AmericaFest 2022 Day Three: Lauren Boebert, Michael Knowles, and Candace Owens

Turning Point USA is holding its annual AmericaFest in Phoenix currently, and the third day featured a long list of who’s who in right-leaning politics. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO-03), Daily Wire contributor Michael Knowles, and commentator Candace Owens gave some fiery speeches encouraging conservatives to stand up and not back down when dealing with the left. Christopher Tremoglie, a contributor to The Washington Examiner who serves on TPUSA’s Faith division, shared with The Arizona Sun Times what it’s like being a part of that new division.

Boebert, well-known for her outspokenness, told the audience that “conservative talking points aren’t enough;” instead of being on the defensive, it’s necessary to go on an offensive against the left. She also denounced RINOs in the Republican Party, calling out Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for capitulating to the Democrats on massive spending bills, “allowing Nancy Pelosi’s dead hand to continue ruling for a year.”

She declared, “Don’t worry y’all, I’m a professional RINO hunter.”

Boebert criticized the spending bills, saying, “deficit spending is deferred spending.” She said, “Democrats hate responsible, reasonable ideas, like spending what you have and securing the border.” However, she assured the audience that “they can’t stop us from giving the truth to the American people.”

She announced that House Republicans are “going to do a full court press and make the full truth known” regarding Dr. Anthony Fauci and COVID-19, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Hunter Biden. She condemned the “pay-for-play access” Hunter Biden has been accused of and denounced the loss of 13 American lives in Afghanistan while leaving behind “billions of equipment for ISIS to use against us for years to come.”

Boebert reiterated a theme prevalent throughout the conference, the left’s denial of God.

“The left wants you to believe that it’s an accident you’re here, not God’s purpose,” Boebert said.

Also, she encouraged the attendees, “You’re not fighting for victory, you’re fighting from a place of victory. … You’re not a victim, you’re a victor.” While it’s been a “dark two years for America” due to the recession, inflation, and invasion on the border, she said now “we are going to put America First.”

Knowles began his talk by stating it was good that Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk suspended some left-wing reporters last week.

“I know we’re not supposed to say that, we’re supposed to say it’s an attack on free speech.” He explained, “They doxxed and put his whole family at risk … he didn’t censor them enough,” she said.

However, he criticized Musk’s use of the phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which Musk tweeted when he announced last month that he would be reversing unfair bans on Twitter. The Latin phrase means “The voice of people is the voice of God.”

Knowles argued that this isn’t true, pointing out how Socrates and Jesus were put to death by a mob of people. “The Founding Fathers gave us a constitutional republic rather than a democracy due to their fears of a mob,” he said.

Knowles wrote a bestselling book last year, Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, which discussed how the Founding Fathers “never thought that the First Amendment protected everything, they weren’t free speech absolutists.” He listed the longtime exceptions to free speech protections: threats, fraud, fighting words, and blasphemy.

“Some states still have laws against blasphemy,” he observed. Knowles also pointed out that the “father of liberalism,” John Locke, said that “free speech didn’t cover atheists.”

Knowles criticized establishment Republicans who call conservatives hypocrites for limiting free speech protections, claiming “we’d be no different than the left if we did.”

However, Knowles said it’s obvious there is a difference between “shutting down drag queen hour versus shutting down churches during COVID-19.” He said, “That is called politics,” and “the right got duped into thinking political power is bad.”

Another example he provided was “baking a pie for a widow is better than kicking a baby in the head.”

If someone cannot discern the difference between the two, “then you are not capable of self-government.”

He said establishment Republicans say they long for the previous era when conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. led the movement, and more people were civil in politics but noted they fail to remember that Buckley said he “didn’t see any reason not to throw the Nazis and communists in prison.” We should “encourage good things and discourage bad things,” he said.

At the end of his speech, some attendees asked him questions. One young man asked Knowles if it is acceptable to ask a woman out if she has a boyfriend. To loud laughter and applause, Knowles responded, “Just because there’s a goalie doesn’t mean you can’t score.”

Owens started her speech off by blasting the “crazy” that the left is attempting to normalize. Referencing Sam Brinton, the fired nonbinary Biden administration official who got caught stealing women’s luggage at the airport, she said, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck … If it looks like a crazy person.” She said the left “has acted as bullies, if you don’t accept what they say you’re a racist, homophobe, etc. That’s how they get you to accept people who are mentally deluded.”

She brought up another frequent theme at the conference, the importance of Christian values. She told the crazy people the left is trying to normalize, “make you feel uncomfortable because you have spiritual discernment.”

She blasted how feminism “tells women to look ugly, the opposite of feminine.” Owens said the left’s actions “lead to a life of misery.” This is why “later in life women have no family or children, and are reliant on prescription drugs.”

“We live in a society that hates masculinity,” she declared. Owens defended the practice of men holding doors and paying for dates. She said “there’s nothing wrong” with that. “There’s a problem when there’s a deficit of masculinity.” She quoted Musk stating that “wokism is a mind virus.” She said “everything they do is to break down your psychological immune system.”

Owens observed how there had been a steep increase in gender dysphoria in recent years due to manipulating algorithms. She warned that “it inspires antisocial behavior” and “people are acting more extreme for likes and clicks.” She noted that the same puberty blockers are being given to children that are given to pedophiles in prison. To loud applause, she declared, “Seems nowadays doctors don’t understand anything.”

Owens said the left “feels good on the inside even though they’re not doing any good.” She ridiculed their “$200,000 piece of paper from Harvard” for a worthless degree. She said, “it’s intentional; their goal is to program minds.” She pointed out “what they accomplished with COVID-19; neighbors calling the police over someone having four people in their house.”

Owens said, “If you say something enough, people will believe it. ‘Stay at home, save lives.’”

The Sun Times spoke with Tremoglie about what TPUSA’s Faith division is doing. He said he was never the most hardcore Catholic, but he decided to get involved when he got tired of seeing the attacks on religion. Since our country is founded on Judeo-Christian principles, he resented how the left is trying to stamp it out of society. Tremoglie heads up the Capitol region for TPUSA Faith, covering Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

He said the work involves reaching out to churches and helping them understand their constitutional rights.

“TPUSA Faith’s objective is to empower religious Americans and increase civic engagement among them,” he said. “Our goal is to educate Americans about their God-given rights, by supplying them the resources to restore the country to its founding Judeo-Christian principles.”

TPUSA Faith has over 30 full-time staff all over the country meeting with pastors, holding events at churches, and registering new voters to stand up for the rights endowed upon them by God. In August, TPUSA Faith held a conference for pastors and faith leaders with over 500 attending.

The conference wraps up on Tuesday featuring TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Republican National Committee (RNC) attorney and candidate for RNC chair Harmeet Dhillon, and well-known Arizonan Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point USA’s COO. Click here for coverage of the first day of the conference and here for the second day.

– – –

Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

Related posts

Comments