‘TPAC — that’s what it feels like’: Republicans kick off CPAC with falsehood-filled Trump tributes
It’s all Trump all the time for attendants of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party was unmistakably firm as the annual CPAC event kicked off in Florida on Friday, with speaker after speaker hauling praise on the former president and regurgitating his false claims about fraud in the 2020 election.
The conference, held in Orlando because organizers weren’t able to secure a permit at its usual Maryland location due to coronavirus restrictions, featured a motley crew of right-wing icons for the first major event of the four-day conservative love-fest.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, was among the main attractions.
“How’s it going CPAC? Or I heard someone earlier phrase it a little bit better: TPAC — that’s what it feels like, guys!” the Trump son bellowed to a crowd of cheering fans at a Hyatt hotel.
The Justice Department, officials in all 50 states from both parties and international observers affirmed that President Biden won the 2020 election fair and square, without any cheating or fraud, but that didn’t stop several of Friday’s speakers from pushing the false idea that Trump actually prevailed.
“Don’t tell me that vote fraud is just some right-wing hallucination. The November 2020 election was a nightmare,” said Deroy Murdock, a columnist for the right-wing National Review magazine, repeating some of the same inaccurate talking points that inspired a mob of Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a deadly attempt to overturn Biden’s election.
The falsehood-filled fraud fretting served as a warm-up act of sorts for Sunday, when Trump himself is expected to speak.
Many attendants did not wear masks Friday in violation of local coronavirus rules, prompting organizers to plead with them to cover their faces.
“Please, everyone when you’re in the ballroom, you should still be wearing a mask,” CPAC Director Carly Conley said, prompting the crowd to boo and shout “freedom.”
Speaking later at the event, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz contradicted Conley and claimed mask mandates are “dumb.”
“Can I just stop and say how strange the rules are right now?” the Republican senator said, never mentioning the fact that more than half a million Americans have died from COVID-19.
Cruz, who found himself in a storm of controversy last week after he fled his freezing, power-strapped state for the warmer pastures of Mexico, also made light of his own scandal.
“Orlando is awesome,” he said. “It’s not as nice as Cancun, but it’s nice.”
