Leland Vittert’s War Notes: The Truth Comes Out

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.

DEI Isn’t Our Strength

DEI enthusiasts in corporate America, the military and academia demand orthodoxy for their cause not only because it’s the “right thing to do” but also because they insist it’s “good business.”

They cite “studies,” namely four by the consulting company McKinsey, showing demonstrably better results using DEI.
Hence the line, “Diversity is our strength.”
- DEI enthusiasts used the studies to argue that NOT practicing DEI was business or military malpractice.

Fact check: Judging people by the “content of their character, not the color of their skin” produces the best results.

A major new study by economists Jeremiah Green and John R. M. Hand exposes what anybody with room temperature IQ already knew — the McKinsey studies were and are utter BS.

They thoroughly debunked the four McKinsey consulting studies cited by the pro-DEI crowd.
DEI is code for discriminating against straight white males
- People ignored and even celebrated the inherent racism of it because of claims it produced better results.

What’s next:

DEI and its proponents won’t go down without a fight.
For example: The State Department has a new chief DEI officer who said on video, “We’ve got to be about dismantling that traditional structure at every juncture.”
Corporate America still plays lip service to DEI, but it’s backfiring publicly — think United Airlines.
The military, where the Pentagon declared DEI a necessity, is the next true battleground.

Uncommitted and Nikki Haley

Today, everyone is talking about the new Wall Street Journal polls showing Trump up on Biden in all but one swing state — and yes, it’s a snapshot of the horse race more than six months out. Who cares?

Be smart: The far more important polling occurred last night in actual elections.

Last night’s primaries in Wisconsin and Connecticut showed Trump and Biden have a similar problem: Many of those who should be their respective base voters don’t like them.

In Wisconsin:
- Republican race
  - Trump: 79.2%
  - Haley: 12.8%
- Democratic race
  - Biden: 88.6%
  - Uninstructed: 8.3%
In Connecticut:
- Republican race
  - Trump: 77.9%
  - Haley: 14%
- Democratic race
  - Biden: 84.9%
  - Uncommitted: 11.5%

Let’s deal with President Biden first:

He is totally boxed in by the pro-Hamas protesters on one side and the Jewish lobby on the other side.
The D.C. elites’ favorite chef, Jose Andres, will now mobilize for Gaza after volunteers for his charity World Central Kitchen were bombed.
Biden’s team still believes if only Israel stops its ground offensive, Biden’s political problems will end. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Biden can’t — or won’t — pick a lane between supporting Israel and letting it rescue its hostages or supporting the protesters who, much like Hamas, won’t be happy until Israel is gone.
Biden faces an emboldened Iran, Russia and China looking to embarrass him on the world stage.

To be fair: Not all of these problems are of Biden’s making, but they are all his responsibility — that’s the job of the commander in chief.

Go deeper: While the above deals specifically with his problem on Israel, similar logic can be applied to climate change, DEI, immigration and a few other of the progressive Left’s most loved causes.

Trump faces a similar pickle, but it’s entirely fixable.

At every turn, Trump insists on saying things his base LOVES:
- He’s doubled down on “bloodbath”
- He declared election day to be “Christian visibility day”
- He said he spoke to the family of a woman allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant when he didn’t
- His Easter tweet storm
His base LOVES when Trump ignores the criticism and gives a giant middle finger to the media
- Swing voters love it far less
- BUT, Trump lives in his own echo chamber of friends, social media and TV

To be fair: The media acts as a bullfighter to Trump, waving various red flags at him, daring him to charge and then stabbing him when he does.

Go deeper: Trump shows remarkable discipline when he HAS to, but it never lasts long enough for the base to notice.

Thus, we have two men: one who desperately wants to fix his problem(s) and can’t and the second who could fix his problems but whose ego won’t allow it.

Is the American Dream Dead?

Programming alert: Mike Rowe joins us to discuss an important Wall Street Journal article from Te-Ping Chen (@tepingchen) about Gen Z gravitating towards six-figure jobs in trades like plumbing, electrical and more.

Voters without ID

The Social Security Administration reports hundreds of thousands of people registering to vote without a photo ID each week — see the numbers here.

Of particular interest are swing states that don’t require a photo ID to vote. For example, in one week in January, nearly 29,000 people registered to vote in Pennsylvania using only the last four digits of a Social Security number but without a way to verify if they were actually that person.

In Texas, nearly 90,000 people registered without an ID. However, having one is generally but not always required to vote.

Trump talks about winning by a margin of “too big to rig” numbers, but stories like these only add to the many Republicans’ concerns about election fraud.