Thread by @daveweigel

Rubio closing his #CPAC remarks, which were mostly about Marxism/cancel culture, with some Ukraine talk: "The one thing I think everyone can agree upon is that the people of Ukraine are inspiring to the world... these are people saying, we refuse to be Putin's slaves."

"The pendulum is swinging, and I believe we are on the precipice, on the verge, of a reinvigoration of the American spirit... and let's keep CPAC in Florida!"

Rep. Jim Banks up now; Mercedes Schlapp asks about him getting suspended from Twitter. "I called a biological man a man, and I got kicked off Twitter. I imagine it's happened to you, as well." (Background here: washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10…)

Banks calls Russia's invasion "completely avoidable," attributing it to Biden's weakness, and talks about Americans training the Ukrainian forces: "We gave them our American fighting spirit along the way."

Now onstage at CPAC: Leila Centner, co-founder of a Miami school that required vaccinated teachers to stay away from students.

"I've had parents all over the country say, you've inspired me." nytimes.com/2021/04/26/us/…

Nobody on the CPAC stage has brought up the Kentaji Brown Jackson nomination, but it may not be an issue at all - it's a 1-for-1 liberal-for-liberal swap while the GOP has a 6-3 supermajority. Ginsburg already handed the court to conservatives, stakes are low.

Scott Walker, who's now running the Young America's Foundation, says that YAF doubled its YouTube subscribers during the pandemic; Madison Cawthorn says China is flogging TikTok fads to Americans while promoting "masculine values" at home.

Cawthorn asks crowd to "pray for the judges involved, the lawyers involved" in the lawsuit trying to disqualify him as a candidate for supporting an insurrection on Jan. 6. If that succeeds, he says, it's coming for anyone who questioned 2020.

On Ukraine...

Walker: "Woke weakness leads to what we’re seeing... this president seems to be more like Neville Chamberlain than Jimmy Carter."

Cawthorn: "What I want in a president is for the rest of the world to be terrified of them."

"This president has been corrupted by the radicals across this country, by Putin, by Xi Jinping," says Cawthorn.

Pompeo up now, reflecting on SecState job: "I miss every single minute of it. I wish we were still there, leading America."

Reflecting on low-lights of the Biden admin, he mentions Lia Thomas: "We've seen a man break swimming records in women's swimming races."

Pompeo talks about campaigning for candidates across the country, inc. Iowa (Folks...) and says wokeness is the greatest threat to America: "If we don’t teach them that we are not a racist nation, then surely the bad guys will tell them they’re right about America in decline."

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy calling for more energy exploration by pointing out that Russia drills in the Arctic. "They don't have the environmental regulations that the United States does. They don't have the environmental regulations that Alaska has. They're unencumbered."

"We are not in a situation where we have too much carbon," says Harriet Hageman, who's running against Liz Cheney in Wyoming. Other countries, she says, are "not willing to harm their countries and their economies to pursue this radical green agenda."

Dunleavy on what could be done now to help extract more oil and gas in Alaska: Streamline leasing and studies, declare an "energy emergency" to "flatten all this regulation right now, get drilling right now."

Here’s the full version of that video, from the conservative group Consumer’s Research.

Ben Carson on covid: "Even though they don’t want it to go, it is going away. The good Lord has a way of taking care of things."

"Why is there no covid in some parts of India? Because they were taking ivermectin."

Carson on gender content in schools: "In the pre-school, they have these books about these worms. They say these worms can be male or females. They make these worms seem like really cool individuals. What are they doing? They're planting seeds."

Nigel Farage up now: "Vladimir Putin is a nationalist Russian... I'd always thought we were dealing with somebody who was actually very logical. But I now begin to wonder whether he is."

"If Donald Trump had still been the president, that invasion of Ukraine would not have happened," Farage says. "I have no doubt."

Glenn Beck up now. “I’ll tell you the reason I’m here - and that is to see Tulsi.”

"We are looking at an America that we have to fight differently in," says Beck. He talked to Gabbard backstage: "Are people on the other side of the aisle, are they starting to wake up at all? ... She told me that a lot of people on the other side were afraid to speak out."

Beck praises Russian protesters: "Standing up at a school board meeting and being called names is completely different than standing up in Moscow against Putin. That is real bravery."

Beck praising Ukranians: "In Ukraine today, there was an 83-year old guy that came with two shirts, a pair of pants, a small piece of luggage, and three sandwiches... all he wanted to do was stand up for the freedom of his grandchildren."

Beck says we didn't see a "guy on a stamp," a national hero, in Iraq or Afghanistan. "Seeing the president of his country on the front lines with a helmet and a gun... there's no helicopter full of cash flying him away. That's the guy on the stamp who will free a nation."

Attention @VicBergerIV: Mike Love is at CPAC

Meanwhile, at Nick Fuentes's AFPAC, Marjorie Taylor Greene comes on stage as a surprise guest.

"I want to say a special thank you to Milo Yiannopoulos for making this happen," says Fuentes.

"Hello, canceled Americans!" says Greene. (I'm at CPAC but watching a stream of this.)

Meanwhile

"Because I have stood boldly, that there are only two genders - male and female - I am attacked every single day," says Greene. "As an American woman, I'm very proud to be an American woman. I don't live in another country where I'm treated like a dog."

"If we can't stand up for God's creation, then how are we going to stand up for the unborn? You see, abortion is genocide. And you want to talk about people who are canceled? Those people are cancelled, over 63 million."

Greene says that "Democrats and the propaganda media and the Hollywood actors and elites" are trying to convince Americans to give up gas-powered cars for electric, a gift to China's dominant battery industry. "The Democrats are driving us into a future that we cannot sustain."

Back to CPAC and Gabbard: "If you replace the word U.S. government with the word church, we can see how those in power see themselves as the high priests."

Gabbard praises Loudoun County, Va. parents in audience and school board campaigners: "They are in the trenches, standing up, and fighting for their kids - fighting against boards of education and politicians who believe parents don't have the right to raise their own children."

Gabbard condemns the "Biden-Clinton neocon neolib foreign policy."

"They proclaim that we must go to war to spread democracy and freedom while they actively work to undermine our freedoms and our democratic republic here at home."

Gabbard condemned the "power elite operation to crush freedom of speech," calling it "authoritarianism," and saying that "by rejecting our Bill of Rights, they have rejected our Constitution and therefore are the greatest threat to our republic."

That’s probably a wrap for now. Putting every CPAC note/quote into a thread was a good idea, come back tomorrow if you were into it.