Establishment figures have spent the last 18 months trying to cook up schemes to deny Donald Trump the Presidency.
Now their last chance rests with the Electoral College.
And the latest plot comes down to a corrupt bargain between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.
In order to stop Donald Trump from officially becoming President, opponents would need to deny him an Electoral College majority.
Since he won 306 Electoral College votes, anti-Trump forces would need to convince 37 Republican electors to switch their votes.
And already there is a vicious campaign underway to pressure Republican electors to change their votes.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton have issued death threats, as well as harassing emails and phone calls, in an outrageous attempt to swing the December 19th Electoral College vote.
So far, neither Hillary Clinton nor her allies have spoken out against the intimidation tactics, which leads many to believe she is either behind the effort all together or supports the last ditch plan to swing the election.
But is there a way the establishment could still deny Trump the Presidency and install one of their own in the White House?
Writing in the Washington Post, Michael Cannon says there is a way for elites to prevent Trump from taking the Oath of Office.
However, it would involve a compromise between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.
Cannon writes:
“The only way Democrats stand any chance of persuading Republican electors to abandon Trump is with a dramatic gesture of true bipartisanship. If all 232 Democratic electors pledge to reach across the aisle and vote for a Republican alternative to Trump, it would take just 38 GOP electors to make that person the next president.
If Clinton announced she is releasing “her” electors and asked them to vote for a credible Republican alternative, she could plausibly deliver all 232 Democratic electors. She might even secure similar pledges from House Democrats in the event the election went to the House.
Finding 38 Republican electors might then be easier than Democrats think. In 2012, Romney won a larger share of the popular vote (47.2 percent) than Mr. Trump did this year (46.2 percent). There are 35 Republican electors from states where Romney got more votes than Trump (Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin), and at least 120 others from states where Romney won a larger share of the vote. That’s more than half of Republican electors. Texas has 38 electors all by itself.”
In the event that neither candidate receives an Electoral College majority, the election is thrown to a vote in the House of Representatives.
House members would then vote for one of the top three finishers in the Electoral College.
Could the elites enter into the ultimate corrupt bargain to stop Trump?
The odds are stacked against it.
Trump won the election fair and square.
He also won with a decisive Electoral College majority.
If the election were thrown to the House and the Republican majority elected someone other than Trump, GOP voters would be outraged.
A vote for someone other than Trump would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.
Like all of the #NeverTrump fantasies, this one has no basis in reality.
