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Opinion - Leland Vittert's War Notes: Fighting With Trump
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 pm ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.
Weather watch: Thunderstorms could cancel or postpone President Trump's military parade on Saturday.
Who can argue with this: Florida's Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey on how his county is handling rioters:
'If you throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains at. Because we will kill you, graveyard dead. We're not gonna play.'
I don't get it: Members of Congress have big staffs – they could easily come up with some really good lines of questioning for Cabinet secretaries they don't like.
Yet they choose to lecture and name-call.
Case in point: Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a House Armed Services Committee hearing earlier today:
'I'm not going to waste my time anymore. You're not worthy of my attention or my questions. You're an embarrassment to this country. You're unfit to lead …you should just get the hell out,' Carbajal said.
It's a both sides thing – Republicans would lecture Biden's Cabinet picks. I don't get it.
It's pretty clear that California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants a fight with President Trump – he has one.
Newsom is willing to have riots in his state to force the square-off.
Now, his new attack line is that Trump is losing it – just like former President Joe Biden declined.
From Axios: 'Newsom's jabs at Trump's age are part of a barrage of criticisms he's tossed at Trump in the past week. He's called Trump a threat to democracy who is putting the U.S. on a road to authoritarianism.'
Points for style: The age and Biden comparisons will get under Trump's skin.
Click here to look at Gov. Newsom's official website – more about Trump than anything else.
I have just one question for Newsom Central Casting – who has ever won a fight against Donald Trump?
Elon Musk – the richest man on Earth – just came crawling back apologizing.
Crowded path: Two more Democratic governors also want to carry the Trump-resistance flag.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Trump would have to come through him to arrest illegal aliens.
Earlier today, he ended up getting bashed in front of Congress by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-N.M. – no, seriously, watch it
Gill: Do you think men should be allowed in women's restrooms?
Pritzker: I'm not sure why this has come to this issue.
Gill: You tweeted: 'As a protest against President Trump, everyone should use the other gender's bathroom today.' Have you ever used the women's restroom?
Pritzker: Not that I can recall.
Gill: So you just wanted everybody else to do it, but you didn't?
Pritzker: …
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared ICE to the Gestapo.
Today, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., asked Walz about his comments, and it didn't go well for Walz.
Watch the full interaction here.
'Why Gavin Newsom Will Never Be President,' headlines our friend Batya Ungar-Sargon in The Free Press.
Newsom and Democrats clearly have (some) deeply-held beliefs – namely, opposing Trump even on relatively popular issues.
Only Trump: For Trump, 'flexibility' gets him out of everything.
During the campaign, he promised to deport everyone – but just said farm workers could stay.
is logic as explained in a Truth Social post is something only he could come up with: 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!' Trump writes.
In other words: If the Department of Homeland Security deports illegal immigrants who are working on farms, then other illegal immigrants (criminals let in under Joe Biden) will take their jobs.
Ok – as I said, only Trump would argue this.
But his base will buy it, and the Republican Party will get behind it.
More: From the 'Fighting with Trump' files – who thought tackling a United States senator was a good idea?
Well, it actually appears that Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., got exactly what he wanted.
Fellow Democrats now have a cause celebrity – one of their own who 'confronted' the Trump administration.
Padilla crashed a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in his home state of California.
'I'm Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,' video catches the senator saying as he pushes towards the secretary and then the Secret Service pushes him out of the room.
Click here to watch Padilla being shoved to the ground.
To be fair: Law enforcement right now – especially Secretary Noem's Secret Service detail – feels embattled.
For what it's worth: Noem later met with Padilla and said her Secret Service detail had no idea who he was and viewed him as a potential attacker as he pushed forward.
Question: Who thinks walking up to a podium surrounded by Secret Service is a good idea?
Here is the video of the confrontation.
It's hard to fault the Secret Service.
It's hard to argue with Noem, who called Padilla's stunt 'political theater.'
Even CNN seems to agree.
Watch tonight: Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., joins us on the program to discuss the incident.
I have followed events in the Middle East long enough to know that nobody really knows what will happen.
The closest you will get to knowing what will happen in the Middle East is Barak Ravid of Axios – read his dispatch here.
Bill O'Reilly told Chris Cuomo last night that this weekend is the weekend Israel will decide if they hit Iran, dependent on whether the U.S. makes a deal with Iran:
'There is no plan B – the mullahs are going to have to stop now. Whether they will or not, if I had to bet tonight, I would say there will be a deal because once the military thing is in motion, that's the end of Tehran. … So if the mullahs want to go and commit suicide, then they won't make the deal. I'm betting they don't want to commit, they always take it up to the brink, but this time with Israel ready to go right now … if this doesn't work this weekend, then all hell is going to break loose,' O'Reilly warned.
Look back: In 2012, I canceled vacation after vacation to stay in Israel as a Middle East correspondent because that's when Israel would attack Iran.
Good tactics: It's in Trump's best interest for Iran and the world to think the Israelis might strike.
Go deeper: Listen to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and journalist Bari Weiss warn about the Iran-friendly wing of MAGA.
Thought bubble: It's perplexing to me why Trump doesn't return to the maximum pressure campaign, bankrupt Iran and force regime change from within.
He could do it without the Israelis or the U.S. dropping a single bomb.
Why give the ayatollah a way out or to survive?
Tune into 'On Balance with Leland Vittert' weeknights at 9/8 CT on NewsNation. Find your channel here.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.
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