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Clinton: Electoral College 'Needs to Be Eliminated'

Two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in an interview released Wednesday that she believes it is time to eliminate the Electoral College.

Clinton appeared in an extended interview with CNN host Anderson Cooper, who brought up the Electoral College as an institution. In 2016, Clinton infamously won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to President Donald Trump 304 votes to 227.

"In the book, you make no attempt to hide your displeasure about the Electoral College. You say on page 386, 'the godforsaken Electoral College.' You mention winning the popular vote, obviously, multiple times in the book," Cooper noted.

"Do you think the Electoral College should be abolished?" he asked.

"I said that in 2000 after what happened in the 2000 election with Al Gore," Clinton said.

Gore lost the 2000 election to President George W. Bush in spite of winning the popular vote by just over half a million votes.

"I was elected to the Senate that same year, and if you look at our recent history, we've had several candidates, nominees, who have won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College," Clinton said. "What does that say? And it says that an anachronism that was designed for another time no longer works. We've moved toward one person, one vote, that's how we select winners."

"I think it needs to be eliminated. I'd like to see us move beyond it, yes," she said.

Clinton is the fifth person to win the popular vote but lose the presidency; the first was Andrew Jackson in the election of 1824. Including Jackson, every candidate who has won the popular vote but lost has been a Democrat.