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.  

Hate Crimes Charges? 

BIG PICTURE: Whack-a-mole of terrorist sympathizer students continues.

• The Columbia University president got so embarrassed she finally let the NYPD in to clear self-described “revolutionaries” out of a building.
  • Will the president follow through on her threat to expel them? 

But there is more: UCLA erupted in violence overnight. 

• Not to mention Fordham 
• The University of Wisconsin, Madison
• And the many others

Worst video: Will the kids who stomped on a Jewish girl’s head at UCLA get charged with hate crimes? 

• If you haven’t seen the video run on repeat by cable news, ask yourself why.
• The woman in Charlottesville became a national martyr when she got hit by a car … how is this different?
  • The driver of the car was charged with a hate crime. 
• Will the notoriously liberal Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon actually enforce the law?
• What about the Biden Department of Justice, which begins civil rights investigations into police departments based on activist demands?

Is anybody above the law? 

WWABD: What will Alvin Bragg do?

• Will the Manhattan DA vigorously prosecute the kids arrested at Columbia with the same vigor he’s pursuing his very famous felony trial in Manhattan going on right now?

How will it end 💭: There is no clear end or off-ramp to the protests — hello, Chicago! 

Domestic Threat

A March Intercept article quoting the FBI director warning of domestic terror by Hamas sympathizers takes on new meaning. 

• The Intercept’s Daniel Boguslaw writes, “IN THE WAKE of Israel’s war on Gaza, the intelligence community and the FBI believe that the threat of Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States has increased to its highest point since 9/11, according to testimony of senior officials.”

Ground truth: Hamas and Hezbollah are already here — protesters routinely carry their flags. 

• It doesn’t take that much to go from carrying flags and chanting “intifada” to helping plan an attack. 

Pretty close: Stomping on the head of a Jewish girl at UCLA feels a lot like domestic terror already and certainly would be if she were Black or gay.

Look back: Remember when the FBI and Christopher Wray declared white Trump supporters the biggest threat to America? That seems even more politically contrived and cynical in retrospect as it did at the time. 

• From the FBI 2022 strategic report: “In 2021, the FBI and DHS assessed RMVEs advocating the superiority of the white race and anti-authority or anti-government violent extremists, specifically militia violent extremists, presented the most lethal threat categories.”
  • *RMVE= racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists

Why at the Ivies?

ONE Thing to READ: Click here to read Elica Le Bon’s Twitter masterpiece on why we see so many protests at Ivy League, elite and blue state schools.

• She writes, “You don’t see this in lower tier schools from kids of lower socio-economic standing because they aren’t plagued with the guilt of privilege that they’re seeking to launder through Middle East role plays of feigned suffering. This is as first world dystopia as it gets.”
• In the same vein, Eric Spitznagel writes in the Free Press, “Kids Are Giving Up on Elite Colleges — and Heading South.” 

Where are the parents: Our friend Aviva Klompas reposted one of the best videos in history from the Baltimore riots that I covered. A mother saw her son looting the CVS and came to deliver justice.

Raised right: There is a GoFundMe for the men of Pi Kappa Phi at UNC-Chapel Hill who endured harassment and a deluge of water bottles to protect Old Glory from the mob. Click here to “throw ’em a rager.” 

“Panic Mode” vs. “Bunker Mode”

The Columbia University clean-up and UCLA clashes only deepen the Democratic Party divide between those who are Hamas-adjacent and normal folks. 

Axios reports congressional Democrats are in “panic mode” over the protests. They’re divided, with some parroting Hamas talking points and others willing to say they’re horrified about the pro-Hamas types. 

Hence, there’s a divide about legislation to combat antisemitism where Republicans are united. 

• 2024 reality check: The year Democrats are divided over support for Jews. 

Pouncing: Trump slammed Chuck Schumer and others for abandoning Israel. 

• Fair question: Is he wrong? 

Bunker mode: The White House plan involves keeping Biden away from cameras, hoping it goes away and “monitoring” the situation.

BUT, Charlottesville: The first thing press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brought up in the briefing by name: Charlottesville, which happened almost seven years ago. 

Last hope: The bunker strategy might work if Biden can force an Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal and get some of the hostages he never talks about back home. 

• Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) writes in Axios that it’s the “only hope” for Biden’s Middle East strategy. 

Backfire: The Wall Street Journal writes Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to find a “stronger” Benjamin Netanyahu.

• Turns out, the Israelis don’t like American Democrats, especially most vocally Schumer, who speak out loudly attacking their leaders and are silent about Jews under attack. 

Go deeper on a cease-fire: Hamas feels emboldened by the campus protests and will only agree to a cease-fire that permanently ends the war rather than a pause in fighting to exchange hostages for prisoners.

• For a list of reasons, some justified and others for his own best interest, Netanyahu will never agree to that. 

Watch tonight: Outspoken Jewish Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., will join us.

By Design or Necessity?

Former President Donald Trump couldn’t ask for a better split screen today.

• Trump will be at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan doing what he does best. 
• Biden will drive three blocks from the White House for a closed campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel, where his handlers will make SURE he doesn’t talk to the press about the university protests.

“Is Biden afraid of reporters?” asks Alexi McCammond in a Washington Post column. 

• YIKES! When you have lost Alexi McCammond…

But it’s not just McCammond. 

• From Ross Douthat in the New York Times: “Biden is Not Winning. His Campaign Should Stop Acting Like He Is.”
  • He writes, “The problem with the Biden campaign is that it’s being run as though its candidate is in the first position, as though it’s protecting a lead that Biden doesn’t have.”
• Or Michael Moore on CNN: 
• “I know we’re speaking to millions of people, but I’d like to speak to one particular individual and that is President Biden…His chance of not being reelected, I think, at this point is so great because of those numbers, and because he’s losing the youth vote. He’s lost the Arab American vote in Michigan,” as quoted by Mediaite.

Vice President Kamala Harris often quotes the political truism that there are two ways to run: unopposed or ten points behind.

Fact check: Biden is neither unopposed nor running a race like he is ten points behind. 

Which brings us back to the split screen — is Biden’s less-than-active campaign schedule out of design or necessity?

• Thought bubble: It’s hard to know which is worse.

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.