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: 

• 54 days to the election 
• Decision Desk HQ average: Kamala Harris +3.4, as of around noon ET today. Click here to see the latest numbers.
  • PredictIt betting odds: 55 to 47 in favor of Harris.

Your Choice This Year

Now that the Donald Trump-hating media “proved” immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, aren’t kidnapping and eating pets, they’ve moved on from the city.

• From an NBC Nightly News piece, it’s pretty clear they have no interest in understanding the problems there. 
• Same with The New York Times, which writes, “Former President Donald J. Trump has long tried to stoke fear about immigration. Now, he’s doubling down as the presidential race heats up.”
• We laid out the poverty, drug overdoses, crime explosion, car accident epidemic, housing crisis and school overcrowding brought about by 20,000 Haitians arriving in a town of nearly 60,000 pretty extensively in our segment yesterday about Springfield — you should watch. 

Unlike NBC and the rest of the media, we have not moved off of it because all the problems of Springfield still exist … and those folks vote.

And across America, there are hundreds of Springfields … maybe thousands. 

Look back: It was the Left’s disdain for voters like those in Springfield, Ohio, aka the “deplorables,” who elected former President Donald Trump in 2016. 

• Here is why Trump won Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016 …
  • He said then and says now he will stop those bringing the problems to Springfield at the border. 
  • Harris and her supporters say we need to welcome newcomers and that the white Americans living in Springfield are racist. 

More bluntly, voters right now face a pretty simple choice: 

• The guy who says immigrants are eating pets and he will stop them or …
• The woman who wants to confiscate guns and celebrates taxpayer-funded surgery for trans prisoners 

It confused the BBC, so they took a road trip across America.

• Simply put, Trump legitimizes the grievances of Springfields all over America …
• Harris ignores them or just wants to throw more money at the migrants. 

It’s a hell of a choice, America … 

North Carolina and Arizona Show Trump’s Crazy Problem

Trump is in Arizona today — Harris is in North Carolina. 

• These are two states that highlight a huge problem for Trump, and like most of his problems, it’s one of his own making. 
• The Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina: Lt. Governor Mark Robinson
  • He was under fire once for saying, “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like that I called it filth, come see me, and I’ll explain it to you.” 
  • He espoused conspiracy theories about the Holocaust at one point on Facebook, calling it “hogwash.” 
  • He paid for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion 30 years ago. Now, he wants a total ban on it. 
• And a Senate candidate in Arizona: Kari Lake
  • She falsely claims she won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election. 
  • She still spreads theories about the 2020 presidential election and claims Trump won. 

Zoom out: All of the above was fine when Trump was six points ahead of Biden … but now with Harris neck and neck, the down-ballot craziness is a real problem.

Forrest Gump logic: Crazy is as crazy does

• Trump can’t help himself — so not only does he not distance himself from the above, he embraces it and doubles down.
  • As the anti-Trump media rightly keeps pointing out, he brought Laura Loomer to the 9/11 commemorations — Loomer also called 9/11 an “inside job.” 
  • Loomer is so looney that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called her a racist. 

THUS: Harris can go back to the bunker postdebate — Trump is giving the media more than enough to talk about. 

• Harris’ new “aggressive” push in the swing states includes a massive media plan that strategically avoids anybody who might ask her a hard question. 

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., on CNN said about Harris: “If I were advising her, town hall type meeting … If you go on these one-one-ones sometimes, you drill down into a question until there’s a word that’s uttered that can be used in a negative way. I just would like to see her out among the people, interacting with them in a town hall-type setting.”

In short: Harris wants to be president of the United States, confront Vladimir Putin, stand up to Xi Jinping and protect Israel from Iran – and not to mention tackle inflation and the border …

• But those one-on-one interviews are too tough because a reporter might “drill down into a question.” 

Again, it’s not her fault for going into the basement — it’s the media’s fault for allowing it, and Team Trump is all too happy to help. 

Garland, the Righteous

Former FBI Director James Comey changed 2016 … now Attorney General Merrick Garland promised not to do the same.

• In a speech today, Garland proclaimed, “There is not one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and the poor, one rule for Democrats and one rule for Republicans or different rules for different ethnicities.”

Watch tonight: Former senior Justice Department lawyer Shan Wu will respond to whether this means Garland will keep Jack Smith from releasing damaging Jan. 6 evidence before the election. 

Chumming the Waters

More people than ever will vote by mail …

And now two groups representing election officials are raising concerns about delays from the Post Office with mail-in ballots and how that could affect voters.

From ABC: “In an alarming letter [to Postmaster General Louis DeJou, state and local] officials said that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own.”

You can read the letter here.

Thought bubble: So this means we won’t have a result on election night.

• Once again the “curing” of ballots …
  • late arriving ballots, 
  • the varying rules of counting across states — 
  • not to mention, that some states allow for ballots to arrive AFTER Election Day 
• … will only create more opportunity for conspiracy theories and challenges from both sides.

Slow clap!

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.