Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Make Washington Great Again

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:

63 days to the election
6 days to the debate set for Sept. 10
Decision Desk HQ average: Kamala Harris +4, as of around 12 p.m. ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
- PredictIt betting odds: 54 to 49 in favor of Harris

Lose So You Can Win Later?!

This morning, Washington went a flutter with a Politico piece that encapsulates everything wrong with Washington and the media:

“If Republicans Want to Win, They Need Trump to Lose — Big,” headlines Jonathan Martin’s column. Martin continues, “To dominate the country once more, Republicans need to hasten the move to a post-Trump party.”

Newsflash: Republican voters don’t want to move to a post-Donald Trump party — they love Trump. The whole point of Trump is that he’s channeling the anger of the masses at the ruling class of the Republican Party.

To be fair: Martin acknowledges as much with this quote: “‘You’re assuming Republicans have a top of the ticket problem and not a voter base problem,’ said Terry Sullivan, a former GOP strategist. ‘It’s not like our leaders have been leading the voters to the wilderness against the voters’ judgment.’”

Flip side: You could write the same piece about Democrats and Kamala Harris.

Nothing quite excites reporters like anti-Trump Republicans …

Take, for example, John McCain’s son trashing Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery — a gold mine for CNN — it turns out McCain (the elder) did a campaign ad from Arlington cemetery.
The Left vilified McCain — now, he’s a hero because he’s the anti-Trump Republican.

Chris Cillizza calls the Martin concept “laughable” — he’ll join us tonight — hopefully wearing something other than the taupe hoodie from his Substack video.

The “Republicans” Martin writes of would probably sign up to “Make Washington Great Again” — the Reagan- and Bush-era Washington.

That didn’t work out so well for working-class America
That’s why they don’t just support Trump — they love Trump.

But here we go — “for Republicans to win, they must first lose big” — and the media wonders why Trump voters hate them.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on September 4, 2024. (Photo by Erin SCHAFF / POOL / AFP)

A Question Harris Won’t Be Asked

“Vice President Harris, America’s military now faces a recruiting crisis as wars grow in Ukraine, the Middle East and potentially Taiwan. Your administration oversaw the two lowest years in history of new military enlistees. Even $140,000 bonuses can’t convince young Americans to sign up, and America faces a patriotism crisis where a record-low number of young Americans (18%) say they are very proud to be Americans. What would you do differently than President Biden did over the past three years to restore patriotism and rebuild our military?”

Let’s be honest: That question won’t be asked at next week’s debate, but it is a huge problem in America.

JD Vance said the quiet part out loud last night: “Nobody wants to put on a uniform and serve in Kamala Harris’ military. … This is someone who wants the United States Army to be about gender inclusion, ridiculous diversity politics instead of about serving your country and uniting together as Americans to serve on the same team and defend your nation.”

Watch tonight: Geraldo Rivera will discuss what Harris’ answer should be.

Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 2, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

You Get a Car and YOU GET A CAR

The post-Labor Day sprint in campaigns is also a silly season — much like the Oprah show where everybody gets a car.

Forget protecting IVF — Donald Trump promises FREE IVF!!!

By October, this could turn into a cash incentive if you conceive a baby naturally. I am only half-kidding.

Harris cast the tiebreaking vote for 80,000 more IRS agents, but now, she wants to cut red tape and offer $50,000 to start a small business — that’s what she’s saying in New Hampshire today.

From Axios: “Where it stands: The Harris campaign did not provide a cost estimate for its proposal, which would need congressional approval.”

You know it’s silly when a leading progressive Democrat and her own surrogate, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., says Harris’ proposal to pay for her giveaways by taxing unrealized capital gains is silly — and bad economics.

Thought bubble: When was the last time you heard a progressive against a tax hike?

Click here to read a little more on Harris’ plan to tax unrealized capital gains.

But WAIT, there’s more — both Harris and Trump agree:

No taxes on tips
And blocking the sale of U.S. Steel
- 📰 From The Wall Street Journal: “A sign of the rotten political times is that President Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and JD Vance all agree on the dumbest economic idea of the presidential campaign so far: opposing Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel.”

It’s not fair to blame politicians for their dumb, silly pandering ideas. Blame the media for not calling them out and demanding practical answers to our problems.

Instead, CNN’s interview with Harris turned into an infomercial.

That’s not me saying it … the campaign tweeted out clips because she is afraid you missed it

President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the South Court Auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Building of the White House on September 3, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Who a “Cease-Fire” Really Helps!

You can’t have a good deal with bad people. The deal President Biden wants Israel to take — is forcing Israel to take — leaves Hamas in power to regroup and rearm.

For those saying, “But Israelis are rallying in favor of a deal.”

Those same people pushed the Gilad Shalit deal — I covered it back in 2011
One kidnapped Israeli soldier for a thousand Palestinians, including Yahya Sinwar — the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 massacre.
To get a “cease-fire,” Team Biden wants Israel to release the next Sinwar and allow Hamas to rearm and regroup.

Bret Stephens writes in The New York Times, “A hostage deal is a poison pill for Israel.”

A hostage deal is a little bit like the solutions or deals so many think are possible in a broader sense:

They also believe in happiness and unicorns and peace and pots of gold.
Most of them live in the Hamptons, where real life doesn’t exist
They go to garden parties and talk about if only everybody would theoretically get along … because we really aren’t that divided …
- And they talk about how awful the deaths of everybody on both sides are — all lives matter, but we should talk about the executed hostages.
- And Palestinians really want to live in peace. Fact check: No, they don’t.
- But they don’t say anything about lack of American leadership or Tim Walz running away from reporters when asked about the hostages — Tim Walz wants to be vice president and has said more about the school shooting in Georgia this morning than Hamas executing six hostages.
- It’s not enough to talk about Hamas executing hostages — you have to call out the silence of American leadership.

I spent four years in the Middle East — I’ve interviewed terrorists. There are no “deals” with people who want to kill you.

Young people in Israel who want “peace” aren’t going to suddenly convince Iran to lay down their weapons.
Never before in human history has a group sworn to destroy another group willingly laid down their weapons.
- Yes, I know what happened in Northern Ireland, but the population wasn’t behind the IRA, and both sides actively wanted peace.
Roosevelt understood there was no deal with Hitler.
Reagan understood there was no deal with the Soviets.
Grant understood there was no deal with Lee.

The only currency in the Middle East is raw power — either you die, or the other guy dies. It’s that simple.

Michael Goodwin, in The New York Post, opines of President Biden, “Nothing was asked of Hamas, which got a green light to keep holding out for more Israeli concessions. Not incidentally, of the remaining 60 hostages thought to be alive, at least four are American citizens — yet Biden says nothing about them.”

Getting the hostages (including the Americans) home isn’t the endgame — it’s important, but it’s not the endgame.

People can talk all they want about the evils of Hamas (and how they must pay a price), but unless that’s followed up by lockstep support of Israel destroying Hamas and strangling Iran’s regime, it’s just talk.