Republicans At CPAC Would Rather Talk About The Southern Border Than Ukraine
Speakers didn't say much about the Russian attack, which was unfolding during the GOP conference.
ORLANDO, Fla. — As Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday, Republicans at CPAC, the annual gathering of the nation’s top conservatives, were mostly silent on the rapidly worsening situation in Eastern Europe.
Instead, they wanted to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are in the process of getting money from the legislature so that if Biden is dropping illegal aliens into Florida from the southern border, I’m rerouting them to Delaware,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom many see as a likely GOP candidate for president in 2024.
DeSantis, Thursday’s headliner, didn’t mention Ukraine once during his 20-minute speech, which took place in a huge convention hall as President Joe Biden addressed the nation on sanctions to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin. But DeSantis talked plenty about “woke” culture and critical race theory, all red meat tossed out liberally to a hungry GOP base. . .The focus on the border, even in the face of a more immediate and deadly crisis, shows that Republicans plan to make it an issue in the midterm elections.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and radio host, told the audience that insecurity at the southern border is a bigger threat to the U.S. than Russian aggression in Europe.
“The southern border is a lot more important than the Ukraine border,” Kirk said, calling Russia’s assault on Ukraine, the most violence that Europe has seen in decades, “a dispute 5,000 miles away in cities we can’t pronounce and places we can’t find on a map.”
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, speaking on a panel about the “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border, said Biden hasn’t been effective on either that issue or Ukraine.
“Everybody is focused on the invasion of Ukraine, as they should be. That’s critical,” he said. “But as little as the administration has done to deter the invasion in Ukraine, they’ve done even less to deter the invasion of the southern border.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, was one of the only major officeholders to address the crisis — and it was just for a quick moment.
“Their foreign policy is a war zone,” Blackburn said, referring to Democrats. “Oh, how we pray for Ukraine and the people of Ukraine.”
While Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sidestepped Ukraine altogether, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) blasted Biden on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and blamed the president for projecting weakness on Russia. . .
Trump, who’s speaking at CPAC on Saturday, blamed Putin’s attack on supposed U.S. election fraud in 2020 — one falsehood on top of another. He also praised Putin as “smart” and a “genius” in comments this week.
“He sees the weakness and stupidity of this administration,” Trump said of Putin on Fox News Wednesday. “It happened because of a rigged election.”
The conference did dedicate a panel Thursday to foreign policy. It featured K.T. McFarland, who served as deputy national security adviser in the early months of the Trump administration.
. . .CPAC continues through Sunday."
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