After Matt Schlapp — who heads the organization that hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — took to Twitter earlier this week to praise transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, it was revealed that his organization took a nearly-$200,000 donation from a left-wing fund for promoting “civil rights, social action, advocacy.”
CPAC has long been recognized as one of the premier — if not the premier — conservative conferences in the United States. Speakers have included heavy hitters in the Republican party. Republican candidates seek invitations to speak at CPAC, since doing so solidifies their credentials as a conservative candidate to be taken seriously.
So, shock waves went out across the internet Monday, when Schlapp tweeted, “No matter what one thinks of Lia’s ability to swim with women her story deserves our compassion. It will be interesting to hear Lia’s pov in 30 years.”
Conservative users of Twitter responded in droves, pointing out — among other things — that Schlapp’s use of Thomas’ “preferred pronoun” was dishonest, insane (since it departs from reality), and not in keeping with actual conservative principles. Schlapp dug in his heels and refused to back down. Perhaps the back-and-forth exchange that best illustrates this was between Schlapp and Jenna Ellis, who — among her other many credentials — is best known for her work as a member of Donald Trump’s legal team.
Ellis responded to Schlapp’s “gender-affirming” tweet, writing, “No. None of this is remotely conservative, principled, or truthful, Matt. What are you doing?!” She added, “It’s sad to see CPAC leadership and the GOP establishment cave to the LGBT agenda. I will not support this.”
Schlapp — continuing in the vein of sounding much more like a liberal than a conservative — responded by dodging the point Ellis made and instead attacking Ellis as having ulterior motives for taking him to task for his tweet. “Jenna this is a false controversy,” he wrote, adding, “You are upset at @CPAC bc we didn’t invite you to speak.” Schlapp then took the same approach Biden takes when questioned about his support of abortion as a Catholic: He touted his credentials as a conservative, writing, “We score the bills aimed at protecting girls sports and our kids from gender confusion indoctrination.” Schlapp added, “I don’t wish to normalize it but simply deal w it w compassion.”
In response, Ellis again employed the type of logic that appears lost on the likes of Schlapp. She tweeted, “That’s not all you said, Matt. You can’t walk back calling a man ‘her’ under the guise of ‘love and compassion.’ Love and compassion requires speaking the truth.” She ended that tweet by saying, “Conservatives, this is an open call from Matt to abandon CPAC because he is unwilling to stand for truth.”
Ellis is correct. Schlapp’s tacit approval of the LGBTQ+ insanity that simply feeling like a woman makes a man a woman is rooted in an unwillingness to “stand for truth.” So, if the head of CPAC’s parent organization does not stand for truth, what does he stand for? The old adage “follow the money” comes to mind. Because soon after Schlapp’s gender-affirming tweet, The National Pulse reported that the American Conservative Union — which hosts CPAC each year — “took a six figure donation from a leading left-wing fund for the purposes of ‘civil rights, social action, advocacy,’ according to the fund’s financial records dated 2020.”
From that report:
The New Venture Fund, whose mission statement revolves around “Race, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Commitment,” issued a cash grant of $183,250 to the ACU, run by Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, in 2020. The fund is known for its work supporting anti-Trump, anti-conservative initiatives.
Truth is one thing, but $183,250 is something else. And it appears that — when given a choice between the two — Schlapp took the money and sold out the truth. To understand the depth of this sell-out, it is important to know a little about the organization doing the buying. As The National Pulse reported:
The New Venture Fund was started in 2006 and undergirds much of the political left’s activities in America today. It’s President, Lee Bodner, is a former managing director of Arabella Advisors, which even the Atlantic magazine described as a “Massive Progressive Dark-Money Group” which has targeted former President Donald Trump, his administration officials, as well as issuing over a billion dollars a year to left-wing groups and astro-turfed political operations. Bodner is also described as building “strategic partnerships with nonprofits, including the Clinton Foundation”.
But the rabbit hole goes even deeper. Though New Venture Fund President Lee Bodner is no longer directly employed by Arabella Advisors, the connection has not ended. As The National Pulse reported:
In 2019 the Capital Research Center revealed these left-wing funds are indeed all part of the same network “operating under the aegis of ‘philanthropy.’” Their work concluded: “…this network is housed in and staffed by a for-profit, privately held consultancy called Arabella Advisors, LLC.* Arabella manages four nonprofit entities — the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund — each of which shares an address and interlocking officers with Arabella.”
Considering that the lines between one part of this “Massive Progressive Dark-Money Group” and another are blurry (at best), it seems fair to consider the consolidated parts as a whole. Rather than see Arabella Advisors, New Venture Fund, and the others as distinct entities, perhaps they are best viewed as tentacles of the same beast.
To further illustrate that relationship, Capital Research Center also revealed that:
Arabella’s network often plays host to highly influential groups on the Left. For example, the Democracy Alliance, a network of donors co-founded by billionaire George Soros, has used the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund to host at least eight projects that don’t disclose their original funders.
So, CPAC and its parent organization are placed in the company of “left-wing groups and astro-turfed political operations” such as “the Clinton Foundation” as the recipient of piles of money from a “Massive Progressive Dark-Money Group” hell-bent on destroying true conservatism.
And while the Lia Thomas tweet may have been what brought this to light, that light now shines on past events, as well. And it makes sense of something that previously may have seemed puzzling. As The National Pulse reported:
The National Pulse can also reveal that in recent months, the American Conservative Union pulled from its website a letter sent to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) criticizing them for their pro-transgender sports position. The letter was originally widely circulated, but hurriedly pulled down a few months later. It is still available via the Wayback Machine, here.
The letter appears to have been pulled down at roughly the same time Schlapp promoted communications staff Regina Bratton, who called Joe Biden “our last hope” against Donald Trump, and insulted the former President’s intelligence. Bratton has lauded political activists such as Alyssa Milano, the Lincoln Project, Liz Cheney, Meghan McCain, Mitt Romney, The Daily Show, Joy Reid, Amy Klobuchar, and others.
Schlapp has apparently been busy earning his nearly $200,000 from the Left. And while he may have felt that he could re-brand calling a man “her” in a tweet as an act of “compassion,” he may find it tad more difficult to explain being paid by the enemy to do the enemy’s work.
