An anonymous male Herschel Walker campaign staffer has shared a stunning and sordid story with The Daily Beast recounting an alleged inappropriate sexual advance at the hands of one of the nation’s most influential conservatives.
According to the staffer, on Oct. 19, Matt Schlapp, a Fox News darling, pro-Trump chair of the American Conservative Union (ACU), and lead organizer for the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) “groped” and “fondled” the staffer’s crotch while the staffer drove Schlapp back to his hotel.
The staffer, who the Daily Beast reports is in his late thirties, says Schlapp began touching him as the two drove from two bars in Georgia where Schlapp bought drinks for him. When they arrived at the hotel, the staffer says Schlapp invited him up to his room. The staffer declined the offer.
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The following morning the staffer reportedly called the campaign and spilled the beans on Schlapp. Later that evening, Schlapp called to confirm that the staffer would be driving him to a Walker event in Macon, Georgia, the following day. The staffer agreed to drive him but then “broke down” and recorded a video of what he says were “scarring” and “humiliating” events.
“What is wrong with me? This is okay to happen?” he said in one of the videos. “I don’t know what I did. It’s very sad that this is okay.”
He added:
“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 fucking dirty. I feel so fucking dirty … I’m supposed to pick this motherfucker up in the morning and just pretend like nothing happened. This is what I’m dealing with,” the staffer continued. “This is what I got to do.”
Schlapp’s lawyer, Charlie Spies, says his client “denies any improper behavior.”
“This appears to be now the twelfth Daily Beast piece with personal attacks on Matt Schlapp and his family. The attack is false, and Mr. Schlapp denies any improper behavior. We are evaluating legal options for response,” a statement sent to The Daily Beast said.
The ACU didn’t respond to The Daily Beast’s questions.
The Daily Beast reports that the Walker campaign was supportive and made arrangements for another driver after advising the staffer to text Schlapp and let him know he wouldn’t be driving him.
“I did want to say I was uncomfortable with what happened last night. The campaign does have a driver who is available to get you to Macon and back to the airport,” he texted.
Schlapp then texted the staffer back, asking for him to call him back. When the staffer didn’t respond to the text, Schlapp then called him three times over the following 20 minutes. When Schlapp didn’t get a callback, he texted, “If you could see it in your heart to call me at the end of the day. I would appreciate it … If not, I wish you luck on the campaign and hope you keep up the good work.”
Matt Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who joined Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly’s office in 2017 and was a George W. Bush administration spokeswoman for Spanish-language media outlets, has long argued against the expansion of rights for the LGBTQ community. She’s been vocal in speaking out against same-sex marriage, writing in the U.S. News & World Report in 2012 that former President Barack Obama’s marriage equality legislation “represents the worst in politics.”
For The Washington Times, Schlapp decried LGBTQ protesters over the election of former Vice President Mike Pence, saying he was being “tagged as the enemy because he is Christian and believes in traditional values on marriage and supports religious freedoms.”
Matt Schlapp has been more open to LGBTQ conservatives. As The Daily Beast report, in 2015 he reversed a previous policy that had kept gay conservatives out of CPAC.
But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves; as Politico reported in December, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Rep. Matt Gaetz were both in attendance at the Schlapp’s holiday party.