Ted Cruz, Candace Owens, Rick Scott & Other Prominent Conservatives Headline at CPAC on Thursday

Edited by: Fern Sidman

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference was once one of the premier gatherings on the GOP campaign calendar — a must-stop for serious contenders testing the waters on presidential runs, the AP reported.

Many of the party’s best-known likely candidates — from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to former Vice President Mike Pence — are skipping the marquee event that kicked off on Wednesday, according to the AP report. The organization grapples with questions over its place in a movement that remains deeply divided  over its allegiance to former President Donald Trump.

Adding to the turmoil: A lawsuit filed by an unnamed Republican campaign staffer against. The suit accuses Schlapp of groping the staffer during a car ride in Georgia before the November election.

“There’s a lot of chatter in the media about who’s here and not here,” said  Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the conference

Among those bypassing this year’s event are congressional leaders and governors, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, and several potential presidential prospects, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been building buzz among some donors, the AP reported.

Those who did address the gathering on Thursday included Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (OH-4), Todd Starnes, Starnes Media Group, Scott Perry, Congressman (PA-10), Ralph Norman, Congressman (SC-5),  Sara Carter, Host of the Sara Carter Show, Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator (TN), Katie Pavlich, Townhall Editor, Fox News Contributor, Kat Cammack, Congresswoman (FL-3), Harriet Hageman, Congresswoman (WY-AL), Larry O’Connor, The Host of O’Connor & Company and O’Connor Tonight, Kurt Schlichter, Senior Columnist at Townhall, L. Brent Bozell III, Founder and President of Media Research Center, John Kennedy, U.S. Senator (LA), Matt Whitaker, Former Acting Attorney General and CPAC Board Member. Tommy Tuberville, U.S. Senator (AL), Gordon Chang, CPAC Board Member, Bill Hagerty, U.S. Senator (TN), J.D. Vance, U.S. Senator (OH), Julio Rosas, Senior Writer for Townhall, Tom Homan, Former Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mark Green, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Representative (TN-7) as well as K.T. McFarland, Fmr. Deputy National Security Advisor of the United States and CPAC Board Member and Michael Anton, Lecturer and Research Fellow.

During his address at CPAC on Thursday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz  took on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for waiting nearly two weeks before addressing the toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, and openly wondered how the embattled secretary is still in his job, Fox News reported.

Buttigieg has also come under criticism for making arguments that the federal highway system is racist, while coming close a few times to a rail strike that could have crippled the economy.

Fox News reported that Cruz said that Buttigieg’s late and tepid response to the environmental disaster is a sign that he and the entire Biden administration aren’t interested in helping people who live in predominantly conservative districts.

Earlier this week, the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General said it was opening an investigation into Buttigieg’s use of private jets for travel, which followed a Fox News Digital report that said he has taken at least 18 taxpayer-funded private flights since taking his job.

A department spokesman said that officials “welcome this independent audit.”

On the CPAC stage Thursday, Fox News reported that Cruz added that President Biden has been “completely AWOL” on the derailment.

“The Democrats don’t give a damn about East Palestine, because it’s a blue-collar, red place, and they’re like, ‘To hell with you,'” Cruz charged, according to the Fox News report. “If you were a bunch of transgender tech workers, you’d have the entire Biden cabinet down there for a listening session and sit-in to feel their pain.”

“Pete Buttigieg — what the hell does this guy gotta do to get fired?” Cruz asked during his address Thursday at CPAC, as was reported by Fox News.  “At this point, it’s a bar game… like, what else could he do?”

Buttigieg waited 10 days before talking about the train derailment that led to the chemical spill, and that’s just one of several black marks on his performance as a cabinet secretary in the Biden administration, according to the Fox News report. Buttigieg has been criticized for on over-reliance on expensive private air travel, even as he watched airlines cancel thousands of flights in 2022, in part because of a system failure at the Federal Aviation Administration late last year.

Cruz gave credit to Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, for sticking with the community and making videos showing evidence of chemicals spilling into waterways, Fox News reported. He said that Vance, who shared a stage with him at the CPAC event on Thursday, has done a “fantastic” job sticking up for his voters.

“But JD, alongside Donald Trump, came there and guilted the administration, and that was powerful as hell,” Cruz said, Fox News reported.

Cruz also accused Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday of misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19 and lying to Congress, according to a report in the Washington Examiner.

Cruz denounced Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for his public health policies during the Covid pandemic, as was reported by the Washington Examiner. He alleged that the former health official withheld information suggesting the coronavirus first originated in Wuhan, China, a theory that has divided the intelligence community.

Cruz called for accountability and suggested that Fauci be arrested for perjury.

“There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical community than Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly, and supremely arrogantly,” Cruz told the assemblage at CPAC, the Washington Examiner reported. “In any sane system, he would be prosecuted for lying under oath, and he would go to jail for lying under oath to Congress.”

Cruz added: “We have a majority in the House, and I am confident that we’re going to use that majority and use it to hold Dr. Fauci and the others who lied accountable. We need to have hearings on the origins of COVID. … We need to have hearings examining and laying out the facts about how Fauci misled the American people,” according to the Washington Examiner report.

In her address on Thursday to the CPAC gathering in Washington, DC, conservative commentator Candace Owens lambasted other conservatives who excessively cater to liberals by saying “We don’t need you,” as was reported by the Washington Examiner.

“I say this from the bottom of my heart, so heed this well. If you are somebody who believes that we will meet and sit down and break bread with the Left on these various topics and figure out how we come together — we don’t need you. We need fighters,” she proclaimed at CPAC to thunderous applause, the Washington Examiner report said.