Hillary was all smiles in the Sunshine State today. She stopped by a
tailgate party to greet folks at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona
Beach before moving on to a canvass rally at the Dickerson Center
there. She will be at J-Lo's concert tonight in Miami. Got your
tickets?
At
a canvass kickoff in Daytona Beach, Hillary Clinton laid out the stakes
in this election and encouraged voters to take advantage of early
voting in Florida. She also asked FBI Director James Comey to release
more information about why the FBI is continuing their investigation of
her emails, so the American people get the full facts and fear-mongerers
like Donald Trump stop making false allegations. Clinton also vowed to
stay focused on what she will do for Americans as president and said the
stakes in this election are too high to hand over the White House to
someone so unfit for the job as Donald Trump. Clinton added, “What I
worry about are the problems that keep you up at night, and I’m going to
stay focused on that, because you know on November 9th that’s what’s
going to matter. We can’t let this election in the last 10 days be about
the noise and the distractions. It’s got to be about what kind of
country we want for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren – and
who can help take us there as your president. Now, I think you and I
agree the choice is pretty clear between a president who’s ready to
bring us together, keep us safe, and make the economy work for everyone,
not just those at the top, and someone who is temperamentally unfit and
totally unqualified for the job.”
Donald Trump’s troubling
campaign strategy is to keep women, minorities and people of color away
from the polls, Clinton said, and his campaign rhetoric is full of
attacks on our democratic institutions. Thankfully, Clinton said, more
than 16.5 million people have already voted in this election, including 3
million Floridians, in order to reject Trump’s divisive campaign.
Clinton
asked Floridians to keep turning out to elect Democrats up and down the
ticket, including Patrick Murphy for Senate, so we can continue the
progress of the past eight years. Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Go,
Daytona Beach! Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Chants of
“Hillary.”] Thank you, all. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. I am just
thrilled to be here. Are you I’m ready to canvass? Well, we need your
help in these last 10 days until the election.
I want to thank
Leslie Pearce for that introduction and her lifelong work on behalf of
children. I want to thank State Representative Dwayne Taylor and Mayor
Derrick Henry for being here with us. And to all of the elected
officials, all of the organizers and the volunteers, I am thrilled to
have this chance to come by and talk with you for a few minutes about
what’s at stake in this election because this may be one of the most
important elections in our lifetimes. And we cannot take anything or
anyone for granted.
I was just over at BCU for their homecoming
celebration. And a lot of people told me they had already voted, but I
said, ‘Get your friends. Get your family. Get everybody you know to
vote’ because you’ve got early voting here in this county, in Volusia
County, until November 5th. No excuses. Everybody’s got to get out and
vote. And that’s what this canvass is meant to make sure we do. Right?
Now,
I’m sure that some of you may have heard about a letter that the FBI
director sent out yesterday. Well, if you’re like me, you probably have a
few questions about it. It is pretty strange. It’s pretty strange to
put something like that out with such little information right before an
election. In fact, in fact, it’s not just strange. It’s unprecedented.
And it is deeply troubling because voters deserve get to full and
complete facts. And so we’ve called on Director Comey to explain
everything right away, put it all out on the table. Right?
Now, of
course, Donald Trump is already making up lies about this. He is doing
his best to confuse, mislead, and discourage the American people. I
think it’s time for Donald Trump to stop fear mongering, to stop
disgracing himself, to stop attacking our democracy. We can’t let him
get away with this, can we?
Now, like any campaign, there have
been ups and downs and ups and downs, but I’ve got to tell you I feel so
motivated, so excited, so ready because I’ve always stayed focused on
one thing: you and your families. What I worry about are the problems
that keep you up at night, and I’m going to stay focused on that,
because you know on November 9th that’s what’s going to matter. We can’t
let this election in the last 10 days be about the noise and the
distractions. It’s got to be about what kind of country we want for
ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren – and who can help take
us there as your president. [Chants of “Hillary!”] Now, I think you and I
agree the choice is pretty clear between a president who’s ready to
bring us together, keep us safe, and make the economy work for everyone,
not just those at the top, and someone who is temperamentally unfit and
totally unqualified for the job.
Now, I promise you this: I will
never stop working for you every single day as a candidate and most
importantly as your president. That’s how I was raised. When I was over
at B-CU I met one of the Methodist ministers because B-CU is affiliated
with the Methodist Church, and I felt right at home. And my mother – my
mother taught me to never, ever quit. Now what does that mean? Well,
that means everybody gets knocked down. What matters is whether you get
back up. And I’ve been fighting for families and underdogs my entire
life, and I’m not stopping now. We’re just getting started.
And
let’s always remember what our wonderful First Lady told us: ‘When they
go low, we go high.’ So no matter what they throw at us in these last
days, we’re not going to back down. We’re not going to get distracted.
We’re not going to get knocked off course. Because we know how much the
election matters. We know how many people are counting on us. And that’s
why we’re going to reject Donald Trump’s dark and divisive vision about
America.
We are going to stick together and we are going to win
on November the 8th. Right? Because Donald Trump’s strategy is pretty
simple. They’ve even said it in his campaign. It’s to get women to stay
home, get young people to stay home, get people of color to stay home,
and get a lot – get a lot of smart, intelligent men to stay home too.
Now, this is all part of his scorched earth campaign. It goes against
everything we stand for. And you know how we stop him? By showing up
with the biggest turnout of voters in American history.
We need
more of everybody to vote – more women, more young people, more people
of color, more African Americans, more Latinos, everybody. Let’s break
every record that we’ve ever had for voting. Let’s make that the story
of this election. And here in Florida you can, as you often have, make
the difference. Right, Florida? If you all vote and you get everybody
you know to vote, if you go out and talk to people today and every day
about what’s at stake in this election, then we will make history. We
will win up and down the ballot. And I feel strongly about this, because
we need people in Washington who are problem-solvers, not
problem-makers. That’s why I hope you’ll vote to send Patrick Murphy to
the Senate. He will be an independent voice for Florida families. And
this is important: Unlike his opponent, Patrick has never been afraid to
stand up to Donald Trump.
Now, here’s some really good news. We
just reached a milestone. More than 200 million Americans are registered
to vote. That is the highest number ever. And that includes 50 million
young people. That’s the most in history. And you know what else? More
than 16.5 million people have already voted in this election. And more
than 3 million of those votes have been right here in Florida. Now, you
only see numbers like we’re seeing here in Florida when people are
standing up for what they really believe in. Americans are coming
together, and I know because I hear from people who are Republicans and
Independents who are joining us to reject hate and division, rejecting
Donald Trump’s demeaning treatment of women, his plans to break up
immigrant families and deport millions of people, his lie that President
Obama wasn’t born in America.
I’ll tell you, we have learned who
Donald Trump is. Now it’s up to us to show who we are. And the energy
that we are seeing is not just about what we’re against, it’s about what
we’re for. It’s about a common vision that we share for a hopeful,
dynamic, unified America where everyone counts, everyone has a place,
everyone willing to work can get ahead and stay ahead, where women are
respected – where veterans are honored, where workers are paid fairly,
where marriage is a right and discrimination is wrong.
So my
friends, it is not just the fact that my name will be on the ballot.
Everything we care about is at stake – your future – making college
affordable, helping you pay back your debt – the cost of prescription
drugs down – protecting and defending Social Security and Medicare from
privatization and Wall Street schemes. Fighting climate change is at
stake. LGBT equality is at stake. Equal pay for women is at stake. In
the end, we know that American dream itself is at stake.
Now, did any of you see the debates?” AUDIENCE: “Yes.” HILLARY CLINTON: “Well,
I’ll tell you, I stood next to Donald Trump for three debates, four and
a half hours, proving conclusively I have the stamina to be president
and commander-in-chief. But I have to tell you, he said a lot of things
that were troubling. But in that last debate, he said something that was
truly horrifying. He is the first person of a major party, Republican
or Democrat, ever to refuse to say he would respect the outcome of the
election. Now, we can think about every issue we care about, but after
attacking women and African Americans and Latinos and people with
disabilities and Muslims and POWs and everybody, now he’s attacking the
institutions of democracy. And so it comes down to this. When your kids
and grandkids ask, ‘What did you do in the 2016 election when everything
was on the line,’ I want you to be able to say you voted for a better,
fairer, stronger America.
And the way we’re going to do that:
We’re going to turn everybody out. Early voting has begun right here in
Volusia County. Every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. until November 5th you
can vote. The nearest early voting site is just one mile away from here
at the Volusia County Library Center in City Island. So don’t wait one
more day. Go vote, and then help us get everybody else out to vote too.
Now,
I know – I know that we’ve got our canvass organizers up here. I don’t
want to take too much of their time because they are workers, they are
organized, they are focused. I’m so grateful to them and to you, and we
need you. We need you. Stakes couldn’t be higher. We got to do
everything we can. I don’t want anybody waking up on November 9th and
saying, ‘Oh, I wish I had just done a little more.’ So help us knock on
doors, make phone calls, talk to voters, and ask them, ‘When are you
going to vote? Do you know where you’re going to cast your ballot? Who
will you take with you?’ And make sure they know about early voting,
already begun here in Florida. And then if you need to, sign up
yourselves. We have signups for three more shifts between now and
Election Day. And this is going to be a close election; they always are
these days. And we’re going to win because of you, because of
hardworking volunteers like you. And if you know anybody thinking about
voting for Donald Trump, stage an intervention. Remember, friends don’t
let friends vote for Trump.
And think about it this way. On
January 20th, we’re going to have a new president. And I’ll tell you
what, I will be proud to build on the progress we’ve made under
President Obama and go even further. But I can’t do any of the things
that I’m talking about, any of the plans that I have, unless you help
me. So that’s what I’m asking you. That’s why I came to Daytona Beach
today. I came to ask you to help me in these last ten days. Let’s give
every American a chance to chart their own future, make their own
contributions. Let’s build a future we can all be proud of, and let’s
make sure we prove once and for all that love trumps hate. Thank you.”
