Leland Vittert’s War Notes: “Bloodbath”

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.

The Bloodbath Election

What you heard: At a rally Saturday in Ohio, former President Donald Trump warned of a “bloodbath” should President Biden win reelection. Click here to see some of the headlines.

The coverage:
- Michael Beschloss, a historian on MSNBC, responded: “A major party candidate is saying, ‘You elect me, there’s going to be dictatorship, bloodbath, violence, retribution against my political enemies that equals what we saw in Italy, Germany and other places.’”
What ACTUALLY happened:

At the rally, Trump talked about a coming economic “bloodbath” if Biden is reelected and cheap electric cars made in Mexico flood the U.S. market with zero import duties.
That’s a big difference!

Context: He said it in Ohio to white working-class people who flipped Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from blue to red in 2016.
It makes sense: Cheap goods from Mexico devastating the manufacturing industries of the American Rust Belt resulted in closed factories, shuttered mines, abandoned downtowns, the fentanyl crisis and more.
Be fair: Trump can’t get a fair shake — and he’s probably stronger from it. Nothing motivates the Trump base like unfair coverage of their beloved leader.
Look forward: There will be dozens if not a hundred more “bloodbath”-like comments from Trump and absurd coverage of them from now until the election.

Watch tonight: Bill O’Reilly joins us to discuss the “bloodbath” election and his new column “Conspiracy TV.” Perhaps coverage would be fairer if more conservatives were booked on television.

What Happened to Spring Break?

Sunscreen
Bathing suits
Copious amounts of cheap booze
Glock 19

Separate shootings over the weekend left one dead and three wounded during spring break festivities.

FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – MARCH 08: State troopers are deployed to the area for security measures during Spring Break, in Miami Beach, Florida on March 08, 2024. As spring breakers arrived in Miami Beach, they came face to face with an increase in police and several safety measures implemented by city officials to deter the chaos seen in the last few years. (Photo by Arturo Jimenez/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Even the (relatively) innocent right of passage for so many kids now brings life-threatening risks.

The culture:

Police can no longer enforce rules because it’s racist. For years, Miami Beach faced racism charges for cracking down on spring break hooligans … they finally just banned all festivities.
Now crowds moved to Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville and New Smyrna Beach, and the violence followed.

We can’t discuss the single biggest indicator of young men ending up in jail — fatherless households — because that’s racist too.

A Kansas City Chiefs player was willing to discuss it.
Stand by for the backlash.

Border Issue in Non-Border States

The border issue has become a proxy for the crime issue — people feel unsafe. Chaos on the border mimics chaos on the streets.

The border has also become a proxy for issues of the economy as wages are depressed due to an influx of cheap immigrant labor … just ask Tyson Foods.

According to a new poll, swing state voters say immigration and the economy are some of the most important issues for them.

Deja vu : We’ve been having the same argument since 2007. Watch O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera go at it over sanctuary cities back then … and nothing has changed now.

Retirement Drums

Democrats fear the combination of another Trump presidency and a Ruth Bader Ginsburg situation enough to openly pressure the current oldest justice to retire.

The Atlantic just published Josh Barro’s piece we highlighted on “On Balance” a few weeks ago. Barro writes, “Democrats are unlikely to find a way to replace Biden with a younger candidate who enhances their odds of winning the election. The Sotomayor situation is different. Her age problem can be dealt with very simply by her retiring and the president picking a candidate to replace her who is young and broadly acceptable (maybe even exciting) to Democratic Party insiders.”

It’s worth watching our excellent conversation with Ian Millhiser when the Sotomayor retirement push began.

Stormy the Victim

Stormy Daniels told “60 Minutes” her interaction with Trump was boring but consensual, and the media will never forget it.

Check out the trailer for the new “Stormy” documentary.

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND – JUNE 12: Stormy Daniels speaks during her visit to The Cambridge Union on June 12, 2022 in Cambridge, England. (Photo by Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union)

A few of the headlines:

“‘Stormy’ Doc Is a Portrait of a Messy, Complicated, Courageous Woman”
- EJ Dickson writes in Rolling Stone the documentary is “deeply sympathetic, unfiltered, and occasionally frustrating.”
“Stormy Daniels doc is a portrait of a woman destroyed by Donald Trump,” writes Jada Yuan in The Washington Post.

Why didn’t Monica Lewinsky get this kind and flattering treatment??

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.