Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Compromise = Suicide ❌

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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.

Just wow ‼️: White progressives reportedly calling a Black ICE officer a "house N-word" after a confrontation. Click here to watch the video.

📺 The cheap comparison is to the Kentucky kid with the MAGA hat at the Lincoln Memorial that CNN went wall to wall with for a day.
The better question 💭: How did we get here, and how do we come back from it?
- I have an idea, at least to answer the first part of that question.
  - 🏫 Many American schools are now ideological factories, teaching a neo-Marxist progressive worldview.
    - 📣 Look at the anti-ICE student walkouts either celebrated or certainly condoned by school districts across the country
      - Could you imagine if these were pro-life marches?
Watch tonight 📺: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. is back on the program.

Savannah Guthrie's mom 🚨: Every time the Pima County sheriff appears on TV, I think about Andy Griffith and not in a good way.

He and his department appear terribly ill-prepared to deal with both the crime and the attention.
Do your job 🚔: Every time I look up, the sheriff is on TV — how about actually doing police work and taking the curtain call once the case is solved?
- 🚨 TMZ is reporting they received an alleged ransom note … is this real?
  - They claim the note has details about the crime scene.

Watch tonight 📺: James Gagliano, formerly of the FBI, on why the bureau hasn't taken over the case. Plus, he'll tell us how often the elderly are targeted like this.

Compromise = Suicide ❌

❌ Compromise in Washington is no longer a dirty word — it's political suicide.

Both sides are trying to enforce a no-compromise rule.
- 🗳️ Democrats are threatening any member who voted to reopen the government.
  - 🥊 21 Democrats crossed the aisle to reopen the government, and the fight is already on.
- 🗳️ Republicans are doing the same.
  - President Trump threatened to primary Rep. Thomas Massie over his perspective on the funding bill. Massie still voted no today.

American politics wasn't always a zero-sum game.

Look back 🗳️: Members of Congress used to advertise their bipartisan compromises when running for reelection.
- Now, those ads would get you primaried.
Purity test ❌: Then came the Tea Party, and now, we're seeing a similar Democratic purge of the moderates.

Perfect test: Immigration (as we pointed out last night) provides a perfect example of what we are talking about.

The White House is touting polling that shows:
- ❌ 73% want criminal illegal aliens deported
- ❌ 61% want all illegal aliens deported
- 🚔 67% want state and local officials to cooperate with ICE.
📉 These are things President Trump is doing and enforcing — yet, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has him at 39% approval on immigration.

Watch tonight 📺: Mark Halperin and Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on whether Republicans should compromise and why they won't.

Iran Drone Strikes 💣

Shots fired 🛳️: An F-35 from the USS Abraham Lincoln shot down an Iranian drone.

The U.S. military claimed it was self-defense.

Fair question 💭: Why is the USS Abraham Lincoln — and an "armada" bigger than the one off Venezuela — off the coast of Iran? What does President Trump want?

Look forward: He should want the end of the ayatollah and the Islamic Republic.
"Art of the Deal" 🤝: So why is he talking about making a deal over Iran's nuclear program?
- Thought bubble 💭: I thought Iran's nuclear program was over because of Operation Midnight Hammer?

Watch tonight 📺: Ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, D-Wash., joins us.

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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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