Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Why Are You Still Alive?!?

Encourage friends and family to subscribe to War Notes here.

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.

TSA lines for thee and not me✈️: You can't hate Congress enough.

🤦They get paid during government shutdowns and get to skip the three-hour TSA lines we all stand in because they won't pay TSA.
📹Per this video – it's bipartisan hackery at its worst.

It's free🎧: Don't forget to subscribe to my sister's insightful, thought-provoking and actually good podcast — "Amended!"

Her publicist emails🎤: Our fifth episode of "Amended!," "Legally Allowed to Be Annoying in Public," covering the Assembly Clause of the First Amendment, is now live.
- Thought bubble💬: Never thought I would be getting emails from my sister's publicist

Ungracious loser👎: Chicago congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh perfectly personified the toxic empathy of America's angry, young, credentialed rich socialists

🗣️After losing the primary, she addressed her supporters:
- 🎤Abughazaleh: "Every single loss like this one will make the path easier for the next person who takes the same chance… I'm sorry that this sucks but f-ck Trump, f-ck ICE, free Palestine. And I love you all."
  - ‼️Don't forget this was the girl who was thrown to the ground by ICE agents and blocked a federal agent's vehicle.
🗣️And not to mention similar and explicit language garnered supporters for Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, who won last night's Democratic primary race — this was one of her ads:
- "Voters: F-ck Trump. Vote Juliana. F-ck Trump. Vote Juliana. F-ck Trump. Vote Juliana.
- Juliana Stratton: They said it. Not me. I'm Juliana, and I am proud to say I've lived my whole life on the South Side of Chicago. I'm not scared of a wannabe dictator. I'm running for Senate to stand up to Trump. I'll abolish ICE and hold Trump accountable for the crimes he's committed. Just like they said:
- Voters: F-ck Trump. F-ck Trump.
- Gov JB Pritzker: Vote Juliana.
- Juliana Stratton: That's why I approve this message."
✏️Former Clinton star Jamie Metzl tweeted:
- "It is profoundly disturbing that a growing segment of the far left appears to be almost rooting for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime, and other forces fundamentally opposed to the United States and our allies. This seems to reflects a corrosive strain of anti-Americanism, dressed up in postcolonial theory, that risks blinding us to the moral realities of our world and the nature of our adversaries."
Programming alert: Metzl joins us tomorrow night.

Survival of Western civilization‼️: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified today about the coming clash between Western values and expansionist Islam.

Two things can be true ☑️: Gabbard is a dangerous isolationist with questionable loyalties — and in this case, she is correct.

There Is a Reason We Like Spy Movies 🎥

‼️Israel's targeted killing of Iranian generals is nothing short of extraordinary — yet we don't know if it will work.

🗣️ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Iranians to go into the streets and promised air support from the Israeli air force and intel from the Mossad
- ‼️It is the most significant moment since the war began.
- 👏For those who keep asking when the war will end, it's happening in less than 18 days — extraordinary.
🎥We all love James Bond and Jason Bourne — that is now playing out in Tehran right now
- 📰The Wall Street Journal headlines: "Israel Is Hunting Down Iranian Regime Members in Their Hideouts, One by One"
  - ‼️The WSJ obtained, aka the Israelis gave them, a taped conversation of a Mossad officer threatening an Iranian general and his family with death.
  - ‼️He promised not to attack protesters
- 📱The Mossad now claims to be working on the ground — just as videos purporting to show drive-by videos of the Basij militia show up online
The regime counts on the Basij as its last line of defense to put down a rebellion — now, its members are abandoning their posts

🤷Israel and the United States don't need to kill everyone in the Iranian leader depth chart.

It's no coincidence that Netanyahu showed Mike Huckabee a chart of who they were picking off.
👀Israel needs to kill enough that they all start suspecting each other — why are you still alive? Are you the one collaborating with Israel?
- 🧠The Israelis are masters at this.

‼️This is how you do regime change from within.

📖That said, this is Israel's Hamas and Hezbollah playbook; it's never worked to destroy either terror group.

📰The Economist headlines, "The killing of Ali Larijani weakens Iran — but at a cost," writing:

✏️"The regime is now less predictable"
Response: I love The Economist — but the regime could be more unpredictable. They predictably slaughtered 35,000 of their own people.

Watch tonight📺: Retired Brig. Gen. John Teichert and Doron Kempel join us.

2028 Cage Match 👊

Eye on the only thing👀: JD Vance is realizing that the only thing that matters to the American people is the economy — you win elections by making lives better … that's it.

🎤Vance today in Michigan: "This is a temporary blip. Okay? What happened under the Biden administration is the gas prices were high for four years…It's not going to last forever, we're going to take care of business, we're going to come back home, and when that happens you're going to see energy prices come back down to reality."

🤷But reality is Democrats on the economy are more unpopular:

🤦Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was elected to make things cheaper, but she hasn't because there isn't much to do.
😍And now everyone is gaga for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker after his handpicked Senate candidate won last night's Illinois Dem primary
- ✏️Politico writes: "Everything's coming up Pritzker: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had a triumphant primary night as his top pick in a hotly contested Senate race cruised to victory. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is now on course to be Illinois' next senator after besting Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi by nearly 7 points in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. Rep. Robin Kelly pulled up third. Assuming she wins in November, Stratton will become only the sixth black woman to have ever served in the chamber."
- 🤷But once again, Democrats have to answer if they really want America to look like Illinois
  - Illinois is one of the most indebted states
  - Less than 1 in 3 fourth graders met the reading standards
  - They have the highest property tax rate in the country.
  - One of the slowest-growing economies since 2019 — and it's only going to get worse as Pritzker wants to raise taxes.
  - What I am hearing: A senior Democrat strategist tells me Pritzker's lost weight, and he looks great.
Complaining 🤦: New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the real problem is rich people leaving because of high taxes.

Both sides⚖️: The American electorate is angry because they don't think the economy is fair anymore

They aren't mad at one party — they are angry at the system — and while both sides promise, neither will actually tear down the system.

Watch tonight 📺: Former Biden economic adviser and Stanford economist Ryan Cummings joins us — I always like having people on who are smarter than me.

"Israel First is not America First"

👋Joe Kent resigned from the administration yesterday.

🗣️He called Trump an Israeli and Jewish stooge and is going on Tucker Carlson tonight.

🤦We are being told over and over again that the antisemitic, isolationist wing of the Republican Party doesn't exist ... but it 100% does.

✏️Caroline Sunshine worked for Trump last time around and tweeted this about Kent's resignation letter:
- "If it's true that '90% of MAGA' supports this new war, this letter wouldn't have 553,000 likes and 54 million views."

Be fair⚖️: What is the argument of those who claim to be "America First" but didn't want to confront America's No. 1 enemy from the past 50 years?

Can they make it without saying the word "Israel"?

Watch tonight📺: We'll ask Sunshine about it tonight.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

@lelandvittert

@onbalancewithlelandvittert

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.

Make sure to let us know your thoughts on social media and by replying to this email.

See the latest videos and coverage from On Balance