I want to start with CPAC today, the conservative political action conference holding their first

2023 event starting Wednesday, March 1st.

Now I was particularly interested in this CPAC because it was going to allow us to see what is going to be the approach of this group to the 2024 primary at this early stage where Donald Trump is still in command we have to admit, but there is a fracturing and there are different elements of the right, some of which like the idea of more Trump and some of which are decided the Leanty Trump and then organizations like Fox News were sort of saying, well, we'd rather someone else

would be the mood at CPAC because of all of these different speakers giving us a window into the talking points that would be applied to the 2024 primary or hypothetically might the CPAC speakers just ignore the 2024 primary as if it's not going on sort of ignoring it like an elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about well, we are still going to be able to see but it is going to be with a much more important role.

We're still going to be able to see but it is going to be with a much diminished audience and fewer Republican insiders and the background of all of this is that a guy named Matt Schlapp who is not exactly a beacon of gay rights has been incredibly accused of what's the right word at minimum sexual harassment and I believe it is accurate to say sexual assault of a male staffer some months.

So let's look at a couple of different articles explaining what's going on. First and foremost, CPAC is being ignored by Fox News. One of the biggest outlets for CPAC getting attention is that Fox News covers the event interviews, people there promotes the event, etc.

So it's a major Fox News problem after right wing power broker Matt Schlapp was accused of sexual assault. He and his out annual confab have all but disappeared from Fox News a shocking break from years past and it is a break for a shocking sort of subjective but it is certainly a break amid the alleged

banning scandal Justin Baragona for the daily beast rights over the past few years the conservative cable giant has not only aired the entire multi day conference on its digital streaming platform Fox Nation, but the network has also been a featuring sponsor in 2021 for example, Fox Nation paid a quarter of a million dollars to help underwrite the overtly partisan gathering the year before that they paid $28,000 to be a sponsor as of publication.

Schlapp and his annual convention have all but disappeared from the Fox News universe. None of Fox Media's outlets are listed among their sponsors, which includes their conservative arch rival Newsmax as well as far right competitors like real America's voice additionally Fox staffers told the daily beast they have yet to receive any guidance on how they will cover CPAC and apparent Fox News blackout on CPAC would present a stunning break from past years, which reliably demonstrate the fact that they are not going to be able to do anything else.

The reliably demonstrated a symbiosis between the cable giant and the right wing confab, Hannity and Laura Ingram would often deliver speeches or host panels, which then the network carried and then outside the ballroom, you would see Fox people walking around. It's not clear whether any of that will be going on. Now the context does seem to be the alleged grouping scandal that I there was some speculation that this break between Fox News and CPAC has more to do with Trump than it has to do with the grouping scandal.

Maybe but I've not seen any actual evidence of that and the daily beast article does mention the daily, the beast first reported that Schlapp allegedly groped the crotch of a male staffer on failed Republican Senate can that it her show walkers campaign.

The individual this is insane that these is this is the language that's being used claimed that Matt Schlapp graphed his quote junk and these terms are all in quotes and pummeled it at length and it was scarring and humiliating.

Schlapp is just denying he's like, no, I didn't happen, even though there are text messages that do seem to show Schlapp uncomfortable and maybe I don't want to say apologetic but regretful in some way.

Schlapp is as far as we know heterosexual and married to a woman. So that is part of the problem that CPAC is having. Now there is another story with this Mike Pence declines invitation to CPAC as events leader comes under fire.

This is from ABC news, the decision by Pence who is debating a 2024 presidential run writes ABC news comes as other notable figures are absent run to Santis who spoke at CPAC last year has two events in Texas as CPAC will be underway in Maryland.

The person for CPAC told ABC news neither Pence nor to Santis are currently slated to attend.

DeSantis is spokesperson didn't respond and Pence didn't attend in 2022 and declined to attend in 2021. The context here is also believed to be the sexual assault scandal. Trump is scheduled to headline the event.

So I think that this is actually normally CPAC is kind of a waste and I don't typically cover much of it. If any, sometimes we've not covered any of it live.

My goal this year was actually to cover the major speeches live on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook again because of the interest that I have in seeing how CPAC frames the 2024 Republican primary.

Now one of the things that may happen by default is there are with with the Santis and Pence as possible 2024 Republican candidates snubbing the event and Trump going CPAC may just default to will praise the hand that feeds us Trump is coming here to speak.

So we will just get behind Trump, but we don't yet have the full agenda. I hope it will be released soon and we will see what the coverage is from Fox News. We will see what the attitude is towards the primary. I'm actually as interested as I've ever been in covering a CPAC, which is not typically the case.

Ron DeSantis, who is not yet announced that he is running in 2024 will not be at CPAC, but he was interviewed last night by Fox News is Mark Levin. Now I were going to look at clips of the interview. The interview was completely deranged and delusional. It's not clear who's more deranged and delusional. Is it Ron DeSantis or is it the host, Mark Levin, but just for a little bit of context. Mark Levin has a weekly show on Fox News.

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