It ended just as quickly as it began. Nine days after reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server, FBI director James Comey has told the United States Congress there will be no change to his earlier ruling.
In July, Ms Clinton was found not to have wrongfully transmitted any classified material.
Now, in the final hours before the election, she is back in the clear.
Ms Clinton and her staff were mid-flight when the news broke, prompting this response from her communications director, Jennifer Palmieri.
"We have seen Director Comey's latest letter to the Hill (Congress), and we're glad that this matter is resolved."
A new batch of emails had been discovered on a laptop shared by Ms Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner.
He is being investigated for an underage-sexting scandal.
But the emails reportedly ended up being duplicates of ones the FBI had already looked at.
Earlier in the day, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was still praising the investigation during a campaign appearance in Iowa.
"Real change means restoring honesty to our government. There's little doubt that FBI Director Comey and the great special agents within the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton and her inner circle."
But now, Mr Trump's advisers are back on the attack, including his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.
"I merely thought, 'He's mishandled the investigation from the beginning, and this proves it yet again.'"
By the time Mr Trump landed in the state of Michigan, he was fuming once again.
"Right now, she's being protected by a rigged system. It's a totally rigged system. I've been saying it for a long time. You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can't do it, folks. Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it."
Mr Trump's paths to victory are slim, but he is still hoping his anti-trade message will resonate with the rust belt, or industrial, states.
That includes staunchly Democratic Michigan, which has not voted Republican since 1962.
New national polls show Ms Clinton is ahead of Mr Trump overall by five percentage points.
The FBI investigation had dramatically narrowed the Democrats' lead, something they have tried to remedy with a series of celebrity appearances.
In the city of Cleveland, Ms Clinton was joined on stage by basketball superstar LeBron James.
"I grew up in an inner city, and I know the whole notion of getting out and voting. And I was one of those kids and I was around a community that was like, 'Our vote doesn't matter.' But it really does. It really, really does."
In the state of Florida, singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder was the opening act for this appeal by US president Barack Obama for voters to back Ms Clinton.
"There's been so much negativity, and so much noise, and so much distraction, and so much innuendo and rumors and false statements. But, I want you to focus on this election and its candidates, because the truth is the choice couldn't be simpler or clearer."
And the big names keep on coming.
Singer Bruce Springsteen is now scheduled to join Ms Clinton and President Obama at an upcoming rally in Philadelphia.
