In Gettysburg, Trump lays out plan for first 100 days of presidency

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listed his policy plans for the first 100 days of his presidency in a campaign speech Saturday, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near the site of a Civil War battlefield and a celebrated address by President Abraham Lincoln.

But he also defiantly raised personal grievances, describing how, if elected, he would address them from the White House in a way he said would benefit Americans.


Credit: Reuters


The speech was billed by his campaign as a major outlining of his policies and principles. Many of the policy ideas Trump listed on Saturday were familiar, not least his promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico to deter illegal immigration and to renegotiate trade deals and to scrap the Obamacare health policy.

Moments after promising Americans that he represented a hopeful break from the status quo, he promised to sue nearly a dozen women who have come forward in the last two weeks to accuse him of sexual assault, calling them liars.

"Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign," he said. "Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over," he said.

And he added a new threat to his repeated castigation of U.S. media corporations, which he says cover his campaign unfairly to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"They're trying desperately to suppress my vote and the voice of the American people," Trump, who often rails against media outlets and journalists covering his events, told supporters in his speech. Trump has not provided evidence for his assertion that the election would be rigged.

He said the media was fabricating stories to make him look "as bad, and even dangerous, as possible."

In a statement, Clinton spokeswoman Christina Reynolds described the speech as "rambling, unfocused, full of conspiracy theories and attacks on the media, and lacking in any real answers for American families."

Chance of a lifetime

Although Trump on Saturday described his plans at least in part as a response to his belief media organizations had treated him unfairly, he argued that less wealthy voters had even greater cause to worry.

"When a simple phone call placed with the biggest newspapers or television networks gets them wall-to-wall coverage with virtually no fact-checking whatsoever, here is why this is relevant to you," he said. "If they can fight somebody like me who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they could do to you, your jobs, your security, your education, your health care."

Trump, who has said he may not accept the election's outcome if he loses, is trailing Clinton in most polls -- although he has narrowed the gap according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Clinton maintained her commanding lead in the race to win the Electoral College, however, and claim the U.S. presidency, a Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project poll released on Saturday showed.

Trump has bluntly said that Mexico will pay for the wall, an idea the Mexican government has scoffed at. He tweaked his language on Saturday, saying the United States would fully fund the wall with the understanding that Mexico would reimburse the cost.

Trump's campaign was thrown into crisis two weeks ago when a 2005 video was released showing him bragging about groping and kissing women, prompting several prominent Republicans to announce they would not vote for him.

Since then, at least 10 women have said Trump made unwanted sexual advances, including groping or kissing, in incidents from the early 1980s to 2007, all of which Trump has denied.

Trump, 70, said he was being attacked because he was an outsider, who had never previously run for office, which he argues is a virtue.

"The fact that Washington and the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime," he said.

In the meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden, also in Pennsylvania, blasted Trump for his comments about women and the allegations of his misconduct. Biden told a rally for Clinton on Saturday, "What he says he did and does is the textbook definition of sexual assault."

Biden said he is often asked if he wished he could have the chance to debate Trump. "No, I wish we were in high school," he said, "and I could take him behind the gym."

While Trump was busy preparing for his speech at Gettysburg, Clinton and her staff were dealing with the news that an envelope containing white powder, and feared to be anthrax, had been delivered to the campaign’s New York headquarters Friday. On Saturday, police revealed the powder had tested negative for toxic substances.

　

　

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו