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.
Stormy on the Stand
It doesn’t take a law degree to know Stormy Daniels’ testimony adds next to nothing to the Trump business records case — and everything to the media circus surrounding it.
Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite writes up some of the more wild moments, including:
“The implication of this argument is that Daniels will testify about having had sex with Trump. Susan Hoffinger, a prosecutor, is arguing that these details are key to the case — and that this issue has already been settled. She says that details that are too salacious will not be admitted, but that the story is ‘significant’ and important to prosecutors in terms of Daniels’s credibility.”
Thought Bubble: Does anybody believe Mister Trump and Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) DIDN’T have sex?
An idea: Why doesn’t Trump just admit he had sex and paid her, asks Fox’s Kerri Kupec Urbahn.
Adding to the show: Clifford’s description of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump: “There was an imbalance of power for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way, but I was not threatened.
“The next thing I know, I was on the bed, somehow on the opposite of the bed,” in the missionary position, her bra still on, she testified. “We were in the missionary position.”
After sex, Daniels said Trump suggested they get back together for future encounters. According to Daniels, Trump said, “Let’s get together again, honey bunch. We were great together.”
Double thought bubble: For a woman who once made a joke on Jimmy Kimmel about her alleged encounter with Trump and soaked in the publicity, she told a very different message on the stand of “shaking” during her encounter with Trump.
Courtroom chess: Could Trump’s lawyers have copped to them having sex? Or did they actually want the circus of a porn star testifying?
Melania Watch: Stormy testified she asked about Melania, and Trump responded, “Don’t worry about her. We don’t sleep in the same room,” according to Harry Litman of the Los Angeles Times.
No surprise, perhaps, that Melania is nowhere to be seen or heard from during the trial or with her husband on his weekend campaign trips.
Inquiring minds: What did Clifford wear? Any bets on her first interview? She loves the publicity.
Watch tonight: An inside-the-court account of the body language from the couple and how it played with the jury.
Standby for Chicago
Programming alert: Geraldo Rivera joins us tonight to discuss President Joe Biden’s future and how the media is setting the stage for him to drop out. The segment got bounced from last night’s show because of — ironically — the breaking news about Israel. Catch up here in the War Notes archive.
We’ll also ask Geraldo about the coming DNC in Chicago, where mass protests will likely ensue.
Already, MSNBC and others have compared this summer to the disastrous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
Typically, the political parties hold conventions in cities of states they want to win:
- 2008 Dems in Denver. Republicans in Minneapolis.
- 2016 Dems in Philadelphia. Republicans in Cleveland.
- 2020 Dems in Milwaukee. Republicans at The White House (due to COVID-19).
- 2024 Dems in Chicago?!?!?!?! Republicans in Milwaukee.
Fact check: You don’t get more blue than Chicago/Illinois.
Let’s quickly review basic facts about Chicago:
Businesses are fleeing: Boeing, Caterpillar, Ken Griffin’s Citadel
This weekend: 7 killed and 31 wounded in Chicago weekend gun violence.
- A parade was canceled due to gunfire.
- Two shot across from Wrigley Field.
- The city’s all-powerful teacher’s union just demanded, among other things, fully paid abortions for its members, yet only 21% of Chicago eighth graders are proficient in reading, and 16% are proficient in math.
- Mass anger over housing illegal immigrants in working-class neighborhoods forced the mayor’s hand over and over.
- A mayor whose talking points and cease-fire resolution parrot those of Hamas.
Yet Democrats decided to invite the worldwide media to Chicago for four days to highlight what?
Boy Scouts No More
The Boy Scouts aren’t the Boy Scouts — they will be Scouting America.
“In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer, said in an interview with the AP before the announcement.
Be fair: Is this more about being woke/inclusive or business and relevance? An objective observer would likely say the latter.
Look back: The Boy Scouts allowed gays starting in 2013 and have had countless issues with filling their ranks.
Look Forward: How do the Scouts bring back the prestige of “Eagle Scout” badge status?
Fact check: There are already all-girl troops in the (Boy) Scouts.
Thin Mint Reality: This hurts the Girl Scouts the most. In 2017, the Boy Scouts started allowing girls. In The Atlantic:
“‘In their earliest years, Boy Scouts teachings were imbued with a more frontiersmen ethos connected to the national narrative of moving west, while the Girl Scouts were a more urban movement teaching both domestic and outdoor skills,’ said Tammy Proctor, the head of the history department at Utah State University and author of the book Scouting for Girls: A Century of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.”
Point of personal privilege: #TeamGirlScouts — if the Girl Scouts get hurt, where do I get my Thin Mints?
Everybody the Victim
Governor Kristi Noem, R-S.D., wanted so badly to be Trump’s vice president she proudly told the story of killing her dog and made up a story about staring down North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un – the absurdity of it forced one Newsmax host to go back to his journalism roots. Click here — ouch!
But Eric Bolling, who never was a journalist, had a different take — it was a liberal book editor who inserted the stories to hurt Noem.
For a guy like Eric who fancies himself tough, he exposed the current weakness of Republicans — they love to play the victim.
That’s what Gov. Noem did when she got angry with a Fox host for asking about the dog killing or when she complained about how many times she got interrupted on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Thought bubble: For the party of Reagan and Eisenhower, modern-day Republicans have remarkably thin skin.
Thought bubble: Even Bill Clinton said he sinned and asked forgiveness after the Monica Lewinsky scandal — it was only his wife who played the victim.
To be fair: Gov. Noem learned it from her hero, Mr. Trump — always the victim.
Watch tonight on how Republicans became what they always made fun of Democrats for being.
Biden Backfire
President Biden’s speech on “antisemitism” at Washington’s Holocaust Remembrance Day did nothing to calm the mass pro-Hamas protesters nor assuage the anger of Jews worldwide at his dismal response.
Thought bubble: President Biden’s “both sides” strategy — condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia — risks losing the moral high ground.
Ground truth: Maybe he already has.
As War Notes predicted, his criticism of Israel, public dispute with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and now withholding U.S. weapons will only embolden Hamas and push Israel to be more aggressive.
Vicious Cycle: His lack of moral clarity for domestic political reasons fuels the very flames in the Middle East he hopes to extinguish, thus making his political problems worse at home.
Hamas at it again: Now, with media and international cover for agreeing to an Israeli surrender they called a cease-fire, Hamas just attacked more humanitarian aid heading to Gaza civilians.
From the IDF: “For the second time this week, Hamas has launched rockets from Rafah toward Kerem Shalom, which is one of the key points of entry for aid into Gaza. On Sunday, the first barrage of mortars and rockets launched resulted in the tragic death of four IDF soldiers and a significant amount injured.
“While Hamas is firing at and from aid crossings, stealing and looting aid from the people of Gaza, the IDF has been expanding its humanitarian aid efforts for civilians in Gaza, increasing the amount and ways for aid to reach them.”
Dispatch from Harvard: “The Student Intifada has engulfed the entire country. It is changing the conversation, expanding the realm of possibility.
“If these administrations run their campuses as tyrants, those campuses will become ungovernable.”
Ground truth: Why would Hamas ever stop knowing they have the White House doing their bidding?
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.
