President Trump made a victorious return to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, where he sought to assure cheering audience members that they now have a leading advocate for their policy priorities in the White Residence although also taking aim at his favourite target, the media.
“All of these years we’ve been with each other and now you finally have a president, lastly,” Trump stated.
Trump was notably absent from the annual conservative gathering during his presidential run in 2016 and was skewered by his opponents in the GOP principal for skipping.
“I would have come last year but I was worried that I’d be at that time also controversial,” Trump told the enthusiastic crowd Friday. “We wanted border safety. We wanted very, extremely robust military. We wanted all of the items that we’re going to get, and people today thought of that controversial, but you did not think about it controversial.”
Trump also doubled down on his attacks on the media, repeating his recent assertion that the “fake” news is the “enemy of the persons,” zeroing in on the use of unnamed sources.
“I am against the men and women that make up stories and make up sources,” Trump said. “They should not be permitted to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there.”
The president’s renewed criticism of the media comes as there are press reports that White Home chief of staff Reince Priebus privately asked the FBI to knock down news stories of Trump campaign officials communicating with Russian intelligence agents. White Residence press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday morning that Priebus only asked FBI officials to go public with info that they had first privately supplied to him which cast doubt on the media reports.
The president seemed at occasions in his address to want to qualify his attack on the press, saying he’s not against all media.
“I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news,” mentioned Trump. Bets10 “It’s fake, phony, fake.”
Referring to a tweet he posted a week ago, which stated the “fake news media… is the enemy of the American folks,” the president mentioned that criticism was itself misrepresented by the press.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American Folks!
“In covering my comments, the dishonest media did not clarify that I known as the fake news the enemy of the men and women. The fake news,” said Trump. “They dropped off the word ‘fake.’ And all of a sudden, the story became, the media is the enemy. They take the word ‘fake’ out.”
The president neglected to mention that his tweet named several mainstream media organizations.
Trump’s speech marked his fifth time addressing the annual gathering of suitable-wing organizers and activists.
The conference hosted by the American Conservative Union started in 1974 and has considering that grown into a 4-day-long event with thousands of attendees. Trump’s appearance Friday marks the fourth go to by a sitting president.
Trump on Friday reminded the audience of what he known as his “initial major speech” at CPAC in 2011. That year, Trump floated the possibility of a run for the 2012 Republican nomination, a race ultimately won by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“America now is missing quality leadership and foreign countries have speedily realized this,” said Trump in 2011.
“[The] theory of a extremely profitable particular person running for office is seldom tested since most effective individuals never want to be scrutinized or abused,” he added. “This is the sort of individual that the country demands and we will need it now.”
Six years later, Trump is the U.S. president and was the conference’s most important attraction.
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway his chief strategist, Steve Bannon White Property chief of staff Reince Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence were a handful of of the important figures to speak at the conference on Thursday.
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