A group of Senate Democrats introduced a bill Monday to abolish the Electoral College.
U.S. Senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Peter Welch of Vermont introduced a constitutional amendment to install a nationwide popular vote in presidential elections. Currently, a network of 538 electors represent the 50 states, and whichever candidate secures at least 270 electors is declared the winner.
The Senate Judiciary Committee posted on X Monday that the bill advocated “restoring democracy by allowing the direct election of presidents through popular vote alone.”
A press release from the group said that 17 states and the District of Columbia had agreed to bypass the Electoral College and allocate their electoral votes to the winner of a nationwide popular vote.
“In an election, the person who gets the most votes should win. It’s that simple. No one’s vote should count for more based on where they live. The Electoral College is outdated and it’s undemocratic. It’s time to end it,” Schatz said in a separate tweet.
But attempting to get rid of the Electoral College via constitutional amendment may prove to be a massive boondoggle for Democrats. Far easier than ratifying an amendment to abolish the Electoral College, the Democrats might be better off simply passing legislation to increase the number of House representatives, as the number of electors is determined by the number of senators and representatives.
The Founding Fathers intended for the House to continue expanding in proportion to the population of each state, but the number of representatives has been frozen at 435 since 1910. In 1910, each district had 211,000 constituents. In 2020, each district had an average of 762,000 constituents, a dramatic 360 percent increase.
Trump wants to kill the United States Postal Service.
The president-elect was asked about the USPS losing money during a press conference in Palm Beach on Monday.
“Well there is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that. Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, it really isn’t,” Trump said. “You know it’s a lot different today … between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that, it’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We’re looking at it.”
The comments confirm a Washington Post report from over the weekend that Trump is considering plans to privatize the entire Postal Service due to its financial losses. He has reportedly spoken about the idea to Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary pick and head of his transition team.
USPS privatization has been in the works for some time now. Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been doing his best to corrode one of the oldest, constitutionally ensured institutions in this country.
On-time delivery rates fell when DeJoy was appointed in 2020, particularly in communities of color. He facilitated the removal and destruction of mail sorting machines that were crucial to allowing USPS to function smoothly. And he has multiple questionable investments. Last week, he even covered his ears while being grilled by congressional Republicans for dismantling USPS from the inside out.
“Louis DeJoy is the perfect example of a Trump nominee. After Trump appointed him, he ran USPS into the ground. Now, he claims it doesn’t work & will propose privatizing it,” one X commentator wrote. “Then, he, Trump & their cronies will steal the business, charge exorbitant amounts & rape the public.”
“The Postal Service is literally in the Constitution. It’s an essential PUBLIC service, and it should never be privatized. This would hurt millions of Americans, especially those in the most rural places,” Minnesota Senator Tina Smith said.
President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently, and warned that “all hell is gonna break out” if Israelis held hostage by Hamas aren’t returned by January 20, the day he reenters the White House.
“We had a very good talk. We discussed what will happen.… As you know, I gave warning that if these hostages aren’t back home by that date, all hell’s gonna break out,” Trump said, doubling down on threats he made earlier this month.
Netanyahu on Sunday said he had a phone call with Trump over the weekend, during which the two spoke about Israel’s next steps in Gaza and Syria.
“It was a very friendly, very warm, and very important conversation,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video on Sunday. “We discussed the need to complete Israel’s victory, and we also spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages.
“We will continue to act relentlessly to return home all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” he added.
Around 250 Israelis were abducted and 1,200 killed by Hamas during their attack on October 7, 2023. At least 154 have been released, rescued by the Israel Defense Forces, or recovered dead. In the last year, Israel has responded by killing more than 45,000 Palestinian adults, children, journalists, and aid workers in the Gaza Strip, doing irreversible damage to the region.
Donald Trump promised Monday to launch a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register over a preelection poll that found Vice President Kamala Harris had “leapfrogged” the Republican candidate, in a state he went on to handily win.
During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, one journalist asked Trump about his........