Leland Vittert’s War Notes: The Epstein Drumbeat🥁

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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.

Editor's note ✏️: NewsNation's Chris Cillizza will be taking the desk tomorrow night.

☀️"War Notes" will take a long weekend break and see you Monday!

Irony 🚨: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is issuing the exact same warnings about Iran to President Trump as he did to President Obama.

🎤Netanyahu: "If an agreement is indeed reached, then it must include the elements that are very important from our perspective, from Israel's perspective, and in my opinion not only Israel's. It's not just the nuclear issue, it's also the ballistic missiles and it's also the Iranian proxies."
President Trump is signaling that, at least for now, the U.S. prefers direct negotiations with Iran over military confrontation.
Watch tonight📺: Retired Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt and Joel Rubin on whether making a second deal with Iran will be as foolish as the first.

DHS vs. Minnesota‼️: The Trump administration finally decided to end its controversial immigration crackdown in Minnesota

The move reflects both the political backlash and logistical challenges of Trump's aggressive mass deportation tactics.
Dear God🤦: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in today's Senate hearings was embarrassing.
Watch tonight📺: Mick Mulvaney and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.

Check your videos📷: We are now entering Day 12 since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home, and investigators are intensifying their search, sweeping the surrounding Arizona foothills.

🚨Investigators are asking Nancy's neighbors for all video footage from January 1 to February 2 —
- ‼️Especially video from January 11 between 9 p.m and midnight along with January 31 between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.
- 📱The alert was sent to anyone within a two-mile radius of Nancy's home.
- 🗣️Local Arizona news outlets are reporting there was a suspicious vehicle seen at around 10 a.m on January 31.
📷There is a new video on the FBI's radar showing a suspicious man the night Nancy disappeared around five miles from Nancy's house.
- ‼️The video was taken at 1:52 a.m., says TMZ.
Wow 🤦: Law enforcement sources tell NewsNation some investigators on the case don't know if the Pima County sheriff is in charge or the FBI
💔Today, Savannah Guthrie posted another heartfelt video showing her mom with her and her siblings as kids.
- ✏️Savannah: "our lovely mom. 💛we will never give up on her. thank you for your prayers and hope"
Watch tonight📺: NewsNation's Brian Entin on the ground in Tucson, Arizona
- Plus➕: Former CIA officer and FBI Special Agent Tracy Walder with former FBI Special Agent Chris Swecker.

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Bipartisan Buffoonery 🤪

Tonight's buffoonery from the Right and the Left

🐘The winner on the Right tonight is Newsmax host Carl Higbie accusing the Trump administration of engaging in a "cover-up" of the Epstein files
- 🎤Higbie: "Bill Barr…Merrick Garland, Bush, Obama, all of them, they all failed. They all failed! Which is why we re-elected Donald Trump in part, to fix this problem, and now it's on your plate, Pam Bondi. You took that in by taking this job…This is either a cover-up or it's incompetence, and I want somebody to go to jail for it. At a minimum, anybody involved with screwing this up should no longer work at the DOJ or have a law license or anything."
  - 🤦I honestly don't understand what he is saying.
  - People should go to jail because you, Carl, don't like things? Thank God that's not how America works.
🫏And the Left's winner: These 11 Democrat candidates from Illinois
- 📃These candidates posted a flyer for a meet and greet they are hosting — but when you look closely, it says to "bring ID for check-in"
  - 💭I wonder how these 11 candidates feel about voter ID — you know the issue that 80% of Americans agree with, including a vast majority of Black and Hispanic voters yet Democrats oppose like a shibboleth.
  - The hypocrisy is palpable🤦: They are requiring people to bring an ID to enter their event, yet they refuse to vote for the "Save America Act," which aims to make elections more secure.

The Epstein Drumbeat 🥁

🤦Democrats have attached political hopes to the idea that they can keep hammering away at the Epstein files and truth needs to be found to save the victims.

Reality check✅: We already know the real truth —
- ‼️Five different Department of Justices looked at this and didn't find anything to prosecute anyone else on —
  - Bush administration
  - Obama administration
  - Trump 1.0 administration
  - Biden administration
  - Trump 2.0 administration
Drumbeat🥁: It's this drumbeat that people have that there are people who committed crimes and got away with it — but there's just not evidence on that.
- 📺Last night, we asked Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., on who she and Democrats think should be prosecuted, and she couldn't give a name. Watch.
Remember‼️: The DOJ has said before that they've reviewed the files, done the investigation, and the case "is over."
- 🤦The idea that Attorney General Pam Bondi is going to do more investigation in this is silly — she already said they aren't going to.
🤷Democrats are now doing what Republicans did before the election:
- Claim a vast conspiracy
- Promise accountability
- Pound table and say Epstein was horrible — fact check true
- Demand accountability when no one can find evidence of a conspiracy they claim exists.

Watch tonight📺: Rep Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. We'll see if he has any names or if he is just going to pound the table and demand investigations.

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