France’s center-right Republican Party has kicked off its nominating contest to determine the party’s presidential candidate in next year’s election. Seven candidates are competing on Sunday to represent the Republican Party. The candidates include Jean-Francois Cope, 52, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, 61, ex-prime minister Alain Juppe, 71, ex-prime minister Francois Fillon, 62, Bruno Le Maire, 47, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, 43, and Jean-Frederic Poisson, 53, with the forerunners being Sarkozy, Juppe and Fillon. The three leading candidates have similar programs, underpinned by pledges to reinforce security, reduce immigration and cut taxes; however, they differ in style.

Sarkozy displays a tougher attitude, arguing that such a stance makes him a better choice than the mild-mannered Juppe to handle Donald Trump, the unpredictable US president-elect. Fillon, who is popular in the business world, has promised “radical” economic measures but is the most conservative of the three on social issues. A final televised debate of the seven candidates on Thursday produced no clear winner, although viewers polled afterwards said Fillon put in the strongest performance.

“We were expecting a duel but in the end a three-way contest has emerged,” political scientist Jerome Jaffre wrote in Le Figaro newspaper on Thursday. A voter survey on Friday gave Fillon 30 percent popularity while both Sarkozy and Juppe each separately wielded 29 percent support. With the French left remaining divided until now, the next French president will possibly either be the Republican nominee or the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

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US President Barack Obama believes Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost the November 8 presidential election to Donald Trump because of the Republican candidate’s successful campaign on social media. Obama had been worried about cropping up of multiple pro-Trump fake news websites in the run-up to Election Day and spoken about it with his advisory team before the presidential election, The Independentreported on Friday.

According to reports, hundreds of invented articles had surfaced which promoted Trump and slandered Clinton. According to David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, Obama’s team was concerned about the risks of these online fake news articles posed to Clinton’s chances of winning the White House.

Remnick said in the days before the election Obama held in-depth conversations with his aides, in which they discussed a new “media ecosystem” in which “facts and truth don’t matter”. Obama had reportedly talked “obsessively” with his senior advisor, David Simas, about reports of a “digital gold rush” on Facebook and Twitter in favor of Trump.

Remnick said Obama spoke to him about the issue, and called Trump’s tactic of using the new media structure to “attract attention” and “rouse emotions”. “The lens through which people understand politics and politicians is extraordinarily powerful. And Trump understands the new ecosystem, in which facts and truth don’t matter,” Obama said. “You attract attention, rouse emotions, and then move on. You can surf those emotions. I’ve said it before, but if I watched Fox, I wouldn’t vote for me!” the president stated.

Obama’s adviser talked about a “foundational change” that was changing the “parameters of acceptable discourse” following the emergence of social media. “The continuum has changed. Had Donald Trump said the things he said during the campaign eight years ago – about banning Muslims, about Mexicans, about the disabled, about women – his Republican opponents, faith leaders, academia would have denounced him and there would be no way around those voices,” Simas said.

“Now, through Facebook and Twitter, you can get around them. There is social permission for this kind of discourse. Plus, through the same social media, you can find people who agree with you, who validate these thoughts and opinions,” he added. “This creates a whole new permission structure, a sense of social affirmation for what was once thought unthinkable,” he stated.

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. He made several controversial remarks, including a call to ban all Muslims from coming to America as well as forced deportation of Mexican migrants by building a long wall along the US-Mexico border.

He has also sought for a database to track Muslims across the United States and said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques. According to observers, the propaganda put out by the Clinton campaign was also very strong yet it did not succeed, and Trump managed to stun the world by defeating the favorite candidate of American mainstream media.

Numerous polls taken before the presidential election showed that Clinton and Trump were deeply unpopular politicians, while Clinton’s Democratic primary rival, Bernie Sanders, enjoyed very high popularity.

Clinton was viewed by many voters as a corrupt member of the elite Washington establishment. Sanders on Wednesday suggested that he could have defeated Trump in a general election. “I would have been elected president of the United States,” said Sanders, who had received 56 percent of the vote for the White House, according to the national survey conducted by Gravis Marketing two days before the presidential election.

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A new poll shows a majority of US Democrats are in favor of putting an end to the Electoral College system, after Hillary Clinton lost the November 8 presidential election to Donald Trump despite winning the popular vote by more than a million votes.

According to the Huffington Post/YouGov poll, released on Thursday, 66 percent of Democrats are in favor of discarding the Electoral College for a popular vote system to elect the US president, while 14 percent want to keep the current system in place.

However, 67 percent of Republicans are comfortable with the Electoral College, while only 13 percent want Congress to amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most number of total votes across the country wins the election. Overall, 41 percent of Americans are in favor of scrapping the Electoral College and rely on the popular vote to elect a president, while 34 percent prefer the current system and 25 percent are not sure.

In the United States, the Electoral College, a system established by Article Two of the Constitution, ultimately decides the presidential election, not the popular vote. Americans vote in each state at a general election to choose a slate of “electors” pledged to vote for a party’s candidate who is elected president should they receive an absolute majority of electoral votes among the states. However, the winner does not always correspond to the candidate who won the popular vote.

Democrats have denounced at the Electoral College system as an “outdated, undemocratic system” that does not reflect modern American society, after Democratic nominee Clinton won the popular vote last week but lost the Electoral College to the Republican rival, Trump.

In the popular vote, Clinton has won 62,829,832 votes compared to Trump’s 61,488,190, or 47.9 percent to 46.9 percent, respectively, according to an analysis from the independent Cook Political Report Thursday.  However, Trump won 290 of the total 538 electoral votes, compared to Clinton’s 232. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House. Several Democrats, including 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, have called on Congress to review the Electoral College.

Trump had earlier complained about the Electoral College system, saying he had “respect” for the system but he preferred the popular vote method. But, in a tweet, he said, “the Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored candidate, Clinton, in the election. The poll released on Thursday also suggests 78 percent of Americans consider Trump’s victory legitimate, while 40 percent of Democrats say they won’t accept the billionaire as the legitimate president, and 42 percent believe the presidential election was “rigged.”

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Two members of the US Electoral College are openly campaigning against President-elect Donald Trump, trying to persuade other presidential electors to keep him from entering the White House, according to a new report.  State electors Bret Chiafolo of Washington and Michael Baca of Colorado have launched what they call “Moral Electors” movement, a last-ditch effort against the New York billionaire, Politico reported on Monday.

The pair were seeking to persuade at least 37 Republican presidential voters to join them, just enough to block Trump’s election and allow the US House of Representative to elect the country’s 45th president. “This is a longshot. It’s a Hail Mary,” Chiafolo told Politico. “However, I do see situations where — when we’ve already had two or three [Republican] electors state publicly they didn’t want to vote for Trump. How many of them have real issues with Donald Trump in private?”

Interestingly, both Chiafolo, a Microsoft employee, and Baca, a Marine Corps veteran, said they were not looking to elect Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the top job. They both have planned to vote against the former secretary of state when the Electoral College convenes to elect the next president in mid-December. The joint effort has been supported by Robert Satiacum Jr., another Washington state elector, who has openly expressed his opposition to Trump and Clinton before.

Although the electors have admitted that their attempt is not likely to succeed, the fact that members of the Electoral College were openly plotting against the president-elect raises questions about the controversial process of electing a new president in America.

On November 8, most American voters partaking in the election voted for Clinton but Trump came put victorious by winning key states and banking their electoral votes. As of Tuesday, Trump had won 290 of the total 538 electoral votes, compared to Clinton’s 228. He was also likely to win all of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes.

The report came shortly after prominent Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders said America needed to “rethink” the Electoral College after electing “a man for president who didn’t get the most votes.” Meanwhile, thousands of Clinton’s supporters have signed an online petition, calling on electoral voters to vote for Clinton instead of Trump.

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Americans across the country continue street protests for the fourth straight day against the election of Donald Trump as president in an unprecedented show of opposition to a president-elect amid chants of “Not my president!”

The protest rallies throughout the country on Saturday took place a day after one protester was shot and wounded in city of Portland in the Western state of Oregon following a confrontation after nightfall on Friday, when instances of vandalism and assault were also reported.

In Trump’s home city of New York, where mostly peaceful protest rallies along downtown streets have continued since Wednesday – the day after he surprisingly defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by electoral votes and despite losing the popular vote count – more than 10,000 people indicated on Facebook that they would take part in a noon march from Union Square to Trump Tower, the site of the president-elect’s residence and corporate headquarters.

The demonstrators marched up the prestigious Fifth Avenue under heavy police presence while chanting “Not my president!” as well as “Whose streets? ‎Our streets!”

Despite severe security measures around Trump Tower, the building’s lobby and restaurants, which have become a temporary home for journalists looking for information and sightings of members of Trump’s transition team, remained open to the public.

Protesters also waged rallies across the Western state of California, including in the major city of Los Angeles, where more than 200 were detained by police a night before.

Meanwhile, activists across the country expressed firm plans to build momentum ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration ceremonies in Washington on January 20.

Moreover, a “million-women-march” is also being planned on the nation’s capital for the inauguration day, specifically in response to Trump’s widely-reported instances of mistreating women, according to local press reports.

Additionally, online efforts are also in the works by left-wing groups to plan for protest marches during the inauguration events, which attract dignitaries of all sorts from across the US and the world.

This is while co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors declared that the movement was “grieving and mourning,” vowing to build “something bigger and stronger than the hate Trump and his team have exhibited towards marginalized communities,” the UK-based Guardianreported.

Anti-Trump rallies also spread to Germany with protesters gathering Saturday outside the US embassy in Berlin to censure the stated policies of the newly elected American chief executive. The German protesters further slammed what they referred to as xenophobia and racism. Civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter also took part in the Berlin rally.

The developments came as Trump blamed the persisting protest rallies against his victory on “professional protesters, incited by the media” in a tweet on Thursday, expressing concern that such efforts were tarnishing his electoral success, describing them as “very unfair.”

Following strong criticism of his online post, he stated in a second post that he appreciated the “passion for our great country” shown by protesters.

This is while Clinton and her campaign’s head of opinion research were reported to have blamed her defeat on two letters to Congress from FBI director James Comey, regarding the Democratic presidential nominee’s use of a private email server while serving as the Obama administration’s first secretary of state.

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Hillary Clinton’s top advisers blame FBI Director James Comey for the Democrat’s bruising loss to President-elect Donald Trump. Navin Nayak, the head of the Clinton campaign’s opinion research division, sent an email to senior staffers Thursday, outlining “early signals” as to why the candidate lost the November 8 presidential election, POLITICO reported on Friday.

“We believe that we lost this election in the last week,” said Nayak’s email, which was published by POLITICO. “Comey’s letter in the last 11 days of the election both helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support among college-educated white voters — particularly in the suburbs.”

“We also think Comey’s 2nd letter, which was intended to absolve Sec. Clinton, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout,” he continued. The letter also highlighted several other challenges the Clinton team faced throughout the campaign, including a desire for change after two terms by a Democratic president and the reluctance of some Americans to vote for a female candidate.

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Over two million people in the United States have signed a petition, calling on the members of the Electoral College to vote for US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton when they meet in December.  The petition was published on Thursday and its signatories demanded that the Electoral College grant the US presidency to Clinton, who leads President-elect Donald Trump in popular votes by about 300,000 votes.

“We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton,” the petition read. “Mr. Trump is unfit to serve. His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic,” it noted.

“Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President,” the petition noted.

All the 538 electors across the US will meet on December 19 to officially cast their ballots for the presidential election despite a traditional vote they cast on November 8 along the lines of the states they represent. Technically, the so-called faithless electors can buck tradition and support the candidate who lost their state, overturning the “results” of the election.

On Tuesday, Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Clinton in the presidential election, sending the United States on a new, uncertain path. Trump rode a wave of anger toward the elite US establishment to win the White House race against Clinton, a longtime Washington insider. The New York businessman garnered 290 electoral votes in the 2016 US election, while his rival and the former secretary of state received 232 votes despite winning the popular vote.

On Wednesday, thousands of people rallied in cities across the US to protest against Trump’s presidential election victory, condemning his controversial campaign rhetoric against Muslims, immigrants, women and other groups. This is while Trump said in his victory speech he would be president for all Americans. “It is time for us to come together as one united people,” he said.

Trump, who at 70 will be the oldest first-term US president, defeated his Democratic rival after a bitter and divisive campaign. During the campaign, Trump was the target of sharp disapproval, not just from Democrats but from many in his own party.

The real estate mogul’s election campaign had been marred by his disparaging remarks against minorities in the US. His comments include a call to ban all Muslims from coming to America as well as stopping Mexican migrants by building a long wall along the US-Mexico border.

He has also sought for a database to track Muslims across the United States and said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques.

Trump’s proposal was widely condemned by Muslim and human rights groups as well as his Democratic rivals and many of his Republican proponents who describe the proposal as divisive, counterproductive and contrary to American values.

Culled from Presstv

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election in a dramatic shift of events on Tuesday, says the fact that more people have voted for her than her opponent GOP nominee Donald Trump, means that the American people “counted” on her.

Addressing her supporters at New Yorker Hotel on Wednesday, the Democratic flag-bearer said she was not trying to “sugarcoat” her loss, urging Democrats to remain “focused on what each of us in our own ways can do to really keep standing up for those values, and doing all that we can do together to represent them.”

Clinton fell short of 47 electoral votes with 228, compared to Trump who got 279 to become the US president, however, more people narrowly voted for the Democrat to win the popular vote (48 percent to 47 percent). “We won the popular vote. We have a lot of people, who really counted on us and believed in us, and worked so hard for us, because they shared our vision of the kind of America that we wanted not only to be part of but to help, create nurture and send into the future,” she told the tearful supporters. “I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s really hard.”

Earlier, the former first lady and New York congresswoman took the stage in the hotel for her concession speech. Apart from congratulating to the New York billionaire, Clinton spoke of the division in the United States and apologized to the nearly 60 million voters who backed her.

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