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NATION Thursday, October 20, 2016 East Oregonian Page 7A Trump refuses to say he will accept election results Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Threatening to upend a fundamental pillar of American democracy, Donald Trump refused to say Wednesday night that he will accept the results of next month’s election if he loses to Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee declared Trump’s resis- tance “horrifying.” Trump had spent the days leading up to the third and inal presidential debate warning voters that the election would be “rigged.” Asked whether he would accept the outcome if Clinton emerges victorious, he said, “I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.” The Republican National Committee immediately disavowed Trump’s statement. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and election oficials across the country have denied and denounced Trump’s charges. Trump’s assertions raise the pros- pect that millions of his supporters may not accept the results on Nov. 8 if he loses, thrusting the nation into uncharted territory. Free and fair elections, with the vanquished peacefully stepping aside for the victor, have been the underpinning of American democracy since its founding 240 years ago. Wednesday’s contest quickly shifted from a calm, policy-focused faceoff into a bitter and deeply personal confrontation. Trump called Clinton a “nasty woman,” while the Democrat panned him as “unit” to be commander in chief. Clinton, who began the debate with a lead in nearly all battle- ground states, forcefully accused Trump of favoring Russia’s leader over American military and intelli- gence experts after the Republican nominee pointedly refused to accept the U.S. government’s assertion that Moscow has sought to meddle in the U.S. election. She charged that Russian Pres- ident Vladimir Putin was backing Trump because “he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.” Trump denied any relationship with Putin and said he would condemn any foreign interference in the election. But he notably declined to back the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia was involved in the hacking of Democratic organizations. The Clinton campaign has said the FBI also is investigating Russia’s involvement in the hacking of a top adviser’s emails. The 90-minute contest in Las Vegas came just under three weeks before Election Day and with early voting underway in more than 30 states. Trump has struggled to expand his support beyond his most loyal backers and must reshape the race in its closing days if he hopes to defeat Clinton. The candidates clashed repeat- edly over their drastically different visions for the nation’s future. Trump backed Supreme Court justices who would overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, while Clinton vowed to appoint justices that would uphold the decision legalizing abortion, saying, “We have come too far to have that turned back now.” The businessman entered the inal debate facing a string of sexual assault accusations from women who came forward after he denied in the previous contest that he had kissed or groped women without their consent. That Trump denial followed the release of a video of in which he’s heard bragging about exactly that. Trump denied the accusations anew Wednesday night, saying the women coming forward “either want fame or her campaign did it.” He falsely said the women’s allega- tions had been debunked. Clinton said Trump “thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth.” She avoided answering a question about her husband’s inidelities. Trump pressed Clinton on immigration, accusing her of wanting an “open borders” policy, a characterization she vigorously disputes. The Republican, who has called for building a wall the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, said that under a Clinton presidency, “People are going to pour into our country.” Clashing on trade, Trump said Clinton had misrepresented her position on the Trans-Paciic Part- nership, noting that she had origi- nally called it the “gold standard” of trade agreements. Clinton shot back that once the deal was inished, it didn’t meet her standards. “I’m against it now. I’ll be against after the election. I’ll be against it when I’m president,” she said. Both were asked if they would consider tax increases or beneit cuts to support Social Security and Medicare programs. Trump said he would cut taxes and repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but he did not detail any plans for Social Security or other entitlement programs. Clinton said she would put more money in the Social Secu- rity trust fund through increasing taxes on the wealthy and other methods and promised not to cut beneits. She also argued that the Affordable Care Act has extended the solvency of Medicare and said she would work to bring costs down. On foreign policy, Clinton reasserted her opposition to sending a large-scale U.S. troop presence to the Middle East to defeat the Islamic State. She’s backed a no-ly zone in Syria, which would mark an expansion of the current U.S. strategy. For Trump, the debate marked one of his inal chances to reshape a race that appears to be slipping away from him. Clinton’s campaign is conidently expanding into tradi- tionally Republican states, while Trump’s narrow electoral path is shrinking. Clinton has struggled throughout the campaign to overcome persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. In the campaign’s closing weeks, she’s begun appealing to Americans to overcome the deep divisions that have been exacerbated by the heated campaign, saying on stage Wednesday that she intended to be a president for those who vote for her and those who do not. Clinton faced debate questions for the irst time about revelations in her top adviser’s hacked emails that show her striking a different tone in private than in public regarding Wall Street banks and trade. But she quickly turned the discussion to Russia’s potential role in stealing the emails. Underscoring the deep discord between Trump and Clinton, the candidates did not shake hands at the beginning or end of the debate. AP Photo/John Locher Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks out to the audience during the third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas on Wednesday. AP FACT CHECK Trump, Clinton and their debate claims AP Photo/Patrick Semansky Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton responds to Repub- lican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the third presidential debate at UNLV in Las Vegas. WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump painted an inaccu- rately dark portrait of manufacturing in America while Hillary Clinton stretched credulity in boasting that her spending plans won’t add to the country’s debt. As well, both struggled in the presidential inal debate to explain comments from their past: TRUMP: “We’re not making things anymore, relatively speaking.” THE FACTS: Despite his “rela- tively speaking” hedge, the assertion is wrong. U.S. factory production has more than doubled since 1979, when manufacturing employment was at its peak. The problem is that it takes fewer people to produce more. The United States has lost more than 7 million factory jobs, a drop of nearly 40 percent, since the 1979 manufac- turing employment peak. Factory production, minus the cost of raw materials and certain other expenses, reached $1.91 trillion last year, according to the Commerce Department, which uses 2009 dollars to adjust for inlation. That’s a notch below the record set on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007. Factories have used robotics and computers to increase output even with fewer workers. The U.S. still produces plenty of autos, planes, steel and other metals, and large industrial machinery. ——— CLINTON: “I don’t add a penny to the national debt.” THE FACTS: Not true, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. It estimates her increased spending in areas such as infrastructure, more inancial aid for college and early childhood educa- tion, would increase the national debt by $200 billion over 10 years. That is far less than their estimate for Trump, who they predict would add $5.3 trillion over 10 years. But it’s plenty more than a penny. ——— TRUMP, referring to a 2010 U.S.-Russia treaty limiting both countries to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads: “They create warheads. We can’t.” THE FACTS: Incorrect. The New START treaty, which Trump called “Start Up,” does not prevent either the U.S. or Russia from building nuclear warheads. It restricts each country to a total of 1,550 warheads deployed on bombers, submarines and in under- ground silos and requires that this limit be reached by February 2018. ——— CLINTON, on Trump’s charge that she called for open borders in a 2013 speech to a Brazilian bank: “I was talking about energy.” THE FACTS: She was actually talking about more than energy, but apparently less than an open border that immigrants can spill across at will, according to the partial tran- script released by WikiLeaks. Clinton said in the speech that “my dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, sometime in the future with energy that is as green as sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” The remarks suggest a broad interest in open trade but were not necessarily evidence that she would support the unfettered movement of people, as Trump charged. ——— CLINTON: “He held a number of big rallies where he said that he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough.” TRUMP: “I did not say that. I did not say that.” THE FACTS: He did say that. At an Oct. 13 rally, Trump criticized the physical attractiveness of People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff, who has said Trump forced himself on her at Mar-a-Lago while she was interviewing him for a story. Trump said: “Take a look. You take a look. Look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I don’t think so.” —— CLINTON: “I want to make college debt free.” THE FACTS: Clinton might aspire to that lofty goal, but she has only proposed making college tuition free for in-state students who go to a public college or university. Even with expanded grant aid, room and board can lead students to borrow. Clinton would have the govern- ment pay for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities for students from families earning less than $125,000 a year. Students would still need to foot the bill for housing and food, which makes up more than half of the average $18,943 sticker price at a four-year public university, according to the College Board. But Trump is correct that govern- ment would shoulder higher costs with Clinton’s plan. Her plan would cost the federal government an estimated $500 billion over 10 years, with additional costs possibly for state governments. ——— TRUMP: “Her plan is going to raise taxes and even double your taxes.” THE FACTS: Clinton’s plan wouldn’t raise taxes at all for 95 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The very wealthiest would take the greatest hit, though a doubling is highly questionable. Two-thirds of her proposed increases would hit the top 0.1 percent of richest Americans, the center estimates. The main compo- nents of her tax plan: a minimum 30 percent tax on those earning at least $1 million a year, and a 5 percent tax surcharge for those earning more than $5 million a year. She would also cap the value of tax deduc- tions and exclusions for wealthier taxpayers. ——— CLINTON on her opposition to the Trans-Paciic Partnership trade deal: “It didn’t meet my test.” THE FACTS: It met her test when she was secretary of state and she promoted it worldwide. Hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign, released Wednesday by WikiLeaks, showed that Jake Sullivan, her top foreign policy adviser, called her a “big champion” of the deal and worried about how to handle the issue in the face of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ opposition. She later lip-lopped into opposition during the Democratic primaries against Sanders. Clinton says she no longer backs the proposed trade deal as written because it does not provide enough protections for U.S. workers on wages, jobs and the country’s national security. Yet the inal deal also includes some of the strongest labor protections of any U.S. trade agreement. ——— TRUMP: “Last week, as you know, the end of last week, they came out with an anemic jobs report. A terrible jobs report.” THE FACTS: The September jobs report that Trump calls “terrible” is actually viewed by most economists as encouraging. Employers added 156,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate ticked up to 5 percent because more Americans felt conident enough to start looking for jobs, a positive sign. ——— TRUMP: “President Obama has moved millions of people out ... millions of people have been moved out of this country.” THE FACTS: That’s true. Obama has overseen the deportation of more than 2.5 million immigrants since taking ofice in January 2009. During Obama’s irst term hundreds of thousands of immi- grants were deported annually, following a trend of increasing deportations started under President George W. Bush. The administration set a record in 2014 when more than 409,000 people were sent home. During his second term, deporta- tions have steadily declined as he has opted to focus enforcement on serious criminals. Trump also claims that “nobody knows about it, nobody talks about it” and that’s not so. Obama has been dubbed “the deporter in chief” by immigration advocates and opponents of his immigration enforcement policies. ——— TRUMP: Clinton “has no idea whether it’s Russia, China or anybody else” behind recent hacks of Democratic organizations and individuals. “Our country has no idea.” THE FACTS: Trump’s refusal to point the inger at Moscow is at odds with the prevailing position of the U.S. intelligence community. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most oficials could have authorized these activities,” the Ofice of the Director of National Intelligence said recently in a joint statement with the Department of Homeland Security. Calif. attorney general leads criminal probe of Wells Fargo bank SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s attorney general is conducting a criminal investigation into whether employees at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo bank stole customers’ identities in the sales practices scandal that rocked the bank and cost its CEO his job, documents released Wednesday show. A search warrant and supporting afidavit released by the state Department of Justice show that agents sought evidence related to allegations that bank employees created up to 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customers’ approval in order to meet sales goals. The warrant, irst reported by the Los Angeles Times, was served Oct. 5. Copies obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request show Attorney General Kamala Harris’ ofice sought the names of customers who had accounts opened without their permission, the names of employees who opened the accounts and their managers, and fees associated with the improperly opened accounts. “We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation,” Kristin Ford, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said in an email. Wells Fargo spokesman Mark Folk said in an email that the bank is cooperating in providing the requested information. Justice Department Special Agent Supervisor James Hirt said in a 14-page afidavit seeking the search warrant that “there is probable cause to believe that employees of Wells Fargo Bank unlawfully accessed the bank’s computer system to obtain the PII (personal identifying information) of customers.” Employees then used the illegally obtained information “to commit false impersonation and identity theft by opening unauthorized accounts, credit cards and various other products that resulted in the accumulation of fees and charges for Wells Fargo,” Hirt said. The bank previously said it has ired about 5,300 employees for improperly engaging in fraudulent account sales. Congress also weighed in before CEO John Stumpf announced his retirement a week ago.
