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.