Despite Florida posting its third-highest COVID-19 death toll last week, the biggest annual conservative gathering is setting up shop in Orlando next month, bringing along a massive crowd of potential virus vectors from all over the country. The Conservative Political Action Conference, which is typically held just outside Washington, D.C., in National Harbor, Maryland, is following in the footsteps of pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA and taking advantage of Florida’s dangerously laissez-faire coronavirus restrictions set by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who has spoken at the event in past years and was endorsed by the American Conservative Union, CPAC’s parent organization, during his gubernatorial race.
Given the virus-riddled backdrop, not to mention the current state of Republican politics, things at CPAC might look a little different this year. According to Politico, which published an extensive report on the ACU’s plans for CPAC 2021, Donald Trump’s loss has made programming and guest booking difficult. Sponsors are acting flaky. And attendees may not even show up. ACU chairman Matt Schlapp is so sure things will go smoothly this year that he seemingly tried to stop Politico from attaching his name to a vote of confidence on behalf of his own convention. Speaking to the outlet, Schlapp vouched for the event while seemingly attempting to preemptively avoid having an egg-on-face moment should things go south: “Schlapp said he is convinced this year’s conference will be no different from past years. ‘CPAC is going great,’ he told Politico on Tuesday, before then saying that his quote needed to be attributed without his name.”
Some of the sponsors the event has relied on in the past are getting cold feet—a problem that seems to be a touchy subject for the ACU. When Politico tried contacting CPAC sponsors regarding their plans to support this year’s gathering, the ACU threatened the outlet with a lawsuit while accusing its reporters of trying to “cancel” CPAC. “We see Politico’s ethos abandoned, and instead find its reporters working, not to report news, but instead to create a self-justifying narrative to support its own partisanship,” wrote the ACU’s general counsel, David Safavian, in a Tuesday letter addressed to Politico and shared on Twitter, adding that the “fake news” publication is on a “campaign against” his organization that “crosses the line from protected speech to political activism.” Politico’s spokesperson pushed back against the threat in a statement to Fox News, saying that the outlet is merely “doing what journalists do—ask questions and pursue truth. We will continue to do so.”
And then, of course, there’s the matter of a potential COVID-19 outbreak—a bullet narrowly dodged at last year’s convening, which turned out to be a massive headache for the ACU, the convention hall’s staff, the state of Maryland, Donald Trump, and five GOP lawmakers, all of whom were forced to self-quarantine after mingling near a COVID-positive attendee in the conference’s VIP area. As CPAC tried to assure attendees that everything was fine, Raheem Kassam, a pro-Trump media pundit who cohosts a podcast with Steve Bannon, accused the ACU’s organizers of pushing “what was essentially fake news, giving the impression that everything was fine, when there is no way they could have known. Even if there’s not another single positive test result because of this, how many have been carrying it or never got tested because of the assurances that were given?” Florida rep. Matt Gaetz took a photo with a COVID-positive attendee at last year’s event but was not notified of his exposure until he was aboard Air Force One with the president. Gaetz told the Spectator at the time that he “might as well have licked his toilet seat” because he had held the infectee’s cell phone to pose for a picture. Other notable figures affected by the CPAC incident, a sort of preview for the White House’s infamous Rose Garden superspreader event, included Senator Ted Cruz and Representatives Paul Gosar, Mark Meadows, and Douglas A. Collins.
While the unofficial theme of the first post-Trump CPAC might very well be COVID-19 incubation, its official theme is about punching back against the scourge of cancel culture. “They tried to cancel our votes, our voices, and our values. Our rallying cry for #CPAC2021: #AmericaUncanceled,” organizers wrote in a tweet this week. Among those listed as speakers are House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, former acting DNI Richard Grenell, Congressman Madison Cawthorn, and former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland.
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