WSJ: Trump told Congressional leaders he wanted to replace Electoral College w/ nat'l popular vote

[highplainsdem]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-first-week-governing-without-a-script-1485544924

The tone for the tumultuous week was set on Saturday, Mr. Trump’s first full day in office, when he ordered his press secretary Mr. Spicer to push back on widely reported data that showed that the crowd witnessing his inauguration was smaller than his predecessor’s audience. The president wasn’t happy with Mr. Spicer’s performance at the press briefing, and afterward berated him at the White House, said a person with knowledge of the discussion.

Two days later, the president had senior lawmakers over to the White House for an informal gathering. The group included the House and Senate leadership. During the gathering, the talk turned to campaigns, elections and voter fraud.

Mr. Trump then told the group that he was interested in getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with a national popular vote, say people who attended. Mr. Trump lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a fact that has irritated the president to the point that he has called for a national probe of alleged voter fraud.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, spoke up, pointing him to the 2000 recount in Florida that lasted more than a month until it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Imagine what a nationwide recount would look like. Mr. Trump demurred, and said he was fine to leave the current system in place.

Found this tidbit buried in a long WSJ article.

So McConnell talked Trump out of it -- and, interestingly, without trying to explain to him how much the EC favors low-population GOP states.

This little story really shows how oblivious Trump is to political realities. He must be completely unaware that Democrats received millions more votes than Republicans for both House and Senate seats, though they have fewer seats in both.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Hell, if he'd rather the popular vote decide all, he can do something right away.

Resign, have Mike Pence pick Hillary as VP, and then Pence resigns.

Boom. Problem solved. The popular choice has won.

[pangaia]

2. As pointed out in another thread, as if we needed to be told.

the man knows absolutely nothing about anything.. except beating people, and beating them and beating them and beating them...without end....

[unblock]

3. we won the "popular vote" in the senate, but not in the house:

Republicans captured the majority of the "popular vote" for the House on Election Day, collecting about 56.3 million votes while Democrats got about 53.2 million, according to USA TODAY calculations. With a few races still undecided, Republicans so far hold a 239-193 majority for the next Congress.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/10/democrats-won-popular-vote-senate-too/93598998/



i'm guessing that republican congresscritters benefitted more from the incumbent effect as well as more running unopposed or against very lackluster opposition due to being in very safe (gerrymandered) districts.

[jaysunb]

4. By what authority ?

Is the dictatorship now official ?

[dalton99a]

5. "Bannon, get me an executive order!"

[loyalsister]

6. I think he also said he supported term limits

His supporters apparently fail to understand what it means when a president runs on a campaign to change the constitution then suggests another change after elected. Of course, it's a pretty blatent violation of the oath to uphold the constitution. And, it also represents frightening authoritarian leanings.

[0rganism]

7. political realities have changed recently

within a few years, the facts will be exactly what president Trump says they are

the world has changed. we are about to be driven by a different set of "realities" that seem surreal to us because they are incompatible with our original set of "realities". in a few years, these alternative realities will become mainstream.

there will be massive voter purges, disenfranchisements, and deportations on a vast scale to accomplish this. we have never seen such things before, and we will be appropriately outraged as they occur. they are incongruous to our established lifestyles and ways of thinking, but they are the seed framework for the new Russian-dominant world order we are entering.