Things are getting downright interesting over on the Republican ranch!
First, CPAC begins its annual conference in Orlando, Florida on Thursday. They’re already one speaker shy.
The Daily Beast reported today that CPAC organizers pulled the planned appearance of Young Pharoah, for what was termed by Twitter as “reprehensible views that have no home with our conference or our organization.”
A planned featured guest at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference with a history of making anti-Semitic and conspiratorial comments will no longer be speaking at the event, CPAC announced Monday. The speaker, who goes by Young Pharoah, once tweeted out that “THERE IS NO #HISTORICAL OR #SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF #JEWS OR #JUDAISM... ITS ALL A COMPLETE #LIE. … COMPLETELY MADE UP FOR #POLITICAL GAIN.” He also attacked fellow conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his Judaism, according to Media Matters, which first reported the posts. His conspiracies aren’t limited to the Jewish faith, according to Media Matters; he’s also tweeted false claims about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and that the COVID-19 vaccine changes your genetic makeup, which it does not. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with former President Trump, are scheduled to speak at this year’s iteration of the annual conference. Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, told The Daily Beast in a text that “I am unaware of this person or their opinions. Happy to dig into it.”
Then this popped up on Twitter:
But not to worry: the CPAC speakers list includes such D-listers as Mike Pompeo, Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, Ron DeSantis, governor of the host state, Don Trump, Jr., Devin Nunes, and scads more people no reasonably sane person wishes to be near. Former Vice-President Pence declined to attend.
The former guy who lived in the White House is expected to appear on the last day of the conference, where, according to Axios
In his first post-presidential appearance, Donald Trump plans to send the message next weekend that he is Republicans' "presumptive 2024 nominee" with a vise grip on the party's base, top Trump allies tell Axios.
What to watch: A longtime adviser called Trump's speech a "show of force," and said the message will be: "I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I'm still in charge." Payback is his chief obsession.
Axios has learned that Trump advisers will meet with him at Mar-a-Lago this week to plan his next political moves, and to set up the machinery for kingmaking in the 2022 midterms.
In the midst of all of this, and the Great Texas Freeze-Out, where both Ted Cruz and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton elected to find either warmer climes or working utilities, the Republicans themselves are merrily fracturing along predictable fault lines.
From the Hill:
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele said Monday that conservatives who do not wish to be part of the party without former President Trump leading it are free to leave.
"You have 46 percent of the folks saying they will follow Trump," Steele said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I'm like, OK, there's the door. Y'all go do your thing, and we'll just pick up the pieces on this side and keep moving. And that's the battle."
Steele was referring to a new Suffolk University-USA Today poll released Sunday that found 46 percent of Republicans would abandon the GOP and join a Trump party if the former president decided to create one.
Only 27 percent of respondents said they would stay with the GOP, with the remainder indicating they are undecided.
Additionally, Republican donors are starting to worry, as reported in the Guardian this weekend.
Though still a minority in Republican political circles, Trump’s critics – and the moneyed donors who are backing them – are scrambling fast on multiple fronts to try to prise control of the party away from those loyally toeing the Trump line.
Nikki Haley, the ex-Trump UN ambassador who is eyeing a presidential run in 2024, is hosting Zoom fundraisers on 3 and 4 March for her Political Action Committee (Pac), and is expected to draw dozens of big Republican donors attracted to her criticism of Trump during the Senate trial, when Haley told Politico she was “disgusted” and “angry” at Trump’s role in the 6 January riot.
Haley’s fundraising Pac, dubbed Stand for America, is expected to support Cheney and others who voted to impeach Trump – plus other candidates who voted against impeachment – say fundraisers with ties to her.
A more aggressive effort to try to take on Trump and his allies and move the Republican party away from their influence, is also being mounted by a new Pac called Country First, which was unveiled in late January by the Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of just 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump
Personally, I’m waiting to see what the political fallout is in Florida, which by the way, is still one of the more densely COVID-19 infected states of the Union. The Washington Times stated back in December that:
CPAC 2021 is scheduled for Feb. 25-28 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando after being held since its launch in 1974 in the greater Washington, D.C., area, including for the last eight years at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
The Gaylord has been closed since March for the novel coronavirus pandemic, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has refused to shut down his state.
UPDATE! It appears Young Pharaoh haz a sad:
This just keeps getting better!