“Donald Trump, frustrated by the state of the race and his continued legal troubles, on Friday sought to claim the spotlight for himself,” Politico reports.

“Wedging a hastily called press conference into an otherwise packed day of campaign events and court-related issues, he angrily complained to reporters inside the lobby of Trump Tower about his appeal in a sex abuse and defamation case. He criticized his legal team’s performance. Trump accused the moderators of the upcoming ABC debate of being unfair — and slammed Harris for not addressing reporters as often as he has.”

Said Trump: “This is a disgraceful case and disgraceful, in particular, because it is about a former president of the United States who is now leading in the polls to be the president again.

He added: “I feel sad that I have to come up here and explain it.”

Washington Post: Trump rants, resurfaces sexual assault allegations for 49 unfocused minutes.

“Donald Trump is a household name,” Bloomberg reports.

“After a successful reality television show run, four years in the White House and his appearance atop the GOP presidential ticket in every election since 2016, most Americans have already formed an opinion about the former president.”

“That’s why Tuesday’s presidential debate will be Kamala Harris’ biggest political test yet. Americans are still learning about the sitting vice president. And for the small but crucial fraction of undecided voters, the debate will likely be the only venue where they can see their options side-by-side (excluding the slim chance that the campaigns agree to a sequel).”

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will be voting for Kamala Harris in the presidential race, MSNBC reports.

“For months, vulnerable House Republicans have been toiling to appeal to women turned off by their support for policies that would limit reproductive rights,” the New York Times reports.

“With just nine weeks to go until the election, many appear to have settled on a strategy: airbrushing or at times flatly misrepresenting their records in gauzy, family-focused television ads apparently aimed at those voters.”

“Some Republicans are claiming that they support protections for in vitro fertilization that they voted against, or that are at odds with legislation they have backed in the past. Others are vowing they would never ban abortion, though they previously said they would support doing so. One states that he cosponsored pro-woman legislation that he actually opposed.”

“Kamala Harris is bringing on a new campaign hire as part of her team’s push to clinch must-win states this fall by keeping former President Donald Trump from running up the score in rural counties,” Politico reports.

“Harris is tapping Matt Hildreth of the progressive Rural Organizing group as her rural engagement director… Democrats have been hemorrhaging support in rural America for years, but making even a small dent in Trump’s steep rural margins could determine the outcome in battleground states that may be decided by razor-thin margins.”

Nate Silver: “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the Electoral College is starting to look like a challenge for Kamala Harris. This was a problem for Democrats in 2016, of course, and also in 2020 — when Joe Biden won the popular vote by 4.5 points, but the tipping-point state, Wisconsin, went for Biden by only 0.6 points.”

“There’s been a lot of talk lately about our model’s convention bounce adjustment, and that’s understandable. Harris is still ever-so-slightly ahead in our polling averages in enough states for her to win 270 electoral votes — but she’s slightly behind in our forecast of those states, mostly because the model assumes that polls conducted just after the DNC are likely to be relatively favorable for Harris.”

“I think the adjustment is highly defensible, but if you don’t like it, don’t fret: it will begin to work its way out of the model over the course of the next week or two. And if you really hate it, you can always just stick to our ‘raw’ polling averages instead, which aren’t subject to the convention bounce adjustment at all.”

“The problem for Harris is that Donald Trump has been gaining on her in our polling averages, too — at least in the most important Electoral College states. If, say, Harris had gained 1 point, when the convention bounce adjustment was expecting her to gain 2 points, that would look like more of a rounding error in the model. Instead, though, she’s actually losing ground since the start of the convention in swing state polls.”

Wall Street Journal: “Helping Walz navigate his dual assignment is his own experience interacting with Republican lawmakers in the Minnesota Legislature and his time in Congress representing one of the state’s more conservative congressional districts…”

“Walz’s balancing act was on display earlier this week. He handed out dairy treats and viewed butter sculptures at the Minnesota State Fair one day, before vigorously criticizing Trump and Vance the next.”

A new University of Texas poll in Texas finds Donald Trump leading Kamala Harris in the presidential race, 49% to 44%.

A new Emerson College poll in Texas finds Trump ahead 50% to 46%.

“Mail-in voting in North Carolina will be delayed by at least a few days — and possibly weeks — due to a court ruling Friday in the lawsuit over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should appear on the ballot for the presidential race,” WRAL reports.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should be removed from the Michigan ballot, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday,” Bloomberg Law reports.

New York Times: “After talking for 45 minutes, Donald Trump — who mocked his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, for not speaking to the media — left without taking questions.”

CNN cut away after two minutes. Fox News didn’t even air it.