Comment on Republican tenacity, focus and luck have cemented a conservative majority on the Supreme Court

“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.

“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.

New York Times: “And at one point, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he has made some of his immigration claims — including his continued insistence that other countries are deliberately sending prisoners and the mentally ill across the southern border — without evidence, then maintained that he had not needed it anyway.” Said Trump: “They’re dumping them in our country, and I never had proof.” He added: “You know why?

“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.

“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%

The Israel Defense Forces said the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was dead, after it hit what it called Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Washington Post reports. The New York Times reports Hezbollah confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its longtime leader.