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TODAY:

• The list of politicians who should know better but who get caught up in sexting scandals grows ever longer.
• On At Issue tonight: How should a political party handle allegations of sexual misconduct?
• It’s been 48 hours since the most contentious and scrutinized American midterm elections in recent history, and one of the big questions for Canadians is what impact they’ll have on our relations with the U.S.
• Missed The National last night? Watch it here.

The politics of sexting

The list of men who should know better grows ever longer.

Anthony Weiner — the former U.S. congressman caught out sharing intimate images three times and sent to jail — remains the ultimate example. But politicians of all stripes and nationalities seem to have difficulty keeping their privates private:

And now Tony Clement.

On Tuesday night, the former federal cabinet minister revealed that he was resigning as the Conservatives’ justice critic following an alleged blackmail attempt from someone with whom he had shared “sexually explicit images and a video.”

Yesterday, the married 57-year-old was suspended by his party following what Tory leader Andrew Scheer suggested was a pattern of troubling behaviour toward young women on various social media platforms.

And now today, Clement has issued a statement admitting to even more acts of poor judgment and infidelity, as well as a prior extortion attempt that he says he reported to the O.P.P last summer.

Maybe it’s just that smart phones often make us dumb, especially when passions are at play.

Surveys suggest that sexting is either commonplace or rampant — with between 30 per cent and 89 per cent of adults having shared or received intimate images, depending on which data sets you choose to believe.

However, most exchanges come within a committed, or at least casual, relationship. Just 12 per cent admitting to using photos to help them cheat.

The reasons why people engage in sexting are at once obvious, and complex.

Some find it fun or flirtatious, although the research suggests there are strong gender differences. Women who sext often say they do it to please a partner, or enhance intimacy. For men, it is frequently a strategy to “satisfy sexual needs while keeping their partners at a distance.”

People with high self-esteem are less likely to send nude photos or videos. Those prone to risky sexual behaviours are more apt to overshare. Alcohol and the use of illicit substances also play a role.

Is there something unique about politicians?

Italian research suggests that they use social media in a different way than the average person — primarily for self-promotion and public signalling, rather than seeking support and community.  

And when it comes to decision-making, elected officials tend to behave differently from the general public. Politicians are actually a little better at weighing the evidence at hand and making a rational choice. Yet they, too, fall prey to the “reflection effect” — being unduly influenced by whether an option is framed as a “win” or a “loss,” especially in the context of votes.

Where politicians appear to really differ is in their ego.

Compared to other professions, legislators score extremely high on the leadership and authority scale, expressing qualities like warmth, extroversion and social boldness. But they are also far more narcissistic, deft at manipulating others to achieve their goals and highly social, with a preference for activities that involve informing, training and developing others.

And the higher the office a politician attains, generally the greater his or her sense of self-confidence and resistance to criticism.

In that context, perhaps sending a recent acquaintance, or even total stranger, nude photos of yourself is simply an unnatural extension of what makes politicians tick.

But it remains an incredibly foolhardy behaviour — if only because voters tend to take special notice of that kind of outreach.

Politicians behaving badly

Tonight’s At Issue panel tackles improper behaviour and sexual misconduct in Canadian politics, writes Rosemary Barton.

Sometimes it’s not a week that seems like a long time in politics, it’s just 24 hours.

It has certainly felt like that since yesterday.

In the midst of preparing for many hours of coverage of the American midterms on Tuesday afternoon, some Canadian political news broke that could not be ignored. Former Conservative MP Tony Clement announced he was stepping aside from many of his committee duties.

The reason was surprising, to say the least. Clement admitted he had sent sexually explicit videos and photos to someone he believed to be a consenting woman.

In fact, it was apparently an extortionist, who then asked Clement to pay some 50,000 euros or see the videos and photos released publicly.

Things got worse for Clement on Wednesday when he was also asked to leave Conservative caucus, because leader Andrew Scheer believed there was enough evidence to indicate the sexually explicit messages were not an isolated incident.

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The National Conversation: Canada – U.S. Relations

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and two top Washington Post journalists will join CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton and Keith Boag tonight to talk about what the U.S. midterm results mean for Canada’s relations with our southern neighbour, writes senior producer Lara Chatterjee.

Quote of the moment

“There’s no way to make sense out of the senseless.”

– Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean on a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif., last night. Thirteen people are dead, including a police officer and the suspected gunman.

What The National is reading

• Bombardier cutting 5,000 jobs, selling Q Series aircraft (CBC)
• China’s brightest children recruited to develop AI ‘killer bots’ (South China Morning Post)
• Prince Charles documentary: ‘I won’t meddle when I’m King’ (Telegraph)
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fall (CBC)
• Elon Musk has a new boss at Tesla (CNN)
• Oil drops as rising global supply forces price U-turn (Reuters)
• Norwegian warship collides with tanker (BBC)
• Dutchman, 69, applies to legally reduce age so he can meet more women (EuroNews)

Today in history

Nov. 8, 1952: Rocket Richard becomes NHL’s all-time goal scoring leader

It wasn’t one of his prettier tallies, but Maurice Richard’s wrister through traffic put him into the record book as the NHL’s then all-time goal king. Number 325 — one more than Montreal Maroons’ great Nels Stewart — came as part of a 6-4 Canadiens win over Chicago, and on the 10th anniversary of the Rocket’s first NHL goal.

Sign up here and have The National Today newsletter delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

Please send your ideas, news tips, rants, and compliments to thenationaltoday@cbc.ca. ​

Central American migrants in a caravan that has stopped in Mexico City demanded buses Thursday to take them to the U.S. border, saying it is too cold and dangerous to continue walking and hitchhiking.

Mexico City authorities say that of the 4,841 registered migrants receiving shelter in a sports complex, 1,726 are under the age of 18, including 310 children under five.

“We need buses to continue travelling,” said Milton Benitez, a caravan coordinator. Benitez noted that It would be colder in northern Mexico and it wasn’t safe for the migrants to continue along highways, where drug cartels frequently operate.

He said the route and departure time would be decided at a meeting Thursday night.

The Mexican government has said most of the migrants have refused offers to stay in Mexico, and only a small number have agreed to return to their home countries. About 85 per cent of the migrants are from Honduras, while others are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

“California is the longest route but is the best border, while Texas is the closest but the worst” border, said Jose Luis Fuentes of the National Lawyers Guild to gathered migrants.

There have already been reports of migrants on the caravan going missing, though that is often because they hitch rides on trucks that turn off on different routes, leaving them lost.

However, the UN human rights agency said its office in Mexico had filed a report with prosecutors in the central state of Puebla about two buses that migrants boarded in the last leg of the trip to Mexico City early this week, and whose whereabouts are not known.

Mexico City is itself nearly 1,000 kilometres from the nearest U.S. border crossing at McAllen, Texas, and a previous caravan in the spring opted for a much longer route to Tijuana in the far northwest, across from San Diego. That caravan steadily dwindled to only about 200 people by the time it reached the border.

Fuentes warned the migrants that if they are separated from their children they should “say they want a lawyer and not sign any paper.”

Other activists and officials explained the options available to migrants in Mexico, which has offered them refuge, asylum or work visas. The government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.

Marlon Ivan Mendez, a farm worker from Copan, Honduras, was waiting in line for donated shoes to replace the worn ones he has used since leaving his country three weeks ago. He said he left because gangs were charging him rent to live in his own home.

“It is not fair that the good ones pay for the sinners,” Mendez said of fears that gang members are coming with the caravan.

Christopher Gascon, the Mexico representative for the International Organization for Migration, estimated there are perhaps another 4,000 people in caravans that are working their way through southern Mexico.

But some migrants had been visiting the organization’s tent asking about how they can return home.

On Wednesday night, a bus left from Mexico City to return 37 people to their countries of origin.

Nora Torres, clutching a Styrofoam cup of tea, was rethinking everything. A day earlier she had been committed to at least reaching a Mexican border city where she heard there were good-paying jobs. But Thursday she said she was thinking of returning to her hometown of Puerto Cortes, Honduras.

“Spending so much time in one place makes me desperate,” said Torres.

In the stadium, hundreds of Mexico City employees and even more volunteers helped sort donations and direct migrants toward food, water, diapers and other basics. Migrants searched through piles of clothes and grabbed boxes of milk for children.

Darwin Pereira, a 23-year-old construction worker from Olanchito, Honduras, left his country with his wife and son, 4, for the very simple reason that “there is no work there.”

Pereira, who still wears the same cheap plastic sandals he left Honduras with a month ago, thought about what he would do if he met the U.S. president.

“If I meet Donald Trump, I am going to cry. I will cry because there is nothing else to do,” he said.

The gunman who entered a Southern California bar Wednesday night and shot dead 12 people, including a sheriff’s sergeant, before killing himself has been identified as U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ian David Long.

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said Long, 28, was found dead in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks late Wednesday. Dean said it’s believed he killed himself.

‘We thought it was a joke’: Witnesses recount the chaotic scene as a gunman opened fire:

A gunman opened fire around 11:20 p.m. PT at the crowded country-and-western bar about 65 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, sending hundreds fleeing, including some who used barstools to break windows and escape. Police said hundreds were inside at the time.

Dean said Long first shot a security guard and other staff near the door and then patrons.

Among the dead was sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, who was shot multiple times as he entered the building.

Dean said Helus, a 29-year veteran of the force who was set  to retire soon, died in hospital early Thursday.

“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Dean said during a news conference Thursday morning. “There’s blood everywhere.”

Dean said around 10 other people were injured and taken to local hospitals. Others had fled and taken themselves to hospital. People had been hiding in bathrooms and the attic of the bar, and some escaped by breaking windows, Dean said.

The mayor of Thousand Oaks said next-of-kin notifications are being prepared about the people who were killed and wounded.

Mayor Andrew Fox said it is a “very difficult day for many people.”

Jason Coffman told reporters his son, Cody, was among those killed.

“I am speechless and heartbroken,” he said.

Actor Tamera Mowry-Housley, known for the 1990s sitcom Sister Sister, and her husband say their 18-year-old niece, Alaina Housely, was among those killed.

They say their “hearts are broken” and say they are “devastated that her life was cut short in this manner.”

No other information on the victims was immediately known.

U.S. President Donald Trump praised police for their “great bravery” in the attack and ordered that flags be flown at half-mast at the White House and public buildings in the U.S., as well as at overseas diplomatic and military sites until Saturday evening, to honour the victims.

Democratic Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, in his first public appearance since winning office on Tuesday, lamented the violence that has come again to California.

“It’s a gun culture. It’s a culture, and it’s not about being Democrat or Republican,” he said. “You can’t go to a bar or nightclub? You can’t go to church or synagogue? It’s insane is the only way to describe it … It’s become normalized.”

Gunman acted alone, police believe

Dean said Long was acting alone, armed with a Glock 21 — a .45-calibre handgun designed to hold 10 rounds plus one in the chamber. But the sheriff said the gun had an extended magazine that is illegal in California.

Long joined the marines in 2008. He served in the war in Afghanistan for seven months beginning in late 2010, the Marine Corps said, and was awarded multiple ribbons, commendations and medals.

It was not immediately clear what Long did after leaving active duty. 

California State University, Northridge, said in a statement that Long was a student, last attending the university in 2016. The statement had no further details.

Dean said his department had previous contact with Long, including a call to his home in April, when deputies found him behaving irate and irrationally.

The sheriff said a mental health crisis team was called at that time and concluded that Long did not need to be taken into custody.

Other prior encounters were a traffic accident and an incident in which Long was the victim of battery at a bar.

Dean said there is nothing that would lead him to believe terrorism was the motive, but it has not been ruled out. Authorities hope to learn more when a search warrant is served at Long’s home in the nearby community of Newbury Park. 

The gunman was tall and wearing all black with a hood over his head and his face partly covered, witnesses told TV stations at the scene. He first fired on a person working the door and then appeared to open fire at random at the people inside, they said.

People screamed and fled to all corners of the bar, while a few people threw barstools through the windows and helped dozens to escape, witnesses said.  

Scenes from Thousand Oaks, where a gunman opened fire Wednesday night in country-and-western bar:

College student Cole Knapp, 19, was inside the bar when he saw the gunman enter and start shooting.

“I was just with friends and I saw the shooter walk in, and he reached up to the counter like he was going to put an ID or some money up on the counter to pay his cover charge,” said Knapp, who lives nearby. “And I just kind of saw it in the corner of my eye and I heard a gunshot, and I focused on him and I saw that he was holding a handgun and he continued to shoot at the girl at the front desk.”

Tayler Whitler, 19, said she was on the dance floor and her friends were at a table by the door as the gunman opened fire. She said everyone yelled “Get down!” and it was silent for a couple seconds, then she heard “Get up, he’s coming!” and people were trampling on each other to get out.

“It was really, really, really shocking,” Whitler told KABC-TV as she stood with her father in the Borderline parking lot. “It looked like he knew what he was doing.” 

John Hedge said that he and his stepfather were in the bar when the gunman opened fire. He told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that it had been like any other night, with the basketball game on in the background, when he heard “pop, pop, pop.”

“You just do what you can to try … to get out of eyesight and try to get some cover,” he said.

The bar is a popular hangout for students from nearby California Lutheran University. It’s also close to several other universities, including California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, Pepperdine University in Malibu and Moorpark College in Moorpark. The bar’s website says it hosts “College Country Night” every Wednesday.

Cal Lutheran, with about 4,300 students, has cancelled classes and said on its website that the university community is invited to gather Thursday at the school’s chapel.

The sheriff’s office said a procession will take place at 10 a.m. to transport Helus via motorcade from Los Robles Hospital to the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office in the city of Ventura.

Shootings of any kind are rare in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 130,000. It was named the third safest city in the U.S. for 2018 by the website Niche.

“I’ve learned it doesn’t matter what community you’re in,” Dean told reporters when asked if he was surprised this happened in Thousand Oaks. “It doesn’t matter how safe your community is. It can happen anywhere.”

The gunman who entered a Southern California bar Wednesday night and shot dead 12 people, including a sheriff’s sergeant, before killing himself has been identified as U.S. Marine Corps veteran Ian David Long.

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said Long, 28, was found dead in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks late Wednesday. It was unclear how he died, but Dean said it’s believed he killed himself.

‘We thought it was a joke’: Witnesses recount the chaotic scene as a gunman opened fire

A gunman opened fire around 11:20 p.m. PT at the crowded country-and-western bar about 65 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, sending hundreds fleeing, including some who used barstools to break windows and escape. Police said hundreds were inside at the time.

Dean said Long first shot a security guard and other staff near the door and then patrons.

Among the dead was sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, who was shot multiple times as he entered the building.

Dean said Helus, a 29-year veteran of the force who was set  to retire soon, died in hospital early Thursday.

“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Dean said during a news conference Thursday morning. “There’s blood everywhere.”

Dean said around 10 other people were injured and taken to local hospitals. Others had fled and taken themselves to hospital. People had been hiding in bathrooms and the attic of the bar, and some escaped by breaking windows, Dean said.

No other information on the victims was immediately known.

Gunman acted alone, police believe

Dean said Long was acting alone, armed with a Glock 21 — a .45-calibre handgun designed to hold 10 rounds plus one in the chamber. But the sheriff said the gun had an extended magazine that is illegal in California.

Dean said his department had several previous contacts with Long, including a call to his home in April, when deputies found him behaving irate and irrationally.

The sheriff said a mental health crisis team was called at that time and concluded that Long did not need to be taken into custody.

Dean said there is nothing that would lead him to believe terrorism was the motive, but it has not been ruled out. Authorities hope to learn more when a search warrant is served at Long’s home in the nearby community of Newbury Park. 

The gunman was tall and wearing all black with a hood over his head and his face partly covered, witnesses told TV stations at the scene. He first fired on a person working the door and then appeared to open fire at random at the people inside, they said.

People screamed and fled to all corners of the bar, while a few people threw barstools through the windows and helped dozens to escape, witnesses said.  

Scenes from Thousand Oaks, where a gunman opened fire Wednesday night in country-and-western bar

College student Cole Knapp, 19, was inside the bar when he saw the gunman enter and start shooting.

“I was just with friends and I saw the shooter walk in, and he reached up to the counter like he was going to put an ID or some money up on the counter to pay his cover charge,” said Knapp, who lives nearby. “And I just kind of saw it in the corner of my eye and I heard a gunshot, and I focused on him and I saw that he was holding a handgun and he continued to shoot at the girl at the front desk.”

Tayler Whitler, 19, said she was on the dance floor and her friends were at a table by the door as the gunman opened fire. She said everyone yelled “Get down!” and it was silent for a couple seconds, then she heard “Get up, he’s coming!” and people were trampling on each other to get out.

“It was really, really, really shocking,” Whitler told KABC-TV as she stood with her father in the Borderline parking lot. “It looked like he knew what he was doing.” 

Sarah Rose DeSon told ABC’s Good Morning America that she saw the shooter draw his gun.

“I dropped to the floor,” she said. “A friend yelled ‘Everybody down!’ We were hiding behind tables trying to keep ourselves covered.”

The bar is a popular hangout for students from nearby California Lutheran University. It’s also close to several other universities, including California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, Pepperdine University in Malibu and Moorpark College in Moorpark. The bar’s website says it hosts “College Country Night” every Wednesday.

Cal Lutheran, with about 4,300 students, has cancelled classes and said on its website that the university community is invited to gather Thursday at the school’s chapel.

The sheriff’s office said a procession will take place at 10 a.m. to transport Helus via motorcade from Los Robles Hospital to the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office in the city of Ventura.

Shootings of any kind are rare in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 130,000. It was named the third safest city in the U.S. for 2018 by the website Niche.

“I’ve learned it doesn’t matter what community you’re in,” Dean told reporters when asked if he was surprised this happened in Thousand Oaks. “It doesn’t matter how safe your community is. It can happen anywhere.”

The resignation of U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions could significantly curtail — or perhaps even end — the Russia investigation, experts say, as it will now be overseen by a replacement who has publicly expressed his skepticism about the probe.

“[This] will effectively bring the investigation to a halt,” said William Yeomans, who served 26 years at the U.S. Department of Justice and was a former chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“And there really isn’t legal way to stop [that].”

Sessions’s former chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, will be taking over as acting attorney general, with a permanent replacement expected to be nominated at a later date. 

The imminent departure was expected, as Sessions has been repeatedly criticized by Donald Trump for recusing himself from any investigation into potential Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump blamed that decision for opening the door to the appointment of Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who ultimately took on the Russia investigation, and has since been examining, among other things, whether Trump’s hectoring of Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to his broad mandate about a year and a half ago, has overseen the probe’s work ever since.

‘In charge of all matters’

When asked whether Whitaker would now assume control over the Mueller investigation, U.S. Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Flores said Whitaker would be “in charge of all matters” under the purview of the department.

“It seems as if the supervision of that investigation now rests with Whitaker,” said Harry Sandick, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York.

But questions remain around whether Rosenstein will agree to that, he said, noting there could be some kind of dispute over who has the authority to oversee the probe.

“It does seem as if the intention is that Whitaker will now oversee it — and that he, unlike Sessions, will not recuse himself,” Sandick said. “And therefore whatever else Rosenstein may do as the deputy attorney general, it won’t include this investigation.”

Ironically, Whitaker once opined about a situation in which Trump could fire Sessions and then appoint an acting attorney general who could stifle the funding of Mueller’s probe in an op-ed for CNN.

“Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing,” Whitaker wrote.

According to Sandick, Whitaker’s comments questioning the scope of the Mueller investigation “seemed to have played a central role in his selection” as acting attorney general.

“And it’s hard to believe that his appointment isn’t meant to impact the direction and existence, perhaps, of that investigation,” he said.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and expert on federal judicial selection, said a good case can be made that Whitaker has a conflict of interest in the Russia probe, that he has already prejudged the matter and that he has no authority to end it because he’s only in the position of acting attorney general.

“I just don’t see how that responsibility falls to him,” he said. “[The Justice Department] may take that position, and maybe it’s a valid position, but it doesn’t sound like it is to me from what I understand of … how this particular investigation has been carried out and authorized.”

Freeze on charging decisions

The special counsel is required to inform the attorney general of any major steps in the investigation, but the attorney general has the authority to scuttle those steps.

That could include a gradual process of slowing things down, said Yeomans, by not allowing Mueller to interview a particular witness, issue a subpoena, put somebody before a grand jury, or even seek a grand jury indictment.

“Whitaker obviously has the authority to make it virtually impossible for Mueller to carry on his investigation,” he said.

Whitaker could also order a freeze on any charging decisions until he has a chance to consider what he thinks the scope of the investigation should be, Sandick said. He could insist that he be given notice and an opportunity to approve or reject any charging decisions.

“Do we have reason to think that his judgment would be different from the judgment shown by Rosenstein? Sure it’s possible,” he said.

Sessions’s resignation sparked an outcry from Democrats, who demanded Wednesday that Trump guarantee the Mueller probe would be protected. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he wants “answers immediately,” raising speculation that the committee could launch an investigation into Trump’s actions.