When hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee in recent weeks, Republicans worried that the dismal conditions would keep voters from getting to the polls.
But the larger impact of the hurricanes on the latest jobs report may be much worse for Democrats than any loss of votes from the residual hurricane damage, and former President Donald Trump was quick to label the economy "a disaster" based on the terrible numbers.
Only 12,000 jobs were created in October, far lower than the 100,000 expected by experts and the lowest in four years. Besides the hurricanes, the port strike and other labor problems are being blamed.
“What timing, four days before the election, they have among the worst numbers ever in history,” Trump said. “It is hundreds of thousands of jobs less than it should be.”
“I stand here as the only candidate who can rescue our economy from total obliteration,” he said at the rally. “The economy is now a disaster.”
Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said right away that "this jobs report is a catastrophe and definitively reveals how badly Kamala Harris broke our economy."
"Working families are being ripped off by the Harris-Biden economic agenda. Kamala broke the economy. President Trump will fix it," Leavitt claimed.
He and Democrat nominee Vice President Kamala Harris both held rallies in Milwaukee County on Friday. Both reportedly drew about 12,000 attendees, although Harris had to feature rapper CardiB in order to get that many people to come.
Many attendees at Trump's rally wore garbageman outfits in reaction to a comment from President Joe Biden that Trump supporters are "garbage."
“I don’t want your money. I want your damn vote,” Trump said during the rally. “The fate of the nation is in your hands.”
The stock market didn't react to the lower numbers, which bolsters the claims that it was an artificially low number for the reasons given above.
But Trump used it to drive home his point that his opponent and her administration have not done a good job on the economy, which is true even if the number is temporary.
Unemployment was the same at 4.1% despite the low job numbers.
Polling indicates that Tuesday's race is on a knife's edge, with Trump ahead by less than 1 point in many crucial swing states.
