Members of Congress won’t be hard to find at this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), which started yesterday just outside Washington, D.C.: 28 are scheduled to speak, either solo or as a part of a panel discussion. Yet, according to the current agenda, of those nine senators and 19 representatives, only Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has two solo speaking appearances. Both of Boebert’s speeches are scheduled for this Saturday, the final day of the conference and the one that typically features the most prominent speakers.
Boebert kicks off CPAC’s last day bright and early with the Women’s Breakfast, hosted by Moms for America (MFA), a conservative Christian mothers advocacy group.
MFA is best known for organizing multiple pro-Trump rallies in D.C. following the 2020 election, including the Jan. 6 rally that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. The U.S. House’s Jan. 6 Select Committee subpoenaed MFA founder Kimberly Fletcher for her role in planning the Jan. 6 rally.
Last year Boebert spoke at MFA’s Truckin’ for Freedom press conference, held in support of the “People’s Convoy” truck convoy, a failed attempt to occupy Washington as Canadien truckers did in Ottawa.
Later on Saturday, Boebert will give another speech on CPAC’s main stage.
A spokesman for Boebert confirmed both appearances but declined to offer details about the content of either speech, saying, “She is excited to deliver her message about the importance of freedom at CPAC.”
A review of the Congresswoman’s recent public statements shows she’s emphasized the significance of the House rule changes resulting from the Speaker election, and her goals as a new member of the House Oversight Committee, and her new bill calling for an audit of what she calls “government collusion with big tech companies.”
In the press release for her proposed bill, named the ELON Act in a nod to Twitter’s big tech billionaire owner Elon Musk, Boebert claims that the Department of Justice (under Trump) colluded with “Big Tech” to “censor the Hunter Biden laptop story as misinformation to influence the 2020 election.”
Whether any of this material makes it into either of her speeches, that’s still a relatively minor allegation in the election-fraud realm. CPAC audience members will have heard plenty of grander conspiracy claims by the time Boebert takes center stage.
The speaker who will hand off the mic to her is Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who’s pushed many of the most outlandish election fraud conspiracies ever since President Biden took office.
Reached for comment, Lindell confirmed he’ll be speaking about “getting rid of the electronic voting machines and election crime.” He says he’s going to introduce his new platform, the Election Crime Bureau, an umbrella organization overseeing all of his election integrity projects, including Cause of America, which he created in 2021 by hiring several Colorado conspiracists. The new Bureau will also encompass Lindell’s various legal efforts.
“We have over 60 lawsuits going on now in the United States to get the voting laws corrected- the illegal ones that were put in in 2020, like early voting and some of the drop boxes,” says Lindell. “We also have to get rid of ERIC [Electronic Registration Information Center, which manages a shared voter registration database used by 33 states], clean up the dirty voter rolls and get rid of electronic voting machines.”
Lindell has big plans for his new endeavor and says he hopes it’s going to be endorsed by the Republican National Committee. He noted that after defeating him in the RNC leadership race, Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, said she looks forward to working with him and that they’ve remained in touch, though he hasn’t made the ask for an official RNC endorsement of the Election Crime Bureau yet.
At least two other Coloradans will join Boebert in speaking at CPAC: former Congressman Bob Beauprez and former Sec. of the Interior David Bernhardt. Beauprez is part of a panel with current U.S. Rep James Comer (who now chairs the Oversight Committee), and Mollie Hemingway, Editor-in-Chief of the Federalist. The trio’s topic is “The Biden Crime Family.”
Congress won’t be the only branch of government featured at CPAC. The speaker list is thick with other current and former GOP elected officials. Idaho Governor Brad Little, two Lieutenant Governors (VA & WV), four Attorneys General (OH, FL, UT & WV), and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose will ensure the executive branch is well represented. Former President Trump, former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, and numerous other political appointees from the previous administration will also participate. Overall CPAC’s speakers skew further right than in previous years, appealing to a largely MAGA crowd. Trump is the only declared 2024 presidential candidate attending, a notable shift from previous years such as 2015, when essentially the entire 2016 GOP field addressed the CPAC crowd.
CPAC’s own leader, Matt Schlapp, is currently facing a lawsuit based upon sexual assault allegations filed by a former staffer from the Herschel Walker campaign
The Conservative Political Action Committee runs today through Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The Moms for America breakfast begins at 8:00 a.m. E.T. on March 4. Tickets are $75 each and include mimosas. Boebert’s main stage speech, which will be live-streamed, begins Saturday afternoon at 2:50 PM E.T.
