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. 

Programming alert: Bill O’Reilly will be on tonight to discuss the Iowa “expectations game.” 

Where Are the Epstein Tapes? 

The latest of the Jeffrey Epstein files read like the back of a Penthouse magazine, specifically the deposition and other accusations from Sarah Ransome that detail what everyone suspected of Epstein’s behavior. 

• She compares Epstein’s island to a brothel where Epstein would assign women to have sex with men of power. 
• She says Epstein made tapes of former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson having sex with young women. We don’t know if they were underage, and we don’t know if there actually are tapes. 
• She says a “friend” satisfied former President Donald Trump’s fetishes.

Fact check: 

• We have no idea if there actually are tapes. 
• All of these men have denied wrongdoing. 
• Ransome’s emails also came out, and they paint the picture of a vengeful and angry woman.

Thought bubble: Do we really believe our government is good enough at keeping these secrets? The FBI raided Epstein’s island and homes. If there are tapes, the FBI has them. At some point, Congress will demand answers.  

Watch tonight: Gloria Allred, the attorney for some of Epstein’s victims, will be back tonight to discuss this. 

We Keep Telling You Israel Wants a War Against Hezbollah

Israel assassinated a senior Hezbollah leader as the Iranian-backed group and IDF continued exchanging blows. 

Over the weekend, the rest of the media caught up to War Notes. We explained Thursday why Israel wants to provoke Hezbollah into a war. 

• Joseph Krauss with the Associated Press headlines: “With each strike, fears grow that Israel, the US and Iran’s allies are inching closer to all-out war”
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken is crisscrossing the Middle East with the stated goal of “avoiding escalation.” 

As David E. Sanger (@SangerNYT) and Steven Erlanger (@StevenErlanger) in the New York Times lay out, Iran continues to push and prod knowing the Biden administration is more interested in avoiding escalation than creating a durable deterrent and enforcing a lasting peace. 

Secretary of Defense MIA 

It’s not that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin didn’t tell anybody about his ICU visit and incapacitation — it’s that nobody noticed, and he thought it was OK. 

Backstory: 

• Austin had an “elective” medical procedure before Christmas and returned home the next day. On Jan. 1, he went to the ICU at Walter Reed with extreme pain but didn’t tell the White House or National Security Council team until Jan. 4. 

Beyond all, it shows Austin’s arrogance and/or poor judgment. A former four-star general clearly surrounds himself with people who care more about his orders for “privacy” than putting his boss, the president, in a terrible position. 

• As the New York Post editorializes, “How could President Biden not notice his defense secretary was missing?”
• What if something bad had happened like Iran’s militias hitting a navy ship? Can you imagine the president’s surprise to find his secretary of defense in the ICU? 
• What if something really bad happened like a North Korean nuclear missile launch? 

Thought bubble: Forget what you think of Austin’s policies and politics, this situation goes beyond the media’s cries about transparency to the very basics of continuity of government plans and protocols. 

Obama’s Warning: What is There to Do About It? 

Much like “going to war with the army you have,” presidential reelection campaigns must campaign with the president they have. In this case:

• An 81-year-old prone to gaffes and severely physically limited in the number, type and timing of his public events. 
• A commander-in-chief presiding over a world spinning out of control.
• A historically unpopular president, who as we laid out Friday, has few options to fix the economic malaise currently at foot in America. 

It’s not that his campaign WANTS to run on Trump’s evilness. It’s that the conditions above force them to because they don’t have anything else: 

• Case in point: Today’s speech about race at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and the site of a 2015 shooting.

MSNBC’s banner during his speech read, “Biden: White Supremacy ‘has no place in America.’” 

• Thought bubble: Nobody disputes this. White supremacy has no place in America, and that’s accurate. White supremacy does not exist as a meaningful threat, accepted political ideology or significant problem in America. 

Ground truth: Successful presidential campaigns focus on aspirational messages about the future, not promises to fight something repugnant but already universally scorned in America.

• Biden’s messaging to the Black community shows his weakness with Black voters. Any time you must scare your base into showing up, it isn’t good. 
• Then again, Trump has some of the same problems. 

Obama rings the alarm bells: Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) of the Washington Post reports Biden’s old boss had a private lunch to share his concerns. 

• The Washington Post: “Obama has been even more explicit with people close to Biden, suggesting the campaign needs to move aggressively as Trump appears poised to quickly wrap up the Republican nomination.”

One to read for the road from Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) at Bloomberg: “Can Biden Convince Americans His Brand of Populism Is Better Than Trump’s?” 🎁 Gift link to read.

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.