Pawlenty’s speech at CPAC includes a call to turn to God, several digs on Obama
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty gave his stump speech to conservatives gathered at CPAC Friday afternoon by offering up a series of digs at Barack Obama
Jul 31, 2020122K Shares2.5M Views
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty gave his stump speech to conservatives gathered at CPAC Friday afternoon by offering up a series of digs at Barack Obama. He angrily told the president to stop apologizing for America and listed the Muslim Brotherhood as one of America’s adversaries. Pawlenty’s speech, however, was overshadowed by Obama’s own address to the nation about Egypt, and it was delivered after the closing of voting in the coveted CPAC straw poll.
Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy introduced Pawlenty. “He is a great Midwesterner with a friendly disposition. It is my pleasure to introduce the best governor Minnesota has ever had.”
Pawlenty walked in to the strain of Kid Rock’s “Born Free.” He told Duffy, who is a former star of the MTV show the Real World and a lumberjack sportsman, “Bring that budget axe and swing it hard, baby!”
Pawlenty said, “I’m not one who questions the president’s birth certificate, but don’t you wonder what planet he’s from?”
“He’s been really good at duping the mainstream media,” he added. “The policies of the left encroach every day on the freedom that makes our country great. We will never stop fighting for our freedom.”
He talked about the nation’s founders and how they created America “under God.”
“We as a nation need to turn towards God, not away from God,” he said.
He also spoke about fixing the nation’s budget deficit. “We need more common sense and less Obama nonsense,” he said. “There may be some Democrats in the room so I’ll say it really slow so they can understand: We can’t spend more than we take in.”
He also touted his accomplishment in Minnesota. “I come from the state of McCarthy, Mondale, Humphrey, Wellstone, and now United States Senator Al Franken,” Pawlenty said, generating boos from the audience. “But we cut government in Minnesota, and if we can do it there we can do it anywhere!”
He continued, “I drew a line in the sand and said, ‘Absolutely not.’” He bragged about having set the record for the most vetoes of bills in one year in Minnesota and touted the government shutdown as a major accomplishment.
“We had the first government shutdown in my state in the history of my state,” he said.
He outlined three federal policies he’d like to see. “We should not raise the debt ceiling, we should pass a constitutional amendment to finally balance the budget, and — here’s one I know you will agree with — we should repeal ‘ObamaCare.’”
Pawlenty also called for a more aggressive foreign policy. “Bullies respect strength, they don’t respect weakness,” he said. “So when the U.S. projects its national security interests around the world, we need to do it with strength.”
He called Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood “bullies.”
“Mr. President, when it comes to bullies, might makes right,” he said. “Strength makes them submit. We need to get tough with our enemies.”
Pawlenty added, “Mr. President, stop apologizing for our country.”
The last few minutes of Pawlenty’s speech were cribbed almost directly from his book trailer and send the crowd into chants of “T-Paw.”
Here’s the trailer:
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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