Happy Friday! Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) described the news of the last 24 hours very well. “I feel like today was very none of my business.” Yes, senator. I feel the same way. Yet here we are … OK, let’s get into it:

• CNN published a bombshell report about North Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial nominee. It involves a lot of wildly inappropriate comments.
• A star 2024 campaign reporter is on leave after acknowledging a personal relationship with someone involved in the campaign. CNN reports that it’s RFK Jr.
• Harris made an interesting gun comment to Oprah.
• Plus, a zoo in China admits their pandas are actually just painted dogs.

I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.  

Oprah Winfrey briefly returned to a live studio audience when she appeared in a talk show-style event with Vice President Harris on Wednesday, along with a number of celebrities and viewers on a livestream.

Some of the celebrities who joined: Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross and Meryl Streep.

The line getting the most attention: Winfrey asked Harris about being a gun owner, which she brought up last week during the debate. “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot,” Harris said, laughing. “I probably should not have said that. My staff will deal with that later.”

^ That was a political savvy line for Harris. She’s talking directly to centrist voters here.

💡 Why this matters: Oprah is quite popular across many demographics, including suburban women. This is a key group for Harris to win in November. Any time Oprah deems something as her “favorite,” it instantly becomes a bestseller. She’s also a master interviewer, and as Americans are trying to get to know Harris better in the condensed campaign season, Oprah is the person to do it.

💻 Watch the event

Axios’s Alex Thompson and Torey Van Oot report that “The Harris-Walz ticket is on pace to do fewer interviews and press conferences than any major party’s presidential pairing in modern U.S. history.”

This is a deliberate strategy: “Harris’ team believes limiting interactions with the press is the right strategy — even if it frustrates reporters, some close to the campaign told Axios.”

Read more: ‘The Harris-Walz media strategy: Hide from the press’

More than 20 swing state polls have come out since the Sept. 10 debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump.

It’s easy to read into a poll, but as any experienced pollster will tell you, don’t take any one poll too seriously. Instead, notice evolving trends.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage analyzed 20 of those recent polls, with the caveat that almost none of them are recent enough to factor in the reaction to Trump’s second assassination attempt last weekend. Here are five takeaways:

1. It’s better to be Harris than Trump — slightly: “Overall, Team Harris is likely to be happier about the latest polls than Team Trump.”

2. Trump has plenty of reasons for hope: “While overall there has been the appearance of a small trend toward Harris, it’s nowhere close to definitive. The debate … hasn’t come close to transforming the race.”

3. It’s tough to separate the signal from the noise: “Any survey … is susceptible to ‘noise’ — numbers that shift because of the variables inherent in the polling process rather than because public opinion has actually changed.”

4. When all is said and done, it’s still a coin flip: “There are numerous factors that could change that picture, including the millions of dollars each campaign is spending on TV advertising, Trump’s propensity to outperform his polls, or the capacity of a female Democratic nominee to benefit from a surge of support in the first presidential election since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.”

5. The polls keep telling us which issues are the best for each side: Abortion is the strongest policy area for Democrats, while immigration is for Republicans.

Read Stanage’s breakdown of the recent polls

CNN published an explosive report Thursday about North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the GOP nominee for N.C. governor, revealing numerous inflammatory and inappropriate comments he allegedly made on a pornography website’s message board more than 10 years ago.

*Warning, it’s extremely offensive.*

Including: Calling himself a “black NAZI” and wishing for slavery to be reinstated. He also referred to himself as a “perv.”

And: He reportedly recounted a memory of secretly “peeping” on women in gym showers when he was 14 and discussed liking transgender pornography. Publicly, Robinson vocally argues that transgender women should be arrested if they use a women’s restroom.

Robinson denies making the comments.

Omg, this has me concerned: In one part, the report says “CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.” And in another excerpt, CNN wrote, “CNN is not publishing the graphic sexual details of Robinson’s story.”

🔎 Read the full CNN report — but beware of the offensive language.

How this played out Thursday: There had been speculation throughout the day that Robinson might drop out in response to the report. He even posted a video to social media before the CNN report dropped to refute the allegations and announce he will *not* drop out.

Read more on the saga, via The Hill’s Jared Gans

⏱️ Keep in mind: Robinson’s deadline to drop out of the race was yesterday.

NEW — ROBINSON WON’T BE AT TRUMP’S RALLY TOMORROW:
Former President Trump will be campaigning in North Carolina on Saturday, but Robinson is *not* expected to attend, reports The Hill’s Brett Samuels.

New York magazine’s star reporter Olivia Nuzzi is on leave after it was discovered that she had a personal relationship with a “former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign.” She was reporting on the campaign while this happened.

The magazine did not disclose whom the relationship was with, but CNN’s Brian Stelter reports it was with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate who dropped out and endorsed former President Trump. “The person said the relationship was emotional and digital in nature, not physical,” Stelter reports.

Oliver Darcy was first to report the alleged relationship in Status. 

From New York magazine: “An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.” 🔎 Read the magazine’s statement

Read more on the saga

NOTUS’s Jose Pagliery reports that “Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old [high school junior] girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies.”

Read the full report: ‘New Court Filings Place Matt Gaetz at a Party at the Center of the Sex Trafficking Scandal’

“House Republicans have shifted gears as they race to avoid a government shutdown, eyeing a three-month stopgap spending bill — in lieu of a six-month extension — while dropping their demand for tougher voting rules as part of the package.”

What happens now?: “The timing of the bill’s release remains unclear. Negotiators still have a number of details to determine, including questions surrounding so-called anomalies — a reference to any changes to the current-year spending bills — and whether Congress will address emergency aid for natural disasters as part of the package.”

Read more from Alexander Bolton, Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis: ‘Republicans shift to plan B to prevent shutdown’

🍕 Celebrate: Today is National Pepperoni Pizza Day and National Fried Rice Day!

🐼 Omg: A zoo in China has admitted that its pandas are actually just dogs painted black and white. 📸 Yes, of course there are photos

🛒 Spotted in Costco: Former first lady Michelle Obama, promoting her new drink. 📹 Watch the TikTok video

🌖 Good, I’m glad the Earth isn’t going directly on its honeymoon right after the wedding: CBS News reports that the Earth will get its second “mini-moon.” How?: A small asteroid will orbit the planet from Sept. 29 through Nov. 25. 

🍋‍🟩 I’m on my way to Dulles: The New York Times shows you some of the incredibly beautiful houses you can buy in Tulum, Mexico, for $800,000. Can you imagine what these would cost in the DMV?

The House met this morning. The Senate is out. President Biden is in Washington and Delaware today. Vice President Harris is in Georgia and Wisconsin. (all times Eastern)

• 1:05 p.m.: Biden leaves for Delaware.
• 3:20 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Atlanta. 💻 Livestream
• 4:45 p.m.: Biden hosts Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Wilmington, Del.
• 5 p.m.: First lady Jill Biden hosts the cast of “The West Wing” at the White House to celebrate its 25th anniversary. 💻 Livestream
• 7:30 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Madison, Wis. 💻 Livestream
• Sunday: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
• Sunday: Lesley Stahl interviewsS. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
• Thursday, Sept. 26: Biden and Harris host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

 Let’s get the weekend vibes going. Here are three distinct stages of excitement.