Top GOP donors are pushing Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for more detail about his bachelor status before deciding how aggressively to support his presidential campaign, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.

• Why it matters: Many of these donors are seeking a viable alternative to former President Trump. And they still aren't sure about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's running second to Trump in GOP polls.

What's happening: The reluctance by Scott, 57, to say much about his private life is making some conservative donors skittish about backing him.

• Vague answers by Scott and his campaign — both publicly and through private backchannels — have fueled some potential backers' curiosity and apprehension.
• Responding to this reporting, a senior campaign official told Axios that Scott will discuss the issue in the coming weeks.

During an onstage interview with Axios in May, Scott said he had a girlfriend but didn't name her.

• Scott added that at a time when nearly half of U.S. adults are unmarried, "to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you're a good president or not — it sounds like we're living in 1963 and not 2023."
• Scott spun being single as a potential plus. "I probably have more time, more energy, and more latitude to do the job," he said, adding that even so, "my girlfriend wants to see me when I come home."

Context: The U.S. hasn't elected an unmarried person as president in 139 years (Grover Cleveland in 1884). Candidates typically trot out their families.

• But there have been other unmarried candidates recently. When Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) ran for president three years ago, he was dating actor Rosario Dawson.

🗳️ Between the lines: Scott has bet big on doing well in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, and has emphasized his faith in courting the state's large number of evangelicals.

• DeSantis' campaign has pointedly emphasized his family. His wife, Casey, and their young children often are at events and in ads.

Scott spokesman Nathan Brand told Axios: "Tim Scott's optimistic, positive message continues to resonate with Iowa and New Hampshire voters who are focused on issues impacting their families."

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After his second freeze on camera in as many months, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — for the first time in his career — may not be entirely in control of his own timeline, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

• Why it matters: At 81, McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, using his procedural mastery to bedevil Democrats and reshape the federal judiciary.

Immediately after yesterday's scary moment — in response to a question, McConnell stared straight ahead for about 10 seconds — his office announced that he would consult a doctor before his next event.

• Aides downplayed the event, suggesting that a plainly confused and disoriented McConnell was simply "lightheaded."

After his freeze, McConnell promptly called fellow senators and allies.

• Through an aide, Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) relayed that McConnell sounded like himself and was in good spirits.

Later in the evening, McConnell met with GOP Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for the Senate in Indiana. Banks posted a casual photo of the two of them.

• "He was engaging," Banks told Axios. "Very dialed in on my race."

🕶️ What we're watching: McConnell is unlikely to face an immediate challenge as minority leader, according to top Republican officials.

• Don't expect his likely replacements, the so-called "three Johns" — Thune and Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) — to start fishing for support.

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Americans en masse are dissatisfied with the country's schools. But parents feel pretty good about their own kids' education.

• Why it matters: A divide between school parents and the rest of the country has gotten worse since the onset of COVID and with the rise in political polarization, Axios' April Rubin reports.

🧮 By the numbers: 76% of parents believe their K-12 students are receiving a quality education, according to new data from an annual Gallup survey.

• But just 36% of adults overall said they were satisfied with K-12 education in the country.

🔎 Between the lines: Satisfaction among adults overall has dropped 15 points since the pandemic and virtual schooling began.

• Among parents, satisfaction dipped six points, but has remained largely stable.

What's happening: Parents talk to teachers and vote for school board members — and so are more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt.

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This toothbrush is cleaning algae off a loggerhead sea turtle yesterday at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla.

• The turtle, rescued in a Florida Keys marina, likely was washed in from the Gulf Stream by Idalia, the Florida Keys News Bureau reports.

🌀 Idalia quickly weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall in Florida's Big Bend as a Category 3 hurricane, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.

• The eyewall hit a sparsely populated area, well north of Tampa Bay.

🔮 What's next: Idalia will pummel Georgia and the Carolinas through today.

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Nearly 20% of the world's top 1,000 websites are blocking crawler bots that gather data for AI services, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from data by Originality.AI, which makes a plagiarism detector.

• Why it matters: In the absence of clear laws or regulations governing AI's use of copyrighted material, websites big and small are taking matters into their own hands.

OpenAI introduced its GPTBot crawler in early August, declaring that the data gathered "may potentially be used to improve future models" — and promising that paywalled content would be excluded.

• Several huge news sites, including the N.Y. Times, Reuters and CNN, began blocking GPTBot. Many more followed. (Axios is among them.)

🔎 Between the lines: Google and other tech giants see their data crawlers' work as fair use. Publishers have long objected.

• Explore the data ... Keep reading.

The Thursday before Labor Day — that's, um, today — is projected to be the busiest time on the road this holiday weekend, Axios' Carly Mallenbaum writes.

• Today between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. is projected to be the craziest time, according to INRIX, a transportation-data provider.

😎 The times with the least traffic will be Sunday all day — and Monday after 7 p.m.

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Susan Page, USA Today's Washington bureau chief, started interviews two years ago for "The Rulebreaker," her biography of Barbara Walters, the pioneering ABC News interviewer, coming next April.

• Why she matters: Page tells me Walters, who died last year at 93, is "another of those bad-ass women of the Silent Generation" — along with Page's previous biographees, Barbara Bush and Nancy Pelosi.

There was no announcement of where Walters was buried — we're showing her gravesite for the first time.

• "Barbara was buried, as she had wished, next to [family members] at Lakeside Memorial Park in Miami," Page writes.

Walters' last words, after a lifetime of eliciting them: "NO REGRETS ... I HAD A GREAT LIFE."

• More about the book.

A sea of red — 92,003 volleyball spectators at the University of Nebraska's football stadium in Lincoln — set the world record last night for the largest crowd at a women's sporting event.

• Why it matters: Volleyball is a perennial and massive draw in Nebraska, where the Cornhuskers have won five national championships, Axios Lincoln bureau chief Justin Green writes.

The match obliterated the NCAA attendance record for women's volleyball — 18,755, set last year when Wisconsin played ... Nebraska.

• The previous world record for a women's event was 91,648 fans at a Champions League soccer match in Barcelona, Spain, last year.
• The previous U.S. record was 90,185 at the Women's World Cup Final, USA vs. China, at the Rose Bowl in 1999.

🌽 Last night, the Huskers swept Omaha in three sets.

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