Electoral College 2016 Update: Flip Efforts Flop
Electoral College 2016 Update: the big political story in the U.S. on Monday is that the last-minute efforts by some, to pressure at least 37 of the 538 electors into changing their votes, and perhaps hoping to stop Donald Trump from succeeding Barack Obama into the Office of the President, have failed to flip the election results.
In the end, it was all but two official Texas electors which gave Trump the required 270, according to the Texas Statesman’s report. Quoted in the article was Chris Suprun, a supporter of Trump’s GOP rival Ted Cruz in the primaries until Cruz endorsed Trump in September. Suprun had made an effort to convince fellow electors to also reject Trump in the Electoral College on Monday.
“I consider Mr. Trump still to be a demagogue. He continues to divide us based on whether or not you’re male or female, and if you’re a female, are you a 4 or a 10; where you worship; the color of your skin.”
Other 2016 members of the Electoral College from Texas also explained their sentiments about the pressure to make them change their votes and thus break their oaths. Art Sisneros also opposed Trump in the primaries but in the end, he decided to resign rather than “break a pledge” he made previously “to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote of the state.”
And Texas elector Mary Lou Erben is quoted in the article as believing “electors should follow the wishes of their states’ voters.” Of course, Trump took to his social media account on Twitter to celebrate the affirmation by the Electoral College.
We did it! Thank you to all of my great supporters, we just officially won the election (despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media). — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2016
The Electoral College 2016 Update would not be complete without more details– especially the recent allegations about the Russians. it seems. Regarding some of the pressure being exerted, there is a YouTube video report from New York CBS2’s Magdalena Doris.
Reince Priebus, President-elect Trump’s pick to become the new White House Chief-of-Staff, had to address dramatic Fox News Sunday show statements and clips from a host re-stating the allegations that “the Russians interfered in the election to help Mr. Trump win, and some presidential electors say they want an intelligence briefing before they do their constitutional duty,” per the transcript about the 2016 election and the ongoing noise about the electoral vote.
A transcript of the conversation between Priebus, President-elect Trump’s recently named Chief-of-Staff, appears on Fox News.
Priebus pushed back at host Chris Wallace.
“[T]he reality of all of this and all of these players that are spinning these reports are doing it for a political purpose, which is to delegitimize the outcome of the election.”
Priebus wanted to discuss the effort to “intimidate and harass electors,” and detailed the issue from his own perspective.
“Right. Now, they’re going forward tomorrow with this attempt to intimidate and harass electors. I mean, we’ve got electors that are receiving 200,000 e-mails. Nothing is going to change.”
Wallace wanted to ask another question, however.
“But, Reince, I’m going to get to that on the electors. I’m asking you a simple question. Does the president-elect accept the consensus — and that’s what John Brennan said it was — the consensus of the intel community about Russian interference and its intent?”
Priebus answered this.
“I think [Trump] would accept the conclusion if these intelligence professionals would get together, put out a report, show the American people that they’re actually on the same page as opposed to third parties through The Washington Post.”
This Electoral College 2016 Update also underscores, perhaps, that no matter how divided the population of the U.S. still appears to be over Trump, people value the official process set up by the American founders.
[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
