Leland Vittert’s War Notes: T’was the week before Christmas 🎄

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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.

See you in New York 🗽: Well, Massapequa Park to be exact.

Speaking from the pulpit 📺: Of the nearly 170 interviews I've done for "Born Lucky," "Personally Speaking with Msgr. Jim Lisante" is among my favorites.
- ⛪️ He graciously invited me to address his parish — Our Lady of the Lourdes in Massapequa Park, New York.
- 🎤 I'll speak at 10:30 a.m. ET mass on December 14.
- Nervous 😨: I have never spoken at a church before — yikes!
📚If you can't make it, "Born Lucky" is still available on Amazon ahead of the holidays. At its core, "Born Lucky" is a message of hope.

Wow😱: The shocking win in Georgia this week could spell trouble for Trump's hopes of flipping John Ossoff's Senate seat come 2026, and maybe even cost the GOP the governor's seat.

Tonight📺: Eric Gisler joins us after he flipped a deep-red House seat in the state — a seat that's been in the GOP's hands for decades.

The Healthcare 'Countdown'⏰: Nothing gets Congress to spend money like a combination of the holidays, a deadline and a countdown clock on cable news.

- ⏱️Yesterday, CNN showed a countdown saying "Obamacare Subsidies Expire"
Zoom out🌎: Democrats and their friends in the media want nothing more than a crisis before Christmas to force a vote.
Too much to ask🎤: How about we actually work to fix our healthcare system?
Watch tonight📺: Yemisi Egbewole and Annalyse Keller on who will cave first?

What took so long?❓: University of Michigan's head football coach Sherrone Moore was on the sidelines last weekend, now he is sitting in a jumpsuit in jail.

🚔Today, Sherrone was charged with home invasion and stalking.
- 📄Details from the prosecutor:
  - Moore and the victim, a football staff member, had a relationship.
  - The victim broke up with him on Monday
  - Sherrone continued to call and text.
  - She told school officials which led to him being fired for having an inappropriate relationship with an inferior on Wednesday
  - Moore then went to the victim's house and barged his way inside
  - He went to kitchen, grabbed butter knives and scissors and started threatening his own life
😳The 39-year-old head coach has a wife and three kids — yet follows some people on Instagram that a married father of the three should not.
🤦🏼‍♂️Much like Governor Tim Walz ignored obvious evidence of Somali fraud, why did University of Michigan ignore obvious issues with their head coach.

Watch tonight📺: College football sideline reporter for ESPN Stephanie Otey joins us tonight.

Hurting the Victims‼️

🎄'Twas the week before Christmas and all the world will be talking about is Jeffrey Epstein — next week is the first deadline for release of the Epstein files, but Democrats wanted to get ahead of the game.

🤦🏼‍♂️Democrats try the old guilty by association ploy, releasing selective pictures to paint President Trump in the worst possible light.

👀The last time they did this, the person's name they redacted is the one person who said Trump never did anything wrong.
🤣But Democrats think they have Trump.
- 📸They are releasing pictures, but not providing context — like time or date
  - 👀Of the 70 pictures released most don't even have Epstein in them.
- 🤷🏼‍♂️How is anyone supposed to defend themselves when we have zero additional information about what was happening when these pictures were taken?
  - 📸The photo of Trump with women that Epstein had in his possesion… This is somehow supposed to prove something?
  - 📷Alan Dershowitz had charges against him withdrawn because they were false — now the Democrats release pictures of him with Epstein
    - 🤦🏼‍♂️Why? Just to mess with him?
‼️Either these women were trafficked to other men or they were not.
- 🗣️If they were, few are talking about it.
- ✅The exception proves the rule: The one that Epstein trafficked women to for sure was Prince Andrew — and we know about him.

🔥Releasing pictures on a Friday morning thinking it's a slow news morning is like pouring gasoline on embers — it cheapens the whole idea that we have victims we need justice for.

🗂️Democrats have most, if not all, of the files and this is the best photos they got?
- 🎞️Grainy black and white photos of fully clothed people?
- 🤦🏼‍♂️Stop with the 'if you knew what I knew' and just put them out or be quiet.

Watch tonight📺: Our power panel Ben Weider, Tom Dupree and Rachel Foster on why the cheap political tactics hurt the victims without finding justice.

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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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