South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had a busy weekend, speaking at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida and talking to host Margaret Brennan for CBS News' "Face the Nation." Noem, a loyal ally of former President Donald Trump, was a hit at CPAC 2021 — where the Republican governor fit fight in with the event's Trumpian Culture War themes. But on "Face the Nation," it was obvious that Brennan wasn't going to let her off with the type of softball questions she would get from Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham at Fox News.

South Dakota has not fared well during the COVID-19 pandemic, suffering some of the highest infectious rates in the United States — and Brennan pointed out that Noem, in contrast to some governors, has not been aggressive when it comes to social distancing restrictions or encouraging the use of face masks.

A former chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference was disturbed, but not exactly surprised, by the depths to which the annual event has sunk.

Mickey Edwards, a former GOP congressman from Oklahoma, noted in a new column for The Bulwark that the roots of the conservative movement's degradation extend back to the Ronald Reagan era, when he noticed as chair of CPAC and the American Conservative Union that fundraising materials became increasingly focused on culture war issues instead of political principles.

With his trademark hair helmet a bit less brassy and his bronzer evenly applied, a rested and recharged former president Donald J. Trump made his triumphant return to the main stage at the annual CPAC convention on Sunday and it was like he never left. Delivering a patented 90-minute rally speech that could have been delivered in October of 2020, or October of 2016 for that matter, Trump hit all his low notes from the border wall to China trade to the Muslim ban to the mortal dangers of windmills. The only addition to his greatest hits were a lengthy riff on the Big Lie, a declaration of war against all Republicans who've betrayed him and a new attack on the Supreme Court for being "cowards."