Donald Trump’s presidency is over and his Twitter stream has been silenced, but during the first major Conservative rally of the year, the message is clear: Mr. Trump is here to stay.
Elected officials and activists who held the first day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida this year focused on COVID-19 restrictions, the so-called cancellation culture, how the 2020 election was applied and the threats see from the Democratic policy. Although there was almost no mention of the attack on the Capitol last month, the speakers fought the ‘liberal mob’ and riots this summer.
The conference does not contain public critics of the former president, and the praise for Mr. Trump, who still has the support of most GOP voters, was a theme of the opening day.
“There are a lot of voices in Washington that just want to erase the past four years,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz told the crowd. “Let me tell you now: Donald J. Trump is not going anywhere.”
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton told a story of an immigrant who attributed his economic success to the former president, celebrating Trump’s ability to attract Latino voters in the 2020 election.
And Missouri Senator Josh Hawley received a standing ovation when he told the crowd on January 6 his objection to the election results. He fired on Twitter for banning Trump, concluding his speech with, “America now, first America, America forever.”
Many speakers urged the Republican Party to return to the pre-Trump origins and criticized the policies pursued by the IDP leaders.
“We will not win the future by trying to return to where the Republican Party was,” said Florida Senator Rick Scott, who is also chairing the Republic of the Senate campaign. “If we do that, we will lose the work base that President Trump so animated. We are going to lose elections across the country and eventually we are going to lose our country.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will be re-elected in 2022, is putting his own stamp on conservatives, saying the party rejects open borders, ‘weakness’ against China and ‘military adventure’.
“We will not go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear,” he said. “Hold the rope, stand firm, and never, ever pull back.”
Hawley told the people who attended CPAC that they “represent what comes next.”
“To the people who say to us, ‘Oh, you are the past. Your moment is over, it’s over. It’s now Joe Biden’s America,'” he said. “I just want to say, ‘we are not the past. We are the future,'” he said.
At the event, Hawley on January 6 bore wide criticism of his objection to the Electoral College’s votes on January 6 in honor.
“I was called a traitor, called a seducer,” he said of the reaction to his voice. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m standing here. I’m going to stand up for you, because if we can not have a free and open debate in this country, we are not going to have a country left.” reflects a remark made by Mr. Trump told his supporters that day: “If you do not fight like hell, you will not have a country anymore.”
Nearly a dozen speakers at the event were named as potential 2024 presidential candidates. “There I thought for a moment we were in Des Moines,” Cruz said.
Cotton, among the likely hopefuls in the White House, suggested that Republicans might not take action against Biden in four years. “They want to grant amnesty to 15 to 20 million illegal aliens. With no rights, with voting rights, probably in time for Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign,” he said.
But if a roster of Republicans is competing to raise their profiles, it’s Mr. Trump who is the speaker for the exhibition, who wants to make his first public remarks since leaving office on Sunday.
Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., joked that the conference should become ‘TPAC’ because of the support the former president had among the audience. He gave a short preview of his father’s speech and told the crowd, ‘I don’t think it’s going to be a’ low-energy ‘speech. And I can assure you that it will strengthen Donald Trump and all your feelings about the MAGA. Movement as the future of the Republican Party. ‘
According to polls, Mr. Trump still has a firm grip on the Republican Party base. A poll by Suffolk University / USA Today, published earlier this week, found that nearly 6 out of ten Trump supporters said they wanted to be re-elected president in 2024, and 76% said they would vote for him. vote if he were to seek the Republican nomination.
Saturday’s notable speakers include Florida Senator Marco Rubio, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, who have been pushed as potential 2024 presidential candidates.