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."

By abolishing the Electoral College, "the largely white rural areas in the Midwest and South" would be neutralized, O'Reilly said, assuring that "liberal politicians get power and keep it." In a mocking tone, O'Reilly said he is one of the very few people willing to say that the left believes "white men have set up a system of oppression, and that system must be destroyed." The left sees "white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with," he added, and they "say that so-called white privilege is bad, diversity is good." O'Reilly's conclusion? "The left wants power taken away from the white establishment and they want a profound change in the way America is run." Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.