President Barack Obama criticized the Electoral College, calling it an outdated “vision” from America’s Founding Fathers.
“The Electoral College is a vestige, it’s a carryover from an earlier vision of how our federal government was going to work that put a lot of premium on states,” President Obama said Friday during a press conference at the White House.
Obama, a former constitutional lawyer, listed the Electoral College as one of the “structures in our political system as envisioned by the Founders that sometimes are going to disadvantage Democrats.”
“It used to be that the Senate was not elected directly, it was through state legislators,” he added. “It’s the same type of thinking that gives Wyoming two senators with about 500,000 people and California with 33 million gets the same two.”
Echoing earlier remarks he made last month blaming Hillary Clinton’s strategy for her devastating loss to Donald Trump, Obama said it’s ultimately on Democrats to have a “strong message” to win elections.
“The truth of the matter is that if we have a strong message, if we’re speaking to what the American people care about, typically the popular vote and the electoral college vote will align.”
Asked his thoughts on whether Republican electors should vote for anyone but Trump, Obama said it’s not his place to “decide my successor.”
“With respect to the electors, I’m not going to weigh in on that issue,” Obama said. “Again, it’s the American people’s job, and now the electors’ job to decide my successor. It is not my job to decide my successor.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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