Trump supporters complain the Capitol riot gets 'bad press' at CPAC's 'parallel universe'

According to the Guardian's David Smith who is attending the annual CPAC conference in Orlando this year, supporters of Donald Trump are still neck-deep in conspiracy rumors and denial, leading him to suggest they appear to be living in a "parallel universe."

Reporting from the annual confab that has drawn current far-right GOP lawmakers and aspiring candidates looking to boost their campaigns, Smith said attendees he spoke with have a litany of complaints about the 2020 election results, the damage they believe President Joe Biden is inflicting on "democracy" and how they think the Jan 6th Capitol riot that sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives has been portrayed in the press.

Addressing what he is witnessing in the hotel ballrooms as crowds flock to listen to speakers, Smith wrote, "Welcome to a parallel universe where it is common cause that Trump was spied on by rival Hillary Clinton, the January 6 insurrection was a heroic stand by patriots, and names such as Anthony Fauci, Justin Trudeau and Black Lives Matter are guaranteed to elicit loud boos."

Speaking with attendees, the Guardian correspondent got an earful about the 2020 election that sent Joe Biden to the Oval Office and Trump supporters into a frenzy of conspiracy rumors about how the election was stolen.

"First, they amplify Trump’s baseless claim of widespread election rigging," the journalist reported. Interviews with CPAC attendees found it is taken as gospel. For example, Tom Freeman, 66, a retailer from Jupiter, Florida, insisted: 'The fraud in 2020 is real, it’s huge, it’s millions of fraudulent votes. Democracy in the United States is under assault due to illegal immigration and voter fraud and manipulation that’s done on a systemic level.'"

The report notes that Freeman's belief of election fraud was amplified in a speech by Josh Mandel, who is seeking Ohio's GOP U.S. Senate nomination, and told the crowd, "We have Democrats who think it’s OK to cheat in elections, and I would submit to you that one of the most important fights of our day is to stop the cheating from the left... I want to say it very clearly and very directly. I believe this election was stolen from Donald J Trump.”

Lisa Forsyth of Tampa, Florida, who was in Washington D.C. on Jan 6th, thinks the press got what happened all wrong.

"To see the amount of bad press for just being there is out of line," she complained. "Some of us didn’t do anything wrong but we’re lumped in with the infiltrators. There’s video footage of these people changing into Trump gear from their black stuff. There’s video footage out there but it’s a total denial.”

Forsyth did draw the line at suggesting democracy is being "threatened."

“No, I wouldn’t use that phrase, I’m sorry, but that’s a line that I hear the liberals use all the time and I’m obviously not one of them. Our freedom is definitely under threat," the 54-year-old suggested.

Rachel Sheley, 53, of Kentuck disagreed, telling Smith, "Democracy is under threat because they’re trying to infiltrate us with communism. First amendment, second amendment – they want to strip them all away. If they are successful in doing so one at time all undercover, they’re stealing away the rights of our democracy.”

Lauren Lamp, 22, of New York added that she doesn't think President Biden is in control of the country.

"Clearly, we can see from the past year Biden is a larger threat than Trump ever was. Trump was trying to restore the American dream. Biden: nobody knows what he’s doing because he does not address the American people. We don’t even know if it’s him working behind the scenes," she explained.

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