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.

About the only thing everybody on the stage at tomorrow’s Republican debate will agree on is Roll Tide — set your DVRs to NewsNation for 8 p.m. ET tomorrow and join Cuomo and me starting at 6 p.m. ET for the pregame. 

War Notes will have an in-depth debate viewer guide tomorrow, but some things to think about now:

• Much like the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz, each candidate is looking for something different
  • Ron DeSantis: Needs to be liked and fix the smile problem. 
  • Nikki Haley: Needs to convince the MAGA crowd she isn’t another neoconservative. And get Trump voters to trust her — easier said than done.
  • Vivek Ramaswamy: Needs to find his mojo, again. 
  • Chris Christie: Needs to make his campaign about something other than hating Trump. 

Thought bubble:  Running for president is hard — if it were easy, each one would have found said attribute in the first three debates. 

Watch “On Balance” tonight live from the University of Alabama Quad. 

• David Bossie – RNC spokesman 
• Decision Desk HQ’s Scott Tranter 
• U of A student panel on young voters – see below 
• Can the candidates convince voters they “care about people like them”?
• For example, on the economy, “Home Alone” fans have tallied up the cost of Kevin’s grocery store run in today’s economy … and spoiler alert, Kevin’s 20 bucks and a coupon for orange juice don’t cut it. 

Youth Voters Are Smart 

A new poll shows a plurality of young voters trust neither Biden nor Trump on five of the most important issues of 2024. 

• Axios reports: “Just 49% of 18-29 year-olds ‘definitely’ plan on voting for president in 2024, down from 57% who said the same during the fall of 2019, according to the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School poll.”
  • Thought bubble: Trump isn’t president or on the ballot yet, but he unites and inspires Democratic voters like no other force in history. 

It Will Be a Cold Winter in Kyiv

How Ukraine went from the issue of our time to a political loser:

Yesterday, Jake Sullivan begged Congress for more Ukraine funding. 

• Remember when Republicans and Democrats fell all over themselves to do TV hits championing Zelenskyy? 

Per the Wall Street Journal, the White House warns, “Without additional money, the U.S. won’t have the necessary resources to procure additional weapons and equipment for Ukraine or to provide resources from existing U.S. military stockpiles.”

Once the “moral issue of our time,” endless and unquestioning support of Ukraine now even troubles chief hawk Lindsey Graham per the New York Times.

• “‘I will not vote for any aid until we secure our border,’ Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ He added: ‘I’m not helping Ukraine until we help ourselves.’”

The White House will try to tie the new Ukraine aid with Israel aid and other Republican wants, but Ukraine’s battlefield failures continue to sour for Kyiv. Republicans see little value in helping the White House in an election year. And the blank check of weapons already leaves American military stockpiles dwindling.

• Thought bubble: If only the White House had pushed Kyiv to negotiate when Ukraine’s army had momentum, unlimited U.S. funding and the tactical advantage of high-tech American weapons. 

Law of unintended consequences: 

• Russian criminals who survived the war in Ukraine now return home to commit horrific crimes.
  • The Wagner Group offered Russia’s worst criminals amnesty in exchange for front-line service. Now, they are coming home:
    • Per the Wall Street Journal, “In early August, police in Russia’s rural northwest were called to the scene of a mass murder. In the charred remains of two homes set ablaze hours earlier, they found the burned, mutilated bodies of six local residents.” (emphasis mine)

Hamas and the Date-Rape Drug

Hamas reportedly drugged their hostages with Klonopin (a popular date-rape drug) to make them appear happy and relaxed after 50 days of psychological torture.  

• Read more in the Times of Israel.

Watch: Batya Ungar-Sargon last night with some powerful words for the #MeToo crowd that now questions Hamas’ mass rapes and mutilation of Israeli women.

• Some of the testimonies of rape victims can be read at the New York Post, including U.N. testimony that “Hamas terrorists had ‘a thing with sexual organs’ and targeted genitalia of Israeli victims.” 
• The BBC’s report on Hamas tactics describes an attack from medieval times.

A Problem the University of Alabama Doesn’t Have 

The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testify before Congress about antisemitism on campus.

• 💵 Money talks or does it: The donor revolt over pro-Hamas marches on college campuses means a mere $2 million donation gives you “megadonor status.” That’s one-tenth of the needed donation this summer.

• As we’ve said before, antisemitism doesn’t accurately describe mobs chanting for “intifada” or “from the river to the sea.” These are mobs demanding the murder of Jews, and sometimes, like at Harvard, attacking them. 
• Let’s be honest:
  • The president of Harvard did not change when Bill Ackman pulled his donations and started a campaign against giving to the university. 
  • The president of the University of Pennsylvania is unphased by the Huntsman family pulling its donations.
  • Is the president of Harvard or the University of Pennsylvania scared of a backbench congressman from Oklahoma? No.
• Watch George Will tonight, once a professor himself, on what, if anything, will change the Cultural Marxism on America’s college campuses.

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 neccesarily not of NewsNation.