Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Friday, October 9th. I'm Naila Boodoo.

Here's how we're making you smarter today. What the presidential campaigns are thinking about the next debate,

plus a new record for sports betting. But first, a plan to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen

Whitmer could be an early warning of future violence.

That's today's one big thing.

Yesterday six men were charged in a domestic terrorism plot targeting Governor Whitmer.

When I first heard the news, I thought of a professor I'd met earlier this year when I was doing

a fellowship at the University of Michigan.

I said last year and people didn't always believe me it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Alexandra Minist-

Stern studies white nationalists and white supremacist groups, including the proud boys.

I could have never imagined that there would have been actually a plot to kidnap the governor

of my state, but I could imagine that militias would take to the streets and that they would continue to organize and they continue to be emboldened by President

Trump and his tweets and his callouts.

Why was the governor specifically targeted here?

One of the things they say in the criminal complaint

is that this woman has too much power.

They particularly don't like a Democratic woman who speaks out and has spoken out against Trump.

When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are

complicit.

When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.

The protests against Governor Whitmer's COVID public health measures,

...