CPAC 2024 live: Posobiec hails ‘end of democracy’ as Truss bewilders audience with ‘bigger bazooka’ speech

Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec hailed the “end of democracy” during a panel event with Steve Bannon at the conference yesterday, Newsweek reports.

“Welcome to the end of democracy,” he told his audience.

“We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavour to get rid of it.”

The remarks appeared to have more to do with owning the libs and inspiring a moral panic, with tongue firmly in cheek, than any serious call for revolution, with Posboic enjoying the notoriety the line brought him on social media, tweeting this cod-manifesto and some of his favourite memes.

Eric Garcia explains how the lack of MAGA superstars and generally boring panels meant an anti-Ukraine focus was the only real feature of the first day of the conservative gathering:

Pennsylvania Rep Scott Perry argued that the House GOP’s narrow majority is to the benefit of hard-right Republicans as leadership vies for their support on each individual vote to get measures passed.

Speaking about the 2022 midterms, Mr Perry said, “We knew we were going to take the majority”.

The Pennsylvanian, a former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said during a panel discussion at CPAC on Thursday in National Harbor, Maryland that “some in the party thought there was going to be a big majority. But we didn’t see that because we hadn’t earned it”.

“We thought there was going to be a small majority. And the good news about that is that folks like myself, chairman of the Freedom Caucus and Russ Fulcher, a member of the Freedom Caucus, knew that we’re going to potentially have an outsize influence so we prepared for it,” he added. “So we went to the guy that wanted to be the speaker six months before that and said things have got to change around here.”

Conservative Political Action Conference chairman Matt Schlapp refused to respond to questions about the sexual assault allegations against him when he was confronted by The Independent on the first day of the right-wing event.

Last year, a male Republican campaign operative accused Mr Schlapp of making unwanted sexual advances towards him in the last days of Georgia Senate’s runoff election.

In a sexual battery lawsuit, the anonymous accuser said Mr Schlapp had “placed his hand” on his leg and “began aggressively fondling [his] genital area in a sustained fashion” while they were in a car together.

Mr Schlapp has denied the allegations against him.

When approached by The Independent at the conference on Thursday, Mr Schlapp refused to comment when asked about the scandal.

Votes will be cast in the state’s primary election this Saturday; the fourth major state contest (not counting the US Virgin Islands.

John Bowden writes that unless something downright crazy happens in the next 48 hours, there’s pretty much only one way the contest is going to go.

Read the full story here:

Maga Republicans have been blasted for their nonchalance at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), after a January 6-themed pinball machine was set up at the venue.

GOP members were accused of “destroying the conservative movement” with the stunt and making light of the riots on Capitol Hill, in Washington DC in 2021.

Mike Bedigan has the story here:

President Joe Biden’s reported plan to restrict the right to claim asylum at the US-Mexico border has alarmed members of Congress and civil and humanitarian rights groups who fear the administration could be in breach of international law.

Such a proposal, which would bypass Congress, would mirror an illegal Trump-era measure that a federal judge had previously rejected as an unlawful attempt to “rewrite” the nation’s immigration laws to “impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.”

Alexander Smirnov was arrested on 22 February — the second time this month — on the same charges and based on the initial indictment following an arrest warrant issued from California, a Thursday filing states.

His attorneys are asking the court for an immediate release and say he has not set foot in the state of California since being released from custody on 20 February, days after he was arrested on 14 February. A magistrate judge in Nevada granted Mr Smirnov’srelease on various conditions.

Kelly Rissman has the story:

Eric Garcia explains what’s changed and who hasn’t shown up for this year’s conservative jamboree: