Trump Incited The Insurrection With His 'Big Lie,' But CPAC Still Wants To Hear It

ORLANDO, Fla. The former presidents big lie that he actually won the last election has been refuted by judges, Republican elections officials around the country, even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell yet it remained an article of faith at the nations largest gathering of self-described conservatives.

Among attendees and featured speakers alike at the Conservative Political Action Conferences setup at the Hyatt Regency, the notion that Donald Trump actually won reelection on Nov. 3 but it was stolen from him in a conspiracy involving voting machine manufacturers, state and federal judges (and, in some versions, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg) was treated as fact.

It was a rigged election, and our votes were stolen, said Anne Marie Michaels, a cooking blogger from Austin, Texas, who rattled off the names of Dominion and Smartmatic voting machines and then explained that global bankers were behind the entire plan. If we have our votes stolen, we have no republic.

Trump began claiming that he had won the race in the wee hours of election night, and continued lying about it up to and during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol which he incited in a last-gasp attempt to remain in power. He brought the lie to CPAC on Sunday, where he gave his first public speech since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, the day of Democratic President Joe Biden s inauguration.

Just 13 minutes into his speech, Trump claimed, falsely, that Biden had actually lost the election, and suggested he would run again in 2024. Actually, as you know they just lost the White House. I may even decide to beat them for a third time, he told CPAC attendees.

We won the election twice, he said a half hour later.

And a half hour after that, Trump went into an extended tirade against the electoral system, accusing it of being sick and corrupt and alleging that tens of millions of ballots were sent out indiscriminately and that illegal aliens and dead people are voting.

This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and the other courts did not want to do anything about it, he said, repeatedly lashing out at the high court for lacking the courage and the guts to help him.

Trumps renewal of the election lie that led to the Capitol siege had already benefited from plenty of spadework over the course of the three-day conference.

A panel about elections called Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!) stated Trump had expected to win but lost nevertheless.

Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly claimed, falsely, that Democrats counted votes to determine how many they needed to forge and then plussed them up enough to win. And Amanda Milius, the producer of the movie The Plot Against the President, complained about Republicans who have urged those spreading Trumps election falsehoods to stop. That is an effort to silence us, she said.

On Friday, Deroy Murdock of the National Review actually used Trumps election lie to defend those who carried out the Jan. 6 insurrection. The reason people stormed the Capitol is that they felt hopeless, because of a rigged election, he said.