Scandal grips this year’s CPAC event: Politics Weekly America podcast

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This week, thousands of Republicans descended on the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Centre in National Harbour, Maryland, just near Washington, to attend the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Better known as CPAC, the political soothsayers and bookmakers often look to CPAC for clues as to who Republicans might pick to represent them in a presidential election. But this year is different. Scandal surrounds the organisers and there are some noticeable absences. Potential candidates who don't think CPAC is the place to be.

When I was in college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. CPAC was one of the highlights of the year for us as college Republicans.

Tara Setmayer is a political commentator who once worked as a communications director for a Republican member of Congress on Capitol Hill.

I know for sure. I spoke in 2008 because I recently found my speaker's name badge from CPAC while I was cleaning out my home office. So yes, I have a long history with attending CPACs, speaking there and watching the demise, in my opinion, of what CPAC used to represent and what it's become now.

So it's a big get-together for Republicans, It's kind of we would say, Glastonbury for Republicans here, Lollapalooza for Republicans. Where you are in terms of the headline acts, that's the big politicians.

Sure, so in years past, in decades past, like I said, it was a go-to event for the conservative establishment and even some libertarians over the years. The dinners at CPAC, it's usually three days, and they would have the Reagan dinner or the Lincoln dinner, and they'd have these dinners at the end of the day. After the breakout sessions and the main stage, speakers and whoever spoke at those dinners, usually they were aspiring presidential candidates or people they considered up-and-coming stars in the party.

But it's going to rise some more.

And I want you to join me, welcoming.

Great Senator from the state of Virginia, George Allen.

I can remember in years past, like Governor George Allen in the 90s, was someone who people thought was a potential rising star in the Republican Party. You know, he spoke at one of those dinners, and another year you had Rush Limbaugh be the keynote speaker.

When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people such as this, or anywhere we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups, we don't see victims.

Because he was a powerhouse on the Republican side as far as communications and Donald Trump in 2011, I believe he was one of the keynote speakers. You're hired.

You're hired.

He's like, These are my people.

This is beautiful.

CPAC's embrace of Donald Trump, I think, allowed a permission structure for some of the more establishment people to give him another look and then eventually accept him. Particularly on the right-wing side, the evangelicals, and the more hard-right part of the party. Over the years, and now, we've seen, that's become basically a lollapalooza for Trumpism.

And the location has shifted this year. After being in, I was going to say, semi-exile in Texas and Florida, but really home turf for them. Because of the drawn there by the looser Covid laws, that meant they could gather maskless in big numbers in Texas and Florida. Now, back in Washington, D.C. closer to the center of power, I'm sure the organizers would hope they would be fully back up to usual speed. But instead, CPAC has been mired in controversy and even scandal, particularly because of sexual assault allegations against Matt Schlapp.

Matt Schlapp has denied the accusation. Strategist says that in the weeks before the election, Schlapp groped and fondled his groin during a car ride back from two area bars in Atlanta.

Schlapp strenuously denies the allegation. His lawyer has issued a statement saying the complaint is false and the court This complaint is or allegation is causing unbearable pain and stress to the family of Matt Schlapp. Nevertheless, those allegations are out there and they've had a they've cast a shadow over CPAC. To what extent is that a fair description, Tara?

Yeah, that's the basics of that. Matt Schlapp has been chairman of CPAC since 2015. well, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC since 2015, when Schlapp took over in 2015, he decided to ride the Trump wave and turn CPAC into a global brand. And once they went behind Donald Trump and Trumpism, they started to expand CPAC into other locations besides just the signature event in the D.C. area. And they branched out to, as you mentioned, Florida and Texas, partially because of Covid, but they started doing a western CPAC.

And do these allegations hit particularly hard? I mean, sexual assault allegations against anybody in any political movement would always strike deep, but in this particular case is there the allegation. I've seen it written in a few places that there's this added layer. In the case of Matt Schlapp, because he is the head of the American Conservative Union, because he has staked out in the past. Positions that would be supporters would call them family values conservative positions, but others would say hostile to LGBTQ people. And therefore, there's a hypocrisy level to this, the notion that the allegation is made against Matt Schlapp by a man. And therefore, that adds another layer to the scandal. From the point of view of Republicans and the kind of people who would go to CPAC.

Sure, CPAC, like I said, is more right of center, you have a lot of the culture warrior, social conservatives who attend this. And if you look at the agenda of CPAC, there's a lot of that language about taking family values back, or woke culture and fighting against that. And the revolution in education, and all of those things are very consistent with what CPAC projects and supports. So an allegation like this, it definitely comes across as being somewhat hypocritical from someone who claims to give a platform or has given a platform to these social conservatives who have been hostile in the past to gay rights?

To get to CPAC itself, part of the headlines have been ones that organizers would not particularly relish. But the people who are staying away.

Some of the biggest names in conservative politics will be there.

But two names will not be there.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who many say, including myself, is going to be running for president.

Among them, the former vice president Mike Pence, the governor of Florida, who many people tip to be perhaps the party's nominee in 2024. Ron DESantis. Is their absence anything to do with this cloud of scandal, or is it rather that they fear some of the people who will be there? What's your explanation for why they're not turning up?

I think it's less about the scandal, given the scandal-ridden nature of the Trump years, where there is no shame, there really is no bottom. So I don't think that that's the reason why, in my opinion, for Mike Pence and for Ron DESantis, the common denominator is Donald Trump, CPAC is Donald Trump's domain.

I mean, you've used exactly the words fear and weak. That's surely what he and his supporters must be wary of that. By not going, it's almost worse than if they if he did go and was barracked by pro-Trump supporters. Because now they're going to have a narrative that he's a coward. He didn't dare turn up, albeit to a gathering. That is, as you said, you know, a home game. Trump's domain he's now. Hasn't he gifted Donald Trump a narrative?

Absolutely, I think that it is a miscalculation, a misopportunity. On Ron DeSantis part, the establishment here in Washington and the donor class seem to think that DeSantis is the savior that will knock Trump out of the primary. But if he's scared to face him at some place like CPAC, what does he think is going to happen? If they're on the same debate stage, this is not. This doesn't bode well for Ron DeSantis.

The justification they would offer is that Ron DESantis is busy. He needs to be in Florida fighting the good fight in terms of the culture wars, because he'll be signing a bill that takes control of Walt. DISNEy WorLd The corporate kingdom finally comes to an end.

So a couple of things about that. He's already gotten those points, but it would be different if he were busy in Florida, but he's not, he's doing fundraisers in Texas.

Let's talk about people who will be at CPAC, because it's not. Trump doesn't get the stage only to himself. Nikki Haley, the only declared rival for the Republican nomination, former governor of South Carolina, served as U...N. ambassador on behalf of Donald Trump in the early part of the Trump administration. She will be there, How do you think she will fare among the CPAC faithful?

People will watch her reception with great interest because there is a. I think people feel like she crossed the line with Trump because she, she may have worked with him, but she was also very critical of him afterward.

This is part of what she says about the potential for another Trump run. I don't think he's going to be in the picture, I don't think he can. He's fallen so far. We need to acknowledge that.

And then she's trying to walk it back a little bit and play both sides. There's really no room for being lukewarm on the idea of Trumpism and everything that goes along with that, from the election denying and the conspiracy theories and all of that. There. It's very difficult to separate the two. So I don't really know who her constituency is at this point in the Republican primary base, given her positions on things which we which seem to be very malleable. Depending on what audience she's in front of, some people will say that she's auditioning for the vice presidential spot for him, and the CPAC crowd may give her some grace. Because they think that a Trump-Haley ticket would be something that they would like to see.

In the same category, some people are talking about a fellow South Carolinian, Tim Scott.

Republican Senator Tim Scott announcing he'll head to Iowa later this month in a trip that is driving talk of a potential 2024 presidential run. There have been some members of the GOP party pushing him to run and encouraging him to run for president.

A lot of Republican chatter about him for the 2024 contest. Do we know if he's going to be there at CPAC?

I am not sure if Tim Scott will be there, however, it wouldn't surprise me if he did because he is another one, because he's a minority. And he has dipped his toe into placating some of the Trump wing of the party that they would be receptive to having him. Senator Scott had a lot of promise as an African-American Republican senator, bringing certain perspectives to the party when he first came into office. And I feel as though he's compromised that somewhat by dipping his toe into the Trump MAGA pond.

Yeah, and a lot of people also saying he too will be there. Auditioning for this sort of sub-primary for the vice presidential spot alongside Trump, with this assumption that Trump is really the dominant figure there.

Fox faces an existential threat from its multi-billion dollar defamation case. That is the headline from CNN Business this morning after that explosive legal filing that came into public view this week.

With the suggestion that Fox broadcast allegations against those voting machines that the company.

Well, I think for Fox, it's strictly about the legal battle that they are in, for sure. Newsmax is one of the bigger sponsors. And they will be covering this wall to wall for the most part during CPAC as well as I believe OANN. But they have a much smaller broadcast footprint. Let's not forget who, some of the people who are a part of CPAC. This year, a lot of election deniers. Carrie Lake will be headlining the Ronald Reagan dinner.

Carrie Lake has just tonight has raised questions on Fox about Katie Hobbs, the secretary of overseeing the elections, essentially counting all the votes.

Carrie Lake, who is one of the biggest conspiracy theory Qanon conspiracy theory election deniers in the country. Fox News does not want. That added to Dominion's case against them on the entire election denying debacle. So Marjorie Taylor Greene, another one who recently in Congress, went on a misinformation tirade against a Georgia official during a congressional hearing this week, making false claims about election fraud and denying election results in Georgia. For Fox News, I'm sure their legal department said, Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea for us this year.

Yeah, Fox News, of course, denying the allegations against them. But what you say makes makes sense. That, given this controversy, they don't want to be in the company of people who are known and documented election deniers if they themselves are.

100 percent, there's no question about that. You just have to look at the lineup, look at the title of some of the breakout sessions that they have there. This is no longer your just average ideological conservative gathering anymore. It's not what it once was.

There is always a scientific, a very unscientific straw poll of CPAC attendees preferences for the next presidential nomination.

The intelligence agencies don't agree.

Yeah, they don't now. This was a theory that, when it first surfaced, was often dismissed as kind of conspiracy theory. There are still some people, obviously, who contested, but there's the director of the FBI giving really a kind of official seal of approval to that hypothesis. What's your take on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think that it's very interesting. And and I was never one of those people that shut down the lab leak theory in the beginning. And the fact that Christopher Wray from the FBI, and then also the United States Energy Department also has a report out. They have different degrees of confidence in these reports when they, when they submit them, they both are low confidence, but they think it's plausible. So I think we're. As time goes by and more investigation happens, we'll find out more.

Tara Setmeyer, thank you so much for talking with me on Politics Weekly America.

Always a pleasure, Jonathan, thank you for having me.

And that is all from me. For this week. Make sure to listen to Thursday's episode of our sister podcast, Today in Focus, where the team report from East Palestine in Ohio.

This is The Guardian.