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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult


Hugo Stiglitz

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Thought about posting this in the Herschel thread as a follow up for Matt Schlapp, but eh.  Matt has more allegations against him of sexual misconduct from...younger men.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/26/matt-schlapp-cpac-sexual-misconduct-allegations/

 

Quote

A senior board member of the parent organization behind the prominent Conservative Political Action Conference who resigned on Friday urged an independent investigation into additional allegations of sexual misconduct against chairman Matt Schlapp.

The vice chairman of the board of the American Conservative Union, Charlie Gerow, announced his resignation on Friday in a letter to other directors that called on them to authorize an investigation including any additional allegations that they or staff have become aware of, according to multiple people familiar with the letter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

 

Quote

Earlier this year, Schlapp was sued for alleged sexual battery and defamation by a Republican campaign operative who claimed that the CPAC leader groped his crotch during a campaign trip last fall. Schlapp has denied the claim.

In addition to that lawsuit, some board members and staffers have been told about other incidents involving Schlapp, 55, and two younger men, multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation said.

 

Quote

In one incident, a staffer said Schlapp attempted to kiss him while drinking late after a work function in 2017. The staffer also provided documentation from that night to The Washington Post showing physical contact that the staffer said was unsolicited.

In another incident, Schlapp allegedly made unwanted physical advances on someone else’s employee during a CPAC business trip in Palm Beach, Fla., in early 2022, according to multiple people informed of the incident. The alleged victim did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Spoiler

Schlapp did not respond to requests for comment.

“I will continue to pray that the difficulties they are encountering will be dealt with openly and honestly,” Gerow said in a statement released after his resignation. “I am calling on my former colleagues to authorize an independent investigation into the charges against Matt Schlapp, to conduct an independent forensic audit of the organizations finances, to obtain a written opinion of counsel that the organization is in full compliance with its own bylaws and all applicable law and to thoroughly review all the exit interviews of the large number of staff who have recently left.”

CPAC did not respond to requests for comment on the new sexual harassment allegations. But in response to Gerow’s resignation, CPAC said in a statement on Friday: “CPAC remains committed to compliance. Having a board that is unified toward the goal of defeating the left and winning on important issues and in the next election is critical to saving America.”

Longtime member Morton Blackwell said he was not aware of any other allegations of sexual misconduct against Schlapp but acknowledged “there are problems, and I am looking forward to the next board meeting so we can discuss them.”

Gerow’s resignation is the third by a member of the board’s eight-member executive committee in recent months. When ACU treasurer Bob Beauprez quit in May, he wrote a resignation letter saying he had “lost confidence” in the organization’s financial statements, blamed Schlapp for excessive staff departures and suggested that violations of the organization’s bylaws could expose the organization to lawsuits or criminal prosecution.

In the lawsuit filed in January in Virginia, GOP operative Carlton Huffman accused Schlapp of groping his genitals while driving Schlapp to his hotel in Atlanta after campaigning for Senate candidate Herschel Walker. Call logs, texts and videos provided by Huffman and his confidants to The Post and in his lawsuit matched his account, and six family members and friends and three Walker campaign officials confirmed to The Post that he told them about the alleged incident that night or the next day.

Schlapp has acknowledged drinking with Huffman that night but denied making any sexual advances. The lawsuit is in the discovery phase.

Gerow’s resignation letter also raised concerns about the organization’s potential liability for legal costs in the Huffman case, according to people familiar with the letter.

In a previous message to the board that was obtained by The Post, Gerow said he was repeatedly refused requests to inspect the organization’s finances, in particular hoping to review the insurance coverage for the legal costs. Gerow’s message said he received a response from CPAC’s general counsel, David Safavian, saying he could not copy any documents, which Gerow said conflicted with D.C. law giving the directors of nonprofit organizations the right to “inspect and copy the books, records, and documents of the corporation.”

“Any failure to comply with D.C. or other law and our bylaws potentially provides the ‘ammo’ to fire at us,” Gerow said in his earlier message to the board. “Sadly, this follows several warnings from other directors and former officers about our noncompliance with our own by laws and the laws under which we operate.”

Safavian then replied with a message, apparently intended for someone else, saying he planned to take Gerow off the board at a meeting this month.

Safavian did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Another former employee, Regina Bratton, notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments. Schlapp and CPAC have not responded to questions about Bratton from The Post.

ACU was founded in the wake of Barry Goldwater’s loss in the 1964 presidential election to nurture the conservative movement. The flagship CPAC conference has become a blockbuster gathering for activists and politicians. Schlapp became chairman in 2014 and expanded into international conferences while making himself a prominent surrogate for former president Donald Trump.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Accusation, confession, chapter infinity.

If you are looking for a predator or groomer, the top two places to look are 1) a church and 2) any gathering of conservative/GQP officials/leaders.

I’m looking for a new job and this seems almost too easy. Maybe an investigatory journalist?  I don’t have the time, patience, money, or grades for law school. 

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2 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Saw a headline where OG tea party fuckface Joe the Plumber died.  Oh well.

2 hours ago, yoladu said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joe-plumber-confronted-obama-2008-154835193.html

Joe The Plumber, who confronted Obama on 2008 campaign trail, dies at 49

its crazy to think a lot of this shit we are in now, started with Joe the Plumber. Maybe not fair to him, although he was a willing pawn.

What's really crazy is that was only 15 years ago, and it was so "shocking" back then.  Now, such behavior is quaint.

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2 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

The Christofascist fundagelical party told me that cancer was God punishing sinful people.  Guess Scalise's sin is that he didn't MAGA hard enough?  I dunno, will be curious what the "everything bad that happens is the wrath of God for man's sins...wait, we just mean the sins committed by commie leftists, because GQPers don't sin" crowd has to say. 

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58 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The Christofascist fundagelical party told me that cancer was God punishing sinful people.  Guess Scalise's sin is that he didn't MAGA hard enough?  I dunno, will be curious what the "everything bad that happens is the wrath of God for man's sins...wait, we just mean the sins committed by commie leftists, because GQPers don't sin" crowd has to say. 

I offered that article without comment, but this is only the second time I have rooted for cancer.  Scalise is a piece of shit of the first order.

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Michael Flynn's "Reawaken America" tour:

Headliners are usually Eric Trump, Michael Flynn, Mike Lindell, Roseanne Barr

 

I mean, if there was ever a more appropriate moment for Groucho Marx's famous quote "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member" . . .

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

The Christofascist fundagelical party told me that cancer was God punishing sinful people.  Guess Scalise's sin is that he didn't MAGA hard enough?  I dunno, will be curious what the "everything bad that happens is the wrath of God for man's sins...wait, we just mean the sins committed by commie leftists, because GQPers don't sin" crowd has to say. 

I believe in this circumstance it's "The Lord tests his strongest warriors" but I haven't consulted the flow chart. 

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28 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

I believe in this circumstance it's "The Lord tests his strongest warriors" but I haven't consulted the flow chart. 

Yeah, they're brilliant at oscillating between the wicked being punished but the righteous being tested.  I prefer to think of the verse (not gonna get this exactly right) but something to the effect of, "God doesn't impose any more on us than he thinks we can handle."  But I mean c'mon Lord, 91 counts?  That's gotta be pushing some kinda limit, no?  The first testament is very, very heavy on the numbers and metrics.  Even in a story of hyperbolic ages and distances and epochs and punishments, 91 has to be on the upper end of 'da fuh with this guy?' 

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On 8/26/2023 at 5:50 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

Thought about posting this in the Herschel thread as a follow up for Matt Schlapp, but eh.  Matt has more allegations against him of sexual misconduct from...younger men.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/26/matt-schlapp-cpac-sexual-misconduct-allegations/

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Schlapp did not respond to requests for comment.

“I will continue to pray that the difficulties they are encountering will be dealt with openly and honestly,” Gerow said in a statement released after his resignation. “I am calling on my former colleagues to authorize an independent investigation into the charges against Matt Schlapp, to conduct an independent forensic audit of the organizations finances, to obtain a written opinion of counsel that the organization is in full compliance with its own bylaws and all applicable law and to thoroughly review all the exit interviews of the large number of staff who have recently left.”

CPAC did not respond to requests for comment on the new sexual harassment allegations. But in response to Gerow’s resignation, CPAC said in a statement on Friday: “CPAC remains committed to compliance. Having a board that is unified toward the goal of defeating the left and winning on important issues and in the next election is critical to saving America.”

Longtime member Morton Blackwell said he was not aware of any other allegations of sexual misconduct against Schlapp but acknowledged “there are problems, and I am looking forward to the next board meeting so we can discuss them.”

Gerow’s resignation is the third by a member of the board’s eight-member executive committee in recent months. When ACU treasurer Bob Beauprez quit in May, he wrote a resignation letter saying he had “lost confidence” in the organization’s financial statements, blamed Schlapp for excessive staff departures and suggested that violations of the organization’s bylaws could expose the organization to lawsuits or criminal prosecution.

In the lawsuit filed in January in Virginia, GOP operative Carlton Huffman accused Schlapp of groping his genitals while driving Schlapp to his hotel in Atlanta after campaigning for Senate candidate Herschel Walker. Call logs, texts and videos provided by Huffman and his confidants to The Post and in his lawsuit matched his account, and six family members and friends and three Walker campaign officials confirmed to The Post that he told them about the alleged incident that night or the next day.

Schlapp has acknowledged drinking with Huffman that night but denied making any sexual advances. The lawsuit is in the discovery phase.

Gerow’s resignation letter also raised concerns about the organization’s potential liability for legal costs in the Huffman case, according to people familiar with the letter.

In a previous message to the board that was obtained by The Post, Gerow said he was repeatedly refused requests to inspect the organization’s finances, in particular hoping to review the insurance coverage for the legal costs. Gerow’s message said he received a response from CPAC’s general counsel, David Safavian, saying he could not copy any documents, which Gerow said conflicted with D.C. law giving the directors of nonprofit organizations the right to “inspect and copy the books, records, and documents of the corporation.”

“Any failure to comply with D.C. or other law and our bylaws potentially provides the ‘ammo’ to fire at us,” Gerow said in his earlier message to the board. “Sadly, this follows several warnings from other directors and former officers about our noncompliance with our own by laws and the laws under which we operate.”

Safavian then replied with a message, apparently intended for someone else, saying he planned to take Gerow off the board at a meeting this month.

Safavian did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Another former employee, Regina Bratton, notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments. Schlapp and CPAC have not responded to questions about Bratton from The Post.

ACU was founded in the wake of Barry Goldwater’s loss in the 1964 presidential election to nurture the conservative movement. The flagship CPAC conference has become a blockbuster gathering for activists and politicians. Schlapp became chairman in 2014 and expanded into international conferences while making himself a prominent surrogate for former president Donald Trump.

 

 

 

Schlapp, Schlapp, Schlapping sounds...

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57 minutes ago, nbmishoid said:

That he wasn’t a licensed plumber, that’s the type of lie we have come to expect from rightists.  One lie or another, if not several.

 

IIRC, The convo between joe and Obama went something like this:

 

Joe: I want to buy (or start, whatever) a plumbing company, but your taxes are going to make that impossible.

Obama: You will only pay these taxes if you make more than $200,000 a year. 

Joe: I could make over 250,000 a year with this plumbing company...

Obama: If you make that much, then its not too much to ask that you give a little back to help out all the other folks who don't make that much.

Joe: Why should the government decide who I help out?

 

Narrator: Joe never made anything close to 200K per year in his entire life, either before or after he "confronted" Obama. So Joe never paid those taxes, nor did he ever help out anybody. And he wasn't a plumber. He was a plumber's assistant, and never made it past that.

Literally, every word out of Joe The Liar's mouth was either a flat out lie, or complete horseshit, or both. And the R's amplified it, stirred up the morons with it, and made it a rallying cry. A rallying cry based on bullshit and lies.

 

eidt to add:

From Yo's link:

“He was an average, honorable man trying to do great things for the country he loved so deeply after being thrust into the public eye for asking a question.”

This bitch is as full of shit as Joe was.

"Honorable." Lol.

Newsflash: If you don't wan to be "thrust" into the public eye, don't argue with the president. And if you love your country so much, PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES.

 

Edited by High Plains Drifter
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34 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

And if you love your country so much, PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES.

 

 

But I was told otherwise:

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll/trump-calls-tax-avoidance-smart-most-americans-call-it-unpatriotic-poll-idUSKCN1242FH

Quote

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says paying no income tax would make him “smart.”

 

maxresdefault.jpg

 

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When I hear Moving In Stereo, I'll always think of Phoebe Cates. 

When I hear Stuck in the Middle With You, I'll think of the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs. 

When I hear the lyric, "they say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings", I'll think of that fat-ass criminal loser hugging a flag. 

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26 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

Fatty and his people.

The party of hypocrisy. 

 

12 minutes ago, Red Five said:

You could see his brain breaking there at the end. 

I don't know how y'all watch these things.  I stopped back in like 2019.  I can't handle it.  My computer or phone would be hurled out the window into oncoming traffic.

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36 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

Fatty and his people.

The party of hypocrisy. 

They don't care because they live in a different world. 

 

22 minutes ago, Red Five said:

You could see his brain breaking there at the end. 

It's easy to trick cultist adherents into speaking a hypocrisy they cannot recognize.

They don't care. They know what truth is and that they're the only ones who possess it.

9 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

I don't know how y'all watch these things.  I stopped back in like 2019.  I can't handle it.  My computer or phone would be hurled out the window into oncoming traffic.

I still watch, but I just about never laugh anymore. It's good comedy with tragic implilcations.

I guess in lieu of anything else to do against this cataclysm rolling our way from different direction we can laugh at the idiots who will burn or drown or starve thinking we're the idiots.

I thought the shit would hit the fan after I was gone. Seems the appointments have been moving up. 

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18 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

I don't know how y'all watch these things.  I stopped back in like 2019.  I can't handle it.  My computer or phone would be hurled out the window into oncoming traffic.

It wasn't until 2019 that I started watching shit like this.  The Good Liars and Jordan Klepper.  It's helped sustain me a bit.  But it also gets nerve-wracking. 

But let's be honest, they have to all travel with security now because...and this is not political hyperbole...one of them (or someone like them) is going to be shot at a rally/protest.  And while we laugh and smirk and judge, we know there's an underlying significance to what they are exposing.  They are breaking brains of people that don't really have functioning brains.  And sooner or later, shame or humiliation will cause somebody to snap.  And that'll be the end of this expose-gonzo-you're a fucking idiot but I'm too comedically pithy to state it out loud style interview.  Fuck, the whole Daily Show will probably shut down as a result.  We're gonna get a lot bleaker before we get better, America.  And I realize people like me encouraging GOP-on-GOP homicide are probably not helping.  But for the record, I did try to help at one point.  But it's just more satiating to watch these people fall over what's left of their cognitive intellect and look for a pistol to swallow or turn on the guy I convince them is BLM in disguise when really it's just a Tim Scott supporter.  

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7 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Classic "hold me back, bro" move to avoid a barroom brawl.

Yeah, he ain't doing shit, other than talking about what his voters could do.  But he won't lead them to the courthouse, and he sure as fuck won't take a firearm out of his house to go deal with Willis or anybody.  Classic chickenshit move - hope other people are willing to do what he won't.

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9 hours ago, YGIFS said:

It wasn't until 2019 that I started watching shit like this.  The Good Liars and Jordan Klepper.  It's helped sustain me a bit.  But it also gets nerve-wracking. 

But let's be honest, they have to all travel with security now because...and this is not political hyperbole...one of them (or someone like them) is going to be shot at a rally/protest.  And while we laugh and smirk and judge, we know there's an underlying significance to what they are exposing.  They are breaking brains of people that don't really have functioning brains.  And sooner or later, shame or humiliation will cause somebody to snap.  And that'll be the end of this expose-gonzo-you're a fucking idiot but I'm too comedically pithy to state it out loud style interview.  Fuck, the whole Daily Show will probably shut down as a result.  We're gonna get a lot bleaker before we get better, America.  And I realize people like me encouraging GOP-on-GOP homicide are probably not helping.  But for the record, I did try to help at one point.  But it's just more satiating to watch these people fall over what's left of their cognitive intellect and look for a pistol to swallow or turn on the guy I convince them is BLM in disguise when really it's just a Tim Scott supporter.  

Nah it won't be because of shame or humiliation. It'll be about hate, because they're liberal mainstream media. It's always hate with them. It's never about shame or embarrassment. 

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14 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Lulz...

 

She’s fantastic! She’s like Jeannine Garafalo in The Cable Guy. “Look, I got a lot of tables.” This chick: “You’re already facing charges” as she casually pulls the sign back away from him.

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Question for @fattyflattie:

 

Why do radical republicans think that any election they lose means there was fraud? So you're telling me, the only time there isn't fraud is if your people win? And if you don't win, something was going on with the election?

If your child loses in sports and comes home to tell you that every single loss was the result of the other team "cheating," how would you react? 

 

Make It Happen Makes Sense GIF by WE tv

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4 hours ago, Pancho said:

Question for @fattyflattie:

 

Why do radical republicans think that any election they lose means there was fraud? So you're telling me, the only time there isn't fraud is if your people win? And if you don't win, something was going on with the election?

If your child loses in sports and comes home to tell you that every single loss was the result of the other team "cheating," how would you react? 

 

Make It Happen Makes Sense GIF by WE tv

You tell me. Probably same reason Hilldog and Abrams claimed there was.  I mean fuck, a voting location or two changes in a certain area and we get a 20 page thread talking about the end of democracy.  Forget to provide ballots to others and it’s a simple mistake.   Teams, same as it ever was. 

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24 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

You tell me. Probably same reason Hilldog and Abrams claimed there was.  I mean fuck, a voting location or two changes in a certain area and we get a 20 page thread talking about the end of democracy.  Forget to provide ballots to others and it’s a simple mistake.   Teams, same as it ever was. 

Abrams didn't allege there was fraud.  She alleged, accurately, that there was a purge of the voter rolls prior to her election that meant a lot of people couldn't vote because they were no longer registered.  Now, whether that was a subtle attempt at voter suppression (it was) or enforcing eLeCTiOn iNTegrITy (it wasn't), or was a significant enough factor to change the outcome, are different question.

Hillary actually made similar allegations about voter suppression and the purging of voter rolls.

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He's going to hit us with Al Gore next. A dude who lost out on becoming President by literally 200 votes in one state. Who, again, never alleged fraud.

"The guy going 50 in a 45 is exactly the same as that guy in a convertible going 120 through a school zone swigging from an open handle of Jack!"

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