The Independent’s Richard Hall writes:

Black Americans largely adopted the term “woke” going back as late as the 1940s as a phrase meant to be aware of racism around them and became a staple of African American Vernacular English.

The term has been wholly co-opted by the right. But CPAC attendees struggled to define it means in interviews with The Independent, while speaker after speaker raged against a right-wing “woke” boogeyman from the stage.

In a brief interview with The Independent at CPAC, Nigel Farage said that Boris Johnson saying “f*** the Americans” is “just Boris being Boris.”

Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green goaded CPAC’s audience into booing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

She falsely claimed that Zelensky wanted “our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine,” prompting boos from the audience.

Footage of Zelensky discussing “sons and daughters” fighting in Europe have been taken wildly out of context as right-wing opponents of Ukraine aid use his remarks to justify their lack of support.

White nationalist and virulent antisemite Nick Fuentes took a photograph with election-denying conspiracy theorist and pillow salesman Mike Lindell before he was kicked out, according to a photo on his Telegram account.

In the photo, Lindell flashes a smile and a thumbs up next to Fuentes, who is wearing black sunglasses and raising a fist.

Moments later, he was kicked out for his “hateful, racist rhetoric” that are not consistent” with CPAC’s mission, according to a statement from CPAC chief Matt Schlapp.

He said CPAC is “concerned about the rise in antisemitic rhetoric (or Jew hatred) in our country and around the globe”.

On his Telegram account, Fuentes announced he would also be postponing a fourth edition of his competing America First Political Action Conference, which in previous years hosted far-right members of Congress Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“Our venue for the rally got cancelled and they bounced us from the hotel,” he wrote. “This is a big part of why I postponed AFPAC IV – we get no play here in DC.”

In response to Schlapp’s statement, Fuentes wrote that “CPAC is reserved for sexual gropers and groomers, not groypers,” referring to allegations facing Schlapp and Fuentes’ far-right Christian nationalist group.

One of the chief sponsors of this year’s CPAC is an organisation that public health experts and critics warn is merely a platform to promote pseudoscientific Covid-19 cures like using horse dewormer, foster anti-vaccine sentiment, and abuse donor funds.

Its founder, Simone Gold, also addressed a panel at the conference with other people who pleaded guilty to crimes related to the Capitol riot on January 6. Gold pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully “entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds” and was sentenced to 60 days in prison and a $9,500 fine for entering the Capitol on January 6, which she said she regretted.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to criticise Donald Trump for his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his former administration’s lack of fiscal discipline in remarks to a half-full ballroom at CPAC on Friday.

He acknowledged that the Republican Party has failed to achieve victories in multiple election cycles in the years since Trump won the presidency, telling attendees that the GOP had “lost three elections in a row”.

The former secretary of state’s remark drew no reaction from a crowd that had heard multiple Trumpworld figures repeat the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, including during a bombastic address by Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ex-Fox News presenter who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

The Indepenent’s Holly Baxter writes:

What could have been a massive “big tent” gathering of Washington Republicans and their nationwide grassroots allies instead appeared to be more of a muted affair to celebrate Donald Trump and his dominant but still incomplete segment of the Republican Party.

The split was evident in the crowd sizes at the event on Friday, when many big-name speakers including Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump Jr and others were slated to speak. All of the above spoke to half-empty ballrooms which struggled to reach the same tenor and excitement of your average Trump rally.

John Bowden reports from inside CPAC:

Nearly every panel and speech included alarmist visions of American children threatened by gender-affirming care, with no plans for supporting young people whose health is at risk by waves of legislation.