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.”
