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 7 p.m. ET show.

BIG congratulations to the NewsNation team for last night’s debate!

Disrespecting Institutions 

President Biden won’t commit to debating the next Republican nominee.

• Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) of the Daily Mail scoops this from Tuscaloosa.  
  • Quoting a Biden campaign official: “Fulks said ‘we’ll have those conversations’ while pointing out that GOP frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, has skipped the primary debates.”
• Fact check: Forget primary debates, Biden and the DNC have rigged the entire primary process to ensure no one can challenge Biden in the primary.
• Thought bubble: Few things speak to American democracy like public debate among candidates — from the Lincoln-Douglas debate to Reagan versus Carter and Clinton versus Trump. For a sitting president who constantly speaks about defending democracy, how does ignoring our most important traditions help?
• Watch: The great George Will joins us tonight on why debates actually matter.

Can you imagine a Biden versus Robert F. Kennedy debate?

• Kennedy would talk about Hunter Biden’s business deals.
• Biden would counter with new accusations about RFK’s flights on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane. ✈️

Debate Debrief

Requiring colleges and universities to underwrite the liability of their own student loans was an idea from Ron DeSantis and was one of the more interesting of a few substantive proposals from last night’s final RNC debate of 2023. 

• Watch: Trish Regan (@trish_regan) will join tonight at 7 p.m. ET discussing if this idea is possible, and while we’re at it, the possibility of taxing university endowments and their massive investment gains.
  • Fun fact: Harvard’s endowment is bigger than the GDP of Tunisia.

The moderators, including our own Elizabeth Vargas (@EVargasTV), asked questions the first three debates missed about topics that really matter to voters.

• Unlike past debates, the moderators carefully and successfully navigated the balance between letting the candidates talk while not losing control. 

In case you missed it:

• DeSantis had his best performance yet but didn’t break through his weird smile problem. DeSantis also got “confused” when confronted with Trump’s fitness for office after his attack ads on Trump.
  • Thought bubble: His performance prevented Nikki Haley from having a breakout moment. 
• Haley played it safe but got in a good line when DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy ganged up on her. She failed to capitalize on her momentum.
  • Thought bubble: Playing it safe works when you are 40 points up like Donald Trump. It doesn’t work 30 points down.
• Ramaswamy’s withering attacks on Haley and DeSantis didn’t land.
  • Thought bubble: What happened to happy and inspirational Ramaswamy? He had momentum this summer in Iowa, but will hammering Haley on geography questions help him get it back? 
• Chris Christie proved he should have run for president in 2012. He would have crushed Mitt Romney in the primary and would have likely prosecuted the Benghazi disaster much better in the debate against Obama. 
• The overall winner, as we predicted in War Notes yesterday, was Donald Trump. His former deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley (@JHoganGidley) joined us on the predebate show last night in Title Town (Tuscaloosa for non-SEC fans) and noted “if (Trump) were here, he’d suck all the oxygen out of the room. He’s not here and he still sucks all the oxygen out of the room.” 

Cleanup at Harvard, MIT, and UPenn

The University of Pennsylvania board of trustees reportedly called an emergency meeting after their president’s disaster-filled congressional testimony where she couldn’t say if calling for the genocide of Jews violates the university’s code of conduct against harassment.

• She tried to clean it up with a pathetic video statement. 

The president of Harvard put out an equally weak written statement trying to clean it up.

• But as Harriet Alexander (@h_alexander) from the Daily Mail reports, it might not be enough for the donors calling for her resignation.
• This is especially true because, despite extensive video evidence, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT have not punished a single student for chants celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks or calling for the murder of Jews. It shouldn’t be a surprise. 

If you watch one thing, it should be this incredible video by Maya Sulkin (@SulkinMaya) from The Free Press.  

• At Harvard, “fatphobia” constitutes violence, but “globalize the intifada” requires context.

Meanwhile in Gaza 

As Hamas gunmen start surrendering, the U.N. chief invokes a rarely-used article allowing for a call for an urgent cease-fire as “nowhere is safe in Gaza.” 

• The rest of the Arab world wants Hamas destroyed, but the terrorist group still has a few friends left at the United Nations.
  • They are such good friends that the U.N. lets Hamas operate near its facilities for things like launching rockets.
  • The Israelis responded with the Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) saying, “Instead of bringing the October 7 monsters to justice, the UN Secretary-General is using his diplomatic clout to secure Hamas’ survival. That’s a threat to international peace and security.”

Everyone Wants “Border Security” But Can’t Agree On Which Border

Democrats in the Senate and the White House want funding to secure Ukraine’s border with Russia. Republicans want funding to secure the southern border. 

• It should be an easy trade, but it’s not.
• In the Wall Street Journal’s editorial “Joe Biden’s Ukraine Emergency,” its board writes, “Mr. Biden campaigned as a pragmatist who could cut bipartisan deals. Well, here we are. Ukraine and Israel are political emergencies, and the Commander in Chief has to do what it takes to get a deal done.”
• We explained on Tuesday night how Ukraine went from the moral issue of our time to President Biden’s political nightmare. 

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.