Oxon Hill, MD – This week conservatives from all over the country gathered at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, hosted by the American Conservative Union. The event draws some of the top names in Conservative politics. Running from February 21st through 24th this year at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Vice President Mike Pence kicked off the beginning of the main sessions.
“We’ll make the safety of our nations schools and our students our top national priority.” Pence said, condemning the recent shooting in Florida. Pence continued, assuring the crowd that the administration is working to “take strong action to make our schools safe and to give law enforcement and our families the tools they need to deal with people struggling with dangerous mental illness.” Pence also encouraged listeners to “come together with American solutions to confront and end this evil in our times.” He added, “no child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school.”
Pence also addressed the growing concern over North Korea. “The United States of America doesn’t stand with murderous dictatorships, we stand up to murderous dictatorships.” Many attendees in the crowd “booed” immediately at the mention of dictator, Kim Jong Un. “We will keep standing strong until North Korea stops threatening our country, our allies or until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missiles once and for all.”
Pence also highlighted the recent tax cuts, slammed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and urged attendees to “show up and defend” what he and President Trump have done, and plan to do.
Kara Bradshaw and Danielle Herman, both students at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, praised Pence’s remarks.
“I definitely thought that he was really well spoken and hit on a lot of topics that were concerning to a lot of people,” Kara said. “Especially how he focused on the youth. For me personally, as a college student, it’s really important for me to want to continue to educate myself and other people, so he really hit on the importance of doing that.”
Danielle added that his speech got her excited, giving her “hope for the future, not the hope that the last 8 years implemented,” as both Pence and President Trump are “implementing change for our future” forward, giving her hope for her family business that the Obama era did not give her.
Marc Sisson, student from Nebraska, said “The one thing that probably hit me most was Pence going through the track list of what the Trump administration has achieved the past year.” Marc stated that he feels like politicians often make promise. “I felt like Pence’s main point is that those promises [of the Trump administration] are actually being fulfilled.”
CPAC welcomed President Donald Trump on Friday morning who spoke to the crowd for more than an hour. On Friday afternoon, the tax cut package and its impact on industry will be the hot topic as N.C.’s Bob Luddy joins other business leaders for an in-depth analysis. A livestream of the events is available at cpac.conservative.org.
