Welcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast’s daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. It’s only 11 days until Election Day and here’s what’s happening in the race to the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
THE DOWNLOAD
Less than two weeks before Election Day, Donald Trump continues to project confidence that he’ll beat Kamala Harris. Though polling averages have the two candidates tied in the key battlegrounds, there are signals that Republicans are seizing on as evidence he could pull off a return to the White House despite many believing he was in the wilderness for much of the last four years. Here are seven.
Polling errors, for one. Trump and Harris are virtually tied in every battleground state—which could benefit the GOP presidential candidate. Polls in 2016 and 2020 underestimated Trump’s support. He’s a much heavier favorite in online betting markets like Polymarket, thanks to millions of dollars—reportedly, by a single individual—that have boosted his standing.
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Other signs that point to a Trump victory include: the campaign’s aggressive efforts to woo young male voters; more newly registered Republican voters in key battleground states; higher early GOP voter turnout and immigration as an issue that is resonating with voters. Read the full story here.
Trump on Friday referred to The Atlantic as a “threat to democracy” and called its top editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, a “sleazebag” journalist for his scoop about Trump disparaging a slain U.S. soldier and refusing to pay her funeral bill.
That was just a portion of Trump’s rant against the media at an after rally in Austin, Texas, where he renewed insults of old, calling the press “evil” and “fake news people.”
“It was phony stories by a general that got fired,” Trump claimed about his former White House chief of staff John Kelly. “And there’s a whack job, total whack job, a general. It’s funny when you fire people—see, Biden has never fired anybody, but when you fire people for doing a bad job, they get a little bit angry.” Read the story here.
POLLS OBSESSED
Harris got some discouraging news Friday from The New York Times poll showing she and Trump are locked in a dead heat—48 percent to 48 percent—just 11 days before the election. It’s the final poll of the cycle from The New York Times and Siena College, which, in its last poll taken in October, had Harris leading Trump 49 percent to 46 percent.
ON THE MOVE
Trump held a border-focused rally in Austin, Texas, as Harris heads to the Lone Star State for a nighttime rally featuring the one and only Beyoncé. Trump said Harris is going to Texas just to “rub shoulders with woke celebrities.“ Trump is also sitting down with Joe Rogan for his smash hit podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. Former President Barack Obama was back on the trail Friday for Harris.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY
Republican big names endorsing Trump’s rival are routine in 2024 but on Oct. 25, 2016, Colin Powell sent shockwaves with his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and George W. Bush’s Secretary of State gave an unreserved endorsement of the Democrat, saying that she would serve with distinction and has the experience to be president. Powell added that Trump, on the other hand, is “selling people a bill of goods,” is not qualified, and “insults us every day.” Read more.
BEAST OF THE DAY
The Washington Post was in turmoil Friday after its owner, Jeff Bezos, ordered its journalists to censor its endorsement of Kamala Harris, turning the newspaper’s motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness” on its head.
His move was revealed by the newspaper’s own reporters—as one of its star writers, policy expert Robert Kagan, quit and its legendary former editor Marty Baron erupted in rage, accusing Bezos and his new publisher, Will Lewis, of “cowardice” in a “moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty.”
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist David Maraniss, an associate editor at the Post, told the Daily Beast, “I find this contemptible. Marty Baron is right. This is an act not of benign neutrality but of cowardice in the face of the biggest challenge to democracy in our post-WWII lifetimes. Ben Bradlee, ten years dead, is mightily p---ed in his grave.”
The billionaire Amazon founder stopped the publication of an endorsement of the Democratic candidate, which its editorial board had already written, the paper reported. Read more here.
SHAMELESS PLUG
There’s more to politics than presidents and on The New Abnormal tonight, co-hosts Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy will break down some of the most important local elections with Daniel Nichanian, the editor-in-chief of Bolts magazine.
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