President Donald Trump is exploring the possibility of throwing the presidential election to the House of Representatives, prominent investigative journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN.
The Twelfth Amendment permits the House to decide the election, should no presidential candidate win a majority of voters. If this were to occur, it could potentially benefit Trump over Biden, as each state has one vote.
In 2016, Trump won the majority vote in 30 states, while Hillary Clinton won 20 states and Washington D.C.
“Because everything is about the base, as he calls it,” Bernstein said. “And getting the base to somehow reelect him or get him close enough to reelection that he can then put into authoritarian practice. Some kind of mechanism that will allow him to hold onto power, perhaps throw the election into the House of Representatives, which indeed is being talked about in the White House.”
Bernstein, who helped expose President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal in the Washington Post along with journalist Bob Woodward, called Trump “demonstrably unfit” to lead the United States.
He encouraged GOP lawmakers to confront the president about their distrust in his ability to lead, similar to the Nixon proceedings, calling for a “political and cultural protectorate in the country between now and Election Day.”
