” writes Jonah Goldberg on X.
At the time, they denied it, of course. I covered Obama’s Israel visit where both sides tried and failed to cover up the abject mutual contempt of Obama and Netanyahu.
Modern day: While Rhodes opines on MSNBC and Favreau hosts podcasts, their worldview permeates the Biden team they trained.
From today’s Financial Times, written by Guy Chazan (@GuyChazan): “U.S. defense secretary rebukes Israel over killing of aid workers in Gaza.”
- Chazan continues in the article, “A Pentagon statement said that in his call with (Israeli defense minister Yoav) Gallant, (Lloyd) Austin ‘expressed his outrage’ at the Israeli strike on the WCK convoy, placing it in the context of ‘repeated co-ordination failures with foreign aid groups.’”
Spare me: As retired U.S. Army General Philip Breedlove told us last night, a mistake isn’t a crime.
This is WAR: All the blustery statements from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin, plus leaks about Biden’s “anger,” make them all look weak.
- PICK A LANE
- Either admit you are pro-Hamas and demand Israel stop.
- Or give Israel full-throated support to rid Gaza of Hamas and rescue its hostages.
- Of all people, Austin should know fighting a war with bizarre political restrictions just means more good soldiers die, helps the terrorists and makes the war last longer.
- To be fair: Austin was always more of a politician than a soldier.
Political reality: Biden’s continued lack of moral clarity will only make his already bad poll numbers worse. CNN’s Harry Enten breaks down the shellacking coming to Biden over Israel.
ALL OF THE ABOVE emboldens Iran and forces Israel to be more, not less, aggressive.
- As we have said for months, Biden’s policy of nonescalation at any cost will likely lead to the very kind of war in the Middle East he wants to avoid.
Military speak: Obama picked General Breedlove as SACEUR — Supreme Allied Commander Europe — he is no hawkish nut. Yet even he last night delivered a damning indictment of the Biden foreign policy team when he said about the killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers, “If you think a war like this is going to go on without something like this happening from time to time, I think you don’t understand what we’ve always called the ‘fog of war.’”
Bill Clinton, Right-Wing Nut
Bill Clinton’s 1996 shellacking of Bob Dole appears a foregone conclusion in hindsight. At the time, it was revolutionary in his thought and execution of it.
Patrick Ruffini’s must-read thread on X lays out the pillars of Clinton’s tough-on-crime, small government, culture warrior, welfare-to-work, Democratic 1996 campaign. Imagine a Democrat today talking about superpredators or banning internet porn.
Thought bubble: By every standard, Clinton would be a right-wing kook today. On some issues, he’s actually to the right of former President Donald Trump.
America still loves Bill Clinton, Allen over at Axios scoops.
Clinton will be out with a new book “Citizen” just after the election. In the announcement, Clinton wrote, “Are people better off when you quit than when you started? Do our children have a brighter future? Are we coming together instead of falling apart?”
Watch tonight: Former Clinton adviser Mark Penn will discuss if this is what Biden wants or can do now.
Why Are Republicans Bashing Women in Their 30s?
Republicans have a weird misogyny problem — no, seriously.
Trump sycophant and wannabe Charlie Kirk fancies himself an expert on women and birth control.
Straight from “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Kirk notably said, “Birth control like really screws up female brains … Every single one of you need to make sure that your loved ones are not on birth control. It increases depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. Birth control is the No. 1 prescribed medication for young ladies under the age of 25. They will give young ladies birth control for pimples, for acne, to control their moods, their period. It is awful. It’s terrible, and it creates very angry and bitter young ladies and young women.”
And, he said, “And then in their early 30s, they get really upset because they say, ‘You know, the boys don’t want to date me anymore,’ because they’re not at their prime, and people get mad when I say that — well, it’s just true.”
Fact check: There is something pretty rich about Charlie Kirk giving dating advice.
It’s not just Kirk. After all, he doesn’t have many original ideas — he’s glamming on to a “conservative” movement normally composed of men who lecture about a woman’s place in the world and the ills of hormone-based birth control.
Political reality: Stupid is as stupid does in politics — and young men lecturing women on their “prime” and birth control is not only conduct unbecoming of a gentleman but just plain stupid.
Thought bubble: Aren’t conservatives supposed to be about letting other people just live their lives?
Deported Seven Times, Now Charged with Murder
The sheriff for Butler County, Ohio, just arrested a seven-time deported illegal immigrant for murder.
How is this possible, you ask? We are told over and over that “studies show” illegal immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than natural-born Americans.
- Simply put, data doesn’t exist to support that blanket claim.
- Most states and police departments don’t keep comprehensive data that includes the immigration status of those arrested.
- It certainly does not exist going back over a statistically significant time, despite Geraldo Rivera’s absurd claims of 140 years.
- We actually interviewed the one guy who did a statistically reliable study of convicted murderers in Texas, which does show a slightly lower rate for illegal immigrants.
- Even he admitted extrapolating his claim to “crime” nationwide is impossible.
Political reality: Talking points and studies don’t matter when people feel deeply affected or scared, which is the current situation in America for crime and immigration.
- See above: What would Bill Clinton say?
Watch tonight: Sheriff Richard Jones joins us on how the border debate is now front and center in his county, which is over 1,300 miles from the border.
War Notes will be back Monday.
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.
