Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Abolish ICE vs. the Insurrection Act ‼️

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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.

Born Lucky in Chicago ✈️: I want to see you this Saturday at Kenilworth Union Church.

✏️The GREAT Ben Bradley of WGN-TV will interview me and then I'll be signing copies of "Born Lucky" from 2 to 3 p.m.
- 📚Click HERE to RSVP.

Special!‼️ You can listen to "Born Lucky" on Audible

🎧I narrated the audiobook.
💸Audible members get a discounted price until the end of January.
📗Click HERE.

Trump gets his prize 🏅: Katie Pavlich joins us tonight — she has new details on President Trump finally getting the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Venezuelan opposition leader gave him the medal she got a month ago after a daring escape from the country.
🤷Will it be enough for Trump to back her for president of Venezuela?
👀Right now, Trump seems happy taking the country's oil and not dealing with the increasingly defiant leadership.

Who Blinks First? 🤷

‼️The immigration battle is now between Democrats who want to abolish or fight ICE and Republicans who threaten to send in the troops.

🗣️Democrats say it's everyone's patriotic duty to fight ICE because they are kidnapping people

‼️Democrats are taking them up on this and actively engaging in violent resistance.
📱Last night, there's video of rioters breaking into ICE cars and stealing guns.
- 🎤Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: "To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis."
- 🎤Governor Tim Walz: "Donald Trump wants this chaos. … He wants more violence on our streets."
- 🎤Jennifer Welch: "This is absolutely no different than Hitler's Gestapo."
- 🎤Charlamagne tha God: "They just feel like ICE is out to kill everybody. All of this is a powder keg waiting to blow."
- 🎤Minneapolis man: "Make it personally expensive for anyone who comes here to attack our community. Every moment ICE is delayed will mean the difference between our rights not being trampled on..."
  - No surprise🤷: People are taking them up on this — last night, rioters broke into cars of federal law enforcement and stole weapons.

🚨Republicans led by Trump say it's time to send in the troops — the Insurrection Act.

✏️Trump: "If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State."
🤦Not to be outdone, Republican lawmakers keep raising the stakes.
- 🎤Secretary Kristi Noem: "We are there. We're doubling down in Minneapolis."
- 🎤Stephen Miller: The insurrectionists have come out of hiding. … This is a national security priority."
- 🎤Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla.: "He's fomenting a second Civil War… Jacob Frey should be arrested."
- 🎤Steve Bannon: "Let it explode… Let 'em get out of control. Bring in the army and put it down."

Off-ramp 🛣️: Both parties are putting us on a path toward something really awful happening.

Reality🤷: ICE is acting within the law, but just because things are lawful doesn't make them right or prudent.

Context 🧾: Our buddy Chris Cilliza points out that there is danger for both sides.

ICE is winning in the court but losing in the court of opinion.
📊According to a YouGov poll:
- 📅Today: 52% of Americans disagree on how ICE is handling its mission, while 39% approve.
  - 📉That's a -13% approval.
  - 📅A year ago: It was a +16% approval of how ICE does its job.
    - 📉This is a 29% negative swing.

Sad 😞: Both parties think they're winning by going to the extreme — and neither side sees value in compromise.

Look back 🔙: We told you about a year ago there is an easy compromise.
- 🤷End all sanctuary policies in return for an end to nontargeted ICE raids.

Watch tonight📺: The great Mark Halperin on why there is no desire for a compromise.

Look back 🔙: Why is it so hard for Democrats to say what Barack Obama campaigned on in 2008?

Plus Swing County Showdown ➕: A Pennsylvania sheriff says his office will no longer work with ICE.

📺Sheriff Danny Ceisler joins us tonight — he's the lawman in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
- 👀Bucks went 49.6% for Trump in 2024.

Bipartisan Buffoonery 🤪

🤪 Tonight's buffoonery from the Left and the Right.

🐘The winner on the Right tonight is Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., in her interview with NewsNation's Connell McShane.
- 🎤Connell: "Your husband bought stock in Elon Musk's xAI days before the Pentagon expanded its role. Can you assure us it wasn't based on inside info?"
- 🎤McClain: "100%. If it was, we would've bought a heck of a lot more."
🫏And on the Left: MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell
- 🎤O'Donnell: "In giving that little finger yesterday, Donald Trump created a national hero who takes his place in history with more dignity than Donald Trump has ever mustered. When Donald Trump walks by, everyone has a First Amendment right to say 'pedophile protector.'"

Sad Reality in Iran‼️

🙏We can only hope Trump's decision not to bomb Iran won't just embolden the regime to kill more protesters —my bet is it does.

🤷Why would protesters keep risking their lives when help from America isn't coming?
👀Nobody should believe when the regime claims it's stopping executions or slaughtering protesters.
- 📰The New York Times: Iran says protester was not sentenced to death after international outcry
Sad Reality🧾: New reporting shows military advisers told Trump what we've been telling you for a week — you can't have regime change from the air.

Watch tonight 📺: Retired Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Shelby Talcott and Zahra Amanpour on reports saying America's allies in the Middle East stopped Trump from attacking Iran, but the White House pushed back against this news — what's the truth?

➕Plus, NewsNation's Kellie Meyer.

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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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