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CPAC head Matt Schlapp accused of unwanted fondling by male campaign staffer – LifeSite

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(LifeSiteNews) – Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU) and chief organizer behind the ACU’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) events, has been accused by a male staffer for Herschel Walker’s U.S. Senate campaign of “sustained and unwanted and unsolicited” sexual contact while serving as the high-profile Republican’s driver.

Schlapp, a Catholic who co-chaired “Catholics for Trump” in 2020, is married to Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House director of strategic communications.  The two have five children. Both have frequently appeared as guest commentators on Fox News.

Allegations about the October incident were first reported by The Daily Beast and were confirmed by NBC News.  Both organizations reportedly spoke to Schlapp’s accuser.

“He reached in between my legs and fondled me,” the former Walker staffer, a man in his late 30s, told NBC News in a telephone interview. “To my shame, I didn’t say anything” to stop Schlapp.

According to The Daily Beast:

[The Staffer] recalled that while he drove Schlapp back to the hotel, Schlapp put his hand on his leg, then reached over and “fondled” his crotch at length while he was frozen in shock, calling it “scarring” and “humiliating.” When they arrived at the hotel, the staffer said Schlapp invited him to his room. The staffer said he declined and left “as quickly as I could.”

Two hours later, the staffer recorded “a series of tearful video accounts detailing the evening, which he shared with The Daily Beast as well as with two people close to him, including the staffer’s wife.”

“What is wrong with me? This is OK to happen?” the staffer said in one of the videos. “I don’t know what I did. It’s very sad that this is OK.”

The staffer continued in another video viewed by The Daily Beast:

Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length, and I’m sitting there thinking what the hell is going on, that this person is literally doing this to me.

From the bar to the Hilton Garden Inn, he has his hands on me. And I feel so … dirty. I feel so … dirty.

I’m supposed to pick this motherf*cker up in the morning and just pretend like nothing happened. This is what I’m dealing with.

The next morning, after reporting the incident to a senior campaign official, the staffer was urged to send Schlapp a text informing him that he was “uncomfortable with what happened last night” and that an alternate driver would be provided to Schlapp.

In response, Schlapp appealed to the staffer via text to call him, then reportedly tried to reach him three times in rapid succession by phone.

Schlapp’s attorney, Charlie Spies, in a statement to The Daily Beast called the allegations an “attack” and said Schlapp “denies any improper behavior.”

ACU board members Charlie Gerow and Carolyn Meadows issued a statement of support for Schlapp, calling The Daily Beast article an “egregious attack” meant to “sabotage” a CPAC gala the following night and the group’s annual conference to be held six weeks later.

“We have both known Matt and his wife, Mercedes, for decades. We know Matt Schlapp’s heart and his character. And we believe this latest attempt at character assassination is false,” Gerow and Meadows said.  “We stand squarely behind Matt Schlapp, and the ACU Board of Directors has full confidence in his leadership of the organization.”

Penny Nance, CEO of Christian Women of America, concurred.

“100% agree,” Nance said in a tweet. “Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp have my confidence and support.”

According to Milo Yiannopoulos, this is not the first time that Schlapp has tried to seduce another male.

“Matt Schlapp tried to touch me, too, at his offices in 2016/17 when we were negotiating my headliner spot at CPAC,” wrote Yiannaopoulos on his Telegram account. “I recoiled, made a joke about him being the wrong skin color, and added that if he tried it again, I would slap him and go public.”

Christian Walker, the son of Herschel Walker who, during the latter part of his father’s campaign, famously chided his absentee father for his years of infidelity took to social media to similarly criticize Schlapp.

Walker said Schlapp “demonstrates a huge hypocrisy. He loves to get on stage and preach about family values and morality” yet “he can’t even stay loyal to his wife.”

“Actually, he’s trying to get with men,” said Walker, who noted that Schlapp was “way too comfortable behaving like this with a random campaign staffer.”

“He’s done this before,” Walker suggested.

@officialchristianwalk1r THE HYPOCRISY. Preaching about family values then going behind your wife’s back WITH MEN. #fyp #foryou #affairs ♬ original sound – Christian Walker

In a couple of less serious takes, investigative journalist Laura Loomer, formerly with Project Veritas, tweeted:

Log Cabin Republicans will be changing their name to Log Grabbin’ Republicans and appointing Matt Schlapp as their President.

In an unsolicited statement to LifeSiteNews, a Marine veteran who did multiple tours in Afghanistan wondered, “Did he get ‘schlapped’ across the face for being frisky?”

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