Axios

A judge on Thursday sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter who dragged Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone into the pro-Trump mob to more than seven years in prison, the Department of Justice said.

Why it matters: It's the second longest sentence a Jan. 6 rioter has received so far, AP reports.

A second woman has alleged that Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee in Georgia's Senate race, paid for her abortion.

The big picture: Walker has taken a strong anti-abortion stance in the hotly contested Senate race during this year's midterm election cycle, and has denied both allegations against him.

Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), said at a public meeting Thursday the agency "did not fail" the community of Uvalde during the school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers in May.

Why it matters: McCraw's comments come weeks after he told CNN he would resign if any DPS officer had a hand in the botched police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary.

The St. Louis shooting gunman who killed a student and a teacher while wounding seven others earlier this week used an assault rifle that had been taken from him earlier in the month, St. Louis police confirmed to Axios Thursday.

Driving the news: Though police did not take away the gun, someone connected to the shooter's family did. Police are now investigating how the shooter got the gun back.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Thursday endorsed incumbent Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) in the race to represent the state's 7th District, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Why it matters: It's the Wyoming representative's first formal endorsement of a Democrat, though she has expressed some support for Democratic candidates who are facing Republicans that deny the results of the 2020 election.

Even as pollsters and election forecasters see growing signs of a red wave, Americans' interest in topics that tend to favor Republicans are still below their peak, according to the latest data in Axios' midterms dashboard.

Why it matters: With early voting well underway and Election Day quickly approaching, the issues Americans are paying closest attention to seem to be stabilizing — with a few key issues like firearms and student loan forgiveness grabbing new attention.

President Biden on Thursday marked the four-year anniversary of the attack at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, the deadliest assault on Jewish people in U.S. history.

Driving the news: "As we grieve this deadliest act of antisemitism in American history, we stand with the community of Squirrel Hill—and Jewish communities across America and around the world—in resolving to combat antisemitism and hate in all of its forms," Biden said in a statement on Thursday.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.6% annual rate in the third quarter, ending the streak of back-to-back contractions that raised fears the country had entered a recession.

Why it matters: Gross domestic product got a boost from trade dynamics, but the underlying details — including weaker housing and decelerating consumer spending — point to an economy that's slowing.

President Biden will travel to Syracuse Thursday afternoon to showcase Micron's plan to invest $100 billion over 20+ years to build a "Megafab" semiconductor factory in nearby Clay, N.Y. (Onondaga County).

Why it matters: The plans, fueled by Biden's CHIPS and Science Act, include the largest semiconductor plant in U.S. history, and tens of thousands of New York jobs.

Former President Barack Obama cut an ad for Democrats in Pennsylvania ahead of his plans to barnstorm the key battleground state with President Biden in the days before the midterm elections, Axios has learned.

Driving the news: In the ad, the former president cites two key issues that Democrats have been hammering on this cycle: the willingness of some Republicans to help overturn elections, and abortion rights.

Democrat John Fetterman said Wednesday his performance at the Pennsylvania Senate debate the previous night "wasn't exactly easy," but he felt he still had the edge over Republican rival Mehmet Oz.

What he's saying: "I knew it wasn't going to be easy after having a stroke after five months," the 53-year-old lieutenant governor said at a rally in Pittsburgh. "In fact, I don’t think that’s ever been done before in American political history."

In the wake of a new abortion allegation against Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker, his opponent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and the Warnock campaign are increasingly pointing to Walker's past as evidence of why he's not fit to be a senator.

Why it matters: The polls in this battleground Senate race have remained in a dead heat even after months of revelations about Walker, including un-reported children, reports of domestic violence and false claims about his academic record.