The Latest: Warren supports elimination of electoral college

JACKSON, Miss. — The Latest on Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (all times local):

9:05 p.m.

Elizabeth Warren supports the elimination of the electoral college, the most pointed instance of the Democratic presidential candidate opposing the polarizing mechanism the nation uses to elect its presidents.

Warren has been critical of the electoral college before. The Massachusetts senator said last year that President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, despite Democrat Hillary Clinton winning 3 million more votes than him, is “not exactly the sign of a healthy democracy.”

But Warren’s comments Monday during a Mississippi town hall broadcast on CNN represent her most straightforward endorsement of an end to the electoral college system.

Warren says, “I think everybody ought to have to come and ask for your vote.”

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8:55 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren supports a new flag for Mississippi, which is the only state to have Confederate imagery on it.

Warren made the comment Monday at a CNN town hall broadcast from Jackson, the state’s capital, in the middle of a three-day swing through the South. The Mississippi state flag’s use of a Confederate battle emblem was legally challenged in 2017, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

The Massachusetts senator gave a succinct answer to the appreciative crowd in Mississippi when asked about the state flag: “Yes,” Warren said, the state should choose a new one.

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8:35 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is embracing a congressional proposal to study a framework for reparations to African-Americans hurt by the legacy of slavery as the best way to begin a “national, full-blown conversation” on the issue.

Warren first voiced support for reparations last month, becoming one of three 2020 Democratic candidates to do so. But her comments about a study on reparations, made Monday night during a CNN town hall broadcast from Mississippi, mark a keener focus from the Massachusetts senator on her preferred route to tackle the thorny question of how best to deal with systemic racial inequality.

The Democratic field’s ongoing debate over reparations comes as African-American voters are poised to exert significant influence over the selection of the party’s nominee to take on President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press

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