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:
- 99 days to the election
- 21 days to the DNC
- 43 days to the debate on Sept. 10
- Click here to see the Trump vs. Harris Decision Desk HQ average.
Things Change
For the fourth or fifth week in a row, the political world changed in one week …
- I’ll date myself (at 41) and link to the Barenaked Ladies ballad of my youth: “One Week.”
- Thought bubble: Politics change like high school relationships …
- You kiss
- You break up
- You are soulmates
- You look at colleges together
- Someone goes away for spring break
- You date each other’s friends
- Things change
So let’s look at this one week.
- After years of attacking Joe Biden, his dropout stunned the Trump world in both speed and timing.
- They got caught basking in the afterglow of the convention and waiting for weeks of Democratic infighting
- Democrats outsmarted them and rallied in 12 hours around Harris
- Donald Trump and Republicans didn’t have a plan — the height of arrogance
- Republicans didn’t realize JD Vance’s vulnerability on his cat lady comments
- This has happened before, and things change
- Democrats continue to delay their VP pick for more attention on Trump’s VP
So what is Trump’s plan?
- In one week, Kamala Harris:
- Erased Trump’s polling advantage
- Reenergized the Democratic base
- Organized multiple groups: “White Dudes for Harris,” “Karens for Kamala,” “Out for Kamala Harris,” “Win with Black Women” and more.
- Turned the media attention from being overwhelmingly negative on Democrats to positive about Harris and negative about Trump
- Fair question: What happened to lowering the temperature??
What’s Trump’s plan to fix it?
- Watch tonight: We’ll ask Bill O’Reilly if Republicans can regain the high ground before Labor Day. What’s their plan?
- Like trying to win a girl back over summer — it’s hard!
Obvious answer: In times past, JD Vance and his wife would go on “Good Morning America” to triple down on cat ladies ruining America — think Bill and Hillary Clinton during the New Hampshire primary in 1992.
- That hasn’t happened. When the obvious hasn’t happened, there is a reason, and we don’t know what it is.
“Genius of Weird”: If Harris wins in November, Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, should get first choice of meaningless (and interchangeable) Cabinet secretaries. His labeling of Trump and Vance as “weird” created an entirely new attack lane — one Trump can’t figure out how to counter.
Is It Real?
The reported enthusiasm for Harris, at least right now, appears to be among Democrats. Watch Harry Enten of CNN with the woof.
Tonight, 60,000 people will participate in a “White Dudes for Harris” event, following a “Karens for Kamala” call that reportedly “broke” Zoom.
- Fair question: Are any white dudes who were voting for Trump up until last week now attending?
Step back: In politics, like journalism, one must be afraid the buzz they are hearing is a chainsaw.
Nobody is better at separating buzz from reality than Mark Halperin.
- Will the media forever give Harris a pass for lying about Biden’s health?
- Fair point: If the media calls out Democrats on the issue, they are effectively calling out themselves
- For example, in this interview with Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., he says he had “private conversations” with Biden while publicly defending him
- Telling Biden one thing while telling us another … will anybody press Democrats on that — nope!
- For example, in this interview with Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., he says he had “private conversations” with Biden while publicly defending him
- Fair point: If the media calls out Democrats on the issue, they are effectively calling out themselves
Can Harris forever run from the basement — no off-script events, no interviews, etc.?
- Fact check: It’s a brilliant strategy, but can it last?
- Will she debate?
- Will she give interviews beyond “60 Minutes” and Rachel Maddow?
A few thoughts: The media always wants to talk about issues, yet when given two candidates with very different worldviews … they want to talk about cat ladies.
Watch tonight: We’ll look at The Wall Street Journal’s new piece on America’s divided youth discussing how young men break for Trump while young women break for Harris. We promise no cat lady jokes.
- The other side — Heidi Overton’s op-ed in Newsweek: “A Harris Presidency Would be a Disaster for Women and Girls.”
Missing
You will note we haven’t mentioned President Biden’s huge announcement today to radically change a third of the Constitution with his plan to reform the Supreme Court.
- You can read his Washington Post op-ed about it here.
- Talk about irrelevant: One week since stepping aside, he’s giving speeches at the LBJ Presidential Library and writing op-eds in the Washington Post.
Ultimate hubris: Biden’s plan follows a new model of “we must destroy democracy to save it” — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., helpfully explains why the founders got it wrong.
Rewriting a third of the Constitution would be HUGE news if it had any possibility of becoming law — it’s similar to the much-lampooned Project 2025.
- Except Biden and Harris actually endorse this change, yet it’s getting a fraction of the meaningful coverage.
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.