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.
Funding Both Sides of the Ukraine War
By later this week, planes with desperately needed American weapons will land in Poland for transfer to Ukraine, and in the next few weeks, millions of dollars from the U.S. treasury will also flow (through intermediaries) to Russia, funding their fight in the war against Ukraine.
A new report shows the Department of Defense still buys (and has no plans to stop) about a billion dollars a year of Russian fuel products for the U.S. military in Europe.
- Thought bubble: For as much as we are told to worry about giving Vladimir Putin power to starve the U.S. military of fuel, this seems pretty reckless.
- Look forward: We haven’t even restocked the strategic petroleum reserve.
American taxpayers are literally funding both sides of the war in Ukraine.
In fact, PBS found Russian oil products are still coming into America.
Opposing goals: Why would America do such a thing when we are told over and over this is a Chamberlain at Munich moment; the fight for Ukraine is the moral question of our time.
Political reality: For President Biden, winning reelection is more important than winning a war.
- Remember Putin’s price hike, with 10% inflation and gas headed towards $8 per gallon? Well, actually cracking down on the Russian energy sector would make $8 per gallon gas seem cheap.
To be fair: Whether America buys Russian oil or not, it gets bought by the Chinese or Indians, who will love cheaper Russian oil now that it is slightly taboo in the West.
Geopolitical reality: The easiest way to end war in Ukraine is to choke the Russian energy sector with crippling sanctions: delist banks, sanction countries that buy Russian oil and enforce trade embargos.
- BUT:
- $10 a gallon for gas isn’t politically sustainable for the Biden administration
- Nor do they have the clout with Saudi and Gulf states for them to replace Russian oil in the market at spot prices
- Nor do they have the political stomach to unleash the American energy sector and thus annoy the climate change folks
Conclusion: As much as they talk a big game, the Biden administration’s actions prove they are unserious about winning the war in Ukraine.
“I Too Hate White People”
The leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel, pro-terrorist protest told the truth: “I too hate white people.”
- He didn’t say it yesterday but got caught on a hot mic a few years ago saying it, and the Boston Globe picked it up.
Shocking news: Khymani James was involved in the Black Lives Matter movement before hopping on the Hamas bandwagon.
- Be fair: He wins the victimhood Olympics as his Jamaican-born mother died when he was 12.
- Important question: In what other country in the world do the people you hate (white people) give the orphan of an immigrant maid a scholarship to study at one of the country’s most prestigious universities?
NewsNation reporter Rich McHugh interviewed him yesterday at Columbia University, and crack producers Robert Morrisey and Andrew Roberts of the “On Balance” team made the connection.
“I too hate white people.” Those five words tell you everything you need to know about the “protests” and the “protesters” spreading across America’s college campuses from Columbia University to the University of Michigan, University of Texas at Dallas, U.C. Berkeley and beyond.
- It’s about a neo-Marxist worldview to tear down America and the power that comes with it.
- The “oppressor vs. oppressed” matrix underpins most of the ideology on America’s college campuses, hence the mass faculty support for the protests.
Ground truth: Just like how the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t about Black lives, the self-described “pro-Palestinian” protests aren’t about Palestinians.
How do we know? The protesters only care about genocide when they can blame the Jews.
- Here’s a world tour of genocides that actually happened:
- The Saudis massacred and starved people in Yemen — clearly a genocide.
- Bashar al-Assad killed hundreds of thousands of his own countrymen in Syria — clearly a genocide, and it continues.
- China continues to intern Muslim Uyghurs — clearly a genocide.
- Check out the Uppsala Conflict Data Program to get a reality check on where 20,000 deaths (many of whom are Hamas fighters) in Gaza would register relative to worldwide killings in actual genocides as of 2022.
Jewish NYU Professor Scott Galloway continues to drop bombs on MSNBC, where he laid bare the vast double standard of what’s happening on college campuses in America: “I can tell you, if I went into the NYU square with a white hood on and said, ‘Lynch the blacks’ or ‘Burn the gays,’ my ID would be shut off by that night,” he said.
- He also said, “I would never work in academia again. …There would be no need for the words ‘context’ or ‘nuance,’ I wouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment or free speech.”
Inmates running the asylum: Yet Columbia says they will negotiate with terrorist sympathizers and, in the meantime, are keeping Jewish students off campus.
What’s next: House Speaker Mike Johnson will visit Columbia today. On the radio earlier, he said, “My friend [Sen.] Tom [Cotton] said before your break we need to revoke federal funding to these universities that they cannot keep control. We need to revoke these student visas for these violent protesters. You don’t have a right to be here and to do this, but Jewish students have a right to be able to peacefully attend classes. … They’re trying to get an education, and this is just madness. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. And we’re calling upon and demanding these university officials to get control. This situation is just completely out of control right now.”
Reality check: Johnson and his one-seat Republican majority couldn’t even get border funding in exchange for Ukraine aid.
- Yet they are going to get Democrats to pull funding over protests?!
- As President Biden would say, “Lots of luck in your senior year.”
Trump’s Pennsylvania Problem
Trump won the Pennsylvania Republican presidential primary 83.4% to 16.6%, which means nearly 20 percent of the Republican primary electorate didn’t vote for him. YIKES!!!!
- Seriously, over 150,000 people in Pennsylvania showed up and voted in the Republican primary for Nikki Haley despite her campaign ending months ago. DOUBLE YIKES!!
- The math: 150,000 votes in Pennsylvania is HUGE.
- In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes.
- In 2020, Trump lost Pennsylvania by about 81,000 votes.
- If half of the 150,000 people who voted for Haley in the primary yesterday vote for Biden in the general election, that could pose a huge problem for Trump.
Thought bubble: Maybe when Trump says he should be out on the campaign trail rather than in trials, he is saying what his internal polling shows.
Pouncing: NewsNation campaign reporter Jackie Koppell got the Biden spin on last night:
- “If you look under the hood, the numbers look even worse for Donald Trump.
- “Some of Trump’s weakest performances so far are in the critical ‘collar counties’ — the suburbs surrounding Philadelphia including Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties.
- “Trump also lost 20% of voters in Lancaster — a central Pennsylvania county Trump won in 2020 and where Democrats are opening a local headquarters and organizing on the ground.
- “Trump’s repeated attacks on secure mail-in balloting continues to hound him in a state where 1.4 million Pennsylvania requested a mail-in ballot in 2022 — Haley dramatically overperformed her final numbers in the early vote numbers.”
Yes, BUT Biden faces a similar problem. NewsNation’s Steven Joachim put together Biden’s problem across the upper Midwest.
| Uncommitted | Biden’s 2020 Vote Margin | |
| Pennsylvania | 58,345 | +80,055 |
| Michigan | 101,639 | +154,188 |
| Minnesota | 45,950 | +233,012 |
| Wisconsin | 48,117 | +20,682 |
Watch tonight: Scott Tranter and Kurt Bardella will discuss whether we can really draw anything from the primary problems other than two historically weak and disliked candidates.
Important question: After last night, would you rather be Donald Trump or Joe Biden?
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.