On Tuesday, Kool A.D. published an open letter to America's electors trying to persuade them to cast their votes against Donald Trump, thus preventing him from becoming president. "I urge you to follow suit and vote against Trump as well, as is your right as an elector and, I will argue, even your duty," he wrote.
In an email to The FADER, the rapper clarified his reasoning for penning the letter, saying he figured it won't do much to change their minds, but he "didn't feel like sitting back and doing nothing."
As he explained:
I wrote this open letter to the Electoral College because it seems obvious to me (and at least 64 million other people in the United States) that Donald Trump should not be President and that there seems to be very little conversation going on about how he is not the President yet. So as long as there's even a sliver of a chance to make sure he doesn't actually become President, I'll do the little that I can to help make sure that it doesn't happen.
To be honest, I mostly live in Mexico and didn't file my absentee ballot paperwork in time to vote, and if I did, I would have voted for Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka because they were the candidates whose platforms, politics and histories most appealed to me and also I'm from California where Trump did not have a chance in hell of winning. I'm not a fan of the Clintons, their policies helped to literally enslave members of my family in our country's despicably overcrowded and needlessly brutal prison system, I think their so-called liberalism is disingenuous and ultimately ineffectual for solving the problems of poor people, working people and people of color. But, as I outline in my letter, I believe Trump is and will be much, much worse.
In the letter, Kool A.D. lists 45 reasons why Trump is unfit to be president, including many of Trump's bizarre and hateful moments from the campaign trail. Read an excerpt below and the whole thing here.
As I’m sure you already know, depending on your state, you may incur a monetary penalty of up to $1,000 for casting a vote outside of your party. There are many people that would be happy to reimburse you for this fine — indeed funds are being raised privately and publicly as we speak and should you incur legal repercussions, and there are lawyers willing protect your rights as an elector pro bono. A meager price to pay for our democracy.
To me, the case against a Trump presidency is abundantly, overwhelmingly, unprecedentedly clear. He is simply unfit to be president. He goes against nearly every last purported American value in the book. He is the exact type of person the Electoral College was created to keep out of the White House.
Alexander Hamilton asked that you, the electors, exercise “a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements… proper to govern [your] choice.” Reason should dictate the absolute necessity of keeping Trump out of office.
The majority of American voters voted against him. We beg that you do too.