Left to right: former U.S. vice-president Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy participate in the first debate of the GOP primary season, in Milwaukee, Wis., on Aug. 23.Win McNamee/Getty Images
When eight Republican presidential candidates clashed Wednesday night in the first chaotic debate of the 2024 primaries, the most controversial issue was the one contender who wasn’t there.
Unfolding on the eve of former president Donald Trump’s arraignment in Atlanta – where he will face his fourth set of criminal charges – the battle in Milwaukee saw his challengers grapple with the likelihood that a man who tried to overturn the results of the last election will lead their party into the next one.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a one-time ally of Mr. Trump’s who has recently morphed into one of his fiercest critics within the party, said the former president’s “conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” Asa Hutchinson, an ex-governor of Arkansas running an even longer-shot campaign, said Mr. Trump should be constitutionally barred from office “as a result of the insurrection.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old entrepreneur and political neophyte, fired back with a full-throated defence of Mr. Trump in the Fox News-hosted tilt.
“President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact,” he told thousands of party faithful gathered in a cavernous basketball arena. “We cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents.”
Mr. Trump, the runaway front-runner for the nomination, opted to skip the debate entirely. Instead, he gave a pre-taped interview to Tucker Carlson, the fired former Fox News host, in which he dismissed his competitors entirely.
“Do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it’s going to be, and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president?” he said on Mr. Carlson’s Twitter show.
With the former president holding a poll lead of more than 30 percentage points in the primary contest, Wednesday’s debate was somewhere between a fight for second place, an audition for a role in a future potential Trump administration and a battle over the direction of a party dominated by him.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently polling a distant second, tried to avoid taking a position on Mr. Trump’s behaviour after the 2020 election. When asked if he felt former vice-president Mike Pence had done the right thing in certifying Joe Biden’s victory result over Mr. Trump’s objections, Mr. DeSantis replied: “This election is not about January 6 of 2021, it’s about January 20 of 2025.”
After Mr. Pence and moderator Bret Baier pressed Mr. DeSantis to answer the question, he responded with some exasperation. “We’ve answered this so many times. Mike did his duty. I’ve got no beef with him.”
Mr. DeSantis, already struggling with perceptions that he is awkward and overly scripted, tried repeatedly to evade giving clear answers.
When moderator Martha MacCallum asked all candidates for a show of hands on whether they accept that humans contribute to climate change, Mr. DeSantis shut it down. “Look, we’re not schoolchildren,” he said. Asked if he supported a federal abortion ban, he would only say he would “stand on the side of life.” On whether he would authorize further military aid to Ukraine, he said European countries should “step up” and do more to help.
Mr. Ramaswamy, on the other hand, made an unabashed play for the party’s far-right. He labelled climate change, whose existence is a scientific consensus, “a hoax,” promised to stop helping Kyiv fight Russia’s invasion, declared “there are only two genders,” vowed to abolish the FBI and to pardon Mr. Trump.
Climbing in the polls despite having almost no public profile before his presidential run, Mr. Ramaswamy took the most flak from his fellow contenders.
“You want to go and defund Israel, you want to give Taiwan to China, you want to give Ukraine to Russia,” Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor, chided him. “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.”
Mr. Christie dismissed him as “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT.”
Mr. Ramaswamy fired back that Mr. Christie had gotten former Democratic president Barack Obama re-elected by publicly hugging him while working together on the recovery from Hurricane Sandy, and painted Ms. Haley as a warmonger. “I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon,” he said.
Mr. Baier and Ms. MacCallum repeatedly appeared to lose control of the debate as the candidates talked over each other and the moderators. The live audience erupted into competing sections of cheers and boos, which sometimes drowned out the debate.
The cut and thrust often seemed to leave behind South Caroline Senator Tim Scott and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, both of whom have tried to campaign as more collegial contenders for the party’s crown.
Despite the theatrics, the candidates did largely appear to agree on a range of subjects, from cutting back or abolishing the federal department of education to sending the U.S. military into Mexico to attack drug cartels, a policy that would almost certainly raise serious international sovereignty questions.
Whether any of them can make a dent in Mr. Trump’s lead remains to be seen. The next debate is scheduled for late September at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; Mr. Trump has signalled he will likely skip that one, too. So far, he has given no sign of slowing down his re-election campaign even as prosecutors manoeuvre to put him on trial early next year.
The first caucuses and primaries of the nominating contest are in January of 2024.
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.
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