Republicans fight back against the left during CPAC Power Play speeches

Four Republican politicians on Sunday hit back against big government and COVID mandates during speeches during CPAC 2022's Power Play speeches that featured four major Republican figures from across the nation: Florida Rep. Kat Cammack, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Georgia gubernatorial primary candidate former Sen. David Perdue and Nebraska gubernatorial primary candidate Charles W. Herbster.

"We are in a moment of crisis in America," Perdue said as the first CPAC Power Play speaker in Orlando, Florida.

"It's an ideological war for the future of our country and we are this close to losing it, but we're not gonna lose it because of people like you," Perdue asserted. 

Perdue served as Georgia senator from 2015 to 2021, after he lost to Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff. In December, former President Donald Trump endorsed Perdue in the Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.

Perdue contrasted Republicans and Democrats during his speech. 

"The left wants state control. We want individual self-determination," Perdue told the crowd. While the right wants "fiscal responsibility" and "limited government," the Left wants "to make America into a Socialist state," Perdue said.

Perdue went on to compare what he views as Biden's failures with Trump's successes internationally, including in Afghanistan, as well as with the economy and immigration.

"Joe Biden failed us internationally," Perdue said. "Donald Trump stood up to the rest of the world and said we're gonna make America first."

"We have to defend our way of life. It's just that simple," Perdue stated. "If self-determination and freedom are going to abound and flourish in the rest of the world, we have to defend it here at home."

Rep. Cammack took the stage and called herself "Nancy Pelosi's least favorite member of Congress."

Cammack said she was not even "supposed to be here right now" because doctors told her mother to have a medical abortion.

Commack, the youngest Republican woman in Congress, said she decided to work in politics after becoming homeless in 2011. 

She blamed the government for taking "everything" from her family.

"They took our cattle ranch and we were left homeless. And when I was homeless I made the decision that I was going to change my life plans" to go after big government, Cammack said, adding that she went from "homeless to House of Representatives in under a decade."

Cammack accused the Democratic part of wanting victims.

"We know that they want victims. The Democrat agenda is an agenda about dependency and control… They need victims to do that," she said.

"Victimhood is not a virtue. It is a condition and even Dr. Fauci cannot fix that," Cammack said.

She rallied the crowd to fight for America. 

"We're not victims. We are survivors. We're fighters," she said. 

"This is a fight for the soul of our country," the Florida Republican said, ending, "Let's take our country back."

Attorney General Schmitt spoke after Cammack and touted his legal wins against the Biden administration.

"My job, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty simple. Each day, I wake up, I go to the office, I sue Joe Biden. I go home. Then I get up the next day, I sue Joe Biden, I go home again," he said.

"Listen, we've witnessed an unprecedented authoritarian assault on liberty and on the constitution under the guise of so-called COVID precautions," Schmitt stated. "Two weeks to flatten the curve has turned into two years to push an authoritarian, socialist agenda."

He slammed Democrats for increasing the size of government during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"The pathway to tyranny… is paved with emergency executive orders," he said. 

The left uses power to push "they use power for command and control, to push government encroachment into our lives," according to Schmitt. 

The right uses "the power of government to protect liberty, for freedom, to stop government encroachment, so people can live their lives and pursue their dreams," Schmitt contrasted.

"They want to replace the Declaration of Independence with the Communist Manifesto," he accused. "We need to pry the power away from bureaucrats."

Schmitt spoke about his efforts to stop vaccine and mask mandates in Missouri. "We are winning and we're not gonna give up that fight," he said.

He said Democrats "want to remake this country in their own image."

"Here's the good news: We're fighting back," he said. 

"I'm not tired of winning," he said, echoing former President Trump.

In 2016, Trump said, "We're gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you'll say, 'Please, please. It's too much winning. We can't take it anymore. Mr. President, it's too much.'"

Concluding the CPAC Power Play speeches, Schmitt said, "If the left wants to remake America, they're going to have to take it from our cold dead hands," while the crowd chanted "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" and "Let's go, Brandon."

Herbster, who was endorsed by Trump in October to be governor of Nebraska, was also a featured Power Play speaker. He applauded the leadership of  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former President Donald Trump.