Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Turning into the Skid

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 :

• 39 days to the election
• Decision Desk HQ average : Kamala Harris +4.0, as of around noon ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
  • PredictIt betting odds : 56 to 47 in favor of Harris.

Welcome to an abbreviated Friday edition of War Notes!

Harris at the Border

Vice President Kamala Harris heading to the border is like former President Donald Trump heading to an abortion clinic — confounding.

Last night, our buddy Mark Halperin described it as “turning into the skid.”

• Turning into the skid works great when you have a plan to get out of it.
• If you want a preview of her speech, just watch her border ad .
• Double thought bubble :
  • Why isn’t she (and her boss) already doing these things?
  • What happened to the woman who said entering illegally shouldn’t be illegal?

Harris’ problem: Watch Harris’ running mate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on “Meet the Press.”

• Even friendly interviews seem to trip him up — that’s not a good sign for Tuesday night.

Trump’s problem: Polling shows him still ahead of Harris on immigration questions, but she’s closing and eating into his advantage on the two most important issues for voters: immigration and the economy.

• Here is Karl Rove explaining .

Watch tonight : Live coverage of Harris’ border speech

Final Weekend

Walz and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, will spend this weekend doing their final rehearsals before Tuesday’s vice presidential debate.

State of play: JD Vance regularly jousts on unfriendly cable TV networks in dozens of interviews and press conferences since he became the nominee.

• Walz keeps his traveling press corps at football field length — and rarely does interviews even with friendly outlets.
• That makes Pete Buttigieg’s job all the harder — he’s playing Vance in debate prep.
• Look back : Politico tracked down the last prep guy — Danny O’Connor — who played Vance in the run-up to the Ohio senate race.

Watch tonight : Washington super lawyer and former debate prep team member for Hillary Clinton, Bob Barnett, joins us on what prep for Walz will look like and the danger created by keeping him in the basement for the past month.

24 hours

In the past 24 hours :

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in America.
• He told President Biden to take his proposed cease-fire plan and shove it.
• He bombed Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker in Beirut, hopefully killing the Hezbollah chief.
• He called the United Nations a “ swamp of antisemitic bile .”
• He got on his plane and headed back to the war zone.

At the same time, Iran’s Houthi militia reportedly fired dozens of rockets and drones at U.S. Navy ships with no response from the United States.

• Click here for more from Fox’s Jennifer Griffin.

As Griffin reports, the United States will issue a statement here soon — while Israel’s actions speak far, far louder.

Homefront : Videos flooded X of pro-Hezbollah marchers surrounding Netanyahu’s hotel in New York.

• Click here for one.
• Here for another.
• And another .

But wait — Doug Emhoff knows where the real threat to Jews in America comes from.

MIA : At a time when virtually everyone agrees the Middle East could explode, drawing the United States into a dangerous war, where is President Biden?

• He’s pushing for a 21-day temporary cease-fire to allow for negotiations. As we said above, we know what the Israelis think of it.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., explained the problems with the plan:

• “I have a few questions about the proposed ceasefire.  Is the ceasefire going to disarm Hezbollah in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701, which the international community has never bothered to enforced?   Is the ceasefire going to restore the up to 100,000 Israelis who have been displaced from their homes and communities for nearly a year? Is the ceasefire going to relocate Hezbollah south of the Litani River?
• “History tells us that an unenforced ceasefire will not cease Hezbollah’s impunity in firing rockets against Israel and in violating international law.”

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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