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.
Closing the Southern Border vs. Funding Ukraine
The truth laid bare: It’s more important to Democrats and the White House to have an open southern border than to save Ukraine from a Russian takeover.
How we got here:
- 🥒 Republicans put the White House in a pickle. They will only agree to more Ukraine funding if the White House agrees to close the southern border by increasing security infrastructure and changing asylum rules.
- Democrats balked, and despite overwhelming disapproval of Biden’s border policy (64%), they refused the deal.
- Democrat Senator Chris Murphy warned not funding Ukraine before Christmas means Putin will roll into Ukraine, and China will take Taiwan. Murphy called it “one of the most dangerous moments that I’ve ever faced in American politics.”
- Not to be outdone in the dire warnings, Biden’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, said, “Our sons and daughters are at risk of being a part of a larger conflict, and it’s not just Putin.”
To be clear:
- By their own logic, Democrats would rather give Ukraine to Putin and give Taiwan to China than give Republicans a win on an issue two-thirds of Americans agree upon.
Hail Mary: Zelenskyy will be at the White House tomorrow for Biden to make another warning, but he faces an uphill battle given 48% of Americans say the U.S. is spending too much on Ukraine.
- Watch tonight: Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., on who will blink first.
Republicans now have more leverage to show why open borders are so dangerous.
- Police in Edna, Texas, (90 minutes south of Houston) just arrested an illegal immigrant in the murder of a 16-year-old Texas cheerleader.
- 📰 No surprise: Much of the coverage ignored the alleged killer’s illegal immigrant status.
The Best Way to Beat the Stock Market? Copying Congress
Quiver Quantitative lets you use the same inside information Congress does to beat the stock market. Lewis Pennock (@PennockPost) of the Daily Mail reports its fund that tracks all congressional trade is up 10 percent, and its Pelosi-specific tracker is up 50 percent.
- Asking for a friend: If Congress trades on inside information and then you trade on Congress’ disclosed trades, is that still insider trading?
“Too Many Civilian Deaths”
The New York Times podcast “The Daily” headlines today, “Biden Is Trying to Rein In Israel. Is It Working?”
- Short answer: NO!
- Thought bubble: Duh! If anything, it’s forcing Israel to act more aggressively.
- Since the war began, we’ve predicted the Biden administration’s shift away from full-throated support of Israel. Now, Democratic senators want restrictions on Israel’s military tied to aid.
- The Democratic civil war continues: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called an American veto of the U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution “shameful.”
- But Senator Bernie Sanders said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he doesn’t back a cease-fire, reports Mediaite’s Phillip Nieto (@nieto_phillip).
“The Daily” quotes Vice President Kamala Harris, “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”
- The real question: If the current unknown number of Palestinian civilians killed is too many … how many is okay?
- Was 100,000 civilians in Tokyo too many?
- Was 74,000 civilians in Nagasaki too many?
- Was upwards of 25,000 civilians in Dresden too many?
- How about the estimated 10,000 civilians killed by America and its allies in Mosul?
- John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point’s War Institute, quotes the then-commanding general of U.S. forces: “‘The civilians, I’m not really sure … some estimate as high as 10,000 … I’m not sure we’ll ever know… large swaths of the city were damaged, some parts, especially on the west side were completely leveled, entire neighborhoods destroyed.’”
- Thought bubble 💭: Harris and others don’t have a number, and nobody (even the NGOs, U.N. and other Israel haters) can cite Israeli tactics or rules of engagement that are beyond the law of armed conflict. They are responding to a political feeling of “too many civilian deaths.”
There’s more video now of what Israel faces.
- Hamas fighters wear civilian clothing making it impossible for Israel to distinguish between them and a civilian population. This is by design so the “Hamas health ministry” can talk about civilian deaths.
- Thought bubble: How much responsibility do Hamas and their Qatari and Iranian funders have for Palestinian lives? And what about the Palestinians themselves?
Ground truth: The shorter a leash and timeline the White House puts on Israel, the more aggressive it will become to crush Hamas.
- Hamas just threatened to execute some of the Israeli hostages. That will only further motivate Israel.
If you read one thing, make it fallen IDF Sergeant-Major Ben Zussman’s final letter to his family.
- “Even if something happens to me, I’m not permitting you to sink into sadness. I had the benefit to fulfill my dream and my purpose and you can be sure that I’m watching you and smiling a huge smile.”
- His mother’s response: “He strengthened us and asked us to be happy. There is something liberating in this clarity that allows you to breathe.”
Thought bubble: Despite the death of over 100 Israeli soldiers, many from the reserves (including the son of a former IDF chief of staff), the Prime Minister’s son Yair Netanyahu chilled in Miami Beach for more than a month and avoided military service by volunteering for the ambulance service.
Masks Up — Nude Kids
Somehow X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook could ban people for questioning mask mandates, but an app to “nudify” kids slips through big tech censors.
- AI-powered “nudify” apps that digitally undress fully-clothed teenage girls are soaring in popularity.
- According to a report from the Daily Mail, “More than 24 million people visited nudity AI websites in September, which digitally alter images, primarily women, to make them appear naked in the photo using deep-learning algorithms.”
University Presidents on the Ropes
Harvard alumnus Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) joins us tonight to discuss whether the president of his alma mater should be next on the chopping block.
- In addition to being a bigot and promoter of racism, Claudine Gay now faces charges of plagiarism.
Fun read: – Googling “Bill O’Reilly Harvard” brought up this piece from 2013. Harvard hated conservatives back then too.
As we said on Friday in War Notes, the tide is turning against DEI and thought police on liberal campuses.
- Fareed Zakaria doesn’t want to be left out. He warns now that universities shouldn’t take stands on political issues.
- Double standard: It must be a coincidence that the liberal elite demanded universities take moral stands and punish those opposed to them when they agreed with the cause, like Black Lives Matter, DEI and trans rights. But now that pro-Hamas folks chant “intifada” at Jewish students, suddenly universities should be neutral.
Watch Friday night’s segment with crisis management guru Eric Dezenhall — he took us through the prep of the “three amigas” before their testimony in Congress.
- Turns out he was spot on. The New York Times reports law firm WilmerHale “helped” them prepare for their disastrous testimony and focus on “context.”
The New “Deplorables”: Dads, Brads and Chads
Last night, Taylor Swift attended the Kansas City Chiefs game.
- It’s her first time since being named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” where she responded to criticism of all the shots showing her watching the game: “‘I’m just there to support Travis. … I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.’”
Why it matters: As Lisa Gutierrez pointed on in the Kansas City Star, Swift’s fans, called “Swifties,” loved the quote. One fan said on X, “IM ACTUALLY SPEECHLESS…. LIKE SHE JUST ENDED THEM HARD OMG”
Helpful hint: Never punch down.
- Swift didn’t end anything. She just showed the utter disdain she and her followers have for the “The dads, Brads and Chads” of the world — the tens of millions that watch and enjoy NFL football.
- Fact box: NFL Sunday Night Football is the most-watched television show of the week … every week.
- The Kansas City Star highlights another post on X saying, “‘Dads, Brads, and Chads’ is actually the grammatically correct collective noun for a group of men whose opinions don’t matter.’”
Swift’s “Dads, Brads and Chads” sounds like Hilary Clinton’s “deplorables” or former President Barack Obama’s “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion.”
We’ve been telling you for a while, Swift will be a major player in the 2024 election. Her disdain for rural America and rural values appears on fire.
- Will she learn? Oprah made a billion dollars off suburban white women. Her career came to a screeching halt when she tossed Hilary Clinton (the ultimate suburban white woman) overboard for Obama. Will Swift meet the same fate if she goes into politics?
- Where she actually stands: Swift doesn’t speak about politics per se but did get big responses to her voter registration drives on social media.
- BUT: For a woman who “stands up for women,” Swift hasn’t said a thing about the unspeakable sexual violence against Israeli women by Hamas but did show up to Ramy Youssef’s Gaza fundraiser.
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.