GB News' Nigel Farage addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando - this is what he said...
"It's great to be back at CPAC - I couldn't come last year because of travel restrictions mercifully though, and isn’t appropriate that CPAC is being held in Florida, the one state in the USA with Ron DeSantis as governor, maintains a sane and sensible policy while the rest of the world went mad. Well done Ron DeSantis, well done Florida.
"It’s just as well CPAC’s not being held in Canada at the moment well. Mr. Trudeau has become…I think you must all be half asleep. It's clearly been a long day. I said Justin Trudeau. That’s a bit more like.
"Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe still have the most terrible restrictions put in place. But I'm pleased to say that in England sanity has finally prevailed. We are beginning to wake up and all restrictions have been lifted. It isn't just about restrictions. We've got to stand up and fight for freedom of choice. We must go on fighting vaccine mandates every single time we get the opportunity.
Nigel Farage pauses as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida.
MARCO BELLO
"Our freedom is at stake and it matters, is what our forefathers left us. We're not going to let global politicians take it away from us. And it's a fight that we can win and it's a fight that we are going to win. Be in no doubt about that.
"But right now, the world is facing something even more immediate, something even more serious. And I guess there'll be a lot of Americans who quite understandably will say, ‘Ukraine is a long, long way away’. I would guess there are many in all of our countries who would struggle to the point on a map to where Ukraine actually is. And I know there are many Americans who say, ‘Just think what this country gave in World War One and World War Two’.
"Think of the massive price that America paid to get Europe out of any problems. Well the fact is if America hadn’t done that Europe would have been unliveable for the last 75 years and we own America a massive, massive debt to our freedom and our liberty. Not that you’d hear that from a French politician who always seem to resent what you did for them.
"So what I'm about to say will perhaps sound unfair. But it's this. Vladimir Putin is a nationalist Russian. He wants to get back, at least I thought he wanted to get back the Russian speaking areas into his country When it comes to those two eastern provinces in Ukraine, well, they are Russian speaking. I always thought that we were dealing with somebody who was actually very logical. But I now begin to wonder whether he is. Then again, of course, he's had nothing to fear. The worst American president in the history of this nation. I'm not allowed to say let's go Brandon because it's too rude. So let’s go Brandon.
"I have no doubt that if Donald Trump had still been the president, that invasion of Ukraine would not have happened. I’m in no doubt about that. It has happened. And if something's gone wrong with Putin and he's lost logic and reason, it’s quite possible to think that he’ll want to go back to the days of Catherine the Great's and Tsarist empire, and that Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are under threat.
"He also is probing at NATO and I'll tell you why. This remarkable alliance that has worked since the late 1940s was put back together to keep peace has pretty much done a very good job over those years. But something happened last year. America withdrew from Afghanistan, unilaterally without even consulting your closest ally in the world. And let's face it, we've been with America in virtually every major conflict side by side with you since 1917 and what Joe Biden did without a phone call, was withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. You’ve got to ask yourself a question - do Americans still want to be the leaders of the Western world? Because if they're not, we have a problem. And the truth of it is, and this is unfair on American taxpayers and American people, but it's a fact, the truth of it is without America, NATO is a waste of space, without America, Putin can do what the hell he wants, and we don't have the strength to stop it.
Nigel Farage gestures as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida.
MARCO BELLO
"Donald Trump did his best to make delinquent NATO members start paying the membership fee, and he was right to do so. But it's still it's still not enough. It's still not enough. So there needs to be a big public debate in America right now about NATO. Do you wish to continue leading NATO and if you do, that message must be sent loud and clear to Vladimir Putin. Because you know, if it’s not, if that messages isn’t sent I think Putin may well continue. I've come to that conclusion over the last few days.
"We behave very badly in many ways. We promised the Russians when the wall came down, we would not extend NATO and the European Union to the east. They've considered that as an encroachment on their territory. We have made mistakes. We have got things wrong. We have not been honest about much of our dealings with Ukraine and Russia. But the fact is, we are where we are. What Putin has done is truly dreadful. It is dangerous, it is frightening, and if we believe in independent nation states and liberty and democracy, then America and Britain, by your side, have to send that message - no further can he be allowed to go. We have to send it.
"Because if we don’t, we will face an even bigger threat. Don't think Putin is the biggest danger. A friend of mine says it like this. He says, ‘China’. Oh you'll hear it tomorrow, no doubt. And what Donald Trump did is he woke the world up to the threat that China posed. Before Donald Trump nobody would dare even talk about it. He did that. He woke us up.
"If China sees how weak are, it could, within the next few months and goodness me, Chinese state media this week has been broadcasting saying that Taiwan is part of China. If China takes Taiwan, you realise what that will do for us? Despite the massive investments, the semi-conductors that are needed, there is so much of our modern life, the semi-conductors that are needed without which the car industry would grind to a halt. They are still manufactured, for the most part, in Taiwan. If China moves against the weak West, if China moves against the weak American president, I think weak’s quite a complimentary word really but anyway, but if China moves and takes Taiwan that will have disastrous consequences for all of us. So you see however you feel sitting in right now, however comfortable you feel about this burden of responsibility that is on American shoulders, you can see if we don't act, if we don't get this right, it will have catastrophic consequences.
"They're the enemies that we face, but we also place enemies inside. Our universities have been turned into madrasas of Marxism, determined to indoctrinate and poison our young people. Determined to turn the population against ourselves. While these great threats, these great global threats that I'm talking about happening, we're still busy teaching people to feel guilty about being white. We still got corporates giving money to an openly Marxist organisation, who wants to defund the police force and bring down Western civilization. And even the corporates bow down, we’re all supposed to take the knee to an organisation called Black Lives Matter. Very few people have got the courage to stand up and to fight for that. So we have that problem within that we have to fight and I know many of you are doing it. You're running for school boards, you're getting involved, and that's great. But if we're going to make the world a better place, and we're going to keep our history, our heritage, our culture, if we're going to defend Western civilization, this is the battleground. It's America because in America falls the whole of the free world will fall. You've got to win this fight and to do that, you’ve got to take back the house. You’ve got to take back the Senate. You’ve got to take back in 2024 the presidency of the USA. And you can do it.
"The Republicans have made a complete mess of everything. But don't underestimate their machine. Don't underestimate their discipline. Don't underestimate how well funded they are and to beat them, all need is the silent majority to stand up and say, ‘I am going to do something, I am going to make an effort. I am going to join an organisation’. We need you. All of us in the free world need you to witness and I'm going leave you with one last thought. November 3, 2020, the events of that day, or should I say the events of the preceding weeks, is called Election Day. But when you have mass mail out ballots, the Election Day takes place weeks before. There is no form of mail out postal voting that is not open to fraud, abuse and intimidation. Anyway, I've seen it. I've seen it in the cities. Tony Bear introduced this, it's been a disaster. America had never seen it before. But does it make sense for the Republican Party to go on talking about the stolen election?
"When you may say, ‘Yes,’ in this hall because you’re political activists and you understand what happened. Remember, most voters are busy with their lives, busy with their mortgages, busy with their kids, worried about their jobs, worried about the price of gas, the cost of living and all of those things. And this message of a stolen election, if you think about it, it is actually a negative, backward-looking message. There is a better more positive message The Republican Party needs to embrace and it is this - we are going state by state, vote by vote to make sure that America has the best, the cleanest, the fairest election system anywhere in the Western world. We will make sure no election again, never to be open to doubt. And that negative anger was to be turned into a positive. You’ve got to offer these voters of this country, a shining, city on the hill. You’ve got to give him a vision. People want dreams. People want hopes and the deliverers of that message are you guys. You are the people's army. You are the ones that can inspire. You are the ones that can mobilise. You are the ones that can motivate. The only question is, are you ready for this great battle? Are you ready for America to once again take on this position as the leader of the free world?