the briefing, who insisted his name not be used, said there was no pressure on the fbi. in fact, the official said, fbi director james comey dismissed the new york times report into the russian connection as, quote, total garbage. director comey was at the white house just last month, praised by the president. he s become more famous than me. reporter: but when chief of staff priebus asked comey if the fbi would publicly dispute the new york times story, the fbi director said he could not do that. none of this seemed to matter to the crowd at cpac, the largest annual gathering of conservative activists in the country. trump skipped it last year. this year, a triumphant return. how is this cpac different from previous cpacs? i mean, just the buzz and excitement, and we re winning. we re in the white house. i mean, it s just exciting. reporter: this hasn t always been exactly trump s crowd, but it sure was today. the core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation
governing philosophy. we will hear from lots of white house officials today about how they see that playing out. senior white house counselor kellyanne conway will kick things off and betsy devos, the education secretary and reports of a bit of daylight with her and the department of justice. probably the marquee event is reince priebus and steve bannon with a show of unity together on stage for the white house. vice president mike pence the conservative darling and ted cruz. we will hear a lot of what s going wrong which is what we probably heard at most of the cpacs for the past several years, we will hear what conservatives think will be going right over the next four-to-eight years. it will be a different tone. we watch as the folks who are the conservative pulse, base,
with the republicans. they have to toughen up on everything, and most importantly, perhaps other than immigration, they have to toughen up on obamacare, which is a total lie. that was two years ago. let s bring in the editor for the washington examiner and also bill crystal, founder and editor at large of the weekly standard who has also addressed this conference. it s a real pleasure to have you both here. i m so curious about your perspective on all of this. 15 cpacs in 17 years. you are a guy who knows this thing. donald trump and the conservative movement. it has been a fraught relationship to say the least. what kind of message are you expecting from him this week? he s going to come out and show his success in a conservative way. lots of appointments people like. conservatives like betsy devos
they want to be that candidate. rand paul will be pushing against many in the republican party, but most of the american people i think agree with rand paul that the endless wars, the nation building, it has not been a good idea and he is looking to break down a lot of lines that we have seen and be a different kind of candidate and win the republican primary and moe on to have a outreach effort to many constituencies is that have not been favorable to republicans in the past. rand paul has won this straw poll as previous cpacs. we seen there in 2013, 2014. his father doing well earlier. do you think there is any kind of emerging libertarian consensus at cpac this year, and specifically on the president s proposal for new war powers against isis on a three-year basis. did you hear anything about that
rollout or a good speed. they re talking tough now and they want to be that candidate. rand paul will be pushing against many in the republican party, but most of the american people i think agree with rand paul that the endless wars the nation building it has not been a good idea and he is looking to break down a lot of lines that we have seen and be a different kind of candidate and win the republican primary and moe on to have a outreach effort to many constituencies is that have not been favorable to republicans in the past. rand paul has won this straw poll as previous cpacs. we seen there in 2013 2014. his father doing well earlier. do you think there is any kind of emerging libertarian consensus at cpac this year and specifically on the president s proposal for new war powers against isis on a three-year basis.