WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, kicked off Thursday just outside Washington D.C. with a speech from Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).
Donalds asserted that he was willing to allow the government to shut down unless there was a border deal.
“Decide, Mr. President, do you want to close Mount Rushmore so the southern border can be open?” he said. In January, Donalds was a vocal opponent of the bipartisan border deal that took months for Senate Republicans to negotiate.
He also touched on a common topic of the day: gender identity.
“Little boys are little boys. Little girls are little girls,” Donalds said. “When I was a little boy, I liked little girls. This is a good thing. This is the natural order that keeps society progressing.”
Rep. Donalds is rumored to be on a shortlist for possible vice president candidates to join the ticket with Donald Trump, should he be the Republican presidential candidate.
If Trump is atop the ticket, picking Donalds may complicate the election process due to the Twelfth Amendment. Electoral College electors are prevented from voting for a president and vice president from the same state. Trump is now registered in Florida, Donalds’ home state.
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of American Conservative Union, hosted CPAC once again amid multiple sexual assault allegations.
Schlapp has been the leader of CPAC since 2014 and in recent years the event has leaned into culture wars. In 2022, a panel was held with a banner that read, “We Are All Domestic Terrorists.” Segments on Thursday included “Cat Fight? Michelle vs. Kamala,” “Going Full Hungarian: Stopping George Soros” and “Would Moses Go to Harvard?”
This year’s theme branded CPAC as the place “Where Globalism Goes to Die.”
In a segment called “No Woke Warriors,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) spoke with podcaster Ben Ferguson and hit talking points that were consistent throughout the day: trans children, the southern border, ceasing aid to Ukraine and parents’ rights, which typically is invoked when banning books in schools.
“I’ve been up here three years and I’ve seen all this mess,” Tuberville leveled. “And it starts with what’s going on with our family, with our kids, and with this crazy idea of gender.”
The audience frequently broke out in “Free Jan. 6!” chants throughout the day, likely referring to those convicted of crimes due to their involvement in the attack on the Capitol Building in 2021.
Still awaiting a Supreme Court ruling over his presidential immunity claim in the January 6th special counsel case, Donald Trump is scheduled to appear at CPAC on Saturday. He will attend in lieu of being in South Carolina for the Republican presidential primary.
