DEFIANT DON: MISS ME YT?
Ex-prez comes out swinging in his 1st post-Jan. 6 appearance
Former President Donald Trump hinted at a possible 2024 run on Sunday — as he bashed the Biden administration and called for unity in the GOP during his first public speech since leaving the White House less than six weeks ago.
Speaking to a roaring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida, the former commander in chief made it clear that he intends to remain a key player in the Republican party, despite his November election loss to President Biden.
“Do you miss me yet?” Trump asked the audience as he took the stage in Orlando.
“I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” he told attendees, who greeted him with a standing ovation.
“Our movement of proud hardworking American patriots is just getting started,” Trump said. “And in the end we will win!”
Still refusing to concede that he lost the election, Trump slammed his Democratic successor and teased possibly running again.
“They just lost the White House,” Trump said after trashing Biden’s immigration policies.
“But who knows, who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” he added, drawing deafening cheers from the crowd.
Trump said he would be working to get “strong, tough” Republicans elected and slammed rumors that he planned on starting a new political party as “fake news.”
“We have the Republican Party,” he said. “It is going to unite and be stronger than ever before.”
The former president returned to the national spotlight to cap the four-day annual conservative conference as the GOP hopes to regain majorities in the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections and win the White House in 2024.
Much of his speech was dedicated to Biden, who he declared has had the “most disastrous first month than any president in modern history.”
“We all knew the Biden administration was going to be bad, but no one knew how bad they would be,” Trump said.
“There’s no better example than the new and horrible crisis on our southern border,” he continued.
“In just one short month, we have gone from America first to America last.”
The ex-president also called for the immediate reopening of the nation’s schools amid the pandemic, charging that Biden had
“sold out America’s students to the teachers unions.”
“Joe Biden has shamefully betrayed America’s youth, and he is cruelly keeping our children locked in their homes,” Trump said. “No reason for it whatsoever, they want to get out.
“On behalf of the moms, dads and children of America, I call on Joe Biden to get the schools open and get them open now,” Trump said to applause.
While the ex-president tried to unite Republicans around common ideals and policies like border security, gun rights and support for law enforcement, he also took aim at some in his own party. Trump identified by name the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him a week after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as well as the seven GOP senators who voted to convict him following the impeachment trial.
He also questioned aloud whether he did the right thing in endorsing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for re-election last year. McConnell ultimately voted to acquit Trump but attacked him in a subsequent speech. Trump dubbed GOP lawmakers who oppose him “RINOS” or “Republicans in Name Only” as the crowd booed them in turn.
“Get rid of them all,” Trump said.
He urged Republicans who opposed him to instead band together in combating Democrats.
“If Republicans don’t stick together, the RINOs that we’re surrounded with will destroy the Republican Party and the American worker and will destroy our country itself,” Trump warned.
Toward the end of his 90-minute address, Trump vowed that “with your help we will take back the House, we will win the Senate, and then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House.”
“And I wonder who that will be,” he quipped.