Washington, DC – A schism in the United States conservative movement is on display among Republicans, with the presumed presidential frontrunners attending separate major events and constituencies divided on issues such as aid to Ukraine, defence spending, the debt ceiling and the role of the US government.
Former President Donald Trump, who has already declared his intention to run for a second term in 2024, will headline the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that kicked off this week just outside Washington, DC. Once the dominant event in conservative politics, it has lost some of its lustre as it embraced Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) constituency.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, considered Trump’s strongest competitor, is skipping CPAC in favour of an exclusive donor retreat sponsored by the anti-tax Club For Growth conservative organisation. Trump, once supported by the group, has not been invited to the closed-door gathering being held in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The duelling events have divided prominent Republicans who served under Trump, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo choosing CPAC, former Vice President Mike Pence heading to the retreat and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, speaking at both. Haley announced her 2024 presidential run last month.
“There are always divides in parties and those become heightened by presidential primaries,” Republican consultant Doug Heye told Al Jazeera. It is not clear at the moment how big that Republican divide is, he said.
DeSantis has not yet declared his candidacy but is already behaving like a man on the stump, as he tours across the country promoting his new book The Courage to be Free, which lays out his policy agenda.
The governor has brandished his conservative agenda and won praise from many on the right by signing a series of laws, including on cultural issues, as well putting a limit on corporate America, some of his favourite targets.
On Monday, DeSantis signed a bill to end the self-governing status of Disney World, after the corporation last year criticised his Parental Rights in Education law, which limited teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation. DeSantis’s tough stance towards big business stands in sharp contrast to the previous embrace of many Republicans. “In this environment, old-guard corporate Republicanism is not up to the task at hand,” DeSantis wrote in his book.
Earlier this week, Trump unveiled a trade proposal which would follow his previous tough line towards China. His policy, which calls for universal baseline tariffs and revoking Beijing’s most favoured nation trading status, angered a major Republican constituency: rural Americans, including farmers who depend on the Chinese market.
Potential presidential candidates will face challenges in a conservative movement today made up of various, and at times conflicting, philosophies.
“It’s not clear yet whether any divides are more or less than in the past. How [the] debt ceiling is handled may be telling on this,” Heye said.
Raising or suspending the US debt ceiling, the amount of money the US is allowed to owe, is the responsibility of Congress, which has done it 20 times since 2002. But some conservatives want more spending cuts before considering an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling and are threatening to allow the US to default rather than relent. A default, which has never occurred in US history, would have disastrous consequences for its economy.
Republicans are also divided on defence spending. A large defence budget was once a unified party priority, but some on the political right want budget cuts to include defence in order to bring down federal spending. Their opponents argue that runs counter to conservative ideals.
“I will work with anyone and everyone … to end wars … to stop sending money to Ukraine,” Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican, said at the Turning Point conservative conference in January. Trump has also been critical of Democratic President Joe Biden’s Ukraine actions.
“If you watch and understand the moves being made by Biden on Ukraine, he is systematically, but perhaps unknowingly, pushing us into what could soon be WORLD WAR III,” Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform.
DeSantis told Fox News last month that US aid was little more than “an open-ended blank cheque”.
Other Republicans running or expected to run for president strongly disagree. Asked if the US should just open the chequebook, Haley told Fox News: “We shouldn’t send blank cheques. We shouldn’t put troops on the ground. We should give them the equipment to defend themselves because this is a war that they’re winning. This is not a war about Russia and Ukraine. It’s about freedom. And it’s one that we have to win.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence agreed. “We’ve got to stay in the fight,” he said on another Fox News show. “It’s absolutely essential that we see it through.”
Republican consultant Alice Stewart called those in the party who want to discontinue aid to Ukraine a “vocal minority”.
“The majority of Republicans understand the need and value to support Ukraine,” she explained, but they want more transparency over how the money is spent.
While some of the policy differences in the movement may be stark, veteran Republican leader Saul Anuzis told Al Jazeera the divide was healthy for the conservative cause.
“In whole, it is a centre-right movement that comes together” to oppose the Democratic agenda, Anuzis, a former head of the Michigan state Republican Party, said. He called it a “natural progression” of growth as the movement becomes bigger and broader.
An indication of which faction is dominant could come with CPAC’s straw poll, which used to be a strong indicator of conservative support for a candidate.
“The results of that will be interesting,” said Stewart.
Trump has been criticised for a slow campaign start after announcing his re-election bid in November. The CPAC speech is one of the few big events he’s held since then. He has mostly confined his campaign activity to releasing policy papers and posting on his social media site criticism of DeSantis as well as numerous attacks on his favourite targets, Biden and the media.
If Trump does not fare well in the straw poll, it could raise questions about his campaign. If another candidate fares better than expected, he or she will likely get a boost.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – An incumbent BC United legislative member has reversed her decision not to seek re-election and has announced she’ll run as an Independent in the riding of West Vancouver-Capilano in the upcoming British Columbia election.
Karin Kirkpatrick has been a vocal critic of BC United Leader Kevin Falcon’s decision last month to suspend the party’s campaign and throw support behind the B.C. Conservatives under John Rustad.
Kirkpatrick announced her retirement this year, but said Monday that her decision to re-enter the race comes as a direct result of Falcon’s actions, which would force middle-of-the-road voters to “swing to the left” to the NDP or to move further right to the Conservatives.
“I did hear from a lot of constituents and a lot of people who were emailing me from across B.C. … that they didn’t have anybody to vote for,” she said. “And so, I looked even at myself, and I looked at my riding, and I said, ‘Well, I no longer have anybody to vote for in my own riding.’ It was clearly an issue of this missing middle for the more moderate voter.”
She said voters who reached out “don’t want to vote for an NDP government but felt deeply uncomfortable” supporting the provincial Conservatives, citing Rustad’s tolerance of what she calls “extreme views and conspiracy theorists.”
Kirkpatrick joins four other incumbent Opposition MLAs running as Independents, including Peace River South’s Mike Bernier, Peace River North’s Dan Davies, Prince George-Cariboo’s Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka in Kootenay-Rockies.
“To be honest, we talk just about every day,” Kirkpatrick said about her fellow BC United incumbents now running as Independents. “We’re all feeling the same way. We all need to kind of hold each other up and make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
She added that a number of first-time candidates formerly on the BC United ticket are contacting the group of incumbents running for election, and the group is working together “as good moderates who respect each other and lift each other up.”
But Kirkpatrick said it’s also too early to talk about the future of BC United or the possibility of forming a new party.
“The first thing we need to do is to get these Independent MLAs elected into the legislature,” she said, noting a strong group could play a power-broker role if a minority government is elected. “Once we’re there then we’re all going to come together and we’re going to figure out, is there something left in BC United, BC Liberals that we can resurrect, or do we need to start a new party that’s in the centre?”
She said there’s a big gap left in the political spectrum in the province.
“So, we just have to do it in a mindful way, to make sure it’s representing the broadest base of people in B.C.”
Among the supporters at Kirkpatrick’s announcement Monday was former longtime MLA Ralph Sultan, who held West Vancouver-Capilano for almost two decades before retiring in 2020.
The Metro Vancouver riding has been a stronghold for the BC Liberals — the former BC United — since its formation in 1991, with more than half of the votes going to the centre-right party in every contest.
However, Kirkpatrick’s winning margin of 53.6 per cent to the NDP’s 30.1 per cent and the Green’s 15.4 per cent in the 2020 election shows a rising trend for left-leaning voters in the district.
Mike McDonald, chief strategy officer with Kirk and Co. Consulting, and a former campaign director for the BC Liberals and chief of staff under former Premier Christy Clark, said Independent candidates historically face an uphill battle and the biggest impact may be splitting votes in areas where the NDP could emerge victorious.
“It really comes down to, if the NDP are in a position to get 33 per cent of the vote, they might have a chance of winning,” McDonald said of the impact of an Independent vote-split with the Conservatives in certain ridings.
He said B.C. history shows it’s very hard for an Independent to win an election and has been done only a handful of times.
“So, the odds do not favour Independents winning the seats unless there is a very unique combination of circumstances, and more likely that they play a role as a spoiler, frankly.”
The B.C. Conservatives list West Vancouver School District Trustee Lynne Block as its candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano, while the BC NDP is represented by health care professional Sara Eftekhar.
Kirkpatrick said she is confident that her re-entry to the race will not result in a vote split that allows the NDP to win the seat because the party has always had a poor showing in the riding.
“So, even if there is competition between myself and the Conservative candidate, it is highly unlikely that anything would swing over to the NDP here. And I believe that I have the ability to actually attract those NDP voters to me, as well as the Conservatives and Liberals who are feeling just lost right now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago, this one aimed partly at refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire deal and release of hostages.
Unlike in recent mediating missions, America’s top diplomat this time is traveling without optimistic projections from the Biden administration of an expected breakthrough in the troubled negotiations.
Also unlike the earlier missions, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. The Israeli leader’s fiery public statements — like his declaration that Israel would accept only “total victory” when Blinken was in the region in June — and some other unbudgeable demands have complicated earlier diplomacy.
Blinken is going to Egypt for talks Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and others, in a trip billed as focused both on American-Egyptian relations and Gaza consultations with Egypt.
The tamped-down public approach follows months in which President Joe Biden and his officials publicly talked up an agreement to end the war in Gaza as being just within reach, hoping to build pressure on Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas to seal a deal.
The Biden administration now says it is working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to come up with a revised final proposal to try to at least get Israel and Hamas into a six-week cease-fire that would free some of the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Americans believe public attention on details of the talks now would only hurt that effort.
American, Qatari and Egyptian officials still are consulting “about what that proposal will contain, and …. we’re trying to see that it’s a proposal that can get the parties to an ultimate agreement,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
The State Department pointed to Egypt’s important role in Gaza peace efforts in announcing last week that the Biden administration planned to give the country its full $1.3 billion in military aid, overriding congressional requirements that the U.S. hold back some of the funding if Egypt fails to show adequate progress on human rights. Blinken told Congress that Egypt has made progress on human rights, including in freeing political prisoners.
Blinken’s trip comes amid the risk of a full-on new front in the Middle East, with Israel threatening increasing military action against the Hezbollah militant organization in Lebanon. Biden envoy Amos Hochstein was in Israel on Monday to try to calm tensions after a stop in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East, and like Hamas and smaller groups in Syria and Iraq it is allied with Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged strikes across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas started the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will ease those strikes — which have uprooted tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border — only when there’s a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hochstein told Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah would not help get Israelis back in their homes, according to a U.S. official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said Hochstein stressed to Netanyahu that he risked sparking a broad and protracted regional conflict if he moved forward with a full-scale war in Lebanon.
Hochstein also underscored to Israeli officials that the Biden administration remained committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the tensions on Israel’s northern border in conjunction with a Gaza deal or on its own, the official said.
Netanyahu told Hochstein that it would “not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.” The prime minister said Israel “appreciates and respects” U.S. support but “will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, warned in his meeting with Hochstein that “the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action,” his office said.
In Gaza, the U.S. says Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal in principle and that the biggest obstacles now include a disagreement on details of the hostage and prisoner swap and control over a buffer zone on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Netanyahu has demanded in recent weeks that the Israeli military be allowed to keep a presence in the Philadelphi corridor. Egypt and Hamas have rejected that demand.
The Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. Militants also abducted 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, said Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction, displaced a majority of Gaza’s people and created a humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu says he is working to bring home the hostages. His critics accuse him of slow-rolling a deal because it could bring down his hardline coalition government, which includes members opposed to a truce with the Palestinians.
Asked earlier this month if Netanyahu was doing enough for a cease-fire deal, Biden said, simply, “no.” But he added that he still believed a deal was close.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
