·
Donald
Trump has won the presidency – taking Pennsylvania to secure 274 electoral
college votes
·
Trump
accepted the mantle of leadership with uncharacteristic humility nearly three
hours after Election Day was over
·
Hillary
Clinton made the private call to Trump to concede shortly after sending
her campaign chairman to give her supporters exactly the opposite message, that
it was not over
·
She had just 218 of the 270 electoral
votes needed to win when Trump's victory emerged
·
In Trump's victor speech,
he thanked Democratic nominee Clinton, who had called him minutes earlier
to concede the presidential race
·
He was joined on stage by his
family, vice president running mate Mike Pence and several supporters from the
Republican Party
· As Clinton's party fell flat and supporters
streamed away in tears, she was locked in a hotel suite just round the corner
from Trump Tower
By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR
FOR be informed IN NEW YORK and NIKKI SCHWAB, US POLITICAL REPORTER
FOR be informed IN NEW YORK and GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY US POLITICAL
EDITOR FOR be informed IN NEW YORK
PUBLISHED: 00:06 GMT, 9 November 2016 | UPDATED: 08:40 GMT, 9 November 2016
Donald Trump
sensationally won the White House race this morning as Hillary Clinton phoned
him at 2.30am to concede she had lost.
She made the private
call shortly after sending her campaign chairman to give her supporters exactly
the opposite message, that it was not over - a humiliating and bizarre end to a
political career which had put her on the verge of being the first female
president.
Instead a jubilant Trump
headquarters erupted in cheers as the news broke.
Trump accepted the
mantle of leadership with uncharacteristic humility nearly three hours after
Election Day was over.
'Now it's time for
America to bind the wounds of division,' he began his victory speech just
before 3am. 'I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be
president for all Americans - and this is so important to me.
'For those who have
chosen not to support me in the past - of which there were a few people - I'm
reaching out to you for your guidance and your help, so we can work together
and unify our great country.'
'I promise you that I
will not let you down,' he said.
He thanked his parents,
saying they were 'wonderful in every regard'. He thanked his sisters, his
brothers, his wife and children 'for putting up with all of those hours. ...
This political stuff was nasty and it was tough'. He thanked the US Secret
Service.
And in a twist nearly as
bizarre as the sum of Campaign 2016, he thanked Democratic nominee Hillary
Clinton, who had called him minutes earlier to concede the presidential race
after declining to do it from the stage of what was to be her own victory
party.
Instead of bluster about
her classified emails, Trump brought a gracious acknowledgement of her decades
of government service.
Winner: Trump took to the stage shortly before 3am in New York. Surrounded by his family he thanks Hillary Clinton for her service - the first signs of trying to change the tone after a divisive election |
With the family: Trump walked on to stage with his wife Melania at his side, their son Barron, and immediately behind Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner |
Thanks: Trump went through his family, naming his wife and each of their children and thanking them for their support |
Unifying message: Trump said: 'For those who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there were a few people – I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can unify our great country.' |
'She congratulated us -
it's about us - on our victory,' he said. 'And I congratulated her and her
family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.'
'I mean, she - she
fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period
of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our
country.'
No one yelled 'Lock her
up!'
Clinton has yet to
concede the race publicly. Her campaign chairman John Podesta mad the trek from
a Manhattan hotel to the convention center where confetti cannons were at the
ready.
'Several states are too
close to call,' he said at the time, 'so we're not going to have anything more
to say tonight.'
'Everybody should head
home,' Podesta told a ballroom brimming with thousands of hopeful
Democrats. 'You should get some sleep. We'll have more to say tomorrow.'
Clinton, he said, 'has
done an amazing job, and she is not done yet'.
But she was done, and
Trump's crowd knew it the moment their hero spoke.
Bringing all his family
members and key staff on stage with him, Trump thanked his senior aides one by
one.
Campaign director
Kellyanne Conway waved and smiled. She curtsied and held both thumbs up.
Dr. Ben Carson,
former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Republican National Committee
chairman Reince Priebus and even the 'Bridgegate' scandal-plagued New Jersey
Gov Chris Christie got a mention from America's most improbable president.
Priebus, he said, is 'a
superstar.' The two men embraced, and then the RNC chief pronounced Trump 'the
next President of the United States.'
At 3.08am, with
Clintonworld in ruins, Trump descended the stage into a hotel boardroom and
mingled with invited guests and supporters.
Red caps flew in the
air. The Rolling Stones played 'You Can't Always Get What You Want,' perhaps a
subtle dig at the Democrats or the press.
Donald Trump arrives at his election headquarters after winning the presidential election early Tuesday morning |
Trump claimed the White House position after taking Pennsylvania to secure 274 electoral college votes |
US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, however, said Clinton will not yet concede |
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walk through convention center at the end of election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York |
Team Trump - including Donald Trump, his family, and running mate Mike Pence - watches election results. Ivanka Trump posted the image to her Twitter feed |
All of his five children, his wife Melania, as well as his sons and daughters-in-law, joined Trump for a watch party at Trump Tower |
And Vice-President-Elect
Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana for another 73 days, beamed.
'I come to this moment
deeply humbled, grateful to God for his amazing grace,' Pence said as he introduced
the man who had vaulted him into the national spotlight.
'The American people
have spoken and the American people have elected their new champion,' Pence
declared.
'America has elected a
new president, and it's almost hard for me to express the honor that I and my
family feel, that we will have the privilege to serve.'
When Trump emerged on
stage along with nearly 50 aides and family members, he apologized for putting
the crowd on pins and needles while the evening's drama played out.
'Sorry to keep you
waiting. Complicated business,' he said.
The bizarre ending to
Clinton's political career came after Trump confounded pollsters at every turn,
capturing one 'swing' state after another in a line of toppled dominoes that
stretched across three time zones and now ends at the White House.
The last to fall was the
Keystone State - after Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin all went
to the Republican. That gave him 274 votes in the electoral college - the
winner is the first to achieve 270.
He is also winning in
the popular vote by a more than one per cent margin.
But Clinton is clearly
gearing up to go to court across the country to try to force recounts in
close-fought precincts and counties in the hope of grinding out a victory.
It is precisely the
divisive end to the election she accused Trump of planning when he said last
month that he may not accept the result.
If her
beyond-the-eleventh-hour tactic fails, Clinton is contemplating the ruins of
her career, a promise of a full-scale investigation into her and Bill's charity
and personal riches by a special prosecutor, and the Democrats locked out of
not just the White House but both houses of Congress.
There will be a
Republican lock on the Supreme Court which could last a generation.
Young Donald Trump supporters wearing 'Make America Great Again' cheer during the election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown on Tuesday |
Young Trump supporters - donning suits and red ties similar to the presidential nominee's - celebrate during Trump's election night rally |
People cheer as voting results for Florida come in at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown |
Supporters of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rally in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday evening |
Hillary Clinton supporters cry as they watch the election results during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby |
A group of Hillary Clinton supporters comfort one another as they break down in tears over the presidential results |
A woman weeps as election results are reported during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby |
The victory Trump
predicted as America's version of Great Britain's historic 'Brexit' vote - he
said it would be 'Brexit-plus-plus' and 'Brexit times 50' - will be remembered
as one of the most astonishing campaigns in American history.
Pennsylvania, the state
where he attended the Wharton School of Finance and two of his adult children
went to boarding schools, put Trump over the top when the Associated Press
declared he had won it in early on Wednesday morning.
The last Republican to
win the Keystone State was George HW Bush, who snatched it from Democrat
Michael Dukakis in 1988.
New York Republican Rep
Peter King told DailyMail.com that the nation's next commander-in-chief had
seeded the ground for his victory by identifying with disaffected voters who were
upset about job losses and the implosion of the Obamacare medical insurance
law.
'Donald Trump won
because he tapped into the discontent and anger of the American people,' King
said. 'It's a wonderful, wonderful night.'
The night unfolded
disastrously for Clinton. Holed up in a hotel suite with her husband and
family, her aides stopped speaking to the press as the results came in.
The first big state to
fall was Florida. It seemed nail-bitingly close for a time – and then Trump won
its 29 electoral college vote.
Ohio fell to Trump
without putting up a fight. Even North Carolina, a nominally blue state, was no
contest for the reality television host and father of skyscrapers.
A Clinton supporter covers her mouth as she breaks down with emotion over election results on Tuesday |
A Clinton supporter cries after Donald Trump wins the state of Florida at the Democrats Abroad election night party at Marylebone Sports Bar and Grill in London early Wednesday morning |
People sit outside the Jacob Javits Center waiting for election results following a rally for Clinton |
Two women hug in hopes of comforting one another as Donald Trump wins electoral votes during the presidential election |
A woman at Hillary Clinton's New York rally cries as a man comforts her |
A Hillary Clinton supporter openly cries at Clinton's election night rally in Manhattan as election results roll in on Tuesday |
People in the crowd at Hillary Clinton's 2016 US presidential Election Night event watch in tears as results come in on a big screen at the Javits Convention Center |
Clinton supporters watch in shock as Trump gains a lead in several states in the presidential election on Tuesday |
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump react as they watch sate by state results unfold on a TV screen during election night at the New York Hilton Midtown |
As vote-counters
repainted the Buckeye State from blue to red - President Barack Obama won it
twice - the New York Times' live presidential forecast gave the billionaire
builder an 87 per cent chance of winning the White House.
That grew to '>95%',
its highest possible number. Then it was effectively over – but there were
hours to wait for confirmation.
America's Electoral
College system provides one vote for each member of Congress, including both
the Senate and the House of Representatives, plus three to represent the
District of Columbia - 538 in all.
A candidate needs to
claim 270 votes, the smallest possible majority, in order to win the White House.
Pennsylvania's 20 votes put Trump over the top with 274.
Long before the end
came, aides to Clinton told Fox News that she was 'expecting a long night'.
When North Carolina's
result was set in stone on Tuesday night, the Manhattan ballroom where Trump
supporters gathered erupted in screams of 'USA! USA!'
As a Florida victory
looked imminent, young Trump fans chanted at giant TVs: 'Call it! Call it! Call
it!'
They exploded in a mass
of cheers when the Sunshine State contest was declared over. A few threw their
red 'Make America Great Again' hats in the air.
When Iowa and Wisconsin
came through, a spontaneous rendition of 'God Bless America,' earnest if
off-key, drowned out Megyn Kelly's voice blasting from a TV tuned to the Fox
News Channel.
When Michigan made him
the President-Elect of the United States, sternum-rattling bedlam ensued.
Projections making the
rounds online and republished by the Drudge Report news website suggested that
140 million voters are participating, a new record, far exceeding the 131.4
million total in 2008.
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump watch results unfold on a TV screen during election night at the New York Hilton Midtown |
Women at Trump's election rally in New York hug as they celebrate the Republican nominee inching ahead in several states |
A woman at Trump's election rally in New York cheers as election results are shown to the Republican nominee's supporters |
Robert Herrera, 31, displays his Trump banner on 6th Avenue in New York, not far from where Trump is holding his election night rally |
First-time voters, in
particular, fueled the massive increase. Fox News exit polls showed that group
swinging toward Clinton by a 55-37 margin, according to Fox News Channel exit
polls.
Trump's campaign built
its momentum in part on the promise of bringing a 'silent majority' out of the
woodwork. He may not have needed the help.
Trump, a billionaire
first-time candidate whose political debut was initially seen as an
ego-stroking circus act, bested 16 other Republicans for the right to face
Clinton, who has lived and breathed campaigns and elections for more than 40
years and had only one serious intra-party rival.
The real estate tycoon
built a devoted following of tens of millions, including large numbers of
Americans who had never voted before.
Along the way he angered
some in the Republican Party establishment who saw him as a reckless
insult-generator destined to alienate large swaths of the American electorate.
His campaign was less
than a half-hour old when he generated headlines by saying some illegal
immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border were 'murderers,' 'rapists' and other
criminal aliens.
While accurate, the
statement was contorted to create the impression that the man who employs
thousands of Hispanics at his country clubs and skyscrapers actually hates
them.
The label stuck.
Trump gave his enemies
ammunition by repeating more than 500 times a pledge that as president he would
wall off America from Mexico, stemming the flow of narcotics and human chattel
while defending the border from an unchecked flood of immigrants with no legal
right to be in the United States.
A cake in the likeness of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is on display at his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York |
The brash hip-shooter
made his demographic hole deeper by suggesting that a federal judge hearing a
lawsuit against a defunct real estate training seminar series that bore his
name couldn't decide the case fairly – because his parents were born in Mexico.
Speaker of the House
Paul Ryan, the Republican Party's highest ranking elected official, called
Trump's declaration 'the textbook definition of a racist statement.'
More damaging still was
a series of episodes that angered feminists and other powerful women in a year
when Trump was running against America's would-be first female president.
He feuded with Fox News
Channel anchor Megyn Kelly, saying after a testy debate exchange that she had
'blood coming out of her wherever' – a statement that some interpreted as a jab
at her menstrual cycle.
His candidacy brought
women out of the woodwork to accuse him of sexual misconduct of varying
severity, including one woman who sued him for an alleged teen rape – and then
withdrew the case when her story fell apart.
Another, a Venezuelan
former Miss Universe, alleged that he called her 'Miss Piggy' when she gained
weight after winning the crown, and denigrated her Latina heritage by calling
her 'Miss Housekeeping' in private.
Trump denied every
charge, calling his accusers rank opportunists who sought 15 minutes of fame.
Some, he said, were Democratic plants, and others were cashing in.
He had a harder time explaining
a hot-mic audio recording from a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood, in which he
was recorded lewdly describing the ease with which famous men could sexually
assault women in their orbits.
Through it all, Trump's
campaign crowds grew, with his reality-show star power outdrawing every other
candidate in both parties.
One early rally drew
more than 30,000 people to an Alabama football stadium. Late in the general
election cycle, 17,500 fans blanketed a field near Fort Bragg in North Carolina
to hear him speak.
Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton watch election returns showing Donald Trump winning in Texas at the election night rally in New York |
Ratings-seeking news
outlets clambered all year to interview Trump, even while reporters and
editorial writers clobbered him as a carnival barker who demeaned the electoral
process with a seemingly unsophisticated and unstudied approach to policy and
politicking.
In reply he branded them
'the dishonest media,' telling thousands at a time that reporters 'are really
horrible people.' In time his crowds began to relate to the press like an
opposing sports team, showering them with boos and chanting 'CNN sucks! CNN sucks!'
Trump's massive media
exposure created both fans and detractors, hardening positions on both ends of
the political spectrum – and inside the GOP, where 'NeverTrump' Republicans
pledged not to support him even at the cost of delivering the White House to a
second Clinton.
Ultimately Trump won
over most of his party's establishment as he lent his charisma to fundraising
events that benefited conservative candidates in other races.
But more importantly, an
army of torch-bearing, pitchfork-wielding 'Trumpkins,' as his political enemies
styled them, embraced his rough edges as signs of solidarity.
When Clinton carped that
'half' of them were backward-thinking enough to be 'irredeemable' and to belong
in a 'basket of deplorables,' Trump fans wore the terms like badges of honor.
Civic duty: Donald and Melania Trump cast their ballots on Monday in New York City (above) |
Those insults from the
former Obama administration official they loved to hate fired them up, almost
as much as Trump's pledge to 'drain the swamp' in Washington.
Trump rallies created
their own subculture, with his self-styled deplorable fans chanting 'Lock her
up!' to vent their outrage at Clinton's ability to escape criminal charges over
thousands of classified documents found among emails on a homebrew server.
'The system is rigged!'
Trump would exclaim, warning that political elites could ultimately cheat on
Election Day the way Clinton's campaign cheated by learning debate questions in
advance from partisan TV talking-heads.
At every campaign stop,
though, the amusements and mob-scene indignation would overshadow serious
concerns like jobs, taxes, a pledged repeal of the Obamacare law, and the
omnipresent border wall that he pledged Mexico itself would fund.
Luckily for Trump, a
handful of swing states, especially Ohio and Michigan, also included
economically devastated rust-belt areas from which shifting U.S. trade policy
had sent jobs offshore – or south of the border.
His status as a
successful real estate tycoon with a payroll in the hundreds of millions of
dollars bought him credibility enough to question America's longstanding trade
deficits, record law labor participation rates and stagnant economy.
The couple that votes together...: Hillary Clinton was joined by husband Bill as she made her way into their polling station in Chappaqua |
Clinton (R) and her husband former U.S. President Bill Clinton vote at Douglas Grafflin Elementary School on Tuesday |
Trump and his wife Melania cast their votes together in at PS-59 New York City on Tuesday |
Big moment: Trump gets his ballot to fill out while his son-in law Jared Kushner waits behind him |
Sticker time: Ivanka placed a sticker on Arabella's coat after casting her vote on Tuesday (above) |
'I alone can fix it,' he
said of the economic system that he successfully manipulated for decades in
order to build his company.
He finished his campaign
with a pair of five-state barnstorming days, wrapping up his final rally after
1:00 a.m. in Michigan – a state few thought a Republican could win.
Trump contested
Minnesota, too, along with Virginia and Pennsylvania, states that the
Democratic Party took for granted.
His campaign manager
Kellyanne Conway – the third person to helm the operation – led him into those
'blue' states with the same disregard for convention that Trump brought to
nearly everything.
The GOP
standard-bearer's tactical toolbox, though, wasn't everything a campaign pro
could expect, given the candidate's personal wealth.
Trumpworld had virtually
no 'ground game' until late in the general election. Clinton and the Democrats
enjoyed a huge advantage with phone trees, door-knocking and other retail
campaign operations.
Instead he relied on
little more than his rock-concert crowds, his telegenic personality and
practiced delivery, his social media accounts that reach more than 20 million
people, and his gift for branding.
Trump developed
nicknames for opponents who posed threats to his success, beginning with 'low
energy' Jeb Bush, 'Lyin' Ted' Cruz and 'Little Marco' Rubio.
In the end the one that
generated the most ink was 'crooked Hillary' Clinton, an epithet that encapsulated
conservatives' anger at a candidate who seemed to operate by a set of financial
and ethics rules that are unavailable to others.
He said on Monday that
he's not interested in becoming a chapter in a political science textbook.
'If we don't win, Trump
said during his penultimate rally in new Hampshire, 'it will be the biggest
waste of energy, time and money in my whole life.'
Filling it out: Pence and his wife Karen cast their ballots together in Indiana before preparing to fly to New York |
Eric Trump, son of of Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, looks at his wife Lara Yunaska's voting booth in New York City |
Trump's Slovenian wife
Melania has been his quiet rock since the moment they descended a Trump Tower
elevator together in June 2015 to announce his White House run.
On that day she stepped
aside to let daughter Ivanka give the builder-politician a proper introduction.
This dynamic played out throughout the entire campaign, with Melania only
speaking publicly a handful of times.
First she addressed a
Milwaukee crowd in the spring, and then on the opening night of the Republican
National Convention speech in Cleveland – with Donald making the unconventional
move to come to the convention stage early to introduce her with his own rock
star entrance.
Mrs. Trump impressed the
crowd in a white bell-sleeved sheath, but it didn't take long for people to
notice similarities between her speech and one Michelle Obama delivered at the
Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Eventually a longtime
Trump employee, the speechwriter, explained that Melania had read passages from
the Obama address to her aloud, and took the fall for not checking her final
draft closeley enough to be sure she wasn't plagiarizing the first lady.
She said in a statement
that she offered her resignation, but the Republican nominee wouldn't take it
because 'people make innocent mistakes and ... we learn and grow from these
experiences.'
Donald Trump used the
incident for fodder when he addressed the Al Smith dinner in October,
complaining about media bias in one of his least controversial jokes of the
night.
'Michelle Obama gives a
speech and everyone loves it. My wife, Melania, gives the same exact speech and
people get on her case!' Trump joked.
Through the fall Melania
Trump made only rare appearances on the campaign trail, mainly turning up at
debates. The heavy lifting was left to adult children Ivanka, Eric and Donald
Jr.
But her last campaign
speech, an unannounced five minutes in Wilmington, North Carolina, drew out her
husband's tender side.
When she was done
introducing him, he hugged and kissed her. And his open mic caught a tender
moment as he murmured to Melania in a soft voice of thanks: 'Awww, baby...'
Daughter Ivanka's own
Republican National Convention speech helped humanize her dad and may have
helped him win over some female voters when she rolled out a policy platform
that proposed tax deductions for child care.
Vote and shop: Voters cast their ballots on Election Day at the Foodland Grocery Store and Mercado in National City, California |
Garage station: Poll worker Bea Iwig helps first time voter John Wickenhiser complete his ballot in San Diego |
HOW DOES THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
WORK?
The electoral college is made up of 538 voters - 435
Representatives and 100 Senators, plus three electors for the District of
Colombia.
A candidate needs to win a majority of 270 electoral college votes
to become President.
This voters' college make their pick based on which candidate
receives a majority of votes in their corresponding states. That candidate
receives all that state's electoral college votes.
An exception is made in Nebraska and Maine, where votes are
assigned by proportional representation - meaning either candidate could
receive votes from different congressional districts.
It is possible to win the electoral college vote and lose the
popular vote - as with George W Bush in 2000. He eventually won the presidency
over Al Gore following a Supreme Court ruling which had the ultimate effect of
awarding Florida's votes to Bush.
The creators of the Constitution set up the system as a limit on
direct democracy - or in Alexander Hamilton's words, as a way of preserving
'the sense of the people' - in other words to avoid a malicious majority
forming. It also tries to ensure the rights of smaller states.
The electors cast their votes on the first Monday after the second
Wednesday in December and are counted in Congress on January 6.
The new President is then sworn in on January 20.
Melania resurfaced on
the campaign trail last Thursday to say that her pet cause as first lady would
be an anti-bullying effort to make social media safe again.
'Our culture has gotten
too mean and too rough especially to children and teenagers,' she told a
suburban Philadelphia crowd, while not mentioning her husband's habit of
insulting and baiting his critics on Twitter.
One day later, however,
the Associated Press reported that the former model was paid for 10 modeling
jobs in the United States before she had legal authorization to work in the
country.
She has declined to
publicly release her immigration records, but published a letter fom her
immigration lawyer saying she never violated the law.
Tuesday's earliest exit
polls offered hints about voters' moods but steered clear of reporting which
candidate most of them were choosing.
The Morning Consult
polling firm found that Americans were most likely to say their chief aim in
choosing a president was finding a 'strong leader' – which suggests Donald
Trump could have an edge.
Nearly 7 in 10 said they
were dissatisfied or angry about the way the federal government is run.
But 54 per cent also
said they approved of Obama's job performance, confounding expectations of what
was described for months as a 'change election.'
There were signs of
election fatigue, with 85 per cent telling pollsters they 'just want it to be
over.'
Another 72 per cent
described their mood as 'anxious'; 71 per cent said they were 'nervous' about
the election's result.
Only about 4 in 10 were
excited about having either Clinton or Trump as president, reflecting the
chronic unpopularity of both nominees.
Exit polling from ABC
News found voters believed neither Trump nor Clinton was 'honest and
trustworthy,' with 65 per cent saying the Republican didn't qualify, compared
with 59 per cent for the Democrat.
Additionally, 56 percent
of voters said Clinton had the right temperament to be president, while just 34
percent paid the same compliment to Trump.
Rock Mountain voters: Local residents vote at a polling location for the 2016 US presidential election in Denver, Colorado |
Clay Smith, who cast his ballot late last night, saw four of his fellow residents in Dixville Notch supported Clinton/Kaine, while two ballots were cast for Trump/Pence. One protest voter wrote in Mitt Romney with the final vote going Johnson/Weld |
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