The October Surprise is COVID-19

President Trump claims his around-the-clock campaigning the last two weeks in 2016 was responsible for his victory. But, it’s clear he believed the Comey letter was the coup de grâce on Hillary Clinton’s final momentum and a great asset to his message that she was a “crook.”

His effort to find an October surprise to use against Joe Biden (Hunter Biden) began in the summer of 2019 with the Ukrainian President conversation and has continued most recently by pressuring the Attorney General, the FBI director, supportive intelligence officials and Republican Senate Committees.

But the October surprise appears to be the COVID-19 surge, which the President, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and the White House communications team have all argued that COVID-19 is “behind us,” “can’t be managed” or “ending the pandemic was a top administrative accomplishment.”

Those statements may become as well remembered as Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s post Lehman Brothers collapse (Sept. 15) comment: “The fundamentals of the economy are strong.” The polling rapidly turned negative for him and the ticket after beginning close post the Republican Convention. The media coverage also focused much more on economic problems and McCain’s campaign difficulties (he suspended it for a while).

A man carries a box from Lehman Brothers'
offices after the bank failed, 2008 | Getty Images

See: How the Lehman Bros. crisis impacted the 2008 presidential race