Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Why Aren’t Democrats Angry?

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 9 pm ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

Wonderful life moment: I spent the weekend surrounded by 12 of my best friends.

• Leaving my bachelor party, my dear friend asked, “If someone told 16-year-old Lucky/Leland this day would happen, would you have believed them?”
  • “Not a chance,” I said.
    • Look back: As many of you know, growing up, my dad was my only friend – at a young age, I was diagnosed with what we now know as autism – social interaction was impossible. 
    • Watch: Click here for more in the launch video for my book, “Born Lucky.”
• The weekend: Twelve guys flew from around the country – some old, some young – but all dear friends I’ve gathered along the way.
  • My father and future father-in-law joined – not your typical bachelor party! 

• As I noted to the group, what brought us together is character and friendship. 
• WOW! Rarely in my life have I been more grateful or more touched.
  • Full circle: As you will read in “Born Lucky,” my father’s father said that character – not wealth, success or accolades – defines us as people. 
• If I can live up to the examples of the character of those who joined me this weekend, I am living a wonderful life. 

FURIOUS!

For all the obvious disdain and loathing former President Joe Biden has of President Donald Trump, his naked obsession with power and stopping Trump only crippled his own party’s ability to fight Trump for years to come – wow! 

• Why aren’t Democrats mad angry at Biden?
  • Team Biden just gave Trump (another) HUGE gift in sharing Biden’s cancer diagnosis. 

Political reality: Republicans will hang both the mental acuity and (possible) cancer cover-up around Democrats’ and the media’s neck for the next four years.

• Whatever Trump is accused of doing or lies about, Republicans will say:
  • “Well, Democrats covered up Biden’s health.”
    • Every Democrat running for president will be asked about it. 
    • Every former Biden administration official will have to answer for it. 
    • Every Democratic leader should leave – seriously. 
• So far, the answers about Biden’s health have been laughably inadequate:
  • House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “There are Republicans who are peddling conspiracy theories and want us to look backward. … As House Democrats, we’re going to look forward,” Jeffries told reporters earlier today. 
  • Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “We’re looking forward. … That’s it,” Schumer told CNN when asked about Biden’s decline before the cancer “diagnosis.” 
  • Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg: “What I can tell you is that, you know, the same president that the world saw addressing that was the president I was in the Oval with, insisting that we do a good job and do right,” Buttigieg said in Iowa last week. 
  • Former Vice President Kamala Harris: “Joe Biden, I have watched from the Oval Office to the Situation Room. And he has the judgment and the experience to do what he has done,” Harris told Fox News in October.
    • None of these are good enough answers. 
• Democrats should be FURIOUS with Joe Biden and his advisers.
  • The sooner they realize this, the better.
    • The first few Democrats who start expressing their anger will be well served. 

The media aspect of the Biden health cover-up is equally, if not more, important than the political side.

• Much of the legacy media now hammers Biden after defending him while in office – they think criticizing him now will rehabilitate their image.
  • Nobody in the world should be happier than Donald Trump.
    • Remember the $400 million Qatari plane that the media lost their minds on last week? 
• Threat to democracy: If we define a threat to democracy as Democrats do, it means “a White House conspiracy for the president to hold onto power.”
  • By that definition, don’t Team Biden’s actions over the past four years qualify as a threat to democracy?
• His words: Remember in 2022 when Biden said he had cancer – people wrote it off to a “gaffe.”
  • Then–President Biden said that environmental issues are “why I — and so damn many other people I grew up with — have cancer.”

There are no coincidences in Washington – after covering up his health for years, Team Biden is now asking the American people to believe his cancer diagnosis is just by chance.

• They released the news on the Sunday between the release of the devastating special counsel interview tapes and a Tuesday book launch detailing the decline of Biden’s mental acuity.
  • But: After the Sunday morning shows on network news and during the PGA Championship. 
• A few weeks ago, Biden’s comeback tour started with interviews on the BBC and ABC’s “The View.”
  • Obviously, these interviews were to push back against Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book.
    • Was revealing Biden’s cancer diagnosis a sympathy play?
      • PLEASE: How stupid do they think we are? 

AX files: Our buddy Chris Cillizza is out with a must-read piece about David Axelrod, Democratic strategist and Obama architect, who says the cancer diagnosis should make us all move on from Joe Biden’s problems – again, spare me, David. 

• Maybe that was the play: Release the cancer diagnosis to get sympathy and distance for the questions surrounding Biden’s mental health.

Joe Biden’s metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis is either medical malpractice or a massive cover-up – there are no two other explanations.

• WATCH: Click here to watch my analysis on “NewsNation Prime” last night. 
• Medical facts: It takes years for prostate cancer to reach metastatic and invade the bone.
  • That means: Either the president of the United States received woefully poor care that didn’t meet the standards of a basic physical OR the White House knew he had cancer and covered it up.
• Best thread: Dr. Greg Murphy, a urologist and congressman, is out with a series of posts on X with his takes on the diagnosis. 
• The 2024 White House medical report sounds like it was written by a lawyer, not a doctor.
  • “Fit for duty,” the report says. 
  • “No new concerns.”
    • What about old concerns, doctor?

• The statement released by Biden’s office Sunday reads the same way.
• When asked about the timing of his ORIGINAL diagnosis, a spokesman pointed NewsNation back to Sunday’s statement.
  • And what about that 2022 “mistake” admission he had cancer? Was the president actually telling the truth then? 
  • Come on, man: It’s about what you don’t say in politics, we know that. Stop treating the American people like children. 

Standard questions: What did they know and when did they know it?

• Credibility: Biden’s team repeatedly lied and covered up his health.
  • This is now an indisputable fact.
    • Should we believe anything Biden’s office says about the timing of his cancer diagnosis?

Still don’t know: From Joe Klein’s Substack: “There’s still a gigantic piece of this story missing: What was the diagnosis? After the infamous June 27 debate, in which Biden seemed sadly fogbound, the rumors flew through Washington…Parkinson’s? Dementia? Alzheimer’s? Something else? We still don’t know,” Klein writes. 

• Was Biden’s diminished capacity a combination of the above plus side effects of hormone treatment for prostate cancer, as some on the Right suggest?
  • We don’t know. That’s the problem with Team Biden’s lying. 
• Were Biden’s trips home to Delaware really for treatment, as someone on Erick Erickson’s show asked?
  • We don’t know. That’s the problem with Team Biden’s lying.  

Watch tonight: Bill O’Reilly joins us on why Democrats aren’t angry at Joe Biden. 

• Plus: Caroline Downey and Dan Turrentine on the political strategy of revealing the diagnosis now.

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 9/8 CT on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.