Who says we don’t live in an age of miracles?
Former President Donald Trump was scheduled to begin his wrap-up speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2022 at 7 p.m. on Feb. 26, and he actually began at 7:10 (I checked my watch with incredulity).
But, in truth, it wasn’t the age of miracles.
It was the age of Biden, which meant rampant inflation with endless supply-chain woes everywhere, insane COVID-19 mandates with masked children, the Afghanistan debacle, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin flirting with World War III in Ukraine. (As I type this, Putin has raised his nuclear arsenal to “special combat readiness.” God help us!)
No wonder Trump was in a hurry.
And he delivered what was, at least to me, one of the best CPAC wrap-ups ever—I’ve been to maybe a half-dozen over the years—and one of his best speeches overall.
This is no doubt in part because of the gravity of the current situation. Trump himself called it ”the most chaotic world since WWII.”
Whatever the explanation, amid that urgency and speaking to a friendly, even adoring, CPAC crowd, Trump excelled. I might add that I’ve seen him speak in person more than a dozen times now—I covered the 2016 election for PJ Media—and many more times on television, as most of us have.
I only remember one political speaker being as riveting—Bobby Kennedy, whom I saw speak in East Los Angeles two days before he was shot. But that was, to say the least, a long time ago. Not even Reagan was as compelling a speaker as Trump.
One of the reasons he’s so successful as a speaker is his level of honesty. Trump doesn’t mince words, nor does he speak in the polished political language that’s frequently designed to subtly obfuscate and provide a back door of deniability for the speaker.
Most of us appreciate that candor, and it often makes us laugh in agreement. Like parched pilgrims in the desert, we’re grateful for a dose of truth.
(Time out to note that Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) was also quite funny in his speech. Another excellent talk on the final day was by Kari Lake, who’s running for governor of Arizona. This is a woman with a big future.)
Trump has received a fair amount of criticism from media on the right—from Byron York and even occasionally from Laura Ingraham—for harping on the 2020 election. On Feb. 26, those objections seemed puerile. The paramount importance of electoral integrity couldn’t have been more clear, and Trump laid that out logically.
He was aided by the repeated plays on the CPAC screens of the trailer for Dinesh D’Souza’s forthcoming documentary “2,000 Mules,” which evidently includes significant actual footage of extraordinary amounts of late-night ballot box stuffing. The effect of this film may be powerful when it comes out in the spring. (Special kudos should go to Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote, which forced the government to cough up surveillance footage that made the documentary possible.)
Here are some statements I jotted down from Trump’s speech that I thought were noteworthy. In some cases, they’re slightly paraphrased because I was typing quickly while sitting in the press section.
Apropos of that, Trump did his usual excoriation of “fake news,” sometimes pointing directly at where I was sitting. This has happened to me several times before. I’m used to it.
On this particular occasion, a man in the last row of the attendees’ section spun around and snarled at me. I simply turned around the bag that was in front of me, and he completely changed his tune, grinning and giving me a thumbs-up. Printed on the bag were the words “THE EPOCH TIMES.”
But back to Trump, here are some of his notable statements:
“The problem is not that Putin is smart. Of course, he’s smart. The real problem is that our leaders are dumb.”
“Two days ago, they [the Biden administration] canceled many oil and gas leases because of the environment.”
“We should not be buying Russian energy, but rather allow the people of our country to start producing like they did just one year ago.”
“If the radical Democrats truly want to fight for democracy ... they should start with the democracy that is under threat right next door. A place called Canada.”
“They want to do the same thing to America that Trudeau has been doing to Canada, but much, much worse.”
“We stand with truckers.” This received an ovation from the crowd.
Regarding the masks, “We will never forget what they did to our children.”
“They indoctrinate your children to hate their parents while calling you a hateful racist. ... They teach 4-year-olds to pick their own genders.”
“I said years ago, I think they spied on my campaign. ... It turned out to be true. I want to thank John Durham for figuring that out. I believe that’s just the foundation on which a lot of very bad things will be learned about what took place.”
“Everything they’re doing to me is about preserving their power and control over the American people.”
“If you wrote a book or a novel [about the spying] ... it wouldn’t sell, because people would say it’s not believable.”
“Perhaps the Republicans should pack the Supreme Court.”
“Give the president the right to fire everyone in the executive branch,” in order to get rid of the deep state.
“We must pass critical reforms, making every executive branch employee fireable by the presidents. The deep state must and will be brought to heel.”
“Our opponents have made a very big mistake. They have done the one thing you must never do if you seek to harm America. They have grossly underestimated the strength and brilliance and pride of the American people.”
Amen to that.
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