THE SHOW NOTES: Mark Robinson, Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy, & Israel Strikes Again

Welcome! A sheriff shot and killed a judge in rural Kentucky.

WATCH: Kamala Harris’s sit down with Oprah was nothing short of a word salad.

ALSO: Kamala Harris: “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.”

AGAIN: Israel killed a leading Hezbollah figure in a targeted airstrike without warning Biden.

61 DAYS: Kamala Harris has yet to do a formal press conference since taking the Democratic nomination 61 days ago.

OUCH: New York Times’ tech staff threatens strike during Election Day crunch with unbelievable demands- SEMAFOR & X

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Mark Robinson

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson posted vile, gratuitous comments on a pornography website during a five-year span more than a decade ago. This is an excerpt from the breaking story on CNN.

The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

If this wasn’t bad enough, Mark Robinson’s email was rediscovered in the Ashley Madison hack that unmasked thousands of married individuals looking for an extramarital affair.

Matt Gaetz

Matt Gaetz attended drug-fuelled sex parties with an underage girl in 2017 according to a brand new court filing from late last night that cites three eye-witness testimonies. This is from NOTUS:

One eyewitness cited in the court filings, a young woman referred to as K.M., provided a sworn affidavit that claimed the teenage girl was naked, partygoers were there to “engage in sexual activities,” and “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy … and marijuana” were present.

The filing is an extension of prior charges that have haunted Matt Gaetz for years. Despite criminal charges being dropped by the Justice Department, the new details are only coming to light because a friend of Gaetz who was also involved sued the alleged victims to recoup attornies fees. This action ironically put into motion a document dump revealing previously unknown details about the alleged encounters.

Robert F. Kennedy

New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi has been placed on leave for engaging in a romantic affair with Robert F. Kennedy while covering the presidential race.

“Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal. During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source,” she said. “The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.

Olivia Nuzzi is engaged to Ryan Lizza who co-wrote Politico’s Morning Playbook this morning which covers everything in the world of politics. There was no mention of the Robert F. Kennedy story.

New York City

The New York City COVID Czar engaged in sex parties and a packed dance party underneath a Wall Street bank at the height of the pandemic.

The video appears to have been compiled from several recordings, in which Dr. Varma is seen at a number of restaurants and cafes, chatting with a woman who remains off camera. At various points, he describes a sex party he and his wife held in a hotel and a dance party he attended in a space under a bank on Wall Street, joined by more than 200 people.

Full story at The New York Times (paywall).

Ohio

Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine blasted Donald Trump’s claims about Springfield, Ohio in an op-ed at The New York Times (paywall).

As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.

WSJ: The Most Surprising New Gun Owners Are U.S. Liberals

American gun culture has long been dominated by conservative, white men. Now, in a marked change, a burgeoning number of liberals are buying firearms, according to surveys and fast-growing gun groups drawing minorities and progressives.

“It’s a group of people who five years ago would never have considered buying a gun,” says Jennifer Hubbert, an anthropology professor at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., who has researched liberal gun owners.

Historically, it wasn’t unusual for Democrats to own guns, with many more of them living in rural areas. Also, hunting was much more popular. But starting in the early ’90s, gun ownership among Democrats dropped significantly. Increasingly divisive political battles over the role of firearms in American society led the Democratic Party to become an advocate for gun regulation. Republicans became the party of gun rights. Now, today’s Democrats are rediscovering guns.

Full story at The Wall Street Journal (paywall).

WSJ: Trump Repeals His Own Tax Reform

Donald Trump’s tax reform was the main legislative achievement of his first term. It made the tax code more efficient by reducing marginal rates and eliminating sundry carve-outs. This spurred faster economic growth and rising wages, which are why most Americans give him higher marks than Kamala Harris on the economy. So why is he now proposing to diminish that success by mangling the code?

The former President is still on net better on taxes than Ms. Harris, who supports $5 trillion in increases, including a 28% corporate rate, 44.6% top marginal rate and 25% tax on unrealized capital gains for “billionaires.” But Mr. Trump is losing the tax plot by promising all sorts of costly tax giveaways that will make it hard and maybe impossible to extend the pro-growth components of his reform.

Full story at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)

Trending news:

• Watch: John Brennan is mad at Israel for killing Hezbollah fighters. - X

• Columbia interim prez slammed for ‘tone deaf’ apology to students who felt ‘hurt’ by school’s decision to clear out anti-Israel protests - NY Post

• Lawmakers expect Johnson will greenlight clean spending bill into December - Politico

• U.S. fears Israeli finance minister will topple Palestinian banks - Axios

• Trump’s Legal Bulldog — and Possible Attorney General — Says He’s Just Trolling All of Us - Politico

• China Is Imploding - The Macro Compass

• Who was William Francis Buckley? - Wikipedia

• The Power of a Smaller Breast - NYT (free)

• I’m the Governor of Ohio. I Don’t Recognize the Springfield That Trump and Vance Describe. - NYT (paywall)

Market snapshot: