Oxford, MD –
US President Donald Trump ran earlier on Saturday as the only Republican candidate to build his White House legacy, but faced direct criticism from potential rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis abstained.
Delivering a brand-new email at the annual Conservative Action Political Conference, Trump told a crowd of cheering supporters that he would fight his “last battle” as he tried to return to the White House.
“We will finish what we started,” he said. “Let’s finish. In this war we are going to see the final victory.”
Although DeSantis, considered Trump’s biggest potential challenger, has been the target of frequent insults and other attacks on Trump on social media during interviews and interviews, in Trump’s speech he did not name the conservative activists who had praised him earlier that day. An old video clip of the Florida president was shown in the montage.
While CPAC should be a one-time stop for Republican presidential candidates, DeSantis and other key contenders avoided the meeting this year amid scandals and groups increasingly aligned with Trump.
The former president’s longtime popularity among regional voters was on display at the convention this week. Some attendees wore Trump-themed clothing with “MAGA” hats and matching shirts. Potential and announced candidates not named by Trump received only mild applause.
CPAC’s annual non-scientific opinion poll of participants found Trump the party’s top choice with 62 percent support, with DeSantis behind at 20 percent and trailing businessman Perry Johnson, who has announced a long-term streak. In the interview with 5 percent.
Almost all of them, 95 percent of those polled, said they supported Trump as president.
Before the speech, Trump told reporters that he would continue his campaign for a third term despite the impeachment. It is an investigation by prosecutors that is being looked at differently when it comes to dealing with classified documents and efforts to influence the 2020 Georgia election and trials at the US Department of Justice.
He vowed to deter all political investigations and criminal charges against him.
“Oh sure, I don’t even think about leaving,” he told reporters, “maybe to increase my numbers, but it’s very bad for America. It’s the worst for the country.”
“This is an audience that supports President Trump,” Trump said. 3 House Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.Y. saying
Stefanik, the only member of the House leadership to attend the briefing, told The Associated Press that Trump was still the leader of the party.
“President Trump is in a very secure position and I think he will be the Republican nominee,” he said.
While Trump hasn’t fired at his potential White House-wide challenger — many of whom have been sent to conservative donors near his Florida home this week — he has repeatedly criticized the Republican Party, which he seeks to oust.
“We’ve had a Republican Party full of fanatics, neoconservatives, globalists, open borders fanatics, and lunatics.” But we will never go back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush,” he said.
He took a dig at DeSantis, calling out those who proposed raising the age of Social Security or privatizing Medicare. “We as Republicans are not messing with Social Security,” DeSantis said recently.
Trump told the crowd: “If that’s their goal, they’ll always come back.”
Several top Republicans walked out of the meeting, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a possible candidate and former UN chief who announced his candidacy last month. Ambassador Nikki Haley also spoke out Friday, making veiled criticism of Trump. His refusal to call him by name is a sign of the dangers faced by opponents who sought to provide an alternative in a party where Trump is the dominant force.
“I don’t want anybody but Donald J. Trump to be my president on that side,” said Waverly Woods, a Virginia Beach Republican actor and businessman who said she likes DeSantis but puts Trump first in her heart. Many people to talk to.
Republican candidates include Forest partner Kim Shortz, whose car has a license plate reading “TRUMP WON.”
DeSantis? I like it, he says, but a little. She wants the president to sit down and “let my man come and run this country,” Shortz said.
But not everyone at CPAC agrees.
E. Payne Kilbourn, a retired Navy submarine officer from Neavitt, Maryland, who now writes and advocates for carbon dioxide, said he is “very, very” happy with President Trump but thinks it’s time to let the game go.
“I think Donald Trump is harmful to most people in the country,” said Gilborn, 69, an independent who voted Republican in the general election and said Trump “wants to be behind the scenes.”
He sees DeSantis as the best position to win the White House.
“I think it’s a case of choice,” he said.
