JW Panel on Obama Lawlessness a CPAC Hit

National Harbor Maryland—The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicked off its final day near Washington D.C. with a celebrated morning session that focused on abuse of power committed by President Obama as Congress sits idly by.

Titled “Reining in a Lawless President: Obamnesty and Other Pen and Phone Affronts,” the session was held in the main ballroom of the annual gathering of conservatives. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton headlined the panel and received widespread applause for declaring that Obama is “undermining the U.S. Constitution,” and that the federal government is off the rails and out of control.

Any member of Congress that funds Obama’s lawlessness is complicit, Fitton assured. Then he posed a rather bewildering question. Why does Judicial Watch have to file 3,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and go to court 200 times to get information involving the president’s many violations and scandals? JW’s most recent work includes exposing Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Benghazi, Obamacare and Mexican border scandals. “Where is Congress?” Fitton asked. “Where is the media?”

In the early afternoon, a small group of rowdy protestors braved the cold to demonstrate against a panel they viewed as unfairly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It never came close to getting out control or becoming a threat, but it was nevertheless among the more exciting events of the conference. A few years ago a much larger and more raucous crowd gathered to protest the CPAC appearance of former Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

Saturday’s controversial session was titled “Putin’s Russia: A New Cold War” and it focused on the Russian dictator’s tyranny. The event was jam packed and should have been held in a larger room because it couldn’t accommodate everyone who wanted to attend it. Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, headlined the Russia panel and spoke extensively of Putin’s dangerous takeover, which includes power over politics, economics and the military. “The media is totally controlled,” Fiorina said, adding that there is “no voice of dissention.”

Next door, in another small room with an equally large overflow crowd, a professor from a large public university in Florida warned of the growing threat of terrorism, even as our commander-in-chief denies it. “Al Qaeda is doubling, tripling and quadrupling,” said the published academic, Walid Phares, a global terrorism expert of Lebanese descent. “The extent of jihadi activity in the Middle East is a worldwide problem.” Phares has served as an adviser to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007. The growing threat of terrorism was also addressed in another afternoon session, “America’s Security in the Age of Jihad,” conducted in the main ballroom.