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.

Super Bowl review 🏈: The Super Bowl is one of those things that *used to* bring everyone together — something we don't have anymore. Everyone watches it and talks about it.

🤦And now here we are — it is now a metaphor for what America has become. It's splitting up everyone.
- 👎The game was bad.
- 🤦The controversy of the halftime show was dopey — so was the halftime show.
- 👎And the commercials sucked.
  - I don't know what the NFL is doing, but they are ruining something that used to be really great in America.
  - 🍽️The best thing for me was the buffalo chicken dip.
📺6 million people decided to watch Turning Point USA's All-American halftime show.
- 👀The Left wants to make fun of those people, and that's why they lost the election in 2016 and 2024.
- Zoom out 🌎: 6 million is a lot more than there are active voters in Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia — that's enough to change an election.

SAVE America Act🗳️: Suddenly, there is a need for "saving America" — to be fair, both sides say America needs it.

‼️Republicans want to save America by requiring ID at polling stations.
- Fair question: Where is the evidence of mass voter fraud that would make this necessary?
📃The SAVE America Act is the GOP's flagship election bill, aimed at tightening voter ID rules and reshaping federal oversight of elections.
- 🪪The bill would require proof of citizenship to vote, which Axios says can be —
  - "A REAL ID-compliant ID showing citizenship;
  - a passport;
  - a military ID with proof of U.S. birth;
  - a government-issued photo ID showing U.S. birth, or other government-issued photo ID with a birth certificate, other proof of U.S. birth or naturalization documents."
Zoom out 🌎: Having voter ID requirements makes sense to 83% of America, according to a Pew Research poll.
Watch tonight 📺: Rep Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on whether Republicans will do to the voter ID issue what they did to immigration.

The clock is ticking 🚨: The search for Nancy Guthrie enters its ninth day, and the second ransom note deadline is for 5 p.m. MT today.

‼️The 5 p.m. deadline comes with a demand of $6 million in Bitcoin and threats to Nancy's life if the deadline isn't met, says CNN.
📱Savannah Guthrie posted a new video today pleading for the public's help in finding her mom.
- 🎤Savannah: "Ask you not just for prayers … If you see anything, if you hear anything, if there's anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement. We are in an hour of desperation, and we need your help."
  - 🤷Is this how law enforcement gets the kidnappers to turn against each other?
🔎Over the weekend, police searched the septic tank behind Nancy's home
- 📸And NewsNation's Brian Entin reported lots of police activity at Nancy's daughter Annie's house this weekend, with deputies taking photos inside.
Watch tonight 📺: NewsNation's Brian Entin on the ground in Tucson, Arizona, with the latest.
- Plus➕: Former FBI Special Agent Chris Swecker and former CIA officer Tracy Walder
  - Swecker made news over the weekend asking if this really was a kidnapping

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The Epstein Saga ‼️

👎One thing that has bothered so many Americans about this whole sordid affair is what the Epstein files have exposed — an aristocracy in America, devoid of any moral compass.

‼️It's revolting the number of people claiming the moral high ground who looked the other way on Epstein's crimes to enrich themselves.
💸Rich and powerful men and women looked past Epstein's crimes for access to maintain their fortunes and status
- Prince Andrew
- Howard Lutnick
- Richard Branson
- Steve Bannon
- Elon Musk
- Bill Gates
- Owner of the New York Giants
- Owner of the Philadelphia 76ers
- Bill Clinton
- Katie Couric
- Woody Allen
- The list goes on and on
  - 🤦All these people hung out with him when they knew he was a predator, but they thought he could help them.
  - 👎They turned their heads to this.
  - Good read 📰: The New York Times headlines: "Now We Know What All Those People Got From Epstein"
Fair ⚖️: President Trump did cut him off a long time before most people did.
- 🤷Where are the calls for the other people to be held to account like Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos, who were playing around with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction?

‼️The unredacted files were opened to Congress today, but why can't the rest of us see them?

Giving it to Congress means we will all see (hear about them) soon enough.

Watch tonight 📺: Yemisi Egbewole and Philip Wegmann on why the Epstein files won't stop.

Expansionist Islam ‼️

🗣️We have been told for years you can't talk about expansionist Islam because it's Islamophobia.

🎤After the Sydney Beach massacre, I made the point that expansionist Islam and Western values are not compatible. Watch here.
- Everyone said I was being Islamophobic because "you don't understand Islam is peaceful."
- 📺Well, watch New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who told us from the Quran how expansionist Islam works
  - 🎤Mamdani: "I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration. The story of the Hijrah reminds us that … Muhammad … was a stranger too."
    - Zoom out 🌎: This is the mayor of the biggest city in America, and he is saying what we have been warning you guys about.
    - ‼️Islam commands its people to immigrate and then force the infidels to convert.
Watch tonight 📺: Dalia Ziada on the warnings for America before it's too late.

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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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