There are 36 days until Election Day. Today is the end of the third quarter, so get ready for lots of fundraising emails from candidates warning that they’re going to miss their goals unless you donate immediately. They’re not, but it’s always an effective message.
Yes, Congress is out. There are no congressional hearings on the agenda. There are lots of fundraisers. See more about those below. Yet it’s going to be a very busy week on a host of fronts. Let’s get to it.
Walz-Vance debate. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) will meet Tuesday night in New York City for the CBS-sponsored VP debate. The 90-minute session is the only scheduled faceoff between the two. We’re going to hear a lot about who is weird and who is weirder.
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will moderate. There’s already controversy over the fact that O’Donnell and Brennan won’t fact-check the candidates like ABC News did during the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. The Trump camp was furious over that. CBS said it’s up to each candidate to fact-check the other.
Vance definitely has more to gain here than Walz. Vance’s polling has been abysmal. Some of his public pronouncements have been disastrous. Think “childless cat ladies,” immigration, and abortion. Walz will get pressed on why he didn’t go to Iraq in 2005, as well as his handling of the 2020 Minneapolis riots following George Floyd’s murder.
If Harris and Trump aren’t going to debate again — and it’s hard to see that happening right now — Tuesday will be a big moment politically.
Helene fallout: President Joe Biden was briefed Sunday by FEMA officials on the crisis situation in North Carolina and other Southern states following Hurricane Helene. More than 100 people have died from the massive storm and subsequent flooding, and hundreds more are stranded. Millions remain without power.
Biden has already approved disaster declarations for North Carolina and Florida, and the president will give remarks this morning at the White House on the federal response to the disaster. Harris canceled planned campaign events in order to return to Washington for briefings on the situation. Both Harris and Biden signaled they want to visit the region as soon as possible without interfering with emergency rescue efforts.
This is going to be a long, very costly cleanup. And there’s another weather system in the Caribbean Sea that’s heading toward the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, Congress didn’t include any disaster relief money in the latest stopgap funding bill.
Israel. As you know now, Israeli forces killed Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon on Friday. Nasrallah’s death was a victory for Israel and a serious blow to Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian proxy group.
The Biden administration wasn’t kept in the loop about the massive airstrike that killed Nasrallah, according to multiple news sources. But the Washington Post reported that Israel used American-made 2,000-pound bombs in the attack.
Biden told reporters on Sunday at Dover Air Force Base that he plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. The United States and France have called for a 21-day ceasefire in order to avoid a larger regional war, but Netanyahu has ignored this initiative.
The House Republican leadership this weekend called on the Biden administration to “end its counter-productive calls for a cease-fire and its ongoing diplomatic pressure campaign against Israel.” This is the same message Hill Republicans have pushed for months over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
We’ll also note that Israel announced late last week that it had obtained an $8.7 billion aid package from the United States, including “essential wartime procurement.”
Israeli forces spent much of Sunday bombing Yemen in retaliation for a barrage of rockets the Houthis fired at the Tel Aviv area. Israel also launched airstrikes inside Beirut on Monday. That followed a weekend of attacks on Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon.
And by late Monday morning in Israel — early Monday morning in D.C. — Israeli special forces were conducting raids in southern Lebanon, which was largely seen as a precursor to a ground invasion.
Let’s focus for a second on Netanyahu. Israel’s killing of Nasrallah should provide Netanyahu a much-needed political boost inside Israel. Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war has sparked massive protests, and his long hold on power is in jeopardy. However, Israel has just succeeded in significantly degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities without putting a single troop on the ground in Lebanon — at least for now.
And Gideon Sa’ar, a former rival to Netanyahu, has joined Netanyahu’s government, giving the prime minister an internal political boost. Sa’ar’s arrival should help tamp down on the influence of the far-right faction within Netanyahu’s coalition.
Yet Israel is now fighting a multifront war of indeterminate length with indeterminate goals. Next week is the one-year anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas, and the bloody war in Gaza continues. Netanyahu is feuding with Biden and other Western leaders. Iran has vowed to retaliate for Nasrallah’s death. It’s hard to imagine a more precarious position for Israel than the current one.
