Alt-right influence casts cloud over CPAC
The onetime signature event for conservatives has been riven by charges of celebrity- and profit-seeking.
By ELIANA JOHNSON 02/22/17 05:04 AM EST
Ned Ryun was strolling through the offices of the American Conservative Union two weeks ago when he stumbled on a whiteboard with a draft schedule for the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference. “I looked at the board and said, ‘Why do we have Alex Marlow of Breitbart speaking for 30 minutes?” said Ryun, an ACU board member, referring to the editor-in-chief of the controversial right-wing news outlet.
It turned out that — according to Ryun — Marlow’s name was a placeholder for Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor and professional provocateur who lost both his job and his CPAC speaking slot this week after a video of him appearing to endorse pedophilia was posted online.
“We disinvited him over pedophilia,” Ryun said. “The debate I wanted to have, and which (ACU Chairman Matt) Schlapp didn’t want to have, is why are we inviting somebody who calls himself a fellow traveler of the alt-right?”
The episode encapsulated the debate that’s roiled the Republican Party over the past year, as Donald Trump and his army of nationalist-populist followers eviscerated a field of more traditional Republicans. The controversy is casting a pall over CPAC's kickoff on Thursday, throwing the identity crisis that wracked the conservative movement during the presidential campaign into stark relief once again.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/cpac-conservatives-milo-yiannopoulos-235251
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