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.
Programming note: See you at 7 p.m. ET — then join us again at 10 p.m. ET with Megyn Kelly in her first postelection interview to discuss her Monday night appearance with Donald Trump and her endorsement.
- Victory lap: We were right that it wasn’t close and that it was an early night — click here for receipts from Monday’s prediction.
Victory Explained
Trump’s biggest ad buy ended with “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
- Watch the ad here.
- Nothing better encapsulated the race — the Left made fun of it — in fact, Joy Reid this morning still made fun of the ad as being mean to transgender people.
- We did segment after segment on the ad. The ad had very little to do with trans folks and everything to do with the traditional vs. progressive values of America.
- Chuck Todd explains it all: Working-class Hispanics care more about grocery prices than “Latinx”!
- We did segment after segment on the ad. The ad had very little to do with trans folks and everything to do with the traditional vs. progressive values of America.
- Uh — yeah. This morning, Joe Scarborough admitted the basic fact: “Donald Trump knows our country better than we do.”
- How did it happen? Our buddy Chris Cillizza will be on tonight to explain.
- His Substack had seven reasons why Harris lost.
But there is something bigger and deeper.
- As we told you in War Notes last month …
- Harris and Democrats refused to give up a single progressive orthodoxy to beat a “fascist Nazi” and “save democracy.”
- We wrote on Oct. 21, “Yet, for all the warnings, Harris still wants to underpay for the presidency by remaining totally focused on pushing a liberal agenda.”
- She refused to stake out centrist positions on energy, the border, boys in girls sports or crime.
- She refused to understand and offer meaningful policy concessions to Trump-skeptical voters.
- Her surrogates and supporters called Trump supporters names.
- She failed to understand the anger of so many at the Biden-Harris administration.
- She had Oprah leave her $50 million dollar mansion to lecture paycheck-to-paycheck workers on joy.
- It’s the economy stupid, says John King on CNN.
- It helps explain a marriage gap rather than a gender gap in the electorate.
- Harris and Democrats refused to give up a single progressive orthodoxy to beat a “fascist Nazi” and “save democracy.”
Maybe her biggest problem was her.
- Team Biden complained to Alex Thompson at Axios, “How do you spend $1 billion and not win? What the F?”
- As we have told you over and over, nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising.
So it’s a mandate — credit where credit is due.
- Scott Jennings delivers the best summation to a stunned CNN panel:
- “Revenge of the average working-class American.”
Boys vs. girls election:
- From Joe Klein explaining how he got the election so wrong:
- “My theory of the case was that this was a boys v girls election, and girls were more likely to vote.”
- Guess what: Boys and girls drove the election, or rather, maybe boy moms and girl dads.
- Boy moms were tired of the Left emasculating their sons and being unable to buy groceries.
- Again, listen to Joe Scarborough, folks.
- Girl dads were tired of boys playing on their daughters’ sports teams. … It’s pretty simple.
- “Democrats should be smarter on the women’s athletics thing. Eighty-five percent of Americans oppose men transitioning after puberty and competing against women,” said Joe Scarborough this morning
- Boy moms were tired of the Left emasculating their sons and being unable to buy groceries.
- Stop — it’s worth watching this segment.
Autopsy: So stunning that the same people who told us Trump is Hitler who will destroy America wouldn’t give up this nonsense to keep Trump out!
Mandate!
Trump’s victory isn’t 2016 — Democrats did not learn from 2016, and voters decided to send a stronger message.
- Trump is the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004.
- Republicans outperformed in the Senate – even Nevada is a possible pick-up.
- Republicans will very, very likely keep the House.
- The red wave that didn’t happen in 2022 came as a tsunami today.
- Trump’s performance shows him cutting deep into the traditionally Democratic coalitions
- He won Starr County in Texas — the first time a Republican has won the county in 128 years — it’s a mostly Latino county on the Mexican border.
- He won Bucks County, Pennsylvania, filled with wealthy suburbanites that Harris hoped would be swayed by Liz Cheney.
- He won rural Anson County, North Carolina — a rural county with over 40% Black Americans. It’s only the second time since reconstruction that a Republican won it.
- Trump did better across every tab — see how Gen Z, Black and Latino voters all moved.
- Red arrows: Just look at the massive shift visualized by The New York Times.
- “Holy smokes”: There is not a single county where Harris “overperformed” Biden’s 2020 numbers. Watch CNN’s reaction.
- Hometown hero to zero: Harris did worse in Minnesota than Biden — even with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Now What?
Winning the election is the start — not the end.
- Assuming Republicans control the White House, Senate and the House, they will face their biggest threat: Themselves.
- Remember rule No. 1: Never underestimate Republicans’ ability to screw things up.
- Watch tonight: Sen. John Thune of South Dakota will be on. With him, we’ll ask:
- What is the mandate?
- What are Republicans willing to compromise on for the border?
- What will this mean for the Supreme Court?
- Harris said she would end filibusters for abortion rights — is there anything Republicans should end filibusters over?
- Will fiscal responsibility be out the door?
Job search: Special prosecutor Jack Smith will be fired “within two minutes.”
- Last night, America elected a convicted felon facing 44 federal charges — four counts in the federal Jan. 6 case and 40 counts in the classified documents case.
- He is supposed to be sentenced Nov. 26 in New York.
- Today, New York Attorney General Letitia James told reporters that she was not expecting a Trump victory, but is prepared to respond to this result. However, she did not directly discuss Trump’s scheduled sentencing for his conviction of falsifying business records in Manhattan.
- Indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams looked awfully excited today
- He is supposed to be sentenced Nov. 26 in New York.
Will President Biden pardon Hunter Biden?
- Watch tonight: We’ll discuss with Tom Dupree and Michael Discioarro what happens now to the criminal cases Democrats once hoped would land Trump in jail.
Democratic reckoning: We told you yesterday either party would face a major reckoning and soul searching if they lost.
- Watch tonight: Batya Ungar-Sargon will tell us whether Democrats could ever win her back!
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.