Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Infighting to Irrelevance

Happy Birthday: Tomorrow is one of our two most loyal readers’ birthday – Dad and I will celebrate on the golf course next week. 

• He’s 77 and often comes close to shooting his age – the idea that I must give him strokes, sometimes lots of strokes, is fundamentally unfair. 
• That said, in honor of his birthday, for our first round together, all putts within 78 inches are good – assuming of course, he’s on my team. 

Du jour, not de jure: Correction from yesterday’s “War Notes,” spotted by Paul Hart of Vermont. 

• Paul is a French translator and interpreter from Vermont and kindly let us know it’s:
  • Quote and question  “du jour” – not “de jure.”
    • Thanks, Paul – a “War Notes” hat is headed your way – have a great weekend! 

Low-hanging fruit: For all the criticism of DOGE, there are some easy things they could cut that would avoid the current sense of chaos and craziness. 

• Our friend and intellectual hero George Will joins us tonight with the case against PBS and NPR.
  • Read Will’s new column here. 
  • Watch Barack Obama’s DOGE announcement of his own – the campaign to cut waste – with Joe Biden in charge.
    • “Nobody messes with Joe,” said Obama without the least bit of irony.

Will Schumer Survive!?!

The current Democratic infighting and political malpractice over forcing or not forcing a government shutdown exposes a leaderless party that believes in opposing Donald Trump and issues that 80% of Americans agree with. 

⏱️ Let’s review just some of the more notable Democratic moves in the past 24 hours. 

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is my favorite headline of the day.
  • “AOC Rips Into Schumer for ‘Dangerous’ Plan to Bow to Trump,” headlines The Daily Beast.
    • Hell of a way to announce your Senate primary challenge, madam congresswoman. 
    • AOC is mad that Schumer said he would vote to avoid a shutdown.
      • A+ trolling: Trump congratulated Schumer on social media. 

• Watch House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries trying to explain why shutdowns are bad, but showdowns are great.
• Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., explains why he’s getting rid of his Tesla here.
  • So he got a Chevy SUV.
    • What happened to climate change being the greatest national security threat?
• At the last minute, ten Senate Democrats voted with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to side with Republicans and keep the government open – now Democrats in the House have launched a war on Schumer.
  • In the past, we would be lamenting Republican stupidity as they fought amongst themselves. 
  • Fairness dictates that we say the same about Democrats now.
    • Worse: Democrats still aren’t united in opposing Trump – and now, Hakeem Jeffries is angry at the media?!??!
      • JEFFRIES: “Do NOT characterize my remarks. I’m not afraid about ANYTHING.”
        • When Democrats are angry at the media, it’s a fun day.
    • CNN reports that in a private meeting, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., erupted, accusing Democratic leadership of having “no strategy, no plan, and no message on this spending bill” – this is a direct quote.
      • Fact check: True.
    • Good rule: When you are the story in Washington, it’s usually a bad day.
      • Exception: As we know, Donald Trump often defies the rules of political gravity.

• We predicted this in “War Notes” yesterday.
• Today’s chaos exposed Democrats as having:
  • No organizing principles other than opposing Donald Trump.
  • No leadership.
    • Thought bubble: Damn, Nancy Pelosi was good. 
  • No strategy. 
• 🪰 It’s like “Lord of the Flies” on Capitol Hill. Maybe they could ask Republicans for advice – they have recent experience in such a situation. 

Solution: Be like Bill Maher.

• Maher’s show’s tagline – “Sanity needs a safe space” –  could be Democrats’ organizing principle.
  • Maher hates Trump.
  • Maher doesn’t think boys should play in girls sports.
  • Maher doesn’t whine that Kamala Harris lost because America is a bunch of racist misogynists. 
  • Maher makes sense.
    • Must read: “Bill Maher Gives Democrats Advice on ‘Most Important’ Step to Win Again,” writes Newsweek.

We’ve been warning for a while that Democrats risk irrelevancy.

• “What would Bill Maher say?” could easily guide Democrats, but even if they wanted to, the AOCs and Jasmine Crocketts of the world wouldn’t let them.

Theory: If normal older white men in the Democratic Party are for it, the rest of the party feels they must be against it.

• Watch tonight: I’ll test my theory with Ana Kasparian, host of “The Young Turks,” and Nina Turner, former state senator of Ohio. 

Swatting Conservatives

• The FBI says they have been investigating a string of swatting incidents in the past 24 hours targeting conservatives
  • “MAGA Influencers Targeted by ‘Swatting’ Calls,”  writes Newsweek.
  • Watch some of the surveillance videos here and here.
• Swatting explained:
  • People call police departments around the country falsely claiming a violent crime is being committed at someone’s home.
    • But there is no crime or danger at the home.
  • So cops arrive thinking they are heading into an active shooter or hostage situation.
    • The swatting victims get woken up with police either breaking down the door or ordering people to come outside at gunpoint. 
• “Swatting” comes from the SWAT team that often arrives. 
• Mike Lee writes on X, “Should swatting be prosecuted as attempted murder? If you send heavily armed men to someone’s house with a false assertion that a violent crime is being committed there, you’re creating a grave risk that an innocent person will get shot.”
  • Maybe a few attempted murder convictions and long prison sentences will end this. 

You can imagine how this could go from being a horrible situation to deadly in a matter of seconds.

• 🪦 In fact, it already has: “Casey Viner, who solicited a ‘swatting’ call that led to a death, gets 15 months in prison,” from CNN in 2019. 
• Watch tonight: Radio host Joe “Pags”  Pagliarulo, who was a swatting victim last night, and James Gagliano, former FBI, join us on the program.

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