So that is certainly of concern. When mr. Giuliani indicated that mr. Trump should set up some kind of blind trust. When pressed, mr. Giuliani said that trumps unusual situation might call for more flexibility. And that is something we have never seen before. Where there is at least some mixture of government and the using of a Business Structure and more flexibility. And then a new announcement that these individuals that would be involved in the blind trust or running the business now would be called upon to or are being sought, if you will, to have a top secret clearance, which means that the interests of business could be mixed with the security interests of the American People. And i find that quite puzzling. And as a member of concerned about Homeland Security on a number of my committees, i find that of great concern. This is what happens when there is elections maybe with less information than we should have had. So i think it is important to note that protesters are rightly concerned. Certainly theres Additional Information in a recent 60 minute d interview where the came 60 minute d interview where the 60 minutes interview where they were talking about undocumented individuals. Certainly among undocumented individuals are young people called daca which have been given work permits and delays from deportation, who are scholars, who are in college, who are Young High School students, who appropriately, because the system of Legal Immigration that has been presented to this congress any number of times has not been debated or passed. We have not done our job. So weve not passed a system of which those who are unstatused could legally pay fines, stand in line, and do the appropriate thing that i think americans would care for them to do. What we have is a system that is broken. And so in his wisdom, the president of the United States worked to step in the gap where there was no court, there was no law as it comes to these young people, and of course the congress did not act. No answer from that in a 60 minute d interview. Thrast question in a 60 minutes interview. There is a question or point that those who have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, people would be deported. Without any suggestion of how would you pay for it. I think deportation is about 10,000 per person. Also criminal records is a relative question. Is that a misdemeanor, is that a ticket . Is that a young person thats a gang member that could be rehabilitated . And then of course having some way to access citizenship in some appropriate manner. Let it be very clear, none of us want to coddle or to protect anyone that will do us harm here in the United States. That is not in any way the stance that i take. But i do ask the question, is there any thought to these policies, and these policies have now caused great fear and intimidation, which generates thousands of young people and others across america who have taken to the peaceful protests, because they are confused. And the confusion is continuing to grow. In addition, it was said often that this is a powerful country with a wonderful democracy. That democracy means that in the bat ale of campaigns, much is said. Once campaigns are over, then we move on to respect the opponent, loyal opposition, and we move on to ensure that we do and, how punitive should i say, unfair treatment of the individual that lost. We have repeated over and over again, mrs. Clinton, who i think was an excellent candidate for the presidency, as evidenced by the fact that right now the numbers are mounting, shes actually received more than one million votes over the individual that will take up the helm by inauguration in january of 2017. So the popular vote, more americans voted for mrs. Clinton than the person who will be inaugurated. Thats a very hard pill to swallow. And i will speak about the Electoral College. But with that in mind, we also know that there have been many hearings in this congress that have looked at a number of aspects of some of the concerns that have been raised in the battle of the contest. Evidenced ve not any basis for moving forward. That being said, in an inquiry for 60 minutes, regarding mrs. Clinton, kind words were said, of course, and i agree with them, that she proceeded in the appropriate manner to protect the peaceful transfer of government. She reached out to the American People to ask them to work with this new government. She spoke about our values and that we should continue to maintain our values. I thank her for that. And of course she appropriately lled and conceded and that action was called lovely. But when the question was posed about appointing a special prosecutor, rather than performing or speaking in a president ial manner, that wasnt the case. The response was that this action would not be ruled out, some words that were attempting to comfortable said. Here are good comfort said, there are good people. Wrst the response, the election is where is the response, the election is over, i thank mrs. Clinton for her service to the nation and we look forward to haling this nation and working together . Healing this nation and working together . That did not occur. So let me say, let us not discount the pain that my constituents and many others are feeling, because there have been no words that are conciliatory and isil certainly there are no words and certainly there are no words that would seem to respect the loyal opposition, the opponent, only the words that would seem to provoke those who worked so ard on behalf of the other candidate. So, the newspapers are rampant with these examples of what kind of administration will we have. So how did we get here . We got here because of the structure of the Electoral College. Which was in place, as we began this nation. And of course it is established in article 2, section 1 of the u. S. Constitution. The constitution gives each state a number of electers equal to the combined total of its senate membership, two for each state. House of representatives delegation, currently ranging from one to 52. Under the 23rd amendment, the district of columbia is allocated three electricer tos. The Electoral College consists of 53 electers, 535 from other states and three from the district of columbia. None of those individuals should stand in place of the popular vote. But that is the concept that we ed in that earlier point and on november 6, 2012, mr. Trump tweeted that the Electoral College is a disaster for democracy. I think many of us in america totally agree. Most states require that all electoral votes go to the candidate that received the plurality in that state. And so in some sense it is connected to that state. And has some basis to it. It was amended in the 12th amendment, i think that was in 1804, which provides what happens if the Electoral College fails to elect a president or Vice President. Here lies the very crux of the reason why a popular vote should now be the standard. Let me say also that i could not read the minds of our founding fathers. They managed to put a system of democracy that has now lasted for a very, very, very long period of time. They are to be commended. Thises was through the Constitutional Convention that met in philadelphia in 1787. This is an important acknowledgment. And there were a variety of processes upon which they suggested there be a president ial selection. A Committee Formed to work out various details, including the motor election of the president. Instead recommend that the election be decided by a group of people, a portion among the states. I would offer to say that that did not go forward. There were fears of intrigue, if the president was chosen by a small group of men, and at the time, as you well are aware, slaves were not counted as a full person and slaves were in the United States and omen were not allowed to vote. There were other prohibitions against voting. Concerns for the independence of the president if he was elected by the congress was also part of the mix in terms of how you would discern and vote in the Electoral College was being developed. The federalist paper, number 39, james madison, explained the constitution is designed to be a mixture of statebased app populationbased government. Alexander hamilton defended the Electoral College on the grounds that the electers were chosen directly by the people. All of that trying to get it right, i think speaks vols. Vols to the idea of moving orward beyond this idea of the Electoral College and to begin to look at other oppings. So, im going to be asking our committees, in particular the Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings on the Electoral College. I think it is extremely appropriate for the American People to be able to understand the crux of how this works, but more importantly, how this impacts the leadership of this country. Five times a candidate has won the popular vote but not the Electoral College. Andrew jackson in 1824. Samuel tilleden in 1876. We remember that compromise. Grover cleveland in 1888. Al gore in 2000, and certainly Hillary Clinton in 2016. I would suggest that this is an appropriate time to review this. We tried to do an Electoral College review from 1969 to 1971. H. J. Res. 681 proposed a direct election of a president and Vice President requiring a runoff when no candidate received more than 40 of the vote. The resolution did pass the house in 1969, but failed to pass the senate. So, i think it is important that we look at this in a manner that can be reviewed. And there are ways of doing so. A national ere is popular vote, which ill find in just a moment. That has already worked with 13 states tody vice another approach, or which is the popular vote. And to make sure that the bar that we have, that deals with the Electoral College, and bars the count of the popular vote to the extent that one person, one vote, i think has to be reviewed. There has to be a congressional review of this. There is too much at stake and o much emphasis on the right to a vote, that we cannot let americans vote for their president. And i say that, some of the discussionses around the idea of Electoral College was that maybe the voters were not informed enough. Maybe they were not at a level of education that we should ntrust to them the idea of the situation dealing with the popular vote. So i think the issue is that we need to make sure that the one vote, one person counts. We talk about it all the time. And we dont seem to act on it. Lets hold hearings. That is important. Let me quickly go to the aftermath of these elections. That has really disturbed many of us. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports more than 201 incidents of electionrelated harassment and intimidation across the country as of november 11, 5 00 p. M. They range from antiblack to antiwoman to antilgbt incidents. People are hurting. There are many examples of vandalism and epitaphs directed at individuals, oftentimes the types of harassment overlapped and many incidents, though not all, involved direct references to the Trump Campaign. Let me give you some examples. My 12yearold daughter is an africanamerican this is an example from the Southern Poverty Law Center. A boy approached her and said, now that trump is president im going to shoot you and all the blacks i can find. We reported it to the school who followed up with my daughter and the by appropriately. Another this time in college setting, a black female fresh bostona freshman in a white llege, heard a student say, this is their punishment for eight years black people. When she turned to see who said it, the white student laughed. Another one, when i was waiting to cross the street, three men in a truck yelled something inappropriate, one began to chant trump as they drove away. I have a an employee who happens to be hispanic who was coming to work in my own hometown and was told, wetback in a suit, go home. Death to diversity was written on a banner displayed in our library this happened in, i think, colorado. For people to see as well as written on posters across the campus as well as white males going up to women, saying unfortunate things about grabbing unfortunate things. Harassment, today a young latino man in his 20s a coworker of mine, this is from austin, texas, was walking into work as a truck slowed down and two mite when threw a bag of garbage on him and yelled, youre going back to where you came from. There are obviously many such incidents. When asked about this, to his credit, mr. Trump said to stop it. That is not going to be enough. That will not answer the thousands upon thousands of those protesting and the thousands upon thousands of those who are looking for leadership to be able to suggest that we are in fact a nation that represents all people. Now, it is the prerogative of the person who has gotten elected and who will be honored to serve as president of the United States, it will be their privilege to select persons that will lead. We do know that theres discussion about an individual for the secretary of state, an i choose to cite this as an individual, who is now possibly being looked at for the many conflicts of interest they will have. This is the highest office in the land. There must be a responsible ordering of those who are actually able to do the job. It is fortunate reward your friends, but these are important governmental positions. That will either be the face, the secretary of state, of the United States internationally, or the attorney general, will be the chief Law Enforcement officer, or in the white house staff will likewise be the face of the president of the United States. And in the last week, an individual has now been selected who was in the campaign as chief strategist. That is the face of the white house. That has given a signal to white supremists that they will be represented at the highest levels. T is clearly documented of the kinds of actions that this individual has been engaged in. The exwife indicated in a Court Decision that he didnt want girls the girls going to school with jews he said he doesnt like jews. Heading up a periodical that deals with the altright movement which has been known to deal with skin heads and various issues that are just completely untoward in a country that is 21st century and that is diverse. So i believe that, having joined my colleagues and asked for recourse reconsideration, you have the right to choose your cabinet. You have the right to choose your various aides that you will have, but i dont believe in this nation that you have the right to deal with this question these issues where people feel divided. There is a picture here, we know that there is the burning of a church. This is a church, this is the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in greenwell, mississippi, that has written on the outside of this sacred place, and i began my message, or my statement on the floor with a word from psalms, and here is written, vote trump. Now we know that there are people that may want to provoke or not provoke, but what i think is important is that one candidate get more of the popular vote wem need to review the Electoral College. Out of this election has come great concerns from the words that have been offered during the campaign that cannot be pulled back. D the words that cannot be pulled back now have generated not only actions, by individuals not in the government, children being malign and attacked, individuals being attack thobed street, people feel frightened. Churches being burned, which we passed a law some years back out it is a federal crime to burn a church. And then to have an individual who has been associated with the kind of prop began tad propaganda that in essence is discriminatory against us, against women, his pan igs, certainly people who have differences and certainly we have seen the potential of the k. K. K. Marching in north carolina, been denounced by the republican and Democratic State party chair in north carolina, and we thank them for that. 10 what does that mean for all of us . We have work to do. E have work to do. If we are to keep our democracy, ere must be one commandment, thou shall not ration justice. We have criminal reform to teal. With we have to address the individuals incarcerated unfairly, we must give them a second chance. This is not myself speaking, this is religious groups speak, republicans and democrats speaking about the importance of criminal justice reform. We have not heard any discussion on that but we do know theres been over 200 hateful acts in the election aftermath. That is a problem. We also know that the Electoral College has now again selected an individual that did not get the most votes from the American People. And so i would offer to say that among the work that we have to do, working to rebuild america and put america first, i certainly join in that. We have some healing to do. And we should be doing this in a corrective manner. We should be doing our job and looking at some of the constitutional fractures that occurred. T me close on one last point that i want to make sure that as i speak that i offer Great Respect for the individuals who this ffered to serve in government. But i would be remiss if i did not cite a shocking episode that occurred on october 28, 2016, in the midst of the pre