Democrat Tulsi Gabbard electrifies CPAC with withering attack on Biden-era cancel culture

Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard electrified a conservative audience Friday night with a stinging attack on President Biden, big government Democrats and media elites who she said were imposing cancel culture on America to crush free speech and the Bill of Rights. 

"We have too many people in positions of power whose foremost responsibility is to protect our freedoms and uphold our God-given rights, and yet they are the ones who are actually trying to take these rights away from us," Gabbard said during an address at the Ronald Reagan dinner at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.

"This is the biggest threat to our country," Gabbard warned. "It is not coming from some foreign country — it is coming from power elites here at home and their co-conspirators in the mainstream media and the security state who are working to undermine our freedoms."

Just six years removed from endorsing socialist candidate Bernie Sanders for president and two years from running against Biden in the Democratic primary, Gabbard sought to find common ground with the largest conservative gathering in America by decrying efforts to dictate truth, impede free speech and cancel personalities whose views differ from the government establishment.

"Our freedom comes from God, not our government," she declared at one point.

Gabbard was warmly welcomed by the crowd, which stood several times to applaud her lines and gave her a final standing ovation at the end.

The former Hawaii congresswoman opened her speech by taking a moment of silence for those in Ukraine being attacked by the Russian military.

She declared she felt welcomed by conservatives who might not share all of her political beliefs. 

Gabbard's appearance at the Reagan dinner, the hallmark event of the annual CPAC conference, raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.

She heavily criticized Biden and Clinton Democrats for trampling free speech and imposing singular views of truth in America.

She also dinged Republicans who she said proclaimed all the right words about fighting big government but then turn around and approved programs like the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.