The House has time. The Electoral College doesn’t.
On the day before the Electoral College selects our next president, the Electoral College confronts two stubborn challenges.
The first concerns the legitimacy of the election itself. Donald Trump, having repeatedly insisted that there was no influence on or contact with his campaign from Vladimir Putin, finds himself contradicted. Russia’s deputy foreign minister is on the record with an acknowledgment that Putin’s government was in contact with Trump’s campaign throughout the year.
The FBI and the CIA, having conducted separate comprehensive reviews, are in agreement that Russia’s aim was to help Trump win the presidency.
FACT: Stopping foreign interference in elections was a primary goal of the Founding Fathers of our Republic.
The second issue pertains to Mr. Trump’s constitutional fitness for office. Laurence Tribe, perhaps the most respected Constitutional scholar in America, coauthored a paper with Richard Painter, the former chief ethics attorney for George W. Bush. The paper’s goal was to examine Mr. Trump’s refusal to divest his various business interests, or place them in a blind trust, in the light of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits gifts and payments from foreign powers to federal officials. Here is what the paper concluded:
Applied to Mr. Trump’s diverse dealings, the text and purpose of the Emoluments Clause speak as one: this cannot be allowed.
FACT: Prohibiting foreign influence in our nation’s affairs through financial means was another deep concern of the Framers of the Constitution.
These are major issues, and they are not going to go away in 24 hours.
Here are three more fundamental truths that face us all on December 18, 2016:
The Electoral College would be neglecting its Constitutional duty if it tried to fast-forward over these two major obstacles.
It does not have time to examine them in depth.
The House of Representatives does have time.
The Electoral College should do what it did in 1800 and 1824. It should deny any candidate a majority and send the presidential election to the House of Representatives.
By doing that, the esteemed Electors can sleep at night, knowing they have fulfilled their responsibilities. And Congress can take it from there.
