5 Days
N.B. Tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. ET, I’m holding a live Q&A for paid subscribers. I’ll send an email in advance to remind everybody. Can’t wait!
Remember when the slightest missteps could derail a campaign? Michael Dukakis, who ran against George H. W. Bush in 1988, was leading by 17 points before the above picture was taken. He lost in a landslide.
This wasn’t an October Surprise, but it’s a good illustration of just how little it took for a campaign to be derailed—as far as public opinion was considered, Michael Dukakis allowed himself to look ridiculous.
Yesterday, Donald Trump dressed up as a sanitation worker. His bright orange vest, with yellow reflective stripes, clashed crisply with his red tie and burnt umber bronzer. He was barely able to open the door to the garbage truck his campaign was using as a prop.
Today, the bigger story was that Joe Biden called Donald’s supporters trash. Which is a lie.
This was Politico’s take:
“[F]or Trump, the controversy allowed him a pressure-release valve to change the subject from his rally. He won the day.”
After the bizarre garbage truck episode, Donald held a rally in Green Bay, WI during which he said informed us he will “protect” women whether they want it or not, and he wants to bring us back to the good old days of 1798. But Biden didn’t speak articulately enough for people to understand that he said “supporter’s” not “supporters,” so Donald won the day.
It’s all enough to make your head explode—or mine, at any rate.
This is something we’re going to have to grapple with for a long time—why is Donald Trump never held accountable? Why are the rules changed to accommodate his egregious behavior? Why, after all of the crimes and treason and cruelty, is he allowed to roam free?
In modern American presidential elections, an October Surprise has referred to any game-changing revelation that could shift an election in one person’s favor or another. This originated in 1980 when Ronald Reagan worried that the release of the American hostages in Iran would help Jimmy Carter win.
In 2016, the Access Hollywood Tape, was that elections October Surprise. At least it should have been, but then James Comey announced the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of an email server, while simultaneously choosing to say nothing about the investigation into Russia’s attempt to help Donald Trump.
The reason October Surprises tend to have an impact is because, since they come so close to an election, they get attention—even if, in retrospect, they don’t deserve to. Not every election has an October Surprise. Although there were two in 2016, usually, there’s only one.
That was then, this is now. In the last 31 days there have been more news stories that qualify as October Surprises than every other election in American presidential history combined.
Here’s a not-quite comprehensive list:
October 2nd: A federal judge revealed what we all knew—Donald acted as a private citizen, not as president, when he tried to overthrow our democracy.
October 8th: Bob Woodward revealed the existence of seven secret calls between Donald and Putin since leaving office.
October 8th: Woodward also revealed that, at the height of COVID, when there was a dangerous scarcity of test kits in this country, Donald sent Putin a COVID testing machine.
On October 9th: Donald pulled out of participating in the candidates’ traditional pre-election on 60 Minutes because the producers of the show insisted on fact-checking him. (Let that sink in: The guy who wants to be president believes he should be able to lie prodigiously with impunity.)
October 11th: Donald repeats the kind of eugenicist language he has often used in the past – that some people have "bad genes,” that criminality is genetic.
October 12th: At a donor dinner, Donald called Vice President Harris the R-word, which the Special Olympics has been labeled hate speech against people with intellectual disabilities
October 14th: In the middle of a so-called town hall, Donald stopped answering questions and, for thirty-nine minutes, wandered around the stage, swayed his shoulders, and looked lost and disoriented while an extremely bizarre playlist, including Ave Maria and YMCA, played on a loop.
October 20th: Donald threatened to use the military against Americans, the people he purports to want to lead.
October 22nd: John Kelly, Donald’s longest-serving Chief of Staff—a retired four-star General—revealed in a New York Times interview, that Donald often praised Hitler. He said that Hitler "did some good things" and he wanted his generals to be as loyal as Hitler's. Kelly said that Donald "fit the definition of a fascist." (The NYT buried the story on page A12.)
October 24th: A former Sports Illustrated model came forward with detailed allegations that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the presence of Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious rapist and sex-trafficker of young women and girls.
October 25th: Jeff Bezos informs the editorial board of The Washington Post that, for the first time in 36 years, the paper will not be endorsing a candidate.
October 27th: Donald holds a fascist hate rally at Madison Square Garden:
The case has been made. We just have to hope enough people are getting the message.
FEATURED VIDEO: I spoke with Lawrence O’Donnell in The Last Word about the rally at Madison Square Garden; the origins of Donald’s worsening grievances, insecurities, and psychopathologies; and the right’s hypocrisy on immigration, especially as it is embodied by Donald Trump.
Please don’t let Harris lose by an apostrophe.
“It’s all enough to make your head explode” 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯
The abandonment of truth and logic is horrific.
Hang in there America! 🇺🇸 💙 🙌