Did Trump Just Hand the Election to Harris?

I suppose I get why Donald Trump had a big rally at Madison Square Garden the other night and why his campaign filled the Garden with crude, hate-filled speakers. As I pointed out yesterday, his closing strategy is to turn out disaffected young men who otherwise wouldn’t vote. He wants to sound like their buddies after a few too many beers.

But did it cost him more than he’ll get? I’m hesitant to say so because Trump has shown time and again that he can say and do anything without losing a single vote. The normal rules of politics don’t apply to him, which is the very thing his supporters love about him.

Another thing they love is to drive liberals crazy. So, maybe part of the strategy was to provoke the very response he’s getting from the New York Times, NPR and anybody who has any sense of propriety and any respect for the office of the President or for the United States of America. As J.D. Vance essentially said yesterday, “See? They’re overreacting again! We can’t say anything anymore.”

So, the notion that THIS is finally the time that Trump went too far is shaky at best.

But maybe.

Maybe it’s about timing. For this to come up a week before the election and during the early voting period might make it different. He was particularly offensive to Puerto Rican voters, though he also insulted Blacks and Jewish voters. I say “he,” referring to Trump, because his campaign organized this rally and selected the speakers, most of whom had a long history of being offensive. Trump’s responsible for what they said, his campaign’s rare attempt to distance itself from the comments aimed at Puerto Ricans (but not other groups he insulted) by an obscure comedian notwithstanding.

People with Puerto Rican heritage make up just under 4% of voters in Pennsylvania, which is an absolute dead heat right now. If this is enough to push them into Harris’ column it could be just enough to win the state for her and, likely, the whole election.

Probably more important are the 18% of voters who say they’re still undecided. If this is the last thing on your mind as you head off to vote, that’s bad news for Trump. To have this dominating the news in the final week of the campaign is not what Trump’s camp needs. For once, and perhaps finally, Trump’s ugliness may have cost him dearly.

We can only hope.