Trump Names His Enemies While Harris Finds New Republican Friends

Welcome to October Surprise, the Daily Beast’s daily countdown to the biggest election of our lifetime. Election Day is just 20 days away and here’s what’s happening in the race for the White House between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

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More than 100 Republican officials backing Kamala Harris for president planned to join the vice president in Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a stunning public rebuke of Donald Trump, their own party’s presidential nominee.

“He simply cannot be in the Oval Office again,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) told the Daily Beast on Tuesday night during her trip to the Keystone State for the event. And she predicted: Harris will prevail.

“I think there is a silent majority,” she said. “I think there is a silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will silently vote for Harris.”

GOP Official for Kamala Predicts ‘Silent Majority’ Will Win

Donald Trump told an all-female town hall in Georgia on Wednesday that he is “not disturbed” by doubling down, identifying the “enemy within” as Nancy Pelosi and her husband, who was nearly killed.

He turned his fire on the former House speaker, who almost single-handedly snatched an easy election victory from Trump when he led the charge to oust President Joe Biden from the race, leaving Trump for dead even against a more formidable opponent.

“Because they are, they are very different, and it is the enemy within, and they are very dangerous. They are Marxists, communists and fascists,” Trump, 78, said at the Fox News town hall as he meandered toward his own sound byte.

Trump tells all-female event that Pelosis are “enemy within”

OBSESSED RESEARCH

The race is getting tighter and tighter. Harris and Trump are separated by a single percentage point, with the Democratic nominee narrowly leading 48% to 47% in a Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday. Four percent said they would vote for another candidate and 1 percent said they did not plan to vote in the presidential election. But when the vote includes candidates from third parties – independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., Libertarian Chase Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein—Harris leads 44% to 41% over Trump.

The same poll shows that 51% of likely voters will vote for Democrats for Congress, with 49% supporting Republicans.

ON THE MOTION

Harris Republicans came out of the woodwork for a public show of support for the Democratic presidential nominee in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. Harris was also scheduled to participate in a high-stakes live interview with Fox News. Trump is holding a fundraising gala at Mar-a-Lago, complete with round tables and a “candlelight dinner” for couples willing to donate or raise $924,600.

BACK WEDNESDAY

Stop us if this sounds familiar… on October 16, 2016, Donald Trump was beginning to suggest that the election would be “rigged” against him at “many polling places.” Of course, he claimed his defeat at the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz was also defrauded. But this was the first sign of his general election denialism, quickly forgotten the following month when he won – although frequently revived since then.

Trump: Elections being rigged “at many polling places”

BEAST OF THE DAY

No matter how well Kamala Harris does in her first showdown on Fox News Wednesday night, it’s a safe bet that Brett Baier will not appear as a favorite. While Baier lobbied hard to get the interview, he invited a torrent of critics — from both sides of the aisle.

Meanwhile, some Democrats wonder why Harris, even though she is looking for any and all votes, places herself so directly in enemy territory.

“She’s going into the lion’s den,” said a Democratic strategist The Hill—especially when the anchor is Baier, the 54-year-old host of Special Report and the face of the network’s direct news coverage.

Bret Baier About to Get All Sides When Interviewing Harris

SHAMELESS PLUG

John Oliver is bringing his biting mix of comedy and controversy to The Daily Beast Podcast, which drops at midnight. He counts Samantha Abelha and Joanna Coles how he’s dealing with the run-up to the election, how, as an immigrant, he ranks the US out of 10 and what he really thinks about the British royal family.

Find it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTubeand all major podcast players.

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