By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal staff writer
CLEVELAND: Donald Trump rampaged against Hillary Clinton and the media Saturday in Cleveland as the presidential campaign took another nasty turn 17 days before the election.
“She lied to Congress under oath. She lied to the FBI and she made 13 phones disappear, many of them by whacking with a hammer,” he said, having joined his running mate, Mike Pence, on stage at the I-X Center moments earlier.
“She bleached and deleted 35,000 emails and then two boxes of crucial email evidence is mysteriously missing,” he continued.
“She is the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States,” Trump blasted. “Her career embodies what the American people loathe about the corrupt, self-serving establishment that has stripped this country of its jobs, its wealth and its opportunity.”
And he reaffirmed his claims that voter fraud exists.
“Isn’t it amazing the way they say there is no voter fraud? Folks, it’s a rigged election and it’s a rigged system,” Trump said, repeating his claim that 24 million Americans are registered illegally.
PolitiFact has called that one of the many “Pants on Fire!” claims Trump has made this election season.
Trump then criticized the cameras for not showing the size of the crowd, which was many times larger than the 1,600 who turned out to hear Clinton the night before at a community college on the other side of Cleveland. A supporter scolded a reporter for turning his camera on the crowd.
“That footage will never air,” the supporter said. “It’s all rigged, but on November 8, we’re going to beat them and we’re going to beat the system.”
With chants of “Lock Her Up,” “Build that Wall” and other sharp slogans, the crowd enthusiastically supported Trump’s assertions.
Clinton, media lambasted
Trump called out the “corrupt” media several times as the crowd surrounding the press pool booed and pointed fingers.
Many Trump fans said they trust WikiLeaks, not the media. In their eyes, they said, the “dishonest, liberal” media has rigged the election in favor of Clinton.
And some downplayed hot-mic remarks Trump made in 2005 about groping women against their will.
“I work around a lot of physicians and they make jokes,” said Kate Frit, a retired medical rep from Vermilion. “It’s locker room talk. And the nurses put them in their place.”
They also questioned the authenticity of women who, since the comments came to light last week, have accused Trump of sexually assaulting them.
Earlier Saturday in a speech in Gettysburg, Pa., Trump said after the election he will “look forward to” suing all the “lying” women who have accused him of sexual assault. Hours later, another woman came forward.
“This is the way I look at that: He’s innocent until proven guilty,” said Dan Voorhees, a retiree from the manufacturing industry. Voorhees walked into the Trump rally in Cleveland wearing a button with a picture of Clinton behind prison bars, something Trump has promised to make a reality if elected.
Every supporter asked said Clinton lies; few said the same of Trump, who said Saturday he never wanted to be a politician. His fans often cited Benghazi and how Clinton mishandled sensitive government emails, and then tried to conceal the misdeed, although the FBI and U.S. Justice Department have ruled Clinton did nothing illegal.
Trusting Trump
Yelling “Donald Trump” outside the convention center, Matt Baron of Munroe Falls said Clinton has failed in her 30 years in public service to accomplish anything for the working class.
As for the women who now accuse Trump of sexual assault, he’s skeptical. “I don’t believe anyone yet until I see the evidence.”
Baron was quick to criticize Clinton for allegedly planting paid instigators in Trump rallies.
“Did you read that the other day?” Trump asked the energetic crowd Saturday as police escorted a protester out of the I-X Center.
“And has Hillary been sending people into Trump rallies for $1,500 a pop or so to cause violence? Sure,” Baron said before the event. “And are those women [who have accused Trump of sexual assault] a part of it? Possibly.”
Baron said earlier in the day Trump explained how Clinton’s paid agitators have infiltrated his rallies. “Those people should be criminally prosecuted,” Trump said later in Cleveland.
The allegation stems from surreptitiously recorded interviews with liberal operatives — two of whom have since stepped down. The damning interviews, in which the operatives appear to discuss disrupting Trump rallies, are part of a heavily edited video investigation by Project Veritas Action. The conservative group is best known for uncovering, through undercover and questionable means, voter fraud in 2008. In a video snippet released by the group in 2011, an NPR executive called the tea party racist. The executive was actually quoting a Republican, the full clip later revealed.
Baron said he’d never heard of Project Veritas or the source of the claims — only that Clinton was behind the violence at Trump’s rallies.
Laying out plans
In Gettysburg, Penn., Saturday morning, Trump unveiled a three-pronged plan for his first 100 days in office, should he win.
In Cleveland, he reiterated the “detailed list of solutions” to create 25 million jobs in a decade, reduce taxes, boost the military and much more.
Trump vowed to repeal and replace the “total disaster known as Obamacare” with something he has described as “great,” in part because it would allow interstate competition between insurance companies.
Trump reinforced his proposal for a 35 percent tariff on goods made by companies that leave America.
Here’s the rest of his plan:
• “To drain the swamp of corruption in Washington, D.C.,” Trump would propose term limits for Congress; stop hiring federal employees to reduce government payroll; delete two regulations for each new one; and implement a five-year ban on lawmakers lobbying after leaving office, a lifetime ban on White House staff lobbying for foreign governments, and an all-out ban on foreign lobbyists funding American elections, which already is illegal.
• “To protect American workers,” Trump would renegotiate or scrap NAFTA and pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal; direct his Treasury Secretary to label China a currency manipulator; tell his Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trade abuses; lift gas and oil regulations; and cancel international contributions that fight climate change.
• Finally, “to restore security and the constitutional rule of law,” something important to conservatives, Trump would undo all of President Barack Obama’s executive orders; appoint a conservative constitutionalist to fill out the Supreme Court; stem federal funding for cities that don’t crack down on illegal immigrants; remove 2 million criminal illegal immigrants; and stop immigration from “terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur.”
Beacon Journal reporter Doug Livingston can be emailed at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com