Live updates from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 22.
El Salvador President Sends Warning to US
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele had a warning for CPAC’s American audience.
“The next president of the United States must not only win an election, he must have the vision, the will, and the courage to do whatever it takes,” he said. “And above all, he must be able to identify the underlying forces that will conspire against him.
“These dark forces are already taking over your country. You may not see it yet. But it’s already happening.”
Despite the fact El Salvador is much smaller than the United States, President Bukele said there are similarities between what happened in his country in the 1960s and ‘70s and what is happening in America today.
He compared the ongoing decline to a frog boiling in water. The frog doesn’t move as the water gradually heats up, but by the time it is boiling, it is too late to react.
“By the time we reacted, it was already too late,” the Salvadoran president said. “Fifty years, two wars, 250,000 lives, a third of our population displaced, and a near miracle to get our country back.”
The forces, he said, include declining cities, corrupt politicians and justice systems, “global elites” working in conjunction with the media and other institutions like NGOs, and the persistence of unelected policy-making bureaucrats.
He also issued a warning about America’s financial situation.
“The government is funded by printing more paper [money] and …the bubble will inevitably burst,” he said. “This situation is even worse than it seems because if most Americans and the rest of the world were to become aware of this farce, confidence in your currency will be lost. The dollar will fall and the Western civilization with it.”
He said it is not too late for America to reverse the course he sees and he urged the audience to fight with all their hearts, though turning around will not be easy.
“Winning the election isn’t enough to solve these problems,” he said. They will not simply go away as a consequence of an electoral result. It will take a total reengineering of the government from top to bottom…It will be hard. The system will push back, but you have the right to determine your own fate.”
Put up the fight, he said. It’ll be worth it in the end.
–T.J. Muscaro
Tulsi Gabbard: America’s Bipartisan ‘Suicide’ Requires a Bipartisan Rescue
Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat speaking at CPAC, called for bipartisan unity amid what she sees as a “bipartisan attack on our country.”
“We must not only come together in spaces like this with our brothers and sisters who agree with us,” she said. “We also have to reach out to those who we may not agree with on every issue but who love this country as we do and who are just as frustrated with those abusing their power as we are.
“Whether they’re Democrat, Republican, Independent or libertarian, we must stand together as fellow Americans who cherish peace and freedom, cherishing our commitment to save our country and defend our republic.”
Ms. Gabbard criticized Democratic leaders and “the Washington elite” for going after former President Donald Trump and refusing to recognize the American people’s right to decide for themselves who should be president. She took them to task for refusing to secure the border and for weaponizing the criminal justice system.
We have to send a strong message to the leaders in both parties for abusing their power and undermining our democracy and freedoms and hold them accountable at the ballot box, she said.
Herself a former presidential candidate, Ms. Gabbard shared a quote from Abraham Lincoln that said America’s destruction cannot come from abroad; it would come from its own people.
The quote ended with, “As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
“Those in power in America today are leading this great nation toward the suicide Abraham Lincoln warned of,” she said. “If we do not act now, we will look back at this very moment with regret, but we won’t be able to say that we had no warning.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Winning the Second Cold War ‘the Same Way as the First’
Two economic and political commentators credited with helping America win the Cold War with the Soviet Union gave their perspectives on the growing second Cold War with communist China.
The United States and the West were able to bring down the Soviet Union by exploiting strategic economic advantage, and it can do the same to China, according to Roger W. Robinson, Jr., Chairman and Co-Founder of Prague Security Studies Institute, and K.T. McFarland, Former Deputy National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump.
For the Soviet Union, it centered around pulling business away from its oil and natural gas industry and eliminating its ability to borrow money. For China, it’s about cutting off financial investment.
“It’s [about] our position financially in the global financial domain, which we utterly dominate,” Mr. Robinson told the CPAC audience. “We have around 66 percent of the world’s investable capital. Our capital markets are roughly the size of the rest of the world’s combined.
“The world’s reserve currency, the dollar, happens to be ours. The Chinese don’t even have a convertible currency. They’ve lost six to 7 trillion just recently in their stock markets; their real estate, which was 25-30 percent of GDP, has collapsed. … 80 percent of the wealth of average Chinese people is in real estate.”
One does not need to look further for economic and financial implosion than China, he said. That is if America would stop pouring financial investment into it.
“The problem is we move trillions of dollars from U.S. investors directly into the coffers of the CCP, and the People’s Liberation Army by their 5000 companies in our capital markets today,” he said.
“And 60 to 100 million of us have part of our stock and bond portfolios unwittingly invested in Chinese corporate bad actors reporting directly to the PLA.”
CPAC Board Member Gordon Chang pointed out that “every investment into a private Chinese company gets a pipeline to the Chinese military if the military wants it.”
“They’re building the surveillance state,” said Mr. Robinson. “They’re aiding and abetting genocide in Xinjiang, not to mention on the military side, they are building and militarizing the islands in the South China Sea. We have the last two aircraft carriers in China, in part financed on the New York Stock Exchange.
“You’ve got to go to your financial advisers and say you’re as mad as hell, and you’re not going to have your money moving to the Chinese and the PLA,” he said.
“They have a lot of vulnerabilities that a new Trump administration can exploit,” said Ms. McFarland. “And you’ll win the second Cold War the same way you won the first one.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Activists Reject Idea GOP Needs to Abandon Pro-Life Cause to Win
Do not give in to the media’s suggestion that the Republican Party needs to abandon the Pro-Life cause to win the 2024 election, Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), and Brandi Swindell, founder, and CEO of Stanton Healthcare, told the CPAC audience.
“They’re completely wrong,” said Ms. Nance. “And not only are they wrong, but I had to admit that the consultant class in Washington is wrong.”
They will make pro-life politicians think they will be called extremists, she said. But the real extremist position is that “abortion should be legal, anytime, any reason, any number at any point in gestation–all paid for by the taxpayer.”
“Even if a person doesn’t agree with me, they don’t agree with Joe Biden,” said Ms. Swindell. “They don’t agree with Elizabeth Warren. They don’t agree that people are disposable, and if they’re inconvenient, they must go.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Lawfare Project Founder: Anti-Jewish Discrimination Is a Civil Rights Issue
Lawfare Project Founder and Director Brooke Goldstein spoke plainly to the rise in anti-semitism and Islamic terrorist sympathizers across the country, saying, “Anti-Jewish discrimination is not a political issue. It is a civil rights issue.”
“We’ve centered Jewish advocacy around pro-Israel advocacy,” she said.
“If you want to advocate for yourself, you have to advocate for a foreign government.”
But she rejected that precedent.
“Students on campus… don’t necessarily have the responsibility to defend Israel,” Ms. Goldstein said. “They have a responsibility to defend themselves.
“When something happens, stand up for yourself; there are people there to protect you.”
She told her listeners at CPAC to shed the fear and political correctness and start speaking up about “the threat of theologically motivated terror.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Former Pacific Fleet Intel Director: Americans Are Arming China
The former Director of Intelligence and Information Operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Capt. James E. Fanell, laid out a simple strategy for Americans to help fight against communist China: Stop buying their stuff.
“We are facing an existential threat, and we need to recognize that we need to call it out. And then we need to decouple our economies that will shrink the amount of money that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the Chinese Communist Party can put into building their military,” he said.
He told the CPAC audience that even through COVID, the People’s Liberation Army did not suffer because China’s Communist Party continues to give its military the lion’s share of funding.
“That’s Americans buying their navy,” he said. “When you go to Walmart, you buy something that says ‘made in China,’ you’re building one of their warships or one of their hypersonic missiles. We have to stop that.”
But the captain said it’s not just individuals. IRAs, retirement incomes, hedge fund managers, and big corporations are investing billions in communist China.
“We have to pull out and dry up that money that can stop them from building the military,” he said.
–T.J. Muscaro
Former British PM Truss: ‘I Want a Strong NATO’
NATO allies need to stand up to fend off imposing nations like Russia, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss told The Epoch Times.
“We’re seeing Russia working with China and Iran as a new axis of authoritarianism,” she said shortly after her CPAC speech. “So I want a strong NATO to stand up to that. I do think we all need to spend more on defense, including the United Kingdom.”
Ms. Truss reiterated her stance against illegal immigration but insisted both causes are important.
“Every sovereign nation needs to be able to secure its borders; the borders aren’t secure. We also need to see Ukraine supplied with the weapons they need,” she said.
The UK is also entering an election year, and Ms.Truss shared her concerns about the left-leaning Labour Party taking the majority. But the safety of all Ministers of Parliament (MPs) is a priority for her as well.
“What I do think is we need to crack down on these appalling extremists who are intimidating and bullying our MPs,” she said. “The fact is two MPs have been killed in the last 10 years in Britain. Another MP has left Parliament because his office was torched. And that is not acceptable in a democracy.
“So I want to see the level of protection of MPs improved. And I want to see much tougher action against these people advocating terrorism on our streets.”
Ms. Truss declined to comment on Sir Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, as a CINO (Conservative in Name Only). The speaker has drawn calls for his resignation over the way he handled debate on a Gaza ceasefile vote. She did not believe he deserved to be ousted for calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“He’s admitted what he did was a mistake,” she said. “I take his apology at face value.”
–T.J. Muscaro and Jackson Richman
Tech Founder Launches Phone That Protects Users Against Big Tech
“Is Big Tech spying on us?” was the question posed to the co-founder of Unplugged Technologies Erik Prince.
“Of course they are,” he responded.
“Big tech collects,” said Mr. Prince. “They know where you go, what you buy, who you call, and what you browse. They actively collect, and they sell that information to advertisers.”
Smartphones and apps help collect and export that information, even going so far as to turn on the microphone, he said.
“I said to some friends of mine, we need to build [our] own phone platform, and after three years, we’ve done it,” he said.
The unplugged phone is the first with a firewall, and it lacks an advertising ID, making it incapable of allowing apps to collect, harvest, and export user data.
The Fourth Amendment says a person should feel secure that his property will be protected from unreasonable government searches, Mr. Prince said.
“The federal government routinely ignores that because they buy all that personal data that you’re giving out when you sign up for an iPhone or a Google phone.”
Unplugged, he said, is working in Partnership with Patriot Mobile to prevent the government from being able to routinely track a user’s location, schedule, and who they interact with.
–T.J. Muscaro
Former British Prime Minister Challenges RINOs
When former British Prime Minister Liz Truss addressed the left’s threat to America and the West, she also called out conservative politicians who continue to choose not to fight for their beliefs.
“I’m afraid, my friends, we are in difficult times,” she told the CPAC audience. “And I very much fear that unless conservatives become more active in speaking out; unless we are prepared to fight this battle, even if it’s difficult–even if it’s uncomfortable–that Western civilization is doomed.”
Across the pond, she said they are called CINOs–Conservatives In Name Only. In America, those conservatives are called RINOs–Republicans In Name Only.
“It’s the same tendency,” she said. “People who think, ‘I want to be popular. I don’t want to upset people. I don’t want to look like a mean person. I want to attend nice dinner parties in London or Washington DC. I want my friends to like me. I don’t want to cause trouble.’”
They try to compromise and triangulate, she said, but what they are really doing is losing the arguments. She referred to her own experiences where a lack of conservative support caused her policies and changes to fail.
“You can’t triangulate with terrorists,” she said in a message directed to the RINOs. “You can’t compromise with Communists. You have to fight for what you believe in.
“You have to fight for the conservative values.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Bishop Doubts Biden’s Catholic Faith
President Joe Biden may claim he practices the Roman Catholic faith, but in the eyes of Bishop Emeritus Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, the president is “not a faithful Catholic.”
“He’s contradicted Catholic values, pretty much across the board—especially on the sanctity-of-life issue—and he promotes abortion as if it were a commodity that everyone needs a right to. It’s a travesty,” Mr. Strickland told The Epoch Times at CPAC 2024 in Washington.
“I really regret that the church hasn’t been much stronger as a voice saying, Mr. Biden, you need to either denounce your Catholic faith officially—as he’s living in denouncement of it—or you need to truly reexamine what you’re doing and live according to Catholic tenets.”
Mr. Strickland noted that the president has not only defied the Catholic Church’s position on abortion but has also done so on same-sex marriage.
In 2016, Vice President Biden officiated the same-sex wedding of two White House staffers.
“He himself has witnessed a marriage of two men. That’s contrary to what the Catholic Church teaches, and to what Scripture supports. Marriage is only for one man, one woman, for life, open to children—period.
“And so, on those two counts, Joseph Biden is living and proclaiming a message contrary, antithetical to the Catholic faith. And, frankly, on many other issues. But those are enough to say, ‘Mr. Biden, you’re not a faithful Catholic.’”
—Joseph Lord and Samantha Flom
Arizona Election Official Shares Security Reforms
Among the controversies of recent election cycles are stories involving Arizona. But Kent Volkmer, Pinal County Attorney, shed some light on the security reforms that have been made in his home state ahead of the 2024 election.
“First and foremost, the single most important thing is that you have an honorable, respectable law-fearing person as your elections director,” he said. “I can tell you, unfortunately, that we did see a little hiccup. We and my county hired somebody at the last election cycle who didn’t have experience. And it was a complete and utter disaster.”
Several polls in Arizona didn’t have enough ballots, he said, and they did not have somebody who knew what they were doing.
“That was on us.”
Now, he said, they have a very proud, forward-facing Republican recorder. They also have cameras on every ballot drop-off box that record people who are physically dropping off the ballots, and law enforcement officers are assigned to watch the video footage.
“We now have GPS tags on every box, so we know where every one of those ballots is at any given time,” he said.
–T.J. Muscaro
Haley ‘Probably Should’ve Stayed’ in South Carolina: CPAC Attendee
CPAC 2024 attendee Lisa Wolf is “not a huge fan” of Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
“I think that she is self-serving,” Ms. Wolf, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, told The Epoch Times.
Describing Ms. Haley as a “pretty decent” governor of South Carolina, Ms. Wolf said that the Palmetto State is where the former U.N. ambassador “probably should’ve stayed.”
“I think she’s being led by a lot of people who have their own self-interests and not the welfare of this country,” she said.
Asked whether she would ever support Ms. Haley in the future, her response was to the point.
“Oh no, she’s ripped her drawers, as far as I’m concerned.”
A self-described conservative constitutionalist, Ms. Wolf said she believes the nation is currently on the wrong track. But that’s a problem that she trusts President Trump to solve—and the same goes for the question of who his running mate should be.
“He’s the decision-maker. He makes good decisions, for the most part. So, I would like to see whoever he chooses on that ticket with him because I think whoever he chooses will work well with him to make this country great again,” she said. “I’m a MAGA person down the line.”
—Joseph Lord and Samantha Flom
Lara Trump Promises Most Secure Election Operations Ever
Lara Trump told a cheering CPAC audience that if she becomes Co-chair of the Republican National Committee, “we can and we will build the strongest, most secure election operation that this party has ever seen.”
“We must adapt, and we must fight fire not with fire, but with dynamite,” she said.
And that dynamite adaptation involves embracing early voting.
“The truth is, if we want to compete with the Democrats, we cannot wait until election day,” she said. “If we want to compete and when we must embrace early voting.
“The days of waiting until election day to vote are over. We have to encourage everyone who can legally vote to go do so as soon as they legally can. We need so many votes banked for Donald J. Trump that we’re not playing catch up on election day.”
Every single vote made on every single day leading up to and on election day matters, she said.
She encouraged everyone present to make sure their friends and neighbors got out to vote, “as long as they’re voting the right way,” and she promised that the same all-out effort would be made by the party leaders if she was made one of them.
“If elected as co-chair of the RNC, I can promise you we will not be giving blank checks to career political consultants and vendors,” she said. “Every penny of every dollar donated will go towards one thing—winning.
“I promise you that I will do everything in my power to fight for our country, our party, our values, our children, secure elections, and everything else that we all care about in this country.”
–T.J. Muscaro
Trump Supporters Share Hopes for 2nd Term
There was broad support for former President Donald Trump at CPAC 2024 in Washington as attendees shared their hopes and expectations for what a second Trump presidency might look like.
One common wish list item? A secure border.
“We don’t have a border,” Tom Millitzer told The Epoch Times. “A country without a border is not a country. We can’t have 8 million people—really 13 [million]—coming across our borders and stressing our nation.”
The border was also a concern for Barry Hinkley, who made it a key focus of the “Re-declaration of Independence” he drafted to clarify the nation’s foundational values.
“We’re a nation of immigrants. We all know that we all came for opportunity, whether it was us or our ancestors. However, we have to have it orderly and have a productive people in it. Right now, it’s very disorderly, and I’m questioning the intent of a lot of the people coming here.”
Meanwhile, Barbara Burg traveled all the way from Alaska for the event. She said she hoped President Trump had “learned some lessons” from his first stint in the Oval Office because “he got snookered in some ways” before.
“I think there were moles in his administration. I think there were people that didn’t serve him and that were really traitors to our nation,” she said.
“I mean, I can’t really blame him,” she added. “But I think he’s had four years to reflect. And he’s a reflector. He’s a smart, smart guy.”
Like Ms. Burg, Mr. Hinkley said he believed President Trump was “hoodwinked” by certain government bureaucrats during his first term but didn’t hold those decisions against the former president.
“There’s 4,000 appointees that come with winning the presidency,” he noted. “And that’s a lot of people in the huge bureaucracy here in Washington, D.C. So, how do you get all of that right the first time?
“I think there was so much resistance—baked-in, Deep-State resistance—against him from Day 1 … that it was very difficult. They had a target on him from Day 1.”
As for their opinions of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who remains in the race for the GOP nomination, the general sentiment was that she was not the right person to solve the nation’s problems.
“America is so broken right now that we need someone that’s ready to go in and actually tear this thing out by the roots—and that’s Washington D.C.,” Mr. Hinkley said. “We live in a country right now that is divided clearly between Washington D.C. and the rest of us, and I’m not sure Nikki Haley has the chops to take on Washington D.C.”
Mr. Millitzer agreed, holding that Ms. Haley is “not the presidential quality person we need right now.” While he described her as a “smart lady,” he added that he was concerned that she was “more of a warmonger” than he would prefer.
And Ms. Burg, despite considering Ms. Haley at first, said she did not approve of some of the former U.N. ambassador’s criticism of President Trump.
“I think she’s saying a lot of things that are hurtful and perhaps untrue about Trump,” she said. “I mean, yes, he’s older. Yes, he’s almost Joe Biden’s age, but his intellect is still strong. His mind is strong.”
—Jackson Richman and Samantha Flom
Freedom Caucus Members Share Hopes for Trump’s VP
Rep. Scott Perry (PA-10) and Rep. Russ Fulcher (ID-1) of the House Freedom Caucus shared their hopes for who former President Donald Trump would pick for his Vice President.
“I want the most conservative person that will save the Republic right behind Donald Trump,” said Mr. Perry, former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, adding, “It’s not some people that are currently in the race against Donald Trump.”
He admitted he liked Vivek Ramaswamy because “he understands that the government is out of control.”
Their panel moderator, Ed Henry from Newsmax, said he heard Gov. Ron DeSantis’s name being thrown around backstage.
“I’d like to see them kiss and make up,” said Mr. Fulcher. “I think that’d be a great pair.”
—T.J. Muscaro
Former ICE Chief Says ‘Historic Deportation’ Necessary
Tom Homan, former Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, took the stage at CPAC and told the audience, “There has to be a historic deportation operation at the end of historical immigration. It has to be that way. There’s no other option.”
He explained that not only would billions of dollars be spent processing everybody who comes in and claims asylum, but immigration court data showed that nine out of 10 asylum claims don’t qualify and get ordered to be removed from the country.
He also spoke of the lack of justice when it comes to crime-committing illegal immigrants and the need to enforce the law.
“I’ll do it because that’s what’s required by law to do so,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. If you can’t, if you don’t do it, then you’re never gonna solve the border crisis.”
Mr. Homan was joined on stage by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, who told CPAC attendants that “Every American should be scared to death,” of the immigration situation.
Among the more than 7 million illegal aliens who have crossed the border have been hundreds of known terrorists and more than 24,000 military-aged Chinese men feeding money to cartels.
“You don’t leave China with the social credit score system unless the CCP knows about it,” he said. “They’re flying to South America, and they’re in Central America, and they’re they’re coming up here they’re paying 60 grand to the cartels, which is enriching the cartels, a terrible organization.”
Mr. Green clarified that he was not suggesting China was going to attack the United States. But, he said if the U.S. defended Taiwan, he imagined there were people now in the country who were looking at targeting strategically sensitive areas like American rail and ports.
“We’ve had massive waves of Chinese terrorists storming military installations with cameras,” he said.
–T.J. Muscaro
Rep. Donalds Suggests He’d Accept VP Offer from Trump
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) appeared receptive Thursday to the idea of being former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick.
While speaking with reporters at CPAC in Washington, the congressman was asked by The Epoch Times if he would accept an offer from President Trump if it comes.
“Will I?” he asked our reporter, Jackson Richman, who hazarded a guess: “Yes.”
“There you go,” Mr. Donalds replied.
Other names President Trump has confirmed are on his shortlist include South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, and even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, despite the recent tensions between the two.
When asked for his opinion about Mr. DeSantis being on the list, Mr. Donalds said he saw no problem with it.
“Ron DeSantis has been an incredible governor. He really has. We all know this is the best governor in the country—it ain’t close, OK?
“If Donald Trump makes that decision to have Ron DeSantis come on the ticket, that’d be great for us as conservatives and as Republicans because Ron DeSantis has proven what conservative policy means for a state and for a government,” he continued.
“Let’s take that nationwide—what’s wrong with that? I don’t see it being an issue at all. But that’s gonna be a decision for President Trump.”
But a day after President Trump revealed that he was considering Mr. DeSantis, the governor said he had no interest in being vice president.
“People were mentioning me [as a potential vice president]. I am not doing that,” he told Republicans who had supported his campaign on a Wednesday call, per The New York Post.
“I know some people are really actively seeking it. It seems to me, just from watching kind of the body language and stuff, that you have a handful of folks who seem to be auditioning for it,” he said.
“I think my criteria [for a running mate] was different than what probably Donald Trump’s criteria will be,” he added, specifying “identity politics” as a likely factor in the former president’s calculations.
“I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who you think the best person for the job would be.”
—Jackson Richman and Samantha Flom
NC Lt. Gov.: Media Doesn’t Want to Admit Red States Are Doing Better Than Blue States
North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson took the stage to share North Carolina’s success story in transforming from a Blue State with millions of dollars in debt into a Red State with a multi-million-dollar surplus.
“It’s because conservatives do this little pesky thing that leftists don’t like,” he said. “We put principles inside of our policies, and they yield a desired result.”
But North Carolina’s success is not unique, and he criticized the media for not wanting to talk about the overall betterment of Republican-controlled states compared to Democrat-run states
He said they “don’t want to talk about the fact that California is falling apart and Florida is flourishing.
“They don’t want to talk about the fact that New York is in a shambles and North Carolina is on firm financial footing.
“They don’t want to talk about the great things are going on in in Arkansas and other places where great conservatives are at the helm doing great things.”
The news media is silent because they don’t want to admit the left is wrong on every issue, he said. They don’t have a political or social leg to stand on, they’re running every state they run straight into the ground.
—T.J. Muscaro
Sen. Tuberville: ‘Trump’s the Only Thing That’s Gonna Save Us’
Electing former President Donald Trump to another four years in the White House is the only thing that will save the United States from destruction, according to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
“We’ve got to get Donald Trump elected president of the United States. You have got to do all you can to get everybody to go vote,” he told the audience of CPAC in Washington on Thursday.
“If we don’t get him back in that White House, it’s going to be tough for any of us to survive in the greatest country ever of 248 years,” he added.
The former football coach made the comments while lamenting the recent turn in athletics programs toward allowing men to participate in women’s sports.
This year, he noted, the Olympic Committee is allowing individual sports to decide for themselves if they will allow that kind of crossover in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
“The boxing committee decided this year that men can box against women in the Olympics,” he announced to gasps of shock from the crowd. “Yes. Somebody’s going to get hurt.”
“Somebody’s going to get killed!” podcaster Ben Ferguson interjected.
And it’s changes like those, Mr. Tuberville said, that show just how badly the country needs the leadership of President Trump.
“We got to understand that no matter what happens in the next 10 months, he has got to be reelected because he’s the only thing that’s going to save us from losing this great country that we live in.”
—Samantha Flom
Byron Donalds: American Dominance ‘Best Thing’ for Freedom and Peace
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds gave the opening speech of CPAC and spoke for an America-dominant foreign policy.
“America in a dominant position across the globe, means the best thing for the people of the world who desire freedom and peace, who want to actually grow an economy who want their children to be raised up,” he said.
“A globe where China is dominant is a globe that it is to the detriment of human freedom.”
He called out Republicans and Democrats to stop having “petty squabbles” and to focus on America leading within its own hemisphere again.
“No more shall we allow communism and fascism to breed in our own hemisphere while we just argue over the stupidest things,” he said.
He also proclaimed, “Israel should obliterate Hamas from the face of the earth,” and said Capitol Hill should help ensure Israel has what it needs.
But he also said that America can’t do it on its own, and called upon other NATO nations to “step up and do their part.”
“The success of Western democracy–the success of a Western way of life–is predicated on all the nations who love freedom and pursue pursue freedom for their people to do the heavy lifting together, not just relying on America to bear the burden alone,” he said.
This is not a matter of isolationism versus being the world’s police, he said. It’s about being sober and a realist.
—T.J. Muscaro
Highlights From Today’s Schedule
A host of prominent conservative voices will kick off the first full day of the 2024 CPAC in Washington.
Here are a few key agenda items to watch for:
- 10:20 a.m.: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) opens the general session
- 10:45 a.m.: “No Woke Warriors” with U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Ben Ferguson, host of the Ben Ferguson Podcast
- 11:10 a.m.: “Turning Red in the Tar Heel State” with North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson
- 11:50 a.m.: “Trump’s Wall vs. Biden’s Gaps” with field reporter Julio Rosas; Tom Homan, former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; and investigative reporter Sara Carter.
- 12:40 p.m.: “The Doctor Is In” with Dr. Ben Carson, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
- 1 p.m.: Lara Trump, host of “The Right View”
- 4:55 p.m.: Michael J. Knowles, host of “The Michael Knowles Show”
- 5:40 p.m.: Former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard
- 6:15 p.m.: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele
–Samantha Flom
From The Epoch Times
