Bill O'Reilly: Electoral College critics want to take power from the 'white establishment'

Bill O'Reilly.
(Image credit: YouTube.com/FoxNews)

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly told viewers on Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor that he's figured out why "the left" wants to scrap the Electoral College, and he's one of the few people to dare explain it on television.

You see, he began, Hillary Clinton may have won the popular vote by 2.8 million, but "the progressive state of California provided that margin." (Despite the wishes of many, votes from California are still counted in the election.) If the Electoral College were abolished, candidates could just go to the biggest states and cities and "rack up enough votes" to win, he continued. (As opposed to now, when they just rotate through the swing states, hitting up every state fair, barber shop, and hole-in-the-wall diner, ignoring reliably red and blue states of all size.) The political left, O'Reilly said, wants this to happen because "minorities are substantial" in places like Philadelphia and Miami, which "usually goes heavily to the Democrats." Add those cities to L.A., Houston, and New York City, and "you don't really have a national election anymore, you have targeted populations."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.