'These are the truest Trump believers': Karl Rove mocks Trump for 'losing strength' in CPAC poll


Fox News/screen grab


https://www.rawstory.com/karl-rove-donald-trump/

 

^^^
Fucking so what? That's a screen grab, which means there is video. I watched a lot of commentary, including Rove's, about Trump's CPAC speech - and while some had the same criticisms I had, such as 'Don't rehash the 2020 election' - I guess my mind doesn't do the 'ultra spin' that the garbage from Raw Story - regurgitated from other places with 'extra misleading interpretations included' - but sorry - never saw anything resembling 'These are the truest Trump believers': Karl Rove mocks Trump for 'losing strength' in CPAC poll

Rove never put it like that, and he's way too smart of a political operative to paint himself into a potential corner but putting anything in a ridiculous context like that - that was all Raw Story's lying and misrepresentation, as usual.

Hey, Dumbfuckler is stupid enough to buy it - but only because he wants to.

Hahaha - that's being very, very kind

 

The golden idol of Trump just keeps gaining as the perfect metaphor for conservative/Republicans. It just fits them, their lies, their hypocrisy, and stupid ignorance to a T. This is who they really are.

The Ridiculous Golden Trump Statue at CPAC Was Actually Made in China, Says Report

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-r...s-actually-made-in-china-says-report?ref=home


And that is what conservative/Republicans are willing to turn traitors to the United States of America for.

 

Apparently the Nazi symbolism was just a coincidence!

Yeah right.



Thinskin

 

Trump really bombed at CPAC

 

This is actually surprising to me. CPAC has always been sort of a must attend treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republican convention. And if anything I thought the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans would want to rally behind Matt Schlapp now that he is being accused of sexually assaulting a male staffer. But instead most treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are avoiding it like the plague. It makes me think they know something we don't like Schlapp having a long history of homosexual gripping and they know its going to come out.


CPAC founder grovels amid groping claims: 'Kevin McCarthy is not coming to CPAC; I wish he would'

David Edwards
February 27, 2023



Screengrab.


Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) founder Matt Schlapp appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast soon after reports said that Fox News might not carry the event amid groping allegations.

In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, a staffer for former Senate candidate Herschel Walker accused Schlapp of "aggressively fondling" his "genital area in a sustained fashion."

"I can understand why people don't want to come to Washington, D.C.," Schlapp told Bannon on Monday. "But here's the deal. It's our capital too, and we must reclaim it."

"The media wants to write the story that CPAC is on the decline, that Donald Trump is on the decline, that conservatism is on the decline, and that America is on the incline because it's embracing socialism, communism, and all the rest," he opined.

Schlapp revealed one top Republican was shunning the event.

"[House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy is not coming to CPAC; I wish he would," he said. "But I think [House Majority Leader] Elise Stefanik and other members of leadership are coming."

The CPAC founder pushed discounted tickets to his D.C. event.

"There's still tickets available," he noted. "I was worried about it. I didn't know if people would come back into D.C. and even hang out because they think it's unsafe. They don't like the fact that people are still in prison from [Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol]."

Schlapp concluded the interview by suggesting he wouldn't be ostracized for long due to the groping allegations.

"I'm reemerging. Don't worry," he insisted.

"I knew it wouldn't be long," Bannon laughed.

In a report on Monday, The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona observed that Schlapp had "all but disappeared from Fox News—a shocking break from years past."

"t remains to be seen if and how Fox News will cover the annual right-wing confab amid CPAC boss Matt Schlapp's alleged groping scandal," the report said.

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

https://www.rawstory.com/matt-schlapp-cpac-groping/

 

etu Ron? Not too long ago a treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republican and especially ones with presidential ambitions would not dare to not show up at CPAC Who knew Schlapp getting caught with his hand in the cookie crouch would spook them so bad? But one great thing about it is at least I am not suffering through MSNBC and CNN covering it this time either.


DeSantis isn’t going to CPAC but hits the ground running with book tour

Orlando Sentinel
February 27, 2023



Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at The Rosen Shingle Creek on Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Florida. - Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS


ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may not be officially running for president, but his packed schedule this week sure looks like someone laying the groundwork for a campaign. After spending the weekend meeting with key Republican Party allies and conservative media figures in South Florida, DeSantis is set to kick off a tour in Leesburg on Tuesday to promote his newly released book, “The Courage to Be Free.” The governor is already doing interviews with conservative media about it. But one place he won’t be going is CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual Super B...

Read More


https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-isnt-going-to-cpac-but-hits-the-ground-running-with-book-tour/

 

This is just amazing to me. From its very inception CPAC has been a force to be re conned with and the most powerful political group in the country. And I never saw any outfit better at plying both ends to themselves. On the right they were so powerful Republican politicians, and especially any of them with presidential ambitions flocked to CPAC. In fact most of them did not dare not show up. And they started out screaming the myth of the liberal press and continued to scream it everyday so news media also did not dare not cover them.

And now thanks to a closeted homosexual sexual assaulting leader it appears to be all crashing down. And good, in fact great riddance.


Embattled CPAC founder Schlapp faces new accusations as staffer exodus accelerates

Tom Boggioni
February 28, 2023



Donald Trump, Matt Schlapp (Photo by Saul Loeb for AFP)


CPAC founder Matt Schlapp's fall from grace appears to be accelerating as employees of the organization he heads are coming forward with complaints about a "toxic" culture he has fostered that's leading to an "exodus" of staffers. That was happening even before he was accused of sexually assaulting a campaign worker in Georgia.

As the annual CPAC confab prepares to get underway in Maryland, with a multitude of high-profile Republicans avoiding it this year, there is a cloud over its founder who has been pushing back at his accuser, a male staffer on Herschel Walker's failed U.S. Senate campaign who accused the influential conservative of groping him while he served as his driver.

According to a new report from the Washington Post, "dozens of current and former employees and board members interviewed by The Washington Post described a wider range of complaints about the longtime Republican power broker and CPAC’s culture under his leadership."

Add to that, the report notes, "A Post review of the Walker staffer’s claims also corroborated that he shared his story with friends and colleagues in the immediate aftermath."

According to the report, the Schlapp organization has seen an uptick in staffers quitting with allegations of mismanagement being lodged.

The Post's Beth Reinhard and Isaac Arnsdorf wrote, "Some expressed concern that Schlapp has given an inexperienced contractor too much influence. One former employee notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments."

“The culture was toxic. From my perspective, he acted like a bully," former communication director, Regina Bratton explained.

The report also notes that some members of the CPAC board are "growing anxious" at the prospect that assault allegations could irreparably damage the organization.

"Board member Morton Blackwell said he expected the allegation to be discussed at a board meeting at the start of CPAC and that 'it’s impossible for it to be ignored.' He added, 'Obviously it’s a serious allegation but it’s put forward anonymously, which tends to discredit it.'"

The Post is also reporting that the 2023 CPAC is already feeling the effects of Schlapp's difficulties, noting, "ticket sales are lagging from past years, prompting price cuts, giveaways and a special rate offered to congressional staff, according to people familiar with the event’s inner workings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information. Many high-rollers who have in the past bought the conference’s biggest premium packages have not registered this time."

You can read more here.



https://www.rawstory.com/matt-schlapp-2659479150/

 

As myself and others have pointed out many times all treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans do is lie. But most of them are not pathological liars like Trump. Constant lying is actually part of their strategy and method of operation. They constantly lie in order to try and out shout reality and create constant confusion. And they get away with it because they have rigged the system to one have their own massive very well organized and funded right wing false propaganda noise machine and also demanding all other news media and social media broadcast and publish there lies screaming they are being persecuted if they don't and threatening to take government action against them.

Just take a look at these lies at CPAC.



Fact check: Republicans at CPAC make false claims about Biden, Zelensky, the FBI and children

By Daniel Dale, CNN
Published 6:02 AM EST, Sat March 4, 2023








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- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images...riel-sterling.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images...riel-sterling.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="" data-show-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-network-id="" data-details="">
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See Marjorie Taylor Greene's reaction when GOP official corrects her lies
02:46 - Source: CNN
Washington CNN —
The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Maryland. And the members of Congress, former government officials and conservative personalities who spoke at the conference on Thursday and Friday made false claims about a variety of topics.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat.

Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida incorrectly said a former Obama administration official had encouraged people to harass Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina inaccurately claimed Biden had laughed at a grieving mother and inaccurately insinuated that the FBI tipped off the media to its search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Two other speakers, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka, inflated the number of deaths from fentanyl.

And that’s not all. Here is a fact check of 13 false claims from the conference, which continues on Saturday.

Zelensky’s remark about American ‘sons and daughters’
Marjorie Taylor Greene said the Republican Party has a duty to protect children. Listing supposed threats to children, she said, “Now whether it’s like Zelensky saying he wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine…” Later in her speech, she said, “I will look at a camera and directly tell Zelensky: you’d better leave your hands off of our sons and daughters, because they’re not dying over there.”

Facts First: Greene’s claim is false. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t say he wants American sons and daughters to fight or die for Ukraine. The false claim, which was debunked by CNN and others earlier in the week, is based on a viral video that clipped Zelensky’s comments out of context.

In reality, Zelensky predicted at a press conference in late February that if Ukraine loses the war against Russia because it does not receive sufficient support from elsewhere, Russia will proceed to enter North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries in the Baltics (a region made up of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) that the US will be obligated to send troops to defend. Under the treaty that governs NATO, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and Zelensky didn’t say Americans should fight there.

Greene is one of the people who shared the out-of-context video on Twitter this week. You can read a full fact-check, with Zelensky’s complete quote, here.

Fox and the 2020 election
Right-wing commentator and former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon criticized right-wing cable channel Fox at length for, he argued, being insufficiently supportive of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Among other things, Bannon claimed that, on the night of the election in November 2020, “Fox News illegitimately called it for the opposition and not Donald J. Trump, of which our nation has never recovered.” Later, he said Trump is running again after “having it stolen, in broad daylight, of which they [Fox] participate in.”

Facts First: This is nonsense. On election night in 2020, Fox accurately projected that Biden had won the state of Arizona. This projection did not change the outcome of the election; all of the votes are counted regardless of what media outlets have projected, and the counting showed that Biden won Arizona, and the election, fair and square. The 2020 election was not “stolen” from Trump.

Fox, like other major media outlets, did not project that Biden had won the presidency until four days later. Fox personalities went on to repeatedly promote lies that the election was stolen from Trump – even as they privately dismissed and mocked these false claims, according to court filings from a voting technology company that is suing Fox for defamation.

Biden’s attempted deportation pause
Rep. Jim Jordan claimed that Biden, “on day one,” made “three key changes” to immigration policy. Jordan said one of those changes was this: “We’re not going to deport anyone who come.” He proceeded to argue that people knowing “we’re not going to get deported” was a reason they decided to migrate to the US under Biden.

Facts First: Jordan inaccurately described the 100-day deportation pause that Biden attempted to impose immediately after he took office on January 20, 2021. The policy did not say the US wouldn’t deport “anyone who comes.” It explicitly did not apply to anyone who arrived in the country after the end of October 2020, meaning people who arrived under the Biden administration or in the last months of the Trump administration could still be deported.

Biden did say during the 2020 Democratic primary that “no one, no one will be deported at all” in his first 100 days as president. But Jordan claimed that this was the policy Biden actually implemented on his first day in office; Biden’s actual first-day policy was considerably narrower.

Biden’s attempted 100-day pause also did not apply to people who engaged in or were suspected of terrorism or espionage, were seen to pose a national security risk, had waived their right to remain in the US, or whom the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined the law required to be removed.

The pause was supposed to be in effect while the Department of Homeland Security conducted a review of immigration enforcement practices, but it was blocked by a federal judge shortly after it was announced.

The media and the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago
Rep. Ralph Norman strongly suggested the FBI had tipped off the media to its August search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort in Florida for government documents in the former president’s possession – while concealing its subsequent document searches of properties connected to Biden.

Norman said: “When I saw the raid at Mar-a-Lago – you know, the cameras, the FBI – and compare that to when they found Biden’s, all of the documents he had, where was the media, where was the FBI? They kept it quiet early on, didn’t let it out. The job of the next president is going to be getting rid of the insiders that are undermining this government, and you’ve gotta clean house.”

Facts First: Norman’s narrative is false. The FBI did not tip off the media to its search of Mar-a-Lago; CNN reported the next day that the search “happened so quietly, so secretly, that it wasn’t caught on camera at all.” Rather, media outlets belatedly sent cameras to Mar-a-Lago because Peter Schorsch, publisher of the website Florida Politics, learned of the search from non-FBI sources and tweeted about it either after it was over or as it was just concluding, and because Trump himself made a public statement less than 20 minutes later confirming that a search had occurred. Schorsch told CNN on Thursday: “I can, unequivocally, state that the FBI was not one of my two sources which alerted me to the raid.”

Brian Stelter, then CNN’s chief media correspondent, wrote in his article the day after the search: “By the time local TV news cameras showed up outside the club, there was almost nothing to see. Websites used file photos of the Florida resort since there were no dramatic shots of the search.”

It’s true that the public didn’t find out until late January about the FBI’s November search of Biden’s former think tank office in Washington, which was conducted with the consent of Biden’s legal team. But the belated presence of journalists at Mar-a-Lago on the day of the Trump search in August is not evidence of a double standard.

And it’s worth noting that media cameras were on the scene when Biden’s beach home in Delaware was searched by the FBI in February. News outlets had set up a media “pool” to make sure any search there was recorded.

Two-parent households
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former college and high school football coach, said, “Going into thousands of kids’ homes and talking to parents every year recruiting, half the kids in this country – I’m not talking about race, I’m just talking about – half the kids in this country have one or no parent. And it’s because of the attack on faith. People are losing faith because, for some reason, because the attack [on] God.”

Facts First: Tuberville’s claim that half of American children don’t have two parents is incorrect. Official figures from the Census Bureau show that, in 2021, about 70% of US children under the age of 18 lived with two parents and about 65% lived with two married parents.

About 22% of children lived with only a mother, about 5% with only a father, and about 3% with no parent. But the Census Bureau has explained that even children who are listed as living with only one parent may have a second parent; children are listed as living with only one parent if, for example, one parent is deployed overseas with the military or if their divorced parents share custody of them.

It is true that the percentage of US children living in households with two parents has been declining for decades. Still, Tuberville’s statistic significantly exaggerated the current situation. His spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that the senator was speaking “anecdotally” from his personal experience meeting with families as a football coach.

The literacy of high school graduates
Tuberville claimed that today’s children are being “indoctrinated” in schools by “woke” ideology and critical race theory. He then said, “We don’t teach reading, writing and arithmetic anymore. You know, half the kids in this country, when they graduate – think about this: half the kids in this country, when they graduate, can’t read their diploma.”

Facts First: This is false. While many Americans do struggle with reading, there is no basis for the claim that “half” of high school graduates can’t read a basic document like a diploma. “Mr. Tuberville does not know what he’s talking about at all,” said Patricia Edwards, a Michigan State University professor of language and literacy who is a past president of the International Literacy Association and the Literacy Research Association. Edwards said there is “no evidence” to support Tuberville’s claim. She also said that people who can’t read at all are highly unlikely to finish high school and that “sometimes politicians embellish information.”

Tuberville could have accurately said that a significant number of American teenagers and adults have reading trouble, though there is no apparent basis for connecting these struggles with supposed “woke” indoctrination. The organization ProLiteracy pointed CNN to 2017 data that found 23% of Americans age 16 to 65 have “low” literacy skills in English. That’s not “half,” as ProLiteracy pointed out, and it includes people who didn’t graduate from high school and people who are able to read basic text but struggle with more complex literacy tasks.

The Tuberville spokesperson said the senator was speaking informally after having been briefed on other statistics about Americans’ struggles with reading, like a report that half of adults can’t read a book written at an eighth-grade level.

Biden’s speech on threats to democracy
Rep. Jim Jordan claimed of Biden: “The president of the United States stood in front of Independence Hall, called half the country fascists.”

Facts First: This is not true. Biden did not denounce even close to “half the country” in this 2022 speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. He made clear that he was speaking about a minority of Republicans.

In the speech, in which he never used the word “fascists,” Biden warned that “MAGA Republicans” like Trump are “extreme,” “do not respect the Constitution” and “do not believe in the rule of law.” But he also emphasized that “not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans.” In other words, he made clear that he was talking about far less than half of Americans.

Trump earned fewer than 75 million votes in 2020 in a country of more than 258 million adults, so even a hypothetical criticism of every single Trump voter would not amount to criticism of “half the country.”

The Biden administration, gas stoves and electric vehicles
Rep. Scott Perry claimed that “average citizens need to just at some point be willing to acknowledge and accept that every single facet of the federal government is weaponized against every single one of us.” Perry said moments later, “The government doesn’t have the right to tell you that you can’t buy a gas stove but that you must buy an electric vehicle.”

Facts First: This is nonsense. The federal government has not told people that they can’t buy a gas stove or must buy an electric vehicle.

The Biden administration has tried to encourage and incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles, but it has not tried to forbid the manufacture or purchase of traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines. Biden has set a goal of electric vehicles making up half of all new vehicles sold in the US by 2030.

There was a January controversy about a Biden appointee to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, Richard Trumka Jr., saying that gas stoves pose a “hidden hazard,” as they emit air pollutants, and that “any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” But the commission as a whole has not shown support for a ban, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a January press briefing: “The president does not support banning gas stoves. And the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is independent, is not banning gas stoves.”

Biden’s laugh
Rep. Ralph Norman claimed that Biden had just laughed at a mother who lost two sons to fentanyl.

“I don’t know whether y’all saw, I just saw it this morning: Biden laughing at the mother who had two sons – to die, and he’s basically laughing and saying the fentanyl came from the previous administration. Who cares where it came from? The fact is it’s here,” Norman said.

Facts First: Norman’s claim is false. Biden did not laugh at the mother who lost her sons to fentanyl, the anti-abortion activist Rebecca Kiessling; in a somber tone, he called her “a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl.” Rather, he proceeded to laugh about how Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had baselessly blamed the Biden administration for the young men’s deaths even though the tragedy happened in mid-2020, during the Trump administration. You can watch the video of Biden’s remarks here.

Kiessling has demanded an apology from Biden. She is entitled to her criticism of Biden’s remarks and his chuckle – but the video clearly shows Norman was wrong when he claimed Biden was “laughing at the mother.”

An exchange about Justice Brett Kavanaugh
Rep. Kat Cammack told a story about the first hearing of the new Republican-led House select subcommittee on the supposed “weaponization” of the federal government. Cammack claimed she had asked a Democratic witness at this February hearing about his “incredibly vitriolic” Twitter feed in which, she claimed, he not only repeatedly criticized Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh but even went “so far as to encourage people to harass this Supreme Court justice.”

Facts First: This story is false. The witness Cammack questioned in this February exchange at the subcommittee, former Obama administration deputy assistant attorney general Elliot Williams, did not encourage people to harass Kavanaugh. In fact, it’s not even true that Cammack accused him at the February hearing of having encouraged people to harass Kavanaugh. Rather, at the hearing, she merely claimed that Williams had tweeted numerous critical tweets about Kavanaugh but had been “unusually quiet” on Twitter after an alleged assassination attempt against the justice. Clearly, not tweeting about the incident is not the same thing as encouraging harassment.

Williams, now a CNN legal analyst (he appeared at the subcommittee hearing in his personal capacity), said in a Thursday email that he had “no idea” what Cammack was looking at on his innocuous Twitter feed. He said: “I used to prosecute violent crimes, and clerked for two federal judges. Any suggestion that I’ve ever encouraged harassment of anyone – and particularly any official of the United States – is insulting and not based in reality.”

Cammack’s spokesperson responded helpfully on Thursday to CNN’s initial queries about the story Cammack told at CPAC, explaining that she was referring to her February exchange with Williams. But the spokesperson stopped responding after CNN asked if Cammack was accurately describing this exchange with Williams and if they had any evidence of Williams actually having encouraged the harassment of Kavanaugh.

The Trump-era economy
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana boasted about the state of the country “when Republicans were in charge.” Among other claims about Trump’s tenure, he said that “in four years,” Republicans “delivered 3.5% unemployment” and “created 8 million new jobs.”

Facts First: This is inaccurate in two ways. First, the economic numbers for the full “four years” of Trump’s tenure are much worse than these numbers Kennedy cited; Kennedy was actually referring to Trump’s first three years while ignoring the fourth, which was marred by the Covid-19 pandemic. Second, there weren’t “8 million new jobs” created even in Trump’s first three years.

Kennedy could have correctly said there was a 3.5% unemployment rate after three years of the Trump administration, but not after four. The unemployment rate skyrocketed early in Trump’s fourth year, on account of the pandemic, before coming down again, and it was 6.3% when Trump left office in early 2021. (It fell to 3.4% this January under Biden, better than in any month under Trump.)

And while the economy added about 6.7 million jobs under Trump before the pandemic-related crash of March and April 2020, that’s not the “8 million jobs” Kennedy claimed – and the economy ended up shedding millions of jobs in Trump’s fourth year. Over the full four years of Trump’s tenure, the economy netted a loss of about 2.7 million jobs.

Unemployment under Trump
Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and an adviser to his 2020 campaign, claimed that the last time a CPAC crowd was gathered at this venue in Maryland, in February 2020, “We had the lowest unemployment in American history.” After making other boasts about Donald Trump’s presidency, she said, “But how quickly it all changed.” She added, “Under Joe Biden, America is crumbling.”

Facts First: Lara Trump’s claim about February 2020 having “the lowest unemployment in American history” is false. The unemployment rate was 3.5% at the time – tied for the lowest since 1969, but not the all-time lowest on record, which was 2.5% in 1953. And while Lara Trump didn’t make an explicit claim about unemployment under Biden, it’s not true that things are worse today on this measure; again, the most recent unemployment rate, 3.4% for January 2023, is better than the rate at the time of CPAC’s 2020 conference or at any other time during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Fentanyl deaths
Multiple speakers at CPAC decried the high number of fentanyl overdose deaths. But some of the speakers inflated that number while attacking Biden’s immigration policy.

Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, claimed that “in the last 12 months in America, deaths by fentanyl poisoning totaled 110,000 Americans.” He blamed “Biden’s open border” for these deaths.

Rep. Scott Perry claimed: “Meanwhile over on this side of the border, where there isn’t anybody, they’re running this fentanyl in; it’s killing 100,000 Americans – over 100,000 Americans – a year.”

Facts First: It’s not true that there are more than 100,000 fentanyl deaths per year. That is the total number of deaths from all drug overdoses in the US; there were 106,699 such deaths in 2021. But the number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, primarily fentanyl, is smaller – 70,601 in 2021.

Fentanyl-related overdoses are clearly a major problem for the country and by far the biggest single contributor to the broader overdose problem. Nonetheless, claims of “110,000” and “over 100,000” fentanyl deaths per year are significant exaggerations. And while the number of overdose deaths and fentanyl-related deaths increased under Biden in 2021, it was also troubling under Trump in 2020 – 91,799 total overdose deaths and 56,516 for synthetic opioids other than methadone.

It’s also worth noting that fentanyl is largely smuggled in by US citizens through legal ports of entry rather than by migrants sneaking past other parts of the border. Contrary to frequent Republican claims, the border is not “open”; border officers have seized thousands of pounds of fentanyl under Biden.



https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/04/politics/fact-check-cpac-2023/index.html

 

Its not sad to me. CPAC has become a very destructive force embracing the worst kinds of right wing extremism and authoritarianism. I will be very happy to watch them self destruct.

'It's sad': Conservatives lament the collapse of CPAC since Trump came along

Tom Boggioni
March 05, 2023



Donald Trump at CPAC (Photo by Nicolas Kamm for AFP)


As the 2023 CPAC gathering wraps up in Maryland, Republican activists are expressing their dismay with the turn the conservative gathering has taken and wonder if it will survive now that it has been taken over by the MAGA crowd.

With attendance down, likely due in equal parts to the sexual assault allegations levied at founder Matt Schlapp and key Republicans staying away, ABC reports that this year's convention was more Trump-centric than any in recent memory.

However, according to one attendee, CPAC needs more Trump and fewer alternatives.

"It is a broad cross section, but that's kind of a bad thing, you almost don't want that," explained Joe Walters from Westchester County, N.Y., before adding, "I wish it were more Trumpian in some sense."

Comments like that have some conservatives worried.

RELATED: Trump buried over his 'bad Batman' speech at 'lackluster' CPAC

"Ten years ago, it was an opportunity to test your messages to conservative leaders and influencers all over the country and to have a big audience get to know you from the podium and everything else that was included. And I don't think that's where it is today. I think it's a narrow, small tent," lamented one aide to a GOP lawmaker. "I think last time I was there, it almost felt like a college crowd than it did a serious thinker crowd."

"As somebody that's been involved in the movement for 20-plus years, it's sad, because it was at one time the premier event for conservatives to come together," they continued before adding, "I think there's a lot of people that hope so. But there's gonna have to be a wholesale change over there, and I don't see that coming anytime soon," the source said. "Sometimes you just have to have a hard reset."

The ABC report adds, "With Trump's sway at CPAC, even attendees looking for alternatives to the former president in the next election sounded doubtful."

"I haven't talked to anyone that's a DeSantis supporter. I've only really seen Trump people," said Ben Kelley who supports the Florida governor. "Maybe if I ask around, more will be for DeSantis."

You can read more here.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-cpac-2659502544/

 

Do not believe your lying eyes and ears. I definitely did now say what I said.


CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of ‘Transgenderism’ — and Somehow Claims He’s Not Calling for Elimination of Transgender People
717

Peter Wade and Patrick Reis
Mon, March 6, 2023 at 11:57 AM MST·6 min read



"Candace" Hosted By Candace Owens - Credit: Getty Images
The right’s war on queer and trans people took center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference as Daily Wire host Michael Knowles on Saturday called for the eradication of “transgenderism.”

During his speech on Saturday, Knowles told the crowd, “For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”

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Knowles subsequently claimed that “eradicating” “transgenderism” is not a call for eradicating transgender people and demanded retractions from numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.

Erin Reed, a transgender rights activist and writer, tells Rolling Stone that it’s an absurd distinction. There is no difference between a ban on “transgenderism” and an attack on transgender people, she says: “They are one and the same, and there’s no separation between them.”

Reed says that Knowles and others at the Daily Wire, including anti-trans activist Matt Walsh, are not just talking about keeping transgender people out of public life, they’re actively working to make it happen. She noted their support for bills to deprive transgender people of gender affirming medical care, bans on using public bathrooms, and targeting of live performances by trans individuals.

“If you try to separate us from all the things that allow people to experience the world … that does amount to banning transgender people’s existence,” says Reed, a transgender woman, “You can’t go your whole life without using the bathroom, without telling a joke on stage in front of friends, without your medicine. All of that amounts to a ban on transgender people.”

Geoff Wetrosky, HRC’s National Campaign Director, says Knowles and other CPAC speakers were attempting to appeal to a right-wing audience — and putting trans people and other members of the LGBTQ community at risk.

“Their vile, anti-trans rhetoric does not resonate with the majority of Americans who are interested in solutions, not slander. But that doesn’t mean their transphobic hate and propaganda won’t cause harm,” Wetrosky says. “Their words rile up far-right extremists resulting in more stigma, discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people. The rights and very existence of trans people are not up for debate. We will keep fighting back until we are all treated equally, with dignity and respect.”

Reed noted that Knowles himself blurred the lines between transgender individuals and “transgenderism” in remarks earlier this week on his own show.

“I called to ban transgenderism entirely … They said that I was calling for the extermination of transgender people. They said I was calling for a genocide … One, I don’t know how you could have a genocide of transgender people because genocide refers to genes, it refers to genetics, it refers to biology,” Knowles said, ahistorically.

“Nobody is calling to exterminate anybody, because the other problem with that statement is that transgender people is not a real ontological category — it’s not a legitimate category of being,” Knowles continued. “There are people who think that they are the wrong sex, but they are mistaken. They’re laboring under a delusion. And so we need to correct that delusion.”

Carl Charles, a senior attorney at the LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal, noted that Knowles’ goals are clear, even as he muddles the meaning of his words. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if by using the inflammatory term ‘eradicate’ Mr. Knowles specifically meant trans people should be killed. What does matter is the reality of what he is saying and the impact it is having and will have at this particular moment in history,” Charles says. “He is advocating that trans people should not be free to live their lives with dignity and autonomy like Mr. Knowles presumably does — instead, they should be relegated to non-existence: carrying on in secret and shame and living a lie for the rest of their days, which, he must realize, will mean some trans people opt not to do.”

Knowles’ ideology is right in line with Republican politicians who have enacted or introduced bans on drag performances, restrictions on transgender health care, bills that would ban trans people from using the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity, and laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” that bars teachers from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. The Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a group that tracks LGBTQ legislation, described these efforts as an ongoing “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.”

In his speech, Knowles pushed an extremist position on public policy toward transgender individuals. “There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism. It can be all or nothing,” he said. “If transgenderism is true, if men really can become women, then it’s true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false — as it is — if men really can’t become women — as they cannot — then it’s false for everybody too. And if it’s false, then we should not indulge it, especially when that indulgence requires taking away the rights and customs of many people. It if is false, then for the good of society — and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion — then transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”

A number of people, including Media Matters’ John Knefel and Harvard Law Cyber Clinic’s Alejandra Caraballo, called Knowles’ remarks genocidal.

People like Knowles may feel even more emboldened as top conservatives regularly spout anti-trans rhetoric. In February, former Vice President Mike Pence decried “radical gender ideology” and claimed the left has “increasingly bizarre obsessions with race and sex and gender.” Former President Donald Trump has also turned up his anti-trans rhetoric recently. In a video posted in January, Trump decried “left-wing gender insanity” and promised to end gender affirming care for minors nationwide, likening normal health care to “child sex mutilation” and “child abuse.” It’s all a transparently fascistic effort to drive LGBTQ people back into the closet and eliminate them from public life while simultaneously firing up the conservative base with fear-mongering.

LGBTQ advocates see the real harm this rhetoric causes, as well as uncomfortable echoes in history. “‘Transgenderism’ is a phony term made up by anti-transgender activists and used to dehumanize transgender people and target them, their lifesaving healthcare, and access to society,” says Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD. “Similar hate speech about ‘eradicating’ human beings has been used by extremists throughout history.”


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cpac-speaker-calls-transgender-people-213112725.html

 

'Cancer has been metastasizing': CPAC treasurer's resignation letter doesn't hold back

Travis Gettys
May 25, 2023, 11:36 AM ET



Matt Schlapp / Gage Skidmore


A top official in the organization that organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference has resigned over alleged financial uncertainty involving the group's leader, according to a report.

Longtime treasurer Bob Beauprez stepped down Tuesday from his role at the American Conservative Union, saying that he was not fully informed about payments for chairman Matt Schlapp's legal defense against a sexual assault lawsuit and detailing a lengthy list of shady practices involving the organization's leader, reported New York Magazine.

“A cancer has been metastasizing within the organization for years,” Beauprez wrote in his resignation letter. “It must be diagnosed, treated, and cured, or it will destroy ACU/F. You simply cannot survive like this.”

Veteran GOP staffer Carlton Huffman accused Schlapp in January of repeatedly groping him while they were campaigning together last fall for Senate candidate Herschel Walker. The ACU chairman denies the allegations.

The ACU's executive committee advanced $50,000 to Schlapp days after the lawsuit so he could retain an attorney, but Beauprez said he was blindsided when Schlapp said he had raised another $270,000 from ACU donors and the related foundation ACUF, and he was shocked again when the organization's lawyer told him in February that they money had already been dispersed or invoiced.”

Beauprez told a March board meeting that he had been given no status updates or summaries of expenditures regarding Schlapp's personal liability insurance carrier or anything else related to his legal expenses, and he said that he was accused of disloyalty when he tried to do his job.

“However great our sympathy, we cannot avoid our fiduciary responsibilities," he told the board. "A few of us have sought answers to some of what seem to be obvious and necessary questions. As a result, we have been accused of ‘not having Matt’s back’ and ‘trying to stage a leadership coup.’”

The treasurer also said the organization could face serious legal jeopardy as a result and accused Schlapp of breaking ACU rules by taking control of when the board could meet, and he complained in his resignation letter that Schlapp had brought in a friendly GOP operative Frank Sadler, instead of a certified public accountant, as finance director.

“I have to admit that I feel like I’m in the dark,” Beauprez told the board. “I have received no further information about what additional costs have accrued since then … I assume any monies paid are either coming from Matt personally or from ACU/F. But, again, I don’t know, and it is most unsettling.”



https://www.rawstory.com/matt-schlapp-acu/

 

This is a very consistent pattern that I predicted. When it comes to sexual assaulters when someone comes forward to accuse someone of sexual assault if the claim is true there will almost never be just one accuser. And others will step forward.


CPAC founder Schlapp slapped with new allegations involving two younger men: report

David McAfee
August 26, 2023, 6:40 PM ET



Donald Trump, Matt Schlapp (Photo by Saul Loeb for AFP)


One day after a top Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) official resigned and encouraged further investigations into Chair Matt Schlapp, who was accused of sexually assaulting a Herschel Walker Senate campaign staffer, new allegations surfaced.

Vice Chair Charlie Gerow turned in his resignation Friday, and it was reported that the attorney and communications executive had issued a call for probes over CPAC’s leader. His resignation reportedly followed the departure of fellow board member Timothy Ryan.

Now, the Washington Post has a scoop alleging there are at least two more purported incidents that could be investigated.

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"In addition to that lawsuit, some board members and staffers have been told about other incidents involving Schlapp, 55, and two younger men, multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation said," The Washington Post reported Saturday. "In one incident, a staffer said Schlapp attempted to kiss him while drinking late after a work function in 2017. The staffer also provided documentation from that night to The Washington Post showing physical contact that the staffer said was unsolicited."

The report continues:

"In another incident, Schlapp allegedly made unwanted physical advances on someone else’s employee during a CPAC business trip in Palm Beach, Fla., in early 2022, according to multiple people informed of the incident. The alleged victim did not respond to requests for comment."

Read the report here.


https://www.rawstory.com/cpac-2664468658/

 

Why yes, Shooter has made the same observation as stumbler. Where we hear about a single sexual assault against a public figure, there are always others, eh?

• Alexandra Tara Reade
• Lucy Flores
• Amy Lappos
• D.J. Hill
• Caitlyn Caruso
• Ally Coll
• Sofie Karasek
• Vail Kohnert-Yount
• Ashley Biden

 

Remember old Truthful "Rocky"? He created this thread. Such a knucklehead.

 

And ressurected by stumbler cause he's always looking for new places to drop his spew.

 

Inside Matt Schlapp’s Offer to Settle the Sexual Battery Lawsuit Against Him
Roger Sollenberger
Mon, August 28, 2023 at 7:49 PM MDT·9 min read
19



Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Embattled conservative activist Matt Schlapp made an offer in March to settle the multimillion-dollar sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against him, but the proposal was rejected, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The offer from Schlapp was in the low six figures, according to the sources. But Schlapp’s accuser—Republican strategist Carlton Huffman, who filed the lawsuit against Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, in January—turned it down and countered with a substantially higher sum. Schlapp did not accept the counterproposal, the sources said.

The settlement negotiations were brought to the attention of officials at Schlapp’s organization, the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual CPAC conferences. But the ACU board was not formally consulted and did not vote on the offer ahead of time, according to multiple people with knowledge of the events. These sources spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.



In a statement to The Daily Beast on behalf of the Schlapps, their publicist Mark Corallo denied that a settlement was offered.

“We take seriously our professional conduct and would never discuss the details of confidential conversations between lawyers. But since it appears Mr. Huffman or his attorney have done so, let me set the record straight: There was no settlement offer,” Corallo said. “From the outset Mr. and Mrs. Schlapp have been and remain prepared to go to trial and are confident of prevailing in court.”

Asked about the veracity of the assertion that “there was no settlement offer,” Huffman’s attorney, Tim Hyland, told The Daily Beast that the claim was “categorically false.”

These back-door negotiations are among a number of developments that have raised internal concerns at the ACU in recent months, as Schlapp has persistently kept the board out of the loop in discussions related to Huffman’s allegation, the lawsuit, funding for his legal defense, and the ACU’s own bookkeeping, according to sources with knowledge of the events and previous news reports.

Schlapp—through spokespeople, surrogates, and legal counsel—has denied that he ever inappropriately touched Huffman, who claims that Schlapp “grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length” one night last October, while Huffman, at the time a staffer with Herschel Walker’s senatorial campaign, chauffeured the CPAC chairman to his hotel after a night of drinking in Atlanta. Huffman provided contemporaneous communications to support his account, which was further corroborated by campaign officials. Several national outlets confirmed the existence of the allegation ahead of Huffman’s lawsuit.

But Schlapp’s apparent attempt to settle the lawsuit may cast new doubt on the ACU chairman’s story.

Multiple sources described Schlapp’s behavior in response to the allegations as “bizarre.” He continues to reject calls for an internal investigation, and ACU board meetings have been structured in a way that has precluded any discussion of the allegation. Those moves have only deepened concerns, even among longtime allies who initially defended him, according to the sources.

One such former ally—former ACU vice president Charlie Gerow, who in January put his name on a pugilistic denial to The Daily Beast’s initial report about Huffman’s claims—put these issues front and center in his resignation last Friday.

In his public statement, Gerow called on the organization to conduct an “independent forensic audit of the organization’s finances,” secure “a written opinion of counsel that the organization is in full compliance with its own bylaws and all applicable law,” and “thoroughly review” the exit interviews of “the large number of staff who have recently left.”

In a private letter, Gerow also urged the board to investigate all allegations against Schlapp, including any new accusations that may arise. The Daily Beast has confirmed the existence of two new allegations through multiple people informed of the incidents, as well as one accuser—a former CPAC staffer—who confirmed the existence of these allegations directly, adding for the first time that he had informed CPAC staff about the incident at the time. The Washington Post first reported on those new allegations on Saturday.

Asked for comment, Gerow told The Daily Beast his letter “speaks for itself.”

As the lawsuit against Schlapp proceeds deeper into the discovery phase, these sources with knowledge of the matter said the CPAC leader’s moves appear directly at odds with transparency. And as the months go by, these people said, Schlapp’s stubborn refusal to address questions about Huffman’s allegation appears increasingly reckless, putting his organization on a collision course with financial and legal liabilities.

Asked what could explain a desperation so apparently fervent that it has even begun to repel longtime allies, one person with direct knowledge of the matter replied, “This organization is all he has. There’s nothing to fall back on.”



In recent weeks, the lawsuit’s discovery phase has uncovered new information that has led Huffman to seriously contemplate adding the ACU as a defendant in the lawsuit, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Former ACU officials told The Daily Beast that this move has been anticipated within the organization for some time, and could potentially shackle the board to the largely secretive legal strategy Schlapp has been pursuing—a track which, these people said, appears headed straight for a potentially damaging conclusion.

Schlapp has aggressively denied Huffman’s allegation through spokespeople and court statements filed by his legal counsel. His surrogates have also highlighted Huffman’s own flaws—including a restraining order against him for alleged sexual impropriety with two young women in February, as well as his expression of solidarity with white supremacist ideologies more than a decade ago. Huffman has acknowledged and denounced those previous statements as “ugly.”

Schlapp himself has not directly addressed the accusation. His attorney, along with counsel for ACU, did not reply to The Daily Beast’s detailed request for comment.

In a 362-word statement, ACU and CPAC spokesperson Alexandra Preate falsely claimed that The Daily Beast was “on a partisan mission” with Huffman and his lawyer to “destroy ACU/CPAC, one of the most effective and respected conservative organizations in the country, and its leader Matt Schlapp.” (Huffman, for his part, is a lifelong conservative and Republican political operative.)

The statement also took shots at Gerow, “who for some time through his actions has given his colleagues on the board the impression” that he was angling for Schlapp’s chairmanship. Preate also claimed that Gerow was the only person who “repeatedly” urged Schlapp to settle the case, and “lost the confidence and trust of his colleagues on the board and was not renominated.”

“For their part, the Schlapps have been firm in their resolve to be vindicated and are fully prepared to go to trial,” the statement continued, adding that the couple believes that “a jury of good and honest citizens” will discredit Huffman as “a former white supremist” [sic] with his own history of inappropriate sexual conduct.

The statement did not explicitly deny or even address the veracity of Huffman’s allegations.

This month, Huffman also subpoenaed ACU’s one-time chief financial officer, Bob Beauprez, who submitted his resignation letter in May. In that letter, Beauprez also rang the alarm about Schlapp’s handling of the allegation, with the organization’s top fiduciary separately declaring that he no longer had confidence in the accuracy of ACU’s financial statements.

Beauprez’s uncertainty extended to the funding for Schlapp’s legal defense. While the ACU agreed to front Schlapp $50,000 to retain his attorney—Benjamin Chew, who defended Johnny Depp in part of his defamation case—Schlapp also incurred another $270,000, which he claimed to have raised through ACU and donors, according to Beauprez’s resignation letter.



The CFO, however, said he could not independently verify exactly where that money came from—or how it had passed through the organization.

Schlapp has spun up a number of fundraising entities, including the First Amendment Fund, which purports to raise money for Jan. 6 defendants, and the Chestnut Street Council, an opaque donor coalition formed in early 2022 that appears to have dissolved this year, according to Wyoming business records.

Beauprez declined to comment for this story.

These questions also apply to Mercedes Schlapp’s defense, which Chew is also handling. Huffman has accused Schlapp’s wife of defamation, citing private statements she made about him in response to The Daily Beast’s reporting. ACU’s most recent tax filing, from 2022, indicates that Mercedes Schlapp is on the organization’s payroll, receiving $175,500 for “strategic comm.” It isn’t clear from the tax filing whether Mercedes Schlapp was a direct employee or an independent contractor.

That question could carry implications for ACU’s financial obligations, specifically whether it’s proper for the organization to cover legal fees in connection to statements that could fall outside the scope of her employment.

In response to questions about Mercedes Schlapp’s legal fees, Preate replied that she is “represented by counsel retained by her insurer.” She did not immediately reply to a follow-up about whether the insurer is strictly private or part of ACU’s coverage.

In December, shortly after Huffman posted a tweet accusing Schlapp of drunken misconduct, the ACU ordered all employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, The Washington Post previously reported.

But Huffman’s accusation no longer stands alone. The Daily Beast has independently confirmed The Washington Post’s reporting this weekend about two more allegations against Schlapp that have come to the attention of ACU officials.

One of the alleged incidents occurred during a CPAC work trip in Palm Beach, Florida, in early 2022, when Schlapp made an allegedly unwanted and inappropriate advance on an executive assistant to a wealthy GOP donor, according to multiple people informed of the incident. When The Daily Beast reached out to the alleged victim, he said he had “no comment for now.”

In the second incident, from early 2017, Schlapp allegedly tried to kiss a male staffer while drunk after a CPAC event, the staffer told The Daily Beast. The staffer, who no longer works for the organization, provided documentation from earlier that same evening—also reported by the Post—showing Schlapp made what the staffer described as unwanted and intrusive physical contact. Multiple former officials confirmed knowledge of the allegation. They also corroborated the former staffer’s claim that he informed CPAC staff about the incident at the time.

In a statement to the Post, ACU board member Matt Smith claimed that Gerow had “fabricated” both of these allegations—an accusation that the reporting directly undercuts.

The Daily Beast asked the former staffer if he would like to comment on his 2017 experience, specifically in light of Smith’s implication that it did not happen and he does not exist.

“I learned that even though I held someone in high regard at the time, giving him the benefit of the doubt was naive,” the former staffer said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/inside-matt-schlapp-offer-settle-014941064.html

 

CPAC Power Couple Calls Daily Beast 'Satan' For Reporting On Groping Allegations
David Moye
Wed, August 30, 2023 at 3:19 PM MDT·3 min read
480



CPAC power couple Matt and Mercedes Schlapp are apparently having a hell of a time dealing with allegations that Matt Schlapp made unwanted and inappropriate advances toward other men.

So naturally they are accusing The Daily Beast, the outlet reporting the news, of doing Satan’s work.

Earlier this year, Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the influential Conservative Political Action Conference, was sued by a former campaign worker for Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker over allegations that Schlapp groped the staffer without permission.

Although Schlapp has denied the claims, The Daily Beast reported Monday that he tried to settle with the man earlier this year, which the Schlapps also denied.

The Daily Beast included the denial, but also noted The Washington Post’s reporting that Schlapp was facing new groping allegations, one involving a CPAC staffer who accused Matt Schlapp of attempting to kiss him while drinking late after a work function in 2017.

The other alleged incident occurred in early 2022, according to the Post’s sources, who said Schlapp made unwanted physical advances toward someone else’s employee while on a CPAC business trip in Palm Beach, Florida.

The Daily Beast said Monday it had independently confirmed the existence of the two new allegations through multiple people, including the former CPAC staffer who made the 2017 accusation.

The Schlapps have denied all of the allegations — and apparently didn’t appreciate The Daily Beast for reporting them. Nor did they appreciate who they believe to be the real force behind this sordid tale: Satan himself.

Mercedes Schlapp, a senior fellow at the CPAC Foundation and the wife of Matt Schlapp, called the website “Satan’s publication to persecute Christians and their families,” while Matt Schlapp chimed in by saying, “Soon to start a weekend edition: the Saturday Satan.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cpac-power-couple-calls-daily-211906539.html

 

Matt Schlapp Held an Exorcism at CPAC Offices After Junior Employees Resigned
Roger Sollenberger
Thu, August 31, 2023 at 8:50 PM MDT·5 min read
12



When a group of employees resigned in protest from conservative activist group CPAC last year, the organization’s power couple—Matt Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes—felt it was time for a new beginning.

As part of the reset, the Schlapps turned to a priest to evict satanic spirits from the D.C. offices, according to multiple people with knowledge of the exorcisms.

And so, on an afternoon in spring 2022, CPAC employees at their offices in Alexandria, Virginia—about eight miles from the fabled staircase featured in the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist—found themselves suddenly in the presence of a Catholic priest. The priest, sources said, sprinkled holy water around the CPAC premises and blessed all the staff, regardless of their faith. As part of the rite, according to these people, the priest placed a medallion above doors in the offices and explained that it would help ward off evil spirits.

Inside Matt Schlapp’s Offer to Settle the Sexual Battery Lawsuit Against Him


The reason for the exorcism? A raft of junior employees had just walked away from their jobs en masse, after the organization denied their repeated requests for higher pay, according to multiple people with knowledge of the events.

But while the employees have been gone for over a year now, the talismans are still there. The Daily Beast obtained photos of one of them, which shows it is “St. Benedict’s Medal,” with St. Benedict being the patron saint of exorcisms.


Photo of a religious medal above a door frame in CPAC offices.

Obtained by The Daily Beast

Photo of religious medals that are in CPAC offices.

Obtained by The Daily Beast
According to the St. Benedict Center, “The medal is a prayer of exorcism against Satan, a prayer for strength in time of temptation, a prayer for peace among ourselves and among the nations of the world,” and “a prayer of firm rejection of all that is evil.”

It’s not just anonymous sources who make this claim. CPAC general counsel David Safavian—also a devout Catholic—publicly acknowledged an in-office exorcism earlier this year, under circumstances similar to the 2022 event described to The Daily Beast.

“Now that we’ve performed an exorcism on a recently vacated office, I’m enjoying my new private cigar lounge,” Safavian posted on May 23, referring to a specific office of an employee who had just departed at the time. “Beats the heck out of the corner of the garage where I could get cell service!” (Tweet archived here.)


“It’s a miracle he wasn’t sued for defamation over that one,” one source told The Daily Beast.

Another source described the 2022 event as “the weirdest thing I’d seen,” and yet another said, “I had no idea what was going on.”

Multiple sources with knowledge of the event said the rite included a prayer circle in Schlapp’s office, which one person described as performative and inauthentic. “Like a show,” this source said.

“As the priest made his way through the office, spritzing holy water room to room, employees nudged him towards Matt’s office,” this person said. “The way he had treated junior employees, it seemed to us like he was the one who needed it the most.”

Schlapp—who stands accused of making unwanted physical advances on three men in recent years, one of whom is suing him for sexual battery and, along with his wife, defamation—is former co-chair for “Catholics for Trump.”

CPAC did not reply to a request for comment, but Schlapp provided a statement through his publicist, Mark Corallo.

“CPAC is being terrorized by a demon self-described as The Daily Beast,” the statement, attributed to Matt Schlapp, said. “The good news is the leadership of CPAC knows how the epic battle against the Beast ends. I’d short the stock.”

Herschel Walker Staffer: Matt Schlapp ‘Groped’ My Crotch

Mercedes Schlapp also tried to get ahead of the story, posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Satan’s publication” is wasting its time among other crises.

“Americans are dying of fentanyl, children are being sex trafficked, and violent crimes are happening in our cities while Satan’s publication is writing about exorcisms. Daily Beast is a joke,” Mercedes Schlapp wrote.

On Tuesday—in response to The Daily Beast’s reporting that Schlapp tried unsuccessfully to settle the lawsuit earlier this year, and now faced two new accusations—both Schlapps alleged that The Daily Beast was run by the devil.

“The Daily Beast is Satan’s publication to persecute Christians and their families,” Mercedes Schlapp tweeted.

“Soon to start a weekend edition: the Saturday Satan,” her husband added, despite the publication already self-identifying as “daily.”

Four people with knowledge of the exorcism told The Daily Beast that just prior to the event, CPAC junior staff had resigned to Schlapp personally, after he repeatedly rejected their calls for higher compensation amid increasingly demanding work conditions.

“Everyone disrespects what the Schlapps did to them. They left because they couldn’t get money,” one of the people told The Daily Beast. “Matt has said, ‘everyone is disposable,’ and says that they can always find someone else to do the job for that much.”



https://www.yahoo.com/news/matt-schlapp-held-exorcism-cpac-025005689.html

 

Scandal-plagued CPAC head destroyed in scathing resignation letter from board member

Matthew Chapman
November 13, 2023 4:47PM ET



Matt Schlapp / Gage Skidmore


Scandal-plagued Conservative Political Action Conference head and Donald Trump loyalist Matt Schlapp is leading the organization to disaster with his vow to fight a sexual misconduct allegation, wrote former board member Charlie Gerow in a scathing resignation letter made public on Monday by The Daily Beast.

Schlapp was accused by former Herschel Walker Senate campaign staffer Carlton Huffman of aggressively groping him while they were in a car on the way back to Schlapp's hotel. Schlapp has vehemently denied all allegations and vowed to fight a lawsuit Huffman filed against him earlier this year.

Gerow originally stood by Schlapp when the allegations first came out, his letter said — but he soon realized that Schlapp was leading CPAC to destruction, especially when he learned CPAC was gearing up to cover Schlapp's legal expenses.

“This startled me as I had never seen the agreement and had never been told that an indemnification provision was potentially involved.”

“Tragically, for those who are encouraging Matt to ‘fight this to the end’ the costs are already staggering,” wrote Gerow. “Earlier this year, we were advised that the legal strategy of Matt's counsel would ‘blow this case out of the water’ within 30 days. That obviously did not happen. Instead, huge legal bills continue to mount.”

Gerow further wrote that the case will not make it to trial, and Schlapp will ultimately settle for "millions of dollars" — which could be devastating to CPAC if its legal insurance doesn't cover it.

Indeed, The Daily Beast recently suggested Schlapp was preparing to settle, but he and his wife Mercedes deny this, with the latter taking to social media to proclaim that The Beast is "Satan's publication to persecute Christians."



https://www.rawstory.com/matt-schlapp-2666255131/