WASHINGTON – The political fortunes of former U.S. President Donald Trump are now an open question, even after the Senate acquitted him of allegations that he incited insurrection last month by urging hundreds of his supporters to confront lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol as they were certifying his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Moments after the Senate voted 57-43 on Saturday to convict Trump but falling short of the required 67 votes needed to do so, the former president said he was not done with political life. Trump gave no explicit hint that he might attempt another run for the presidency in 2024, as he suggested he might when he left office last month. The House of Representatives impeached Trump in January on the single charge of “incitement of insurrection.”
Trump called the impeachment case against him “another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. No president has ever gone through anything like it.”
In this image from video, senators vote during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 13, 2021.
He added, “Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all our people.”
One of his staunchest Republican supporters, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, told the “Fox News Sunday” show that he spoke with the former U.S. leader after the Senate impeachment trial ended. He said that Trump is “ready to move on to build the party” to try to retake control of both the Senate and House of Representatives from Democratic control in the 2022 elections halfway through Biden’s first four-year term in the White House.
“If you want to win, you have to work with President Trump,” Graham said. “The Trump movement is alive and well. The most potent force in the Republican party is Donald Trump.”
But Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican critic of Trump, told CNN that with Trump’s election loss and controversial end to his presidency, “We’re going to have a real battle for the soul of the Republican Party over the next couple of years,” questioning whether Republicans are “going to be a party that can’t win national elections.”
“Or somehow,” Hogan asked rhetorically, “Are we going to get back to a real traditional Republican party with common-sense conservatives…to push for the things that we’ve always believed in and to try to compete with Democrats?”
National polls show that many Republican voters remain supportive of Trump, but Hogan said, “I think that’s going to change over time. We’re only a month into the Biden administration. I think the final chapter of Donald Trump and where the Republican Party goes hasn’t been written yet.”
FILE – Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley leaves after speaking during the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Aug. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
One of Graham’s fellow Republicans in South Carolina, former Governor Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, turned on the former president last week, although Graham said he thinks her assessment is wrong.
Haley, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said of Trump, “We need to acknowledge he let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who voted to convict Trump, told Fox News she does not think Trump will remain a key player in the Republican Party.
“The American people have seen what this man has done,” she said. “He is done.”
Graham said Trump was “mad at some folks” who turned against him in the Senate trial as seven of the 50 Republicans in the chamber voted with all 50 Democrats to convict him. But Graham said Trump is “ready to hit the trail” in support of Republican candidates.
“I don’t think he caused the riot,” Graham said of Trump’s admonition to hundreds of supporters to march to the Capitol January 6 and “fight like hell” to upend Biden’s victory as lawmakers were certifying that Trump had become the fifth president in U.S. history to lose his re-election bid after a single term in office.
“It was politically protected speech in my view,” Graham said, referring to the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
Other Republican senators disputed Graham’s assessment.
In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks after the Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 13, 2021.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after voting to acquit Trump because he did not believe the Senate had the right to sit in judgment of Trump since his term had already ended, criticized his long-time political ally for his role in fomenting the attack that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.
McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
On Sunday, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump, said in a statement, “If months of lies, organizing a rally of supporters in an effort to thwart the work of Congress, encouraging a crowd to march on the Capitol, and then taking no meaningful action to stop the violence once it began is not worthy of impeachment, conviction, and disqualification from holding office in the United States, I cannot imagine what is.”
She added, “By inciting the insurrection and violent events that culminated on January 6, President Trump’s actions and words were not protected free speech. I honor our constitutional rights and consider the freedom of speech as one of the most paramount freedoms, but that right does not extend to the president of the United States inciting violence.”
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
GATINEAU, Que. – Treasury Board President Anita Anand will take on the additional role of transport minister this afternoon, after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership.
A government source who was not authorized to speak publicly says Anand will be sworn in at a small ceremony at Rideau Hall.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, but he is not expected to be at the ceremony because that is not an official role in cabinet.
Rodriguez announced this morning that he’s leaving cabinet and the federal Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent member of Parliament until January.
That’s when the Quebec Liberal leadership race is set to officially begin.
Rodriguez says sitting as an Independent will allow him to focus on his own vision, but he plans to vote with the Liberals on a non-confidence motion next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
