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NASHVILLE – Former President Donald Trump is using an evangelical conference here to mock former Vice President Mike Pence for upholding the Constitution on January 6, 2021, choosing an audience that represents Pence’s political base as a place to try to undermine him.
“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be historic, “Trump said in his first notes on his former ruling partner amid January 6 committee hearings revealing the intense pressure Pence has withstood to decide to move forward with his constitutional role. the election. “Mike didn’t have the courage to act.” He added: “Mike was afraid of what he was afraid of.”
Trump also cited Pence, who is not attending the conference, as a “human conveyor belt” for his role in moving the election process forward, saying he was considering calling him a “robot.” Trump’s own aides have testified that they have told the president that it would not be constitutional for Pence to take action to cancel the election.
Pence’s spokesman did not give a recorded answer to Trump’s speech. Several people close to Pence said they believed the weather would justify the former vice president’s position on January 6 among conservative voters, although Trump continues to rebuke him for refusing to go beyond his ceremonial role to observe the college count. .
In an interview earlier this week, Mark Short, Pence’s chief of staff, said he believed Pence’s actions would ultimately work in his favor. “The rainbow of history will lean towards what he did,” he said.
On Friday afternoon, Trump delivered the keynote address at the annual Coalition for Faith and Freedom majority conference, which served as a preview of what the GOP presidential field might look like in 2024. But Pence, along with other possible presidential candidates – chose not to attend. Apart from Trump, no other speaker mentioned the January 6 meetings in the early days of the conference.
The 90-minute speech was the first time Trump issued a personal rebuttal to the commission’s January 6 meetings, which have so far been broadcast to the public in three dramatic parts. His remarks – and his attacks on Pence – were met with applause from the conservative crowd.
The former president has aggressively tried to disprove the story of a planned riot stemming from the hearings. Trump told the conference that he hoped to return the 2020 election to the US legislature instead of canceling it outright, a move that experts say would violate the Constitution.
Pence was also invited to speak at the congress, but chose not to do so, said Ralph Reed, the organization’s founder, who is close to both men. “If Mike Pence wanted to come and offer a duplicate to these people, he could do it,” Reed told reporters on Friday afternoon. “I’m not saying he should have done it.”
Reed said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was also invited but was not present.
The conference is the first major gathering of potential GOP contenders for 2024, giving them a chance to begin testing messages with one of the most influential audiences in Republican presidential politics: evangelical leaders and activists.
The attacks on President Biden and Democrats focused on high inflation, high gas prices and references to the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Most added populist strains to their applications, with bolts aimed at Big Tech and corporate leaders. And they all touched on cultural issues, complaints about coronavirus protocols, the school curriculum and gender identity changes that the left is accepting.
Trump also hinted that he could seek the White House again, thinking at one point about “our next Republican president,” and added, “I wonder who that will be.” He paused as a crowd of about 2,000 applauded.
“Does anyone want me to run for president?” Trump asked as the crowd booed, applauded, and some began chanting “The United States.”
But he was hardly the only one to test the waters. Speaking to the crowd Friday morning, Sen. Tim Scott (SC) walked back and forth across the ballroom stage, predicting Republicans would win a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate in November, then raised his hands. : “And then in two years – I have a dream”, a reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King.
He stopped to applaud and then described his dream of controlling the Republican Party in Washington. “We’re going to show America how to recover from a stroke,” Scott said.
Senator Rick Scott (Florida), another Republican who is expected to run in 2024 and heads the branch of the GOP campaign in the Senate, said he was optimistic about the GOP’s chances in November. “The reaction is coming,” he said.
Scott also mentioned his controversial plan to increase federal income taxes for approximately half of Americans.
The plan was widely seen as an opening attempt at a presidential platform, and Democrats clung to it as proof that the Republican Party would pursue harsh policies toward the poor. “It’s not for the faint of heart,” said the Florida senator. “This will cause fear in the hearts of some Republicans.
Reed’s group worked hard to reach out to leaders of the Latin American faith, attracting several hundred of them. Some of the first words in the program were in Spanish. Night of Prayer and Worship included two prayers in Spanish and translated into English and a Cuban group.
The three-day conference is held in a well-air-conditioned ballroom at the extensive Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville. Vendors outside the conference room sold iodine pills to protect against the effects of nuclear precipitation ($ 35 for a seven-day delivery) and pro-Trump T-shirts, including a best-selling one decorated with the phrase “Trump told you so.” A booth advertised pregnancy counseling services.
Possible Republican presidential candidates have portrayed Democrats as more than just an opposition, but an almost anti-American force that dislikes the country. “The left wants nothing less than a revolution,” said Nicki Haley, a UN ambassador during the Trump administration, during a keynote speech Thursday. “Theirs will be the opposite of 1776. They take us back.”
Scott went further: “The military left wing in our country has become an enemy from within.” He paused to let the audience take his message. “You think that’s pretty dramatic, don’t you?” Let’s call them an enemy from within. “
Scott suggested that the country needed corporal punishment. “Switching is a southern form of encouragement,” he said, after explaining how his mother hit him with one to make him focus more on school. “Sometimes I look around our country today and I think we need a new form of encouragement.”
Representative Jim Jordan (Ohio), who said he hoped Trump would run again, also touched on the issue. “The left does not like the country,” he said. “They don’t like people who do things, grow things and move things.”
Several spoke of Ukraine, with Hailey telling the story of how she violated the protocol by meeting with Ukrainians before meeting with Russians as a UN ambassador. She used her admiration for Ukrainian fighters to highlight what she said was a relative lack of patriotism in America.
“I have a confession,” Haley said. “I look at the Ukrainian people and I realize that we once had such patriotism. That was us. We had this great American spirit and we need to bring it back. “
There will be additional speakers, including Senate nominee Herschel Walker of Georgia, who will take the stage on Saturday.
In addition to directing his anger at Pence, Trump was angry at other former advisers who testified, including Short, Bill Stepien and former Attorney General William P. Barr, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, and focused exclusively on the hearings, although some of his advisers tried to downplay his interest.
During his speech Friday, Trump said Bar was afraid of impeachment to intervene on his behalf. “Bill Bar was afraid of some things. “You know what they are,” Trump said.
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