Around mid-day Friday when dozens of people started streaming into the Potomac Ballroom at CPAC, I assumed that it was in anticipation of Rand Paul’s speech. There are always a lot of young Republicans/Libertarians at CPAC and they love the Pauls. But what I was witnessing possibly, was the arrival of the Bush Brigades.
It sounds like Jeb Bush’s supporters are taking CPAC pretty seriously this year. Emails provided to Slate show that backers of the former Florida governor are busing supporters from downtown Washington D.C. to CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland, and organizing to get them day passes into the event.
One of the emails that went out this morning was from Fritz Brogan, a former advance man for then-President George W. Bush who (per the Washington Post) co-hosted a fundraiser for Jeb’s Right to Rise PAC earlier this month. A Bush insider confirmed to Slate that Bush’s Right to Rise PAC is helping organize the transportation.
“We strongly recommend arriving as early as possible to get a seat,” wrote Brogan in an email sent to undisclosed recipients. “Our ‘Early Rise’ team will be there at 7:30am onward helping reserve seats- if you want to join the early team, let me know.”
During Sean Hannity’s talk, Friday morning, he conducted an impromptu straw poll by calling out the names of all of the candidates, and encouraging their supporters to applaud. Judging from the huge ovation Rand Paul received, he was the top choice. Scott Walker came in a close second. But the names Chris Christie and Jeb Bush when called out by Hannity, inspired nothing but loud boos.
By Jeb Bush’s speech at around 2:00 in the afternoon, the room had filled with Jeb Bush supporters and had been transformed into a pro-Bush venue.
Here’s Jeb’s speech. It wasn’t half bad to be honest.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a counterinsurgency and counterterrorism expert who teaches at the National Defense University, spoke convincingly on the threats posed by the Islamic State at a CPAC panel, Friday called, “Lowering the Boom, When to Stand Up To Rogue Nations. Also on the panel, were Andy McCArthy, former Asst. US Attorney, Peter Brookes, the Heritage Foundation, and Gary Johnson, the libertarian former governor of NM who was on hand to offer his counter points.
“ISIS now holds territory in excess of the landmass of Great Britain. That means, it is not just a terrorist group with training camps,” Gorka explained. “It is a proto-state.”
He continued that ISIS is the “richest threat group in modern history” after robbing the Iraqi national bank twice and getting away with $823 million dollars.
Dr. Gorka noted that according to the 9/11 report, the entire cost of that terror event cost al Qaeda $500,000.
“That means ISIS has enough money from those two raids for 1,600 9/11s should it wish to turn its guns against us,” he warned. “And that is without the $3 million dollars it makes per day in illicit oil sales.”
Gorka said, ISIS is the most successful Jihadist terrorist group in terms of recruitment.
“The recruitment power of ISIS is staggering. They have recruited 14,000 foreign fighters,” he said pointing out that by foreign he means, “Brits, Australians, Americans and Germans.”
Gorka said ISIS understands social media in a way that al Qaeda never did, and recommended that every tax payer and every lover of Democracy watch their videos in their entirety.
“When you see another human being take seven minutes to sever another man’s head because he was a Christian, then you’ll understand the nature of the war we are in.”
There have been over a million Christians killed our hounded out of Iraq since 2003 when there were one million, 400 thousand Christians in Iraq. There are now less than 200,000 left. “That is a genocide against Christians on our watch,” he said.
He went on to note that we are at war with a global jihadist movement that will take generations to win. And it won’t be won without US involvement.
“Isolation and non intervention will not stop a 9/11 ISIS attack,” Gorka concluded.
“God bless CPAC!” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) hollered as he took the stage. “There’s not a single Democrat , here. It’s almost like CPAC invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak.”
He took a shot at Hillary, saying CPAC could have had her at the conference but “couldn’t find a foreign nation to foot the bill.”
Cruz said that the way to win the presidency is to use “all three legs of the proverbial Republican stool.”
He continued, “we bring together conservatives, and libertarians, and evangelicals, and women, and young people, ans Hispanics and Reagan Democrats.”
The Texas Senator explained that the way to do that is to stand with the people – and not Washington – a message he’s repeated time again.
Following his speech, there was a brief question and answer period with Fox News’ Sean Hannity
Former pediatric neurosurgeon and possible 2016 presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson kicked off CPAC 2015 with a speech calling for end to government dependency.
“We need to understand what true compassion is to reach out to individuals who think that being dependent is reasonable as long as they feel safe,” Carson said. “It’s not compassion to pat them on the head and say ‘there, there, I’m going to take care of all your needs, your healthcare, your food.’ That’s the opposite of compassion.”
“I’m not interested in getting rid of a safety net, I’m interested in getting rid of dependency.” Carson said to much applause.
Nice Deb 