“Shell-shocked” Hillary Clinton aides refused to endorse the recent failed “coup” in the Electoral College that tried to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency, but they made clear that they were “intentionally declining to stamp it out.”
That’s from a report in Politico by Kyle Cheney.
Politico obtained a batch of correspondence showing “members of Clinton’s inner circle – including senior aides Jake Sullivan and Jennifer Palmieri – were in touch for weeks with one of the effort’s organizers as they mounted their ill-fated strategy.”
“And despite repeated requests for guidance, Clinton’s team did not wave them off,” the report said.
After the effort failed on Monday, when Trump won 304 Electoral College votes, far more than the 270 needed for victory, one aide “mocked it as an unserious ‘coup’ attempt.”
Several of the faithless electors who tried to subvert to will of the voters in their states now could face charges. In Colorado, Micheal Baca was referred by the secretary of state to the attorney general’s office for investigation.
He voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, even though Colorado voters had chosen Clinton, “in apparent violation of state law and an oath he took just moments earlier,” the Denver Post said.
He was described as a leader of the “Hamilton Electors” movement, “a group of predominantly Democratic Electoral College members who had hoped to join with Republicans to elect someone other than Donald Trump.”
The movement, however, crumbled. Such a plan would have required at 37 Republican voters to defy their states’ voters and vote for Clinton. For any other candidate, such as Kasich, it would have required 270 defections.
Simply to deny Trump the required 270 would have, constitutionally, thrown the election to the House of Representatives, where Republicans are in a large majority, and the only candidates allowed would have been Trump and Clinton.
When he voted for Kasich, Baca was replaced with another elector in Colorado. Now, in a letter to prosecutors, Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert explained Baca “took an oath saying he would vote for the presidential candidate who won Colorado and then he ‘cast a ballot contrary to the oath.'”
He could face a misdemeanor count or even a perjury count that could carry a penalty of $5,000 in fines and 18 months in jail.
WND reported just days earlier that officials in Washington state plan to impose up to $1,000 fines on four Electoral College electors who were faithless to the state’s voters, refusing to vote on Monday for Hillary Clinton.
Of Washington state’s 12 electors, who were under a mandate to vote for Clinton since she won the state’s Nov. 8 presidential election, eight cast their votes for her on Monday when the Electoral College met in statehouses across the country.
But three voted for Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Dakota Access Pipeline activist.
An elector from Hawaii defected from Clinton to vote for Bernie Sanders. The two faithless GOP electors were in Texas.
On a blog for the state of Washington was a report about the state’s electors that noted the three votes for Powell and one for Spotted Eagle.
“It was the first time Washington had a ‘faithless’ elector since Mike Padden of Spokane Valley, now a state senator. He voted for Ronald Reagan in 1976, rather than Gerald Ford, who had carried the state that year,” the post said.
“The legislature quickly passed a law imposing a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for voting for someone other than the nominee,” the report said. “Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the state’s chief elections officer, said she will enforce the statute. She is conferring with the attorney general on a process for levying the penalty.”
Probably the most in-your-face campaign to overturn the Electoral College vote came from “a slew of has-been and B- or C-list celebs,” who made a video for their cause:
[jwplayer Kb81sgA4]
The Politico report explained one former Clinton campaign official said the approach was like the campaign’s “passive-but-not-dismissive” attitude regarding failed long-shot recounts in several states Trump won.
“The ambivalence resulted, however, in weeks of agonizing among anti-Trump activists working to flip the Electoral College,” the report said.
It explained Sullivan was on a conference call about the strategy that included Baca.
“In an email after the call, Baca apologized to Sullivan for his urgent tone.”
“Not at all! We all share a sense of urgency,” Sullivan said, the report documented. “Look forward to being in touch.”
Then Baca was told the Clinton campaign probably shouldn’t be involved because it would send “mixed” messages, but Sullivan confirmed, “I’m consulting with our leadership.”
Politico commented, “For more than a month after Election Day, Clinton aides were publicly silent about their view of the budding anti-Trump efforts and whether they would order their electors to remain steadfast in support of Clinton.”
The move gained strength when unproven rumors about Russia hacking the election were circulated.
Just hours before the vote, Podesta said: “I assume that our electors are going to vote for Hillary Clinton. But the question is whether there are 37 Republican electors who think that either there are open questions or that Donald Trump, based on everything we know about him, is really unfit to be president of the United States. And if they do, they they throw it to the House of Representatives.”
