The 55 members of the Electoral College from California cast their votes unanimously for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — and passed a resolution calling for an investigation into Russian hacking and interference in the election.
Christine Pelosi, daughter of U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), serving as the elector from the elder Pelosi’s 12th congressional district, offered the resolution during her remarks on the floor of the meeting, the Associated Press reports:
We do not let the politics of personal destruction drive the narrative of scandal over policy, stop us from standing up, speaking up, answering our call to service, and making a difference … That is why I move that we, California’s electoral college members, demand an independent, bipartisan investigation into Russian interference into our election and steps we can take to protect the integrity of our democracy going forward.
The resolution was reportedly passed unanimously.
However, the American public is apparently not as concerned about Russian hacking allegations as Democrat electors are. A new Morning Consult poll released Tuesday suggests that only one-third of Americans believe Russia influenced the election.
Ironically, Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama had attempted to appease Russia for most of the past several years. It was Clinton who offered Russia the “reset” button in 2009 (erroneously translated into Russian as “overcharge”). Obama also negotiated a one-sided New START treaty that required deep cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and all but abandoned missile defense in Europe that had been painstakingly negotiated by the George W. Bush administration with U.S. NATO allies.
In its second term, the Obama administration also offered Russia further missile cuts, and virtually ensured that Russian prop Bashar al-Assad would remain in power in Syria by accepting a weak deal on the removal of Syrian chemical weapons. When Russia invaded the Crimea and threatened the Ukraine, the Obama administration moaned about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tactics, and approved sanctions, but did little else, sending Ukranians ready-to-eat rations instead of better weapons.
Russia is suspected of hacking into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), releasing emails that showed coordination between senior party officials and the Clinton campaign to defeat a primary challenge by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Another hack, of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, produced further revelations, including the sharing of primary debate questions by then-CNN contributor Donna Brazile (now interim DNC chair) with the Clinton campaign.
President Obama admitted last week that there is no evidence of Russian hacking of voting machines or the electoral process itself. There is also no evidence linking Russian hacking to the campaign of Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Clinton won California by nearly 4.3 million votes — a staggering result that, by itself, accounts for Clinton’s overall win in the national popular vote. Without the Golden State, she would have lost the popular vote by roughly 1.4 million votes.
The Sacramento Bee reports that roughly 500 protesters showed up outside the Electoral College meeting at the state capitol in Sacramento, urging electors nationwide not to vote for Trump (though all of those inside were voting for Hillary Clinton).
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.