Electoral College Settles Donald Trump Victory but Little Else
Electoral College Settles Donald Trump Victory but Little Else:- In Florida, protesters swarmed the Capitol rotunda, one hoisting a “Trump Is Too Rusky” sign featuring a hammer and sickle. In Wisconsin’s statehouse, a heckler shouted, “We’re all going to go to war and die thanks to you,” during the formal meeting of the Electoral College.
And in New York, an elector by the name of William Jefferson Clinton cast his vote for his wife and then came out to make plain that he believes Donald J. Trump won the presidency only because of outside interference in the election.
“We had the Russians and the F.B.I., and she couldn’t prevail against that, but she did everything else and still won by 2.8 million votes,” Mr. Clinton said, his determined smile belying his fury.
The meeting of the Electoral College after presidential elections has long been little more than a tradition-bound formality, with political insiders gathering to ratify the preferences of their state’s voters and distribute 538 electoral votes. Yet as with so much else in this turbulent election year, even that civic ritual was punctuated by anger and dissent.
Democrats were unable to persuade enough electors to withhold their support for Mr. Trump. He easily cleared the 270-vote threshold needed to defeat Hillary Clinton, with only two Republican electors declining to cast their vote for the president-elect. But the protests at state capitols across the country offered a preview of a tumultuous inauguration and first 100 days of the new administration.
Presidential electors are bound by tradition and often state law to support their party’s candidates. But this time, many Republican electors were inundated with phone calls, emails and even threats demanding that they vote for someone other than Mr. Trump. Leaders of groups that were lobbying the electors had privately believed they had a chance to sway enough Republican electors to defect, denying him an Electoral College majority and throwing the election to the House of Representatives.
But while Mr. Trump’s opponents needed 37 Republican defectors to bring his electoral-vote tally below 270, the bulk of electors who broke ranks — four in Washington State — were Democrats who otherwise would have voted for Mrs. Clinton. Instead, three voted for former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a Republican, and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American tribal leader who has led opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said the election “wasn’t a squeaker.”
Trump is spending the run-up to Christmas with his family.
The president-elect also had dinner Saturday at the Florida club with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, a surprising development given Trump’s harsh criticism of Slim during the presidential election. Slim is a major investor in The New York Times, which is also a frequent Trump target.
Neither did Slim spare Trump, who has criticized Mexicans and vowed to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to stop illegal immigration.
Representatives for Trump and Slim confirmed the dinner, which was first reported Monday by The Washington Post.
People briefed on the meeting said it was arranged to open a friendly line of communication between the businessmen. The dinner was brokered by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who remains close to the president-elect, after Lewandowski quietly visited Slim in Mexico City earlier this month.
Source:- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/us/politics/election-donald-trump.html
