Leland Vittert’s War Notes: The Clock is Ticking⏰

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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 9 p.m. ET show, delivered straight to your inbox.

The Clock is Ticking⏰

Editor's note🎃: Happy Halloween!!! I hope everyone eats LOTS of Candy Corn — by far the superior Halloween candy.

Alert🚨: The Pentagon is about to close airspace just off the coast of Puerto Rico, where a number of F-35s are stationed.

🧾The White House is denying reports that the United States military is weighing a strike on Venezuelan military installations.
- 😳But at least two reports Friday said the attack could come at any moment.
  - Watch tonight📺: Retired Navy Vice Admiral John Miller on what the satellite imagery is showing about a possible strike.

It's ticking…🕥

🕰️The clock is ticking — SNAP benefits expire at midnight.

Reality check🥙: 42 million Americans who are relying on SNAP will find out at midnight if they have money for groceries next week.
- 👨‍⚖️Federal judges in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration is required to fund SNAP benefits using emergency funds.
- 👀But we will see if that money will arrive on time…
  - 💰States have turned to their own funds to help fill the gap —
    - 💸California is releasing $80 million to support food banks in their state.
    - 💸Connecticut is giving $3 million.
    - 💸Minnesota is giving $4 million.

🤷🏼‍♂️How long are Democrats willing to endure daily local news stories about people who can't feed their kids?

🤦🏼‍♂️Not only will people not be able to get groceries, America's travel is being hit.

✈️Ground delays hit many major airports due to staffing—
- Newark Airport in New Jersey
- Kennedy Airport in New York
- Boston Logan Airport
- Nashville
- Orlando
- Dallas

🗣️Now, Trump is calling for Republicans to us the "nuclear option."

🎤"It is now time for the Republicans to play their 'TRUMP CARD,' and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!" Trump posted to Truth Social.
- ❌But 15 Republican senators vote no to this — warning about what the Democrats will do in retaliation.
- 😶This was Speaker Mike Johnson's response…
  - 🎤"What you're seeing is an expression of the president's anger…It's not my call. I don't have a say in this...The filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe were on the other foot, I don't think our team would like it," Johnson said.

Watch tonight📺: Congressman Andy Harris, R-Md., on will this shutdown stretch past election day?

Civil War in the Republican Party 🥊

‼️There is a Civil War in the Republican party over antisemitism.

🤷🏼‍♂️What Tucker Carlson is doing on the Right is no different than pro-Hamas protests on the Left.

It's this cop-out🤦🏼‍♂️: "Oh I'm not antisemetic just because I'm criticizing Israel"

🗣️It didn't work when people chanted "from the river to the sea"
👎🏼And it's not going to work for Tucker Carlson, who hosted Hitler supporter, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and said:
- 🎤"Israel has always funded extremism throughout the Middle East, including Hamas, because it discredits the reasonable people. That's a fact."

Wow👀: Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., seems to be one of the very few Republicans to have a backbone — and actually speak up about this.

🎤"Now is a time for choosing. If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very cool and that their mission is to defeat 'global Jewry,' and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil," Cruz said.
🎤"The 'intellectual backbone of the conservative movement' is only as strong as the values it defends. Last I checked, 'conservatives should feel no obligation' to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats. But maybe I just don't know what time it is…" McConnell said.

Read this📰: Mediaite headlines "Anti-Semitism's Insidious Climb Back through the Overton Window"

"The only thing more disconcerting than the proliferation of virulent, overt anti-Semitism on both the left and right in recent years has been the mainstreaming of a less proud, but more insidious kind of Jew hatred in recent months," Isaac Schorr writes.

Watch tonight📺: Founder of Legal Insurrection William Jacobson and Executive Director of U.S. Israel Education Association Joan Leslie McGill joins us tonight.

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Every night during On Balance, Leland Vittert asks "why?" about the most pressing matters of the day, with an intellectual, balanced and sometimes irreverent take on the news.

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