Republican presidential hopeful Senator Ted Cruz was the hands-down favorite of the Americans for Prosperity annual summit this weekend, if the number and volume of ovations during the speeches of five presidential candidates who addressed the conservative anti-tax Tea Party activists was the measure.
At the other end of the spectrum was former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a newcomer to events financed by conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch. Bush was attending his first national conference of Americans for Prosperity and was greeted with respectful, but restrained applause by a group that rose essentially out of Republican dissatisfaction with federal spending under his brother, former US president George W. Bush.
Cruz, the Tea Party favorite since his 2012 election to the US Senate, sparked deafening cheers in the Columbus Convention Center auditorium even before he took the stage, entering to the 1980s power anthem Eye of the Tiger.
Photo: AP
During his speech on Saturday, he went on to promise to “repeal every word of Obamacare,” and “rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal.”
Each of Cruz’s lines was met with applause and cheers from the more than 3,000 activists.
Jeb Bush, who spoke a day earlier, worked hard, but earned far fewer cheers, and mostly polite applause, from the anti-tax, economic conservative audience from around the country.
David White of Marietta, Ohio, was unimpressed with Jeb Bush.
“He did not articulate any plan for what he intends to do as president,” White said. “He used his time to try and rearrange perception of his record in Florida.”
Jeb Bush did stress his experience during eight years as Florida governor, noting tax cuts, reduction in the state government workforce and an overhaul in the state’s education system.
Cruz, on the other hand, laid out an agenda that consisted entirely of undoing actions taken by US President Barack Obama.
The event is significant because it is an opportunity for presidential candidates to impress the conservative group, which spent more than US$30 million in advertising against Obama’s re-election in 2012 and has activists, donors and organizers in 36 states and an operating budget for 2016 of about US$125 million.
US Senator Marco Rubio, who can trace his 2010 Senate election to Tea Party support, received hearty cheers, but less robust than Cruz, while taking a more policy-focused approach than Cruz.
The two-day conference was also an opportunity for exposure for lesser-known candidates such as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Texas governor Rick Perry.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of