Name: What if a US presidential candidate refuses to concede after an election? | Van Jones
Uploaded: 2020-10-26T18:47:09.000Z
Duration: 16 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Transcriber: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz

OK, as an attorney, as a political commentator,

Adverbs of manner

and frankly, as a former White House official,

I've been doing some research into some of the fine print

and all the different things in our constitution

that the presidential election of 2020 turns out.

For instance, did you know that under our constitution

a presidential candidate could actually lose the popular vote,

fail to get a majority in the electoral college,

manipulate hidden mechanisms in our government

and still get sworn in as the president of the United States of America?

I know it sounds like some crazy "House of Cards" episode,

because then we could just change the channel,

but I just described to you a real-world, real-life possibility

that could occur this year, the year I'm talking, in 2020,

if we don't fix some of these glitches in our system.

that the American people's choice in a US presidential election

should actually be sworn in to become president of the United States,

I'm going to teach you how to stop a coup, OK?

It turns out that one of the main safeguards of US democracy

It's actually just a little tradition, it's a little custom.

that you almost never have riots and bloodshed and strife

What I'm talking about is a concession speech.

it's the one speech no presidential candidate ever wants to give,

It's that speech, you know, when a presidential contender gives,

it's after the advisers come and the media tells them,

"Look, you're not going to get enough votes

to be able to hit that magic number of 270 electoral college votes.

and stand in front of their family and stand in front of the cameras

and say, "I am conceding the race, voluntarily.

The other person has won now, congratulations to them,

let's unite behind them, let's move on, let's be one country.

this is a remarkable tradition in our country.

But that concession speech instantly demobilizes all of them.

helps the tens of millions of people who voted for that person

Acknowledge the winner, however begrudgingly,

but not disloyal to America's government.

that concession speech has a technical function

in that it kind of allows all the other stuff

that our constitution requires after the voting,

you've got the electoral college that has got to meet,

you've got Congress who's got to ratify this thing,

all that stuff can just move ahead on automatic pilot

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What if a US presidential candidate refuses to concede after an election? | Van Jones

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