Trump uses policy speech to attack media, promises to sue accusers
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump promised on October 22 to foil a proposed deal for AT&T to buy Time Warner if he wins the Nov. 8 election, arguing it was an example of a "power structure" rigged against both him and voters.
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers remarks at a campaign event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst |
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.
The speech was billed by his campaign as a major outlining of his policies and principles. Many of the policy ideas Trump listed on October 22 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.
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.
"As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," Trump said.
Telecommunications company AT&T Inc has agreed in principle to buy Time Warner Inc, one of the country's largest film and television companies, for about $85 billion and an announcement could be made as early as October 22.