“The View” co-host Joy Behar immediately cleaned up her remark in which she said she continues to believe former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the election in 2016.
Behar pointed out that Clinton won the popular vote when she ran against then-Republican nominee Donald Trump, who won the electoral college. The co-host said she continues to believe Clinton won the election due to the popular vote results.
“By the way, Mrs. Clinton did win the popular vote. I continue to believe that you won, I don’t care what they say,” Behar told Clinton during a Wednesday segment of “The View.”
Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes in the election. The former Secretary of State garnered 65,844,610 votes and Trump received 62,979,636 votes. Trump won the presidency by receiving 304 electoral votes, while Clinton got 227.
In the next segment, Behar backtracked her comments to ensure that she did not deny the results of the 2016 election but simply disliked the Electoral College. (RELATED: Chelsea Clinton, ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Attempt To Defend Hillary Denying The 2016 Election Results)
“I have to correct something,” Behar told fellow co-host Whoopi Goldberg. “Because I don’t want the impression to be made that I didn’t accept the results that allowed the Trump administration to win. But I don’t like the electoral college, and you won the popular vote and he won the electoral college and that’s the thing that needs to be addressed because it’s not one person, one vote.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin said that the Electoral College is “based on slavery.” Behar added that it is “un-American,” in which Clinton expressed her agreement.
The founding fathers drafted the Electoral College to compromise between those calling for a national popular vote and those who wanted ballots cast by members of Congress to elect the president. The Electoral College consists of a body of electors who cast their vote for a candidate. The number of electors is proportional to the number of congressmen who represent each state in the House of Representatives.
Clinton also previously denied the results of the election. In September 2019, she called Trump “an illegitimate president” and falsely blamed Russian collusion for his victory. She cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election in an October 2020 interview with The Atlantic, saying, “There was a widespread understanding that this election [in 2016] was not on the level. We still don’t know what really happened … But you don’t win by 3 million votes and have all this [sic] other shenanigans and stuff going on and not come away with an idea like, ‘Whoa, something’s not right here.’”