This is it. Two weeks from right now some east coast polls will have closed, and we will be so close to knowing the results. Here is a list of the last round of fundraisers all across the country. Remember two things: 1) No matter what the scientific polls say, the election itself wipes out all predictions. The election is the only poll that counts! This is no time for complacency. 2) Hillary is campaigning not only for herself but also for down-ticket Dems. Much of the funding is targeting seats we can win! Let’s DO this! Stand with Hillary and the Democrats!
Hillary rallied voters at the Coconut Creek Campus of Broward College today. When she expressed relief that the debates are over, the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It was a sweet moment. Hillary doesn’t like things to center on her, but she was genuinely surprised and let the moment happen without plunging right back into her speech.
At a rally in Broward County on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton made the case that Donald Trump’s campaign of insults has reached a new low, due to his attacks on our democratic traditions. Trump has refused to commit to accept outcome of the election, threatened to punish the media for unfavorable coverage and has said that he will impose a religious test on immigrants. These attacks are aimed not only at Americans but at the heart of what it means to be an American, Clinton said, adding, “Now, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised. This is the same guy who said he thought the Emmys were rigged against him. But this is serious. On January 20th, the first thing a president does is to take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. And I have serious doubts about whether Donald Trump even understands what that means.” Clinton also asked Floridians to send Patrick Murphy to the U.S. Senate: Murphy will be her partner in Washington, D.C, Clinton said, where he’ll fight to confront the issues that keep families up at night, including making sure we pass equal pay for equal work, reform our criminal justice reform and pass immigration reform. Clinton called on Floridians to take advantage of early voting and prove once and for all that we are ‘Stronger Together.’ She hailed the record 200 million Americans registered and the six million who having early voted this year, including 1.6 million Floridians to date, as the perfect rebuke to Donald Trump’s disdain for our democratic traditions. “Whoa. It is so great to be back in Florida. There are just 14 days, 2 weeks from today. The most important election in our lifetimes. I’m so grateful to see all of you. And I want to thank the elected officials who are here: Congressman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz; Congressman Alcee Hastings; Congressman Ted Deutch; Commissioner Mark Bogen; and others who are here; along with Senator Bill Nelson’s wonderful wife, Grace Nelson. So we are glad you all are here with me. And I’ve got to tell you I was thrilled to be introduced by the person I hope will be the next senator from the great State of Florida: Congressman Patrick Murphy. I think Patrick is exactly the kind of senator Florida needs and deserves because he will help us break through gridlock and create more good jobs with rising incomes. And Patrick knows we have to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not from the top down. I also appreciate the fact that we now are seeing an emerging bipartisan consensus that we need to fix our broken criminal justice system. Do you agree? But it’s going to take strong and committed leaders, like Patrick Murphy, who are ready to show up and fight hard and work to get this done. And this is important, my friends. Unlike his opponent, Patrick Murphy has never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump. I think Florida deserves a senator who is going to fight for comprehensive immigration reform that will keep families together against a deportation force. This is what is so unimaginable of law enforcement officials to go door to door, house to house, business to business, school to school rounding up 11 million people. I think that is so wrong, and it is not going to happen in America. So you deserve also a senator who actually believes climate change is real, as opposed to someone who every time he’s asked says, ‘Well, I am not a scientist.’ And I always wonder, why don’t you talk to a scientist? Like start here at Broward College. You could talk to a scientist. And you deserve a senator who would never say that Social Security and Medicare have – and this is a quote – weakened us as a people. His solution, Patrick’s opponent’s solution, is to privatize Medicare. That is exactly the response, but don’t boo. Vote. Right? And you deserve a senator who would never support cutting $360 million from Florida schools because Patrick knows every child in Florida deserves a world-class education. So, my friends, Patrick Murphy is a smart, tough-minded legislator and an independent voice. That’s what we need more of in Washington, people like Patrick who are going to get up every day and go to work for you, a better life for you and your families, instead of blocking progress at every turn, listening to the special interests and powerful forces that really are not interested in what it is going to take for every one of you to get ahead and stay ahead. So please when you get out and vote, please remember you can send Patrick Murphy to the United States Senate. And you will be glad you did. Now, I know there’s an overflow crowd outside. And I’m so sorry they can’t be in, but I am told they can hear us and maybe even see us. And I want to thank them for coming as well. Now, I’ve got to ask you, did anybody see the last debate? Well, the good news, the good news, was it was the last debate.” AUDIENCE: “Happy birthday to you.” HILLARY CLINTON: “Oh. Well, thank you. Yeah, that last. Thank you. Yeah. You know, you’re right. That last debate was like an early birthday present. Right? But here‘s what I wanted you to remember. I stood next to Donald Trump for four and a half hours, proving once again I have the stamina to be president and commander-in-chief. I tried as much as I could to talk about all of the issues that are on your minds that I believe we can work together to improve. And, in fact, my wonderful running mate and I, Senator Tim Kaine, wrote a book called ‘Stronger Together.’ And we put all of our policies in it because I want you to know what we’re going to try to do if we’re so fortunate enough to be the next president and vice president. And I think it’s important because I want you to have confidence that we’re going to work every day to implement the plans that we have put forth. And I tried in the debate to draw the contrast with Donald Trump, who doesn’t really have very many plans. I’ve tried to run a campaign based on issues. He’s run a campaign based on insults. And so in the debate, we didn’t have a lot to talk about other than he continued, true to form, to throw out his insults. But in that last debate, he said something that I found horrifying. Well, he said a lot of things, but there’s one thing in particular that I wanted to point out because no presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, has ever said this. He refused to say that he would respect the outcome of this election. Now, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised. This is the same guy who said he thought the Emmys were rigged against him. But this is serious. On January 20th, the first thing a president does is to take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. And I have serious doubts about whether Donald Trump even understands what that means. In America, we don’t say we’re going to keep you in suspense about whether we will respect the outcome of an election. We have free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power. That is one thing that makes America great. It makes America who we are. And we don’t impose religious tests at our borders because we are a country that was founded on religious liberty. And we don’t punish newspapers or journalists that try to cover the news or are critical of politicians or threaten to restrict the First Amendment because our democracy depends on a free press. And we don’t incite violence and turn people against each other. We respect the open exchange of ideas that a democracy depends on. I’ve got to say I bet some of you or maybe your parents, your grandparents came from places where none of that was true. Right? There is a reason why America is the greatest and longest lasting democracy the world has ever known because we believe that, no matter what you look like or where your parents were born or who you love, you have the right to be treated equally and fairly in the United States. And Donald Trump is attacking everything that has set our country apart for 240 years. Now, after spending his entire campaign attacking one group of Americans after another, immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, women, POWs, Muslims, people with disabilities, now his final target is democracy itself. So here’s what I want you to know. In the next four years, we are going to change some things in America. Right? I do want to get the economy working for everyone, not just those at the top. And we’re going to do that, along with other positive changes, but we are not going to change the fundamental values that made America the greatest nation in the history of the world. I think it all started, I think this all started, when George Washington refused to become a king. Right? Now, Donald Trump probably would have called him a loser. Instead, that was one of the most important decisions any president has ever made. Eight years. It’s time to move on. We fought a revolution so that we would not have a king, we would not be subjects, we would be independent citizens. I cherish that idea. So here is the good news. Americans are coming together. At the very moment when Donald Trump is making an unprecedented attack on our democracy, millions of people are registering, voting early, and volunteering in this campaign. And here is something very exciting. We have reached a milestone. More than 200 million Americans are now registered. And that includes 15 million young people, the most ever in history. And you know what? More than six million people have already voted, and more than one million of them are right here in Florida. So I think you only see numbers like this when people are standing up for what they really believe in. And that includes not just Democrats but Republicans and Independents coming together to reject hate and division. And I am so excited about what that means. But the energy we are seeing across Florida and America is not just because of what we are against. It’s about what we’re for. It really is. It’s about fighting for that future where everyone counts, everyone has a place, and no one is left out or behind. But I want you to know we still have a lot of work to do. I feel good, but boy, I am not taking anything for granted. I’m going to work as hard as I can between now and the close of the election next two weeks from today. And it’s so important for Florida. There are so many issues that we need to remind people about. Last time I was here, I campaigned with Al Gore and he said a lot about the climate crisis. And you know why? Because we’re seeing the reality of climate change every day in Florida. We are seeing areas in Miami, even on sunny days without a drop of rain, where the streets are flooding and the ocean is rising. And what we’ve got to do is make sure that this issue, fighting climate change, creating clean renewable energy jobs, stays at the top of the priorities. And that’s why you need a new senator like Patrick Murphy. I have to say, nobody should want to wake up on November 9th and wonder whether there was more you could have done. I hope you will wake up on November 9th proud that you took a stand and voted for an America that belongs to all of us, where we set big goals, and we work together to achieve them. I got to tell you, I believe America is great because America is good. And I want to tell you one other thing. I want to say one other thing that’s really very important to me. We should honor the men and women in uniform who fight for our country. That’s why I was so appalled when Donald Trump tweeted that the new effort underway to push terrorists out of the key city of Mosul is already, and I quote him, ‘a total disaster’ and that our country is again, a quote, ‘looking dumb.’ Really? He’s declaring defeat before the battle has even started? He’s proving once again he is unqualified to be commander-in-chief of our military. Here’s another example. He was asked if he would defend our allies. He said, well, first, he’d want to know if they’d made any payments to us to defend them. And when asked specifically about Israel, he said, and I quote again, he would ‘love to be neutral.’ Now, we can’t have a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who knows what on Wednesday, because in his mind, everything is negotiable. I have a different view. We stand with our allies. We stand with those who will help us defeat terrorism. So I get pretty excited about what we can do together, and with your help, we’re going to make the biggest investment in new jobs since World War II, jobs in infrastructure and advanced manufacturing and clean renewable energy and small businesses. I want us to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. We can create millions of jobs and protect our planet at the same time. And I got to say, no state – no state – should care more about this issue than Florida, right? And I’ll tell you something that’s – it’s kind of sad, to be honest with you. I’ve traveled all over the country and in New Jersey and Massachusetts, they have more solar power than the Sunshine State. Why? Well, because you have a governor and a legislature who, like your current senator, doesn’t want to believe the science of climate change, doesn’t see the opportunity that Florida has to be literally the global leader in clean energy. And so I want to deploy a half a billion more solar panels by the end of my first term and enough clean energy to power every home in America within ten years. And we’re also going to strengthen education at every level starting with universal pre-K and working with our teachers to make sure every child has a good school with good teachers in every zip code. And here’s what I want all the students to hear: We’re going to make college more affordable for everyone. After our primary, which was hard fought, and I was proud of the primary we ran because it was about issues, Senator Sanders and I got together, came up with a plan to make public colleges and universities tuition free for any families making less than $125,000 a year. That’s the vast majority of families. And if you’re over that, we’re going to make it debt free. So pay what you can afford, but I don’t want to see young people and their families going into debt. I view this as an investment, and that’s why we’re going to make it easier to – for you to afford to pay back your college debt. Pay it down and pay it off. And I also want more pathways to good jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree. Let’s return technical education to high schools. Let’s do more with our community colleges. Let’s have more apprenticeship programs so that everybody has a chance at a good job. And in addition to making the economy grow and making sure people are ready with the skills to do these jobs, I want to make it fairer. That’s why I want to raise the national minimum wage. If you work full time – you shouldn’t still be in poverty. And don’t you think it is finally maybe past time to guarantee equal pay for women’s work? And I always tell crowds, this is not a women’s issue, it’s a family issue. If you have a wife, a mother, a sister, or a daughter working, it’s your issue. And that’s why we have got to get this fixed once and for all. And let’s make child care affordable, and let’s have more profit-sharing, and let’s do the kinds of things that will lift everybody up. Now, when I talk about raising equal pay for women as one of my primary issues, Donald Trump or somebody always says, ‘Well, there she goes playing the woman card.’ And I got to tell you, I don’t believe that’s what it is. I think we’re paying – playing the smart card – because we want everybody’s incomes to go up. That’s how we’re going to get this economy really moving forward, creating new jobs. And so if that’s playing the woman card, you know what we say: Deal me in. I’ve also said I will pledge not to do anything that would raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 a year because we don’t need to do that. We can go where the money is, the millionaires and the billionaires, the corporations, to make them pay their fair share to support the kind of growth that we need in our economy. We’re going to close the loopholes and make sure no – no multimillionaire can get away with paying a lower rate than a nurse or a police officer or a teacher. Now, remember when we learned in one of the debates that Donald Trump hadn’t paid any federal taxes? For about 20 years, is the best guess we’ve got. And his excuse – I loved his excuse. His excuse was, well, he lost a billion dollars in a year. [Cries of “Aww!”] I have been really pondering this. How does anybody lose a billion dollars in a year, especially when you’re running casinos? Find it here. Think about it. Has anybody here ever been to a casino? [Cries of “Yes!”] Well, usually they say the house wins. So Donald Trump said it was smart for him to avoid paying taxes. Well, if losing a billion dollars is smart, I think that’s kind of upside down and backwards. I think people should be working hard to make their incomes to support their families. And that’s what we’re going to do because we don’t want the kind of values that Donald Trump used in running his business to be in our government. He stiffs – he stiffs small businesses. My dad was a small business owner. Donald Trump has refused to pay all kinds of folks – workers, small businesses, installing drapes or marble or glass or where he bought pianos. He didn’t pay them. He just doesn’t pay them, and he gets away with it because he turns and he says to these small businesses, ‘Well, go ahead and sue me.’ Well, my dad, because he was a small businessman, I know he could never have afforded that. So I’m just glad he never got a contract from Donald Trump because our family would have been hurt by that. So here’s the bottom line and here’s what I need you to do. We have got to get everybody you know to turn out and vote. And you have early voting now, and it’s going to be much easier for some of you to vote early. And if you believe in any of the issues that we have talked about in this campaign, if you believe that women and girls should be treated with respect, if you believe that marriage equality should be protected, if you believe – if you believe in science and believe we should take action, if you believe America belongs to everybody willing to work for it and we should stand up against any kind of negative tax, then I hope you will come out and vote because it’s going to be a close election. Pay no attention to the polls. Don’t get – don’t get complacent because we’ve got to turn people out. So I’m asking you to vote for me. I’m asking you to send Patrick Murphy to the Senate. I’m asking you, most importantly, to vote for yourselves because, really, that’s what is at stake. So early voting began here in South Florida yesterday. It goes through Sunday, November 6. You can go to your early voting site in your county between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. In fact, you can go across the street right now to the North Regional Library and cast your ballot today. And we have volunteers and staff ready to escort you. So hey, go ahead and vote now. And you can go to iwillvote.com to confirm your polling place and make sure you have a plan to vote. But don’t stop there. If you will join us in these next two weeks, every phone call you make, every door you knock on, will make a difference. So please, go to hillaryclinton.com. Sign up to volunteer. Take out your phone. Text ‘join,’ j-o-i-n, to 47246 and get involved because the bigger the turnout, the bigger statement we will make about the kind of country we are and the future we want to build together. Now, let me just end by saying that people ask me all the time, ‘What motivates you? How do you do this day after day?’ And look. I love this country, and I feel blessed. I feel blessed. And I want everybody to have the same chance to go after your part of the American dream. And I think the American dream is big enough for everybody. And I think a lot. I think a lot about my two grandchildren because obviously I would do anything to help them. But it’s not just them. I want to help everybody’s children and grandchildren because the kind of country we will have when they become adults will be affected by the decisions we make now – on education, on health care, on ending the epidemic of drug violence, on getting the cost of prescription drugs down, on preserving and protecting Social Security and Medicare, doing what we must to make sure we’re passing on a country that provides the same level of opportunity to all who come after us. So please join me. This is bigger than me. It’s bigger than any of us. It’s even bigger than Donald Trump, if you can believe it. This is a crossroads election that’s going to determine so much about what kind of country we have in the decades ahead. I want to wake up in the White House with your help, making it my mission to do everything I can to give every person, and particularly every child, the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. If you will stand with me, if you will work with me over the next two weeks, let’s go out and build the kind of future we want for ourselves, for our kids, and let’s prove once and for all that love trumps hate! Thank you all very much!”
Hillary’s birthday is tomorrow! The best way you can wish her a Happy Birthday is to make a donation!
At a rally in Manchester on Monday, Hillary Clinton contrasted her concern for the issues that keep working families up at night with Donald Trump’s disdain for our democratic traditions. Both Democrats and Republicans, including 150 Republican leaders in New Hampshire, are uniting to reject Trump’s unprecedented statements: his refusal to commit to accept the results of the election on November 8th, his declaration that the mission to displace ISIS from Mosul is a disaster just as it’s starting and countless statements belittling and demeaning women. Clinton also highlighted reports today of a suit against Trump’s New Jersey golf club by a former employee, alleging a hostile workplace where he experienced both physical and verbal harassment because he is gay.
Clinton hailed the strong early vote numbers favoring the Democratic ticket as proof that most Americans believe we are ‘Stronger Together.’ Our country needs a president ready to deal with our country’s biggest challenges and build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top Clinton said, adding, “to me, and I hope to you as well, this is about more than winning an election, it’s about the kind of country we want for our kids and our grandkids. That’s what this has to be about. It’s about the lessons we want to pass on to our sons and our daughters.”
Elizabeth Warren called Donald Trump unqualified to be president on the basis of both his business record and his past statements demeaning women and insulting minorities. Hillary Clinton is the best candidate by far to face down Donald Trump’s dangerous vision for America, Warren said, adding,”She doesn’t whine. She doesn’t run to Twitter at 3:00 a.m. to call her opponents losers or dummies. She doesn’t even cry that the election is rigged. Nope. Hillary is the kind who just gets up every day and she keeps on fighting – fighting for children, fighting for women, fighting for families, fighting for health care, fighting for human rights, fighting for a level playing field. Hillary fights for us. That’s right.”
Both Clinton and Warren urged Granite Staters to get out and vote, not only for Clinton but also for U.S. Senate candidate Maggie Hassan and Gubernatorial candidate Colin Van Ostern.
Clinton and Warren’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
HILLARY CLINTON:
“Thank you – Wow! I don’t know about you, but I could listen to Elizabeth Warren go on all day! It is so great to be back here in New Hampshire! I am one of the significant groups of women who went to […] back here.
Oh, it is so wonderful to be here on this college campus, and to see so many young people here as Maggie and Elizabeth and I were walking up to the stage. And a lot of people were hanging out of the windows, and we’re glad that you’ve got the best view of what we’re doing here. It’s also exciting to be here with two weeks left because this is the most consequential election of our lifetime, and to see the energy and enthusiasm that this crowd displayed – I saw it yesterday in North Carolina, I saw it the day before in Ohio, it really does demonstrate that Americans are really looking at what’s at stake and are coming to the conclusion that we all have to be involved in the remaining days of the campaign. And that everyone needs to turn out to vote.
In New Hampshire, you have a lot of reasons to vote – you’ve got great candidates for Congress, Annie Kuster and Carol Shea Porter, who deserve your support, and you’ve got a great candidate for governor, Colin Van Ostern, thank you!
I know that Maggie, Elizabeth and I have been out here giving the full […], but I hope that you will know what is at stake in the governor’s race, and in sending these two extraordinary women to the House, and boy, it is exciting to be here with Maggie and Elizabeth. They are people who fight for you every single day. I know these women, and it is a privilege to be on this stage with them.
Now, Elizabeth Warren has a track record of making it her mission to stand up to Wall Street. And she is going to make sure that Wall Street never wrecks Main Street again! But you may not know that she was the person behind setting up the agency that protects consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it was set up to stand against and to do something about the kinds of fraud and abuse we’ve seen from Wells Fargo. And they are on the frontlines of returning billions of dollars to Americans who have been cheated and defrauded by big companies, by banks and others. In fact, I think it is fair to say some of the best TV that you can see is on C-SPAN when Elizabeth is going after a bank executive or regulator. She is refusing to let them off the hook, and she is not just speaking for herself, is she? She is speaking for every single American who is frustrated and fed up. And I am so looking forward to working with her to rewrite the rules of our economy to make sure we both grow it and make it fairer for every single person working hard here in America.
I know we are up here without our phones so we cannot check tweets but – I kind of expect if Donald heard what she just said, he is tweeting away. She gets under his thin skin like nobody else. She is calling him out of his mysterious tax returns. She exposes him for what he is – temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States. And Maggie is going to be a great United States senator for New Hampshire. You do not have to take my word or Elizabeth’s word. Look at what she has already done. Under Maggie’s leadership, New Hampshire has the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country.
During her governorship, it was ranked as the best state in the country for business, and she has done it the New Hampshire way. She has brought people together, Democrats and Republicans, and Independents, and I think she has the biggest legislature, probably in the world, that she has to deal with. So she has really horned her skills – listening and trying to work with people, and she has taken issues that do keep families up at night. From the sky rocketing costs of college and prescription drugs and helping students to figure out ways to afford to get their education to helping those suffering from addiction or mental health or raising wages for hard working families. What I love about Maggie is that she is independent, she knows how to find common ground, and how to stand her ground. And that is exactly the kind of leader we need in the United States Senate.
Because we’ve got to break through the gridlock and dysfunction that has unfortunately […] Washington. We have to get back to listening respectfully. We can disagree without being disagreeable. That is why we need leaders like Maggie, and unlike her opponent, she has never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump.
She knows he should not be a role model for our kids or anybody else for that matter. So I hope in these next 14 days, you do everything you can to support her. And I want to say a word about Colin, who I have also known for a number of years now. Maggie is leaving some big shoes. She does not look like it, but she is leaving some big shoes to fill as governor. Colin is the person for that job. You know as a member of Executive Council, and I remember this because it took a lot of guts.
He helped lead the fight for funding Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire against his opponent by the way, and he has showed that he will stand up for women’s health 100 percent of the time, not just when it is politically convenient. He also worked with Maggie to cross party lines to help expand Medicaid to more than 50,000 granted […]
And Colin wants to do more to invest clean energy like wind and solar to hold down energy costs here in New Hampshire and to protect the beautiful environment of this state. And he will fight to put into action the promise of higher education within reach for more families. So please during these next days, make sure you’re doing everything you can for Colin, for Carol, and for Annie. Now did anybody see the last debate? I stood next to Donald Trump in three debates for four and a half hours proving once again, I have the stamina to be president. I’ve tried to use the time I had in all three to talk about what people talk to me about, starting here in New Hampshire and going across the country, because I take it really seriously.
I think the problems that keep you up tonight, that stand in the way of your getting ahead and staying ahead, of providing the best opportunity of a good middle class job with a rising income for you and your kids, those are the problems that someone running for president should actually listen to, pay attention to and come up with solutions for.
So I do have a lot of plans, I do. And I get criticized for having so many plans. Tim Kaine and I have actually written a book – oh, there’s one copy right there! It’s called – oh, another copy! It’s called ‘Stronger Together,’ and we lay out all of our plans for what we want to do if we’re so honored as to be president and vice president. And I do have this old-fashioned idea that if I’m here asking for your vote to be your president, I should tell you what I’m going to do, and maybe, as I said yesterday in North Carolina, maybe it’s a bit of a women’s thing because we make lists. We do, we make lists and we try to write down what we’re supposed to do and then cross them off as we go through the day and the week. And so, I want you think about our plans are as our lists – our lists as a country.
We are going to get our economy working for everybody, not just those at the top. We are going to make college affordable. We are going to lower prescription drug costs, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep faith with what we have said we’re going to do. What a novel idea! We’re actually going to try to deliver results for you.
But I got to tell you. During that debate, Donald said something. Well, he said a lot of things that were troubling, but he said something truly horrifying. He became the first person running for president – Republican or Democrat – to refuse to say that he would respect the results of this election. Now, that is a direct threat to our democracy. I’m not going to try to call it anything else because that’s what it is. All this talk about the election being rigged, trying to stir up people who are supporting him at his rallies, that is a direct threat to our democracy. And I got to tell you – as your secretary of state, I went to 112 countries and I went to countries where people were jailed for being political opponents, where they were exiled, where they were killed. I take this really seriously.
And for me, the peaceful transfer of power is one of the things that makes our country great – something that – something we can’t lose, something we shouldn’t ever doubt. We cannot give in to cynicism, and I don’t think we are. I’ll tell you what’s exciting to me is across this country, at the very moment Donald Trump is making this unprecedented attack on our fundamental values, our institutions, millions of people are standing up for democracy, registering, volunteering, voting early.
So when you get a little discouraged or you get frustrated by what you see in this campaign, think of this: we have just reached a historic milestone. More than 200 million Americans are now registered to vote. And most exciting, that includes more than 50 million young people, the biggest number ever. Now you only see numbers like this when people are standing up for what they believe in and I’m proud to see Americans coming together – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – to reject hate and division. And we’re seeing that in New Hampshire, too.
We are more than our disagreements, we Americans. There is so much more that unites us than divides us. I’m proud to have the support of more than 150 Republican leaders in this state who put country before party. But this energy we’re seeing is not just because of what we’re against, as important as that is, it’s because what we’re for. It’s about fighting for a future where everyone counts, where everyone has a place, and no one is left out or left behind.
Because to me, and I hope to you as well, this is about more than winning an election, it’s about the kind of country we want for our kids and our grandkids. That’s what this has to be about. It’s about the lessons we want to pass on to our sons and our daughters. We believe we should honor the men and women who fight for our country and that America is safer when we work with our allies to lead the world with strength and intelligence. Yet my opponent attacked a grieving Gold Star family whose son died in Iraq. He has no plan to defeat ISIS. And just last night he tweeted that the new effort underway to push the terrorists out of the key city of Mosul is already, and I quote, ‘a total disaster.’ And that our country is, quote, ‘looking so dumb.’ Imagine, imagine, this is a guy who says he knows more about ISIS than the generals. I don’t think so. He’s basically declaring defeat before the battle has even started. He’s proving to the world what it means to have an unqualified commander in chief. It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous, and it needs to be repudiated on November the 8th here in New Hampshire and across America.
But just in case you think that this is new for Donald, it shouldn’t surprise you or anybody else, and I’ll tell you why. He has been denigrating America for decades. It started before he campaigned against me. It started before President Obama took office. In fact, back in 1987, he spent $100,000 on an ad in The New York Times criticizing President Reagan. He said, and I quote, ‘The world is laughing at America.’ Does that sound familiar? This is someone who roots for failure and takes glee in mocking our country no matter who our president is. Now that may be who Donald Trump is, but this election is about who we are. And I want us – I want us to remember, America is great because America is good, right? And as our wonderful First Lady Michelle Obama said right here in New Hampshire, ‘When they go, we go high.’
This election poses a very clear choice on the economy. When the middle class thrives, America thrives. As Elizabeth said, she is a perfect example of how that works in America. So am I. So are every one of you here. That’s what I want for every single person, especially young person, in America. With your help, we’re going to not only have Elizabeth back in the Senate, but send Maggie, send Carol, send Annie and then make the biggest investment in new jobs since World War II.
What does that mean? That means jobs in infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our mass transit, our water systems. There is a lot of great work to be done here. And guess what? Those are jobs that can’t be exported. They’ve got to be done, right here in New Hampshire and across America. I want us to invest in advanced manufacturing, and there are, I know, a lot of skeptics about that. They say, ‘Well, we can’t compete in manufacturing anymore.’ Well, I’ll tell you what. I don’t want us competing with low wage jobs. I want us competing for the high wage jobs. Germany is a major exporter of advanced manufacturing products. I want to compete with Germany and countries like that, precision, machining, 3D printing.
I want us to invest more in technology, innovation and research and yes, in clean energy, because we’re going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. I think we can deploy a half a billion more solar panels within the first four years and enough clean energy to power every home by the end of 10 years. That’s what I want people to be working on and thinking about and striving to achieve.
And I am really excited about what we can do to make sure every young American is prepared. I want to start in the early years of life in early education, universal pre-K. I want kids to be prepared to succeed. Because we are in a competition, and you know what? I want us to step up and compete and win. And I want our schools – I want kids to have good teachers and good schools in every zip code, and I want to be a good partner with our teachers and our educators here in New Hampshire. And I want to bring back technical education to high school. I think we really – we really shut the door on too many young people who could’ve gotten skills that would’ve given them the chance to get ahead.
And working with our community colleges, we need to make sure that every young person and every person coming back to upgrade or change skills can go to a community college. And yes, we are going to make four-year college affordable. Just this week, a new report came out showing that New Hampshire students have very high levels of debt, and I know Maggie has been fighting that. And she’s had a moratorium, and she’s done what she could at the state level. But we got to work together at the national level to make this happen for students in New Hampshire, families in New Hampshire.
So after our primary was over – and you know what, I was really proud – I was really proud of the campaign that Bernie Sanders and I ran. And it was a campaign – it was a campaign about ideas, not insults. And that’s what campaigns should be about. And after it was over, Bernie and I got together. We put our heads together. And we came up with a plan to make public colleges and universities tuition free for any families making less than $125,000 a year. And if you make more than that, it will be debt free. In other words, pay what you can, but let’s not have kids and families going into debt to get an education. This should be an investment that we make on behalf of them and our country’s future. And no matter where you go, to a great school like this, or anywhere else, we will help you pay down your student debt. We will make is easier, because we a re going to make it as a percentage of you income, so you will never be on the hook for more than you can afford. And if your interested to see how much you and your family can save, you can actually go to hillaryclinton.com/calculator to see how much you can save under this plan that we are proposing.
Now, I think in addition to growing the economy, we need to do a lot more on small business. Two-thirds of new jobs will come from small business so we are going to be just focused on how we are going to be able to start and grow your small business. And then we do have to make the economy fairer, and that starts with raising the national minimum wage, because if you work full time, I am talking about full time workers, you should not still be in poverty at the end. Work should provide a ladder of opportunity for people willing to work for it to climb. Right?
We are going to guarantee equal pay, we are going to make affordable child care so nobody pays more than 10 percent of your income for childcare. We are going to work for paid family leave. Because this is the way families are today. We are not living in the 1950s. Families are under new stresses and strains, and I meet so many who are really just at the edge. They are making all they can make. One parent working full-time, two parents working full-time, sometimes part-time on top of full-time.
The other day, Tim Kaine and I were in Pittsburgh. There was a long line of people, big overflow, which we couldn’t get into the main room where we were. So, Tim was talking to the families there, and there was a woman holding her three-year-old child, a daughter, I think. Tim was shaking hands, and the woman looked and she said, ‘I came here hoping that I could tell you or Secretary Clinton that I had my baby three years ago, and the day after, I had my baby, I was fired because I called and ask if I could have a few weeks because it had been a difficult pregnancy. But my baby was fine but not all that she needed to be. I got fired.’ And Tim came in, and he is such a wonderful man. What a fine human being. And he said, ‘To be there are the reasons everyday why I get so motivated in this election, and I just have another reason.’ He told me that story. I think your president should care about that. I think your president should wake up everyday thinking, ‘Okay, how do I help empower the most people to make the most out of their own lives, how to break down the barriers that give you the chance to go as far as your hard work and talent will take you?’ Sometimes people say, ‘How are you going to get all this done?’ I have proposed plans that do not add a penny to the debt because I see some of my long time friends who back in the 1992 campaign – where my husband ended up, we had a balance budget and a surplus, and actually, we were on the way to paying down the national debt, but here is what happened.
What happened is trickle-down economics came back. So here is what I am going to do. We are going to ask the wealthy to finally pay their fair share. We are going to – we are going to close the loopholes, we are going to end the fact that millionaires can pay a lower tax rate than a nurse or a teacher or a police officer. We are going to make big banks pay for the risks they pose to our economy because Elizabeth is absolutely right. No – no bank is too big to fail, and no one should be above the law, and we are going to enforce that and contrast that with Donald Trump. He believes that if you give trillions and that is trillions with a ‘t’ in tax cuts to the wealthy millionaires and billionaires and corporations, and everything will work out.
Well, it will for him. That is trickle down economics on steroids. And he would wipe away the tough new rules that President Obama imposed on Wall Street. He would eliminate the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau that Elizabeth did so much to create. And you know that was bad enough, but then in the debates, we learned he hasn’t paid any income tax for years. So he hasn’t paid a penny to support our military, our veterans, Pell grants for kids to get an education, health or anything else. And his explanation was he lost a billion dollars in a year. Now, I’ve pondered this. I’ve really pondered this. He actually said it made him smart not to pay income taxes, but how smart are you to lose a billion dollars in a year?
Has anyone here been to a casino? He lost a billion dollars running casinos. Who does that? I’ve never heard of anybody. So, we’ve got to make it clear that Donald is not on the side of America workers or American families. For all of his talk about putting America first, he makes his products in at least 12 other countries. He stiffs small businesses, mom and pop contractors who work for him. My dad was a small business owner. He worked really hard. I’m just glad he never got a contract from Donald Trump because it was hard work, and people who do that work should be rewarded, not taken advantage of.
So we know a lot about how Donald Trump works, and today, today, we heard yet another story. It’s about a maintenance worker at one of his golf courses. This maintenance courses told his co-workers he was gay, and they started harassing him. They used anti-gay slurs to his face, they threw rocks and golf balls at him, his supervisor saw it and did nothing, and it got so bad, he wound up in the hospital. Finally, he went to the police for help. He couldn’t go back to work because he was too scared for his safety, and then he was fired by Trump’s golf club. Now, this is a heart-wrenching story on a lot of levels. For starters, it’s a painful reminder of the harassment, violence, and discrimination that too many LGBT Americans still face every day. And it is deeply disturbing that instead of stepping in to stop the tormentors, Trump’s golf club turned on the victim for coming forward. If that’s how Donald Trump runs his business, what does that say about how he would run our country?
So my friends, there are lots of reasons, so many, to take this election seriously. But here’s what I want you to know: of course, I want you to vote for all of us, but more than that, I want you to vote for yourselves, and for your families, and for your hope for our future together. Because if you believe women and girls should be treated with dignity and respect and women should be able to make our own health care decisions, and marriage equality should be protected, and that we have to take on the epidemic of substance abuse, disorders, and addiction. If you believe in a foreign policy where we work with our allies, not insult them, and achieve common goals towards peace and prosperity, then you have to vote. All of these issues are on the ballot this November, and I believe with all of my heart, that we will after this election, get together to help heal the divides that have sprung up and are so painful among us.
So please register and vote on the same day. Go to iwillvote.com to confirm your polling place. Come help us these last two weeks. Go to hillaryclinton.com, sign up to volunteer, take out your phone, text ‘JOIN,’ J-O-I-N to 47246 and get everybody you know to come out and vote. I think this election is going to turn on who is motivated to vote so we need each and every one of you to do everything you can to make it clear to everybody you know that our future is at stake. If you ought to be part of a positive, optimistic, confident, unifying future, please come out to vote on November 8th here in New Hampshire, and prove once and for all that love trumps hate. Thank you all!”
ELIZABETH WARREN:
“Whoa. Hello, New Hampshire. Hello. Oh, man, I love coming to New Hampshire. You know, this is like getting to hang out with your next door neighbors. It’s true, it’s true. We’ve got Maura Healey and Katherine Clark here from Massachusetts. Hanging out with our neighbors. You know, I’ve been traveling all around the country for Hillary Clinton and for our Senate candidates. I’ve been to Missouri and Ohio and Wisconsin and Colorado and Pennsylvania, and I’ve got to say, it is good to be in a place where I can say, ‘Go Pats.’ Go Pats. All right.
It really is great to be in New Hampshire. It is great to be in the home state of my dear friend, and your senior senator, Jeanne Shaheen. It is great to be in the state that is going to send Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster to the United States Congress. It is great to be in the state that’s going to elect Colin Van Ostern as its next governor. It’s great to be in the state that is going to send Maggie Hassan to the United States Senate. Yes. Oh, and just one more. It is great to be in the state that’s going to send Hillary Clinton to the White House. Yes. That’s why we’re here. [Crowd chants “Hillary.”]
Okay. So I just want to be official here. I’m with her. Are you with her? Look, we’re here today with someone who gets up every single day and fights for us. Someone who has spent her life fighting for children, spent her life fighting for women, spent her life fighting for families, fighting for healthcare, fighting for human rights, fighting for a level playing field, fighting for those who need us most. Hillary Clinton fights for us. It is now time for us to fight for Hillary.
Now, I want to talk for just a minute about values. I grew up in a family that didn’t have much. My daddy sold fencing and carpeting, ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack, my mom worked a minimum wage job at Sears to keep our family above water. All three of my brothers went into the military. Me, I just wanted to be a teacher. All my life I wanted to be a teacher. Can we hear it for America’s teachers? Yeah. I had the calling early on. I used to line up my dollies and teach school. It was tough being one of my dollies. ‘I don’t think you did your homework last night.’ It was tough. It was tough.
My parents would have given me anything they could, but they just didn’t have the money to send me to college. And the only way I could get to be a teacher is that I ended up at a commuter college that cost $50 a semester. And it opened a million doors for me. And the way I see it, I am the daughter of a maintenance man, who ended up as a United States senator. Hillary Clinton is the daughter of a factory worker – granddaughter of a factory worker, and she’s going to be elected president. We believe in that America. That is the America we fight for.
We believe, but we are worried. Worried that those opportunities are slipping away. In fact, a lot of America is worried. Worried and angry. Angry that far too often, Washington works for those at the top and leaves everyone else behind. For 30 years now, Republicans have pushed trickle-down economics, and they’ve done one thing: they’ve helped the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful. And they’ve stepped on the faces of everyone else who’s trying to get a fighting chance to succeed. Donald Trump talks a big game about how the game is rigged. Let’s be clear. Donald Trump is right. The game is rigged. It’s rigged for guys like Donald Trump.
And I say it’s time to fight back. Maggie says it’s time to fight back; Hillary says it’s time to fight back. We start our fight right here on college campuses. Education builds opportunities, but not if people are getting crushed by student loan debt. Right now, it’s a one-two punch: the high cost of college and the high cost of student loans. The federal government is making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of our students. It is obscene to make money off people who are trying to get an education.
But I want to be clear on this. We know where Kelly Ayotte stands. She voted against refinancing your student loans. And Donald Trump, we know where he stands too on higher education. Colleges need more money to bring down the cost of tuition. His plan is to get rid of all federal student loans, abolish the whole Department of Education – I think his plan is to set up another fake university, cut out the middleman, and cheat the students directly himself. That’s why we fight back. That’s why we fight back.
Look, college alone is reason enough to get out and vote. It is reason enough to get out and volunteer. Hillary and Maggie and I are determined to make debt-free college the law of this land. That’s where we want to go. We are determined to refinance that $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Yes. Help us do that. Help elect Hillary and Maggie, so that we can make college a pathway of opportunity, not just for rich kids, but for all of our kids. Yeah.
Look, we want to build an America that’s going to work. But that isn’t going to happen with Donald Trump. Donald Trump cheered on the 2008 financial crash so he could scoop up real estate on the cheap, sadly he didn’t know he wasn’t going to be able to buy a villa in Sea Pines for the price he wanted. He stiffed small business owners: plumbers, and painters, and construction workers when he built his casinos and golf courses. And Donald Trump disrespects – aggressively disrespects more than half the human beings in this country. He thinks that because he has money that he can call women fat pigs and bimbos. He thinks because he is a celebrity that he can rate women’s bodies from 1 to 10. He thinks that because he has a mouth full of Tic Tacs that he can force himself on any woman within groping distance. Well, I’ve got news for you, Donald Trump. Women have had it with guys like you. And nasty women have really had it with guys like you. Yeah. Get this, Donald. Nasty women are tough. Nasty women are smart. And nasty women vote. And on November 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever. Yup. You bet. Yes! For more than a year, Donald Trump has made headlines almost every day. And where has Senator Kelly Ayotte been? Donald Trump called Latinos rapists and murderers. Kelly stuck with him. Trump called African Americans thugs and Kelly stuck with him. Trump attacked a Gold Star family and Kelly stuck with him. Trump compared himself to dictators and praised Vladimir Putin. Kelly stuck with him. Trump even attacked Kelly Ayotte and called her weak, and Kelly stuck with him. During a debate a couple of weeks ago when she called Donald Trump a role model for kids, you want to say – you just can’t believe this.
But now Donald Trump’s not doing so well, and Kelly is running as fast as she can away from him. Well, I will say one thing: Donald Trump sure has made Kelly Ayotte dance. Day one, she loves him. Day two, she hates him. Day three, she’s back with him. Boy, spins round and round. But one of the things I love about the people from New Hampshire is that you value guts. You make the right decision and then you stick with it. Donald Trump has right. Kelly is weak. And that’s why a tough, smart fighter like your governor, Maggie Hassan, is going to win on November 8.
Yeah. I love being here with smart, tough women, with Hillary, with Maggie, with Carol, with Annie. And with friends of women, Colin.
Just look at Hillary’s history. She’s been on the receiving end of one terrible right-wing attack after another for 25 years, but she has never backed down. She doesn’t whine. She doesn’t run to Twitter at 3:00 a.m. to call her opponents losers or dummies. She doesn’t even cry that the election is rigged. Nope. Hillary is the kind who just gets up every day and she keeps on fighting – fighting for children, fighting for women, fighting for families, fighting for health care, fighting for human rights, fighting for a level playing field. Hillary fights for us. That’s right.
All right. So we’re with her. There are two things we got to do. The first one: We got to vote. New Hampshire has same-day registration at your polling locations, so no excuses, anybody. Go to iwillvote.com. Make a plan now how you’re going to cast your vote. And cast your vote for Annie, for Carol, for Colin, for Maggie, and for Hillary. You going to do that? [Cries of “Yes!”]
Second, do more than vote. Volunteer. We need you in this. Democracy needs you in this. You can knock on doors. You can make phone calls. You can monitor the polls. Lawyers can help us here. Everybody. If you have any time over the next 15 days, please volunteer. You can go to hillaryclinton.com. You can go to maggiehassan.com. And I guarantee we will use your time and we will use it well. Please, make this investment in democracy. Get out there and volunteer. We need you on that. Yes.
Okay. So it is so good for all of us to be here. This is fabulous. The way I see it, what elections are about is they ultimately come down to our values. It’s not about one person or one candidate. It’s about a movement. It’s about a strong, powerful movement to make real change in this country, the kind of change that we make together. And since we’re here together, let us remind ourselves why we get up in the morning, why we work hard all day, and why we’re still working late at night: because of what we believe.
We believe that every person should be able to get a college education without getting crushed by student loan debt, and that means refinancing our student loans and debt-free college. Yes.
We believe that no one should work full-time and live in poverty. And that’s means raising the minimum wage, and we will fight for it.
We believe that workers should be able to organize for better pay, for better working conditions. Unions built America’s middle class, and unions will rebuild America’s middle class. Yes.
We believe that after a lifetime of hard work, people are entitled to retire with dignity. And that means protecting and expanding Social Security. And we will do it.
You may have heard, Wells Fargo cheated tens of thousands of people. Giant banks brought down our economy. Well, we believe in tough rules, real accountability, and if a CEO breaks the law, they ought to go to jail just like anyone else. Yeah.
Some beliefs are controversial, so I want to throw this one out there. We believe in science. We believe that climate change is real and that we have a moral obligation to protect this Earth for our children and our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s grandchildren. Yes.
Boy, and I can’t believe I have to say this in 2016. We believe in equal pay for equal work and a woman’s right to decisions over her own body. Yes.
We believe that equal means equal, and that’s true in marriage. It’s true in the workplace. It’s true for every place. And we will fight for equality for all of our people.
Donald Trump calls African Americans thugs. He calls Muslims terrorists. He calls Latinos criminals. He brags about sexually assaulting women. Well, we believe that racism and sexism and bigotry have no place in our country. We believe that Black Lives Matter and that we won’t build Donald Trump’s stupid wall. We believe diversity makes us strong. Yes. Yes.
You do know I could do this all day? But we got a great speaker here. So I’m going to do one more and then I’m going to quit.
We believe that millionaires and billionaires and giant corporations should not be able to buy our elections and our politicians. Corporations are not people. We will overturn Citizens United and bring democracy back to the people. Yes.
This is Hillary’s agenda. This is Maggie’s agenda. This is Colin and Annie and Carol’s agenda. It is a progressive agenda. It is a New Hampshire agenda. It is an American agenda. Yes! Hillary is ready to fight for us. Are you ready to fight for Hillary? Then let’s welcome to the stage Hillary Clinton, our next president of the United States!”
Hillary Clinton is working hard to get every vote in North Carolina. She began her Sunday at services at the Union Baptist Church in Durham with the Mothers of the Movement.
Then Hillary and the Mothers moved on to rally enthusiastic voters at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.
Hillary then hopped on her plane to fly to Charlotte for another rally later in the day.
The election of Hillary Clinton is an event that we would welcome for its historical importance, and greet with indescribable relief.
By The Editors
Illustrations by Tom Bachtell
On November 8th, barring some astonishment, the people of the United States will, after two hundred and forty years, send a woman to the White House. The election of Hillary Clinton is an event that we will welcome for its immense historical importance, and greet with indescribable relief. It will be especially gratifying to have a woman as commander-in-chief after such a sickeningly sexist and racist campaign, one that exposed so starkly how far our society has to go. The vileness of her opponent’s rhetoric and his record has been so widely aired that we can only hope she will be able to use her office and her impressive resolve to battle prejudice wherever it may be found.
On every issue of consequence, including economic policy, the environment, and foreign affairs, Hillary Clinton is a distinctly capable candidate: experienced, serious, schooled, resilient. When the race began, Clinton, who has always been a better office-holder than a campaigner, might have anticipated a clash of ideas and personalities on the conventional scale, against, say, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. Instead, the Democratic nominee has ended up playing a sometimes secondary role in a squalid American epic. If she is elected, she will have weathered a prolonged battle against a trash-talking, burn-it-to-the-ground demagogue. Unfortunately, the drama is not likely to end soon. The aftereffects of this campaign may befoul our civic life for some time to come.
If the prospect of a female President represents a departure in the history of American politics, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump, the real-estate mogul and Republican nominee, does, too—a chilling one. He is manifestly unqualified and unfit for office. Trained in the arts of real-estate promotion and reality television, he exhibits scant interest in or familiarity with policy. He favors conspiracy theory and fantasy, deriving his knowledge from the darker recesses of the Internet and “the shows.” He has never held office or otherwise served his country, never acceded to the authority of competing visions and democratic resolutions.
Last night, Hillary and Tim held an outdoor rally at the University of Pennsylvania’s Dunning-Cohen Champions Field at Penn Park. The air was nippy, but they received warm welcome.
There are so many stories out there and so many lies. The people we talk to might not know how Hillary has touched their lives or, in some cases, might not know how Hillary shares their own aspirations. If you are in the trenches trying to win votes, here are two videos that demonstrate the effect Hillary has had on American lives and the thinking that has led her, and us, to where we all stand today. They are tools to be used as you persuade. This is not over yet. Not by a long shot. Show these, as needed, in your efforts. Every vote counts. Every vote should be an informed one.
Here is a family profoundly affected by Hillary’s work.
Here are some millennials who do not know to whom they are listening, but this message rings true.
At a Get Out the Vote Rally in Cleveland, Hillary Clinton called out Donald Trump for refusing to commit to accept the results of the election, saying that sacred traditions like the peaceful transfer of power are what makes America exceptional.
Clinton also pointed out that while Trump poses as an ally of working families, he is anything but. Trump used Chinese steel and aluminum instead of American-made metals at his construction projects, Clinton said, which dovetails with the fact that he may have paid no federal income taxes for nearly two decades. Clinton contrasted that with the vision she and Tim Kaine are offering America: an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. Clinton added, “So, yes, my name may be on the ballot, but the question really is, who are we as a country? What are our values? What kind of future do we want to create together? It is so easy to get cynical about politics. Believe me, I know that. But this matters so deeply to our families, and our communities, and our country, and indeed, our world.”
Clinton urged attendees to turn out on November 8th and vote early, not only to elect Democrats up and down the ballot but also to reject the bluster and bigotry of Donald Trump. She also vowed to be the president for all Americans – Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Cleveland, wow. Woo. There is nothing like being introduced by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to get everybody going.
I am so excited to be here, and what a time to be back in Cleveland. The Indians are going to the World Series. That’s after the Cavs won the championship. What a year for Cleveland. You really are Believeland. Now, I, for one, am hoping for a Great Lakes Series. I spent a lot of days at Wrigley Field as a kid, so that would be a dream come true for me to have Cleveland and Chicago in the World Series and for us to win Ohio.
I want to thank all of the people who are here today because you’ve heard from some great, great folks. I want to thank Governor Ted Strickland, our candidate for the United States Senate. I’ll tell you, we could really use a Democratic Senate to get things done for the people of Ohio and America. I want to thank Mayor Frank Jackson – County Executive Armond Budish. I want to thank my great friend from Youngstown, Congressman Tim Ryan. And we need you all in. You need you all in. You’re rallying together and we need to rally together, because I really believe we are stronger together.
Anybody watch the debate Wednesday night? Well, that was the third and last time – that I will ever have to debate Donald Trump. I have now spent four and a half hours on stage with Donald – proving once again I have the stamina to be president and commander-in-chief. Really, you just have to be of good cheer when you find yourself in situations like that. And because I love this country and I believe in the American people, I could feel so clear in my own mind and my heart about what we can do together.
So no matter what he was saying, I just kept thinking of all the people that I have met throughout this campaign. And I had the chance to talk about some of the most important concerns on people’s minds, what keeps you up at night. And as I said then and as I have said continuously, we’re going to invest in the middle class. We’re going to invest in you and your families. We’re going to make sure we produce enough good jobs with rising incomes that every single person, especially every single young American here today, will have the chance – to go as far as your talents and your hard work will take you. And we’re also going to protect our children from gun violence. We are not going to tolerate the kind of gun violence epidemic that has swept this country and results in the deaths of 33,000 people a year.
We can come together to meet our challenges no matter what they are, but on Wednesday night, Donald Trump did something no other presidential nominee has ever done. He refused to say that he would respect the results of this election. Now, make no mistake, by doing that, he is threatening our democracy. He is basically saying, ‘Hey, we’ve been around 240 years and we’ve always had peaceful transitions no matter who won or who lost.’ Look, if you lose an election – I’ve lost elections – you don’t feel very good the next day, do you? But we know in our country the difference between leadership and dictatorship, right? And the peaceful transition – the peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart. It’s how we hold our country together no matter who’s in charge.
I went to 112 countries as your Secretary of State – and I saw the difference between what we do and what others do. I was in countries where people jail their political opponents or execute them or exile them or invalidate elections that they didn’t win. That can never be allowed to happen here. I believe that’s true no matter who you support in this election. Whether or not you support me or you support my opponent, together we must support American democracy and the country that has given every one of us so many opportunities.
And the best way to do that, my friends, is to turn out and vote. Those are great. That’s great. I’m excited because we are well on our way. There’s an inspiring story being written right now by people across America. And many of you are getting involved in this election, some of you for the first time in your lives. We now have in America more than 200 million registered voters. That is more than we’ve ever had in our entire history, and that is really good news for our democracy. More than 50 million millennials have registered to vote so far. You know what that means: Young people will determine the outcome of this election, which I think is good news. That means our future is in good hands.
And listen to this because this is really exciting: More than 4 million people have already voted, including many people right here in Ohio. In fact, in the first four days of in-person early voting here in Ohio, more people showed up to vote than they did at the same time in 2012 in our last election. That is fantastic. And it shows how serious people are taking this election.
So numbers like that remind us that no matter all the negativity that’s out there, there’s something really exciting happening right now. People are coming together – Democrats, Republicans, Independents, all of us, to reject hate and division. People are motivated to vote early to defend core American values, to embrace a future where every person counts, everyone has a place, and everyone can contribute. That is my vision. I have a hopeful, optimistic, unifying version for what our country will be because from the beginning, our campaign has been focused on ideas, not insults, on bringing people together, not tearing us apart.
And I want all of you to know that that’s true not only for the campaign, but if I am fortunate enough to be your president, I want you to know and I want you to tell – I want you to tell anybody you know, any friends or colleagues at school or work or your neighborhood who may be planning to support the other guy, here’s what I want you to tell them. I want you to tell them that I want to be their president. I want to be every single American’s president, whether you agree or disagree, whether you vote for me or vote against me. I believe we can disagree without being disagreeable. I believe that, and I’ve seen that happen.
I want to be a good listener. I know there are a lot of people right here in Ohio who are discouraged, frustrated, even angry about what’s going on in their lives, about losing jobs. They’re upset about what they see happening around them. I get that. But I think anger is not a plan. We need plans that will help us deal with the legitimate concerns and questions that people have here in Ohio. I think that’s what the country needs now, and that is what I will try to offer.
I am not going to pretend that we can just snap our fingers and solve our problems. That would not be fair. It wouldn’t be true. But I know we can make progress together. And you deserve something to vote for, not just against. So I want to speak directly to the challenges that a lot of people here in Ohio face, especially when it comes to our economy.
You see, I believe really simply that when the middle class thrives, America thrives. When we build the economy from the middle out and the ground up, not from the top down, we are more likely to provide better lives, better incomes, better opportunities for more Americans. My opponent has a different perspective. He really believes if you give trillions – that’s with a T – trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy, to millionaires and billionaires and corporations, everything will work out. It’s trickle-down on steroids. I believe differently, that we must invest in working families, in the middle class, in small businesses. That will power the economy.
And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get the economy to work for everyone, not just those at the top who have done pretty well over the last years. Now, Donald likes to say he’s on the side of American workers. But his actions tell a different story. He has been buying cheap Chinese steel and aluminum for his construction projects when he should be buying good American-made steel that supports good American jobs. And this is a very important issue here in Ohio because you’re one of the largest steel-producing states in America. So you understand how important this is to support the American steel industry. So I’m going to let Donald try to explain himself to the steelworkers filing for unemployment. He has put Chinese steelworkers to work, not American steelworkers. And we’re going to change that.
And for all of his talk about putting America first, he’s made his products in at least 12 other countries. Trump suits were made in Mexico. They could have been made in Brooklyn, Ohio. Trump furniture is made in Turkey. And it could have been made in Cleveland. Trump barware is made in Slovenia, instead of Toledo. So if he wants to make America great again, why doesn’t he start by making things in America again?
And we also know that he hasn’t paid a dime in federal income tax for years. He says that makes him smart. Well, I don’t know how smart you have to be to lose a billion dollars in a year in the first place. But what that means is everybody else here, all of us, have paid more in federal income taxes than a billionaire. Right? And that means he’s contributed zero, zero for our military or our vets, zero for Pell Grants to help young people go to college, zero for our highways or investing in clean energy or other ways to help us with new jobs for the future.
Now, Tim Kaine and I, we have a different view. We want to make the biggest investment in new jobs since World War II: jobs in infrastructure and manufacturing, clean energy, technology, and small business. We are going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.
And I’ve set some big goals. I want us to deploy a half a billion more solar panels by the end of my first term and enough clean energy to power every home within 10 years.
We’re also going to strengthen education at every level, starting with universal pre-kindergarten education. And we want good schools with good teachers in every ZIP Code so that every kid gets a world-class education. I want us to bring back technical education in high school. I think it was a mistake when we took it out of our high schools. And let’s remember it’s at community colleges like this that thousands and thousands of people in our country of all ages get such a good start.
And I’m going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free for any families making less than $125,000 a year. Education should lift you up, not hold you back. And we’re going to help you. We’re going to help you pay back and pay down your loans. Too many young people are burdened by those debts. It’s going to be great to help you pay it back as a percentage of your income so you’re never on the hook for more than you can afford. Senator Bernie Sanders and I worked on this plan together. It’s going to help save millions of people thousands of dollars. And you can actually go to hillaryclinton.com/calculator to see how much money you and your family could save with our plan.
I also want to do more for apprenticeship programs. I thank all the unions represented here for the great apprentice programs that you have in place. Thank you. I want to support apprenticeship programs and skills trainings with business and labor unions because there are going to be good jobs out there for welders and machinists and health technicians and computer coders and so much more. I want everybody to have the chance to get your piece of the American dream. And I think the American dream is big enough for everybody.
And we’re going to raise the national minimum wage because no one who works full-time should still be in poverty. As I said in the debate the other night, I want to make sure that we take care of people on Social Security who were low-income workers and women, particularly widows, who lose half of their monthly payment when their husbands die. We’ve got to do more to make sure Social Security provides a decent income for our seniors.
And yes, don’t you think it’s finally time to guarantee equal pay for women’s work? Now, the equal pay issue is important in and of itself because if you’ve got a mother or a wife or a daughter or a sister who is working, you want her to be paid fairly. I mean, that’s good for the entire family. Right? But the equal pay issue gets at something even deeper. We’ve got to make sure that women and girls are treated with the dignity and respect in our country that they deserve.
We cannot – we cannot tolerate the kind of behavior and language we’ve seen from my opponent. He thinks that belittling women makes him bigger, goes after their dignity, their self-worth. And I don’t think there’s a woman anywhere who doesn’t know how that feels.
So we’re going to stand up for everybody. Men and women, retirees, the young, millennials, everybody deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. And I have said repeatedly that we’re going to reform the criminal justice system so that – it works fairly for everyone. And we have to address systemic racism that is still too big a part of our lives together. I want to give credit to all the young people, and really people of all ages who have been marching and speaking out, doing everything you can to make sure that issues of policing and mass incarceration, environmental justice, economic justice, educational equity, gun violence, voting rights, that they get the attention they deserve.
Because it’s important that we lift these issues up and work to make sure that everybody in our country feels like they are seen, and they are heard. And all the advocates and activists who have challenged us to think about these issues of race, injustice, and equality, and opportunity in new and powerful ways really deserve our appreciation. I’m going to do everything I can to lift these issues up. Because one of my hopes for my presidency will be to root out systemic racism, and bigotry, and discrimination in whatever form it takes.
So, really, when you think about it, my name will be on the ballot, but it’s not just me. You know, people say, well, you know, she has lots of plans and all that. I do. But I also have a lot of humility about this. I really believe our country is at a turning point; that this is a crossroads election. So, yes, my name may be on the ballot, but the question really is, who are we as a country? What are our values? What kind of future do we want to create together? It is so easy to get cynical about politics. Believe me, I know that. But this matters so deeply to our families, and our communities, and our country, and indeed, our world.
So I want to say something to people who may be reconsidering their support for my opponent. I know you may still have questions for me. I respect that. I want to answer them; I want to earn your vote. I am reaching out to all Americans: Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. I think America needs every single one of us to bring our energy and our talents, our ambition to build that better country. So I hope that as we move through these next 18 days, everyone thinks seriously about what you really want to see, not just in your next president, but in your lives. In your jobs. In your education. In our future together.
And the only way we can have that positive, optimistic, unifying future is if all of you help us get there. Every phone call you make, every door you knock on, every voter you register makes a big difference. So I hope you will give whatever time you can for these last days. You can go to HillaryClinton.com and sign up to volunteer, you can text, ‘join,’ j-o-i-n, to 47246 to join. With your help, we can elect Democrats up and down the ballot, starting with Ted Strickland and others who are running. Remember that early in-person voting – in-person voting in Ohio began on October 12th, and it ends on November 7th. So you have more of a window to vote than a lot of people in other states. And I hope you will exercise that.
And I hope that you will decide whatever issue you care about, you can almost in your mind’s eye, see that on the ballot. See it next to my name. See it, whether you care about climate change and what we’re doing to protect the Great Lakes, including Lake Erie, while creating good-paying clean energy jobs. Whether you believe women should be able to make our own healthcare decisions. If you believe marriage equality should be protected. […] should be treated equally. If you believe we should do […] stop the opioid epidemic that is destroying lives and communities. That we should do more to help with mental health and make sure that people get the treatment that they deserve. If you believe we need to get the cost of healthcare premiums, co-pays, and deductibles and prescription drug costs down. If you believe that we should have a foreign policy where we work with our allies, not insult them, and achieve common goals toward peace and prosperity. This is our chance to send a very clear, unmistakable message about what kind of country and future we want.
You know, I have two of the most wonderful grandchildren ever. And I see them whenever I can; I FaceTime with them all the time. But I think about them endlessly, because I feel such a sense of responsibility, not just because they’re my grandchildren, obviously, and I would do anything to help them, but because I want everybody’s children and grandchildren to have the same opportunities to chart your own future, to believe in yourself, to contribute to this great American democracy of ours. To be part of an economy that lifts you up, not drags you down. I am motivated by my work that I’ve done my entire life on behalf of kids and families, from the time I joined the Children’s Defense Fund until today, and I will do whatever I can to make it my mission to give every single person, especially every child and young person, the chance to live up to your God-given potential. Let’s go out and prove that ‘Love Trumps Hate.’ Thank you.”
This private blog is about Hillary Clinton's work. It is intended to support, promote, and appreciate Hillary Clinton's efforts and initiatives, all of them – past, current, and future. Onward together! “Resist, insist, persist, enlist.” - Hillary Rodham Clinton
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Hillary Clinton's 2016 election memoir
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“One of the best investments we can make is to give our kids the ingredients they need to develop in the first five years of life.” — Hillary Rodham Clinton
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"If you can, please chip in to support the Flint Child Health & Development Fund, which is working to provide health care and educational support to families in Flint affected by this crisis." - Hillary Clinton
Thank you for everything, Mme. Secretary!!!!
Thank you for all of your dedicated service and brilliant leadership!
Hillary Clinton’s Cover Letter to Congress on the ARB Report
Hillary because…
She would NEVER have allowed social safety nets to be "on the table."
Read the unclassified ARB Report on Benghazi here.
@U.S. Senate: Time to ratify LOST!
"... ratify the Law of the Sea Convention, which has provided the international framework for exploring these new opportunities in the Arctic. We abide by the international law that undergirds the convention, but we think the United States should be a member, because the convention sets down the rules of the road that protect freedom of navigation, provide maritime security, serve the interests of every nation that relies on sea lanes for commerce and trade, and also sets the framework for exploration for the natural resources that may be present in the Arctic." -HRC, 06-03-12, Tromso Norway
"I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake." - HRC 01-26-10
Good Advice!
“You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” HRC
Hillary! Leadership we need!
Politics & Foreign Policy
"What I have always found is that when it comes to foreign policy, it is important to remember that politics stops at the water's edge." -HRC 11-04-10
What a difference one woman can make!
"...whether it’s here, in the absolute best embassy in the world, or whether it’s in Washington, or whether it’s elsewhere, what a difference one woman can make. And that woman is right here, the woman who needs no introduction, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton." 07.05.10 - Unidentified speaker, Embassy Yerevan
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"So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you your Secretary of State, and perhaps the most respected person on the world stage today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." - Jon Huntsman 05-23-2010
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“When people attack you, you always have to remember that a lot of what others say about you has a lot more to do about them than you.” – Hillary Rodham Clinton
