Ex-CPAC chair rains hell on 2021 conference where 'facts don't matter' when it comes to Trump

A former chair for the American Conservative Union has denounced the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering sponsored by his erstwhile group, claiming that it has become cult-like and tethered to an "alternate reality," reported the Huffington Post.

Former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-OK) made the comments during an interview on CNN Friday night with anchor Erin Burnett.

"The Republican party really no longer stands for any kind of principles, conservative or otherwise," said Edwards. "The party seems now to be completely following the lead of one man wherever he goes, which is the definition of a cult. Now all that matters is 'Trump is for this, we're for this.' And that includes denying truth, denying fact, denying reality. It's such a disconnect from what's really happened in the world."

The speakers at CPAC, said Edwards, "are living in an alternate reality in which facts don't matter, the Constitution doesn't matter ... You know, they're no different than the people who flock to other totalitarian leaders in other countries. They're no different than they are in Hungary, they're no different than they used to be Germany. Whatever their great leader says, they do, and there's no underpinning of fact, there's no underpinning or concern about the norms of free democracy."

This year, CPAC's guest list has drawn controversy.

One speaker is a member of a Japanese cult whose leader believes he is a reincarnated alien from Venus. Another planned speaker, Young Pharoah, was disinvited after it emerged he has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, called Judaism a "complete lie," and said that pedophilia and bestality are the "intellectual property" of white people.