Vance says 'America First' movement rejects 'purity tests,' welcomes critical thinkers

Vowing to stand with "every patriot in this room to defend the country we so dearly love," Vance dismissed conservative infighting that had gone on earlier in the conference, while not naming any of the podcasters or subjects involved.

"President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests," Vance said, as some of the earlier speakers name-dropped each other amid divisions over Israel, Ukraine aid and other controversial issues on the right.

"We don't care if you're White or Black, rich or poor, young or old, rural or urban, controversial or a little bit boring, or somewhere in between… [P]eople of every faith come to our banner because they know that the America First movement will make their lives better. And they also know that the Democrats don't care about anything other than maybe trans-ing their kids."

"So if you love America, if you want all of us to be richer, stronger, safer, and prouder, you have a home on this team. I didn't bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform, and I don't really care if some people out there -- I'm sure we'll have the fake news media -- denounce me after this speech."

Later in the speech, however, he said that such infighting is not necessarily a sign of a weak or fractious movement.

"Some of you are impatient at the pace of progress and my response to that is 'Good,'" he said, appearing to refer to criticisms of the Republican Congress' progress on the America First agenda.

"I know some of you are discouraged by the infighting over any number of issues. Don't be discouraged," he added.

During his address, he delved further into what is important to fulfilling "America First."

"We have far more important work to do than canceling each other -- we have got to build, and President Donald Trump is a builder," he said. "We're building a better country right now. We build by adding, by growing, not by tearing down."

"When you restore sanity at the border, it shows up everywhere else," he said, pointing to rent costs, gas prices, inflation and unemployment declining.

"We made it clear that in the United States we believe in hard work and merit --we don't treat anybody [a certain way] because of their race or their sex, so we have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history which is exactly where it belongs."