CPAC is very sleepy this year.
As I was preparing I reached out to people I met here previously, 95 percent of them said they weren’t coming this year. pic.twitter.com/riMSsyytPf
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) February 22, 2024
There’s a couple of competing events this weekend, but the main reason CPAC attendance is down just might be Matt Schlapp’s legal problems (no good ‘conservative’ wants that stink on them!). Per the Daily Beast:
SCOOP: Another round of subpoenas in the Matt Schlapp sexual assault case, including to an official who allegedly oversaw the shredding of personal records belonging to Schlapp in the CPAC office—days after the allegations broke. Me @thedailybeast https://t.co/WBc8WrOZwq
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) February 22, 2024
… On Wednesday, the opening day for CPAC 2024, the Alexandria City Courthouse posted a batch of eye-popping new filings in the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against Schlapp—including a subpoena to a CPAC official alleged to have overseen document destruction days after the accusations were first publicly reported. Schlapp was on notice at the time about potential legal action.
The court records show subpoenas to other key witnesses, as well, including CPAC officials and other alleged victims. Two young men who previously reported unwanted physical advances from Schlapp have been deposed, including in connection with an alleged incident where the conservative icon, drunk and stripped to his underwear, rubbed his crotch on a young man at a fundraising event months before the alleged assault at the center of the lawsuit…
The event has in years past been a magnet for conservative stalwarts and rising stars alike, a staple for Beltway Republicans looking to make inroads with the party’s most well-wired players. However, with the arrival of Trump and the MAGA movement, CPAC’s star began to dim. Recent years have seen notable shifts in attendance, as CPAC scrapped its mainstream conservative bona fides and instead embraced fringe and frivolous figures on the far right—celebrating the likes of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, while platforming authoritarian leaders across the globe.
It’s unclear how much of that branding pivot was pre-planned and how much was simply an inability to forestall Trump, leading Schlapp and his crew to adopt a “sour grapes” attitude that recast MAGA critics within the GOP as scurrilous political enemies. Regardless, the shifts have led to declines in attendance, revenue, and influence, a trend the Schlapp allegations exacerbated last year…
Still a hardcore bunch of chaos agents, wannabe kapos, and genuine foreign heads of state (Nayib Bukele, Liz Truss) ready to rile up the rubes:
Steve Bannon opens CPAC with QAnon fan art and D-list book promotion https://t.co/Fdydu5ODJk
— Media Matters (@mmfa) February 22, 2024
Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: CPAC — Fewer, But <em>Meaner</em> ‘Conservatives’!Post + Comments (132)