For the Record: America has spoken — let's not have a president

Brett McGinness

USA TODAY

Blue states? Red states? Most of America went khaki.

Hillary Clinton still leads by millions in the popular vote count. Donald Trump says he's the true popular vote champion, "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." But the true winner is ... nobody. Reddit user Taillesskangaru crunched the numbers and found that in 44 states, the number of eligible voters who didn't vote (or at least didn't vote in the presidential race) outnumbered the tallies for either Trump or Clinton.

If we consider "not voting" to be voicing an opinion on the race, "none of these candidates" wins in a landslide. Should we leave the Oval Office vacant for four years, per the wishes of the voters? Democrats would surely be on board. Republicans ... eh, probably not, unless the small-government instinct kicks in. After all, this would the number of government branches by 33%.

In your Thursday edition of For the Record, we look at Trump's Carrier Corporation deal in the light of day, his plan to step away from his business interests and Nancy Pelosi's re-election as House minority leader. Happy Thursday, everyone!

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Carrots, sticks for Carrier

Follow Gary Varvel on Twitter @varvel and like him on Facebook. (Photo: Gary Varvel)

After Trump's intervention, it looks like Carrier Corporation manufacturing is staying put in Indiana. But the details are still a mystery. How many jobs are staying? Will workers keep their duties or be reassigned? And perhaps most significantly, Carrier had said earlier this year that they would save $65 million by moving its manufacturing to Mexico -- so what's making them stay?

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Carrier employees are cautiously optimistic. Some details should emerge at Carrier's announcement Thursday. But rest assured, Indiana has top men working on it right now. Top ... men.

John Mutz, an Indiana Economic Development Corp. board member, says Carrier will receive financial incentives from the state that are typical of incentive packages given to other companies, primarily training grants and tax credits. But he thinks the biggest factor in the decision has nothing to do with Carrier itself, but with its parent company, United Technologies Corporation, and the $5.6 billion a year it receives in federal contracts. "This is an enormous company with all kinds of subsidiaries that do government work, and I am sure they want to keep it," Mutz said.

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indianapolis, agrees. "... I think there's a good possibility that he might have said, 'hey, you’re moving jobs to Mexico, so you might have a hard time getting government contracts here on out.' Now I don’t know that to be a fact, but that would be game changing, as far as I'm concerned, because you’re talking millions compared to billions."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the Obama administration wouldn't criticize the deal, but said the company-by-company efforts wouldn't be sustainable in the long run -- and Obama's policies, which he said created 805,000 manufacturing jobs in an eight-year period, is the better strategy. “So, if (Trump) does that 804 more times, he will have matched the standard set by President Obama — at least when it comes to creating manufacturing jobs,” Earnest said.

Trump says his businesses will be none of his business

As for his own companies ... Trump announced on Twitter yesterday that he "will be leaving my great business in total" to focus on the presidency, and prevent any appearance of favoring his own financial interests over the interests of the country. Over the past few months, the president-elect has suggested he would leave his business interests under control of his children. Presumably, he would then disown his children and dismiss them from the presidential transition team in order to completely sever ties.

Despite the announcement, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin still wants to ensure a complete split, and is planning to ask the Senate to pass a resolution that would require Trump to hand over control of his businesses. “The American public has a right to know that the president of the United States is acting in their best interest, and not because he or she has received some benefit or gift from a foreign government like Russia or China or any other foreign entity,” Cardin said.

Ethics lawyers have been skeptical as to whether Trump can separate his business interests from the interests of the nation. Trump must "exit the ownership of his businesses through using a blind trust or equivalent," said a joint statement from Norman Eisen and Richard W. Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyers for Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. "Otherwise," they said, "he will have a personal financial interest in his businesses that will sometimes conflict with the public interest, and constantly raise questions."

After Trump made the announcement, the social media team at the Office of Government Ethics launched a tweetstorm effusively praising the move. (Either that, or they were tweeting sarcastically. We've read it 10 times and we're still not quite sure.)

House Dems: 'This is fine'

Only a minor derailment. The Democratic agenda should be back on track shortly.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) was re-elected as House Democratic leader Wednesday after fending off a challenge from Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan. Pelosi's win blocks the House of Ryan from ruling the entire chamber with an iron fist.

Ryan (Tim, that is; not Paul) lost the secret-ballot vote, 134-63. He said he opposed Pelosi because he thinks Democratic leadership in the House has swung too far left. "We talk about free-range chickens more than we talk about working people," he said.

Although Democrats picked up six House seats in last month's election, they still trailed Republicans in overall House votes this year by more than 3.2 million. Despite having a 5-point edge in party affiliation, Democrats have lost the popular vote for House candidates in three of the last four elections. The lone exception was 2012, when Democratic candidates edged out Republican candidates by 1.4 million votes ... but that was a year when Barack Obama won re-election by nearly 5 million votes.

Pelosi said she looks forward to taking on the Trump administration next year: "... I would trade anything not to have this opportunity of opposing an administration — where we can, we will engage; where ... we need to oppose, we will."

Virginia's Gerry Connolly, who backed Pelosi's bid, said her experience is a big asset for House Dems right now. "I, at the end of the day, believe we need stable leadership," he said. "With the impending Trump administration, Democrats need to be united and we need a shrewd strategist, and I think that's Nancy Pelosi."

Also excited about Pelosi's re-election: Republicans.

Anti-Muslim letter says Trump will 'cleanse America'

The Masjid Al-Fajr Islamic Center of Greater Indianapolis is just one of several Islamic centers nationwide to receive an anonymous threat since Trump's election. The letter, addressed to "the children of Satan," was released Tuesday by the center. "There's a new sheriff in town -- President Donald Trump. He's going to cleanse America and make it shine again ... He's going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the jews (sic)," the letter reads. Although the letter's return address is in West Lafayette, Indiana, the postmark indicates it was sent from Los Angeles.

Days after his election, Trump appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" and told those behind hate crimes and threats to "stop it."

"Don't do it," the president-elect said. "That's terrible because I'm going to bring this country together."

If they voted after 'spring forward,' the outcome might have been way different

The Jill Stein 2016 Recount Tour is heading to Michigan, where Trump won by fewer than 11,000 out of 4.8 million votes cast. The state hasn't had a recount nearly this significant since 1968, when they tried to repeal Daylight Saving Time.

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