Some top potential 2024 Republican candidates are skipping CPAC
CBSN
FORT WASHINGTON, Maryland – The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual GOP tradition that historically attracts ambitious Republican politicians testing their appeal to primary voters — the last day traditionally includes a straw poll. But this year, although there are plenty of prominent Republicans mulling a run for the White House, many of them will not be making an appearance at CPAC this week.
As the conference kicked off Thursday, CPAC chair Matt Schlapp acknowledged, "There's a lot of chatter in the media about who is here and who is not here."
All the major declared Republican presidential candidates are making an appearance: former President Donald Trump, former Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is also mulling a bid, will also speak at CPAC.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.