Hillary Clinton told CNN on Wednesday that it is time to abolish the Electoral College, part of a sweeping interview where the former Democratic nominee sought to explain why she lost the 2016 election.
Clinton, in the interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, displayed her animus for fired FBI Director James Comey, reflected on her love for the people — namely former President Bill Clinton — who helped her get through the crushing loss and blasted the arcane election body that she believes helped Donald Trump win the presidency.
“I think it needs to be eliminated,” Clinton said of the Electoral College. “I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes.”
Clinton won the 2016 popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, a fact she routinely brings up in her new memoir. But Trump won the Electoral College, a body of 538 members who select the president based on the popular vote in each state, meaning the person who gets the most votes nationally doesn’t necessarily win the election.
The Electoral College is just one external factor Clinton blames for her stunning loss to Trump in her newly released memoir, “What Happened.” Clinton also faults Comey for his “rash” involvement in the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin for directing operatives to meddle in the election and apathetic voters who only got engaged once the election was over and Trump had won.
But Clinton also blames herself in the book, writing that she did not fully understand the American electorate and failed to understand with the anger that animated Trump.
Clinton said Wednesday that October 28, the day that Comey sent a letter to Congress saying he was reopening part of his investigation into Clinton’s emails, was the day she lost the election.
“That was the determinative day because it stopped my momentum,” she said. “I don’t blame voters for wondering what the heck was going on.”
Comey, Clinton added, “forever changed history” by reopening the email investigation just to close it days before Election Day.
“I believe … it became a perfect storm,” Clinton said of Comey and Russia’s involvement in the election, adding that she hopes “nobody ever faces what I faced with respect to that.”
After the 2000 election, when former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college and the presidency, Clinton also called for an end to the Electoral College.
“I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president,” she told reporters at the time.
Clinton, in the interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, displayed her animus for fired FBI Director James Comey, reflected on her love for the people — namely former President Bill Clinton — who helped her get through the crushing loss and blasted the arcane election body that she believes helped Donald Trump win the presidency.
“I think it needs to be eliminated,” Clinton said of the Electoral College. “I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes.”
Clinton won the 2016 popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, a fact she routinely brings up in her new memoir. But Trump won the Electoral College, a body of 538 members who select the president based on the popular vote in each state, meaning the person who gets the most votes nationally doesn’t necessarily win the election.
The Electoral College is just one external factor Clinton blames for her stunning loss to Trump in her newly released memoir, “What Happened.” Clinton also faults Comey for his “rash” involvement in the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin for directing operatives to meddle in the election and apathetic voters who only got engaged once the election was over and Trump had won.
But Clinton also blames herself in the book, writing that she did not fully understand the American electorate and failed to understand with the anger that animated Trump.
Clinton said Wednesday that October 28, the day that Comey sent a letter to Congress saying he was reopening part of his investigation into Clinton’s emails, was the day she lost the election.
“That was the determinative day because it stopped my momentum,” she said. “I don’t blame voters for wondering what the heck was going on.”
Comey, Clinton added, “forever changed history” by reopening the email investigation just to close it days before Election Day.
“I believe … it became a perfect storm,” Clinton said of Comey and Russia’s involvement in the election, adding that she hopes “nobody ever faces what I faced with respect to that.”
After the 2000 election, when former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral college and the presidency, Clinton also called for an end to the Electoral College.
“I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president,” she told reporters at the time.
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