Live CPAC updates: Ted Cruz takes on Joe Biden, inflation and even the pronoun wars

This is a live update opinion blog for Day 2 of CPAC on Aug. 5, 2022. For Day 1 updates, click here.

He cracked some dumb jokes and hawked his own podcast, but in his CPAC speech Friday in Dallas, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also took America’s temperature. For once, he wasn’t wrong.

“America is in crisis,” the two-term Republican told the audience at the conservative political gathering. “We know this. We look at what’s happening in Washington. … Everything is going wrong. Inflation is through the roof.”

Cruz ticked through a laundry list of issues that even Democrats should be worried about: He lambasted President Joe Biden’s frequent confusion. He lamented inflation and the skyrocketing costs of everything. He blasted the stupidity of COVID, border and crime policies. He thoroughly ripped Biden’s domestic and foreign policy.

“It’s so bad we sent Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, and they were happy,” Cruz said, demonstrating an example of Biden’s poor foreign policy as a dumb joke.

Cruz lambasted radical gender theory. “My name is Ted Cruz, and my pronouns are kiss my ass,” he said to cheers.

After showing the crowd that Biden’s America is in trouble on every major issue that should matter to Americans, regardless of party, Cruz suggested that Republicans prepare for battle to “win back the House and Senate and to elect real conservatives with backbone and principle so that when we have a majority we do something with it.” The crowd cheered, of course.

For Cruz, who can sometimes say things that are radical or strange, this was a mild speech — and to a ripe, excited audience, I am sorry to say, it hit all the right tones.

But Cruz is right: America under Biden is struggling. Jokes aside, Cruz demonstrated just how much.

BORDER, IMMIGRATION HIGHLIGHT BROAD DIFFERENCES ON ISSUES

Updated at 3:20 p.m.: Border security and immigration policies are some of the most polarizing topics among Texans. Sometimes, both political parties make it sound as if the border is a simple, easy fix. It’s not. Border security and immigration policy are complex issues that need nuanced solutions.

A panel at CPAC, the conservative gathering, finally discussed the border crisis Friday in a way that identified the severity and complexity of the problem, painting a narrative that’s far more different than how most Democrats view the issue. Case in point: The panel was called “The Invasion,” a contrast to how most Democrats view illegal immigration.

Panel members included Rep. Mayra Flores, the new congresswoman representing a Rio Grande Valley district; Kari Lake, who just won the GOP primary for governor in Arizona; and Tom Homan, who served in the Trump administration as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Most people in South Texas cannot visit their families in Mexico because of the criminal organizations that have taken over the southern border. It’s only gotten worse ever since Biden was elected,” said Flores, who is married to a Border Patrol agent.

She said the porous border has facilitated child sex trafficking. “This should not be political,” she said.

Lake argued that states are “sovereign” and should assert themselves on the issue.

“We created the federal government,” she said. “The federal government didn’t create us.”

Lake said if she was elected Arizona governor, she would send the National Guard to stop illegal crossings, “finish Trump’s border wall” and ask other states for help.

While the panel’s proposed solutions weren’t novel, even acknowledging a problem at the border and advocating for ways to fix it is an important step toward securing borders, curbing crime and helping immigrants coming here legally find a new life in America.

And for Republicans, it’s a fundamental policy difference from many Democrats, and particularly President Joe Biden.