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Glenn Beck, giving the first CPAC speech of the day, argues that "equality does not exist in nature" and "does not exist in man." Just try, he says, to "challenge LeBron James to a game of one on one," or "challenge Ben Shapiro to debate anything."
Candace Owens, of various remarks including the Hitler-was-fine-until-he-went-international thing, is speaking now. She asks "how is it possible" that the party of slavery and Jim Crow, the Democrats, has the Black vote? Her conclusion: "We gave up culture," entertainment.
Probably the biggest cheer of CPAC so far comes after Candace Owens says "Hillary Clinton, who is still not the president of the United States..."
"America is not a racist country. The people that continue to tell us that have a vested interest in racism," Candace Owens says to CPAC cheers. She says these people are now "importing Nigerians" to do racism for them, like Jussie Smollett.
"It's been a tough year to be a fan of Candace Owens," Candace Owens acknowledges in closing.
Byron York is interviewing Rep. Devin Nunes and Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton on stage about how the dirty Russia investigation tried to take down Trump.
Devin Nunes says it's fine if a Mueller report is made public, but every internal document from the investigation also needs to be public, like "every email" sent by his team.
My tweet should've been clearer - Owens was arguing that Republicans surrendered the cultural sphere, like Hollywood movies, to Democrats, not insulting the culture of African-Americans.
Kellyanne Conway is on stage speaking about the opioid crisis. The agenda says Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams would be on stage with her, but he isn't.
"You're worth more than takin' some street pill. You have no idea what the source of that pill is. You have no idea if it's - increasingly laced with fentanyl," Kellyanne Conway advises "the youth."
Kellyanne Conway says Trump is "the most pro-life president in American history." She credits Melania Trump for working to help babies born dependent on opioids. She credits My Pillow man Mike Lindell, a former crack addict, for his work on the issue in Minnesota.
Kellyanne Conway manages to work in media criticism to her appearance on opioids, saying the media is failing if citizens don't know what fentanyl is. "Lots of folks are falling down on the job and not giving you the news you can actually use."
Ted Cruz: "Democrats have gone batcrap crazy. If you look at the medical dictionary, it's under B. It is, in fact, a psychosis."
Ted Cruz is being interviewed by National Review's Rich Lowry. Lowry asks Cruz about "Robert Francis O'Rourke" saying he would take down the border fencing in El Paso. Lowry does not refer to Cruz as Rafael Edward.
Cruz says Democrats oppose the wall, even though they've supported border barriers in the past, purely out of "emotional, visceral hate" of Donald Trump.
Ted Cruz recites a list of Trump-era accomplishments, but he says "we should have done much, much more" under unified Republican control in 2017 and 2018.
Cruz argues that if Republicans had funded and built the wall in 2017 and 2018, they would not have lost the House. That is subjective but very dubious.
"One of the things that drives the media and drives the far left crazy about Donald Trump is that he's willing to actually stand up and defend America," Ted Cruz says to applause.
Ted Cruz says he hopes PETA supports Republicans now that "Democrats want to kill all the cows." There are big cheers. They're really going hard at this aggressively obtuse interpretation of the "cows" line in the Green New Deal FAQ AOC's office posted and deleted.
There will now be a mystery CPAC speaker who is listed as "TBA" on the official schedule. Last year CPAC kept NRA executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre's name off the schedule in this way.
It is just Matt Schlapp, introducing Mike Pence.
Pence is listing Trump economic accomplishments to loud cheers and standing ovations. He says it's an honour to work with a man who wakes up every day to fight to keep his promises.
Pence joins Trump in using outdated stats on unemployment, claiming Asian-Americans and Hispanic Americans have their lowest unemployment rates ever. That was true for a brief time in 2018 but has ceased to be true.
There is a standing ovation for the Space Force. A guy tries and fails to start a U-S-A chant.
"Veterans Choice is here," Pence says triumphantly about a program created under Barack Obama in 2014, and there is a standing ovation.
Pence is basically giving the speech that Trump's aides write for him for his rallies but he never delivers because he finds it boring.
"Freedom of religion is under attack in our country," Pence claims, saying "media elites" and "Hollywood liberals" now find it fashionable to mock religious beliefs. He cites the criticism of his wife for working at a school that bans gay students, teachers and parents.
"We will always stand with people of faith," Pence says of himself and a president who made a campaign proposal to ban everyone who follows a certain faith from entering the country.
Pence denounces Iran, then talks about his trip to Auschwitz. "The history of that time must never be forgotten," he says. "We say from our heart: never again." He says that when antisemitic regimes threaten another Holocaust, "we must take them at their word."
"The world has witnessed the results" of Trump's successful work on North Korea, Pence says, such as the return of U.S. remains and the halt to North Korean testing. "Sometimes you have to walk," he says, but Trump will stand firm until there is complete denuclearization.
Pence joins the Republicans warning of Democrats embracing "socialism." He says "freedom, not socialism," ended slavery.
Pence, on a "freedom, not socialism" riff, says it is freedom, not socialism, that is allowing Americans to move past their old prejudices.
Pence, like many here, is warning of "socialist" policies turning the US into Venezuela, impoverishing millions and depriving them of liberties. They're trying to paint the Dem candidates - conventional liberals, one clearly-democratic socialist - as would-be Maduros or Stalins.
CPAC is hearing via video from Donald Trump Jr., who is saying his usual things in a conversation with Jerry Falwell Jr. at a satellite CPAC event at Liberty University. This room here at main CPAC is mostly empty.
Michelle Malkin is speaking now. Mocking transgender people, she says she identifies as an American and her "pronouns are U-S-A."
Michelle Malkin is accusing "GOP sellouts" of being "in bed with immigration saboteurs," like the ones who hijacked the Tea Party movement. She says she is not a "grifter," those people are the real grifters.
