[With links to many of the top speeches and panels that were held at last week’s CPAC]
The official theme of this year’s CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, was “Where Globalism Goes to Die.” While international and sovereignty issues were more prominent than at most CPACs, a dominant theme was the upcoming presidential election, with all of the questions and concerns about what happens between now and Election Day, November 5, and what America will look like in the following weeks and months, not to mention years.
Besides enlightening and lively discussions on a range of issues, concerns run deep on the lawfare being waged against former President Trump, the integrity of the 2020, 2022 and 2024 elections, the lawlessness and abuses of power being waged by the Joe Biden administration, and the threats America faces from globalism, including the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
I have been attending these since 1998, having missed only a couple of them. Presidential election years at CPAC are always more intense, as the fate of the nation always feels like it is hanging in the balance, even more so this year.
Matt and Mercedes Schlapp are the current keepers of the historic organization, which began in 1974 by the American Conservative Union and Young Americans for Freedom with Ronald Reagan as the first keynote speaker.
The Schlapps have taken CPAC global over the past few years, with events in Japan, Korea, Brazil, Hungary and Australia. This year the opening night saw the first ever CPAC International Summit, with current and past leaders from some of those and other countries.
As the CPAC website stated, “The first ever CPAC International Summit united many of these representatives in conversation to reject globalism and protect the unique identities, needs, and democratic governments of each nation from Leftist, tyrannical administrative states. The summit resulted in the denouncing of the tyrannical regimes of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden, and Lula de Silva, the collusion of wealthy businessmen with bureaucrats and ideological operatives to impose further tyranny, and the ruthless attack on Israel by Hamas and the inhumane, anti-semitic attacks on Jewish students and establishments that followed.”
It continued on: “The Left wants to destroy national sovereignty and crush the will of the people under bureaucratic and unelected entities like the World Health Organization, but CPAC is leading the charge to keep government for the people and by the people.”
Among the speeches and speakers who drew the most buzz were Argentina’s new president Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. Liz Truss, the short-lived Conservative Party prime minister of England was a huge hit at the conference.
In the presidential and vice-presidential poll of CPAC attendees who chose to participate, Trump won over Nikki Haley by 94% to 5%, while the two top vote getters for vice president were Kristi Noem and Vivek Ramaswamy, each with 15%.
In addition, the crowd was massively pro-Israel. There were a number of speakers discussing the importance of Israel to the U.S. in terms of its position as the West’s eyes and ears in that very rough neighborhood, especially towards Iran. There is a trust that Israel is doing its best to minimize civilian casualties while wiping out Hamas, while Hamas is committing the double war crime of using their own civilians as human shields and deliberately attacking Israeli civilians, as they so brutally did on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping at least 240 more.
If you want to watch, or scroll through the entire three days of CPAC, February 22 – 24, you can in one video, which you can match with the day by day agenda and find whichever speeches or panels that interest you by scrolling through.
Real America’s Voice, a largely internet-based TV network with a huge following, had a prominent spot right at the entrance of CPAC. Many shows were broadcast live from there, including Steve Bannon’s The War Room, drawing huge crowds interacting with the hosts of the shows.
Otherwise, here are some of the speeches and panels, all of which are linked so that you can watch them individually:
This powerful panel highlighted the very real risks to U.S. sovereignty today and this year, in keeping with the CPAC theme this year, and I highly recommend it:
The Globalists’ Threat to Sovereignty: The WHO and the UN Climate Agenda
Another powerful session was on the treatment of the Jan. 6 prisoners. So many of these people were peaceful patriots who were waved into the Capitol with no bad intent whatsoever, just exercising their First Amendment rights. And though DC Mayor Bowser and then-Speaker of the House Pelosi turned down President Trump’s offer and authorization of 20,000 National Guard troops for security, and there were an untold number of FBI informants and other people impersonating Trump supporters, instigating the crowd, the Biden Justice Department has relentlessly gone after these people, running over their due process and right to a speedy trial.
This panel included the lawyer who has represented more than 50 of those people. It also included Kash Patel and the aunt of Mathew Perna, who committed suicide over his treatment by the Justice Department. You can watch that panel here. You won’t forget it.
Here are some others I recommend:
Lt. Governor of NC Mark Robinson
Panel with Tom Homan who headed up ICE under Trump
President of Argentina Javier Milei
Peter Navarro who will soon be heading off to prison
Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem
President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton
President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele
I will have more to say about this year’s CPAC in the coming weeks.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
