Trump has won every single swing state, and now it s time to figure out who s going to be the next president of the United States. Western Standard Opinion Editor Nigel Hannaford and Senior Columnist Corey Morgan join me to discuss the results, and the leadership review of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
00:02:53.260So this is the blue wall. Trump won by one percentage, not by a huge margin, but he's got Wisconsin. We've got Michigan. Donald Trump takes Michigan just a little over a percentage. Again, not a lot, but these are the blue wall states. Democrats need to win them. If they don't win them, they're pretty toast.
00:03:18.380Pennsylvania. Trump winning more convincingly there. Still not huge margins, but 50.5 to 48.5. And Ohio. We'll show you Ohio here. Big win.
00:03:38.460Like, Ohio's starting to look like a red state almost, 55.2% to 53.9%.
00:06:17.900I did not have in the cards a decisive Trump win.
00:06:20.640I thought he, in probability, he was going to eke it out.
00:06:24.600The polls tend to always underrepresent conservatives and Republicans, particularly with Trump, because it's not very nice at a fancy cocktail party to say you support Trump.
00:06:35.680So people tend to, I think Republicans, especially Trump voters, are underreported.
00:08:15.220That's what we've got to hope for at this point.
00:08:17.900So let's talk about Kamala Harris. I think it was a real disgrace last night that she did not have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and say anything.1.00
00:08:32.320You know, she didn't even need to necessarily concede last night if there was a small glimmer of hope. I mean, by the time we called, so we're done. I mean, it was very clear.
00:08:43.500But even if she didn't concede, she should have at least gotten up and thanked the people who voted for her and worked for her.
00:08:50.620The people who knocked on doors for months, hammered in signs.
00:08:56.140You know, she didn't have to do it through the winter because she didn't face a Democratic primary process.1.00
00:09:00.020But people who worked for her, who volunteered for her, donated money to her, they show up at her headquarters.
00:09:07.940Don't underestimate the difficulties of pounding a sign into the hard packed
00:09:14.740soil you know it hasn't seen water for a month. As I said last night I've won an election and
00:09:19.460I've lost an election. You got to speak both times one is a lot more fun than the other one is but
00:09:25.380when you lose it's actually even more important to speak at the very least to thank the people
00:09:29.300who busted their butts for you and she just couldn't do it and it was the same with Hillary1.00
00:09:34.020Clinton. And I think this, it's not helping the cause of America eventually having a woman president0.93
00:09:41.540that you've now had two, both got trounced and both didn't have, you know, not that Trump
00:09:49.560particularly graceful he lost last time he didn't concede, but at least he stood up and talked to
00:09:54.380his people. And you can argue if that was a good thing or bad things that he said, but at least he
00:09:57.620had the guts to stand up, as has every single defeated presidential candidate in American
00:10:03.320history except for Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Neither of them as far as I know. I think
00:10:09.780Gore never came out that night before. Okay but I don't know if he came out or not but that was
00:10:15.180legitimately hanging in the air there was nothing. Oh I understand I'm just saying though he same
00:10:19.700sort of thing as with Kamala though well I mean it was it was still technically could have been
00:10:24.040he was not clearly defeated that night at all that was very much going to go to the courts that was
00:10:27.820in the balance. We're saying the same thing he could have come out without conceding at least
00:10:55.780It was such a great headline from the, I think was the onion. Trump calls Kamala Harris to congratulate himself. I thought it just summed up kind of both of them from last night very well. I don't know your thoughts, Corey on how she comes out of this and how the Democratic Party comes out of this.
00:11:19.340I don't know. They've got a lot of introspection to do at this point.
00:11:22.460They got four years to work on it. I mean, they're conceding. So
00:11:26.060there's going to be a lot of changes. I mean, Kamala Harris is clearly a spent force.1.00
00:11:30.780She's not going to come out of the ashes like Trump, except which is a very exceptional case.
00:11:37.180He is now the only the second non-consecutive two term president in American history,
00:11:42.620the last being Grover Cleveland in the 1880s.
00:11:46.060Yeah, so they've got to work on figuring out how they're going to be relevant in the next couple of years with such an overwhelming Republican control of every single part of the American system right now.
00:11:57.960And just making a good showing for themselves as they figure out how they could change that circumstance four years from now.
00:12:06.760So I'm fairly confident saying Kamala Harris will go down as the worst DEI hire in history.
00:12:13.100Someone who was clearly never up to the task of the offices she held, who just managed by a combination of social grace and then checking off the right DEI boxes to be able to climb the ladder.0.77
00:12:27.720She didn't get a single delegate in the Democratic primaries when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
00:12:36.860Not a single delegate, but she checked the right boxes, so Joe Biden put her on the ticket.
00:12:40.900Okay. And then you had the effective internal party coup, where she replaces Biden on the ticket. She faced no, she did not have to face the forge of a party nomination process. And she melted under the heat of a general election campaign, particularly against a ferocious opponent like Donald Trump.
00:13:03.500But, you know, I think she did better than Joe Biden would have.
00:13:07.500But that's because Joe Biden's brain doesn't work anymore.
00:13:10.500The Democrats would have been so much better served having an open primary process.
00:13:14.500DEI, you know, the idea of diversity hires is crumbling everywhere.
00:13:20.500Major businesses that have been on board with it.
00:13:23.500I think it's going to get a good press for a long time.
00:13:27.500it is now the pendulum is swinging hard but Nigel do you think the Democratic Party
00:13:36.700is going to maybe do serious reflection on the idea of constant identity politics that
00:13:42.620everything is identity politics diversity hires uh Trump uh I think won the Latino vote.
00:13:50.700Yeah he did and there there's some activists really shooting at I've seen some bizarre stuff
00:13:55.420while it's online, we're going to see bizarre stuff, but some activists calling Latinos white
00:14:00.300nationalists. And again, you guys, you haven't learned your lesson then if you're going to
00:14:05.100pull these kinds of stunts. But I mean, this is just the day after 25% of blacks.1.00
00:14:11.660Trump did better with Latino voters than any Republican since Nixon in 1972, and better with
00:14:17.500black voters than any Republican since the 1950s under Eisenhower. The great white nationalist Nazi0.78
00:14:26.380candidate seems to be doing better than any Republican in modern history with minority voters.
00:14:32.060So do you think the Democratic Party is going to do a legitimate rethink on
00:14:38.300their obsession with identity politics? Obviously, it did not work for them.
00:14:43.820they will reflect on that and they will make changes the puzzle to me is that it took a defeat
00:14:51.700like this to knock them off their high horse much as i deplore what the democratic party
00:15:00.180has come to stand for i have never said that they were stupid people but now there is such a parade
00:15:08.320of stupidity through this last four years but i'm starting to think well maybe i overestimated
00:15:16.080their their intelligence and and their motivations because look at the things that they have done
00:15:23.040never mind the dei just for a moment because i think that's actually a very big part of their
00:15:27.440problem but how they managed to misunderstand what was on the hearts of what they thought
00:15:37.520was their biggest pack of supporters, which was the women of America.1.00
00:15:41.660They thought abortion was the issue.0.96
00:15:44.280When you actually turn to the polls, abortion was, I think, about 14%.
00:15:50.420What was the leading concern for American women was the economy,1.00
00:15:54.960because they're the ones who go to the grocery stores,
00:15:57.860and they know what things cost, and they know that they don't bring as much home.
00:16:01.500So the second thing was their habit of insulting their voters.
00:16:10.240That comment made by one of their surrogates, I guess surrogate is the new buzz term for this.
00:16:17.900If I go out and give a speech, I'm a surrogate for you, Derek, so there you go.
00:16:23.540look it's um if you have somebody say there are no strong women around Donald Trump and then you
00:16:35.020look at that stage last night when Trump came out and they all fell out and stood behind him
00:16:40.680there were a bunch of women there who I would say were strong women and effective sure they1.00
00:16:48.840were beautiful that's expected but these are people that you can hand a big job to and say
00:16:53.320willing to do it and expect it to get done. I mean, Melania, Trump speaks five languages and has a
00:16:59.220little side business in high fashion, you know. It was a ridiculous thing to say, and you don't
00:17:05.480bring people to yourself by shaming them, like Barack Obama. Okay, so with all those strikes
00:17:16.060against them they then come in and and and emphasize that people are identified by this
00:17:22.700marxist critique of of um it's all identity oppressors and oppressed you're you're not white0.63
00:17:29.500so you must by definition be oppressed uh then you have different degrees yeah because a latino
00:17:34.860is still a white nationalist to a black uh and then jews who jews are now white nationalist nazis0.63
00:17:40.940yes so i i have a hard time keeping it straight if they don't rethink this they are doomed
00:17:45.980to win let's uh beg your pardon they are doomed to lose again in 2028 you can't do this i i do
00:17:52.620think that as you said there are many intelligent people in there i mean this is a shake up i i
00:17:57.660suspect i mean right now we're seeing the hotheads speaking and and so on but the wise ones are being
00:18:02.220quiet right now and they're thinking and i i think they're gonna they're gonna rebuild they're gonna
00:18:07.820re-evaluate that approach i mean james carver will come on your show i was james carver was
00:18:13.420The name I was thinking of is someone who was, he's been warning the Democrats that you're not going to win the votes of men by shaming men for being men.
00:18:22.660You know, playing identity politics, maybe it'll work with those groups, but then you're going to alienate these other groups here.
00:18:30.760In fact, but it didn't work with a lot of these minority groups.
00:18:37.140I think Kamala had a minor edge, but Biden outperformed Kamala Harris with women compared to Harris here.1.00
00:18:45.140And, you know, both Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton made making the first woman president of the United States such a key part of their campaign.
00:18:56.140And that that appeals, I guess, to a certain segment of the Democratic Party, but it doesn't, I think, resonate with the broader American public.
00:19:04.140And you'll see some of the hotheads in the Democratic Party right now saying, well, this just shows the American people aren't ready for a woman president. No, they weren't ready for Hillary Clinton, and they weren't ready for Kamala Harris. Those people were judged and found wanting. America surely will have a woman president at some point.
00:19:25.140My best guess is that that person is likely to be a Republican, though, and we've seen this in other places.
00:19:32.140We saw Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom.
00:19:45.140Yeah. Imperfect example, Angela Merkel in Germany.
00:19:49.140She was a moderate conservative when she started. She left as a treasonous socialist by the time she was done.
00:19:54.140the time she was done, but she started as a middling competent. She was competent, she's smart. Yeah, but she was a nominal nominally a conservative at least. The left doesn't tend to produce many. I mean, I guess New Zealand, what her name was, but for the most part, because I think they're making the argument, you have to elect this person because they're a woman. And that's not an appealing argument to a man. In fact, it's not an appealing argument to a lot of women either.
00:20:20.560So I think America is going to eventually have a female president, but that is going to be a Republican.0.95
00:20:27.400The thing with DEI is that it is based on resentment.
00:20:31.440You need resentment between classes and identities in order for any advantage to be conferred.
00:20:38.360As a consequence, that's what the Democratic campaign projected was dourness.1.00
00:20:49.300It was basically a complaint and a lament, whereas the Trump team certainly were pretty hard, but they knew how to have fun as well.
00:21:00.080I mean, don't want to go back to talking about garbage trucks and McDonald's, but, you know, there's a playful side to that leadership team, which is very attractive.
00:21:12.720And I think a lot of people said, oh, whatever, you know, they just kind of enjoyed it, voted for it.
00:21:19.300D.I. is poison. Indeed. Okay, let's bring the map back up. I want to shift gears. It's not as exciting as the big headline Trump-Harris battle, but let's talk about Congress because it really matters.
00:21:35.700So in addition to Trump's own win, Republicans have taken clear control of the Senate.
00:21:42.940They were only down one seat, and they were defending a handful.
00:21:48.160The Democrats were playing defense at a lot more.
00:21:51.220For Canadians who aren't aware of how it works, only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years.
00:21:57.200So it turns over roughly 33 seats at a time.
00:22:19.980Either way, they've got clear control of the Senate.
00:22:25.160Then the House of Representatives, that one's a bit more complicated.
00:22:30.540The Republicans already had a majority.
00:22:33.760It'd be very odd for Trump to win on a Republican wave, the Senate to move on a Republican wave, then the House of Representatives to go the other way.
00:22:44.600Now, local races, individual candidates matter a hell of a lot more in American politics than in Canada, because individual members of Congress and senators actually kind of get to vote as they want to.
00:22:55.160There's pressure from their parties, but they can buck their party's trend because there's no party leader who takes your nomination away.
00:22:59.680You have a primary instead, unless you're Kamala Harris.0.99
00:23:03.380The Republicans are at 210 seats in the House of Representatives right now. Democrats 194, 31 still up for grabs. Republicans are likely to maintain there. Although I would have thought they would have maybe made bigger gains in the House of Representatives. Doesn't look very likely that they will.
00:23:20.860But and then Trump, as we said earlier, has the Supreme Court.
00:23:25.860It's a pretty solidly conservative court at this point.
00:23:29.860It looks at least for these two years before the next midterms, the Republicans can do anything they want.
00:23:41.860And there is one of the strengths of the American system is that there is usually, even if you've lost the election, there is usually some place where you can take a little hope.
00:23:55.080Well, we lost the presidency, but we got the House of Representatives.
00:23:58.500Well, we lost the House of Representatives, but at least we managed to nominate a couple of Supreme Court judges.
00:24:05.400And conservatives over the last four years have often found themselves thinking those kinds of compensatory thoughts, and it gives you hope, and it gives you confidence in the system.
00:24:17.980Now, right now, if you are a Democrat, and if you're one of the kind of people who we like to caricature, where exactly do you take any hope and confidence in the system?
00:24:31.800Well, the United States is a federation. They can still have some governor's mansions, some state houses.
00:24:36.440But at the federal level, they're defeated.
00:24:39.700They can move to New York or they can move to California.
00:24:42.700But you see what I'm saying? Unless there is some place where you say, okay, that's a little bit of mine there.
00:24:48.560And I'm holding on to it. And as long as it's there, the system is working for me.
00:24:52.740Now, I wouldn't for a moment want to change any of the results that we reviewed last night.
00:24:57.020But there is an onus on the governing party to remember that there are other people that they have to serve.
00:25:06.940Not for a moment do I want them to take the eye off the ball and the things they promised to do.
00:25:14.440Like right now, I think a lot of us who were hoping for a Trump win, and I'm guilty of this myself,
00:25:21.040are kind of taking the first 24 hours to gloat.
00:25:23.820Okay, we have to go through that, and then we've got to put that on one side and say, what are the serious interests of everybody here?
00:25:34.020Hopefully, that's all is already deeply embedded in the administration.
00:25:39.140So, I'm not sure many Canadians know about this, but there's something called the Senate filibuster.
00:25:44.680It applies particularly in the Senate, not so much in the House of Representatives, but it allows the minority party, as long as they've got more than 40 seats, I think,
00:25:53.820And it's extremely rare that anyone's got more than 60 seats for a party in the Senate.
00:25:58.360That just doesn't really happen much anymore.
00:26:01.240But the minority party to stop the majority party from going too far and imposing its will.
00:26:08.600The Democrats have been pretty hot about getting rid of Senate filibuster.
00:26:15.220Because for a while they had the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency.
00:27:12.600Also, if you're going to set up a dictatorship, you should probably do it before you turn 80 years old.
00:27:16.880There's not really much of a point in abolishing elections when he's not a spring chicken.
00:27:23.180This is going to be his last term, obviously, constitutionally.
00:27:25.820And it's just not going to come around. He's going to try and change it.
00:27:29.560This is his term. But, yeah, I think it's the danger for the Republicans now is overconfidence.
00:27:39.040They have a resounding mandate. They've got total control, but overconfidence now.
00:27:44.320They probably should move aggressively.
00:27:46.860They've got their two years before the midterms to make big, big changes, start deporting the illegals, cut the budget, build the wall, or finish building the wall.
00:27:58.980I want your thoughts, Corey, though, on the unity ticket.
00:30:58.760And that that's really where the opportunities are going to be good or bad for President Trump. So this next couple of months is going to tell a tale.
00:31:06.760All right. All right, let's turn our attention closer to home here.
00:31:12.760Bit of a smaller election or vote, but still, by far, it was the largest political convention in Canadian history in any province for any party, federal or provincial.
00:31:24.460the Alberta United Conservative Party's convention in Red Deer.
00:31:29.100Probably the biggest gathering ever in Red Deer.
00:31:31.700I mean, maybe a concert thrived, but maybe.
00:32:13.600I think at this point it's safe to say her leadership is unassailable short of an absolute atomic face plant on something.
00:32:22.520So what we actually had was 50% plus 2,400 and what?
00:32:27.520You know, I rest my case. That was enough.
00:32:31.920So, you know, I sometimes wonder why we paid so much attention to those stories about the people who are there to undermine her.
00:32:42.580I mean, there were people, there were 400 people who voted against her, yeah.
00:32:47.960But, gosh, you know, did we fall for our own preconceptions?
00:32:55.780It turned out there was nothing there, nothing to speak of.
00:33:01.400Clearly, I mean, the wonderful thing about this, for the sake of all Albertans,
00:33:06.300is that the Premier now is very clear that she has the total support of her party.
00:33:10.600If there is any dissent within the caucus, they wouldn't dare raise their heads at the moment.
00:33:17.160And she is about to go head-to-head with the federal government on their own lawsuit against the federal government,
00:33:28.040telling them to back off on the emissions cap.
00:33:32.180And also, we're heading into winter when this whole business of the secure supply of electricity is going to be on everybody's mind, even as the federal government continues to call for net zero by 2035.
00:33:49.180So, it's good that whether you're a member of the NDP, whether you're a member of the UCP,
00:33:59.940if you are living in Alberta, at this particular moment in Alberta's history, it is essential
00:34:08.120that the leadership be strong in the face of what is really a predatory federal government.
00:34:15.500I think we'll kind of continue with Nigel's point about, you know, why, why did we pay so much attention to those coming after her leadership? Those of us in the room, before you get in there, you never really know how many, how many people are they going to bust there? What are they going to do?
00:34:36.500One of the groups was Take Back Alberta, David Parker, who, you know, and that organization, and he played a significant role in helping take down J.C. Kenney.
00:34:47.200So there was some history there, thinking, okay, well, they were a part of it.
00:35:20.440And then we saw the result. It had nothing. It was done.
00:35:25.440It was done. And then there was also the so-called 1905 committee. There's really only two people publicly associated with it. I just wasn't seeing anything big around it. But, I mean, it is relatively unusual that you have organized groups trying to push a leader at a convention.
00:35:44.380Normally these things are behind the scenes and it's kind of quiet and everyone smiles in public, but then quietly try to move people around.
00:35:52.380That was not the case when Jason Kenney went down.
00:35:56.380There was massive organized resistance against him and it won.
00:36:00.380So I think maybe it was just kind of Jason Kenney syndrome from what happened last time that was projected on.
00:36:07.380So, Corey, you know, we got the two organizations there, Take Back Alberta, 1905 committee.
00:36:14.760They were absolutely destroyed by Smith's result.
00:36:20.020Those of us watching things new, we really did.
00:36:22.920I mean, I was confident before saying she's going to get 85% at least.
00:36:26.420People watching from outside, they could point at and say, look how much impact Take Back Alberta had on Jason Kenney.
00:38:44.040She's her only rival for the top spot is like Rhonda Santos. So I don't know what you're getting1.00
00:38:50.380at. These groups had, no, no one put their name on it. So we don't know who officially was behind
00:38:55.800it. We have an idea. There was the one handout saying Danielle Smith is going to post Sharia law0.78
00:38:59.980on Alberta. You know, and I was like, how's that going to play? And I don't think, I think that
00:39:08.020hurt them because it was so obviously over the top. And then they had no actual events there.
00:39:13.700There was no visible, real presence of, we're the anti-Smith group, you know, here's a, we're having hospitality, come have a beer with us.
00:39:22.180It was a flyer campaign is all it was.
00:39:24.080Yeah, it was a paper tiger campaign, and it just had, there was no there there.
00:39:31.060I guess the question, Nigel, is, is the media, and by media I mean Dwayne Bratt, going to continue to be quoted talking about people who they don't actually know ad nauseum here about this fake coup in the party that just never existed?
00:39:48.700Well, the answer to that question specifically is yes, they will, because it is Dwayne Bratt's telephone number that they have.
00:39:56.900If they were to ask around, they could probably get Barry Cooper's.
00:40:00.360In fact, I would be pleased to forward it to my erstwhile colleagues at the Calgary Herald,
00:40:05.500a bunch of telephone numbers for conservative academics and conservative thinkers
00:40:11.200who would give them a different point of view than that offered by Dwayne Bratt.
00:40:16.080But that's kind of, I don't mean any disrespect to Mr. Bratt either, Dr. Bratt.
00:40:22.320He's entitled to his point of view, and when he's asked to give it,
00:40:25.620sure he gives it but i do think that the the mainstream media would be doing everybody a favor
00:40:31.540if they just asked a few more questions let me tell you one anecdote to that point the year was
00:40:38.5802006 and at that time the premier premier daniel smith was still a columnist at the calvary herald
00:40:48.180and both of us had to work late to comment on whatever was going to happen in the january
00:40:55.6202006, federal election that was going to bring the Stephen Harper government to power.
00:41:04.680And once the matter was settled, somebody came down to the caller and said, hey, guys,
00:41:09.220do you have any conservative contacts?
00:41:11.580We don't have anybody to ask for a call.
00:41:14.460And obviously, we gave them what we had, and they went off and did their story.
00:41:20.040That is very typical, unfortunately, of the media, that they have one point of view and one set of go-to people to support that point of view.
00:41:31.960Selen do they get into the uncomfortable zone of where they get both sides of the story.
00:41:36.780It's just these people, they don't actually know conservatives.
00:41:39.880I try to be, you know, when we talk about internal NDP politics here, I try to be self-aware that I'm not a socialist.
00:44:35.440I said it last night. I'll repeat it again. High school students in social studies are going to be taught 60 years from now how the government's execution of this poor, innocent, cute little squirrel changed America.
00:44:47.800I don't know what degree he played a role, but it was a very last minute kind of cultural moment, emphasizing the excesses of the administrative state. And it's just the cutest little squirrel.
00:45:02.420Here's another one. Peanut may have been executed by Democrats, but he lives on. He lives on in us, and I think there should be a memorial statue put up to him somewhere.
00:45:19.480There's going to be a bust of Peanut the Squirrel in the White House in a few months. All right, that's it for me. Nigel, Corey, thank you for joining.
00:45:30.700And thank all of you for joining us today.
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