Donald Trump is granted a political reprieve after the judge overseeing his New York criminal case delays his sentencing.

That says Kamala Harris picks up some new Republican support.

On that and more, we turn tonight to the analysis of Brooks and Atkins Store.

That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Store.

Jonathan Capehart is away this evening.

Great to see you both. Good to see you. So as I just said, former President Donald Trump will not be

sentenced in his New York criminal case until after election day. The judge in that case, Juan

Mershahn, explained that his decision to delay the sentencing was in part to avoid any appearance of affecting the outcome of

the presidential race. Kimberly, I'll come to you on this one first because in addition to being a

political analyst and an opinion writer, you're also a former trial attorney. Did Judge Mershan get this

right? I think that he did. Look, he could have gone either way. I think there are arguments in either

direction just to keep the sentencing where it was or to push it off. But one thing a judge wants to do

is to make sure the rulings that he makes stick. And I think the fewer, the less obfuscation

or appeals or kerfuffle that can happen before the election, the better.

It doesn't really do that much difference to put it off after the election.

Remember, we're not talking about a likely prison sentence here.

We are talking about something that's going to be below that,

maybe at best, probation, some fines.

So I think it was the right decision just to keep it out of the political sphere entirely.

David, you could argue, though, that this does affect the election in the sense that Donald Trump's

criminal convictions likely won't be at the forefront of the campaign in the final weeks to election day.

And delay has been a feature of each of his criminal cases.

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