Welcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast’s daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. It’s only 29 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
Donald Trump revealed an unhinged eugenics theory Monday, claiming during a morning rant that some migrants have “bad genes” that make them predisposed to committing murder.
Trump spent a good chunk of an interview on The Hugh Hewitt radio show slamming the policies of his political opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and baselessly accused her of wanting to install a communist government.
“She wants to [do] government housing. She wants to go into government feeding. She wants to feed people. She wants to feed people governmentally,” he said as host Hugh Hewitt listened without saying a word. “She wants to go into a community party-type system. When you look at the things that she proposes, they’re so far off. She has no clue.”
Melania Trump is making her own news. She’s fully on board with her husband’s 2020 election denial,she reveals in her new memoir, a copy of which was viewed early by the Daily Beast.
The former first lady, who rarely opines about politics, suggests in her book, Melania, which comes out Tuesday, that the 2020 election was stolen. Looking back, Melania writes that she was optimistic about Trump’s chances, “but the media, Big Tech, and the deep state were all determined to prevent Donald’s re-election, by any means necessary.”
“Many Americans still have doubts about the election to this day,” she adds. “I am not the only person who questions the results.”
POLLS OBSESSED
There they are again: the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates stuck neck and neck in the polls. And pollsters say they don’t foresee significant movement for either Harris or Trump before Election Day—unless, of course, there’s some sort of Black Swan event.
ON THE MOVE
Campaigning was mostly halted Monday while the candidates observed the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist ambush on Israel, the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. Trump visited the New York gravesite of a prominent rabbi before hosting Jewish leaders at his resort in Doral, Florida. Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff planned to plant a pomegranate tree at the vice president’s residence. Harris’ pre-taped 60 Minutes interview airs Monday night; and Tim Walz is set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live after a daytime stop at the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Southern California.
MONDAY MEMORIES
Oct. 7, 2016, seemed like a seismic moment in the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton race: the publication of the now-infamous “p–-gate tape.” As the words Trump uttered to Billy Bush were revealed, the bombshell sent Republicans running to condemn him, including Reince Priebus (“no woman should ever be described in these terms”); Ted Cruz (“disgusting”) and Mitt Romney (“vile degradations”). Defiant, Trump simply shrugged off “locker-room talk”; Bush’s NBC career, however, imploded.
BEAST OF THE DAY
Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to double down on her Hurricane Helene conspiracy theory over the weekend, following up a baseless claim that “they” can control the weather with an assertion that such a scheme might involve lasers.
The Georgia congresswoman, who has a history of blaming deadly disasters on laser-based plots, posted to X a clip from a 2013 CBS News broadcast about experimental efforts to precipitate rain and lightning using lasers. “CBS, 9 years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather,” Greene wrote, apparently mistaking the year of the broadcast based on text added to the clip.
Without mentioning Hurricane Helene specifically, Greene’s post came after she last week posted that it was “ridiculous” for anyone to claim the weather can’t be controlled. She also shared a map showing counties hit by the storm with an overlay of what she said showed the areas’ political affiliation, claiming the graphic “shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election.”
