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- President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign blasted out a petition on Tuesday to protect the Electoral College, the voting system that Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have increasingly attacked.
- "Crazy AOC wants to ABOLISH the Electoral College. Let’s remind her this is OUR country, not the Coastal Elites," read a text message from the Trump Campaign to supporters.
- Trump railed against the "sham" Electoral College, calling the system a "disaster for a democracy" and a "travesty" in the years before he entered politics.
- Trump even called for "a revolution in this country" after claiming President Barack Obama lost the popular vote to Mitt Romney in 2012.
- Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly called to eliminate the Electoral College, which she and a growing number of Democrats argue is an undemocratic, racist system.
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President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign blasted out a petition on Tuesday to protect the Electoral College, the voting system that Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have increasingly attacked.
"Crazy AOC wants to ABOLISH the Electoral College. Let’s remind her this is OUR country, not the Coastal Elites," a text message from the Trump Campaign to supporters read.
But it was Trump who railed against the "sham" Electoral College, calling the system a "disaster for a democracy" and a "travesty" in the years before he entered politics.
Trump even called for "a revolution in this country" after claiming President Barack Obama lost the popular vote to Mitt Romney in 2012. (Obama popular vote total ultimately surpassed Romney’s, and he won re-election with 51.1% of the vote.)
"He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!" said Trump in a tweet he later deleted. "More votes equals a loss … revolution!" he said in another.
But after losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by about 3 million votes while winning the Electoral College in 2016, Trump has called the system "far better for the U.S.A."
Days after the Electoral College delivered him the presidency, Trump tweeted, "The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!"
He wrote last March, "Campaigning for the Popular Vote is much easier & different than campaigning for the Electoral College. It’s like training for the 100 yard dash vs. a marathon. The brilliance of the Electoral College is that you must go to many States to win."
Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly called to eliminate the Electoral College, which she and a growing number of Democrats argue is an undemocratic, racist system that gives certain — predominantly white — Americans more political power than others.
"The Electoral College isn’t about fairness at all; it’s about empowering some voters over others," she wrote in a series of tweets last week. "Every vote should be = in America, no matter who you are or where you come from. The right thing to do is establish a Popular Vote. & GOP will do everything they can to fight it."
Ocasio-Cortez and others argue the Electoral College also undermines millions of rural voters in solidly blue states, including California and New York.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Eliza Relman)