Q. When is an October Surprise not an October surprise? 

A. When it's aimed at Donald Trump.

Just ask Morning Joe. On today's episode, Jonathan Lemire and Katty Kay agreed: Nope, Jack Smith's new filing in his election interference case against Trump was not an October Surprise.

Lemire's first argument was particularly lame: Okay, yeah, the filing came in October. But it came at the beginning of October, not like Jim Comey's letter regarding the Hillary Clinton private email server probe that came about one week before the 2016 election. This -- we kid you not -- "much further out."

New rule for October Surprises: They've got to come in Halloween Week—or no cigar! Don't forget that while they're loving this new Jack Smith term paper, the liberal media offered red-hot hate for Comey's late announcement in 2016. Andrea Mitchell called it "the worst possible situation for the FBI, for the country, for Hillary Clinton certainly."

Then Lemire actually blamed Trump for Smith's filing coming at this time:

"The reason why this is coming out now is because of Donald Trump's legal team's own delay tactics. The push that they have made, and then the Supreme Court decision about immunity which Jack Smith is trying now to circumvent."

Yeah, how dare Trump try to defend himself! He should have rolled over and pled guilty to all the charges!

Lemire began by saying he had two "rebuttals" to Trump's depiction of the Smith filing as election interference. Rebuttals, Jonathan? That's the kind of lingo opposing counsel would use against Trump. A bit of unintentional honesty on Lemire's part!

Note also that Lemire, while denying that the Smith filing is an October Surprise, suggested that it will remind voters about how horrible Trump's past presidency was, and how bad another Trump presidency could be. So it's fine for the filing to be a sword against Trump -- just not one he can use as a shield!

Katty Kay agreed with Lemire that the Smith filing doesn't constitute an October Surprise: 

"We've got a lot of October Surprises, and we're only, what, into day three or day four of October, and there are a ton out there, most of them around the world. I don't think this counts as one."

So because it's early October, and there could be other surprises floating around out there, this one doesn't count.

Gotcha, Katty!

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
10/3/24
6:13 am EDT

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Katty, you know, this comes, Donald Trump claims this is election interference. Two rebuttals to that.

First of all, let's remember that in 2016, James Comey's letter about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton came about a week before the election. This is much further out.

Also, the reason why this is coming out now is because of Donald Trump's legal team's own delay tactics. The push that they have made, and then the Supreme Court decision about immunity, which Jack Smith is trying now to circumvent.

So I don't think this quite qualifies as an October surprise. But it is a reminder to so many Americans what Trump did, what those years were like, what another Trump presidency could be like. Do you think it is going tomatter in this election?

KATTY KAY: I think you're right. I mean, we've got a lot of October Surprises, and we're only, what, into day three or day four of October, and there are a ton out there, most of them around the world. I don't think this counts as one.