OTTAWA (Reuters) - About two-thirds of Canadians surveyed this month said American democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump in the White House, and about half said the United States is on the way to becoming an authoritarian state, a poll released on Monday said.
The November U.S. election is likely to pit President Joe Biden against Trump, who is the clear frontrunner to win the Republican nomination as voting in the presidential primary race kicks off in Iowa on Monday.
Sixty-four percent of respondents in the Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,510 Canadians said they agreed with the statement: “U.S. democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump.” Twenty-eight percent disagreed.
The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of Biden’s 2020 election win shocked many Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly blamed Trump for inciting the mob.
Trump has vowed if elected again to punish his political enemies, and he has drawn criticism for using increasingly authoritarian language.
Three times as many Canadians say a Biden victory would be better for Canada’s economy (53%) than a Trump win (18%), according to the poll which was seen exclusively by Reuters. The poll, taken between Jan. 9-11, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points
It is the President’s #1 job to protect the country from all threats to it and it’s Constitution and from all enemies both foreign and domestic.
Biden is failing at his NUMBER ONE JOB.
Flexing his power to attack his political rivals is exactly what he needs to avoid doing. That is what Trump is doing and has been doing and that is the problem. If Biden has to step in, we’ve already failed.
It is in everyone’s best interest that the current President does not do anything other than watch the justice system play out, just like every other US citizen.
There is no action that he can take that will not make things worse.
It is literally his #1 job. It has nothing to do with pilitical rivalry. The fact that the terrorist if a former president is utterly irrelevant. You are just trying to make excuses to allow trump back into office.
Couldn’t be further from what I want. What I don’t want to do is to give the Republicans, or any party reason to argue that whatever measures are taken against Trump are not lawful. It needs to be unambiguous that he violated the law of the land and establish that precedent so that executive action is not required, encouraged, needed or possibly even allowed. Otherwise we have accomplished literally nothing to protect our democracy, quite the opposite, in fact. Presidential decree is not law and can’t be expected to survive one administration to the next.
Calling it his number 1 job is hyperbole unless it stands up in court. And if it does, I will agree with you, just show me the court case.
That’s the point of checks and balances; to draw a clear separation of power.
As CinC of the armed forces, his number one job is to defend the country from theeats both foreign and domestic. There is no court case necessary.
Trump has declared out loud in no uncertain terms that his intention is to destroy both democracy and representative republicanism in a direct attack on the US Constitution.
Biden’s number one job is to apprehend him.
And what happens when one of his Republican boot lickers buddies get into office? They can either undo it and let him go or use similar justification to imprison their political rivals even if it’s not as clear cut.
It would be much better for the justice system to handle it. If they don’t, then maybe Biden will need to, but as I said, that is an overall loss if he is forced to.