Criticism of Joe Biden’s administration, the Chinese surveillance balloon, attacks on transgender Americans and “wokeness” are proving to be recurrent themes at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a four-day gathering for right-wing activists and Republican officials from across the US.
Donald Trump will be Saturday night’s headliner once again, seeking to re-establish his grip over the Republican Party.
But on Friday, the conference heard from far-right members of Congress Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who announced legislation to make it a felony to perform “anything to do with gender-affirming care” as she launched into remarks labelled “pure transphobia” by critics.
She also incited the crowd to boo Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky after she pledged to stop supporting US financial support to the country under Russian attack.
Donald Trump Jr assailed stroke survivor and recently elected Democratic Senator John Fetterman as a “vegetable,” while presidential contender Nikki Haley claimed that “wokeness”, particuarly using pronouns that reflect US service members’ genders, “is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down.”
