Fact Check

Jack Posobiec Spoke at CPAC About Wanting to Overthrow Democracy?

One CNN host said the statement made her want to light her hair on fire.

Published March 1, 2024

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Image courtesy of Getty Images
Claim:
In February 2024, CPAC speaker Jack Posobiec told attendees: "Welcome to the end of democracy, we're here to overthrow it completely."

In the days following the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference — which took place from Feb. 21 to Feb. 24 — videos went viral on X (formerly Twitter) that showed alt-right political activist Jack Posobiec stating: "Welcome to the end of democracy, we're here to overthrow it completely." 

News outlets such as CNN and MSNBC also featured the footage; CNN's S.E. Cupp began her comments by saying it made her want to "light [her] hair on fire."

Posobiec, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer, did say those words, so we rate this claim as a "Correct Attribution." He made the comments Feb. 21 while speaking on a CPAC panel hosted by Steve Bannon: 

Welcome to the end of democracy, we're here to overthrow it completely. We didn't get all the way there on January 6th, but we will endeavor to fight to get rid of it and replace it with this right here [holds up what appears to be a cross on a chain]. … Because all glory is not to government, all glory to God.

Two days later, Posobiec took to the stage and addressed his comments on "overthrowing" democracy, saying that he would reveal his "most diabolical plan yet," then listed a number of strategies to do so that he attributed to Democrats. The video was posted on the official CPAC X account, where it gained more than 13,700 views, as of this writing.

Sources

Far-Right Speaker Tells CPAC Attendees That His Goal Is to 'Overthrow' Democracy | CNN Politics. 2024. www.cnn.com, https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/23/jack-posobiec-cpac-remarks-democracy-cnc-vpx.cnn.

'Https://Twitter.Com/AccountableGOP/Status/1760761957437599856'. X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1760761957437599856. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.

'Https://Twitter.Com/CPAC/Status/1761111249524289679'. X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/CPAC/status/1761111249524289679. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.

'Jack Posobiec'. Wikipedia, 1 Mar. 2024. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Posobiec&oldid=1211185746.

Pro-Trump CPAC Speaker Pledges 'End of Democracy'www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfA4pkJ8rw. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.

Taija PerryCook is a Seattle-based journalist who previously worked for the PNW news site Crosscut and the Jordan Times in Amman.