'BradCast' 12/14/2016 (Guest: Presidential Elector and former U.S. Marine Micheal Baca)
b"The 538 members of the Electoral College are finally set to cast their votes for President on Monday, December 19th. So far, just one GOP elector has publicly announced plans to vote for someone other than Donald Trump. But according to Harvard's Constitutional law professor Lawrence Lessig, who has offered free legal support to electors considering voting for a candidate other than the one their state voted for, 'there are now at least 20 GOP electors considering a vote of conscience.' Lessig argues electors have a Constitutional right under federal law to vote for whoever they please, despite some state laws that apply fines or other penalties against 'faithless electors'. Colorado elector Michael Baca, a former U.S. marine, joins us to discuss how he and other electors are planning to vote on Monday. Baca is part of a group calling themselves the Hamilton Electors, citing founder Alexander Hamilton's explanation of the Electoral College, as a device meant to prevent popular demagogues or those otherwise unfit or unqualified from becoming President. Baca explains his own plan, as a Democratic elector, to vote instead for a compromise Republican candidate in order to encourage GOP electors to do the same to stop Trump. He also details how he became an elector, the way in which the vote is set to occur on Monday, how his background as a Marine has led him to place the US. Constitution before party loyalty, and what he has learned from speaking to other electors, both Democratic and Republican, about how they plan to vote.\\xa0 He suggests a surprise could be in store next week, even as we remain both skeptical and intrigued. Also today: The Trump Transition team says a questionnaire sent to the Dept. of Energy seeking the names and backgrounds of climate scientists was 'not authorized', and the Massachusetts Attorney General says it's time for ExxonMobil to come clean on their efforts to fund climate change denial, now that their CEO Rex Tillerson has been nominated by Trump as Secretary of State."