Republican lawmakers have been facing angry constituents at town halls across the U.S., leading some to say that they don’t support U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats against Canada.
At a town hall in Columbus, Neb., Tuesday night, Rep. Mike Flood was asked by the moderator taking written questions if he would oppose “going to war with Canada.”
“Yes,” he responded. “Canada is a long-time, important ally of the United States of America. They have fought next to our soldiers in every major conflict. We share a very peaceful border them.
“The Canadians are good people, I respect them, and I want to cohabitate on North America’s continent with them and I want them to feel respected.”
Yet a few minutes after that answer, a voter said Flood’s “inaction” is showing “support (for) Trump’s tariffs on allies like Canada, as well as Trump wanting to annex Canada as the 51st state — so invading a sovereign nation that was our ally.”
Flood responded by defending Trump’s tariff policies he claimed would restore fair trade and return manufacturing to the U.S., as Trump has argued.
A day earlier, at a town hall in Spokane, Wash., Rep. Michael Baumgartner was asked about Trump’s repeated call to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and his desire to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“This is getting really scary,” local resident Cindi Miraglia told Baumgartner, saying Trump’s imperialist rhetoric “really frighten(s) me” and asking why “this insane president … is not being impeached right now?”
Before the congressman could respond, other attendees unfurled a large Canadian flag as the crowd at Whitworth University cheered.
“I don’t support us absorbing Canada,” Baumgartner said. “Canada has been a good neighbour.”
The Republican justified his position on the grounds that making Canada a U.S. state would diminish his party’s voting power in Congress.
“Canada is much more liberal and left-wing than the United States,” he said. “Taking Canada would be like taking another California, it would tilt things toward the Democrats.”
He then went on to say he supported the U.S. taking over Greenland “peacefully” and that the U.S. “should never have given up (the Panama Canal)” in the 1970s. The crowd loudly booed him in response.
Miraglia told Global News on Tuesday it was the first time she has attended a congressional town hall. She said she never followed politics closely, but hearing Trump’s comments about Canada through her husband inspired her to get more involved.
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After attending a protest outside Baumgartner’s Spokane office last week, she said she got a last-minute opportunity to go to the town hall after her neighbour couldn’t go.
“I spoke from my heart,” she said, adding she did not have an opportunity to prepare her question in advance. “Canada is so close to home. You guys don’t deserve it.
“When I heard him insult (former prime minister Justin) Trudeau by calling him ‘Governor Trudeau’ and how he’s going to take Canada, that was the last straw for me. … It was just so insane to me for those words to be coming out of a president’s mouth.”
Miraglia said she appreciated that Baumgartner said he didn’t support the U.S. taking over Canada, but was disappointed by his answer on Greenland, which Trump has previously said he wants to either purchase or take over from Denmark.
Trump has not ruled out taking over the independent territory through military force.
At another town hall held Thursday in Asheville, N.C., Rep. Chuck Edwards was also asked directly how he felt about Trump’s insults and threats against Canada.
“Do you support Trump on annexing Canada or Greenland, and do you like the way he treats the premier or the president of Canada, calling him ‘governor’? Is that the way you’d do as a diplomat? Is that the way the United States should act to our closest neighbours?” the constituent asked.
“The short answer to that is no, I do not,” Edwards responded.
One attendee who identified himself as a veteran was removed from the event after hurling expletives and insults at Edwards, who had to stop speaking multiple times amid boos and jeers from the crowd.
Some Republicans have opted to hold telephone or virtual town halls, after GOP leaders in recent days have advised lawmakers to skip town halls that have been filled with protesters decrying the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government spending and jobs.
Constituents have also voiced anger about Elon Musk’s role in those cuts, as well as Trump’s position on the Ukraine war and whether Republicans still consider Russia an adversary.
Republicans, including Baumgartner, have claimed without evidence that the angry attendees do not reflect their districts or are even paid “far-left” protesters.
While Trump’s claim that Canada should become a U.S. state was dismissed as a joke by Canadian leaders when he first floated it in December, he has escalated his threats in recent weeks.
He said Canada “only works as a state” during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte last week in the Oval Office, where he also called the Canada-U.S. border an “artificial line” that could be erased.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week defended Trump’s rhetoric as an economic “argument” that “stands on its own” while in Canada for a summit of G7 foreign ministers.
Miraglia said many of the attendees at the Spokane town hall were elderly retirees, making it unlikely they were paid protesters.
She said she wants Canadians to know many Americans in her community and elsewhere share her support for their northern neighbour.
“I hate to see a relationship destroyed because of an idiot president,” she said.
—with files from the Associated Press
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