Ezra Levant attends CPAC in D.C. on February 28th, the largest U.S. conservative gathering, where Abigail Hammond notes a "America versus Socialism" theme amid Bernie Sanders’ rise. Journalist Kim Klesick criticizes Baltimore’s $1B+ post-riot funding and pushes for congressional term limits and over-the-counter contraceptives to counter Planned Parenthood. Levant contrasts CPAC’s grassroots energy with Canada’s conservative disorganization, citing Rebel News’ shared themes—free speech, immigration, gun rights—and Murta’s observation of U.S. success on "life, liberty" messaging. He argues Canadian conservatives need a similar movement to shift from opposition to lasting power, despite media hostility. [Automatically generated summary]
I'm down in Washington, D.C. for the CPAC convention.
That's the largest conservative political convention in America in this very key election year.
So I'll tell you what I've seen.
By the way, you can get the video version of this podcast by going to rebelnews.com.
It's eight bucks a month to join Rebel News Plus, and I think it's worth it.
Anyway, here's to this podcast.
Tonight, I'm at CPAC, America's largest conservative conference.
It's February 28th, and this is the Astral Avance Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Well, I am here in Washington, D.C. Actually, I'm just across the water in Maryland at a huge convention center for the annual conservative meeting.
It's hosted by the American Conservative Union.
It's better known as CPAC, conservative political action something, something.
And it draws an enormous crowd.
It did during the Barack Obama years.
It was sort of where the resistance met then.
And during the Trump years, well, it's more of a festival type atmosphere.
There are so many conservative groups who come here in a train show style.
So many would-be political candidates coming here to get support because it's who's who in the zoo for American conservatives and conservatives around the world.
I've only been here for about half an hour, and people from around the world have come up to say hello.
Canadians, of course.
I just met a fellow from Australia who was a Rebel fan and a conservative from there.
Nigel Farage, definitely a hit with the crowd every year in the era of Trump.
It's in a very interesting place.
One of my favorite little things is that there is an old, unused, but I think it used to be real, Air Force One 747 jumbo jet parked just outside.
I got to tell you, when I drove up for a second, it fooled me.
I thought, oh my god, did the president literally park right there?
But no, he's not speaking till tomorrow.
There's a few things I want to do here.
Seeing American Politics00:15:56
I want to put my finger on the pulse of the American political situation in this incredibly important election year.
I want to see how Americans do conservative conferences because we're terrible at it in Canada.
And finally, I want to see if there's some interesting people we can interview.
Now, I just arrived, but my friend Abigail Hammond, who's been making videos with Rebel News for a few months, has been here for a couple days.
And I'm just going to turn the camera around.
Abigail, it's great to see you.
Thanks very much.
And I've been following your, you've been sending videos and photos and updates.
Tell me a little bit how it's been for you the past couple days.
It's been phenomenal.
I've just been loving it.
I've gotten the chance to talk with a lot of great individuals.
And I think the key this year is the America versus Socialism.
And that's just a really powerful theme to have, especially because the most likely Democratic nominee is going to be Bernie Sanders.
So we've gotten the chance to hear powerful stories, like from Mercedes Schlapp, talking about her, her husband, Nash Schlapp, is the head of CPAC.
And her parents both came from Cuba.
So she got to tell the story of how her father was in prison and her mother had made it to the United States and they wrote love letters for years and finally he was able to make it to the United States.
So she understands and appreciates what freedom really is.
Well, let me ask you this because I actually see Bernie Sanders as a real threat to Trump more probably than any other candidate.
Because first of all, he's authentic, unlike the fake Pete Buttigieg or Mike Bloomberg, who's just awful.
I also think he taps into populism.
And even though he doesn't elocute a good solution, some of the issues he talks about, the forgotten Americans, I think he's a real competitor for some Trump voters.
That's just my theory.
I think he would be a tough opponent for Trump.
What do you think of that?
And importantly, what are the people here at the CTAC convention think of that?
Like, are they underestimating Bernie Sanders?
Well, it's good you asked that question because I've also had the chance to ask other individuals who they think the most dangerous candidate is from the Democratic side and how Trump can face that challenge.
So essentially, one of the big issues on the table is college.
You know, Bernie Sanders says he wants to make free college.
And I think by educating people, like we have the head of the walk away movement, who is, I'm trying to remember his first name right now, but his last name is Rockham.
I think his name is Richard Brocker, or maybe I'm forgetting the first name, but Mr. Brockham.
And anyway, he used to be a Democrat and a liberal.
And then he uncovered the truth.
He found out about the fake news and about the lies being shared with everyone online.
So he's risen up and many others have joined his movement to walk away from the left and bring in others, bring in all kinds of people.
So I think by having these campaigns and movements where you really educate the public that nothing is really free.
If we give free college to people, everyone's taxes are going to go up and we're not going to be able to truly afford it.
So by educating people that they don't really need to get a college degree, that we need to go back.
Charlie Crook was in there from Turning Point USA and he was saying, you know what, we need more plumbers.
We need more people in the service industries.
And so by educating people that these are good industries to be in, that's one way to change the narrative and get people on your side.
And also, just to continue through, continue with telling the truth, what President Trump has done and the truth of what socialism, what socialism really does to a country in time.
So I think by speaking to young people who don't really know their history, that will help them.
Well, have you had a chance to talk to any political candidates or any interesting conservative celebrities?
I know that whenever there's someone who's sort of a conservative celeb, they get mobbed by well-wishers and fans.
I got a brag.
I've even had a few people ask for take selfies with me.
I think it's probably a case of mistaken identity or something.
But has there been anyone very interesting that you just enjoyed meeting or that had something interesting to say?
Yeah, I really enjoy Kim Klesick.
She's from Maryland.
She's running for Elijah Cummings spot in the House of Representatives here in Maryland.
And she's an amazing young woman.
She's a conservative.
She wants to change.
She wants to change her district.
She wants to come in and provide jobs for the people.
And I think she's a great candidate because she's a minority and she's conservative.
So I think we need more and more of these minority conservatives coming in and speaking to their people.
And so we also have other congresswomen who are coming in to do that as well.
And so she's one of the main ones I got the chance to speak with, Kim Klesick, and it was really powerful.
All right.
I know you recorded a video interview with her.
Let's take a quick look at that.
So you're running for Maryland's 7th District to replace Elijah Cummings?
Okay, so what are the challenges that are before you?
What change do you want to bring to Maryland, to specifically Baltimore, correct?
Yes.
So right now we're dealing with a lot of blight, poor education system.
I mean, basically, you name it, we're dealing with it.
So I want to bring in not just transparency, but a little bit of accountability.
So Baltimore City, you saw a lot of federal funds go into this area, especially after the riots in 2015.
President Obama did a great thing by sending federal funds to the area.
Congressman Cummings did a great thing by getting them to the area, but we still don't know where that money went.
It was either squandered or stolen.
Just this morning, our mayor was finally sentenced.
She was indicted for tax evasion and conspiracy.
She was sentenced today for three years, three months probation.
We're happy about that.
That's a win.
But that's what's going on.
You know, we've got one party rule.
The Democrats have been in charge for a very long time.
And in this seat in particular, in District 7, there hasn't been a Republican since 1953.
So I'm looking to change that in April.
So how do you speak to the people in light of people like Bernie Sanders and the socialist squad?
How do you speak to your people to get them to get you to be the chosen member of Congress?
I basically say, you know, do you want capitalism or socialism?
They have to remember, Bernie Sanders, he talks a lot about socialism, but he's a millionaire and he's made all his money thanks to capitalism.
And so people love to talk about, you know, how it's great to take from that one or 2% up top.
But you ever notice they don't ever actually leave office, right?
So they want to redistribute money, but they never redistribute the power.
And so to me, that's a problem.
And so I think what we really need to focus on is getting some new, fresh faces in Congress, somebody with some new ideas.
If you look at anybody in the private sector, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, a lot of these people would have retired by now.
And to me, if you did a great job in Congress, you could retire right back to your district because you know you could get a job in the private sector, but that's only if you did a good job on Capitol Hill.
So I want to push term limits, something that's different from many Republicans.
I'm actually for oral contraceptive birth control over the counter.
I know in Baltimore City, we have a lot of young women that use Plan B basically as a birth control pill.
That is dangerous.
We have a lot of free clinics right now that give free pelvic exams.
And so you could actually find out if a woman's a good candidate for these oral contraceptives by having them go to these free clinics.
And then they can get this birth control over the counter.
A lot of women right now, they're going to Planned Parenthood for the birth control pill.
And I think this is a great way to maybe defund Planned Parenthood if we lessen the amount of women that actually need to depend on them.
Fabulous.
And are you looking forward to versing the socialist squad in Congress?
And I know that there's a conservative group of women that are coming up to be a conservative squad.
Would you like to join in with them to team up with them?
I would love to team up with anyone.
I mean, but, you know, I'm not to say that I'm tough or anything, but, you know, you don't come to Baltimore looking for a fight.
So I could take them on myself.
You know, they don't seem so tough.
But, you know, if I could be in a conservative squad, then great.
That would be fun.
Well, I thought that was great.
And I had the pleasure of meeting her in her district.
I actually went and she toured me around some of those rat-infested, abandoned buildings.
My God, does that district need a new congressman like Cracie?
Give me your final thoughts.
What do you hope comes out of this for you as a young journalist with the Rebel for the conservative and Republican movement?
Is this like a big pep rally?
Is this a strategy session?
Is it just a chance for people to meet the people they follow on their Twitter feeds?
What's been the best thing?
I think it's a lot.
It's moving.
One of them is it's a time for encouragement, you know, to be rallied up.
It's a time for Trump supporters to remember that the fight isn't over.
Because sometimes we look at him and we're like, oh, Trump's in office.
It's all good.
But we have to remember to go and vote on November 3rd.
And that was a reminder.
And truly the reminder that our country is on the brink of disaster if one of the socialist Democrats comes to power.
So one of the main things that was pushing us here was you need to go talk to your neighbors.
You need to go talk to your neighbors and your friends.
And you need to discuss issues with them because we avoid that as conservatives.
And that's a failing of ours.
We need to be excited and we need to motivate people.
So I think it was a rally to remember, hey, you got to go vote, but also you need to go talk to your neighbors and just giving us more data on socialism and the threat that it is so we can be ready to combat and stand up for the truth.
Well, Abigail, it's great to see you.
I know you came over from your native Hawaii, and so it's not quite as gorgeous, but it's not as chilly as it's being in Canada lately.
So, you know, great to see you again, my friend.
Keep up the good work.
Now, there's someone else who's been very patiently there.
I grabbed her when I saw her.
And you're an American, and we're thrilled to have you with Rebel.
But a friend of mine from Canada is here, and she's standing over here, and I'm going to bring her into the conversation.
It's my friend Matthea Murta.
And Matea, you are a Canadian girl.
I am.
And you are down here at CPAC.
Yes, sir.
Now, how come?
Are you even like me, you just love following American politics?
Or do you think we can learn things from here that we bring up to Canada?
Oh, that's exactly why I'm actually here: to understand, to really get a pulse of what is happening here in America and how we can actually use the successes, the successful tools being implemented here in America into Canadian politics, but also into Canadian culture.
Because that's something culture, politics is downstream from culture, and there's a lot of things happening that are incredible here in America that we can really learn from as Canadians.
Okay, well, give me just one example, and it could be messaging or strategy or polling.
Give me one thing you've got.
I mean, I know things have been going.
How long have you been here, Dave?
No, I've been here the whole time.
It started on Wednesday.
Okay, well, I just got here today, so you've been to a lot of sessions.
Tell me one thing, if you have one thing so far to take away that you might implement in Canada, what would it be?
Oh, gosh, just one.
Oh, my gosh.
Give me two, though.
All right.
So, one would be strategy, getting connected with the grassroots and intertwining advocacy as well as the politicians with the grassroots voices.
That's one really key way, especially through social media messaging.
We don't use it enough in Canada utilizing the free tools that we have in our hands every single day.
And another one is surrounding the issue of life, life and liberty.
And we don't talk about, specifically around abortion and human rights that we actually possess.
We don't touch it.
It's so taboo in Canada.
And so, one speaker that I absolutely adored was Benjamin Watson.
Oh, yeah.
NFL player.
He was up on that stage, giving a fantastic speech on life, liberty, and I was thoroughly encouraged by that and took away a couple of really great talking points.
So I'm really excited to use those and implement them in Canada.
Well, listen, Matea, it's great to see you.
And you know, I've seen probably half a dozen young Canadians.
It's not very far to come to Washington.
I mean, I'm from Alberta originally, and the idea of coming to Washington from Alberta was always so far away.
But anyone who's in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, it's like an hour and a half maybe to get here or a fun drive, like a road teacher type drive.
So I'm going to sign off now and wander around a little bit more and then see if I can grab a politician.
But I know that they're in high demand and they put a little more selfies and stuff.
So I'm going to poke around a little bit more.
It's great to see you, Matea.
Absolutely, you too.
You're right.
Stay tuned.
Well, I've moved over to the center atrium.
I don't know if you can see this enormous convention hotel that's attached to the CPAC conference.
It's just amazing.
In fact, let me rotate around.
You can see out there, if it adjusts to the very bright lights behind me, that's a massive glass window.
As the camera catches up to the brightness, you can see a lot of airplanes coming and going because the Reagan National Airport is just out there.
It's an amazing city, Washington.
And when you're down here, you see just how big the political game is, how serious people are compared to our little puddle.
This is the big ocean, our little puddle in Canada.
But I want to say this.
So many people here at CPAC know the rebel.
I have been stopped at least a dozen times for selfies, people saying hello.
You know, our ideas, the themes that we talk about are universal.
I mean, obviously, if we're talking about Justin Trudeau, that's going to be something more of interest just to Canadians, although some Americans see it as a cautionary tale or something to chuckle about.
But so many of the large themes we talk about, whether it's freedom of speech or mass immigration, the Islamification of society, gun rights, trade, whatever, it's applicable down here.
And so rebel news is well known here in Washington, and so many of our alumni are thriving.
As I walk through the media alley, I guess you could call it.
I see so many of our former journalists who come up are very friendly to me.
Amanda Head, she still does videos for us.
I saw Rob Shimshock.
I'd say that there's at least a half dozen rebel journalists who have gone on to greater things.
I mean, even Sebastian Gorka did a tour of duty with us before getting a radio show of his own.
I can understand why they would move to the big leagues after being on our little league team.
And it doesn't make me feel bad.
I feel like we are, as someone once called us, the Saturday night live of conservative video.
We're where a lot of the talent starts, learns a bit of the trade, and then moves on.
In fact, one of the things I'm doing when I'm down here is I'm looking for other talent that maybe I spot a little bit earlier than the Americans do to help us cover the 2020 election, which I think is going to be important.
And look, obviously our heart is in Canada.
Our home is Canada.
But what happens in this big American election in 2020, what's that, just nine months from now, less than nine months, barely eight and a half months from now, will have enormous impacts, whether it's on trade or energy policy or the theory of man-made global warming or any other crazy thing like that.
Imagine the difference between a Hillary Clinton or a Barack Obama versus Donald Trump that we see right now.
So obvious, just talk about NATO and military matters, for example.
So a lot of these issues that are being chewed over will impact Canadians for sure.
I mean, if Bernie Sanders, a socialist, indeed wins here after Jeremy Corbyn lost in the UK and Jagmeet Singh lost in Canada, what a thing that will say about Canada itself.
I saw a lot of newsmakers, but I didn't have time to pull them over and do a proper interview in the short time I've been here.
Nigel Farage's CPAC Speech00:03:45
But let me leave you with a clip.
I showed you a little bit of Nigel Farage's, showing you some background footage of Nigel Farage's speech.
I want to show you a little bit more of it because I find him very interesting for what he did in Brexit.
But his lessons for this convention are right on point because, of course, he fought an anti-Western, anti-British, anti-American, hardcore socialist, pro-terrorist, frankly, labor leader in the form of Jeremy Corbyn.
He fought the media party.
He fought all the fancy people when he ran the Brexit party and he won.
Brexit won and a pro-Brexit Prime Minister won.
So I listened in for part of his speech.
Let me share with you the speech of Nigel Farage to CPAC, the Conservative Public Affairs Conference here in Washington, D.C.
This is very, very high risk for me, I got to tell you.
But they'll remember 1776.
They'll remember feeling they were a put-upon colony.
They were being taxed without being represented.
They were being told what they could and could not do.
And the American people said they'd had enough of that.
And so you had your Declaration of Independence and you won your independence from us and went on to become the most successful, phenomenal country mankind has ever created.
But we, too, we, too, as a United Kingdom, have a pretty amazing history.
Pretty remarkable history of who we've been and what we've represented.
And I'm not ashamed of our flag.
In fact, so we decided, we decided the last thing would be, at the end of my last speech, we'd wave goodbye to the European Union.
And I thought it was quite a nice, gentle, quite light-hearted way of leaving this political union.
And as I was doing this, and the rest of the Brexit Party MEPs were with me, the woman in the chair, who sums up humourless, leftist, globalist unpleasantness, not only cut the microphone off for the first time in my 21 years there, but very unpleasantly said, you're leaving anyway, take your flags and go.
And that's what the United Kingdom did at 11pm on the 31st of January 2020.
We took our flag and we've left!
Thank you.
Thank you.
And now that flag is not just a symbol of the United Kingdom, that flag now across Europe is a symbol of liberty, a symbol of breaking free of this globalist project.
And I want, I want, I don't just want the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
I want Europe to leave the European Union.
Europe's Exit Strategy00:02:53
So I wonder what you as a crowd think of Bernie Sanders.
So you really don't like Bernie Sanders?
Well, can I suggest to you that you're wrong.
You should be backing Bernie Sanders.
You should be campaigning for Bernie Sanders.
You should be donating money to Bernie Sanders.
You should be making sure, and I think he's going to do it anyway, but you should be making sure that Bernie Sanders gets that nomination.
You need a Democrat Party that are as far left-wing and as anti-American as they possibly ever can be, because when that happens, what will happen in November this year is not only,
not only will you get four more years of this great President Trump, but I think, I think, with Bernie, you won't just get Trump.
I think with Bernie you can retake the house too.
But Donald Trump winning a second term isn't just about the freedom, prosperity and success of this great country.
There's something even bigger that Donald Trump represents.
A second term for Donald Trump in a world that has just had Brexit means we can, by the end of this decade, end the globalist project, bring back the nation state as the primary goal.
This is this is we are living through a big moment in history.
You are part of a big moment in history.
And with four more years of Donald Trump, we will complete the job.
Thank you.
Well, that's our show for today.
I'm going to try and grab a few more interviews from interesting people while I'm down here and show them next week if I can.
I guess I spent too much time saying hello and schmoozing, and I did get here a little bit late.
But I hope you enjoyed a little bit of a flavor down here.
Coming Event in Regina00:01:37
If I had to learn something from this conference, it's, I guess, what the conference itself is trying to learn: how to transform conservatives from being the outsiders, from being the opposition, from being the dissidents, to being a more permanent governing force.
Donald Trump, in every sense of the word, was an insurgent, was a dissident, and he took Washington by storm.
A lot of the conservative mindset is that of a dissident, the deplorables.
Well, how do they transform that from a momentary victory over the socialist trend to a more permanent one?
How do they more permanently put the left on the back foot and make conservatism the default setting?
That's something they're trying to wrestle with here, and I think individual delegates are too, frankly.
That's it for today.
I'll probably be thinking about this some more and I'll share more with you.
I guess the one thing I know for sure is Canada has nothing like this.
We do our occasional rebel get-together, 500 people, sometimes 1,000 people even.
We have an event coming up in Regina, more than 1,500 registered, but nothing with this kind of depth, this kind of must-attend, where people across the conservative spectrum are expected to be.
We don't have that in Canada, and I think we need it.
The thing is, I don't think we could have it because I think the establishment would squash it, especially the establishment media.
They would undermine it, smear it, and Canadian Conservatives would lose their courage.
Well, those are my thoughts from here, just across the river in Maryland from Washington, D.C. for Rebel News.