Vance
tries to weather the MAGA storm at Turning Point
The
weekend-long gathering has been enveloped in intraparty fighting.
By Andrew
Howard
12/21/2025
03:42 PM EST
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/21/vance-maga-infighting-turning-point-usa-00702396
PHOENIX —
After three straight days of MAGA infighting here at Turning Point’s
AmericaFest, top Republicans — including Vice President JD Vance — tried to
find agreement on Sunday afternoon, shifting their focus to countering the
opposition.
“President
Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his
supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests,” Vance told the crowd
to loud applause, adding later: “We have far more important work to do than
canceling each other.”
In his
speech, Vance ripped into “far left” Democrats, casting their policies as toxic
to Americans and blaming them for Charlie Kirk’s September killing, which has
loomed large over the gathering. He touted the Trump administration’s policies
on immigration, vaccines and transgender issues, while calling for the crowd to
engage ahead of next year’s midterms.
“If you
miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight what he died for? Do you promise to
take the country back from the people who took his life?” Vance asked the
crowd.
His
speech at the Phoenix Convention Center is the culmination of a weekend-long
festival for 30,000 of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters. But
until Sunday, much of the weekend was clouded by an intra-party schism that
kicked off during night one on Thursday, when conservative commentator Ben
Shapiro ripped into a number of fellow MAGA-verse influencers, especially
Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Steve Bannon.
“The
conservative movement is in serious danger,” Shapiro said, especially from some
“charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in
conspiracism and dishonesty.”
Those
themes carried through on Friday and Saturday, with presidential-hopeful turned
Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy casting the moment as “a time
for choosing in the conservative movement.”
Like
Shapiro, Ramasawamy focused significant time on Carlson and his interview with
far-right influencer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, listing some of his
most inflammatory remarks and saying they “have no place in this movement.”
Then,
Bannon hit the stage and reversed course, comparing Shapiro to a “a cancer, and
that cancer spreads.”
“Ben
Shapiro is the farthest thing from MAGA,” Bannon told the crowd.
The
sold-out annual meeting is the group’s first since founder Charlie Kirk was
gunned down in September. It has featured a broad array of figures from within
the conservative movement, including top commentators, elected officials,
candidates and religious leaders, culminating with Vance and Speaker Mike
Johnson on Sunday.
Johnson
called the weekend an “epic and faithful battle that truly will determine the
future of our great republic” while stressing the importance of keeping control
of the House ahead of next year’s midterms.
Vance
also spent much of his speech talking about the midterms, bashing Democratic
Senate candidates Graham Platner of Maine and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who
are both running in competitive primaries.
“We are
gonna kick their ass next November,” Vance said of Democrats as the crowd
immediately burst into “USA” chants. Outside of Johnson and Vance, a number of
other speakers on Sunday sought to bridge the divisions that emerged in the
prior days.
“I choose
to build a movement, be part of a movement, that stands on principle, on
strength, that loves the people in the movement, even sometimes when they piss
you off,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who is running for governor. “You
can’t form a winning unit if you can’t stay focused on the mission at hand.”
Donald
Trump Jr. also sought to shift the focus to Democrats.
“The real
enemy? It’s not Steve Bannon or Tucker Carlson or Ben Shapiro, it’s the radical
left that murdered Charlie and celebrated it on a daily basis,” Trump Jr. told
the crowd.
The
political beliefs of alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson, who is facing
multiple charges including aggravated murder, aren’t easily defined.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário