Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders hit out at the Republican Party after former President Donald Trump’s speech Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“Trump left us in a place where nearly 500,000 had died of COVID. Trump left us after inspiring, directing, propelling a mob to the Capitol to violently prevent transfer of power. But Republicans in Congress still joined a CPAC where Trump repeated his Big Lie today. Unconscionable,” Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on Twitter.
In his speech, Trump said President Joe Biden’s first month in office was “the most disastrous” of “any president in modern history” and repeated claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” against him, Newsweek reports.
“Sadly, the Republican Party has turned its back on democracy and evolved into an authoritarian party — suppressing the vote, pushing big lies and conspiracy theories,” Sanders, I-Vt., tweeted. “Too many Americans have fought and died to defend our democratic way of life. We cannot and will not fail them.”
Trump hinted Sunday at running for president again in 2024, attacking Biden and the Democrats for failing to enforce America’s laws and saying, “This alone should be reason enough for Democrats to suffer withering losses in the midterms, and to lose the White House decisively four years from now. Actually you know they just lost the White House, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”
The former president also downplayed divisions within the GOP that arose following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his subsequent impeachment trial, claiming “The only division is between a handful of Washington, D.C., establishment political hacks and everybody else all over the country.”
A majority of CPAC attendees picked Trump as their preferred 2024 Republican presidential nominee in a straw poll taken Sunday, with 55% favoring him and 21% choosing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Source: Newmax
