Candidates make final cases in opposing op-eds

Washington - Clinton vowed to "get secret, unaccountable money out of our politics."

Ahead of Tuesday's voting, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump made their closing arguments to the American people in opposing op-eds published in USA Today.
The pieces - which were released online on Sunday night - include familiar ideas and phrases used by both candidates on the campaign trail, as well as policy plans and criticism of one another.
In Trump's piece, he calls for the immediate repeal and replacement of "job-killing" Obamacare, and "immediately fixing our terrible trade deals, which have killed American jobs and crushed American incomes."
In his remarks, Trump continued to cast himself as an outsider to Washington politics, and said that "real change also means draining the swamp of corruption in Washington."
"We must fix a rigged system in which political insiders can break the law without consequence and where government officials put special interests above the national interest," he said. "If we want to make America great again, we must clean up this corruption."
Notably, although Trump mentions that Clinton "has been the subject of an FBI criminal investigation into many crimes against this nation", he doesn't mention that the Sunday decision from FBI Director James Comey to again clear Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing.
"America has too many problems, too many things to fix, to mire our government in years of sordid corruption and criminal investigation," Trump said. "It is time to cut our ties with the failed politicians of the past, and embrace a bright, new future for all of our people."
Trump also repeated his plans to create 25 million "good paying" jobs, eliminate "needless" regulations, secure the border and bring jobs and security to America's inner city neighborhoods.
Hillary Clinton
In Clinton's op-ed, the Democratic candidate laid out her four most important priorities for her first 100 days in the White House, including government investment in manufacturing and infrastructure to create jobs and the introduction of comprehensive immigration reforms.
Additionally, Clinton vowed to "get secret, unaccountable money out of our politics."
"It's drowning out the voices of the American people," she said. "We should be protecting citizen's rights to vote, not corporations' rights to buy elections."
Clinton also vowed to reform America's criminal justice system.
"Too many people have been sent away for far too long for non-violent offenses," she noted. "I believe our country will be stronger and safer when everyone has respect for the law and everyone is respected by the law."
The op-ed ended with an attack on Donald Trump and a plea for unity.
"My opponent has run his campaign on divisiveness, fear and insults, and spent months pitting Americans against each other. I've said many times that Donald Trump has shown us who he is. Now we have to decide who we are," she said. "Because it's not just our names on the ballot this year. Every issue we care about is on the ballot, too. This is about who we are as a country - and whether we are going to have change that makes us stronger together, or change that pushes us further apart."
"It all comes down to this. I love our country. I believe in our people. And I think there's nothing we can't achieve if we work together and invest in each other," she concluded.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com

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