Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Unimaginable Pain

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 :

• 27 days to the election
• Decision Desk HQ average : Kamala Harris +3, as of around noon ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
  • Polymarket betting odds : 53.3 to 46.2 in favor of Trump.

Unimaginable Pain

The pain and suffering of ordinary Americans in the wake of Hurricane Milton will be unimaginable — I know that because it happened after Hurricane Ian.

• What will happen : Thousands of residents along the Gulf Coast will lose everything — insurance won’t cover it.
• BUT : These are multimillion-dollar mansions on the beach.
  • Fact check : The multimillion-dollar mansions survive.
    • It’s the homes built in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s inland that do not.
    • The storm surge plus flooding destroys everything.
    • And there is rarely insurance for flooding.

What I am watching : The webcam at Margaritaville in Fort Myers Beach.

What I am thinking : Waffle House closed its restaurants around Tampa.

• The Associated Press did a deep dive on the Waffle House index.
  • Georgia Governor Brian Kemp visited the Waffle House operations center .
  • Days like this are when my good friend and former Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer was at his best.
  • You can read my tribute to him from the last hurricane here .

Oh Lord

President Joe Biden briefed today from the TV set built for him at the White House.

• Vice President Kamala Harris attended and then called into CNN and the Weather Channel.
  • Must watch : Harris telling a staffer that the briefing was a “live broadcast.”
• The FEMA administrator joined Karine Jean-Pierre at the briefing.
• President Biden canceled his swan song foreign trip for the hurricane.

It is tacit admission they badly bungled Helene and the response, but as usual, Republicans screwed up a great opportunity … so much so that a Republican congressman from North Carolina put out a statement debunking the conspiracy theories on the Right.

Many things can be true at once :

• The government did not create Helene by controlling the weather.
• The Biden administration’s response to Helene in western North Carolina has been abysmal.
  • Just one example : The delay to mobilize the search-and-rescue teams at Fort Bragg for days likely cost a LOT of lives.
• FEMA says its No. 1 strategic goal is equity.
• The Biden administration tasked FEMA with housing and helping illegal immigrants they let in.
  • The money question is fungible.
  • BUT, migrants living in fancy New York City hotels on taxpayers’ dimes while poor whites in rural North Carolina don’t have water isn’t a good look.
• All the conspiracy theories distract from and give a pass to the real problems above.
• Now, CNN is doing stories about “combatting hurricane misinformation” rather than having to report on the failures.
• Never underestimate Republicans’ ability to screw things up by launching conspiracy theories online rather than hammering their opponents for real screw-ups.
• Smart move : Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., is heading to North Carolina .

Fair question : How does FEMA dealing with migrants NOT distract from its mission of helping disaster victims and preparing for future storms?

DISINFORMATION : The White House and their friends now label any criticism of the storm “dis- or misinformation.”

• Here is Joe Scarborough complaining about JD Vance’s Wall Street Journal op-ed .
  • Vance’s piece laid out the devastating facts of where the Biden administration did screw up.
• Newsflash : It’s like crying wolf — if news you don’t like becomes misinformation, then nothing is misinformation.

Kamala Harris’ Problems Get Worse

Harris covering her mouth and telling a staffer “this is a live broadcast,” as referenced above, is a perfect metaphor for her campaign — highly scripted but out of control.

Mark Halperin laid out the polling showing alarm bells for Harris.

We showed you yesterday in War Notes why changing momentum between now and Nov. 5 will get harder, not easier.

• A swing and a miss : Stephen Colbert gave Harris a second chance to answer the question she bombed on ”The View”: What would you do differently than Biden?
• On meaningful questions, the campaign remains silent, hoping Trump’s continued screw-ups will save them.
  • Axios lays out the diametrically opposed messages from Walz and Harris on whether illegal immigrants should get government benefits.

It appears Harris thought she could win the presidency the way she got the nomination — that’s not working out so well.

To Be Trusted, You Have to Tell the Truth

The CBS story keeps getting worse …

• To catch you up : CBS morning anchor Tony Dokoupil was forced into a white guilt struggle session with the morning show staff to offer “regrets.” The New York Post reports there were tears.
• His crime : Asking an antisemite reasonable, but certainly not tough, questions about his book
  • Feel free to watch the actual interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates .
• Before the struggle session, Dokoupil had to meet with the network’s race and culture unit to learn the errors of his ways. What’s next, a North Korean reeducation camp?

Ground truth : CBS reprimanded an anchor for asking a terrorist sympathizer moderately tough questions, but we are to believe CBS will also tell us the truth about Harris and the White House’s response to the hurricanes.

• This is backfiring badly on CBS.

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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