With this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference finally kicking off, organizer Matt Schlapp is now claiming he’s the “victim” of “fake journalists” amid an alleged groping scandal that’s overshadowed the right-wing confab and led to Fox News ignoring the event.
As a result of what appears to be a Fox blackout, in addition to a number of prominent Republicans having decided to skip CPAC 2023, Schlapp has turned to smaller conservative media outlets in an effort to hype this year’s event. And while he had largely avoided publicly mentioning the groping allegations, he broached the subject in a Wednesday interview with The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard.
According to the CPAC boss, reports on the allegations that he groped a Herschel Walker staffer and that there are concerns about his leadership are nothing more than “fake journalists… pushing this leftist agenda and lying.” Schlapp is a “victim” of that, he claimed.
“This media will take any charge and run with it if they can destroy a Republican or a Trump supporter or conservative,” the CPAC leader declared. “That’s what we have in this country.”
Claiming his current plight is another example of “woke politics” supposedly taking down conservative activists, Schlapp said this “has to stop” and “we have to find a way not to back down” because “that’s what the people of CPAC are all facing in their own lives.”
Schlapp also brushed off concerns that “marquee Republicans” have ditched the event. Besides Fox News largely ignoring this year’s confab, likely 2024 presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence have turned down invitations to speak at the conference. Schlapp, for his part, hyped up the fact that former President Donald Trump, who has already announced a White House run, is scheduled to appear.
The beleaguered CPAC chief raging about “fake journalists” victimizing him comes as he’s also boasted that he will shut out reporters and media outlets from the convention if he feels they’ve been unfair to him.
The Daily Beast spoke to a number of reporters who’ve covered previous CPACs—and whose outlets covered the sexual misconduct allegations—who had not heard back regarding their media credentials in the days leading up to the event. After The Daily Beast emailed CPAC for comment on Tuesday, some reporters began receiving last-minute confirmation emails for their credentials.
The Daily Beast, which first reported on the allegations against Schlapp, has not received a CPAC credential.
In January, a male staffer on Walker’s failed Senate campaign alleged that Schlapp grabbed his “junk” and “pummeled it at length,” an experience that left the individual scarred and humiliated. Schlapp, through his attorney, denied the allegations at the time and called them an “attack” on his family, prompting the unnamed staffer to file a defamation lawsuit accusing the conservative icon of sexual battery.
Since then, Schlapp and his wife Mercedes Schlapp—a former Fox News contributor and Trump administration official—have been personae non grata on Fox media outlets, despite making dozens of appearances prior to the scandal. The network’s ghosting of the Schlapps meant no promotional hype for CPAC on the top-rated right-wing channel.
While essentially turning its back on Schlapp, the conservative cable giant has all but ignored CPAC, even though its digital streaming platform Fox Nation provided round-the-clock coverage of the confab in the past. (One Fox News staffer told The Daily Beast they’ve gone “radio silent.”)
Furthermore, Fox has helped underwrite the conference in recent years, serving as a “Featuring Sponsor” for the partisan celebration while donating $250,000 in 2021.
