Barry Nussbaum: Hello and welcome to ATP Report. I’m Barry Nussbaum. Again, back with us is our favorite correspondent on the inside of CPAC, the beloved and well-known Will Johnson.

Welcome back, Will, and thank you again for staying up into the wee hours of the morning to bring us the inside scoop from Florida.

Will Johnson: Oh, no problem. I love to engage in this fight.

Barry Nussbaum: So, let’s talk about what we don’t know. As we discussed, those of us at home that didn’t get the privilege of going to CPAC this year we’re watching on TV. The speakers today were Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Tom Cotton, and Ted Cruz.

I watched them all. But as you mentioned, the speakers on the main stage are not just the whole program. In fact, as you put it, there is a lot more going on.

Will Johnson: Oh, yeah.

Barry Nussbaum: Give us an insider’s scoop. You’re there. You’re there all day. I mean, now it’s in the morning. You’ve been up all night. What are we missing by just watching on TV?

Will Johnson: Well, let me tell you this. One thing that I did miss, and I’m kicking myself. Jim Acosta from CNN was here walking through the hallways.

Barry Nussbaum: What!

Will Johnson: Yes, exactly! And I’m like, “Oh, no, I missed it. I missed it.” Everyone had to come to tell me about it. He was there, and of course, he’s trying to act like he’s being civil, and he’s all great they were telling me.

But, you know, they started chanting, “CNN sucks! CNN sucks!” And they pretty much ran him off then. I’m like, “Oh, I missed that. Where was I at?” So, but other than that, the speakers on the stage, personally, it’s like a lot of people want to hear the speakers and you heard them because you could see them.

In various parts of the country, people are watching it, and they see the speech, but they’re not seeing the people behind the scenes. They’re not seeing all of the people coming and talking to the average person.

They’re not talking to the people that are there just to see the speakers, but they’re actually there to network with other people, and I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of people. One guy says he’s Jewish, and we had a very good conversation with him. He was talking about how he supported President Trump and how he loves America.

Will Johnson: What’s your name?

Joe Buzrawi: My name is Joe Buzrawi.

Will Johnson: You’re Jewish.

Joe Buzrawi: I’m Jewish. I’m Latino. I’m Arab. I’m a lot of things.

Will Johnson: Wow. So, what brings you to CPAC?

Joe Buzrawi: Well, this is my fourth CPAC. It’s becoming a tradition for me to come here every year. I come here to learn from other people, to further educate myself about conservatism, to get a feel about what the conservative movement is going to do this year, to network, make friends and have fun.

Will Johnson: I talked to a police officer that was actually a retired police officer. He was a former Capitol police officer, and I actually have a video clip of that as well.

Barry Nussbaum: So, tell me, what did the former cop say about what happened on January 6^th? What’s his take?

Will Johnson: Well, it was very interesting because I had to ask him. I said, “So what do you think about what happened on January 6^th?” He told me because he still has connections with people that are still on the police force in the Capital that they actually were offered more assistance on January 5^th, and it was turned down.

So, it was almost like they were like, no, we want to set this up. It’s like they almost had a plan. He said, “At that point when they rejected more help, it was on them and not President Trump.”

Barry Nussbaum: You know you’re raising a really interesting point from your new friend, the ex-cop because the FBI and others on the inside have now revealed that they had intelligence days before the January 6^th speech by Trump.

Will Johnson: Yep.

Barry Nussbaum: They knew what was coming, and literally, the offers of more security were turned down. Turned down as if they wanted something bad to happen.

Will Johnson: Exactly. So, they went through this whole impeachment shame trying to say that President Trump incited violence, the insurrection, and come to find out they knew that something was going to happen. Personally, they knew it was going to happen because they were planning on it. They were planning on making it happen.

Barry Nussbaum: It sure looks like it was a setup. Let’s switch gears for a minute and talk about Trump. I was mentioning to you before that I had a really interesting conversation with a gentleman from Canada today that is very enamored with President Trump and the conservative viewpoint.

He’s distressed over the fact that Canada has gone way left. The Conservative Party, which is their equivalent of our Republican Party in the United States, is out of power and is on the outside yelling over the fence. But they really have no ability to influence policy.

He suggested to me that it might be better if Trump does not run in 2024 but becomes the kingmaker and the policy leader of the Republican Party. Now, I know you’re a big Trump supporter. What’s your reaction to my friend’s suggestion politically?

Will Johnson: Well, I would like, to be honest with you, I would like to see President Trump run again in 2024. I mean, I really would. We need the country to get back on track. Women were starting businesses and making more wages than ever before.

Black people, Latinos, were working jobs more than ever before. We need to get back to that. We need to get away from this whole plandemic or epidemic with the COVID. We need to get away from that. We need the country to come back.

But for someone to say that they only want President Trump to just work with the Republican Party and just kind of like be in the background and doing it. The Republicans in the GOP, the establishment, don’t want anything to do with Trump. They want Trump out of the way. Personally, this is a personal note.

I truly believe that the GOP did backdoor deals with the Democrats, saying, “Hey, you help us, we’ll get your Republican Party back as long as you help us get rid of President Trump.”

Barry Nussbaum: It sure looks like it when you’ve got certain senators, like, I’ll be honest with you, you’ve got McConnell, you’ve got Romney, you’ve got Susan Collins, you’ve got Murkowski. I mean, they act and vote like liberal Democrats, right?

And when they were asked to step up and support the policies of Trump, they went in the opposite direction on a freight train going one hundred miles an hour. They couldn’t get away fast enough, and they couldn’t go left fast enough.

Will Johnson: Yep.

Barry Nussbaum: So, speaking about differences in policy, this speech this morning from Governor DeSantis of Florida was very interesting. He talked about the fact that Florida, under his leadership, is wide open for business.

You can go to a restaurant, the schools are open, the CPAC convention is there, and they allow people to congregate. The beaches are open. Tourism is open, and their COVID infection and death rate is on the very low end, Will Johnson.

But science says millions should be dead in Florida right now. Right? They ought to have a lockdown like New York, where more people are dying. They ought to have a lockdown like California. There are no schools. There are no businesses.

There are no gyms. There are no restaurants or bars. And more people are dying there. What’s it like in the convention center is everybody in masks and social distancing?

Will Johnson: Well, they have two rules, and I found this out today. If you don’t have the mask on, you have to be six feet apart from everyone that you’re talking to. Other than that, you have to wear a mask. They have a team of people walking around, and if they’re behind you, they’ll go like this and look to see if you have a mask on.

They’ll say, “You’ve got to put a mask on. You’ve got to put the mask on.” I’m walking, and I have a cup in my hand. I just got water because I’m walking, I’m talking to people, and I’m a little thirsty. So, I just recently got a cup of water in my hand.

I come up the escalators with the cup in my hand, and I have my microphone and my camera, on the other hand, and I’m drinking. While I’m drinking, a lady goes, “Where’s your mask?” I said, “I’m drinking.” She goes, “But where’s your mask?

You need to have your mask on.” I said, “I can’t drink with the mask on.” And she said, “Well, I’m not going to argue with you.” And I’m like, “Thank you. That’s the first sensible thing you said.” It’s crazy.

Barry Nussbaum: Well, I got news for you. DeSantis on the right track, Will, because they don’t have any more extra dead people, and the whole state ought to be dead the way he’s running it.

Will Johnson: Oh, yeah.

Barry Nussbaum: If the science was right. Am I correct?

Will Johnson: Oh, you are 100 percent correct, and just to be clear, I don’t claim to be a doctor or a physician or any of that. But, you know, I agree. If it was a science, then everybody should be dead in the state, but it’s not, and that should tell everyone. It should tell the entire country and even the entire world that there’s something else going on here.

Barry Nussbaum: Oh, yeah. Big time, brother. Big time. So, what’s the big excitement for tomorrow on the Will Johnson agenda? Anything specific you’re looking for?

Will Johnson: Well, I plan, hopefully, I’m going to talk to him. His name is James. James from the Epic Times. I actually had a brief discussion with him today. I plan on talking to him. I plan on talking to some more high-priority people.

Because like I said, when you go in, and you can see people on the stage, they’re just doing their spiel. You can’t go in there, and you can’t talk to people when they’re on the stage. It’s kind of almost redundant recording them where everybody is watching them.

So, then I come back, and I’m going to show everybody what they’ve already seen. I plan on talking to more people. I think today was like the first major day of it, and people are just kind of getting their foot holding.

Trying to get there and figure out what they’re going to be doing. I think tomorrow is going to be a little bit more lax and we’ll be able to get more people to have a conversation.

Barry Nussbaum: Well, we look forward to it, Will. Thank you very much for staying up with us tonight. I know it’s early in the morning, and you’ve been up all day. We really appreciate you at ATP and glad you are part of our family.

We want to see you again tomorrow night. I hope you can stay awake. Grab some coffee when it gets around midnight, and we’ll be back with you again tomorrow.

Will Johnson: Sounds good.

Barry Nussbaum: I appreciate you coming on and thank you out there in ATP land. We’re going to have some more insight from Will Johnson live from CPAC tomorrow. Tune in at the same time, same CPAC channel with us. For ATP Report and Barry Nussbaum.