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Trump reruns with old script of serial lies and bullying

Jules Witcover

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump was back before his old cheerleaders Sunday at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Orlando Fla., basking in their predictable adoration as he served up golden oldies of his fact-deficient repertoire, highlighted again on how the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

They roared appreciatively as he assured them that he would be back in 2024, not leading a third party but as the loyal leader of the Republicans to what he said would be a third Trump victory, by his reckoning counting the one he lost to Joe Biden last year by 7 million votes.

“We are not starting new parties,” he reassured the faithful. “We have the Republican Party. … We have the Republican party. It’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party. That was fake news, fake news.”

Continuing the fiction that the election had been rigged by the Democrats against him, he insisted again that “they just lost the White House,” adding: “But who knows, I might even decide to beat them for a third time.”

Back on the political trail, Trump wasted no time resuming attacks on Biden, insisting that his first month in office had been “the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.” Brushing aside Biden’s fast start in coping with the coronavirus pandemic, including improved delivery of vaccines, Trump insisted he had handed his successor “what everyone is now calling a modern-day medical miracle.”

However, when it came to voting in CPAC straw poll on the spot, taken by Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin, only 55% of the attendees said they would support the ex-president in 2024 if he ran — no command performance. At the same time, no new or old face has surfaced with any substantial backing.

Closest to Trump was Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, hardly a household name nationally, with only 21%. With Trump out, his backing rose to 43%. Next was Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota at 11%. Former vice president Mike Pence got 1% in the poll. So much, it seemed, for being a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Not surprisingly, not a single word was heard from Trump about the failed insurrection he had incited at the Capitol on Jan. 6, for which he was impeached second time by the House of Representatives but subsequently acquitted in the Senate.

Notably, the much-anticipated Trump appearance and remarks at CPAC, his first since the election, were widely cold-shouldered by the major news networks and political cable outlets, with the exception of C-SPAN, which aired the former president’s combative appearance in its entirety. Those that didn’t broadcast it did, however, offer commentary, most of it scathing or dismissive.

It’s no surprise that Trump’s first appearance back in the political fray since leaving office included his customary assault on the news media, which he has repeatedly labeled the enemy of the people. This time, though, the newsies hit back, perhaps hitting him where it can hurt, in limiting his customary megaphone to the voters.

It remains to be seen whether Trump can continue as a private citizen to command the public spotlight that elevated him four years ago and kept him there for four tumultuous years in which he assaulted many of our most valued democratic institutions and severely diminished the presidency itself.

Editor’s note: Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcover@comcast.net.

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