Good morning. It's Saturday, March 4th. I'm Michael Steele, filling in today for my friend

Ali Valshi. Tonight, former President Donald Trump will take the stage to give the keynote speech

to close out the final days of CPAC, an annual conference of conservatives from around the country.

It usually draws a broad range of Republicans making an obvious stop for presidential hopefuls

every few years.

Nikki Haley, who announced her bid last month, spoke at the conference yesterday, and so did

Mike Pompeo.

But they were really the only notable presidential

hopefuls who showed up this time around. CPAC is dominated this year by Trump loyalists like

Representative Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Matt Gates. Carrie Lake, a prominent election

denier who lost the governor's race in Arizona last November, was also a guest

speaker, and so were Steve Bannon and pillow salesman Mike Lindell.

Key Republican leaders like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,

and R&C chairwoman Ronna McDaniel did not take part in CPAC this week.

Meanwhile, other possible presidential candidates sat out the conference in favor of a different

event this weekend, a sign of how the Republican Party remains splintered with some of

its members trying to charter a new path forward and leave Donald Trump far behind.

Instead of CPAC, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence,

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu opted to attend a

private retreat with donors hosted by the Conservative Organization Club for Growth.

Now, the group has publicly cut ties with Trump and didn't even invite

him to its event this weekend, even though the retreat is in Palm Beach just a few miles

...