During his latest appearance on “Meet the Press,” Donald Trump unpromptedly brought up the popular vote of the election. “One thing is very important, in terms of the election: I am thrilled that I won the popular vote – by and large,” the president-elect boasted.
The claim was demonstrably foolish: Trump won the popular vote, fair and square, but the latest numbers put the margin at 1.48%. It might make the incoming Republican president feel better to think he won the popular vote “by a wide margin,” but in reality the margin was among the smallest in American history.
But the morning after the “Meet the Press” episode aired, the president-elect published an item on his social media platform apparently intended to continue the conversation. The entire missive read in its entirety:
Democrats are fighting hard to get rid of Popular Vote in future elections. They want all future presidential elections to be based solely on the Electoral College!
Even by Trump standards, this was bizarre.
There are no Democrats “fighting hard” to eliminate the popular vote in future elections. That doesn’t even make sense at the most basic level: the popular vote simply refers to the cumulative total of votes cast for each candidate. “Abolishing” the popular vote would mean putting an end to the practice of counting votes.
As for the idea that Democrats “want all future presidential elections to be based solely on the Electoral College,” this is equally baffling. There are presidential elections in the United States al based on the electoral college. This is not the model Democrats are demanding; it is literally the status quo that has existed for centuries.
In fact, if Trump is convinced that Democrats would somehow like to take on the Electoral College and leave the system untouched, I would remind the Republican that there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Not only did a recent Pew Research Center study find that 80% of Democratic voters support scrapping the Electoral College and moving to a popular vote model, but a host of leading Democratic officials believe the same, such as evidenced by the Minnesota government. Tim Walz’s public comments less than a month before Election Day.
At this point I could spend a few more paragraphs marveling at how ridiculous it was to see Trump spout such a deceptive lie, but perhaps there is a more constructive way to approach this. In fact, this could be an example in which Democrats — whose presidential ticket has won the popular vote in seven of the last nine national elections — would benefit from calling Trump’s bluff.
If Trump is serious about prioritizing the popular vote and abolishing the Electoral College, Democrats have plenty of reasons to enthusiastically endorse such an overhaul.
Would the Republican leader take yes for an answer?
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
