Which October surprise actually mattered in this election?

We have finally reached Election Day 2024. October alone seems to have lasted roughly 1,000 days. But what was the vaunted “October surprise,” that news event that may have changed the election’s result?

It’s hard to say when the single most outrageous political candidate of the modern era is running for office. Still, let’s look at what the events that most influenced this race.

Trump chickens out of “60 Minutes” interview

After attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and saying she was too afraid and not mentally competent enough to do sit-down interviews, Donald Trump ran faster than a chicken at a fox’s dinner table from a “60 Minutes” interview. Harris did the interview and nailed it. How badly scared was Trump? Almost a month later, he sued CBS for $10 billion, saying the editing of Harris’ interview amounts to “election interference.”

The Madison Square Garden rally

Nothing encapsulated the MAGA movement quite like the bigotry on display at Trump’s Bund-style rally in New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden. At the event, far-right comedian Tony Hinchcliffe hurled racist “jokes” about Blacks and Latinos, at one point referring to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.”

The blowback from the event has lasted, insulting an entire block of voters. The hateful display was so beyond the pale that even some Republican racists, like Florida Sen. Rick Scott, distanced themselves from the event.

Trump says a well-known critic of his should face a firing squad

This past Thursday, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a major Trump critic, came up during a Q&A with former Fox New host Tucker Carlson, Trump said, “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her where the rifle’s standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about—you know when the guns are trained on her face.”

This indefensible statement was made worse when Trump surrogates attempted … to defend it. (They did very poorly, to say the least.)

Trump’s “enemy from within” statement

During a mid-October interview, Trump said that the people he considers the “enemy from within” are more dangerous than foreign adversaries in Russia and China, and he would consider deploying federal military forces against them. It was such a frightening statement that Fox News attempted to whitewash during its interview with Harris by trying to pass off a separate clip as the original statement.

Trump wished he had Nazi generals

On Oct. 22, The Atlantic published an article in which sources told a story of Trump admiring Adolf Hitler’s generals, saying, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. … People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” This article, along with one in The New York Times, also featured retired Gen. John Kelly, the longest-serving chief of staff in Trump’s White House, spoke about Trump’s admiration for dictators and correctly said Trump met the definition of a fascist.

Trump reminds everyone he is garbage

This one is multipronged.

First, in an attempt to distract from his racist Madison Square Garden rally, Trump staged a media stunt where he struggled to open the door of a garbage truck before taking questions and pictures while sitting in the passenger seat.

But also, despite the impending election, Trump and the GOP struggled to hide their misogyny. Whether it was the fury with which conservatives responded to the suggestion that a woman might have her own opinions of Trump as president, or Trump telling women he would “protect” them “whether the women like it or not,” Trump and his party could not stop themselves from proving, time and again, how little they think of women and women’s rights.

Maybe there is no one surprise, and maybe with someone like Trump one can never be surprised at how monstrously low he can sink.

If I missed any, please feel free to throw them in the comment thread below!