'Galvanized the left': Ex-Trump lawyer and Dem consultant trade heated barbs on MAGA policy

Two federal elections in a row — the first in Canada, the second in Australia — became referendums on U.S. President Donald Trump, whose tariffs are wildly unpopular in both of those countries. And the candidates who ran aggressively anti-Trump campaigns won.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, after a decisive victory over Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre in the country's April 28 election, is getting ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House on Tuesday, May 6. And Carney is declaring, in no uncertain terms, that Canada will maintain its sovereignty and never become, as Trump puts it, "the 51st state."

Ahead of the Oval Office meeting, CNN's Sara Sidner hosted a panel on Canadian/U.S. relations as well as Harvard University that included Democratic consultant Karen Finney and conservative lobbyist/former Trump lawyer David Urban. And the two of them butted heads on both subjects.

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Urban told the panel, "The Canadians to our north have been great military allies for many years, and they're a huge trading partner in the United States. But I think… that President Trump is looking to level the playing field.… Look, it's a place where I think that if you loved (Canadian) Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau — if you like Trudeau, you're going to love Carney, right? In terms of his policies and in being extremely liberal. So I think that the current president, President Trump, loves to troll the very progressive leadership of the Canadian government in hopes that they will be forced to come to the negotiating table a little more quickly."

But Sidner reminded Urban that before Trump alienated so many Canadians with his steep tariffs and his "51st state" rhetoric, the Conservative Party appeared to have the electoral advantage — only for Carney to win in the end by being perceived as more anti-Trump than Poilievre.

And Finney reminded Urban that Canada isn't the only country where the mood is very anti-Trump.

Finney told Urban and Sidner, "I think what we saw is that it galvanized, as we're seeing, frankly, around the world — it's galvanizing Europe against the United States with the threat of the tariffs. And it galvanized the left, it appears, in Canada."

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The conversation took an increasingly heated turn when Urban claimed that Trump is "looking to level the playing field" with his tariffs, and when it shifted from Canada to Trump's campaign against Harvard University.

Urban told Sidner and Finney, "I applaud President Trump. Listen, Harvard is a hedge fund that's teaching some kids, OK? They have billions of dollars, Sara. Billions of dollars of endowment. They are misusing U.S. taxpayers' dollars. They need to be held accountable."

But Finney pushed back, declaring, "They're not! David, it's a private institution!"

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