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.
The Rise of Ben Carson
Over the past few weeks, former Housing and Urban Development secretary for the Trump administration, Ben Carson, came storming back onto the national political stage as a chief surrogate for his former boss.
- His adeptness with the media can be seen here in this clip of an interview with CNN anchor Abby Phillip where she goes in on Trump’s “vindictiveness.” Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) of Mediaite reports on it.
- He’s African American, which in a Trump vs Biden rematch would give African American voters (especially men) an alternative to the pull of Kamala Harris.
- Watch: This NBC clip of Carson describing Trump as the biblical King David and “Morning Joe” making fun of him. As we discussed in our dispatch from Iowa, Trump loves the messianic messaging.
- Thought bubble: Carson’s increased visibility on the trail, long history of loyalty, minority status and track record at the Department of Housing and Urban Development make him a “made man” in the next administration. Trump said he’s already picked his vice president, and Carson would be on any shortlist.
Watch tonight: We’ll discuss vice presidential picks being about solving a problem or bringing a new constituency to the table.
- Kamala Harris solved Biden’s “old white guy” problem
- Pence solved Trump’s evangelical problem
- Biden solved Obama’s inexperience and foreign policy problem
- What problem does Carson solve? Or what constituency would he bring for Trump?
Armstrong Williams, D.C. businessman and longtime close confidant of Carson:
- “I understand why Trump would want Dr. Carson as his running mate, but I have less understanding why Dr. Carson would let himself back into (the) cesspool if this goes to fruition. To me, there is nobody better for Trump than Dr. Carson. There is a lot of trust, admiration, and friendship between the two. Carson has Trump’s back. They are like brothers.”
Remember, you heard it first from War Notes.
Trump and Democrats Will Unite to Help Him Win New Hampshire
Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden both have something in common: They want Trump to be the Republican nominee as quickly as possible.
Trump, as we’ve reported, wants that so he can use his status as “presumptive nominee” in his legal fight, and Biden and the rest of the Democrats want that because it’s the only thing that might energize a badly fractured and dejected base.
- Read more: Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) is out with a fantastic piece in New York Magazine: “How the coalition that defeated Donald Trump crumbled.”
Look forward (to like tomorrow): Democrats and their media allies will do to Nikki Haley what they do to every moderate Republican: paint her as the enemy to prop up Trump (as they will believe it’s easier to beat him).
- They have the playbook: Dems successfully helped Trump acolyte Don Bolduc win the 2022 New Hampshire Senate primary thinking rightly he would be easier to defeat in the general election.
- It worked. Bolduc won the primary and lost the general to vulnerable Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
- Trump will run basically the same attacks against Haley, and they have already started telling a rally last night Haley needs “Democrats and liberals to infiltrate” the Republican primary to win, according to Victor Nava of the New York Post.
The coming attacks on Haley: Scott McKay in the American Spectator makes the case for DeSantis to stay in and hammer Haley, essentially calling her a creature of the “donor class.”
- McKay says, “Ron DeSantis needs to stick around and eviscerate Haley because the Republican Party cannot revert to the mediocre, base-betraying, donor-class-slave Washington Generals operation that it was between 1988 and 2016 and seems to want to become again.”
Political reality: The “donor class” attack could especially hurt in New Hampshire where they have a soft spot for mavericks like John McCain.
Clock ticking: Our good buddy Phil Wegmann at RealClearPolitics gives Haley until Super Tuesday to “flip the script” — as we’ve told you before, New Hampshire is “win or go home.” Yes, I know South Carolina is actually her home, but Haley must win in New Hampshire to change the conversation about Super Tuesday — otherwise, it’s difficult to see why anybody would care about South Carolina.
China Experimenting with Deadly Viruses … Again
Good news: We might not have to worry about treating the next Chinese-made coronavirus because it will kill everybody. Literally. Caitlin Tilley (@caitlintilley) at The Daily Mail reports Chinese scientists infected humanized mice with a new coronavirus that infects their brains and boasts a 100% kill rate.
- Tilley writes, “Professor Francois Balloux, an infectious disease expert based at University College London, wrote on Twitter (X): ‘It’s a terrible study, scientifically totally pointless. I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanized mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong…’”
Worse still: We know China still refuses to tell the truth about the last pandemic it created. Warren P. Strobel (@wstrobel) at the Wall Street Journal reports, “Chinese researchers isolated and mapped the virus that causes Covid-19 in late December 2019, at least two weeks before Beijing revealed details of the deadly virus to the world.”
China lied. People died. And Fauci divided America.
Watch tonight: We’ll ask former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney about his comments last night on The Hill that Fauci didn’t tell Mulvaney why he had him tell the American people not to wear masks in the beginning.
Zoom out: Fauci admitted there is and never was actual science suggesting six feet of social distancing was necessary to prevent transmission of the virus. Masks and social distancing led to countless fights in airports, gyms, offices and schools.
Thought bubble: The guy in charge knew it was BS and said nothing. It’s no wonder people hate the government.
Fani in Trouble
Legal scholars can disagree if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ 2020 election case against Trump will get dismissed over her affair with the “special prosecutor” she hired, but it might not matter.
New details have emerged, including that she lied in her latest public explanation of hourly rates paid to her lover, and it may not constitute misconduct in the Trump case. However, if she is charged criminally or forced to resign for conflicts of interest, it may completely derail the Georgia investigation.
Even the ultra-liberal Daily Beast has raised some questions. Andrew Fleischman writes, “If the DA prosecuting Trump prolonged an investigation to justify a hefty salary for a romantic partner, that is a genuine conflict of interest that would require her dismissal.”
Zach Schonfeld (@ZachASchonfeld) and Ella Lee (@ByEllaLee) at our partners The Hill describe a similar situation where Willis’ political future could cause the case to effectively stop before the 2024 election, which is what Trump wants.
Watch tonight: We look at the legal and cultural implications including Willis’ claims this weekend that the whole attack is racist without denying the affair itself.
How Did We Get to the Point Where People Are Cheering for Yemen?
President Biden re-designated the Iran-backed Houthis as “specially designated global terrorists.”
- After dozens of Houthi terror attacks, the Biden admin will re-sanction the group but won’t put them on the foreign terrorist organization list.
- This means:
- Houthis can still get U.S. visas.
- There’s no criminal penalty for supporting them.
- American banks don’t have to seize their funds.
- On the flip side: Humanitarian aid still flows to Yemen, which is great because Yemen is a hellhole, but let’s not kid ourselves the Houthis will “repurpose” the aid for their own benefit, much like their fellow Iranian proxy Hamas does.
- This means:
Watch tonight: Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus will talk about why the administration keeps tiptoeing around taking on Iran.
All politics are local: Biden’s choice to not make it criminal to support the Houthis is an important data point, especially considering those trying to overrun the White House this weekend chanted, “Yemen, Yemen make us proud.”
No Fun of Any Kind
You might remember in “Animal House” — still the greatest movie ever made — how Dean Wormer described “double secret” probation.
- “You are not walking out on this one mister. No more Delta. … I am going to revoke your charter, and if you wise guys try one more thing, I am going to kick you out of this college. No more fun of any kind.”
That’s the message from the Department of Transportation about highway road signs like “Santa sees you when you’re speeding” (as mentioned in an NBC article about the subject) and “100 is the temperature not the speed limit.”
According to Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, the funny sayings are distracting, as if drivers would be overwhelmed by laughter at the dad jokes and run off the road.
And to be fair, Buttigieg and Wormer appear to be men of similar viewpoints.
Fine – the safety of millions of Americans traveling by air doesn’t rely on Wormer. They do rely on Buttigieg. And lately, he is falling short.
Just today, the FAA announced its inspections of the Boeing assembly line for the 737 model that lost a door. Never mind that there’s an air traffic controller shortage, numerous misses by the FAA of the 737 MCAS problem that caused two planes to crash and the near misses that keep happening. The list goes on.
It’s the job of executives, leaders and people like Buttigieg and Wormer to prioritize issues. It’s hard to understand why dad jokes on highway signs outrank planes depressurizing or running into each other.
The New Border Religion
Today, senator and foreign policy hawk Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid down the law ahead of a government funding showdown: “Mr. President, there will be no deal — there will be no money for Ukraine, no money for Israel, no money for our own needs unless you stop the abuse of parole” that allows nearly 85% of illegal immigrants into the United States with work permits, a ticket to the city of their choice and court dates for next decade.
The statement highlights a major shift among progressives now followed by the White House to not only allow but encourage unlimited illegal immigration.
To be fair, they don’t say that, but their policy of releasing (virtually) two to three million into the United States does that.
Look back: We’ve been talking about the border for years since the show started.
Red alert: David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) of the New York Times issues a warning to Democrats pressuring the Biden administration to keep parole for all: “The Democratic Party increasingly reflects the views of socially liberal professionals. On immigration, these affluent, highly educated voters tend to favor more open policies, while working-class voters prefer less immigration.”
Look forward: Republicans will force the issue. House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Today I will tell President Biden directly: House Republicans are demanding transformative policy change to secure the border.”
Follow today: The “Big Four” are meeting with Biden about immigration.
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.