Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest, I’m Tara Palmeri.

Before we get started, a quick note to check out the latest episode of my podcast, Somebody’s Gotta Win. Bakari Sellers, the CNN political commentator, former Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, and longtime Friend of Kamala, candidly hypothesized about the composition of the Harris administration. Could Donna Brazile land an appointment? What about Tina Flournoy or Minyon Moore? Might Jennifer Palmieri stay on past the campaign? Will Harris keep low-profile Biden alumni like Brian Deese or Steve Ricchetti around for continuity? Sellers has some thoughts. Listen here.

Tonight, my readout from Mar-a-Lago, where Donald Trump is still fuming over his ostensible mistreatment at the hands of ABC debate moderator David Muir (whom he’d like to sue), comforting himself with the notion of split-ticket voters coming to his rescue in North Carolina, and—of course—obsessing over the R.F.K. Jr.–Olivia Nuzzi–Ryan Lizza narrative.

But first, Abby Livingston measures the fallout from yet another set of political scandals…

• Will Adams hurt House Dems?: It’s a fair bet that New York Republicans were already poll-testing Adams’ image before his indictment, particularly given the many regions hostile to New York City. As I reported yesterday, the N.R.C.C. has been running an ad linking Adams to Democratic House challenger John Mannion in the Syracuse-based 22nd District. New York’s five or six competitive House races are supposed to be some of the lowest-hanging fruit for Democrats, and a major part of their plan to retake the House.

  The magnitude of the Adams fallout remains to be seen. While it’s completely feasible that Democrats could win the House back without the New York seats, politicians are judged first and foremost on how they handle their politics back home. Nobody has more riding on these races than Adams’ fellow New Yorker, would-be House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. Meanwhile, Adams’ radioactivity may spill across the border into northern New Jersey via local news coverage, and give a boost to G.O.P. incumbent Tom Kean Jr., who’s in a tossup race against Democrat Sue Altman.

  There is one silver lining for the Democrats: At the D.N.C. there was a kerfuffle when Democrats denied Adams a speaking slot. That decision now seems prescient. Had he spoken, B-roll of the now-indicted mayor waving to the cheering Democratic throngs in Chicago would have played on loop last night on cable news. That same piece of tape would have been blasted out to voters on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley, and North Jersey via Republican campaigns ads.

• Haitians’ revenge?: The only question about Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins’s venomous tweet regarding Haitian immigrants is whether it was exceptional enough to stand out from the tremendously weird and bad behavior emanating weekly from the rest of the House G.O.P. conference, not to mention the party at large. The tweet, which Higgins subsequently deleted, read: “Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their a– out of our country before January 20th.”

  At a minimum, Higgins is now a distraction for his vulnerable Republican colleagues as they head home to beg for moderate votes. Democrats could try to make Higgins a bogeyman, like Republicans are doing with Adams, but he’s just not that well known. What was apparent last night is how quickly Democrats consolidated behind C.B.C. chairman Steven Horsford as he reportedly confronted Higgins on the House floor and called for him to be censured, something that won’t be resolved until after the election. The political class may forget the incident in a week, but I was struck by how the tweet landed in the House Democratic caucus like a flagrant foul at the end of the third quarter. In short, it fired up the Democrats as they fanned out across the country to campaign.

  Recently, after Trump’s pet-eating nonsense about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, I looked up states with the largest Haitian populations. Florida topped the list. Given that Florida has seemed out of reach for Democrats at the presidential and Senate level, I didn’t think much of it. Yet hours after Higgins’ tweet, word went out that D.S.C.C. chair Gary Peters will now spend millions in the Texas and Florida Senate races. I asked a Florida Democratic source if the racist rhetoric about Haitian immigrants could create a backlash among Florida’s Haitian voting bloc. “Yes, they vote,” the Dem said. “And they are motivated.”

Nevertheless, the former president has found himself captivated in recent days by a series of less-pertinent micro-dramas. Trump, always a consummate gossip, is “obsessed” with the sexting scandal involving Olivia Nuzzi, the star New York magazine reporter who recently inspected his ear, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently endorsed him for president. In fact, I’m told from multiple sources that Trump called R.F.K. Jr. after the news broke to inquire if it was true that they’d had a digital relationship, and asked if they’d engaged in anything more than the swapping of “demure” nudes. “[Kennedy] denied the whole thing to Trump,” said a source with direct knowledge. “He said he hardly knows her. He said he met her one time.”

Alas, like the rest of the political-media class, Trump has felt compelled to weigh in. I’m told that Trump almost posted to Truth Social, his social media platform, “My condolences to Ryan Lizza…” But ultimately, he demonstrated better judgment, realizing it wouldn’t help his newest surrogate, R.F.K. Jr.

Meanwhile, Trump also remains fixated on the aftermath of his debate with Harris, and the taunting, open invitation from her camp for a rematch. Indeed, despite Trump’s public proclamations that he’s through with debating, having already “won the debate” in his own mind, the debate debate is not over inside Mar-a-Lago. Numerous Republican allies have been pushing for a do-over, especially after Harris accepted a CNN invite for an October face-off. And Trump appears to be doubting his initial instinct to walk away from the battlefield. I’m told that Trump is back to asking advisors if he should reconsider.

Trump, of course, is still stewing over what he perceives was unfair treatment during the first debate, especially at the hands of ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, whom he has told people he plans to sue, according to two sources with direct knowledge. (On what grounds it’s unclear, but it would certainly be for publicity, much like his lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos.)

He’s also still stewing over Bret Baier and Brit Hume’s conclusion that he lost his debate against Harris, and seems unable to relinquish the all-consuming sense of iniquity that Democrats were able to swap out their nominee. “He thinks he won the Joe Biden debate and that was good enough,” said a source with direct knowledge. “He loves bringing up Joe Biden.” This person then imitated Trump’s own first-person monologue: “They switched out the candidate, but I won the debate.”

The vice presidential debate is on Tuesday, and some people around the former president suspect that it will be hard for him to let J.D. Vance have the last word on a debate stage. “If it’s so boring, or if J.D. loses, Trump may want to have another lick,” said one of his advisors. A Trump campaign spokesperson declined to comment.

Instead, after weeks of mounting frustration, it appears that it’s Lewandowski who has been put back in his place. The tensions came to a head about two weeks ago, while Trump’s team was flying back from California. As the plane crossed over the Rocky Mountains, Wiles and LaCivita marched over to Trump to express their exasperation. Wiles was frustrated that Lewandowski, who envisioned himself as a campaign chairman above her and LaCivita, had taken it upon himself to poke around the campaign, interviewing staffers, auditing operations, and even digging into minutiae like direct mailing. “Susie said, ‘He’s become a distraction and we need to stay focused on winning,’” said a source with direct knowledge of the exchange.

Trump, perhaps surprisingly, relented. “So his role became much more defined by the president,” said the source. Trump subsequently told Lewandowski, “Go do as many interviews as you can and just be a good voice for me.” The message, this person continued, was, “You’re not here to run the campaign.”

Lewandowski ended up disembarking and not flying back to Mar-a-Lago with the rest of the team, I’m told from multiple sources, and has only been seen once inside the campaign’s headquarters in the past two weeks. He was also not on the flight this past weekend to Pennsylvania.

Being deplaned in Trumpworld is like being put in a corner, and Corey has been kicked off the plane on prior campaigns. But access, like favor, can be regained. By Wednesday he was back, flying with Trump to North Carolina, and again today in New York. (Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment.)

Contributing to Trump’s faith in victory is the perspective of his personal pollster, John McLaughlin, who historically has offered a much rosier picture of Trump’s numbers—but did, to his credit, call his surge in the final weeks of 2016. (Yes, this was after the Comey letter, but still…) “The feel is better than the last two elections,” McLaughlin told me.

Crucially, McLaughlin has predicted that Trump will benefit from split-ticket voters in North Carolina, where the gubernatorial race has been roiled by revelations that the Trump-endorsed candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, made racist comments on a porn forum. (Really, Robinson calling himself a “Black Nazi” is just the tip of the iceberg…) Republicans have been terrified that Robinson will not only lose the election in his state, but potentially drag Trump down with him in North Carolina. But McLaughlin believes that a meaningful portion of the electorate will vote for both Democrat Josh Stein, for governor, and Trump.

Trump, himself, avoided the scandal entirely during his rally in Charlotte on Wednesday. Privately, he’s told people he will never comment on Robinson or be seen anywhere near him, but he continues to speak highly of him—in large part due to Robinson’s flattery. “He likes him,” said a source. “He thinks Robinson’s endorsement speech was one of the greatest he has ever seen, but he admits he can never be seen with him.” Trump is particularly concerned about what he calls a “killer” advertisement by the Harris campaign that directly ties him to Robinson, calling them “both wrong for North Carolina.” (The ad includes audio of Trump calling Robinson, who has praised Adolf Hitler, “better than Martin Luther King.”)

Anyway, Trump is more focused on Pennsylvania, which he views as the cornerstone of his bridge back to the White House, and a game of inches that he can’t afford to lose. In particular, his campaign has been micro-targeting young men with a focus on issues like vaping, marijuana, cryptocurrency, and protecting their Zyns. He believes that if the race is going to be decided by 10,000 to 20,000 votes, then picking off a few voters here and there is the way to win. His latest top advisor on this voter segment is his 18-year-old son, Barron, whom he has tasked with consulting on influencer campaigns.

At the same time, Trump privately acknowledges that Harris will win more women than he will, and there’s little he can do about it. “He doesn’t see how they can lose to this woman. He thinks she’s so transparently awful,” said a source with knowledge of his thinking. “He’s very confident, for sure. He just can’t imagine losing to her.”