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.
Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here.
Democrats Just Started and Republicans Are Stupid
Donald Trump supporters and Trump himself on social media are loving a new Bloomberg poll showing him up significantly in most swing states, including states he lost in 2020 (up eight in Georgia and up three in Pennsylvania, for example). Even better, the story goes on to say the border remains a huge issue for swing-state voters.
The election is now nine months away — and let’s look at the past few days of coverage:
- NBC Nightly News reports Biden is working with China to stop fentanyl. In fact, a U.S. diplomat is there right now.
- Biden announced today he is going to East Palestine, Ohio, around the year anniversary of a train derailment that highlighted the rural-urban divide in America. Message: He cares.
- Will he go to the border?
Speaking of the border … as we heard yesterday, Biden wants to secure the border, and Republicans won’t let him. “Just give me the power,” he said.
- He’s solving the energy crisis by offering a $1.5 billion loan to restart a nuclear power plant in Michigan.
- Suddenly, the economy is great.
- In fact, not just great, but Axios says we have the best economy in the world.
The overall message from the media: Democrats and Biden are winning for the American people — give that nine months to sink in, and the polls will change. Just ask Mitt Romney.
Democrats really only began campaigning a week or so ago.
- And look at the list above of all the things Biden accomplished.
- Our friend Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) reports on Axios that Biden is now directly attacking Trump at almost every turn, which will be replayed endlessly by the Trump-hating media.
What are Republicans doing?
- Fighting a war against Taylor Swift and football, two of America’s most popular cultural touchstones.
As Joe Biden would say, “Lots of luck in your senior year.”
Watch tonight: The distinguished Erick Erickson will be with us – he noted in his excellent morning newsletter “Show Notes” about the Bloomberg poll, “Voters’ reluctance to support a convicted Trump is one of the few dark spots for the former president in the poll that otherwise shows him growing his margin over Biden.”
They Think They Can Stay
Miriam Jordan with The New York Times says the quiet part out loud: “(Illegal immigrants) believe they can stay.” Jordan explains how getting caught by the Border Patrol is now just a stop along the way to a work permit.
- “Today, people from around the globe are streaming across the southern border, most of them just as eager to work. But rather than trying to elude U.S. authorities, the overwhelming majority of migrants seek out border agents, sometimes waiting hours or days in makeshift encampments, to surrender. Being hustled into a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and taken to a processing facility is hardly a setback. In fact, it is a crucial step toward being able to apply for asylum — now the surest way for migrants to stay in the United States, even if few will ultimately win their cases.”
Illegal immigrants now sleep at Chicago’s and Boston’s airports — 1,245 and 1,883 miles from Brownsville, Texas, respectively. Denver reports it is at a breaking point. And then there is small-town America.
Matthew Rice of the New York Sun follows the news from Whitewater, Wisconsin, whose 15,000 residents voted narrowly in favor of Trump. Rice reports from state Senator Steve Nass that 800 to 1,000 immigrants have moved into Whitewater.
The mayor of deep blue Edison, New Jersey, said on “Good Day New York,” “Edison does not have the ability or the financial means to support migrants, and I can’t be any more clear that I am the son of immigrants.”
So much of the border crisis coverage focuses on people coming across the border and very little on the people already here overwhelming big cities and small towns thousands of miles away from the border.
Watch tonight: Outspoken immigration hawk Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, will discuss what should be done with all the people who are already here.
Plus, remember last night New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told us Republicans should do anything they can to get deals done … is he wrong?
Who Would Want to Be a Cop in America?
Speaking of illegal immigrants, a group of them beat up two New York police officers near Times Square. They were eventually arrested and promptly released without bail.
Watch the video of the attack.
The New York Post reports more on the suspects.
Just to review:
- These were people who came to America illegally.
- They were likely allowed to stay because they faced a “credible fear of violence” in their home country.
- They then beat up two police officers for no apparent reason.
- They were arrested and promptly released without even posting bail.
We shouldn’t be surprised if the New York City Council overruled Mayor Eric Adams’ veto on a bill that requires police to document nearly every interaction they have with the public.
Now what if your kid said they wanted to be a cop in New York City? Or a cop anywhere?
The justice double standard also exists at the federal level:
- Six pro-life activists (including one in a wheelchair) now face 11 years in prison for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic while praying. You can watch the video here.
- And to be fair, they appeared to be blocking access to a clinic. The law we are told by the Biden administration is applied evenly and fairly, without regard to politics.
Fine, so why after two pro-Hamas riots outside the White House, including one that required the evacuation of White House staff, has there not been a single arrest?
- There have been no arrests for trying to break through Secret Service fencing.
- No arrests for defacing parts of the White House.
- No arrests or investigations into the groups (and their funders) for inciting an attempted takeover of the White House.
Watch tonight: Tom Dupree, former deputy assistant attorney general, will talk about selective prosecutions and how the Justice Department (run by either party) can regain the public’s trust.
What’s Taking So Long?
Programming note: Ambassador John Bolton will join us tonight to discuss this.
More than 72 hours have passed since the killing of three American soldiers by an Iranian-backed militia, and there has been precisely zero response from the United States.
- As Brig. Gen. Rob Spalding explained last night, the plans are there — Biden just needs to literally order from the military’s menu of response options.
Instead, officials leaked to NBC that “U.S. retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed militants will be a ‘campaign’ that could last ‘weeks.’… The targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations.”
Bonus points: Who had a Palestinian state on their 2024 bingo card? Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) at Axios scoops the State Department might recognize a state of Palestine, ending decades of U.S. policy that any such declaration must start with Israel and the Palestinians.
- You can almost hear the applause line at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where President Biden, deeply unpopular with America’s Muslim community and in need of their votes in Michigan, might say, “This month my State Department recognized Palestine and finally gave the Palestinian people the dignity they deserve.”
The Shine is off the Squad
Even Democrats want nothing to do with “the Squad.”
- Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is under DOJ investigation for (allegedly) using campaign funds to hire her husband as security.
- Turns out Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., is a Sept. 11 truther.
- And based on a recent speech, one might not be able to tell if Rep. Ilhan Omar. D-Minn., represents Mogadishu or Minneapolis.
Look forward: Omar and Bush face very well-funded primary fights. No one except Omar will defend Bush, and even that appears hollow.
Look backward: We’ve come a long, long way since the Rolling Stone cover of “Women Shaping the Future” featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn.; and Omar.
How it happened: When everything is racist, nothing is. Effectively, the Squad has ruined racism, and fellow Democrats have gotten tired of defending their antisemitism and other crazy positions.
French Roads in French Fields
Farmers in France turned a number of roads into fields, literally dumping dirt on major highways and blocking others with their tractors and combines.
Journalist Luc Auffret’s X (formerly Twitter) page has some of the best videos.
The farmers don’t like taxes, fuel surcharges, green regulations and a whole host of other policies from President Emmanuel Macron, who quickly dispatched armored police vehicles to confront the farmers and reportedly arrested 100 of them.
As we told you last week, the regulations, taxes and harassment facing farmers from Germany, France, Belgium and other European countries will soon come to the United States.
If you thought the 20% increase in grocery prices since the pandemic was bad, wait until there is a farmer’s revolt here in America.Our interview with Spiked editor Tom Slater previews the problem for us here in America.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.
