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. 

Biden’s Campaign Strategy: Noun, Verb, Jan. 6 

Political nerds will note: Today’s headline is inspired by none other than President Joe Biden himself, who once said: “There’s only three things he (Rudy Guliani) mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11.”

Because of a coming snowstorm, Biden will commemorate Jan. 6 on Jan. 5 this year. He moved his Valley Forge campaign speech up a day to Friday.

A new Biden ad previews his message putting Jan. 6 center stage in his reelection campaign. Watch the ad at Mediaite:

• In it, Biden says, “There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. All of us are being asked right now: What will we do to maintain our democracy?”

For as much as Biden says Trump is a threat to democracy and will go all in on that message tomorrow, he’s doing everything possible to ensure Trump is the nominee. 

• The explanation comes from our good friend Erick Erickson (@EWErickson): “Each time the Democrats have taken on Trump, through vilification, speech, and indictment, they have provoked Republicans to circle the wagons around him, driving up his polling. … The moment Bragg indicted Trump, Trump soared into the polling lead, leaving everyone else in the dust, including DeSantis who had been leading.”

Biden believes he can win reelection by running on Jan. 6 like he won 2020 by talking about Charlottesville.

• Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) from Axios notes: “Senior campaign officials say the venue is apt as it is where George Washington’s army endured a frigid winter in 1777-1778 before uniting his troops and fighting for democracy and freedom against the British. Biden will try to rally his party for a fight against ‘MAGA extremism.’”

Important question: Do young women care about Jan. 6? New polling from the Daily Mail shows softening support among the key demographic. Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) from the Daily Mail writes, “Support with female voters under 30 has plummeted by 18 POINTS in just six months.”

Israel is an increasing problem for Biden. 

• A Department of Education staffer resigned in protest over U.S. support for Israel. Politico published an anonymous letter from staffers upset with Biden’s policy, who say, “As your staff, we believe it is both a moral and electoral imperative for you to publicly call for a cessation of violence, Complicity in the death of over 20,000 Palestinians, 8,200 of whom are children, simply cannot be justified.”

Facts haven’t changed: An American demand for a cease-fire only helps Hamas. 

Win or Go Home

Watch tonight: New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who recently endorsed Nikki Haley for president, joins us to answer about the attacks on his pick from Trump fans. 

• Over the past two days, we have highlighted how Haley’s rise ignited a civil war in the Republican Party and caught the ire of Steve Bannon and other Trump acolytes. 
• We’ll ask Sununu about Haley poking fun at Iowa caucusgoers and if she can win New Hampshire with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie still in the race.
  • It’s worth listening to Hugh Hewitt’s grilling Chris Christie for ten minutes.

Civil War at Harvard

With Claudine Gay gone, the focus at Harvard Yard turns to the head of the Harvard Corporation: Penny Pritzker. Pritzker, who is heir to the Hyatt hotel chain and a former Obama cabinet secretary, oversaw the search that picked Gay yet evidently didn’t check her work for plagiarism. As chair of the Harvard board, Pritzker will pick the next Harvard president. 

• Thought bubble: Perhaps the vetting process for the academic integrity of the new president will be more thorough?  
• Politico follows the fight between Pritzker and fellow billionaire and Harvard alum Bill Ackman.
• Read the Harvard Crimson coverage.

But the fight goes beyond Harvard Yard.

• Emily Peck (@EmilyRPeck) of Axios penned a premortem to corporate diversity, equity and inclusion as though the end to race-based quotas and equity of outcome demands is a bad thing.

Orianna Rosa Royle (@Oriannarosa) with Fortune reports on Lululemon’s founder taking his own company to the woodshed over its inclusion policies: “You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”

Final thought: Pritzker and others who hold DEI (and by extension Gay’s presidency) so dear went to great lengths, including threatening the New York Post, to protect it. As we told you last night, their efforts actually brought more scrutiny upon their beloved ideology. Had they fired Gay after her congressional testimony, they could have found a new champion of the diversity olympics and moved on; now, we have a national conversation on the unfairness of DEI. 

Coming to America? The Red Cross Will Help

Former Texas congresswoman and current congressional candidate Mayra Flores tweeted a video showing 15,000 people in a migrant caravan heading toward the border. 

Watch tonight: Congressman Chip Roy, R-Texas, joins us to discuss those helping the “migrant caravans,” including the Red Cross. 

• Reminder, about a year ago, Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) of the Daily Caller got a hold of a packet the Red Cross gave to migrants.
  • A helpful hint in the packet from the Red Cross: Women should bring birth control.
    • What they don’t say is why they must bring birth control: because so many women get raped en route to the United States. 

Epstein Secrets: Be Fair

The Jeffrey Epstein document dump (unsurprisingly) reads like a who’s who of business and entertainment.

• Read the list of A-listers as compiled by the New York Post. There are many we knew about, but some others we didn’t.

Fair questions for all who hung out with Epstein after his 2008 guilty plea for child prostitution: 

• Why did you hang out or do business with a convicted child predator? 

Beyond that, the government had these allegations for years and yet charged no one with crimes: 

• So either the FBI is intentionally looking the other way at sexual assault of a child OR
• Jeffrey Epstein hung out with famous people, and those famous people allegedly had sex with young (but of age) women or maybe didn’t have sex at all, and this is guilt by association. 

Let’s be real: Does the revelation that former President Bill Clinton enjoys the company of young women surprise anyone? 

Sometimes free vacations on billionaires’ private islands are expensive.

• Even Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, told us Tuesday night there is no reason to keep the files secret other than the personal vanity of those named and that all of the files should be released.
  • Dershowitz said, “I don’t think the judge put everything out. I think she was selective in what she put out and that’s unfair. I want everything out, every document, every piece of paper, half-truths or lies.”

Watch tonight: Gloria Allred, who represented Epstein’s victims, joins us to separate rich men’s tawdry sexual behavior from truly new and damning information.  

Watch Israel’s North

It appears Israel wants to provoke a war with Hezbollah on the northern border. 

We are not saying it’s going to happen, but Israel is doing all the things it would do if it wanted to provoke a war:

• Each Hezbollah attack (even if it doesn’t hit an Israeli target) is met with a three-pronged retaliatory strike that often includes killing a Hezbollah leader. 
• Israel is doing everything to escalate, or not de-escalate, against Hezbollah. 
• The IDF chief of staff visited the northern front as quoted by the Times of Israel: “We are in a very strong state of readiness in the north under my impression. I visit here a lot, I think readiness is at its peak.”  

 Israel has every reason to want a fight with Hezbollah now:

• The country is already on a war footing.
• After Oct. 7, Israel will no longer accept the threat of infiltration by terror groups on its border.
• The war plan for Hezbollah is well written, unlike in Gaza. 
• Unlike in Gaza, the local population doesn’t like the terrorist group. Thus, Israel’s intelligence in Lebanon is far superior.
• There are no hostages in Lebanon. 
• The IDF’s success in Gaza frees up both reserve and active-duty forces. 
• Lebanon is a sovereign country. If Israel can provoke Hezbollah into a war, it would be a “real” war with very different (looser) rules than Gaza. 
• Hezbollah’s arsenal of highly sophisticated and guided missiles (rather than Hamas’ dumb rockets) puts Israeli critical infrastructure at risk. It would be better to have the fight now on Israel’s terms than when Iran orders Hezbollah to launch a surprise attack. 

For the same reasons War Notes repeatedly laid out after the Oct. 7 attacks, Iran and Hezbollah don’t want a war with Israel right now: 

• Hezbollah is Iran’s insurance policy against an Israeli or American first strike on its nuclear facilities. 
• Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech Wednesday that said as much. “If the enemy thinks about waging war against Lebanon, then our fighting will be with no ceiling, with no limits, with no rules,” Nasrallah said, as quoted in an article by Adam Lucente in Al-Monitor.

But there are lots of reasons Israel would be happy to finish off Hezbollah … and now it has the bandwidth to do it.

Plus, the overwhelming American firepower in the region scares Iran. 

The Germans, Swedes, Canadians and Americans have told their citizens to leave Lebanon.

Not the first time: Israel reportedly wanted to launch a preemptive attack back in Oct., and President Biden convinced them not to. The Wall Street Journal gives the blow-by-blow. 

Be smart: When Israel droned a Hamas leader in Beirut, it (reportedly) did NOT give the U.S. the customary heads-up. 

We predict: Israel won’t start a war in the north, but it will keep hitting Hezbollah until the militant group either starts a war or is forced into submission and embarrassed. 

Before you go: Remember the American hostages still in Gaza. Evidently, the families feel forgotten. They are out with a new ad trying to remind us. 

• The White House did not give them much to go on. When asked for an update on the hostage situation, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded, “We are not gonna stop hoping.” 

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.