Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Will Biden Resign?

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.

Biden’s High Bar

If President Joe Biden doesn’t resign tonight, he must reassure the American people, our allies around the world and for that matter our enemies he’s capable of running the country for the next six months — that’s a high bar.

• Somehow, we’ve gotten used to not seeing or meaningfully hearing from the president for long stretches.
  • Reagan got shot, and we saw pictures three days later.
  • Biden got COVID-19, and it took six days to see him, and when we did, he was on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base visibly confused.
  • In the past month, starting with the debate, it’s clear he has good days and bad days — that’s unacceptable when you are the leader of the free world.
  • Biden can atone for these sins tonight, but he must clearly address the issue.
  • More than two weeks ago, long before it was a Republican talking point, we asked, “If Biden can’t run for president, how can he be president?” and that still applies.

Look forward : It sounds obvious, but voters don’t like being lied to.

• Democrats will come back to rue hiding Biden’s health information — just watch this MSNBC panel with voters in Wisconsin.
• The only way to win these folks back is with Vice President Kamala Harris meeting them where they are at and answering hard questions — on Fox News, NewsNation and X (Twitter), not MSNBC and the Huffington Post.

The same goes for the media. The same people who told us Biden could do cartwheels while negotiating peace deals now say Kamala spent the past three years crisscrossing the world handling the most important issues of the day. It’s getting silly.

Raw Nerve

Former Senator Doug Jones, D-Ala., erupted when I brought up the objectively true fact that the White House kept Harris in a VERY safe space the past three years.

• No tough interviews
• No trips to swing voter events
• Fair point : Jones rightly brought up Harris’ success firing up young (mostly white) women on the issue of abortion. It works with the base — more on that below.

When she ventures beyond pre-scripted listening sessions and safe space interviews, things get weird quickly.

• Her interview with Lester Holt proved disastrous three years ago.
• The last interview she did I remember was with Laura Coates on CNN , who went from anchor to fangirl with Coates saying, “I’m struck just in your presence.”

Thought bubble : Can you imagine if a Fox anchor told JD Vance similar things?

Her interview with Anderson Cooper after the debate left a lot to be desired.

Be fair : The same logic applies to JD Vance, which I asked about last night , noting his stump speech shows a man struggling on the national stage.

Bottom line : Traditionally, Republicans are more willing to go on with hostile media than Democrats, thus they get a lot more experience mixing it up.

Prediction : The Harris safe space strategy will prove disastrous as she will now face far more scrutiny by a media embarrassed over covering up for Biden.

Progressive Push

Harris’ new stump speech checks most boxes in the progressive wish list … where the federal government will provide everything you could want (child care, health care, college loan forgiveness and more) and solve all your problems (like overriding state abortion laws).

• The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board noted , “Ms. Harris is talking as if she’s running in the Democratic primaries and trying to beat California Gov. Gavin Newsom for her party’s presidential nod. In reality she leapfrogged that fraught step and is going straight to the general election.”

Look back: GovTrack named her the most liberal senator in 2019.

Watch this : Dave McCormick’s Senate campaign team in Pennsylvania put together a 90-second ad that Republicans should run on repeat in every swing state from now until the election.

Thought bubble : If Republicans stopped talking about Harris not having kids and calling her a DEI hire, they would deprive CNN and others their desired distraction from Harris’ record and abysmal retail politics skills.

• Go deeper : Republicans — especially Trump — can never be that disciplined.

Back to the old rule : Never underestimate Republicans’ ability to screw things up.

Race defense backfires : If all attacks on Harris are racist — so say MSNBC and others — the cloak of that defense will degrade quickly.

• Please, Joy Reid and MSNBC, tell me a way to challenge Harris that you don’t view as “racist.”

Thought bubble : If Harris isn’t a DEI hire and her sex and race shouldn’t matter, why does every liberal commentator salivate at the idea of her being the first Black female president … does race and sex matter or not?

Ray of hope : A recent CNN poll shows Harris trailing Trump by three points. The same panel of voters surveyed a few months ago showed him up six on Biden.

• Democrats will tell you this is good news and shows she does better with the more exposure she gets. Evidence? Just look at the Milwaukee crowd yesterday .
• Look back : The New York Times reported her 2020 presidential campaign kickoff rally drew 20,000 people, but then people got to know her.

Young White Women

Harris spoke to an all-Black sorority today, which was her excuse for skipping the Israeli prime minister’s speech to Congress.

• Be fair : Politically speaking, turning out African American women will be far more important for her than the Jewish vote.
• In her speech, she leaned into the Biden agenda — they are proud of it.
• Be fair : Certain groups, like professional Black women, love it.

Zoom out: Young white women might have more to do with Harris’ election chances than any other group.

• Watching today’s anti-Israel protests at the Capitol ahead of Netanyahu’s speech, one can’t help but see the overwhelming majority are young white women .
• This is the Democratic base that wants student loan forgiveness, abortion on demand and to free Palestine.
• One was spotted carrying a Hamas flag.
  • Again, if there were a few Klan hoods at a rally, every person there would (rightly) be branded a racist bigot. Why that same logic doesn’t apply to the flag of a terrorist organization, I don’t know.

Thought bubble : Will skipping Netanyahu’s speech save Harris from the protests?

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.

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