O'Reilly: Anti-Electoral College effort about taking
power from 'white establishment' 

The Hill  Paulina Firozi

© Provided by The Hill

O'Reilly: Anti-Electoral College effort about taking power from 'white establishment'

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said efforts to abolish the Electoral College system are "all about race."

O'Reilly said on "The O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night there is a "hidden reason" for liberals seeking to change the system.

"If the Electoral College were abolished, presidential candidates could simply campaign in the nation's largest cities, New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston," he said. "And rack up enough votes to pretty much win any election."

O'Reilly claimed Democrats wanted to campaign only in cities where "the minority vote usually goes heavily to the Democrats," effectively "neutralizing the largely white rural areas in the Midwest and the South."

"Very few commentators will tell you that the heart of liberalism in America is based on race," O'Reilly said. "It permeates almost every issue - that white men have set up a system of oppression and that system must be destroyed."

O'Reilly said that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and to some extent nominee Hillary Clinton, peddled the idea that "so-called white privilege bad, diversity good."

"The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with," he said.

Summing up his argument, O'Reilly said, "The left wants power taken away from the white establishment, and they want a profound change in the way America is run."

Calls to abolish the Electoral College have been mounting since Clinton lost the election to President-elect Donald Trump, despite winning nearly 3 million more votes than him. She ended up with a total of 227 Electoral College votes to his 304 - five electors who were supposed to vote for Clinton defected and voted for someone else on Monday, while two refused to cast their ballots for Trump.