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.  

Another VERY Good Day for Trump 

Democrats’ dream of Donald Trump’s summer in court(s) is turning into a nightmare.

The Mar-a-Lago documents case is falling apart amid accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. Democrats are blaming the “Trump-appointed judge,” but new evidence (see below) calls the whole case into question.

A Georgia appeals court just agreed to review Fani Willis staying on as prosecutor after her torrid affair with a subordinate prosecutor. 

The January 6 case in D.C. appears unlikely to go to trial before the election. 

Alvin Bragg’s accounting records (Stormy Daniels) case will be done either way in a few weeks, but members of the jury appeared repulsed by much of Daniels’ testimony yesterday.  

The larger story: Every part of Democrats’ 2024 strategy against Trump from big to little — the cases, the evidence, the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine — is backfiring on them.

Now for the big news:

Within hours of the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors distributed an FBI picture of neatly arranged classified documents they found at former President Trump’s house, complete with top secret and other scary words in block red ink.

Obviously, they weren’t found that way — the FBI agents arranged the documents for a photo-op and then gave them to the press to prove in the court of public opinion that they (and special counsel Jack Smith) were justified in raiding Trump’s post-presidency office. 

Now, there are very real questions if all those scary cover sheets pictured were ever at Mar-a-Lago. Julie Kelly writes in Declassified: 

“New disclosures in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s espionage case against Donald Trump reveal the FBI tampered with evidence to create the infamous photo–and DOJ has lied about it for nearly two years.”

Not so fast: Her well-sourced article makes some leaps but brings up serious questions about whether the actual pieces of paper and folders shown in the photo were ever at Mar-a-Lago. 

Trump was right: Trump might deserve, but won’t get, an apology for this 2022 New York Times headline: “Trump is baselessly suggesting that the F.B.I. may have planted evidence during its search.”

Zoom out: The FBI staging a photo-op at the home of a former president plays right into Trump’s hand. It’s exactly what a weaponized DOJ would do! 

Zoom further out: If the accusations of prosecutorial misconduct are true, Jack Smith should never practice law again. His track record of hyperaggressive tactics followed by strong rebuke — including by SCOTUS in the Bob McDonnell case — brings his motives and ethics into serious question. 

Indiana Warning 

President Trump won Indiana’s GOP presidential primary last night, but Nikki Haley got 128,000 or more votes, giving her over 20% of the Republican electorate in a Trump plus-17 state. 

The Spin: Dems claim all those voters will stay home or vote for Biden. 

Reality Check:

• Some of these are already Biden voters — Indiana is an open primary.
• Some of these are just annoyed with Trump but will come home.
• It doesn’t matter since it’s Indiana, and Trump will win anyway.

Lauren Wright joins “On Balance” tonight to discuss Trump and Biden’s problem with the middle. 

Black Kids and Computers 

Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s apology for saying there are Black kids in the Bronx “who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is” reveals a far more damning truth. 

In her clarification, she claims, “The problem is that they too often lack access to the technology needed to get on track to high-paying jobs in emerging industries like AI.”

Let’s be fair: Assess that problem: 

Two-thirds of Bronx kids might know what a computer is, but they can’t read. Just 33.6% of New York City public school students from kindergarten through 10th grade scored “proficient” on reading assessments this winter, up slightly from 32.5% in winter 2022.

Fair question: How do you expect kids from the Bronx to program the next generation of AI if Hochul’s supporting teacher unions can’t teach them to write and do long division?

Fact check: We gave many low-income kids computers during COVID; we did not give them two-parent households. 

Follow the money! New York City Public Schools spent $38K a year per student more than anywhere else in the country, but by no measure do they have better results. 

Yet Hochul and crew think giving more money to the very same people spending $38K per year creating young Black kids “who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is” will solve the problem. 

With Friends Like Us 

One can imagine today’s meeting between CIA Director Bill Burns and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu as colder than an Alaskan winter.

Burns is in the uncomfortable position of asking/demanding Netanyahu make concessions to Hamas for a cease-fire as the U.S. withholds military aid.  

History lesson: Burns, who came up through the foreign service, possesses an awfully poor understanding of history. Blackmailing Israel triggers them more than blackmailing just about anybody else. The Jewish state rose from the ashes of the Holocaust. “Never again” to them isn’t a slogan; it’s a way of life. Trying to force concessions with those who want them dead brings up all sorts of trauma. 

The tables have turned: A few months ago, Team Biden thought they had Bibi on the rocks and could force Israel to back down, thus helping with Biden’s domestic political problems. 

Watch Tonight: Ambassador John Bolton joins us with how the Biden administration could actually get a cease-fire out of the Israeli government and why the administration refused to do it. 

The Real Economy 

President Biden is speaking today at a technical college in the swing state of Wisconsin about his “Investing in America” agenda.

Thought bubble: Did “Investing in America” replace “Bidenomics”? 

Double thought bubble: Remember when Democrats scorned Republicans who said not everyone needed a four-year degree to make six figures? Today, Biden announced a $3.3 billion investment from Microsoft to build a new artificial intelligence facility in the same spot where former President Trump had promised a Foxconn factory that largely failed to materialize.

Biden bragged his “Investing in America” plan is “fueling a historic boom.”   

It sounds a lot like comments from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, who claimed the average American is in “pretty good shape.”

“My jaw was dropped at the sh– he was saying. It is so f—in out of touch this is the largest bank in America,” said Anna Coffey, whose TikTok reality check went viral. 

Anna joins us tonight with why it’s so hard for politicians to acknowledge how hard it is for the rest of us. 

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.