A conservative gathering provides a safe space for Republicans who aren't on board with Trump

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A conservative gathering provides a safe space for Republicans who aren't on board with Trump

2024-08-14 02:05 Last Updated At：02:10

ATLANTA (AP) — At the Republican National Convention and multiple rallies since, former President Donald Trump has been greeted as a hero who narrowly escaped assassination and is destined to lead a new American golden age.

At a recent conservative conference in Georgia, there was a different vibe.

There were few, if any, red hats at “The Gathering,” the annual confab hosted by influential syndicated radio host Erick Erickson, and no rousing promises to “Make America Great Again.” Instead, Erickson's guests, from rank-and-file voters up to Trump’s onetime vice president, spent two days critiquing the GOP’s path in the Trump era. And when it came to the November election, many of them spent more time hand-wringing over a Kamala Harris presidency than celebrating the promise of another Trump administration.

The dynamics are particularly problematic for the former president's chances in Georgia, a longtime Republican stronghold that has shifted into a genuine two-party state, and a handful of other tossup states. They also serve as a reminder that despite his near-complete takeover of the GOP, Trump still has detractors and skeptics among conservatives whose decisions this fall could help determine whether he returns to the White House.

“I voted for him willingly in 2016, and then I held my nose and did it again in 2020,” said Atlanta small business owner Barton McMillan, a four-decade resident of the city who blames Trump for recent Democratic victories in Georgia, which backed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and elected two Democratic U.S. senators.

“This time, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” McMillan said. “And I'm representative of a lot of the people here.”

Indeed, Erickson's assembly featured consternation over federal spending, abortion policy, Trump’s proposed tariffs, America’s uncertain role in the international order, the former president’s penchant for personal attacks, his fixation on the lie that systemic voter fraud was to blame for his 2020 loss and his false contention that his vice president at the time, Mike Pence, had the power to overturn Biden's election.

“I cannot endorse President Trump’s continuing assertion that I should have put aside my oath to support the Constitution and act in a way that would have overturned the election,” Pence said.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who was recently blasted by Trump for not helping overturn the 2020 election, drew a standing ovation when he was introduced, laughter when he compared the former president to a tropical storm and more applause when he called for Republicans to focus on the future.

“We’re going to use our political operation to win Georgia despite past grievances,” Kemp assured Erickson without mentioning Trump by name. Trump has been indicted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 results in Georgia and elsewhere; those cases are pending.

In his criticisms, Pence pointed to the 2024 Republican platform that fails — for the first time in decades — to call for a national abortion ban and sidesteps the mounting national debt, which ballooned during Trump’s four years. Pence bemoaned an increasingly isolationist and protectionist bent among the GOP base — opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s invading Russian forces and Trump’s promise of sweeping tariffs in a second term.

The Republican Party, Pence said, is under a spell of “populism unmoored to conservative principle.”

Walter Michaelis, a 22-year-old getting ready to cast his second presidential ballot, stood and cheered the former vice president and said afterward that Trump’s “America First” approach can go too far, especially on tariffs and trade.

“I understand why Trump was needed in 2016,” Michaelis said. “But sometimes I do think it would be better now for the party to move on.”

Michaelis, who voted for Trump in 2020, said he would not back Harris but had not yet decided whether to vote for the former president again.

Kent Kim, a 30-year-old from Alpharetta, said he has decided to go with Trump. But he added, he's withheld his vote from Trump before and said, “I know people who probably will do that this year.”

A key reason for Trump’s defeat was underperforming the usual Republican marks in suburban Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix, areas that helped tilt Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona to Biden. Those same places also could boost Harris in the fall.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during his turn on stage with Erickson, tacitly acknowledged the risks as he lamented recent Republican losses in winnable Senate contests. He said that included Georgia, where Trump-backed Herschel Walker lost to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in 2022 despite Republicans winning every other statewide election.

McConnell predicted a GOP Senate majority in the new Congress but sounded less confident about the presidency. Despite blaming Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, he has endorsed Trump for president.

“We all know who we hope will be the next administration,” he told Erickson. Yet McConnell outlined a conservative agenda without mentioning the former president except to support extending “the Trump tax cuts” of 2017.

And, echoing Pence, McConnell scolded a nameless Republican for turning away from the traditional U.S. role on the world stage.

“We’ve had occasionally these isolationist moods,” he said, noting that the 1930s gave rise to the original “America First” rallying cry. “That stopped after Pearl Harbor,” McConnell said, only for some U.S. conservatives to resist the establishment of NATO and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.

McConnell warned that the same mistakes loom with North Korea, China, Russia and Iran “all talking to each other” as “an axis of powerful regimes.” McConnell said that demands an assertive international U.S. presence and more robust defense spending across Western democracies.

“If I had a message for the next administration ... take this seriously,” McConnell said.

Even some of Trump’s full-throated allies offered subtle warnings.

Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Erickson talked about her loss to Democrat Raphael Warnock in January 2021, when tens of thousands of Republicans who voted for Trump the previous November stayed home in the runoff after Trump openly questioned the veracity of vote counts. Loeffler did not blame Trump, as Erickson implicitly did, but she did emphasize that Trump, as he campaigns this year, is encouraging his backers to take advantage of any voting option: mail, in-person early voting or on Election Day.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is running to succeed McConnell as GOP Senate leader, said in a brief interview that Trump is “going to be fine.” But when asked about Trump picking new fights within the party, Scott steered the conversation to his own success in a series of close gubernatorial and Senate contests.

“I try to make sure that, ultimately in my races, that there’s a choice, and it’s a policy choice. ... Just talk about the issues," he said.

Asked whether he would offer Trump that advice, Scott replied: “Well, I mean, he’s going to run the race he likes to run.”

Louisiana residents make last-minute preparations for Tropical Storm Francine

2024-09-11 06:06 Last Updated At：06:11

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Tropical Storm Francine barreled toward the Louisiana coast Tuesday, residents made last-minute preparations, including filling sandbags, buying gasoline and stocking up on necessities to face a storm that's expected to strengthen into a hurricane before reaching land.

Residents, especially in south Louisiana, have a 24-hour window to “batten down all the hatches,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said midday Tuesday. Forecasters said Francine’s landfall was expected Wednesday afternoon or evening as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 to 110 mph (155 to 175 kph) and strong storm surge.

Lifelong New Orleans resident Roxanne Riley, 42, gathered water, snacks and other food from a Walmart and said she planned to stay at a family member’s house on high ground to avoid flooding. But she was ready to evacuate if things got worse.

“It’s very frustrating every time a storm comes in,” Riley said. “I’ll just make sure my car is ready to roll in case I need to go by tomorrow. I’m going to keep on checking to see what it’s looking like.”

A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron eastward to Grand Isle, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of New Orleans, according to the National Hurricane Center. A storm surge warning stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Alabama-Florida border Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.

When the storm does make landfall, Landry urged residents to stay in place rather than venturing out onto the roads and risk blocking first responders or utility crews working to repair power lines.

By late Tuesday afternoon, Francine was still a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), according to the hurricane center. The system was located about 360 miles (580 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 10 mph (17 kph).

The storm is moving over extremely warm Gulf waters that serve as fuel to strengthen it. Water temperatures are about 87 degrees (31 degrees Celsius) where Francine is located, said Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

“The ocean heat content averaged over the entire Gulf is the highest it’s been on record for the date," McNoldy wrote on his blog.

Still, the system encountered some drier air as it moved to the north, possibly reducing the rate at which the storm intensified, forecasters said. But it is expected to reach hurricane strength anyway.

In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA, whose CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers.

“I love that these are community people that came out,” Mann said. “It’s a beautiful effort to do what we do in New Orleans, we’re resilient and we come together to help in the times we need each other.”

One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.

“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”

A little over three years after Hurricane Ida trashed his home in the Dulac community of coastal Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish – and about a month after he finished rebuilding – Coy Verdin was preparing for another hurricane.

“We had to gut the whole house,” he recalled in a telephone interview, rattling off a memorized inventory of the work, including a new roof and new windows.

Verdin, 55, strongly considered moving farther inland, away from the home where he makes his living on nearby Bayou Grand Caillou. After rebuilding, he said he’s there to stay.

“As long as I can. It’s getting rough, though,” he said. He was preparing to head north to ride out Francine with his daughter in Thibodaux, about a 50-minute drive away. “I don’t want to go too far so I can come back to check on my house.”

Landry said the Louisiana National Guard is being deployed to parishes that could be impacted by Francine. They are equipped with food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including possible search-and-rescue operations.

Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. There’s a danger of life-threatening storm surge as well as damaging, life-threatening hurricane-force winds, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.

There’s also the potential for 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain with the possibility of 12 inches (30 centimeters) locally across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning, Reinhart said. That heavy rainfall could also cause considerable flash and urban flooding.

Francine is taking aim at a Louisiana coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida. Over the weekend, a 22-story building in Lake Charles that had become a symbol of storm destruction was imploded after sitting vacant for nearly four years, its windows shattered and covered in shredded tarps.

Francine's storm surge on the Louisiana coast could reach as much as 10 feet (3 meters) from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said.

“It’s a potential for significantly dangerous, life-threatening inundation,” said Michael Brennan, director of the hurricane center, adding it could also send “dangerous, damaging winds quite far inland."

He said landfall was likely somewhere between Sabine Pass — on the Texas-Louisiana line — and Morgan City, Louisiana, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) to the east.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for seven remote coastal communities by Cameron Parish officials. They include Holly Beach, a laid-back stretch dubbed Louisiana’s “Cajun Riviera,” where many homes sit on stilts. The storm-battered town has been a low-cost paradise for oil industry workers, families and retirees, rebuilt multiple times after past hurricanes.

In Grand Isle, Louisiana’s last inhabited barrier island, Mayor David Camardelle recommended residents evacuate and ordered a mandatory evacuation for those in recreational vehicles. Hurricane Ida decimated the city three years ago, destroying 700 homes.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents to prepare to shelter in place. “Now is the time to finalize your storm plans and prepare, not only for your families but looking out for your neighbors,” she said.

City officials said they were expecting up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) inches of rain, gusty winds and “isolated tornado activity” with the most intense weather likely to reach New Orleans on Wednesday and Thursday.

Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, Kevin McGill and Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this story.