The Electoral College Chooses Trump. But Don’t Expect the Malcontents to Surrender
In the end, the malcontents failed to stump Donald Trump.
Despite a campaign drive from the Left, threats of violence and death against Republican electors, protests, and cheesy celebrity videos, Donald Trump was officially elected the 45th president of the United States Monday, earning the 270 Electoral College votes he needed, and then some.
The proceedings were not without its drama. In Wisconsin, for example, protesters interrupted the electors as they met in the state capitol.
Protesters interrupt the proceedings of Wisconsin's Electoral College vote https://t.co/GQ8JfCbzSL pic.twitter.com/ULfZmQbnII
— POLITICO (@politico) December 19, 2016
“We’re all going to go to war and die because of you people!” one protester exclaimed, as Wisconsin’s 10 electors tallied their votes for President-elect Trump.
Cries of “shame” from the Left were not enough, as the electors kept their commitment to the voters in their respective states. In North Carolina, for instance, the electors blew past protesters singing a loud chorus of “God Bless America.”
The North Carolina electors sang ‘God Bless America’ on their way to vote for Trump! pic.twitter.com/PdPqtIMoyO
— America First! (@America_1st_) December 19, 2016
Some raised concerns that Republican electors could defect and become “faithless” electors by refusing to vote for Donald Trump. Leading the effort was dissenting Republican, Christopher Suprun of Texas, who announced his refusal to vote for Trump in a recent op-ed in The New York Times and declared his intention to cast his ballot for Ohio Governor John Kasich. That effort proved fruitless.
Suprun was joined in dissent by a few Democrats who refused to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton. Per AJC.com, as of 3:49 p.m. ET “four Democratic voters in Washington chose not to vote for Hillary Clinton, becoming ‘faithless’ voters. Clinton took the other 8 votes in the state. Three Democratic electors have tried to be ‘faithless’ by not voting for Clinton. One in Maine, one in Minnesota and one in Colorado. Those votes were changed and registered for Clinton.”
One noteworthy Maine Democratic elector, David Bright, declared in a Facebook post that he would cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton’s primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt. (F, 17%). “I am not a Clinton elector, I am a Democratic elector. I do not represent Democrats all over the country, I represent the Democrats in Maine,” Bright wrote, explaining that if his vote could have helped Clinton win, he would have cast it for his party’s nominee.
“I see no likelihood of 38 Republican electors defecting from their party and casting their ballots for Secretary Clinton,” he explained.
Bright’s not-so-bright vote was invalidated.
In Maine it is 3-1 for Clinton, after Bernie vote invalidated #mepolitics
— James Pindell (@JamesPindell) December 19, 2016
The final tally will not be known until later today, with Hawaii’s electors casting their votes at 7 p.m. ET. Regardless of the final numbers, Donald Trump has definitively won. But don’t expect the Left to accept defeat.
As BuzzFeed News’ Chris Geidner declared today, “The battle over Monday’s electoral college vote is the beginning, not the end,” as a “larger campaign to undermine the legitimacy” of this free and fair election in the United States is “likely” to begin. The Democrats are preparing to use means outside of the Electoral College to deny Trump the presidency. From Geidner:
Assuming that effort fails to stop Trump, expect to start hearing about Title 3, Section 15 of the US Code and “objections” to the electoral vote results. An objection can be lodged in writing by two members of Congress: one each from the House and the Senate.
Although rare, this step is not unprecedented. In 2005, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio filed such an objection, specifically to the counting of the votes of Ohio’s electors in the wake of allegations of voting irregularities. The objection was rejected within a few hours, with only 32 members of Congress — all but one from the House — voting against the counting of Ohio’s votes.
Should that fail, too, Democrats may challenge the constitutionality of Trump’s presidency under the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, as Geidner explained:
Enter the Emoluments Clause — the constitutional provision referenced in the Eisen, Painter, and Tribe memo and elsewhere — which bars the president and other federal officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
“While holding office, Mr. Trump will receive—by virtue of his continued interest in the Trump Organization and his stake in hundreds of other entities—a steady stream of monetary and other benefits from foreign powers and their agents,” the trio of scholars wrote. A handful of Democrats in the Senate already have made it clear they will not be dropping this as an issue.
And should that fail, Democrats may resort to accusing Donald Trump of treason. All this to say … do not expect the Left to roll over for President Trump the same way Republicans repeatedly caved for President Obama. (For more from the author of “The Electoral College Chooses Trump. But Don’t Expect the Malcontents to Surrender” please click HERE)
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