GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The 2024 presidential campaign is entering the final weekend before the critical first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

AMNA NAWAZ: While the vice president huddles with her team for debate prep, the Republican nominee was in federal court, fighting to overturn a guilty verdict, while another case saw a big delay.

John Yang begins our coverage.

JOHN YANG: The former president began his day with a familiar legal battle.

PROTESTERS: No one is above the law!

JOHN YANG: In New York City, Trump and his lawyers asked a federal appeals court to overturn a $5 million verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the columnist E. Jean Carroll.

She accused him of raping her nearly three decades ago.

Today, Trump lashed out against the accusations and once again claimed, without evidence, that the lawsuit was politically motivated.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I'm running for president and I have all of these cases all of a sudden come out.

And they are fake cases.

And they report back to DOJ.

JOHN YANG: In another courtroom, a legal win in another case.

For now, a Manhattan judge delayed Trump's sentencing in his hush money case until after the November election.

It had been scheduled for later this month.

By afternoon, Trump was back in a battleground state, North Carolina, making his case to the Fraternal Order of Police.

DONALD TRUMP: With your help, we will restore public safety to our streets.

We will bring back law and order to our nation.

JOHN YANG: His Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, spent her day in Pittsburgh out of the public eye, but gearing up for next week's presidential debate.

Today, the Harris/Walz campaign announced that, in August, it had raised a staggering $361 million.

That's nearly triple what Trump took from donors in the same month, $130 million.

Harris begins the home stretch to Election Day with $404 million hand to spend.

Days after announcing her support for Harris, former Representative Liz Cheney said Harris had the vote of another prominent Republican, her dad.

QUESTION: Would you care to share with us who he might be voting for?

FMR.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris.

(CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) JOHN YANG: As the campaign enters the final two-month sprint, voting can officially begin, as the first absentee ballots hit mailboxes in North Carolina today.

For the PBS "News Hour," I'm John Yang.