Pence: "Because of President Trump, life is winning again." — McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017 Yes, the American Conservative Union’s combination trade show and meat market is cheesy and ludicrous when it’s not revolting, but on the other hand, the President-Asterisk and the people actually running his administration are in attendance… Please tell me …
Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Look, See CPAC 2017 — See CPAC Run!Post + Comments (84)
Bannon began by calling attention to his outsider status, thanking American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who was moderating the conversation, for “finally inviting me to CPAC.” (Bannon and Breitbart had in the past held an event called “The Uninvited” outside CPAC, featuring speakers who were not included in CPAC’s program, like anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney.)
He listed the administration’s top three priorities as national security and sovereignty, “economic nationalism,” and the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”…
Both Bannon and Priebus stayed on message when it came to another top priority of this White House: discrediting the media.
Asked what the biggest misconception had been about the administration so far, Priebus said “in regards to us two, I think the biggest misconception is everything that you’re reading.” He lamented the media’s coverage of Trump during the campaign, referring dismissively to media speculation about “what controversy in the primary is going to take down President Trump.” (As Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus reportedly encouraged Trump to drop out of the race after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump was recorded boasting about groping women.)…
Bannon, as is his wont, went further, repeatedly calling the media the “opposition party,” a term he started using in an interview with The New York Times last month. He denounced the “corporatist, globalist media adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”
“If you think they are giving you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken,” Bannon said.
He complained that the press isn’t offering an accurate picture of Trump’s efforts. “If you look at the opposition party and how they portray the campaign, how they portrayed the transition, and how they are portraying the administration, it’s always wrong,” Bannon said…
Hatred of the news media is one thing libertarians, social conservatives, tea partiers and Trumpian populists all agree on.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017
(Not much) credit where due, CPAC’s organizers did eject the “face of the alt-right”, now that the lamestream media is actually paying attention…
… Spencer, who purchased his own tickets to CPAC, was ejected after a CPAC staffer spotted him and revoked his credentials. Defiant, Spencer flashed his empty lanyard to reporters as he left the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just outside D.C., where the conservative confab is taking place over the next few days.
“They threw me out, it’s pathetic,” he said on his way out, saying that he wanted to have conversations inside on identity politics.
“I guess that they just discovered who I was, because the truth is that people want to talk to me, not to other conservatives.”
A CPAC spokesperson told NBC that the group ejected Spencer because it finds his views “repugnant.”…
Richard Spencer being escorted out by security at CPAC pic.twitter.com/nShgyWLUUc
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) February 23, 2017
Richard Spencer is on a mission to make even the most principled opponent of Nazi-punching abandon his beliefs. https://t.co/PE6Kjv2FJg
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017
ACU's Dan Schneider now onstage denouncing the alt-right as a "hateful left-wing fascist group." #CPAC2017
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 23, 2017
Pretty tepid response from the crowd to Dan Schneider's scathing critique of the alt-right just now #CPAC2017
— Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) February 23, 2017
Probably because it made no sense? https://t.co/WeD0kwScT0
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 23, 2017