Good morning, Wake Up Right fam! The likely final debate of the 2024 election cycle is in the books. I have my thoughts, which I’ll lay out below. But first, I want to hear from you...

• 🏠️ U.S. housing prices hit all-time high, up 5% over prior year

• 📺️ Gutfeld! beat all late-night shows in 3rd quarter 2024

• 🗓️ On this day in 1867, Thurgood Marshall becomes 1st Black SCOTUS

• 👱‍♀️ 47% of Republicans view Taylor Swift negatively, up from 26% last year

^{Sources: Redfin, Fox News, History, NBC News}

Iran launches missiles at Israel

Iran launched more than 100 missiles at Israel yesterday, adding fuel to an already escalating fire in the Middle East.

The details: More than 180 missiles were launched by Iran directly at Israel - only the second time the regime has conducted an attack like this.

The result: Thankfully, at this time, there appear to be no Israeli casualties. One Palestinian was killed by a rocket that misfired.

Why did Iran attack? The past few weeks have seen Israel carry out several operations against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed proxy militants in Lebanon, including:

• killing Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah

• covertly planting and detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon

• small-scale ground incursions across the border into Lebanon to kill Hezbollah militants.

Iron Dome failure? Early reporting, based on videos circulating on social media, showed dozens of Iranian missiles penetrating the Iron Dome and exposing in Israel. Israel explained that most missiles were eliminated, and the others were deemed inconsequential and thus not targeted.

What comes next? Israel will surely respond to this attack. However, since no civilians were killed in the bombing, I don’t see this escalating into a full-on war between Iran and Israel. For now.

Related: On the same day, a terrorist attack in Israel left eight people dead and seven wounded in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

U.S. politics: An expanding conflict in the Middle East does not bode well for the Biden-Harris regime, as the Trump campaign continues to remind Americans that during his four years in office, there were no new wars abroad.

[Source: WSJ]

J.D. Vance’s big night

Senator J.D. Vance showed the world why Donald Trump chose him as his running-mate as he took on Gov. Tim Walz in the first and only Vice Presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle.

Set the table: In the 90-minute debate hosted by CBS News anchors Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan, Vance and Walz sparred over topics like immigration, the economy, abortion, climate change, January 6, and more.

• One clear rule set out at the open was that moderators would not fact-check, and instead, the candidates would be given time to fact-check each other. As you’ll find out shortly, they did not follow their own rule.

Let's discuss some of the most consequential moments of the night…

JD sets the tone: Early on in the debate, J.D. Vance clobbered Tim Walz after the Minnesota governor seemed to blame Donald Trump for Iran being closer to a nuclear weapon today than ever before.

• Vance shot back: “Who has been the vice president for the last three-and-a-half years? And the answer is your running mate. Not mine.”

J.D. fact-checks the moderators: The standout moment of the night came when Margaret Brennan tried to fact-check Vance’s claim that towns like Springfield, Ohio, are being overwhelmed by illegal aliens. She said, "Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status” before trying to quickly move on to another topic, cutting off Vance as he tried to rebut her claim.

• Vance persisted, saying, "Margaret, the rules were that you are not going to fact-check. And since you're fact-checking me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on. So there's an application called the CBP one app where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand."

• CBS News then cut off his microphone, and Brennan, with a smirk on her face, said, “The audience can't hear you because your mics are cut. We have so much we want to get to. Thank you for explaining the legal process.”

Tim Walz can’t answer for his China lies: In yesterday's newsletter, we discussed the revelation that Tim Walz lied about being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. He was asked about this lie by the moderators and said: “I’ve not been perfect. And I’m a knucklehead at times.”

• Brennan, to her credit, pressed him, saying, “The question was: Can you explain the discrepancy?”

• Walz stammered a bit and admitted he “misspoke.”

Whack-a-mole: One of the best lines of the night came from J.D. Vance, where he extended sympathy towards his opponent…

• “Tim, I think you got a tough job here because you’ve got to play Whack-a-Mole. You’ve got to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t deliver rising take-home pay, which, of course, he did. You’ve got to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t deliver lower inflation, which, of course, he did. Then you simultaneously got to defend Kamala Harris’s atrocious economic record, which has made gas, groceries, and housing unaffordable for American citizens.”

The most viral moment of the debate came during a discussion on gun violence when Walz oddly claimed, “I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it." Pollster and political pundit Frank Luntz called this "the worst line in any 2024 debate."

Who won? Before the debate, Polymarket, an online betting platform, gave Walz a 70% chance of winning the debate. In the site's post-debate polls, it had Vance declared the winner by a margin on 73% to 27%

What did Trump think? He was basking in his running mate’s dominance, posting more than a dozen times on Truth Social, including: “JD Vance just CRUSHED Tampon Tim with the FACTS. America was GREAT when I was President, and we will Make America Great Again after we win on November 5th!”

Vibe check from G: J.D. was the alpha in the room. He came off as confident but not cocky and was consistently on offense. Walz looked nervous and frazzled, always sounding like he was defending himself.

You can watch the full debate here.

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📈 Kamala Harris claims she suffered from insomnia after Joe Biden endorsed her as his successor — and she was sleep-deprived the morning she picked her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. Read more.

🗳️ California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to bar local authorities from requiring photo ID to vote. Read more.

👿 Diddy is facing 120 new allegations of sexual assault in a series of lawsuits, including on minors. Read more.

👍️ A group of more than 200 retired admirals and generals have endorsed Donald Trump for president. Read more.

🚨 A federal court handed prison sentences to two pro-life activists for protesting outside a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021. Read more.

📈 The Biden-Harris regime authorized the admission of up to 125,000 refugees into the United States in 2025 after allowing 100,000 in 2024, which was the most in thirty years. Read more.

🏐 Wyoming University became the third women's volleyball team to boycott its game against San Jose State because it has a biological male player. Read more.

🤠 Country star Morgan Wallen has donated $500,000 to help victims and relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Helene. Read more.

😡 Donald Trump was forced to downsize his Wisconsin rally on Saturday because Secret Service resources were being used to instead guard Iran's president speaking at the U.S. Read more.

Correction: In yesterday's newsletter, I linked to an article about Minneapolis swearing in its first non-citizen police officer. While the news is true, I got the nation of origin wrong. She was from Mexico, not Somalia.

🎥 JD Vance fact-checked the moderators, so they muted his mic. Watch.

🎥 WTF? Tim Walz claims he became friends with school shooters? Watch.

🎥 The head of the striking dockworkers threatens to "cripple" the economy. Watch.

🎥 Iran targets Israel with hundreds of rockets. Watch.

🎥 Even CNN admits Tim Walz lost the debate. Watch.

🎥 Video shows a Russina jet fly within feet of a US F-16 near Alaska. Watch.

🎥 Trump released a brutal new ad against Kamala after the Iranian missile strike. Watch.

🎥 A longshoreman in LA films the type of automation that led to the dockworker’s strike. Watch.

🎥 This was one of J.D. Vance’s best lines of the night. Watch.

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