“In the 2022 midterm elections, former President Donald Trump endorsed dozens of candidates down the ballot, positioning himself as Republicans’ undisputed kingmaker,” the New York Times reports.

“But in the competitive races critical to his party’s hopes of regaining control of the Senate, his picks all fell short — leaving the chamber in the hands of Democrats.”

“This year, even with Mr. Trump himself on the ticket, the Senate candidates he has backed to flip the seats of Democrats in key battlegrounds are running well behind him.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Trump rally In Michigan that Democrats spent “tens of millions of dollars” to make him “look like a crazy person.”

Said Kennedy: “The Democratic Party spent tens of millions of dollars to defame me, to publish perjuries against me, to publish fake news against me, to marginalize me, to make me look like a crazy person.”

Nate Cohn: “Imagine, for a moment, that the latest Times/Siena polls in every key state were right on the mark. They won’t be, of course, but here’s the result you would get in the Electoral College: Harris 270, Trump 268.”

“In terms of the electoral count, it would be the closest modern U.S. presidential election…”

“We’ve had a lot of close elections in recent memory, but in none of them were the polls so close. In each of 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020, a candidate led by at least a few points in enough states to make one candidate a material if not overwhelming favorite. As Hillary Clinton can attest, a modest but clear lead is not a guarantee of victory. But here, neither Ms. Harris nor Mr. Trump can claim even that.”

“Kamala Harris is taking a brief break from wooing swing-state voters to attend high-dollar fundraisers in California this weekend to pad her financial advantage over Republican rival Donald Trump,” Bloomberg reports.

“Pitched by the campaign as the last chance for Golden State donors to meet with Harris before Election Day, tickets for Saturday’s event at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts and the Los Angeles fundraiser on Sunday top out at $926,600. Those who donate at least $100,000 can get a photo taken with the vice president, while those at the $250,000 level and above can attend a luncheon.”

Wall Street Journal: “Kamala Harris’s fundraising edge over Donald Trump has opened a floodgate of spending by her campaign on everything from multimillion-dollar advertising buys and payroll expenses to a six-figure investment in light-up wristbands and tens of thousands of dollars at ice cream shops.”

“North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson received burns Friday night while attending a truck show as he was campaigning for governor,” the AP reports.

Washington Post: Inside the Mark Robinson debacle: Panic, blame and pressure on Trump.

“Vice presidential debates have produced many memorable moments, but it’s hard to say any has made a decisive difference in the election outcome,” NPR reports.

“This year the anticipation may be higher than in the past, if only because the race is so close and neither candidate seems to have a clear advantage. The debate may provide the moment of decision for some voters and even a tipping point in a closely balanced electorate.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are in an even tighter race in the battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin than just seven weeks ago,” according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll.

“Ms. Harris’s advantage from early August has been chiseled away slightly by Mr. Trump’s enduring strength on economic issues, the polls found, a potentially troubling development for the vice president given that the economy remains the most important issue driving voters.”

• Wisconsin: Harris 49%, Trump 47%
• Michigan: Harris 48%, Trump 47%
• Nebraska 2: Harris 52%, Trump 43%

“Donald Trump has promised immediate action on illegal immigration and oil drilling, but behind the scenes, his campaign has begun work on his most personal priority: tearing up the Justice Department,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Nothing has motivated or infuriated Trump more than his relationship with the agency. He is determined to remake it in ways that excite firebrands in his base—by replacing career employees with loyalists, by ordering investigations into those who have prosecuted him and by enlisting the Justice Department on the conservative side of the latest culture wars.”

“Rarely a week goes by without Trump excoriating the justice system.”

“On her first trip to the southern border as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered one of her party’s toughest speeches on immigration and border policy in a generation. Even as she did, she tried to paint former President Donald Trump as a feckless chaos agent without the ability to deliver the hard-line results he has promised,” the New York Times reports.

“Ms. Harris vowed to carry on President Biden’s crackdown on asylum and to impose order on the southern border, demonstrating how much the politics of immigration have shifted for Democrats. Just one presidential cycle ago, Ms. Harris and most other candidates in the party’s primary race had promised to decriminalize illegal border crossings.”

CNN: Harris vows to resurrect bipartisan border bill Trump opposed.

“Donald Trump crisscrossed the battleground state of Michigan on Friday, casting himself as an economic protectionist to blue-collar voters while attacking Vice President Kamala Harris over immigration on the same day she visited the southern border,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump used a pair of events to try to blame Ms. Harris for inflation and the migrant crisis, tapping into some of the populist themes that helped him win Michigan — and the presidency — in the 2016 election. In 2020, the state flipped for President Biden.”