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.  

The Worst of America 

It’s no surprise the Donald Trump verdict brought out the worst in America, and it keeps getting worse — sadly, there is no Gerald Ford willing to sacrifice himself on the altar of healing America’s wounds. 

Hopefully, I am wrong. So — what if? 

• What if we can’t come back from this? 
• Put a different way — how do we come back from this? How does this not continue to escalate with more purely political prosecutions?
  • Don’t believe me? Just look at the different sides of the same coin
    • Erick Erickson writes, “I do have to say the irony is a bit rich watching people who’ve spent a month trying to discredit the Supreme Court insist we all respect the verdict of a Manhattan court.” 
    • Kate Bedingfield said on CNN, “Just from a political standpoint, the pearl-clutching amongst Republicans about the idea that he would go to jail, from the people who were cheering Donald Trump’s ‘lock her up’ chant in 2016 is a little rich.”
  • Fact check: Neither Erickson or Bedingfield are wrong. 
  • Zoom out: Neither side is willing to let the other one get in the last punch — thus, the reciprocity multiplier continues — as does the rhetoric. 
• What if Democrats claim the only way to save democracy is to prevent a winning Trump from taking office?
  • Seriously? What if Democrats say Trump is a threat to democracy … and they aren’t accepting the results of the election?
  • If he is truly as bad as they say he is — aren’t they duty-bound not to turn over the nuclear codes? 
• Democratic thought leader Rachel Maddow said of Trump, “He’s not running against Joe Biden. He’s running against the American system of government.”
  • Would Biden and crew turn over the government to a man who they say doesn’t believe in the Constitution? 
• What if New York Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned Trump tomorrow — you know, so the voters can decide on Nov. 5 and prove Trump wrong that Democrats aren’t rigging the system against him?
  • Thought bubble: It would be genius politically and will never happen. 
• What if Trump gets sentenced to jail? The past 24 hours show a massive backlash against the verdict. Nearly 30% of the donors in his record $34 million fundraising day are new donors.
  • Wouldn’t it be political malpractice for Hochul to let Trump sit in jail and become a martyr? 
• What if Trump bowed out for the good of the country and pledged his delegates to Nikki Haley? OK, that is truly crazy. 
• What if Hunter Biden goes to jail over his gun charges? Can you lock up Hunter and not Trump? Will Biden be willing to sacrifice his son to the “rule of law”?
  • Maybe there will be a martyr-off between Trump and Biden?
• What if there are mass (mostly peaceful) protests by Trump supporters? Remember, four years ago, about this time, the Left was filled with rage … after a few swings and misses, they finally had proof of racist cops killing unarmed black men.
  • There was mass rioting and looting that was celebrated by the media.
  • Now, the same media tells us we must be worried about Trump using his political power for retribution. 
• What if Trump had spent his 11 a.m. speech talking about the issues important to voters (like immigration and the economy) rather than re-airing and expanding on the personal grievances he went over every morning and evening at the New York courthouse? 
• What if this ISN’T the end of democracy but another self-inflicted wound in American exceptionalism?
• What if there were a Gerald Ford out there? 

Pandemic 2.0 — That’s Convenient

Bird flu is spreading. A terrifying tweet by former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams details bird flu cases in Michigan. He calls it “a potential pandemic 2.0 brewing.”

Read more from Axios on how real bird flu is. 

What if nobody trusts science anymore? 

“I’M DONE WITH US!”

California Democratic State Sen. Susan Eggman finally had it when her party took the side of pedophiles in a fight over the sentencing guidelines for soliciting a minor. 

Watch her floor speech: “I don’t want to send more Black and Brown men to prison. I don’t want more people in prison, but I don’t want people buying girls. I don’t want people buying little girls anymore. I’m tired of saying it’s okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.”

Look back: Yesterday, we told you about Boston’s progressive mayor who wants the city to become more like San Francisco.

Weekend reading: My sister, Professor Liberty Vittert (@LibertyVittert) at Washington University in St. Louis, is out with a GREAT piece about the one liberal university that took a stand and arrested the pro-Hamas types. My favorite line: “That should be the end of it. After all, it is summer, and students only social justice when they don’t have corporate internships to do.”

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.