Jim Rosica
7:05 p.m.: Minutes before former Vice President Dick Cheney was set to give the keynote remarks at the Florida GOP Statesman’s Dinner, a precursor to this weekend’s Sunshine Summit, the Democratic National Committee launched a pre-emptive strike.
The DNC posted a highlight reel of sorts on YouTube, highlighting Cheney’s comments leading up to the Iraq War.
“In case you forgot how bad things were during the last Republican administration, don’t worry — Dick Cheney will take the opportunity to remind everyone this evening with a prime-time speech to a high-dollar GOP presidential cattle call in Orlando,” the DNC said in an email.
The 30-second video culls clips of Cheney saying “there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,” and “we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.”
“If this is who the GOP candidates are taking their policy cues from, it tells you all you need to know about where they would take this country: backward,” said DNC chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
“This GOP field is endorsing the same reckless foreign policy ideas and the same failed economic and fiscal policies as the Bush-Cheney administration,” she added. “Let’s avoid the mess this time, and elect a Democrat in 2016.”
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7:35 p.m.: Republican Party of Florida spokesman Wadi Gaitan wrote, “As it’s been noted in previous advisories, the Florida GOP Statesman’s Dinner will be print/photo pool reported … Similar to White House pool reports, pool reporters will be sending me content and I will forward to the pool report list.”
We’ll advise when something hits our inbox.
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8:35 p.m.: The first pool report arrives, courtesy of The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe:
Cheney was introduced to the “Imperial March” music from “Star Wars,” also known as Darth Vader’s theme.
The former vice-president “repeatedly denounced Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton as unqualified to serve as the next president, citing what he considers her poor oversight of foreign policy, including the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya and her use of a private email account while the nation’s top diplomat.”
Quoting Cheney, “I think she’s in big trouble,” regarding Clinton’s use of a private email account.
“It’s no question that it’s a very serious breach, if in fact what we’ve seen in the papers is true, that it was a serious mistake and error on their part. That’s why today there’s an FBI investigation into what indeed happened and I think there’s still a lot to be heard on this issue.”
“I think if she did do something wrong in her capacity as secretary of state, I think that would say a lot about whether she should be elected to be the commander in chief — I don’t think she should be.”
Here are some other excerpts from the pool report:
Cheney said that the Barack Obama administration rushed to cover up details of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi because “it was election time and it was shortly before the 2012 election and they had a narrative going that once they got Osama bin Laden the problem was solved, there was no terrorism problem anymore — they didn’t want to admit that there was no problem out there. The data suggested there was.”
“It’s pretty clear to me … that in fact she did not handle the matter appropriately, that she consciously misled the American people and that I think it does raise serious, serious doubts about her capacity to be president of the United States.”
Other details:
Cheney spoke to more than 970 people. Marco Rubio friend David Rivera, the former congressman, was spotted in the crowd.
Cheney was introduced by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who recalled meeting Cheney as a young congressman and later, “I had the opportunity to do a shotguning with the vice president … You laugh, he’s the best shot I’ve ever seen. We were at someplace called Camp David in the middle of nowhere …”
Further highlights:
“As we look at the consequences of the Obama policies internationally, we see a significant increase, if you will, an enhancement of the threats around the world, of threats to the United States. Growing threats and at the same time, a declining capability of the United States to deal with those threats. It’s exactly the worst combination we could have. But if you look at the policies that have been pursued over the past 7 years, … in the Middle East, Afghanistan, or the situation in Southeast Asia where China is taking over the South China Sea, or whether we talk about Vladimir Putin and what he’s done in the Crimea and the Ukraine and now in Syria and the prospects going forward that he’s likely to reach out for additional power over and above what he already has — part of this is the direct result that the United States and the Obama administration is presenting a case of weakness … not only to the United States but to our friends and allies all over the world.”
“That weakness is provocative and it’s being responded to by the likes of Putin, and ISIS and the Chinese with the kind of aggressive move that they’ve taken that begins to threaten our friends and allies. … It’s impossible for me to understand why this president would think it’s a good idea to sign an agreement, to negotiate an agreement with the Iranians that would allow them to develop nuclear capability.”
“My impression is that Obama is eager to get out of town. I’m eager to have him get out of town.”
“I think the issues speak for themselves. I think it’s extraordinarily important that we meet those requirements. It’s extremely important we believe that as we go forward and think about next year’s election, what we’re looking for are individual in the Congress and of course most important of all in the White House that are prepared to take on that assignment and do what needs to be done. It’s going to be the work of many years to reverse what President Obama has done to our capabilities, but I’m convinced as a party that we can do it.”
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9:20 p.m.: Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio spoke after Cheney, but as The Miami Herald’s Patricia Mazzei reports, “if you follow Rubio closely, there was no news tonight — just a few customized jokes for the crowd.”
Rubio spoke without notes. He wrapped up at 8:52 p.m. He didn’t name any of his presidential rivals. When he rattled off a list of wars and challenges America has faced — “The 70s weren’t easy: gas lines, disco music — these were difficult challenges” — the sign-language interpreter on stage next to him did the famous John Travolta dance move from Saturday Night Fever, which forced Rubio to chuckle, declare he “never” trusts interpreters.
He further joshed: “Our polling shows 22 percent of Republicans like disco, so we don’t want to offend anybody.”
While he didn’t ask for anyone’s vote, he did deploy other parts of his stump speech — the “lunatic” in North Korea, the “gangster” in Moscow, the “generational choice” — but began on a slightly different tack.
“Five years ago when this party was under different leadership, I couldn’t even get a table, because I happened to be running against the then-sitting governor of Florida for U.S. Senate,” Rubio began. “Apparently he’s now running for the Congress as a vegetarian.” (Laughs.) “Yeah, he’s running out of parties indeed.” (More laughs.)
“Tomorrow you’re going to hear from a bunch of candidates running for president that are going to ask you to vote for them, and I’ll be one of them,” Rubio said. (“One out of six Republicans is running for president,” he joked.) “Tonight, I want to talk to you about why the next president needs to be a Republican, because we simply cannot afford another four years like the last eight.”
“I know that it is expected that in a Republican Party gathering we would be here to criticize the Democratic president, and the mistakes he’s made for seven years, but this is no ordinary Democratic president,” Rubio continued. “This is a disastrous seven-year record.”
The people most affected, Rubio said, are not “the truly wealthy” but “the people that work for a living — the people and women who are serving this event here today … the ones that park our cars and work in our factories … the young Americans who owe thousands of dollars in student loans for a degree that doesn’t lead to a job.”
“They’re the ones paying the price,” he said. “The last seven years have been a disaster for Americans that are trying to make it.” (“The people that have already made it — they just want to be treated fairly and largely left alone.”)
Rubio blamed both parties for Washington dysfunction: “You don’t run up a $19 trillion debt without some bipartisan cooperation.”
“So when you and I engage in this campaign this year — not just for president, for the U.S. Senate here in Florida, for the congressional seats, for the House and Senate in the state legislature, two years after that for a governor’s race, and all across this country — we’re not just fighting with another party to get to see who gets to be in charge. We are literally battling for these principles, the ones that made America exceptional.”
“So we’re going to have our debates. We’re going to have our intraparty competition. People will say things to point out differences among us,” Rubio said. “But this election we cannot afford to lose because the consequences are extraordinary.”
He mentioned Hillary Clinton several times. At one point, the crowd booed.
“If Hillary Clinton is our next president, then I believe if the next four years are anything like the last eight, we may very well be the first generation in American history that leaves their children worse off.”
But, he said shortly before concluding: “There’s another road before us, if we choose it.”
“Thank you tonight for your contributions,” Rubio said. “You’re not just involved in a political competition — you’re involved in a generational choice about the future of this country and it’s very identity.”
His final words: “Let’s go win.”
