As the Electoral College cast ballots at statehouses across the country on Monday, Michael Moore made a last-minute pitch to convince them to stop Donald Trump from reaching a 270 majority to win the presidency.
“Why not choose a president who won’t try to please Moscow, someone who believes the threat of terrorism is real and demands to be briefed on it daily?” Moore wrote on Facebook. “Why not let history record your moment of true courage and patriotism? Only 38 of you have to stand up and say, ‘I love my country and I cannot in good conscience vote for a man who, whether he means to or not, may put our nation in jeopardy. I love my country more than I love this job as an elector.'”
But Trump is expected to be well ahead of the total needed to win the presidency, given that he won states with a total of 306 electoral votes. That is not a landslide victory in the Electoral College, and he lost the popular vote by more than 2.8 million to Hillary Clinton.
Moore made the case that the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was a reason for electors to hold off from casting their ballots for Trump.
“Shouldn’t we all wait until the investigation ordered by the president is finished before the Electoral College votes? If Trump did know or was involved in this unprecedented assault on our electoral process, wouldn’t that be enough for you to exercise your constitutional power to stop a man like this from taking office?
“Or just the fact that he has refused to attend nearly all the daily national security briefings — doesn’t this give you some pause? Do we want a Commander-in-Chief who is too busy or too disinterested to protect us on a daily basis?” he added.
Moore also offered to pay the fines for electors in states who face penalties if they fail to vote for Trump. In some states, electors are bound to follow the popular vote winner in that state.
He wrote, “I think you know something is wrong with this man. He just doesn’t seem ‘right.’ One crazy comment or action after another. He may not be well. Don’t you have a responsibility to protect us from someone who might be mentally unstable?”
A number of groups have been urging electors to deny Trump a majority. Martin Sheen, Debra Messing and James Cromwell were among those who appeared in a video urging electors to vote their conscience. One elector from Texas said that he would cast his vote for John Kasich, and not Trump, even though he won the Lone Star state.
