Hillary Clinton was lampooned for attempting to vilify Republicans for attempting to carry out the alleged crime of trying to win presidential elections by winning the Electoral College. Numerous online commentators pointed out the basic civics lesson that the presidential candidate that wins the Electoral College – not the popular vote – wins the election as long as the candidate has at least 270 electoral votes.
The Financial Times published an interview with Hillary Clinton on Friday.
Interviewer Edward Luce told a story about how he promised his 9-year-old daughter that Clinton would prevail over Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
Clinton responded that she had heard numerous similar stories. She claimed that the 2016 election is like a “work of fiction set in modern times and 2016 is a traumatic event — it’s almost eschatological,” which means a “belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind.” She then called the 2016 election a “piece of unfinished business.”
On the subject of Roe v. Wade possibly being overturned, Clinton remarked, “The level of insidious rulemaking to further oppress women almost knows no end.” Clinton added that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, it would make “The Handmaid’s Tale” writer Margaret Atwood a “prophet.”
“She reminds me that she won the popular vote by nearly 3mn but lost the electoral college by 78,000 votes,” Luce wrote. “Biden won the popular vote by more than 7mn but barely scraped the electoral college by 43,000 votes.”
Clinton reacted by saying, “That tells you everything you need to know about Republican strategy for 2024.”
The Financial Times promoted the interview with Clinton on Twitter.
“In terms of Republicans’ strategy for 2024, she believes they will focus on winning the electoral college, given the size of the Democrats’ victory in the popular vote in the past two elections,” the official Twitter account for the Financial Times tweeted.
The Twitter reactions slammed Clinton for knocking Republicans for attempting to win presidential elections by winning the Electoral College.
Columnist T. Becket Adams: “Does Hillary still not understand the rules of presidential elections?”
National security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) Omri Ceren: “It’s obviously none of my business, but I’m not sure ‘Republicans are going to try to win the electoral college’ is cutting edge content.”
Editor David Rutz: “Seems like a sound strategy to try to win the Electoral College.”
Writer Jeryl Bier: “And the Democrats, meanwhile, will focus on the popular vote so they can continue to complain about the Electoral College after they lose?”
Commentator Jim Treacher: “Yeah winning the Electoral College is how it works.”
Kentucky State Rep. Patrick Flannery: “Really bold strategy! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Attorney Damin Toell: “So the 2024 strategy is to…win the election?”
Laura K. Barr: “Was…was this not her strategy too?? it all makes sense now.”
A Twitter user mocked: “In terms of strategy, if the Yankees make the World Series, they are going to focus on winning four games instead of scoring the most runs in the series.”
After losing the 2016 presidential election to Trump, Clinton called for the Electoral College to be abolished.
“I think it needs to be eliminated,” Clinton said of the Electoral College in 2017. “I’d like to see us move beyond it, yes.”