ZeroHedge.com
In a keynote speech in Gettysburg, Pa., about his plans for his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump laid out what he sees as the the core priorities of a Trump presidency, while focusing in the early part of the speech on attacks against Hillary Clinton and Wall Street, and repeating his core message by telling his audience that Washington and Wall Street are “rigged” against him and that he is the candidate to bring “the change that has to come.”
“I am not a politician,” Trump told the crowd. “But when I saw the trouble our country was in, I felt I had to act.” Then, moments after promising Americans that he represented a break from
the status quo, he promised to sue a number of women who have come
forward to accuse him of sexual assault, calling them liars.
Trump also railed against the media for seeking to concentrate its power through mergers and for colluding with his accusers to align against his campaign. He added a new threat to his repeated criticisms of U.S. media companies, when he vowed that in his administration such mega mergers as that between AT&T and Time Warner, which was just announced, would not pass as it leads to “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
“As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
He would also break up the NBC-Comcast merger saying “deals like this destroy democracy,” and slammed every trade deal the US has ever done as “horrible.”
In terms of soundbites, the following quotes stood out.
On the economy:
- “Change has to come from outside our very broken system.”
- “We’ve doubled our national debt to $20 trillion under President Obama.”
- “Nearly 1 in 4 Americans in their prime earning years isn’t even working.”
- “I am asking the American people to dream big once again.”
- “Will withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- “Will cancel every un-Constitutional executive action, memorandum, and order issued by President Obama.”
- “We will cancel all federal funding of sanctuary cities.”
- “The veterans will finally be taken care of properly.”
- “If we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by, and for the people.”
On Obamacare:
- “Fully repeal ObamaCare and replace it with health savings accounts.”
On education:
- “We are going to end Common Core.”
On tax reform:
- “Tax forms will be greatly simplified.”
- “When they know there are consequences, our companies will stop leaving the United States.”
On voter fraud:
- “1.8 million dead people are registered to vote. And some of them are voting.”
- “2.8 million people are registered in more than one state… 14% of non-citizens are registered to vote.”
- “According to Pew, there are 24 million voter registrations in the United States that are either invalid or significantly inaccurate.”
- “Just been learned on video that the violent protests at some of my rallies…were caused by paid DNC & Clinton campaign operatives.”
On immigration:
- “We’re going to suspect immigration from terror-prone regions.”
On Hillary:
- “Hillary Clinton should have been precluded from running… but the FBI and the Justice Dept. covered up her crimes.”
- “Hillary Clinton is not running against me. She’s running against change.”
- “HillaryClinton is… running against all of the American people and all of the American voters.
In terms of actual political measures that Trump would propose and/or enact, he listed the following six:
- “A Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.”
- “A hiring freeze on all federal employees.”
- “A requirement that for every new federal regulation, 2 existing regulations must be eliminated.”
- “A 5-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government.”
- “A lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.”
- “A complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.”
Trump: "My admin. will immediately pursue the following 6 measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington." pic.twitter.com/XYQY0lJqKM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 22, 2016
Some, like Governor Mike Huckabee, liked the speech:
Gettysburg speech by @realDonaldTrump strong as a Chuck Norris face kick. Joe Biden doesn't really want to go behind the gym with Trump!
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 22, 2016
Others, like CNN, made it clear they would primarily focus on just one part of the speech, the one where Trump said all the women who have accused him of sexual predation as being liars and he will sue them after the election: “The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over”.”
Trump just:
1. Extended this news cycle (though Allred has another accuser out today)
2. Wrote the lede for coverage here. Won't be policy! https://t.co/95FCzWvmou— Ethan Klapper (@ethanklapper) October 22, 2016
Specifically, this is what Trump said about his female accusers:
.@realDonaldTrump: "Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign… All of these liars will be sued after the election." pic.twitter.com/BDshuGxCkr
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 22, 2016
Putting this speech in a bigger context, as Fox noted earlier, Trump trails Clinton in Pennsylvania by 6%, according to the RealClearPolitics polls average.
Pennsylvania Poll Average: @HillaryClinton leads @realDonaldTrump 47.8% to 41.6%. pic.twitter.com/Ukr2V0S1vn
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 22, 2016
“However, Trump appears in the past few days to be cutting into Clinton’s lead, in part with his repeated message that the liberal media has “rigged” the election by recently publishing allegation against him by at least nine women.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed Trump having cut Clinton’s lead in half. “The media refuses to talk about the three new national polls that have me in first place,” Trump tweeted overnight. “Biggest crowds ever — watch what happens!”
With no more debates before the elections, and the mainstream media finally paying attention to the Podesta files, absent some even more dramatic accusations to emerge against Trump (we are confident the well-greased Clinton campaign has quite a few more things up its sleeve), Trump’s recent modest rebound just may accelerate over the next two weeks.
Finally, here is the full “contract for the voter” posted by Trump: