Welcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast’s daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. It’s only five 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
JD Vance had plenty of bizarre takes to spew about transgender people as part of his dizzying three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, which went live Thursday afternoon,
Vance claimed on the podcast that people are becoming transgender and nonbinary simply to up their chances of getting into elite colleges like Yale and Harvard.
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The VP hopeful also speculated that he and Donald Trump are destined to win the “normal gay guy vote.” He described those men as wanting to be “left the hell alone” and not be associated with transgender youth, who Vance called victims of “pharmaceutical conversion therapy.” Read the story here.
Kamala Harris has slammed Trump for saying that he will be a “protector” of women “whether they like it or not,” calling the controversial remark “very offensive to women.”
While campaigning in Wisconsin on Thursday, Harris responded to Trump’s comments and suggested that they signify a deep lack of respect for women’s autonomy.
“It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies,” Harris said.
“And this is just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women, and their agency.” Read the stere.
POLLS OBSESSED
A new poll by UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion shows—surprise, surprise—the race is incredibly tight in key states. In Michigan, Trump leads Harris 49 percent to 45 percent, the survey shows. Never mind that in CNN’s poll Wednesday, Harris leads Trump 48 percent to 43 percent in Michigan. And in a new Washington Post poll, Trump is up in the Great Lakes state 47 percent to 45 percent for Harris among registered voters. Among “likely” voters, however, Harris leads Trump 47 percent to 46 percent. Feel dizzy?
ON THE MOVE
Harris is focusing her energy Thursday on Arizona and Nevada, where she’s having a late-night rally with the one and only J Lo, the world’s most-famous Puerto Rican entertainer. Trump is trick-or-treating with Tucker Carlson in Phoenix, Arizona.
THROWBACK THURSDAY
Halloween 2016 should have been Fright Night for Trump with the first of a drip-drip of revelations about his taxes. The New York Times revealed that Trump used a questionable tax-dodge technique to “avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars” in what was supposed to be taxable income. He used a maneuver that allowed him to avoid paying federal taxes on canceled debt—he avoided paying as much as $50 million a year for 18 years, the paper said. Read more here.
BEAST OF THE DAY
After Mark Cuban told The View on Thursday that “you never see [Donald Trump] around strong, intelligent women, ever” because they are “intimidating to him”, several MAGA women hit back at the mogul, including Marjorie Taylor Greene who said, “The guy looks like Rachel Maddow.”
The Georgia Republican and conspiracy theorist complained about Cuban’s comments on the daytime show in between her on-camera workout routine on Thursday. “Here’s the thing about Mark Cuban, he suffers from low testosterone,” she said in a video posted to X/Twitter. “Here’s his issue: he’s actually intimidated by strong, intelligent women like me.”
Cuban didn’t name anyone in particular when he made the comment, which was in response to View cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin’s question about why he thinks Trump hasn’t enlisted Nikki Haley’s help to try and win over some of her supporters. Read more here.
SHAMELESS PLUG
What are your election night plans? Pizza? Alcohol? What about taking a break from even watching on cable? That’s the provocative suggestion Gabriel Snyder is making on the new episode of The New Abnormal podcast. He’ll tell co-hosts Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy why he won’t be watching–and why you shouldn’t too.
Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast.
