Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Too Important to Solve 🚨

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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.

Epstein files takeaway 🗂️: We've told you for a while there isn't enough to charge anyone based on the new content from the Epstein files.

⚖️ The Department of Justice under the Bush administration through Trump 2.0 all looked — no one person is being protected.
The Epstein files prove the system is rotten
- 👷‍♂️A poor day laborer picks up a prostitute … he gets arrested and charged (we can debate the legality of prostitution later).
- 💼 The owner of a professional sports team trades emails about hiring Russian "pros," and it's business as usual.
Jeffrey Epstein proves there is one set of rules for the elite and another for everyone else.

Exciting 🚨: More than 20 years ago, a brave Vanity Fair journalist published one of the very first pieces on Epstein's life — she joins us tonight.

Politics is Downstream of Culture 🗳️

🎶 Did you see the Grammys? I didn't, but I didn't need to.

The highlights (or lowlights) were utterly predictable; celebrities went through verbal gymnastics to prove their anti-ICE outrage.
- 🎤 Bad Bunny: "Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say 'ICE out.' We're not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans."
- 🎤 Billie Eilish: "Nobody is illegal on stolen land. We need to keep fighting and speaking up. Our voices do matter."
- 🎤 Olivia Dean: "I'm up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant, I'm a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated."
I'll spare you the obvious snarky responses.

📺 Then there was "SNL" making fun of Melania Trump but also going after Tom Homan.

Thought bubble 💭:
- America according to late night 📺: A legal immigrant who becomes first lady is OK to mock, but ICE deporting illegal immigrants is the Gestapo — got it.

Politics is downstream of culture, and the culture shows no desire to solve the immigration problem. Politicians don't either.

Sadly, I have come to a conclusion: The immigration debate is too important to be solved.

Important 🚨: It's perfect for both sides.
- Let's review what both sides have done with immigration over the past few years.
  - Democrats 🫏: Open borders, sanctuary cities and violent clashes with ICE
  - Republicans 🐘: Closed border, overzealous ICE raids, refusal to negotiate
Solution ✅: The deal on immigration that we should have is obvious…
- ❌ A truly closed border
- 🌆 The end of all sanctuary cities and states in all forms
- 🚔 Immediate deportation of any illegal immigrant convicted of a crime or with a criminal record
- 💼 Permanent legal status and work status without a pathway to citizenship
It's so simple a caveman could figure it out.
- But neither side will compromise because it's much better as a fundraising and wedge issue.

Look back 🗓️: The original cultural warrior, Bill O'Reilly, figured out immigration would be the debate of our time in the early 2000s.

Watch 🎥: His debate with Geraldo Rivera 19 years ago.

Mamdami's Success ⛄️

🗑️ The only thing bigger than the snow piles in New York City are the trash piles.

One week after what should be a normal snowstorm, the city is wrapped in a warm blanket of collectivism.
- Wow 😮: Mamdami's work to turn the city into a social utopia is going faster than expected.
- Cheap shot? Mamdami walking around in his brand new "mayor" hardshell zip jacket is not going to age well.

Zoom out 📷: Deep-blue Northern Virginia isn't much better than NYC, where school is still closed – same with Maryland.

Zoom way out 📷: New census data shows seven of the top 10 states for new arrivals are red states.
- Four of the five states that experienced population decline were blue states.
- This is not a coincidence

Watch tonight 📺: Former Congressman Dean Phillips on whether the mass exodus is correlation or causation.

Sad 🚨: It's always the poorest among us who get hurt the most — they largely can't move.

WATCH ON BALANCE WEEKNIGHTS AT 9P/8C

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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