Fox News Appears to Distance Itself From CPAC Amid Groping Allegation Against Boss Matt Schlapp
Fox News appears to have distanced itself from this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after a former Herschel Walker campaign staffer accused the face of the conference, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, of groping him last fall.
Fox has sponsored the conference every year since 2019, and in 2021, Fox’s streaming platform Fox Nation — which has in the past provided wall-to-wall coverage of the event — contributed $250,000 to CPAC.
This year, Fox will not be sponsoring the event. Fox staffers told the Daily Beast they’re not sure what the network’s coverage of the event will look like.
The Daily Beast was the first to report on the accusations against Schlapp, who allegedly fondled the staffer’s genitals as he drove Schlapp to a hotel. “Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length,” the staffer said in a contemporaneous video he took of himself on night of the alleged assault.
The staffer also revealed contemporaneous text messages he sent to friends to CNN that night, including one that read “He’s [Schlapp] pissed I didn’t follow him to his hotel room.” Schlapp denied the charges, arguing in a statement issued through his attorney that “This complaint is false and the Schlapp family is suffering unbearable pain and stress due to the false allegation from an anonymous individual.”
Schlapp is married to Mercedes Schlapp, former White House director of strategic communications under President Donald Trump and an ex-Fox News contributor. Both Mercedes and Matt Schlapp have not appeared on the network since allegations against him became public.
In a statement to Mediaite, CPAC spokeswoman Megan Powers Small did not deny Fox would not be involved with this year’s confab beyond covering it like other media outlets: “Fox News and Fox Business have received media credentials and have been working w CPAC as they prepare their coverage. Swing and Miss Mediate [sic]!”
Fox News declined to comment to Mediaite.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have both reportedly decided to sit this year’s conference out as they both mull bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Both of the major declared candidates for the nomination, Trump and Nikki Haley, will address the audience there, however.
CPAC will take place at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center from this Wednesday, March 1 through Saturday, March 4.
