Trump targets disloyal Republicans, repeats election lies and hints at 2024 run

Former President Donald Trump hinted on Sunday at a doable presidential run in 2024, attacked President Joe Biden and repeated his fraudulent claims he gained the 2020 election in his first main look since leaving the White House almost six weeks in the past.
Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Trump vowed to assist Republicans attempt to regain majorities – misplaced throughout his presidency – within the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in 2022 congressional elections and dangled himself as a risk for president in 2024.
“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. I wonder who will that be?” he stated, smiling. “Who, who, who will that be, I wonder.”
Trump’s weeks away from Washington don’t seem to have dimmed his anger at Republicans who voted to question or convict in a failed congressional effort to carry him answerable for inciting a lethal assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
He singled out a number of such Republicans by title, like Senators Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey and House lawmakers Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and recommended he would help candidates who opposed them in Republican primaries.
“Get rid of ‘em all,” he thundered.
Trump repeated lies he has instructed about his Nov. 3 presidential election loss to Biden, and provided a withering critique of his Democratic successor’s first weeks in workplace.

“They just lost the White House,” the Republican former president stated after criticizing Biden’s dealing with of border safety. “But who knows, who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”
Trump and his allies spent two months denying his election defeat, and claiming with out proof it was the results of widespread voter fraud, earlier than his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 searching for to disrupt congressional certification of Biden’s win.
A civil struggle has erupted inside the Republican Party, with institution figures akin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell keen to place Trump within the rearview mirror, and others, like Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, believing the celebration’s future is dependent upon the vitality of the pro-Trump base.
Trump declared the Republican Party united behind him, with opposition coming solely from “a handful of Washington, D.C., political hacks.” When he talked about McConnell’s title, the group booed.
NO PLANS FOR THIRD PARTYHe stated he had no plans to attempt to launch a 3rd celebration, an thought he has mentioned with advisers up to now couple of months.
“We’re not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be united and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party,” he stated.
In a straw ballot, 55% of CPAC convention members stated they might vote for Trump within the 2024 Republican presidential nominating race. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis got here in second at 21%.
Without Trump, DeSantis led the sector with 43%, and different potential Republican candidates had single digits.
But not everybody supported Trump. A separate query on the ballot requested whether or not Trump ought to run once more in 2024, with 68% saying he ought to and 32% opposed or having no opinion.
Still, Trump fervor on the four-day CPAC occasion was so robust that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., declared it “T-PAC” and members rolled out a golden statue of the previous president.
Trump’s flirtation with one other run may freeze the Republican subject for 2024 as different potential candidates attempt to determine whether or not they should compete in opposition to him. Many of these 2024 doable candidates spoke in the course of the CPAC occasion.
The Biden White House dismissed Trump’s speech.
“While the GOP casts about for a path forward, President Biden is going to remain laser-focused on crushing the virus, re-opening schools, and getting Americans back to work,” White House spokesman Michael Gwin stated after the speech.
An hour into his 90-minute speech, Trump dove deeply into his unfounded claims of election fraud, going in opposition to the recommendation of confidants who imagine he must look to the longer term.
“We have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that has to be fixed immediately. This election was rigged,” Trump stated. “And the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it.”
“You won! You won!” the group shouted. Trump’s marketing campaign and his supporters introduced dozens of failed lawsuits attempting to overturn the outcomes of the election, which Biden gained by greater than 7 million votes. The fraud claims have been repeatedly rejected by state and federal officers.
In the brief time period, Trump is planning to arrange an excellent PAC political group to help candidates who mirror his insurance policies, an adviser stated.
He sought to place himself because the lead critic of the brand new president, together with on immigration and safety alongside the U.S. border with Mexico, and the gradual reopening of faculties closed as a result of pandemic.
“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history,” Trump stated.

Recent Gallup polls have given Biden a job approval ranking effectively previous 50%. Trump by no means achieved above 49%.