The news anchors and network producers trekking to Iowa this weekend for the Iowa caucuses will be just at the start of what will be a frenetic schedule of impactful breaking news events.
On Sunday is the Super Bowl, which will feature Sean Hannity’s pre-game interview with Trump. On Monday is the caucus. The State of the Union is on Tuesday, followed by the Senate’s final impeachment vote on Wednesday and the ABC News/WMUR-TV/Apple News New Hampshire debate on Friday. The Oscars follow soon after on Feb. 9 — and it’s likely to have some kind of political tinge.
“It is the most intense period I can ever recall in politics,” ABC News’s political director Rick Klein said from Des Moines. “It is uncanny how many things are converging as big storylines at the same time.”
The Iowa caucuses are the official start of voting in the 2020 presidential race, and with it the start of an ultra-competitive period for network news divisions, as they try to capitalize on an expected uptick in viewer interest in an election year.
As results come in on Monday night, ABC News plans special reports with chief anchor George Stephanopoulos and World News Tonight anchor David Muir along with Jonathan Karl, Cecilia Vega, Mary Bruce, Terry Moran, Nate Silver, Matthew Dowd, Chris Christie, Rahm Emanuel and Yvette Simpson. Muir will anchor World News Tonight from Iowa that evening. Tom Llamas will anchor coverage for ABC News Live, along with Klein, Devin Dwyer and contributors Heidi Heitkamp, Stephanie Cutter and Deirdre DeJear.
Other networks also are firming up plans for coverage —- a bit more last-minute given the uncertainty of what is taking place on Capitol Hill.
Fox News will present a two-hour special, Democracy 2020: The Iowa Caucuses, starting at 6 PM ET on Monday, with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum hosting from the Iowa Event Center, followed by coverage of the results starting at 10 PM ET. Baier and MacCallum also will host a two-hour special on Sunday at noon ET.
On Saturday evening, CNN is having special coverage of the reveal of one of the final major polls before the caucus —- the CNN-Des Moines Register-Mediacom poll —- in a one-hour 9 PM ET special anchored by Chris Cuomo. Politico called it the “most important, most anticipated public opinion poll in politics,” and Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight wrote on Twitter that it was the “rare instance” where “a poll itself could have an impact on the race by influencing media and voter behavior.”
On Sunday morning, just about all of the major Sunday shows will share a guest in common: Pete Buttigieg. He’s scheduled for CBS’s Face the Nation, ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union, as well as MSNBC’s AM Joy with Joy Reid and WHO-TV in Des Moines.
Additional details about network plans are expected in the next day or so.
The caucuses also are a platform for new ventures to make a splash. Among them is Recount Media, the company founded by John Heilemann and John Battelle, which launched a podcast series The Victory Lab, featuring Sasha Issenberg. They also have episodes featuring Fred Davis, the colorful Republican media consultant and ad maker, and Ann Selzer, the pollster behind the numbers that will be released on Saturday.
The biggest difference in Iowa from previous cycles has been that the state is only this weekend starting to get the laser focus from national media. The impeachment trial has dominated news coverage for weeks.
Klein said that has made for an unusual environment on the ground in Iowa, given that “half the major candidates are not here.” “It has been a challenging news environment for anyone to break through,” Klein said.
The state, though, is famous for “late breakers,” as voters are prone to decide between candidates right up until the last second.
“What a lot of people do not understand about the state is how strategic voters tend to be,” Klein said. He’s struck by how “some of them think like pundits,” as they gauge the impact that a candidates performance will have on the rest of the race.
Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are used to the media onslaught that comes every four years and well attuned to the news cycle. “I think people are dialed into it hour by hour,” Klein said.
“There is so much attention here, so much money and so much organizing,” Klein said. If you are a resident, “you can’t help but think what your role is here.”
He added, “This is a strange caucus in the sense that there are now 11 candidates who are running. There used to be twice that number [in the race]. So Iowa to come extent already has had an impact. It is not just the caucus results on Monday.”
In this final weekend, candidates are sprinting across the state, often to large- and at-capacity crowds. Through the day on Saturday, reporters posted pictures of packed venues for events featuring Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. Later in the day, Bernie Sanders is planning an arena concert in Cedar Rapids on Saturday with Vampire Weekend.
The next few days will see campaigns do a “dance of expectations,” as Klein calls it, setting the bar lower for what would mean a victory for their candidate. That may be ever more important this year, as the cluster of candidates toward the top of the polls has made the caucuses somewhat unpredictable.
“The challenge for us on caucus night is to make sense of a very confusing process,” Klein said. “I fully expect that multiple candidates will declare victory based on different metrics.”
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
