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'The Everlasting Gobstopper of lies': CNN's Brianna Keilar perfectly destroys Trump's CPAC speech
March 01, 2021
CNN host Brianna Keilar on Monday dismantled former President Donald Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Keilar began her remarks by describing CPAC as "candy for conspiracy theorist headlined this past weekend by the Everlasting Gobstopper of lies himself, former President Donald Trump."
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After playing a clip of Trump claiming that Republicans had been doing "a lot of winning," Keilar noted that former president's claim is a "straight-up lie."
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"Republicans lost the presidential election, they lost control of the Senate, they still don't control the House," the CNN host explained. "Donald Trump lost the popular vote twice. The House impeached him twice, though he was acquitted both times in the Senate. Twitter and Facebook banned him after he incited the insurrection on Jan. 6."
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Keilar topped it off by pointing out that Trump and his allies have lost nearly 60 court cases challenging the results of the 2020 election.
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The CNN host went on to observe that Trump's CPAC speech "does not play like somebody who's worried about inciting another insurrection."
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Keilar said that at another point in the speech, Trump sounded "like a mob boss reading his enemies list."
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"He knows what he's doing when he singles out Republicans who put their country before him," she explained. "He did it on Jan. 6. Trump told his followers where to go, lying to them that he would be there with them and then he turned the opposite direction and retired to the comfort of the White House to watch it all go down on TV."
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Keilar added: "The only difference is this time he's returning to the comfort of Mar-a-Lago."
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Watch the video below from CNN.
</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_mZyrRgIVuU" width="560"></iframe>
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In a column for CNN, a former adviser to both President George W. Bush and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned the Republican Party to not be fooled by the rousing reception Donald Trump received at CPAC over the weekend, saying the reality outside the conservative bubble is quite different than how the ex-president was viewed at the Florida Hyatt Hotel ballroom.
According to conservative Scott Jennings -- who also serves as a CNN political analyst -- Trump would likely lose in 2024 for the same reasons he lost in 2020.
<p>The analysts suggested that what dogged Trump in 2020 was his inability to bring new voters into the tent because of his alienating rhetoric and actions. Jennings explained the simple truth that a successful campaign depends on adding voters, not driving them away.</p><p>"As a practical matter, the GOP is currently <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-2020-gains-in-the-house-set-them-up-well-for-2022/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">capable</a> of winning majorities in the 2022 midterms because of geographic, jurisdictional, and redistricting advantages -- along with the strong possibility that President Joe Biden will be far more liberal than advertised," he wrote before adding, "But there's no evidence the GOP can win the 2024 presidential campaign unless it embraces a more elastic brand, which welcomes country clubbers, white and blue collar workers, young and old, White and non-White."</p><p>With that in mind, he claimed Trump is not <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-is-trapped-in-trumps-rendezvous-with-yesterday/2021/02/28/976e1f70-7a12-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html" target="_blank">the right candidate to fix what ails the GOP</a>.</p><p>"There is direct empirical evidence that putting Trump at the center of our party in 2024 is a probable loser, as Trump twice got a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/11/how-trumps-electoral-loss-compares-prior-11-elections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">smaller percentage </a>of the vote than Mitt Romney. And that was before the failed insurrection wherein Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/11/how-trumps-electoral-loss-compares-prior-11-elections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">violated</a> his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution," he explained before elaborating, "Some Republicans (especially those most loyal to Trump) make the mistake of believing politics to be a game of subtraction when it is really a game of addition. It is entirely possible to construct a rational, center-right policy platform that attracts a broad coalition that includes Trump supporters."</p><p>He then cautioned Republicans to discretely put distance between themselves and the former president because his minuses outweigh his pluses.</p><p>"Trump actually <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign,_2016" target="_blank">ran</a> on a policy platform in 2016 -- immigration, trade, drain the swamp. He <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/The_Republican_Party_Platform,_2020" target="_blank">ran</a> on virtually nothing in 2020 and has left the Republican Party searching for an identity beyond blind loyalty to him," he wrote. "Where do we go from here? It's going to take a while to sort it out but running on nothing but '<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/opinion/trump-cpac.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">more Trump</a>' and shrinking the party for the sin of joining a club like Trump's is unlikely to put a Republican back in the White House."</p><p>You can <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/28/opinions/trump-cpac-gop-jennings/index.html" target="_blank">read more here</a>.</p>
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The Turkish fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a UN rapporteur both called on Washington on Monday to punish Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder.
The United States on Friday declassified a report that publicly accused the crown prince of approving Khashoggi's murder in the Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate in 2018.
<p>But the United States stopped short of applying sanctions against the 35-year-old de facto Saudi leader, known by his initials MBS.</p><p><iframe style="width: 530px; height: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; border-width: initial !important; border-style: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important;"></iframe>"It is essential that the crown prince, who ordered the brutal murder of a blameless and innocent person, should be punished without delay," Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz said in a statement posted on her official Twitter.</p><p>"This will not only bring the justice we have been seeking for Jamal, but it could also prevent similar acts recurring in the future."</p><p>Khashoggi, a US resident and critic of Prince Mohammed who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate after going inside to receive paperwork for his wedding to Cengiz.</p><p>Cengiz said that "following this report, there is no longer any political legitimacy for the Crown Prince".</p><p>But she said the US report did not go far enough.</p><p>"The truth -- that was already known -- has been revealed one more time, and it is now confirmed."</p><p>"Yet this is not enough," she warned, "since the truth can only be meaningful when it serves justice being achieved."</p><p>Her comments were echoed in Geneva by Agnes Callamard, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.</p><p>Callamard called Washington's inaction against Prince Mohammed "extremely worrisome".</p><p>"It is extremely in my view problematic if not dangerous to acknowledge someone's culpability and then to tell that someone that we won't do anything," Callamard told reporters.</p><p>"I am calling on the US government to act on its public findings and to sanction MBS for what he has done."</p><p>The Saudi government, which initially said it had no information on Khashoggi, says it accepts responsibility for the killing but casts it as a rogue operation that did not involve the prince.</p><p>In a statement late Friday, the Saudi foreign ministry said it "completely rejects" the declassified US report.</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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