Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar not only did not "debate" the attendees at the White Nationalist gathering in Florida known as AFPAC on Friday, he whipped them into a froth before the final speaker of the evening.
Gosar has received criticism for speaking to the America First Political Action Conference before going to the slightly more mainstream CPAC on Saturday. The Arizona Representative justified it to the Washington Post by saying that "it's always about the debate."
However, Gosar's 15-minute speech did not challenge any aspect of the recurring theme that "White people" and "our country" was in danger from immigration. Rather, he repeatedly fed the audience red meat.
In talking about the need to resume building a U.S./Mexico border wall, Gosar received loud cheers for saying "a nation without a people is not a nation."
However, one climactic part of his speech was when he declared:
"We have a climate crisis. but it is not about the moon and the oceans. We have a climate crisis of intolerance. a climate crisis of communists who suppress free speech, suppress our votes, suppress our citizens in favor of aliens and undermine our republic. That is the climate crisis. It is a climate of angry, violent communism."
He claimed that the Presidency was "usurped" by the forces that would destroy the country, and that "the China virus was weaponized against President Trump."
"But men don't gripe about fairness.... I will not be silent.... "America First" is inevitable and the Republican Party must be prepared to continue President Trump's agenda - "America First".
Gosar also went out of his way to (twice) praise former Congressman Steve King moments after King had urged the audience to "restore our country...with our babies."
As detailed in Ron Hansen's article in the Arizona Republic, Gosar used the ongoing pandemic as the basis for voting by proxy on Friday in the House of Representatives as the newest Covid relief package was debated and passed; he had previously blasted Democrats for changing the proxy rules last year in light of the pandemic.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
