OXON HILL, Md. -- President Donald Trump's vice president and top aides on Thursday delivered one overriding message to the thousands of conservative activists gathered for their annual conference outside Washington: Don't blow it.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Vice President Mike Pence said Trump's election victory provided the nation with what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to install conservative solutions to the nation's problems.
"This is the chance we've worked so hard, for so long, to see. This is the time to prove again that our answers are the right answers for America," Pence said.
The vice president said the Trump administration would soon take aim at the sweeping health care law approved under former President Barack Obama, saying the nation's "Obamacare nightmare is about to end." He said Republicans would implement a new plan and would have "an orderly transition to a better health care system."
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Earlier, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus pleaded for patience and unity, urging activists not to squander the Republican Party's control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Trump adviser Steve Bannon made his case for a governing strategy based on aggressive deregulation and an "economic nationalism" in negotiating new free-trade deals.
"What you've got is an incredible opportunity to use this victory," Priebus said. Some of Trump's plans for creating jobs and putting more money in people's pockets will take time, he said. "We've got to stick together and make sure we have President Trump for eight years."
Priebus' pleas acknowledged conservatives' underlying skepticism about the new president, a former Democrat who in the past has elicited boos at the conference. Trump often has suggested he doesn't prioritize the social issues many conservatives elevate, and his proposal for an infrastructure bill has cast doubts about his commitment to curb government spending.
But with a Republican in the White House for the first time in eight years, many activists say they feel energized and more than willing to give him a chance.
The decadesold CPAC, as the event is known, is now really more like "TPAC," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said.
She and other Trump administration speakers thanked conservatives for voting for Trump last fall. Bannon said appreciation would largely be the theme of the president's remarks today to the group.
In his remarks, Bannon emphasized Trump's plans to deregulate businesses -- or what he described as "deconstruction of the administrative state."
"Every business leader we've had in is saying not just taxes, but it is also the regulation. I think the consistent, if you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction," he said.
Bannon and Priebus advanced the administration's critique of the media, after Trump last week tweeted an extraordinary condemnation of the media, calling news organizations "the enemy of the American people."
Bannon repeatedly described the media as "the opposition party."
"If you look at the opposition party and how they portrayed the campaign and how they portrayed the transition and how they portray the administration, it's always wrong," Bannon said.
Priebus agreed, saying he thinks the biggest misconception about the Trump administration in its first month is "everything that you're reading." He and Bannon were defiant about the way they have been represented in the media, insisting that they were close friends and partners and that reports of power struggles were flat wrong.
"Just like they were dead wrong on the chaos of the campaign and just like they were dead wrong on the chaos of the transition, they are absolutely dead wrong on what they're reporting today," Bannon said, adding "all" of Trump's campaign promises would be implemented in short order.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged the activists to "engage" and "be loud" in the face of politicians who stand in the way of changing the education system.
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Bykowicz and Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press and by Philip Rucker of The Washington Post.
A Section on 02/24/2017