CPAC news – live: DeSantis says ‘Florida has defeated Fauciism’ to standing ovation as 2024 rumours mount

High-profile Republicans are converging in Orlando, Florida for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this week, with former President Donald Trump headlining the event.

The conservative confab attracts a who’s who of GOP luminaries. Typically held just outside of Washington DC, this year’s conference is being held in Orlando, Florida, likely due to its proximity to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach.

High-profile speakers this year include Donald Trump Jr, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen Ted Cruz, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, Nigel Farage, and Rep Jim Jordan.

Mr Cruz was in Florida on Wednesday visiting Mr Trump and predicting a “red wave” of Republican victories in the fall.

The conference gets underway on Thursday morning, with early breakout sessions focusing on school board battles, social media and a panel titled “Don Lemon is a dinosaur: The new way to get your news”.

Key Points

• Republicans prepare to gather as they criticise Biden over Ukraine

• Speaker list includes leaders, rising stars and far-right agitators

• Donald Trump scheduled to address conference on Saturday

18:59 , Oliver O'Connell

“There is no substitute for courage,” DeSantis says, encouraging the crowd to stand up to “the Brandon administration”.

He closes his speech to a standing ovation.

There was no mention of the situation in Ukraine.

18:57 , Oliver O'Connell

“Had Florida not led the way [with Covid-19] this country could look like Canada or Australia,” DeSantis says.

AustraliaCovid Deaths: 5,062Population: 25.7 million

CanadaCovid Deaths: 36,213Population: 38 millionFloridaCovid Deaths: 68,955Population: 21.48 million

18:52 , Oliver O'Connell

DeSantis says that he is in the process of getting money from the legislature so that if Biden dumps illegal aliens from the southern border, he will reroute them to Delaware and send some to DC and Hollywood as well.

18:49 , Oliver O'Connell

Many in the crowd are on their feet for most of DeSantis’ speech. It touchs on every relevant conservative topic — Covid, censorship, Big Tech, Soros, law and order, trans athletes, election integrity.

Ron DeSantis welcomed like a rock star

18:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is welcomed like a rock star at CPAC as the governor of the “free state”.

He gets a standing ovation and begins to talk about his relaxed approach to Covid-19 restrictions so that his state wouldn’t become a “Faucian Dystopia”.

DeSantis reels through his response to Covid which was trailed in a preceding video.

“Florida has defeated Fauciism,” he says.

“Freedom has prevailed in the Sunshine State.”

He then declared that President Joe Biden hates Florida and tries out the phrase “Bidenflation”.

CPAC vice chair slams Cheney and Kinzinger

18:38 , Oliver O'Connell

CPAC Vice Chair Charlie Gerow slammed Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who are holding a counter-conference in Washington, DC.

Mr Gerow is running to be governor of Pennsylvania and attacked critical race theory, abortion, sanctuary cities, and undocumented immigrants.

He also attacked school “indoctrination” but also pushed for the teaching of civics.

“You are the footsoldiers, those who will defend that shining city on a hill,” he told the crowd.

18:36 , Oliver O'Connell

Matt Schlapp asks the crowd are you woke? Are you finally awake?

Says that there will be more CPAC events this year, including CPAC Texas.

Tribute to Breitbart: Change the country through content

18:20 , Oliver O'Connell

During a tribute to Andrew Breitbart, and in a pitch as to how to get young people involved in conservative politics, radio host Larry O’Connor referenced a recent interview in which Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she was inspired to get back into politics by binge-watching The West Wing.

“Don’t underestimate this. We have legions of chardonnay-sipping, Peloton-riding leftists in our American government right now who were inspired by Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing because they think it’s real life,” said Mr O’Connor.

“You want to change the country, you change it through Netflix,” he said, adding: “You change it through creating content that has nothing to do with news and politics and theology, but has everything to do with news and politics and theology.”

The panel discussion unpacked the lasting impact Breitbart has had on rightwing media, a decade since his death.

CPAC in pictures

18:05 , Oliver O'Connell

‘Cities we can’t pronounce'

17:45 , Oliver O'Connell

After calling on every politician speaking at CPAC “to call what’s happening on the southern border an invasion” Charlie Kirk continued saying that they should do that instead of being concerned about “cities we can’t pronounce, places that most Americans can’t find on a map” in Ukraine.

Charlie Kirk call for ‘political extinction event’ for the ‘woke left'

17:22 , Oliver O'Connell

Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, takes to the stage praising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

After decrying the 2020 election, he joins other speakers in hitting all of the key topics: the media, school boards, and vaccines.

He then calls for a “political extinction event” for the “woke left”.

Continuing, he says the southern border is more important than the Ukrainian border, calling on fellow speakers to call it an invasion.

Big cheers from the crowd.

He calls for clear priorities of making it easier to buy a home, get married, and have children, to make more people conservatives.

Mr Kirk adds that it was wrong to prioritise older generations over younger generations.

‘Ugly’ Democrats

17:10 , Oliver O'Connell

If conservatives are worried about being called racists when they run for office, according to this earlier panel, Democrats should be worried about being called “ugly” and having their meme skills criticised.

Are you ready to be called a racist?

16:54 , Oliver O'Connell

The next panel is catchily titled “Are you ready to be called a racist: The courage to run for office”.

It is hosted by The Leadership Institute's Stephen Rowe and Matthew Hurt — the institute trains conservatives for office.

They are joined by Heather Sellers, who ran to be on her local school board and served for six years in Montgomery County.

The message of the panel is to encourage more conservatives to run for office at all levels.

Audio problems

16:42 , Oliver O'Connell

Scott Shepard, a fellow at the National Center as well as the deputy director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, spoke about “Fighting Woke Inc” through consumer and shareholder activism.

Unfortunately an audio issue on the live stream meant a large of his speech was silent for those not in the room.

CPAC has only just begun and it’s already disgraced itself

16:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Andrew Feinberg writes:

I’ve reported from CPAC a number of times, and this year organisers have made some strange and unwise choices — especially considering the invasion in Ukraine.

CPAC has only just begun and it’s already disgraced itself | Andrew Feinberg

Project Veritas hires CNN whistleblower Patrick Davis

16:24 , Oliver O'Connell

James O’Keefe of Project Veritas spoke about his organisation’s surreptitious recordings of CNN employees in light of the Jeff Zucker scandal at the network.

As a big surprise for the audience, Mr O’Keefe brings out 25-year CNN veteran field operations manager Patrick Davis as a “very special guest”.

Mr Davis is joining Project Veritas as Executive Director. He was previously at the centre of one of the organisation’s whistleblowing operations.

How will Russia’s Ukraine invasion play out at CPAC? Rubio walks the line

16:05 , Andrew Naughtie

With Donald Trump already catching flak for essentially praising Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “smart”, certain other Republicans speaking at CPAC find themselves with a difficult line to walk.

In a particularly tricky spot is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is running for re-election this year. Historically no friend of Mr Trump’s, he nonetheless toed the line for most of the ex-president’s tenure. But in recent days, the noted foreign policy hawk has been extolling the virtues of Ukrainian resistance and condemning Russia’s actions, putting him increasingly at odds with the “mainstream” Republican position.

Tea Party Patriots founder defends Joe Rogan and anti-vaxx doctors

15:48 , Oliver O'Connell

In the most overt anti-Covid mandate speech yet, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin defended Joe Rogan and anti-vaxx doctors.

She called to “end the lockdowns” and “stop the medical mandates”.

Speaking of Gettr

15:25 , Oliver O'Connell

Kaelan Dorr of Gettr is now presenting on censorship while heavily plugging his platform’s 5 million users. He describes it as “the fastest growing social media company in the world”.

Truth Social is number on the App Store charts. Gettr does not appear to be in the top 200.

Another “Let’s Go Brandon” mention.

CPAC chairman: No changes to agenda in light of Russia invading Ukraine

15:20 , Oliver O'Connell

American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp on Thursday said there would not be any changes to the programme at the group’s annual conference as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In an interview just before the start of the ACU’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr Schlapp told The Independent the conference would go on as planned.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Florida.

CPAC agenda not changing despite Russia invading Ukraine

A big plug for Truth Social from the stage

15:17 , Oliver O'Connell

The next session “Don Lemon is a dinosaur: The new way to get your news” featured Alex Bruesewitz, Rogan O'Handley, and Ryan Fournier, founder of Student for Trump.

The three promoted Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform (awkward considering Gettr is a sponsor) and various meme accounts.

They end with a cry of “Let’s Go Brandon” — something I think we’ll hear more of in the coming days.

Full-scale invasion of Ukraine acknowledged

15:07 , Oliver O'Connell

KT McFarland, a CPAC board member and a former deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, made the conference’s first acknowledgment of Russia’s “full-scale” invasion of Ukraine — blaming the “feckless American administration” for Vladimir Putin’s attack on the country.

This was followed by a conversation with Lee Hyun-Seung, a North Korean citizen who defected, and who warned the crowd about the dangers of communism.

Lessons from Virginia Parents

14:45 , Oliver O'Connell

The first panel of the day is “Domestic Terrorists Unite: Lessons from Virginia Parents”.

Speaking are a group of mothers who challenged their children’s schools for setting reading assignments from “inappropriate books” and took on school boards. All three women are from Loudin County.

They lectured the audience on the use of the Freedom of Information Act requests against school boards.

Panel moderator Ian Prior introduced himself as an advisor for America First Legal, headed top Trump advisors Stephen Miller and Mark Meadows.

The panel was applauded for “changing Virginia” in the recent governor’s election.

CPAC 2022 kicks off

14:27 , Oliver O'Connell

Podcaster Ben Ferguson opens proceedings at CPAC with a rallying cry to conservative Americans who have “woken up” over the past year, encouraging them to run for office at all levels of government, from school boards up.

The theme of this year’s event is “Awake Not Woke,” which is emblazoned around the venue.

The best is yet to come: Kimberly Guilfoyle returns to the stage

14:10 , Andrew Naughtie

Among today’s CPAC speakers is Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News personality and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr who lit up the 2020 Republican convention with a speech delivered in battering-ram style, shouting “the best is yet to come!” into an empty room.

We’ll have to wait to 4:15pm ET to see if she brings the same flair to this year’s conference. For now, here’s Holly Baxter’s writeup of what happened when she took the stage at the White House.

The terrifying word salad of Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle at CPAC was surprisingly entertaining

Nigel Farage returns to CPAC

13:28 , Andrew Naughtie

Of all the international right-wingers who have clung on to Donald Trump, one of the most notorious is Britain’s Nigel Farage, who has been in the orbit of the American right since well before the 2016 Brexit referendum. He’ll be speaking to CPAC tomorrow, though it’s far from his first chance to address the Republican faithful.

Here’s The Independent’s writeup of his flop of an appearance in 2015.

The picture that shows just how big Nigel Farage really is

CPAC to host VP of Gettr, Trump’s social media rival

12:47 , Andrew Naughtie

Donald Trump this week began the rollout of his new “free speech” social network, Truth Social. It’s an attempt to create a place where the president can directly communicate with his followers without the “censorship” imposed by the likes of Twitter and Facebook, but if it’s going to become the primary hangout for Trump fans, it will have to displace other apps they’ve already embraced.

Trump’s new social network TRUTH Social is just as embarrassing as you’re imagining

Top of that list is Gettr, whose CEO Jason Miller is a former Trump spokesperson. It has several million registered users, and like Truth Social positions itself as somewhere that will not mute right-wing opinions. Its senior vice president, Kaelan Dorr, is addressing CPAC later today on “The New Age of Social Media”; whether he will even mention Truth Social or explain how his own company views it remains to be seen.

CPAC speaker profile: Candace Owens

11:39 , Andrew Naughtie

Among the various right-wing agitators appearing in Florida is Candace Owens, a commentator and activist who rose to prominence during Trump’s presidency. She will be appearing tomorrow on a panel entitled “Pupil Propaganda”.

Ms Owens has staked out hardline positions on everything from Covid-19 vaccines (on which Donald Trump disagrees with her) to the Canadian trucker protests, recently calling for the US to stop caring about Russia and Ukraine and invade its northern neighbour instead.

Candace Owens calls for US to invade Canada in support of truckers

Congressman on CPAC schedule demands Canada sanctions

11:00 , Andrew Naughtie

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine gets underway, Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson has previewed his CPAC appearance wit a call for sanctions...against the government of Canada, whose crackdown on the trucker protest in Ottawa has become a major talking point for US conservatives.

A similar “freedom convoy” that was planned for Washington, DC has so far attracted embarrassingly poor turnout.

CPAC Speaker profile: Jack Posobiec

10:18 , Andrew Naughtie

Among the myriad events on the CPAC agenda is a panel discussion on Saturday ominously entitled “Put Him to Bed, Lock Her Up and Send Her to the Border” (not to be confused with “Lock Her Up, FOR REAL”, which is scheduled for later the same day).

One of the speakers on the panel is a man who stands out as extreme even by CPAC standards: Jack Posobiec, who has a long record of promoting racist disinformation and white nationalist conspiracy theories.

As profiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist movements and hate groups, Mr Posobiec not only has various ties to the inner Trump orbit but has also forged connections with international far-right movements and political parties.

Flashback: Trump’s speech at CPAC 2021

09:58 , Andrew Naughtie

Last year’s CPAC saw Donald Trump in fighting form less than two months after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s legitimate election victory.

No-one was seriously expecting any hint of contrition or regret about the events of the preceding months, but Mr Trump’s energetic reiteration of what’s come to be known as the “big lie” about the 2020 election was still shockingly exuberant – as was his supporters’ response.

Here’s Holly Baxter’s analysis from the aftermath.

Trump’s speech at CPAC was enough to haunt your most surreal fever dreams | Holly Baxter

ICYMI: Wayward Democrat to address conservatives from CPAC stage

09:25 , Andrew Naughtie

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Hawaii congresswoman who took a tilt at the 2020 Democratic nomination, is set to address CPAC, completing her metamorphosis from an anti-war progressive into a caustic Biden critic prepared to make common cause with the hardline right on certain issues.

Among those is her stance on the growing conflict in Ukraine, which she has lately framed as essentially the Biden administration’s fault.

Read more:

2020 Democratic hopeful Tulsi Gabbard joins CPAC speaking roster

What to expect at CPAC

08:39 , Andrew Naughtie

CPAC is one of the most important moments in the right-wing calendar, a chance for Republicans to throw red meat to their base and attract attention as rising stars while those further to the right put pressure on the party to embrace a more extreme style of politics.

Joe Sommerlad has this explainer on what’s happening at the 2022 conference.

Everything we know about CPAC 2022

Good morning

08:35 , Andrew Naughtie

Welcome to The Independent’s coverage of CPAC. Follow us for updates as the conference opens.