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Meghan McCain trolled after falsely claiming her father was never invited to speak at CPAC
February 25, 2021
Meghan McCain's left some social media users scratching their heads when she claimed her father, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was never invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). But Twitter users quickly corrected McCain for her epic blunder by reminding her of what happened in 2008.
On Thursday, Feb. 25, during a segment of "The View," McCain spoke about the upcoming CPAC where former President Donald Trump is slated to be the keynote speaker. "I think it's going to be more about who can gather this specific audience, which are media people, MAGA people, Trump people, people who work in all factions of conservative media, and their opinion on what happens this weekend is going to matter," McCain said on the show.
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The talk show host went on to insist the conference typically attracts the most conservative members of the Republican Party as she claimed her father was "never invited" to speak. "My father never spoke at CPAC and he was never invited," she said. "So it's not really been a place for more moderate people."
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But despite McCain's claim, Twitter users quickly pointed out the problem with McCain's remarks as they reminded her of the facts. Her father did, in fact, speak at the 2008 CPAC conference.
</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1e6c27ff5c67aab45ecd18b5b96107a6" id="a92d3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1364979936734420995"><div style="margin:1em 0">@TheView @MeghanMcCain She did it. She lied about her dad never being invited to CPAC even though he spoke there in… https://t.co/5jQNOdPic0</div> — Marky D (@Marky D)<a href="https://twitter.com/captmarkyd/statuses/1364979936734420995">1614271551.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1e017137c12de3b3c03dd16938f0d051" id="b3c2b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1364980716321259527"><div style="margin:1em 0">@MeghanMcCain @TheView You may want to make a correction. Your father at CPAC 2008: while as a Republican presiden… https://t.co/F9OKHuBURA</div> — Sn00pster (@Sn00pster)<a href="https://twitter.com/sn00pdad/statuses/1364980716321259527">1614271737.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1f4bc5b0e0e816e2336046881d49c7bb" id="c316b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1364994746226155520"><div style="margin:1em 0">@MeghanMcCain I saw him speak at CPAC 95-97</div> — CJ Good (@CJ Good)<a href="https://twitter.com/Aidansheart/statuses/1364994746226155520">1614275082.0</a></blockquote></div><br/><p>
At the time, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/meghan-mccain-claims-her-late-father-was-never-invited-to-cpac-this-video-says-otherwise/" target="_blank">he was a presidential candidate running against former President Barack Obama (D)</a>, reports Mediaite. "Thank you for inviting me. It's been a little while since I've had the honor of addressing you, and I appreciate very much your courtesy to me today," McCain said at the time. "We should do this more often. I hope you will pardon my absence last year, and understand that I intended no personal insult to any of you."<br/>
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"I was merely pre-occupied with the business of trying to escape the distinction of pre-season frontrunner for the Republican nomination, which, I'm sure some of you observed, I managed to do in fairly short order," he continued. "But, now, I again have the privilege of that distinction, and this time I would prefer to hold on to it for a while."
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As Donald Trump prepares for his first major post-presidency speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the event is being called out for not being conservative.
Former George W. Bush official Michael Gerson laid out his argument in his latest column for The Washington Post.
<p>"Asking Conservative Political Action Conference attendees for their views on conservatism is like asking arsonists to lecture on fire safety. For decades, the fondest hope of the kind of agitators attracted by this annual event has been a Republican president who shares the breadth of their grievance, the depth of their anger and the fervor of their conspiratorial delusions. In Donald Trump, they finally found their man. He will be welcomed this year — as he will be for the rest of his life — as the god-king of Crazy Town," Gerson <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-nothing-conservative-about-cpac/2021/02/25/da969d0a-77a5-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>.</p><p>"Views espoused by an extremist at CPAC merely reinforce the views of other extremists. Views declared from behind a lectern with a presidential seal on it are at least partially normalized. If we believe that moral leadership can improve a country, it follows that immoral leadership can debase it," he explained.</p><p>He offered an example.</p><p>"Many Americans have an uninformed or mixed opinion about undocumented migrants. When an American president compares such migrants to vermin, slanders them as rapists and criminals, shatters their families at the border, and condemns their children to cages, Americans are given permission for dehumanization. Other GOP politicians are given a green light for demonization. White supremacists are confirmed and emboldened in their hatred. Not just the politics of the country but also the character of the country are poisoned," he wrote. "This is one reason that right-wing populists can never be true conservatives. If intellectual conservatism means anything, it means one generation has the moral duty to cultivate humanizing beliefs and habits in the next. Conservatives do not believe that human beings come pre-wired for character. Children must be carefully taught to know what is right, informed by millennia of reflection on the matter. They must be instructed to do what is right through example and habituation. No form of traditional conservatism would urge people to follow their destructive passions or indulge their baser instincts."</p><p>He worried about the message CPAC is sending.</p><p>"By a conservative standard, what should we make of the activists and participants at CPAC? It is worth noting that many who attend each year are young. What moral messages is an older generation transmitting to the next?" he asked. "From Trump's deification they will learn that civility is for losers, that compassion is for suckers, that misogyny can be fun, that strength requires brutality and that racism makes for good politics. They will learn that deadly incompetence, based on lies and lunacy and costing countless lives, means nothing. They will learn that the Constitution can be shredded in the pursuit of raw power and that populism must be rowdy enough and transgressive enough to break a few windows and kill a few policemen. Call this what you will, but it has nothing to do with conservatism."</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6feef66f515656d71350aeffa1553e00" id="0ad58"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1365075590290800640"><div style="margin:1em 0">“They will learn that deadly incompetence, based on lies and lunacy and costing countless lives, means nothing.” https://t.co/Eag34FWtKE</div> — Michael Gerson (@Michael Gerson)<a href="https://twitter.com/MJGerson/statuses/1365075590290800640">1614294357.0</a></blockquote></div>
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On Thursday, in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he would stand with former President Donald Trump if he were to receive the nomination to run for president a third time in 2024.
"The nominee of the party?" said McConnell. "Absolutely." He added that he believes Trump would have to compete against "at least" four GOP senators "plus some governors and others" if he ran again.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">McConnell says he would support Trump if he was the Republican nominee <a href="https://t.co/l0hRgpcmM8">pic.twitter.com/l0hRgpcmM8</a><br/>— Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1365079641380122632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>
The commitment to back Trump if he wins the nomination stands in stark contrast to McConnell's
<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mcconnell-2650690320/" target="_blank">condemnation</a> of the former president's incitement of the Capitol riot in the wake of the impeachment vote, in which he suggested the charges should be litigated in a court of law. It also contrasts with the tension between the two men, with McConnell reportedly <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/mitch-mcconnell-2650609586/" target="_blank">never wanting to speak to Trump again</a>, and Trump issuing a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-calls-out-mitch-mcconnell-in-new-statement/" target="_blank">statement calling</a> him a "dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack."
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Trump has teased at the possibility of running again, but has not made a firm decision either way.
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