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. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

State of play: 

• 40 days to the election 
• Decision Desk HQ average: Kamala Harris +4.1, as of around noon ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
  • PredictIt betting odds: 56 to 46 in favor of Harris.

Say a prayer: Tonight, hundreds of people will call 911 as waters rise around them in Florida’s big bend  — they will beg for rescue from Hurricane Helene’s storm surge. Their pleas will go unanswered because it’s simply too dangerous for crews to head out. Many will die. 

• I know this because it happened a few years ago during Hurricane Ian. If you want proof of what 15 feet of a storm surge can do, look at the before and after of my parents’ home on Fort Myers Beach. 

That was two years ago. We are lucky and have the resources to rebuild … many of our neighbors do not. Still today, much of Fort Myers Beach looks like a war zone — and I say that having been to many war zones. 

• Tonight, many will die because they didn’t or couldn’t heed evacuation warnings — but thousands or tens of thousands of others will be left with nothing; their dreams, their retirement savings, their businesses will be swallowed in a wall of water — and insurance won’t cover it. 
• So say a prayer and lend a thought because a lot of Americans need it tonight. 

Look forward: Disaster politics will be in full swing. Who shows up first: Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Kamala Harris? What do they promise to Georgia? 

Last thought: In times past, when hurricanes came ashore, tonight or tomorrow night, we’d be joined by Waffle House CEO and my good friend Walt Ehmer from the hurricane zone. 

• Ehmer led from the front and helped reopen Waffle Houses in the hours after the hurricanes hit — with prepositioned refrigerator trucks, generators and extra employees. Ehmer and his team would head in often before the National Guard and reopen stores — for decades, the FEMA operations center in D.C. would call Waffle House to see how bad the storm was. 
• As a young correspondent chasing storms, I remember our first hot meal in days often coming at a Waffle House, eating with police and other first responders as everything else remained closed. 
• After Hurricane Ian, Ehmer joined us from ground zero. “One thing we can do is feed people,” he told me … it’s worth listening to the interview. 
• Walt Ehmer died a few weeks ago after a heroic battle with cancer — no surprise he died doing what he did best: helping people. In his final days, he volunteered to try a new cancer drug in the hope that it might save others. 
• I am told, “For the past several days, the team at Waffle House has been working hard to be ready to serve communities hit hard by Hurricane Helene – Walt would have been right there with them.”

Programming alert: Former Ambassador John Bolton joins us tonight to discuss the State Department’s $20 million reward for the capture of an Iranian who tried to hire an assassin to kill Bolton — and, as we predicted, why the Israelis told President Biden to take his cease-fire proposal and shove it.  

Spare Me

The indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams is laughable. 

• No, you shouldn’t take free business-class tickets or suites at the St. Regis
  • It’s wrong
  • It’s unethical
  • It’s illegal 
  • The text messages show he knew that
    • From the indictment, as highlighted by Politico’s Playbook newsletter:
      • “Adams staffer: ‘He is also asking where else they can go in Turkey Do you have a recommendation?’”
      • “Airline manager: ‘Four Seasons’”
      • “Adams staffer: ‘Is too expensive’”
      • “Airline manager: ‘Why does he care? He is not going to pay His name will not be on anything. either’”
      • “Adams staffer: ‘Super’”

But seriously — after years of investigative work and a major press conference with the U.S. district attorney and the representative of the FBI in New York City, this is the best they have?!

• The U.S. district attorney called it a “grave breach of the public’s trust.” 
• The FBI assistant director in charge of the New York field office said, “No one is above the law or beyond reproach.” 
• The press conference made it sound like they took down the notoriously corrupt Lyndon B. Johnson or Al Capone.

Of all the grease in New York politics, we are to believe this is the worst?! Spare me! 

The power of public office should never be abused — that includes prosecutors going after the political enemies of their bosses.

• Look back: Adams was the first to ring the alarm bells about the Biden border disaster. 

Quid pro quo: Corruption cases require payments for official acts 

• The alleged payment: Business-class tickets on Turkish airlines for Adams and his friends 
• The quo: Moving up a fire inspection to open a Turkish consulate that was going to open anyway

It sounds a lot like the head of Stalin’s secret police, Lavrenty Beria: “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.”

Be fair: Turkish airlines doesn’t hand out free business-class tickets for nothing.

• But seriously, all the gang violence, drug running, fentanyl deaths, terrorist sympathizers in the United States and the FBI dedicated tens of thousands of man hours on a sped-up fire inspection. 

Or maybe Adams is the sacrificial lamb so the Biden Department of Justice can say they go after Democrats too.

• Click here for Team Biden’s response.

Big picture: Yesterday, Stacey Plaskett, a nonvoting member of the House of Representatives, said how Democrats really feel about the FBI and DOJ, saying their primary function is to “serve as a check against white nationalism, great replacement theorists, Christian nationalists, white fragility, fascists, and the twice impeached convicted felon, former president and would-be dictator Donald Trump.”

• Wow … just wow. You didn’t see or hear that anywhere else, do you? 
• As I tweeted: “My job as a journalist is to ask questions — so here it goes — what would happen to a member of congress if they gave (the) same speech but replaced ‘white and Christian’ with ‘pro Palestinian and Muslim’ or ‘violent members of BLM movement’ or ‘Venezuelan gangs’?”

“Holistic” = “Equity”

Yesterday’s MSNBC interview with Vice President Harris did not change any minds — that’s because the 30% of swing voters who say they need to learn more about Harris aren’t watching MSNBC! 

The Right keeps trashing Harris’ interview for lack of specifics and because she has no plans.

• Of course she does …
• Take her answer on housing:
  • “… Looking holistically at the connection between that and housing, and looking holistically at the incentives we in the federal government can create for local and state governments to actually engage in planning in a holistic manner that includes prioritizing affordable housing for working people.” (emphasis ours)
    • What those words mean, nobody knows, but maybe that is the point 
    • But you only have to know one word …
      • “Holistic” is an excuse to deal with the “root” causes, which always means more government intervention and spending to create “equity” 
    • Rather than just dealing with the problem, the government must grow in size, spending and control. 

“More holism”: Take the border, which she will visit tomorrow, as Harris admits in the interview she won’t just close the border — there must be a “comprehensive” approach, like a path to citizenship.

Bigger pictures: Does anybody, even her staff, think she is good at this? It doesn’t matter. Remember what Stephanie Ruhle said: “If you don’t like her answer, are you going to vote for Trump? Kamala Harris is not running for perfect, she is running against Trump. We have two choices. There are some things that you might not know her answer too. In 2024, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is, and the kind of threat he is to democracy.”

• Thought bubble: When the anchor who promised to cover for you feels compelled to point out you didn’t answer the questions, it’s pretty bad. 

Be fair: This is the exact same campaign President Biden ran and won on.  

Long list: Every day now, our buddy Alex Thompson is out in Axios with another one of Kamala Harris’ positions on a major progressive priority that she won’t talk about — today is ending the filibuster for the Green New Deal Thompson writes about other previously-supported policies of hers that she’s silent on now: “That includes: Ending the death penalty, imposing an electric vehicle mandate, decriminalizing prostitution, providing reparations for slavery, and issuing executive actions for undocumented people brought here as children.”

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.