mercedes schlapp

belated? this will be matt bak

no merri

see cove strategies

replaces linda chavez as Reina de las Renta-tamales

---

RWW

03/05/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Ximena Bustillo @ NPR: Trump fires Kristi Noem as DHS chief, names Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her

President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma would replace her.

Hunter Walker @ Talking Points Memo: Pseudoscientific Push to Frame Abortion as a ‘Water Quality’ Issue Rears Its Head in Iowa

About an hour into the Republican gubernatorial debate in Iowa earlier this year, Adam Steen, who is one of the leading candidates in the primary, made an eye-popping claim. “We need to decimate the chemical abortions,” Steen said. “You talk about water quality, what’s happening in our water because of that, those chemical abortions that are coming through there.”

Claire Heddles @ The Miami Herald: ‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat

The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, someone wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.”

Rodney Kennedy @ Baptist Press: Who will tell Trump’s he’s not God’s anointed?

Someone has to tell Trump, “You ain’t God’s anointed.” You can have the anointing, and you can have it taken away from you. I am not saying Trump ever was God’s anointed — I’m saying at least 84% of evangelicals believe Trump was anointed by God to be president.

Willa Pope Robbins @ Mediaite: Florida Gov. Candidate Says His Campaign Was Banned From Waffle House After Tucker Carlson Interview

Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, a Republican, announced on Wednesday that his campaign has been banned from every Waffle House in the state.

Marco Margaritoff @ HuffPost: CPAC Chair Makes Cold-Blooded Remark About Dead Iranian Schoolgirls

Matt Schlapp appeared to suggest during a heated debate Wednesday that the scores of young girls killed after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran are better off dead.

Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: Carlson vs. Loomer: LET. THEM. FIGHT.

The prominent right-wingers are going after one another’s money.

Ari Berman @ Mother Jones: These Far-Right Conspiracists Are Pushing Trump to Take Control of Voting

Election deniers are lobbying the president to declare a national emergency.

---

MMA

October 8, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante: The Right Squad

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (CO-HOST): Virginia, I saw this number and I was just in complete shock.

VIRGINIA ALLEN (CO-HOST): Yeah, you know, I wish I could say I was in shock, but for so long we've been hearing that Chicago is just the worst of the worst. The stories out of Chicago and the extreme gang violence, this isn't new, but the situation right now has escalated. And the bizarre thing to me, when we're seeing these protests outside ICE detention facilities, I think you essentially have two camps of people that are protesting outside these facilities that want these illegals back on the streets. You have the no borders people, the people that think, oh, we should just let everyone in. People can go wherever they want. And then we have people, I think in some ways, like Pritzker, that have bought into this lie of these are these poor, suffering people. We should let them into our country. We should keep giving them handouts. I'm not quite sure between those two camps which is worse, but I am so thankful that we finally have a president who's instituting real law and order.

SCHLAPP: Antifa is not poor and suffering. Let me just make that very clear. But, Chris, okay, we talk about this all the time with Jason here when he's like, oh, the shootings are 36% lower. OK, this year alone, 1,200 shootings in Chicago, 360 homicides. That means people are dying. People are getting shot. Right?

CHRIS PLANTE (HOST): And it's more dangerous than Afghanistan was at the peak of the war. And they say it's pretty good. We killed 900 last year. We're only going to kill 700 this year. And they think that's good. Look at our record. We're making progress.

*Also, since JB Pritzker said, come and get me, put me in cuffs, it should be pointed out that Donald Trump himself pardoned a former Illinois governor who was in prison for more crimes that he had committed. It was Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat. And Blagojevich was from Illinois, one of five recent Illinois governors who ended up in prison. So, let's go ahead and put JB Pritzker on the list. Why not? It's a time-honored tradition in Illinois.

On Newsmax, Benny Johnson claims Portland “has been conquered by antifa”

10/08/25 9:24 AM EDT

### Newsmax's Greg Kelly tells Donald Trump: Fox News seems “to be at war with conservatives they don't like. And they gave you a really hard time, at times, over the past, well, nine years.”

10/07/25 10:16 AM EDT

### Newsmax guest on ICE agents at the Super Bowl: “I want to see ICE agents tackling performers and bringing them off the field. Send them to Uganda with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”

10/03/25

---

MMA

September 3, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante: The Right Squad

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (CO-HOST): Not missing the opportunity to turn tragedy into political leverage, Minnesota governor — who's a Democrat — Tim Walz is calling for an emergency legislation session on gun control. "It's time to take serious action at the State Capitol to address gun violence," this was posted on X. Walz doubling down, urging state legislatures at a special session to come together to do something on guns.

...

I don't know how anyone voted for that man. I swear he's such an idiot. But OK, no money for school security, but it's about the guns. I mean, this is the same playbook of the Democrats.

REAGAN REESE (WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE DAILY CALLER): I know. It's absolutely unreal. And I think it's going to be up to the Trump administration to really lead the country out of this tragedy. We know that they're investigating all facets of this shooting, including gender ideology. And we've heard President Trump talk about it a lot, or a little bit. He told me he thinks the shooter was very troubled, not sure if gender ideology was at play. But one thing's for sure, I believe the FBI and the DOJ are going to get to the bottom of it.

JAMES KIMMEY (REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST): Yeah, I would just say that the problem isn't too many guns. It's the fact that these criminals don't face consequences. So maybe we should, you know, incentivize, or we need prosecutors who are actually going to enforce the law and put these people behind bars.

CHRIS PLANTE (HOST): I've been arguing for some time now that if you're a registered Democrat, you should be barred from gun ownership.

KIMMEY: That could work, too.

---

On Newsmax, Mercedes Schlapp: “I'm thinking that maybe they should deport Rashida Tlaib”

03/12/25

March 11, 2025, edition of Newmsax's Chris Plante: The Right Squad

CHRIS PLANTE (HOST): Speaking of the pro-Hamas Rashida Tlaib — and who doesn't talk about our pro-Hamas Rashida Tlaib? She was the lone vote, the only vote against a bill in the House of Representatives yesterday requiring an annual report to Congress on the cross-border cartel smuggling tunnels — you know, like the ones under Gaza, but under the border from Mexico to the United States. 402 people voted yes. And Rashida Tlaib was the single no vote, the single no vote when it comes to the tunnels coming from Mexico into the United States smuggling children and adults, human trafficking, fentanyl killing. And Rashida Tlaib — I'm thinking she's not on our side.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (CO-HOST): I'm thinking that maybe they should deport Rashida Tlaib as well. Just take her out along with Mahmoud at this point. I mean, it's just outrageous. It just shows how she has been someone who has supported terrorists has been, what I say, not putting America first or Americans first. And I don't know why they keep sending her back to Congress.

death panel

September 10, 2024, Newsmax broadcast

BETSY MCCAUGHEY (GUEST): The biggest lie tonight was her attempt to accuse Donald Trump of being a racist when she has a track record of being a racist against whites. And let me just give you a couple of examples. This down payment -- $25,000 down payment that she says she wants to help first time homebuyers -- if you actually look at the bill, it's called the Down Payment Toward Equity Act. It's already in Congress, right? She's been pushing it since 2019. It's not for white homebuyers. To get the full amount, it says right in the bill you must be African American, Asian American, Hispanic American. You cannot be --

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (HOST): Or Venezuelan gang members at this point, right.

MCCAUGHEY: Right. You have to be a minority. And since her first time in office, she has done that. Equity has been her major point. Equity is the opposite of equality. It's treating people differently, right? The American Rescue Act, Biden-Harris gave debt relief to Black farmers, section 104, not white farmers. Gave -- it gave relief to restaurant owners, but only minorities and women. So I would say to white men watching this show, don't be fooled by Kamala Harris. You will be at the back of the line.

---

mma 8 24

August 22, 2024, Newsmax broadcast of the Democratic National Convention

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (CO-HOST): It is all about president of joy. And every other speech is about joy. It's incredibly strange. It actually reminds me of Karl Marx. You know, Karl Marx saying, "surround yourself with happy people," and that's what the Democrats are trying to do.

...

SCHLAPP: There is nothing joyful about socialism, there is nothing joyful about communism, and the policies that politicians implement. We've seen this in so many of these countries that have lost their countries when they have implemented socialist policies, or a communist system. It oppresses people. It makes you all have to be in line to only support one thought process, and it makes sure that the economy does not prosper. This is the type of, quote unquote, "joy" that the Democrats are pushing forward. It's very clear that Kamala's past policies have supported and are basically pushing forward this type of socialist and communist type of policies that has entered, has creeped in into America, and it is the duty of the American voter to decide which direction do they want America to go?

GREG KELLY (CO-HOST): Wow. Powerful, definitely, Mercedes. And you're right about this collective happiness thing, it is a fixture of communist countries. Take a look at these pictures. It is Kim Jong Un, big smile on his face all the time. All the happiness comes from the dear leader. This is, just as you said, out of their playbook. It is, you are happy because the state is happy. Because the group is happy. It overlooks the individual, which I think is what our Bill of Rights and Constitution is kind of all about. Right?

---

mma 6 24

MERCEDES SCHLAPP (CO-HOST): Well, obviously, Judge Merchan, an authoritarian type of judge, has obviously opposed Donald Trump every step of the way. I mean, you were nodding your head when Daniel was speaking, Jesse Jane —

JESSIE JANE DUFF (CO-HOST): I did. Just nodding in disagreement, to clarify here —

DANIEL LIPPMAN (CO-HOST): Is that a new type of nodding?

DUFF: Yes, yes, it's a new type of nodding. I wasn't agreeing, I was disagreeing because Judge Merchan is not going to be intimidated. He's already run the trial. It's over He obviously disregarded every indication that he shouldn't have been on the trial. Everyone knows that he had made contributions to the Biden campaign, which no judge is supposed to do. We all know about what was going on with his family and profiting off of this. So I dare to say that Donald Trump is probably going to disregard this gag order. It should — if they should not lift it, he'll pay the fine. You know? And if they — you know, they are also — let's clarify. He has not been convicted. He will have a — potentially a stay to get through the appeals until the conviction is handed down. So right now he is not convicted.

===

an 2 24

what is happening in the hearts of former President Donald Trump’s supporters?

As an anthropologist who studies peace and conflict, I went to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, to find out. I wanted to better understand the Make America Great Again faithful – and their die-hard support for Trump.

The event began on Feb. 21, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland, with Steve Bannon’s routine, untrue banter about how President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, and it peaked with an angry speech from Trump three days later. In between, I sat among the MAGA masses listening to speaker after speaker express outrage about American decline – and their hope for Trump’s reelection.

Everywhere I turned, people wore MAGA regalia – hats, pins, logos and patches, many with Trump’s likeness. I spent breaks in the exhibition hall, which featured a Jan. 6 insurrection-themed pinball machine featuring “Stop the Steal,” “Political Prisoners” and “Babbitt Murder” rally modes and a bus emblazoned with Trump’s face. Admirers scribbled messages on the bus such as, “We have your back” and “You are anointed and appointed by God to be the President.”

Those on the left who dismiss the CPAC as a gathering of MAGA crazies and racists who support a wannabe dictator do not understand that, from this far-right perspective, there are compelling and even urgent reasons to support Trump. Indeed, they believe, as conservative politician Tulsi Gabbard stated in her CPAC speech on Feb. 22, that the left’s claims about Trump’s authoritarianism are “laughable.” This is because CPAC attendees falsely perceive President Joe Biden as the one who is attacking democracy.

Here are my top three takeaways from CPAC about Trump supporters’ current priorities and thinking.

people pray during the opening ceremony of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 22, 2024.

1. There’s a Reagan dinner – but CPAC is Trump’s party

Former President Ronald Reagan runs in CPAC’s DNA. Reagan spoke at the inaugural CPAC in 1974 and went on to speak there a dozen more times.

In 2019, the conservative advocacy group the American Political Union, which hosts CPAC, published a book of Reagan’s speeches with commentary by conservative luminaries. In the preface, Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Political Union, says he often asks himself, “What would Reagan do?”

CPAC’s pomp gala, held Friday, is still called the “Ronald Reagan Dinner.” But Reagan is otherwise hardly mentioned at the conference.

Reagan’s ideas of American exceptionalism have been supplanted by Trump’s populist story of apocalyptic decline. Reagan’s folksy tone, relative moderation and clear quips are long gone, replaced by fury, grievance and mean-spirited barbs.

2. There’s a method to the madness

Many commentators and critics, including groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, view CPAC as a frightening or bizarre gathering of white nationalists who have a nativist agenda.

In 2021, commentators said the CPAC stage was shaped like a famous Nazi design called the Othala Rune, which is a hate symbol. Schlapp denied this claim and said that CPAC supports the Jewish community, but various commentators took note of the uncanny resemblance.

This year, CPAC refused to give press credentials to various media outlets, including The Washington Post, despite the organization’s emphasis on free speech.

Some speakers, including Trump, have been known to regularly voice support for white nationalism and right-wing extremism, including speakers who promote the false idea that there is a plot to replace the white population. I discuss this idea in my 2021 book, “It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US.”

Indeed, the U.S.-Mexico border was a constant topic at this year’s CPAC, which included controversial anti-immigrant speakers such as the head of Spain’s far-right Vox party and a representative of Hungary, whose leader stated at the 2022 CPAC that Europeans should not become “mixed-race.” Hungary will also host a CPAC meeting in April 2024.

Many of the sessions have alarming titles like, “Burning Down the House,” “Does Government Even Matter” and “Going Full Hungarian.” There are right-wing, populist speakers like Bannon and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Overall, the program is informed by a conservative logic that largely boils down to God, family, tradition, law and order, defense and freedom.

Of these, God looms largest. As a result, CPAC’s hardcore conservative Christian orientation is anti-abortion rights, homophobic and oriented toward traditional family structure and what it considers morality.

Schlapp co-wrote a book in 2022 that warns of the dangers of “evil forces” – what he considers to be progressives, the radical left and American Marxists. Schlapp’s book title even dubs these forces “the desecrators.” Such inflammatory language is frequently used at CPAC, including by Trump during his Saturday speech.

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, left, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, speak during CPAC on Feb. 22, 2024.

Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press

3. Trump believers think he is their savior

CPAC’s love of Trump is shocking to many on the left. But at CPAC, Trump is viewed as America’s savior.

According to his base, Trump delivered on abortion by appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. They believe that, despite evidence of mixed results, Trump had wide successes at securing the border and creating jobs. For example, during Trump’s time as president, the U.S. economy lost nearly 3 million jobs, and apprehensions of undocumented migrants at the border rose.

Trump’s CPAC speech, like his campaign speeches, harped on such supposed achievements – as well as Biden’s alleged “destruction” of the country.

Conservatives roll their eyes at liberal fears of Trump the despot. Like all of us, they acknowledge, Trump has flaws. They say that some of his comments about women and minorities are cringeworthy, but not evidence of an underlying misogyny and hatefulness, as many critics contend.

Ultimately, CPAC conservatives believe Trump is their best bet to defeat the radical-left “desecrators” who seek to thwart him at every turn – including, as they constantly complained at CPAC, social media bans, “fake news” takedowns, rigged voting, bogus lawsuits, unfair justice, and lies about what they call the Jan. 6, 2021, “protest”.

Despite these hurdles, Trump battles on toward the Republican nomination for presidential candidate – the hero who CPAC conservatives view as the last and best hope to save the USA.

Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

===

mma 2 23 // santos grope groin

following a monthlong absence from the network's on-air programming, conservative luminaries Matt and Mercedes Schlapp have found safe harbors with rival right-wing media outlets. The Schlapps had been frequent guests on Fox News and Fox Business until last month’s report of sexual assault.

Fox News and Fox Business have continued to leave frequent guests Matt and Mercedes Schlapp off their programming since a January 5 report that a Republican campaign staffer assigned as Matt’s driver in October said Matt had sexually assaulted him.

According to Media Matters’ internal database of cable news guest appearances, Matt appeared on Fox News’ weekday programs at least 29 times in 2022, and Mercedes appeared at least 56 times. Fox quietly pulled the Schlapps off-air after several appearances on the Fox channels in early January, and the network never mentioned the report or the subsequent lawsuit against the Schlapps filed by the staffer.During their hiatus from Fox, both Matt and Mercedes have instead appeared on Fox’s right-wing media rivals, such as Newsmax.

Matt is the chair of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference. Fox’s relationship with the Schlapps runs deeper than just hosting them dozens of times last year: Fox Nation has sponsored every stateside CPAC since 2019,one year after the streaming network launched. In 2021, Fox Nation was a “Featuring Sponsor” at the event, paying at least $250,000, and it was a top sponsor again in 2022. Even before Fox Nation started sponsoring the event, Fox News hosts often spoke at CPAC: Jeanine Pirro in, Sean Hannity in, and Tucker Carlson in.

It remains to be seen whether Fox will continue to support CPAC while the network continues to keep the Schlapps off its programming and ignores the report of sexual assault by Matt, aside from one story on FoxNews.com weeks ago. But at least one other right-wing media outlet, Newsmax, is welcoming the Schlapps, even as it too ignores this story. (Republican lawmakers are reportedly ignoring it as well.) Newsmax gave the Schlapps free rein to comment on GOP politics without asking them to address the report about Matt.

Newsmax provided a safe space for both Matt and Mercedes Schlapp on January 27, interviewing them on separate programs and failing to bring up the lawsuit filed against both of them or the sexual assault report. Instead, Mercedes was asked for her opinion about the Paul Pelosi video, a Biden judicial nomination, and DirecTV’s supposed “deplatforming” of Newsmax. Matt was asked about Trump's recent culture war attacks and the reelection of Ronna McDaniel as the Republican National Committee chair. [vids]

matt was also interviewed on January 27 and again on February 2 by right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon,Trump’s disgraced former strategic adviser. In the most recent appearance on Bannon’s show, Matt promised that the 2023 CPAC will be “a little bit Hungarian” in its treatment of unfriendly media outlets, possibly to avoid reporters asking difficult questions about him. Bannon did not bring up the report of sexual assault during either of these appearances.

Mercedes also had a safe space during her January 27 appearance onWMAL’s O’Connor & Company. While neither the lawsuit nor the allegation against Matt were mentioned during the interview, co-host Larry O’Connor closed it by saying to Mercedes: “I know you've been through hell the last couple of weeks” and offering his support.

anti-macho? an 922 married to Pilsbury dough boy?

Political commentator and author Mercedes Schlapp along with her husband, Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) Chairman Matt Schlapp, are frequent guests on right-wing media outlets such as Real America's Voice.

On Sunday, the couple appeared on Steven Bannon's War Roomand claimed to the show's namesake host that President Joe Biden's signature aviator sunglasses are left-wing "propaganda" props designed to make Biden seem tough.

"First, don't listen to the mainstream media because what they're trying to do is sell the propaganda that the Democrats are on the rise again," Schlapp said. "You'd know that when you see Joe Biden put on his aviator sunglasses and they give him this look of strength. And it's so – it's such a lie and so it’s so critical to just not let that get you down.”

Schlapp's allegation follow's Biden's Thursday speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in which he warned of the imminent and existential dangers that former President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement poses to the democratic future of the United States.

CPAC selected Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to be the keynote speaker at its conference on August 4th.

Watch below or at this link.

===

Mercedes Schlapp, host of the Conservative Political Action Conference, became angry on Tuesday after a Fox News guest called her a "grifter."

During a discussion on Fox News, Schlapp objected to the idea of "vaccine passports" even though the Biden administration has said that it has no plans to implement the policy.

Schlapp accused Democrats of having an "illogical mentality" because they oppose voter ID requirements.

But liberal podcast host Chris Hahn pointed out that the idea of vaccine credentials is being driven by the private sector.

"But Republicans, like everything else they've done during this horrible crisis we've been through are pushing these conspiracy theories that the government is trying to control you, which is causing some of their followers not to get vaccinated," Hahn explained. "People like Tucker Carlson, like Jim Jordan, like Mercedes right here, right now casting doubt on the fact that -- or trying to convince people that the government is somehow watching you, that is very irresponsible."

"It is time for conservatives in this country to acknowledge that we have a crisis and start joining the fight to end it and stop spreading lies about what's going on in this country," he added. "It is devastating this country and blood is on the hand of the former guy and others who support him."

Schlapp went ballistic.

"You're not going to call Tucker Carlson a conspiracy theorist!" she shouted. "That is wrong. That is what democrats do."

"He is and you are," Hahn shot back.

"I'm not going to put up with this!" Schlapp exclaimed. "I stand for freedom. I stand for the freedom of the American people."

"No you don't," Hahn insisted. "You're a grifter. This is ridiculous."

At that point, Fox News host Gillian Turner instructed her guests to stop "the name calling."

"But I'm not going to allow Chris -- he does this all the time -- to call me, to call Tucker Carlson a liar," Schlapp objected.

"We don't do name calling," Turner agreed.

"We have every right to make this decision!" Schlapp ranted. "We are a country that has a constitution."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/mercedes-schlapp/

methinks the lady doth protest too much raw astory

Mercedes Schlapp, host of the Conservative Political Action Conference, became angry on Tuesday after a Fox News guest called her a "grifter."

During a discussion on Fox News, Schlapp objected to the idea of "vaccine passports" even though the Biden administration has said that it has no plans to implement the policy.

Schlapp accused Democrats of having an "illogical mentality" because they oppose voter ID requirements.

But liberal podcast host Chris Hahn pointed out that the idea of vaccine credentials is being driven by the private sector.

Schlapp went ballistic.

"You're not going to call Tucker Carlson a conspiracy theorist!" she shouted. "That is wrong. That is what democrats do."

"He is and you are," Hahn shot back.

"I'm not going to put up with this!" Schlapp exclaimed. "I stand for freedom. I stand for the freedom of the American people."

"No you don't," Hahn insisted. "You're a grifter. This is ridiculous."

At that point, Fox News host Gillian Turner instructed her guests to stop "the name calling."

"But I'm not going to allow Chris -- he does this all the time -- to call me, to call Tucker Carlson a liar," Schlapp objected.

"We don't do name calling," Turner agreed.

"We have every right to make this decision!" Schlapp ranted. "We are a country that has a constitution."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

tex talk radio rush]

https://www.wbap.com/2020/09/07/trump-calls-for-fox-news-reporter-to-be-fired-for-confirming-parts-of-the-atlantic-article/

no lnx

trump Calls for Fox News Reporter to be Fired for Confirming Parts of ‘The Atlantic’ Article

Posted on September 7, 2020

WASHINGTON – Fox Radio News (WBAP/KLIF) – President Trump has called an article in The Atlantic that claimed that Mr. Trump resisted a visit to an American military cemetery in France in 2018, and called the U.S. casualties from World War I “losers” and “suckers”, a hoax and fake news.

The allegations come from unidentified defense officials who claim the president said in 2018 that a World War One American war cemetery in France was “filled with losers,” and such service members were “suckers” for being killed.

At least one Department of Defense official has since publicly confirmed the report in its entirety.

Meantime, Fox’s Jennifer Griffin reports that according to her sources, the story may be more credible than the President says.

Trump has called for Griffin to be fired.

Mercedes Schlapp (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Meantime, on Fox’s “America’s News HQ” Saturday afternoon, Trump 2020 Senior Adviser Mercedes Schlapp (pictured right) fired back, saying that President Trump has always respected the military and been committed to supporting it. Schlapp called The Atlantic story, “fake.”

“First of all I think you see that the story is fake. You’re talking about here, you’re going to add the number of 11 people on the record; former administration officials that have worked closely with the president who know that this is not an accurate story.”

Former Secretary of Defense and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) reacted to the article and the claims made in it during an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”.

“If they’re real they’re beneath the dignity of the Commander in Chief, truly they’re despicable. Hagle added, “Let’s go back and look at the words himself, coming out of his own mouth starting in 2016 with what he said about John McCain and what he continued to say about McCain [… uh] how he degraded the service of generals Mattis and McMaster and just recently General Kelly. This history of this president over the last 3 or 4 years is pretty clear.

The Twitter group @VoteVets features a video with several Gold Star families who say they loved ones were not “suckers” or “losers.”

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/12/lobbying-firms-benefit-from-trump-ties/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp

Mercedes Schlapp (née Viana; born December 27, 1972)^[1][2] is an American lobbyist and columnist. From September 2017 to July 2019, she served as White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration. Since July 2019, she has worked on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign.^[3]

Personal life[

Schlapp is a second generation Cuban-American born in Florida. She is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union.^[4] The Schlapps have five daughters.^[5]

Career:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Campaigns and Bush administration:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush, and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration.^[6]

Media:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Later she was a Fox News contributor and a columnist for several publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Times.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Lobbyist:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009.^[11] Since President Trump entered the White House, the income of the firm surged (from $600,000 in 2015 to more than a $1 million in 2017).^[11] Koch Industries was the firm's first client.^[11]

NRA[

She was a board member of the National Rifle Association before joining the White House.^[12] She was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016, according to NRA tax filings.^[11]

Trump administration:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

On September 12, 2017, President Donald Trump's administration announced that Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications.^[13] Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.^[14]

Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the White House Correspondents Dinner early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted by comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes aimed at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.^[11][15] In a limousine en route to an exclusive NBC/MSNBC afterparty, she tweeted that Wolf's comedy routine is "why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite".^[11]

In May 2018, Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that John McCain's opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel was irrelevant because "he’s dying anyway".^[16][17]

George Floyd protests[

In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests against racism and police brutality, she retweeted praise for a racist who was wielding a chainsaw against protestors while he was yelling the N-word.^[18][19] After Politico asked for comment, she retweeted another account that posted the video of the chainsaw-wielding man but which muted the N-word.^[18] After Politico published the story, she apologized.^[18]

Political positions[

Schlapp has stated an opposition to same-sex marriage, calling President Barack Obama’s decision to support it a "political ploy".^[20][21]

References[

^ https://twitter.com/mschlapp/status/813812097624707072?lang=en
^ (subscription required)https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KLJG-KV7
^ Haberman, Maggie; Karni, Annie (2019-07-01). "Mercedes Schlapp Leaving White House Press Office to Join Trump Campaign". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
^ "The Hon. Matt Schlapp". American Conservative Union. Archived from the original on 2014-12-30. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
^ The ACU (2015-02-27),, retrieved 2016-06-11
^ "Mercedes (Mercy) Viana Schlapp", ffrwculpeper.com/Founding Fathers Republican Women.
^ "Mercedes Schlapp". www.usnews.com. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
^ "Mercedes Schlapp: CNN Debate Was 'Montessori School' 'Unstructured:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". NewsBusters. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
^ "Mercy Schlapp stories". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
^ "Mercedes Schlapp | Stories - Washington Times". www.washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:1_11-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:1_11-2) ^d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:1_11-3) ^e(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:1_11-4) ^f(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:1_11-5) "Meet the Schlapps, Washington's Trump-Era 'It Couple:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". The New York Times. 2018-04-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
^ Woellert, Lorraine (February 28, 2018). "Missing from the gun debate: Trump's own experience with concealed carry". Politico. Retrieved April 29, 2018. Mercedes Schlapp, his director of strategic communications, was a board member of the NRA before joining the White House.
^ Greenwood, Max (September 12, 2017). "Mercedes Schlapp joins White House as senior communications adviser". thehill.com. Washington DC: Capitol Hill Publishing. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
^ Darcy, Oliver. "Top White House communications aide has history of rhetoric strongly critical of Trump". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
^ Stelter, Brian. "Here's how people reacted to Michelle Wolf's White House correspondents' roast". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
^ Hart, Benjamin. "Five White House Staffers Leak Meeting About White House Leaks". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
^ "The White House's John McCain death joke controversy, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:2_18-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Schlapp#cite_ref-:2_18-2) "Chainsaw-wielding racist gets boosted by a top Trump aide as race protests sweep the nation". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
^ Dorman, Sam (2020-06-06). "Senior Trump aide apologizes after promoting video of chainsaw-wielding man yelling racial slur". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
^ Schlapp, Mercedes (May 11, 2012). "Churches Feel Persecuted by Obama". U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report L.P. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved March 1,2018.
^ Riley, John (September 12, 2017). "Anti-LGBTQ activist Mercedes Schlapp joins White House Press Office". Metro Weekly.

External links:{:(style="margin-right:0.25em"):}:[edit:{]}:

show Executive Office of the President – Trump Administration

Mercedes Schlapp on Twitter

Appearances on C-SPAN

Categories:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/schlapp-trump.html

no lnx pix

Meet the Schlapps, Washington’s Trump-Era ‘It Couple’

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp at home in Alexandria, Va. To some Republicans, the Schlapps are a conservative “it couple.” To others, they’re opportunists.

Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

By Elizabeth Williamson

April 30, 2018

WASHINGTON — Matt Schlapp, the pro-Trump chairman of the American Conservative Union, had a remarkable on-air clash not long ago with his old friend Michael Steele, an anti-Trump former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

At issue was Mr. Schlapp’s defense of Ian Walters, the conservative union’s communications director, who told an audience: “We elected Mike Steele to be the R.N.C. chair because he’s a black guy. That was the wrong thing to do.”

Mr. Steele invited Mr. Schlapp on his radio show the next day and berated him: “Do you know how that sounds to Americans? And do you know how they then equate that level of stupidity to conservatism?” Mr. Schlapp apologized, and pointed out that Mr. Walters had, too. But he chastised Mr. Steele for being “critical of some of the more conservative aspects of the Trump phenomenon,” adding, “You need to have some grace.”

Mr. Steele blew up: “I’ve spent 41 years in this party, 41. I’ve taken crap you have no idea about.” And finally: “There’s only one word I can say and I can’t say it on this air.” The two men haven’t spoken since.

“I find myself shaking my head,” Mr. Steele said in an interview, “and saying, ‘Who is this person?’”

Mr. Steele is not the only one in Washington asking that question. Today Mr. Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, the director of strategic communications at the White House, are the most visible in the city’s cadre of conservative Republicans who, faced with a populist Trump juggernaut, chose to scramble aboard.

ImageThe Schlapps and their children in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush and with President Trump.

The Schlapps and their children in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush and with President Trump.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times]

This past weekend they aired their disgust at the comedian Michelle Wolf’s takedown of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. “It’s why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite,” Ms. Schlapp tweeted from a limousine en route to an exclusive after-party organized by NBC/MSNBC.

(Asked about the couple’s own membership in the elite, Mr. Schlapp responded, “I mean, I’m not trying to act like I’m driving a garbage truck in Des Moines.”)

To some Republicans the Schlapps are a conservative “it couple.” To others they’re opportunists. Either way, they’re symbolic of a deep rift within their party.

Business is in the meantime booming at Cove Strategies, the lobbying and public relations firm the Schlapps founded in 2009 (Ms. Schlapp stepped away from the business when she took her White House job). Their lobbying income alone has surged in the year since Mr. Trump took office, to more than $1 million in 2017 from $600,000 in 2015. Koch Industries — Mr. Schlapp is a former chief Washington lobbyist for the corporation — was Cove’s first client. He said there was even more income from Cove’s strategic communications work, which he declined to reveal.

Ms. Schlapp has been a board member and paid strategic communications consultant for the National Rifle Association, a role she gave up the month she entered the White House. In 2015 she earned $60,000 from the N.R.A. for an average of one hour of work per week, according to N.R.A. tax filings, and $45,000 in 2016.

“I hate losing friends, which I have lost,” Mr. Schlapp said, acknowledging the ire the couple’s support for Mr. Trump has drawn from some fellow Republicans. He spoke in a cafe near his office in Alexandria, Va., where the Schlapps just bought a $3 million home to go with their weekend retreat, Victory Farm, a 30-acre idyll in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Image

Letters from Mr. Bush in Mr. Schlapp’s home office. The Schlapps met in the Bush White House.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times]

Ms. Schlapp, 45, who was mentioned early on as a potential replacement for Hope Hicks, the former White House director of communications, predicted in 2015 that Mr. Trump is “really going to struggle if he goes and continues to push a very strident immigration policy that doesn’t show in any way that we can in fact find a legal path for these individuals who are here, for these undocumented immigrants that are here.”

Now Ms. Schlapp describes herself as representative of “Hispanic voters that absolutely agree that there should be no illegal immigration,” and is working with Stephen Miller, the White House senior adviser for policy and an immigration hard-liner, to promote Mr. Trump’s tough agenda.

“As a conservative, let’s be honest, what’s there for me to be disappointed about?” Mr. Schlapp, 50, said over dinner one recent night with his wife and their five daughters in a favorite Tex-Mex restaurant. Ms. Schlapp’s cellphone beckoned every few minutes as Mr. Schlapp, who said he had gained some 50 pounds during the campaign, ordered a green salad and offered to split an entree with his wife. He looked weary. The Schlapps had spent the weekend schlepping to multiple performances of their daughter Viana’s school play, in which she played Liesl in “The Sound of Music.”

As they ate, the couple placed Mr. Trump’s appointments of conservative judges near the top of his list of accomplishments, along with cutting taxes, rolling back regulations and reducing the size of government. On Twitter last week, Mr. Schlapp called the Trump agenda “conservative nirvana.”

Going ‘All-In’

The Schlapps met in the George W. Bush White House, where Ms. Schlapp, who is known as Mercy and grew up in Miami as the daughter of a Cuban émigré, was a liaison to Hispanic and specialty news media outlets. Mr. Schlapp rose to the role of White House political director. He grew up in Wichita, Kan., where he was a top-ranked tennis player and taught Charles Koch’s son Chase how to play.

Mr. Schlapp, who had a preference for apparel emblazoned with the leprechaun mascot of his alma mater, Notre Dame, was nervous about asking the glamorous Mercy for a date. But the couple bonded over dinner at Morton’s, a Washington steakhouse, where Ms. Schlapp ordered a slab of beef. “I thought: ‘I’m going to like this girl. She didn’t get bird food,’” Mr. Schlapp said.

Image

Mr. Trump was the star of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, an event that Mr. Schlapp helped revitalize.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times]

There was a time when the Schlapps were fed up with Mr. Trump. In 2015, when Mr. Schlapp assumed the chairmanship of the American Conservative Union, which the conservative standard-bearer William F. Buckley Jr. helped found, it was in such dire financial straits that he worried he would be presiding over its demise.

So he and his staff worked to revitalize the annual Conservative Political Action Conference by moving it to a glitzier venue and signing new sponsors. In 2016 he invited a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates to speak at CPAC, insisting that they take questions from a journalist.

But as the Republican front-runner, Mr. Trump wanted more speaking time than the others, and no reporter questions.Mr. Schlapp refused and Mr. Trump abruptly backed out, leaving Mr. Schlapp to try to appease conservatives furious that Mr. Trump had been invited in the first place. Others were disappointed that Mr. Trump had bailed. Mr. Schlapp parried with his critics on Twitter until the wee hours, when “Mercy took my phone away.”

But as Mr. Trump closed in on the presidency, the Schlapps drew closer to Mr. Trump, who despite his no-show at CPAC had contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the group in earlier years. By the end of the campaign, the Schlapps were making some 30 press appearances a week for Mr. Trump. Before falling asleep each night, the couple would lie in bed rehearsing how they would explain this or that Trumpian tweet or uproar on TV the next morning.

There was one setback: Ms. Schlapp seeing her husband defend Mr. Trump on Fox News after an “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced of the candidate boasting of grabbing women’s genitals. Mr. Schlapp did condemn Mr. Trump for “inexcusable talk” and evoked his wife, “who has been in situations where it was hard for her to be an attractive woman in the workplace.” But he concluded it would be terrible if Mr. Trump lost: “Hillary Clinton gets elected, Bill Clinton is right back in the Oval Office.”

Ms. Schlapp, watching, was shocked to see her husband appearing alongside a tearful and outraged Clinton surrogate, who accused him of defending sexual assault. She called him on his cellphone. “You’re benched,” she said.

Image

The Schlapps at CPAC in 2017. “I hate losing friends, which I have lost,” Mr. Schlapp said, acknowledging the ire the couple’s support for Mr. Trump has drawn from some fellow Republicans.Credit...Mike Theiler/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images]

The couple escaped to their Virginia farm, where they say that Viana, their eldest daughter, mentioned what they had said all along: Despite Mr. Trump’s personal failings, the Clintons posed the greater danger to the nation.

Ever since, Mr. Schlapp said, “we’ve been all-in.” But he said he still can’t bear to watch his televised defense of Mr. Trump that day.

Mr. Trump appeared at CPAC as president in 2017 and in February was again the star of the three-day conference, attended by about 10,000 people and underwritten by a multitude of sponsors and exhibitors, some of them former Cove Strategies clients. While Mr. Schlapp said not all participants are pro-Trump, prominent “Never Trump” conservatives like John Kasich, George Will and Bill Kristol were not invited to speak. Mona Charen, a conservative writer, was booed and escorted out by security for her safety after she criticized pro-Trump Republicans’ failure to condemn the president’s sexual predations.

‘I’m Not Delusional’

At the Tex-Mex restaurant, the couple had paused to pray before dinner.How do they square their faith and values with their support for the man on the “Access Hollywood” tape?

“I’m not delusional on who Donald Trump is,” Mr. Schlapp said. “But I think there’s great virtue in the fact that he aggressively fights for the things I care about.”

“Everyone assumes that Donald Trump changed our politics, that Donald Trump has perhaps coarsened our society,” he said. “My view is that he’s a function of what’s happening in society.”

Ms. Schlapp karate-chopped the table for emphasis, and the cutlery jingled.

“I always think back about Matt’s sister, whose husband lost his job,” she said. “They live in the Midwest; he was in the oil industry for a long time. I remember when the whole Donald Trump phenomenon happened she said, ‘I want to send a message to you people in Washington.’”

“She said it was a ‘screw you’ message,” Mr. Schlapp interjected.

At home recently, the Schlapps prepared for a night out while pondering their status as political lightning rods. “Are we?” Ms. Schlapp asked her husband. “Maybe you are.” He laughed uneasily.

“I don’t have that many friends left,” Mr. Schlapp said.

Ms. Schlapp smiled. “We have each other,” she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/us/politics/mercedes-schlapp-trump-campaign.html

1 july nyt

mercedes Schlapp, the White House director of strategic communications, announced on Monday that she would leave her West Wing post to join President Trump’s re-election campaign, the latest move in a shuffle of the White House press shop.

Ms. Schlapp said in an interview that she had discussed her departure with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, for weeks. It had been widely expected since Stephanie Grisham was appointed the new press secretary and communications director last week, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. After some discussion of keeping Ms. Schlapp in the administration but moving her out of the White House and to an agency, those talks fell apart.

“I am excited to announce that @MercedesSchlapp will soon be joining our Campaign,” the president wrote on Twitter. “She feels so strongly about our Country & its future. We are setting records in so many ways, & we will keep it going. Mercedes has done a fantastic job within the Administration & I am so thankful!”

Ms. Schlapp’s departure comes as Ms. Grisham is likely to make a number of changes in a press operation that has consistently stymied Mr. Trump. The president has often complained to people that despite the large number of employees in his press and communications office, he continues to generate what he views as terrible coverage.

Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, wrote on Twitter that Ms. Schlapp would help the campaign with “strategy as well as Latino outreach with her bilingual capabilities.” Her husband, Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, wrote on Twitter, “Like her Cuban Dad’s response to Castro, she will keep helping @realDonaldTrump to fight socialism here.”

Ms. Schlapp said she and Mr. Parscale were still determining whether she would be a consultant, which the campaign has many of, or a full-time campaign staff member. She has told Ms. Grisham that she will stay on as long as needed for a transition.

The move makes Ms. Schlapp, a frequent Fox News surrogate for the administration during her nearly two years in her role, the latest departing White House official to find a soft landing at the campaign or an outside group supporting Mr. Trump’s re-election. Both the campaign and America First, the “super PAC” supporting it, have become receptacles for people whom the president and his top advisers want to keep within his orbit, even if they leave the White House.

In some cases, those leaving the White House have taken on specific roles in the campaign. In others, they appear to be generalists advising Mr. Trump’s operation.

Bill Shine, the former communications director, left his job in March. At the time, the White House indicated he was joining the campaign, but he has only rarely been consulted by the full-time campaign operation. Kelly Sadler, a White House staff member who was let go after she mocked Senator John McCain shortly before his death, was hired as a communications aide by America First.

Some White House officials who exited their posts to staff the campaign were always likely to become part of Mr. Trump’s political apparatus. Among them are two former high-ranking White House aides, Bill Stepien, who served as political director, and Justin Clark, who ran the Office of Public Liaison.

Linda McMahon, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration, moved to become the chairwoman of America First. Ms. McMahon is a favorite of Mr. Trump’s, with ties to megadonors the president hopes will support him.

But others appeared to have no clear area of responsibility in the White House, an arrangement all parties found frustrating.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/busted-key-trump-aide-caught-pushing-racist-vigilantism-on-social-media/

raw story

Video of a chainsaw-wielding Texas man threatening protesters while shouting the n-word went viral on Friday.

While many people were shocked by the video, one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors supported the racism and vigilantism in documented in the video, according to a new report.

“President Donald Trump and his allies for years have amplified racist messages on Twitter while simultaneously reaching out to black and Hispanic voters, a dissonant balancing act that’s now rocking the GOP amid nationwide racial-justice protests,” Politico reported Saturday. “The two competing forces collided Saturday on the Twitter feed of Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp, when she boosted a tweet that lauded a man in Texas in a viral video as he yelled the n-word and wielded a chainsaw to chase away anti-racism demonstrators.”

Apparently Schlapp thought her post wouldn’t be as offensive if the n-word were edited out.

'After POLITICO reached out to her and the campaign, Schlapp then retweeted another account that posted a version of the video that muted the racist slur,” Politico noted. It appears both posts have subsequently been scrubbed from her Twitter account.

“Beyond Trump’s inner circle, Republicans have been under fire over racist social-media posts in Texas, where the chainsaw incident happened, triggering strife within GOP circles,” Politico explained. “Against this backdrop, Schlapp‘s retweet highlighted how the Trump campaign operates in contradictory worlds of its own making. On one hand, Schlapp favorably promoted a man spewing anti-black racism and on the other she urged black people to vote for Trump just three days prior in an online campaign discussion on race.”

Watch video of the incident:

omfg

omg 1st guaido sotu and now:

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/cpac-to-feature-authoritarian-brazilian-politician-eduardo-bolsonaro/

Organizers of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference portray themselves as lovers of freedom, but among this year’s speakers will be Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazil’s authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro and the leader of a right-wing party in the Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. In January, the Brazilian government filed criminal charges against American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has been a harsh critic of the Bolsonaro administration.

The American Conservative Union, the group that puts on CPAC, heralded the younger Bolsonaro. Tweeting last week about Eduardo Bolsonaro’s planned appearance, ACU chair Matt Schlappwrote, “In 2019 ACU hosted several international CPAC events, one of which was #CPACbrazil, thanks to @BolsonaroSP. At #CPAC2020 he’ll share how our conservative movement inspires freedom-loving people across the globe & how the US & Brazil can work together to stop socialism.”

But Eduardo Bolsonaro seems keen to “stop socialism” with authoritarianism. Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is also the regional representative of former White House strategist Steve Bannon’s global right-wing group The Movement, warned recentlythat the government could resort to repression to deal with protests and leftists “via a new AI-5.” The Guardian’s Tom Phillips explained:

That was a reference to one of the most traumatic events in recent Brazilian history – December 1968’s Institutional Act Number Five (AI-5) – when Brazil’s military rulers moved to extinguish growing political unrest by indefinitely outlawing freedom of expression and assembly and closing congress.

“The AI-5 was an instrument intended to intimidate people … It allowed the dictatorship to repress all opposition and dissent,” the historians Lilia Schwarz and Heloisa M Starling wrote in their recent “biography” of Brazil.

Eduardo Bolsonaro’s comments reportedly shocked many Brazilians, but they aligned with previous statements made by his father, who also served in the legislature before being elected president in 2018 During his presidential campaign, the theme of which was “Brazil before everything, and God above all,” Jair Bolsonaro supported the torture carried out by the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985, and warned that under his regime, minorities would have to**“bow to the majority … or disappear.”**

Right Wing Watch noted last year, a week after Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration, that he “didn’t waste much time issuing executive orders and taking other actions going after the people he had targeted in his campaign rhetoric: the LGBTQ community; indigenous people; descendants of former slaves; civil servants deemed not on board with Bolsonaro’s ideological agenda; nonprofit organizations; and the media.”

Just this week, Eduardo Bolsonaro launched a social media attack on filmmaker Petra Costa, whose documentary “The Edge of Democracy” has been nominated for an Academy Award, The Guardian reported. Eduardo Bolsonaro tweeted that Costa was a “scumbag” and a liar. He and other government officials are angry about the movie and an interview in which Costa criticized government policies encouraging the plunder of the Amazon region, a spike in police killings, the administration’s anti-gay actions and increased government censorship.

In August 2018, months before the election that made his father president, Eduardo Bolsonaro met with Bannon and announced that Bannon would be offering suggestions on online strategy and data analysis for his father’s presidential campaign. He declared that he and Bannon would “join forces” against “cultural Marxism.”

Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign was backed by U.S. religious-right leaders, including former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who met with Eduardo Bolsonaro and recorded a video message to Brazilian Christians urging them to vote “only for a candidate for the president of Brazil who will support moving the Brazilian embassy [in Israel] to Jerusalem.” Trump-supporting “prophet” Cindy Jacobs and her husband Mike Jacobs declared that Jair Bolsonaro is establishing God’s kingdom in Brazil—turning it from a “goat nation” into a “sheep nation.” (There’s a biblical passage that refers to Jesus’s second coming when all the nations will be gathered before him and he, like a shepherd, will separate the sheep from the goats.)...

no lnx 220 CAPT

all purpose windup spx for trump (and corps presumably)

poster boy? for? brook bros? 1994 hill gig (with? odd that resume never has names of pols or corps )

lower profile for a while (after screwup?) this cat includes wife mercedes trump WH

220 seems short but all text here re html? bak txt

when did he cave to trump cult?

omfg

omg 1st guaido sotu and now:

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/cpac-to-feature-authoritarian-brazilian-politician-eduardo-bolsonaro/

Organizers of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference portray themselves as lovers of freedom, but among this year’s speakers will be Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazil’s authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro and the leader of a right-wing party in the Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. In January, the Brazilian government filed criminal charges against American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has been a harsh critic of the Bolsonaro administration.

The American Conservative Union, the group that puts on CPAC, heralded the younger Bolsonaro. Tweeting last week about Eduardo Bolsonaro’s planned appearance, ACU chair Matt Schlapp wrote, “In 2019 ACU hosted several international CPAC events, one of which was #CPACbrazil, thanks to @BolsonaroSP. At #CPAC2020 he’ll share how our conservative movement inspires freedom-loving people across the globe & how the US & Brazil can work together to stop socialism.”

But Eduardo Bolsonaro seems keen to “stop socialism” with authoritarianism. Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is also the regional representative of former White House strategist Steve Bannon’s global right-wing group The Movement, warned recently that the government could resort to repression to deal with protests and leftists “via a new AI-5.” The Guardian’s Tom Phillips explained:

That was a reference to one of the most traumatic events in recent Brazilian history – December 1968’s Institutional Act Number Five (AI-5) – when Brazil’s military rulers moved to extinguish growing political unrest by indefinitely outlawing freedom of expression and assembly and closing congress.

“The AI-5 was an instrument intended to intimidate people … It allowed the dictatorship to repress all opposition and dissent,” the historians Lilia Schwarz and Heloisa M Starling wrote in their recent “biography” of Brazil.

Eduardo Bolsonaro’s comments reportedly shocked many Brazilians, but they aligned with previous statements made by his father, who also served in the legislature before being elected president in 2018 During his presidential campaign, the theme of which was “Brazil before everything, and God above all,” Jair Bolsonaro supported the torture carried out by the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985, and warned that under his regime, minorities would have to “bow to the majority … or disappear.”

Just this week, Eduardo Bolsonaro launched a social media attack on filmmaker Petra Costa, whose documentary “The Edge of Democracy” has been nominated for an Academy Award, The Guardian reported. Eduardo Bolsonaro tweeted that Costa was a “scumbag” and a liar. He and other government officials are angry about the movie and an interview in which Costa criticized? government policies encouraging the plunder of the Amazon region, a spike in police killings, ?the administration’s anti-gay actions and increased government censorship?.

Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign was backed by U.S. religious-right leaders, including former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who met with Eduardo Bolsonaro and recorded a video message to Brazilian Christians urging them to vote “only for a candidate for the president of Brazil who will support moving the Brazilian embassy ?[in Israel] to Jerusalem.” Trump-supporting “prophet” Cindy Jacobs and her husband Mike Jacobs declared that Jair Bolsonaro is establishing God’s kingdom in Brazil—turning it from a “goat nation” into a “sheep nation.” ?(There’s a biblical passage that refers to Jesus’s second coming when all the nations will be gathered before him and he, like a shepherd, will separate the sheep from the goats.)...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/ethics-expert-details-the-scandals-in-the-white-houses-new-list-of-staff-salaries/

no lnx

Ethics expert details the scandals in the White House’s new list of staff salaries

CODY FENWICK

28 JUN 2019 AT 22:29 ET

Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics who resigned in protest under President Donald Trump, has been a dogged critic of the administration as it flagrantly defies basic standards of behavior for the executive branch. And in a new Twitter thread on Friday, Shaub combed through the new list of White House staff salaries — which show that not only do violations not trigger punishments, but they don’t even hinder raises.

He pointed out, for instance, that newly named White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham — who used to do PR for the first lady — got a promotion and raise, despite having violated the Hatch Act.

Walter Shaub

@waltshaub

Jun 28, 2019

2019 White House salaries was just posted.https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/July-1-2019-Report-FINAL.pdf …

Walter Shaub

@waltshaub

Looks like Stephanie Grisham's punishment for violating the Hatch Act was a $28,000 pay raise. That'll teach her.

But Grisham is still in the junior varsity league when it comes to violating the Hatch Act. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, on the other hand, has gone pro — she seems to think violating the law, which bars federal employees from electioneering, is part of her job. Trump’s own appointee to the Office of Special Counsel called for her firing, saying her brazen violations of the law were “unprecedented.”

But Trump didn’t fire her. In fact, as Shaub pointed out, she got a raise! Just not as generous as Grisham.

Walter Shaub

@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

There's some real unfairness to Stephanie Grisham getting a $28,000 pay raise: Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act way more times and only got a $3,300 pay raise.

Conway makes $183,000 a year, which is the salary cap for White House employees.

Madeleine Westerhout, the director of Oval Office operations, got a $15,000 raise and is now making $145,000, Shaub said. She, too, he pointed out, violated the Hatch Act, according to the Office of Special Counsel.

Shaub also noted that Mercedes Schlapp, like Conway, is making likewise making the maximum salary. This was notable, he pointed out, in light of the fact that her husband, Matt Schlapp, lobbies the Executive Office of the President. In other words, he’s getting paid to have influence over the president while his wife is working in the White House. It’s an outrageous conflict of interest, but under Trump, it’s par for the course.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/05/whats-behind-lobbyist-attempts-to-block-casinos-on-native-land

Donald Trump threw his weight against a bipartisan House bill last week that would affirm the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s right to 321 acres of land in Massachusetts.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, or H.R. 312, was introduced by Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.) and co-sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats. Supporters of the act said entitling the 2,600-member tribe to promised, federally recognized land upheld tribal sovereignty and protected the tribe’s economy by enabling the tribe to build a casino on the land.

The House voted in favor of the bill, moving the tribe one step closer to building a $1 billion proposed casino on the land. But the president’s opposition warrants a look into his past links to casino magnates and the gambling industry. The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate.

Trump made known his opposition to the bill in a tweet on May 8, calling it “a special interest casino Bill” and urged Republicans to back out, leading the House to temporarily delay the vote. The president has a long history of challenging tribes’ right to build and operate casinos on reservations.

The chaos that transpired over the legislation exemplified the gaming industries’ complex and costly tug-of-war over casino regulations on tribal land. This is not the first time interest groups, lobbyists or the president have challenged tribes’ protected federal status as sovereign nations to block the construction of competitive casinos.

Significant funding flows into the political fight from all sides. Last year, gambling groups spent a total of $32.53 million, deploying over 300 lobbyists. The Arizona-based Gila River Indian Community led the pack with $2.58 million in spending. Federal lobbying in the gaming industry precipitously increased 112 percent between 2000 and 2018.

Tug-of-war over casino regulations

Federally recognized tribal nations have the right to self-determination and the ability to oversee their own internal affairs on reservations, including the construction of casinos in many states across the U.S.

But gaming facilities on reservations are not immune from federal regulations.

Some tribes must establish compacts, or agreements, with states before building casinos. These states then claim a percentage of the profits from the casinos. The National Indian Gaming Commission, established in 1988, is tasked with monitoring casinos on reservations too.

The ambiguity that can come with federal oversight has often resulted in tension between casinos, Congress and tribal nations over what rules to play by. When it comes to fine-tuning regulations, lobbyists play a significant role.

The Mashpee Wampanoag were among the first Indigenous people to come in contact with colonizers in the seventeenth century. Of the 69 tribes that once composed the Wampanoag Nation, the Mashpee Wampanoag remain one of three surviving tribes today, following decades of colonization and genocide. Despite its over 12,000-year history, the tribe continues to live without a reservation.

The U.S. government did not “re-acknowledge” the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe until 2007, well after the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Last year, then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke determined the Department of Interior would not consider the 150 acres of land in Mashpee and 170 acres of land in Taunton, Massachusetts as the Mashpee Wampanoag’s reservation, reversing an Obama-era decision.

“If a federally recognized tribe does not have land over which to exercise its tribal authority, then what good is the government authority you have?” said Kathryn Rand, dean and professor of law at the University of North Dakota. “You have to have a place to exercise that authority.”

Rand, who also co-founded the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy, said the rescinding of the tribe’s land dealt a blow to their proposed casino and sent the economy into a tailspin.

“The tribe started work on its casino, including seeking financing,” she said, “When the [DOI] Secretary changed his mind, the tribe was left with overwhelming debt.” She estimated the debt at $440 million.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe saw the proposed casino as a key “economic driver.” Casinos can provide needed revenue for public services and other vital infrastructure on reservations, at times accounting for a sizeable portion of a tribe’s revenue.

This is not the first time Congress has stepped in to preserve a tribe’s reservation from being taken away.

In 2015, Gun Lake Tribe underwent a similar struggle. Congress introduced and eventually passed the Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act to affirm that the land could be held in federal trust, but not without a grueling fight. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled the decision constitutional in 2018.

Steven Light, co-founder of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy and professor at University of North Dakota, said “it is arguably not the best thing for Congress to be legislating on bills specific to one tribe or another because what that suggests is that sovereignty [can be] compromised and politicized.” Instead, the DOI’s responsibility is to fulfill the federal government’s promises to all tribes, he said.

Lobbyists representing Twin River Worldwide Holdings welcomed the DOI’s decision to un-acknowledge the land previously considered the Mashpee Wampanoag’s reservation. The private company has two casinos — Twin River Casino Hotel and Tiverton Casino Hotel — near the disputed site in Rhode Island. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who co-sponsored H.R. 312, said that Twin River was adverse to the competition from the new casino, according to the Washington Post.

Twin River paid revolving door lobbyist Matt Schlapp, who is the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a devout Trump supporter. The opposition’s ties to Trump go even deeper. The president of Twin River once served as an executive at one of the casinos owned by Trump in Atlantic City too, based on findings published by the Washington Post.

Schlapp leads the lobbying firm Cove Strategies, which Twin River Management Group paid $30,000 in 2019 for lobbying related to the bill. Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes, holds a position in the White House as the director of strategic communications.

Twin River Management Group also paid the firm Black Diamond Strategies $30,000. Although there is no record indicating he lobbied on H.R. 312, revolving door lobbyist Rick Wiley is a political consultant with Black Diamond Strategies and played an influential role in Trump’s campaign as the political director during the presidential primaries. Doug Davenport, a former strategist for Trump’s campaign, lobbied on behalf of Black Diamond Strategies as well.

Rep. Keating called out Trump’s “well-documented alliance with the [Rhode Island] casino lobbyist” in a tweet last week.

Tribes also have accelerated their involvement in federal lobbying. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe spent $150,000 on lobbying in this year. Last year, they spent $420,000.

“In the American political system, money talks,” Light said. “Political responsiveness is generated through access and influence, which is linked to fiscal resources and lobbying.”

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. last month, Mashpee Wampanoag Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird said that the loss of the Mashpee Wampanoag’s status had devastated their economic development.

“The damage done to our Tribe during the years in which the status of our reservation has been thrown into doubt is beginning to reach catastrophic levels,” Baird said.

The denial of land rights to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe harkened back to termination policies in the mid-twentieth century when the federal government terminated the status of numerous American Indian tribes and nullified preexisting promises to tribes bound by treaty, said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said on the House floor.

That said, money from casinos is not a panacea for the steep economic hurdles many tribal nations face. Some Indigenous leaders have called for alternate revenue streams given the limitations of the gaming industry.

Nor do all tribal nations have a casino. Of the 567 federally recognized tribes, about 42 percent operate gaming facilities, according to 2016 data from NIGC. That means the majority — 329 tribes — have no casinos.

Not all casinos are created equal either, and profit varies widely depending on location and tribe. Of all the gaming revenue audits obtained by the NIGC in 2017, 57 percent of casinos brought in under $25 million.

Lobbyists put ‘political pressure’ on DOI

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is not the only tribe to run into issues with the DOI and lobbyists.

Last year, the Mashantucket Pequots Tribe filed a lawsuit against the DOI and MGM Resorts International alleging that the agency intentionally delayed any decision over a proposed casino. This would be the third casino owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Mohegan Tribe, also located in Connecticut, joined the lawsuit.

MGM Resorts International, a company with plans to build a casino in Springfield, Massachusetts, lobbied against the construction of the the Mashantucket Pequots’ proposal, and may have been influential in the DOI’s lack of a clear verdict, according to an investigation of Zinke’s calendar by Politico.

Judge Rudolph Contreras allowed the lawsuit to proceed in February, stating that the “plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that significant political pressure was brought to bear on the issue and the Secretary may have improperly succumbed to such pressure.”

MGM Resorts International spent a record-breaking $1.9 million lobbying on issues related to gambling in 2018, up from $570,000 just two years before. The company paid Ballard $80,000 during the first quarter this year. Last year, he received $320,000.

MGM’s registered lobbyists include Brian Ballard who served as a fundraiser for Trump’s presidential campaign in Florida and later became a member of Trump’s transition team. Filings show MGM Resorts paid Ballard Partners $80,000 in the first quarter this year for lobbying on issues related to gambling on tribal land.

Revolving door lobbyist Gale Norton, who served as Interior Secretary in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 and 2006, lobbied for MGM Resorts International about the “Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Connecticut gaming amendments,” according to lobbying records. She also served as counsel for Shell Oil.

Spending on lobbyists by the Mashantucket Pequots Tribe decreased from $380,000 in 2004 to just $84,000 in 2018.

The motivations behind steady efforts by lobbyists to challenge tribe’s right to hold federal land in trust can extend well beyond the gambling industry. Federally recognized tribal land accounts for about 2 percent of the country’s land, but holds about 20 percent of gas and oil. When a lobbyist successfully chisels away at tribal rights to self-determination over their own affairs, fossil fuel interest groups inch closer to accessing tribal land.

In 2016, Energy Transfer Partners lobbied to extend a $3.8 billion pipeline through sacred land on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, despite widespread resistance from Indigenous organizers.

Trump eventually reversed the Army Corp of Engineers’ decision to halt construction of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, made under the Obama administration. The case is now stuck in the courts.

Trump has a lengthy history with casinos. Trump owned casino ventures, including Trump Castle, Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in the 1980 and 90s. All ended in bankruptcy but Trump walked away with significant profit.

Currently, the Mashantucket Pequots Tribe owns two casinos, one of which Trump attempted to block in his days as a casino owner. In 1993, Trump challenged the constitutionality of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in court in an attempt to eliminate competition from the the Mashantucket Pequots Tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino. Trump sued the federal government, arguing he was being discriminated against.

“I love to compete but I like to compete on an equal footing. I’m competing and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes,” said Trump during a hearing. All the same, a New York Times report later uncovered that Trump claimed $814 million in losses while forking over no money in income taxes.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.

For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: info@crp.org

RELATED TOPICS

casinos

Casinos/Gambling Industry

department of interior

Donald Trump

gambling

HR 312

Indian gaming

indigenous

indigenous peoples

MMashpee Wampanoag

Native American

Tom Cole

william keating

Koch's lobbying team is headed by Matt Schlapp, who was director of the White House Office of Political Affairs for the Bush-Cheney regime. He replaced Elizabeth Stolpe, who (follow the spinning yo-yo here) went to work for Bush as associate director for environmental protection.

https://www.desmogblog.com/american-conservative-union

American Conservative Union (ACU) describes itself as America's original conservative organization. It is an umbrella organization founded in 1964 that fights “for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values,” according to its website. [1]

Since 1973, the ACU has hosted the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. The ACUworks in conjunction with the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF), a 501(c)(3) “educational foundation” that “converts and educates those who may not know they are conservatives as well as informing, inspiring and motivating those who know they are conservatives.” [1]

Matt Schlapp is Chairman of the ACU, and formerly worked in the DC offices of petrochemical giant Koch Industries. While Schlapp worked as Vice President of Federal Affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, Koch Industries distanced themselves when he became Chairman of the ACU, claiming they hadn't had a working relationship with him in years. [2], [3], [4]

ACU's board has included prominent climate change deniers and lobbyists including Fred L. Smith, Jr., founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, and Joe Bast of the Heartland Institute.

American Conservative Union Foundation

According to its website, the ACUF was established in 1973 to “educate voters, office-holders, and opinion leaders as to why conservative principles work better to solve the myriad of complex and dynamic problems facing Americans today and to equip them to become better and more effective problem-solvers by implementing conservative values within their communities.” [5]

ACU PAC

ACU Political Action Committee is the ACU's political arm and “supports candidates for office who reflect the conservative principles on which the ACU was founded.” According to the ACU website, “a successful, well-funded political action committee keeps the American Conservative Union relevant and influential on the issues of greatest importance to our membership, both at the national and state levels, in general and primary elections.” [6]

Stance on Climate Change

The ACU has historically opposed efforts that would limit carbon dioxide emissions for the purpose of combatting climate change. For example, ACU supported HR 3409, a bill that would prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions: [7]

“ACU opposes EPA’s attempt to use the issue of global warming to control American manufacturing and supported this bill,” ACU notes.

Climate science denialists and fossil fuel advocates have been given regular forums as part of the CPAC conferences in recent years. ACU has also sponsored climate science denial conferences organised by the Heartland Institute.

Funding

The following data is based on publicly available 990 forms and by data collected by the Conservative Transparency project. Note that not all individual values have been verified by DeSmog. [8]

View the attached spreadsheet for additional details on American Conservative Union and ACU Foundation funding by year (.xlsx).

Donor American Conservative Union American Conservative Union Foundation Grand Total

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation $945,000 $945,000

National Christian Charitable Foundation $390,000 $390,000

Mercer Family Foundation $250,000 $120,000 $370,000

Wellspring Committee $240,000 $240,000

National Rifle Association Foundation $108,520 $108,520

Judicial Watch $108,000 $108,000

Exxon Mobil $90,000 $90,000

Armstrong Foundation $62,500 $62,500

American Petroleum Institute $58,500 $58,500

The Vernon K. Krieble Foundation $30,000 $30,000

The Randolph Foundation $20,000 $20,000

DonorsTrust $19,750 $19,750

Americans for Tax Reform $14,500 $14,500

Donors Capital Fund $12,000 $12,000

Bill and Berniece Grewcock Foundation $10,000 $10,000

Castle Rock Foundation $10,000 $10,000

American Values $10,000 $10,000

John William Pope Foundation $5,000 $5,000

Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation $4,000 $4,000

Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation $2,000 $2,000

William E. Simon Foundation $2,000 $2,000

The Roe Foundation $2,000 $2,000

Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty $1,325 $1,325

Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking $1,000 $1,000

Grand Total $695,825 $1,820,270 $2,516,095

990 Forms...

Key People

Board of Directors

Name 2000 2001 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Description

Alan M. Gottlieb Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Becky Norton Dunlop Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Michael R. Long Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Morton C. Blackwell Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Muriel Coleman Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Ron Robinson Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Carolyn D. Meadows Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Van D. Hipp, Jr. Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

John Bolton Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Matt Schlapp Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Charlie Gerow Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Vice Chairman

Amy Frederick Y Y Y Y Y Secretary

Bob Beauprez Y Y Y Y Y Treasurer

Luis Fortuno Y Y Y Y Y

Ned Ryun Y Y Y Y Y

Ron Christie Y Y Y Y Y

John Eddy Y Y Y Y

Thomas Winter Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Ed McFadden Y Y Y

Ed Yevoli Y Y Y

José Cárdenas Y Y Y

Kimberly Bellissimo Y Y Y

Larry Beasley Y Y Y

M. Zuhdi Jasser Y Y Y

Matt Smith Y Y Y

Mike Rose Y Y Y

Peter Samuelson Y Y Y

Jackie Arends Y Y

Priscilla O'Shaughnessy Y Y

Sabrina Schaeffer Y Y

Terry Schilling Y Y

Stephen E. Biegun Y

Grover G. Norquist Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

James V. Lacy Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Fred L. Smith, Jr. Y Y Y Y Y

Tom DeLay Y Y Y Y Y Y

Kellyanne Conway Y Y Y

Alberto R. Cardenas Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Joe Bast Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Lew Uhler Y Y Y Y Y Y

David A. Keene Y Y Y Y Y

Jameson G. Campaigne, Jr. Y Y Y Y Y Secretary, ACU

Carly Fiorina Y Y Y Y Chairman, ACUFoundation

Anne Northup Y Y

Mark Stephens Y Y Member-at-Large

Suhail Khan Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Paul Erickson Y Y Y

Allen Roth Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Floyd Brown Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Western Center for Journalism

Jeffrey Bell Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Capital City Partners

Serphin Maltese Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Cleta Mitchell Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Foley &Lardner, LLP

Kirby Wilbur Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Washington State Republican Party

Joseph A. Morris Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Morris & De La Rosa

Larry Eastland Y Y Y Y Y Y Global Public Strategies, Ltd

Donald J. Devine Y Y Y Second Vice Chairman, Donald Devine Company

Asa Hutchinson Y Y The Asa Hutchinson Law Group

M.J. Mintz Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Of Counsel

Wayne R. LaPierre Jr. Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Tracie Sharp Y Y Y

Lewis Uhler Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Roseville, CA

John Berthoud Y Alexandria, VA

Charles Black Y Y Y Y Y Washington, DC

Craig Shirley Y Y Y Y Y Alexandria, VA

Duncan Hunter Y Y Y Y Y Washington, DC

James Arthur Pope Y Y Y Y Y Raleigh, NC

Jesse Helms Y Y Y Y Y Raleigh, NC

Robert Luddy Y Y Y Y Y Captive-Aire Systems

Tom Pauken Y Y Y Y Y Dallas, Texas

Charles Jarvis Y Fairfax, VA

Star Parker Y Los Angeles, CA

Beau Boulter Y Y Y Y Arlington, VA

M. Stanton Evans Y Y Y Y Washington, DC

Steve Moore Y Y Washington, DC

L. Brent Bozell, III Y Y Y Alexandria, VA

Camille Kampouris Y Y New York, NY

Louis Jenkins Y Y Baton Rouge, LA

Ralph Reed, Jr. Y Y Duluth, GA

ACU Foundation Board of Directors

Name 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Description

Carolyn D. Meadows Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Millie Hallow Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Van D. Hipp, Jr. Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Colin Hanna Y Y Y Y Y Y

Jonathan Garthwaite Y Y Y Y Y

José Cárdenas Y Y Y Y Y

Kimberly Bellissimo Y Y Y Y Y

Matt Schlapp Y Y Y Y Y

Willes K. Lee Y Y Y Y Y

Thomas Winter Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Charlie Gerow Y Y Y Vice Chairman

Niger Innis Y Y Y

Randy Neugebauer Y Y Y

Adam Laxalt Y Y

Mary Matalin Y Y

Amy Frederick Y Y Y Y Secretary

David A. Keene Y Y Y Y

Tim Goeglein Y Y Y

Carly Fiorina Y Chairman, ACUFoundation

Cleta Mitchell Y Y Y Y Foley & Lardner, LLP

Alberto R. Cardenas Y Y Y

Robert Luddy Y Y Y Captive-Aire Systems

Roger Noriega Y Visión Américas

Richard H. Collins Y Y Y

Tom Tripp Y Y Y Secretary

Robert Lamutt Y

Staff & Personnel

mma

Over the past year, Sean Hannity and the cast of Fox News figures have deployed numerous theories in an effort to discredit and lay groundwork for an authoritarian response to the Mueller investigation. From referring to the investigation as “witch hunt” to claiming collusion isn’t a crime, the extended Fox News universe has tried it all.

When it comes to Trump's former National Security Adviser, Fox figures have taken to accusing the FBI of duping Michael Flynn into lying. Pro-Trump media have spent most of 2018 floating conspiracy theories about Flynn's guilty plea.

Those conspiracy theories have now been debunked. A federal judge did not throw out Flynn's guilty plea on Tuesday. Flynn and his lawyers instead conceded on the record that he knowingly lied to the FBI and did not believe his rights had been violated. Fox News personalities were forced deploy new spins on the situation. Each propagandist took their turn trying out new theories, seemingly throwing everything at the wall to see what might stick.

Just before the hearing, Fox guest Matt Schlapp compared Flynn's actions to "pulling off mattress tags, jaywalking, parking tickets."

Things really picked up speed after the hearing. Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett claimed that Judge Emmet Sullivan begged Flynn to throw out his guilty plea, and when he didn’t, the judge began to lash out at Flynn. As Matt Gertz explained, this makes no sense. Lou Dobbs took a simpler route, simply bashing the judge. And fittingly, Fox & Friends utilized the most convenient strategy: virtually ignore the issue entirely. Fox & Friends dedicated less than five minutes to the Flynn case during their Wednesday broadcast.

Gertz summed up Fox’s efforts: “If Fox propagandists had any standards or capacity for honesty, the Sullivan and Flynn saga might cause them to re-examine much of their unhinged Mueller coverage. They don't, so it won't -- and it's on to the next conspiracy theory.”

Where do we go from here? Fox is already floating a pardon for Flynn.

avuncular happy warrior often on pbs newshour, 11/18 not lately" jumped the shark? nah, just fox gig

https://www.mediamatters.org/people/matt-schlapp

11/18 random grab

Tags ››› Matt Schlapp

Matt Schlapp: Gillum's call to "count every vote" means "count the votes of people who are not legally allowed to vote"

Video ››› November 9, 2018 10:35 AM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

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CNN host calls out Matt Schlapp for "fearmongering" about migrant caravan as "marauding bands" of invaders

Video ››› October 22, 2018 10:36 AM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

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Conservative media rally around Kavanaugh amid second allegation of sexual misconduct

Blog ››› September 24, 2018 5:14 PM EDT ››› ZACHARY PLEAT

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Conservative media figures reacted to a New Yorker story that a second woman reported Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for sexual misconduct by digging in on their support for him and demanding that Republicans hurry up and confirm him.

The New Yorker reported on Sunday evening that Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale University with Kavanaugh, said that according to her recollection, “Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away”:

Ramirez said that, when both she and Kavanaugh were freshmen at Yale, she was invited by a friend on the women’s soccer team to a dorm-room party. She recalled that the party took place in a suite at Lawrance Hall, in the part of Yale known as Old Campus, and that a small group of students decided to play a drinking game together. “We were sitting in a circle,” she said. “People would pick who drank.” Ramirez was chosen repeatedly, she said, and quickly became inebriated. At one point, she said, a male student pointed a gag plastic penis in her direction. Later, she said, she was on the floor, foggy and slurring her words, as that male student and another stood nearby. (Ramirez identified the two male onlookers, but, at her request, The New Yorker is not naming them.)

A third male student then exposed himself to her. “I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” She recalled remarking, “That’s not a real penis,” and the other students laughing at her confusion and taunting her, one encouraging her to “kiss it.” She said that she pushed the person away, touching it in the process. Ramirez, who was raised a devout Catholic, in Connecticut, said that she was shaken. “I wasn’t going to touch a penis until I was married,” she said. “I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated.” She remembers Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing, pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting about the incident. “Somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face,’ ” she said. “It was his full name. I don’t think it was just ‘Brett.’ And I remember hearing and being mortified that this was out there.”

Ramirez acknowledged that there are significant gaps in her memories of the evening, and that, if she ever presents her story to the F.B.I. or members of the Senate, she will inevitably be pressed on her motivation for coming forward after so many years, and questioned about her memory, given her drinking at the party.

And yet, after several days of considering the matter carefully, she said, “I’m confident about the pants coming up, and I’m confident about Brett being there.” Ramirez said that what has stayed with her most forcefully is the memory of laughter at her expense from Kavanaugh and the other students. “It was kind of a joke,” she recalled. “And now it’s clear to me it wasn’t a joke.”

Another classmate told The New Yorker that he heard about the incident at the time and that he was told Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself to Ramirez.

The new reporting follows a week of right-wing media attacks on Kavanaugh’s first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school. Ford has agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Thursday, but after this new allegation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has called for that hearing to be delayed.

At least one right-wing pundit, Ann Coulter, became unhinged on Twitter following the publication of Ramirez’s story:

Other conservatives called Ramirez’s accusation fake, criticized the timing of her going public, demanded Republicans stand by Kavanaugh anyway, and painted Kavanaugh as the true victim of these alleged sexual assaults.

Conservatives allege Ramirez’s account is part of a Democratic conspiracy

Fox & Friends co-host Anna Kooiman: “Is this a drip, drip, drip … by the Democrats trying to delay everything until the midterm elections and really fire up their base saying Republicans are bullies?”

Conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson: “It seems more and more likely that the Blasey Ford delays were not to let her drive across country, but were to allow the Ramirez hit to get out. This is all coordinated and none of it is credible.”

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel: “The left made a mistake with this Ramirez story. … It strongly suggests the Ford delay demands were about cooking this up. Destroys credibility all around.”

Fox Business anchor Dagen McDowell: “I think that this -- the timing is suspect and people have [a] right to question this second accuser coming forward.”

Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh: “Democrats were stalling last week to give themselves more of an opportunity to conjure up another accuser against Brett Kavanaugh,” and “they whipped together another accusation.”

Conservatives use latest accusation to demand Republican senators stand by Kavanaugh

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk: “Senate Republicans: DO NOT CAVE! If you were up for this nomination I bet many of you would have plenty of these fake accusations come up. Stand by our guy. Do not waver.”

NRATV’s Dan Bongino: “Hill Democrats are consumed by raw hatred. Their capacity for evil knows no limits anymore. Correspondingly, the Hill Republicans shamefully showed weakness & cowed to their demands. … Hill Republicans let us down again.”

The Rebel’s Amanda Head: If Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Republicans “don’t fight these allegations and #ConfirmKavanaghNow we will lose midterms, we will lose 2020, and what’s worse, we will lose any chance at seeing a conservative majority SCOTUS in our lifetime.”

Federalist co-founder Sean Davis: “Senate Republicans have a simple choice: stand up to a coordinated Democrat smear campaign and confirm Kavanaugh, which will energize GOP voters and preserve House/Senate majorities, or buckle under Democrat lies and give up congressional GOP majorities for a decade or more.”

CRTV’s Michelle Malkin: If Senate Republicans “refuse to man up & stop coordinated Dem smear campaign once & for all, the consequences reach far beyond the electoral landscape.”

Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson: “#ConfirmBrettKavanaughNow.”

One America News Network host Jack Posobiec: “Raise your hand if you think the GOP should stop playing games and hold the Kavanaugh vote Monday.”

Conservatives complain Kavanaugh is the real victim here, not Ford or Ramirez

Fox News host Laura Ingraham: Accusations against Kavanaugh are “a left-wing cabal, a left-wing conspiracy all coming together, swarming together.”

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum: “‘Sickening’ was the word I heard most often this weekend to describe what is happening. Innocent until proven guilty is how we do this in America.”

Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe: “What is happening to #JudgeKavanaugh is wrong and terrifying.”

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly: “Republicans are becoming terrified of the Kavanaugh situation because they know the media will embrace every lurid accusation without scrutiny, and no one will be held accountable for ignoring due process.”

Independent Women Forum’s Julie Gunlock: “What Ms. Ramirez and her enablers have done is odious. She’s destroying the life of a good man based on her own hazy memory of an event that happened decades ago when she was admittedly drunk.”

Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk: “These are POLITICAL HIT JOBS against a sterling person.”

American Conservative Union’s Matt Schlapp: “This Kavanaugh confirmation has transformed into a disgrace. How is it when Dems win their SC noms get an easy time, but ours get mauled.”

Daily Caller’s Amber Athey: “I have no words for how sickened I am by how the left and the establishment media are weaponizing non-credible sexual assault claims to destroy a human being.”

Matt Schlapp on report of sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh: He "is the victim here"

Video ››› September 20, 2018 3:58 PM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

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Fox guest whines about Democrats' treatment of Brett Kavanaugh while praising GOP boycott of Merrick Garland

Video ››› September 13, 2018 11:21 AM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

Don't buy right-wing media's gaslighting: Brett Kavanaugh is a threat to abortion access

Blog ››› July 12, 2018 2:54 PM EDT ››› JULIE TULBERT

534

Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Following President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, right-wing media have attempted to downplay the odds that, if confirmed, Kavanaugh would cast a deciding vote on abortion rights. In reality, Kavanaugh’s background demonstrates that he will most likely be key to overturning or further gutting Roe v. Wade -- and such an outcome would have devastating consequences for abortion access in the United States.

On July 9, Trump nominated D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy left after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement in late June. Kavanaugh’s name was included on a list put out by the White House that was “preapproved by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.” According to New York magazine, this list was “extremely important to Trump’s relationship with the conservative movement and particularly with conservative Christian leaders.” Subsequently, anti-abortion groups praised Kavanaugh’s nomination as an opportunity to finally overturn Roe v. Wade and put an end legal abortion. And despite right-wing media’s gaslighting, Kavanaugh's record demonstrates that he will likely do just that.

Kavanaugh’s record on abortion suggests he’ll gladly overturn Roe or further curtail abortion rights

In 2017, Kavanaugh dissented in a case involving an unaccompanied pregnant immigrant teen (called Jane Doe) who was in federal custody and wanted to have an abortion. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement was prohibiting Doe from leaving the facility to have an abortion because the agency did not want to “facilitate” the practice.

As BuzzFeed News’ Zoe Tillman explained, Kavanaugh said in his dissent that the original order stopping the abortion was “in line with Supreme Court cases that said the government could have an interest in ‘favoring fetal life’” and “that it was not an ‘undue burden’ for the US government to say it wouldn’t ‘facilitate’ abortions for teens in custody.”

ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser further argued that “Kavanaugh’s approach” in the case, which would have required Doe to obtain a sponsor in the United States, “very well could have let the Trump administration run out the clock until she could no longer obtain a legal abortion” if the search lasted past Texas’ 20-week cut-off after which abortions are impermissible.

Beyond the substance of his opinion in the Jane Doe case, others have pointed to Kavanaugh’s reliance on “coded language” as evidence of his underlying intentions about abortion rights.

HuffPost’s Laura Bassett pointed out that in his decision, Kavanaugh used “coded language that’s only ever employed by anti-abortion activists” by referring to “abortion on demand.”

NBC’s Heidi Przybyla also noted that “code” words like “abortion on demand” are “widely understood to be a signal for … views on Roe.” This language also mirrors that used frequently by right-wing media to fearmonger about abortion and to spread misinformation.

Kavanaugh’s decision in Doe’s case, as well as his previous comments on abortion-related matters, also demonstrate that he might leave Roe on the books while still obliterating abortion rights.

As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained, Kavanaugh has already proved that “he can pretend to adhere to Roe while hollowing out its core holding” as evidenced by his finding that the Trump administration did not place an “undue burden” on Doe’s ability to obtain an abortion.

Kavanaugh also praised former Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe during a speech in 2017 -- which Rewire.News’ Jessica Mason Pieklo noted made sense, given that Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe and Kavanaugh’s dissent in the Jane Doe case both “fundamentally den[y] reproductive autonomy all while purporting to be respecting the bounds of the law.”

Here’s what abortion access will probably look like with Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court

Even before Kavanaugh was officially nominated, right-wing media were already claiming that a Trump-nominated justice wouldn’t be that bad for abortion access. However, with Kavanaugh on the court, a decision gutting or overturning of Roe is likely and would have devastating consequences.

Although some (including Trump) have argued that overturning Roe will only return abortion regulations “back to the states,” this would functionally outlaw abortion across large parts of the country.

As the Center for Reproductive Rights’ Amy Myrick told Kaiser Health News’ Julie Rovner, “We think there are 22 states likely to ban abortion without Roe” due to “a combination of factors, including existing laws and regulations on the books and the positions of the governors and state legislatures.”

Reva Siegel, a professor at Yale Law School, wrote for The New York Times that returning the issue to the states would be disastrous because already, “27 major cities are 100 miles or more from the nearest abortion provider, and we can expect these ‘abortion deserts’ in the South and the Midwest to spread rapidly” if states are given free rein.

Independent of how abortion is regulated, economic and logistical barriers that already impede access will only grow worse in a world without Roe. As Carole Joffe, a professor in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program at the University of California, San Francisco, explained:

Geographic areas without access to abortion place an extreme burden on the disproportionate number of abortion patients who are poor (50 percent are below the official poverty line and another 25 percent are classified as low income). Besides having to pay for the procedure, they need the funds to pay for lodging (some states have waiting periods of 24 hours or more, necessitating overnight stays), child care (about 60 percent of abortion patients are already parents) and of course for the travel itself. And this journey also involves confronting one or more days of lost wages as well.

Historian Rickie Solinger wrote for Vox that people seeking abortions “will be forced to flout the law to achieve personal dignity and safety,” but those “with economic resources will continue to have more options and access than others.”

Regardless of state regulations, conservatives have recently attempted to push federal regulation on abortion. As author and lecturer Scott Lemieux explained for Vox, “a Republican government with slightly larger Senate majorities than it has now would be able to pass national abortion regulations” that could outright or effectively ban abortion.

Yet right-wing media are acting like Kavanaugh’s nomination is not a big deal for abortion access and attacking those who are concerned as “overreacting”

Despite the threat that Kavanaugh poses to abortion rights, right-wing media have been busy gaslighting viewers in an apparent attempt to paint Kavanaugh as a “moderate” or otherwise suggest he wouldn’t overturn Roe:

Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said on Fox News’ Outnumbered she was not “as a woman … worried about” Roe being overturned or losing access to contraceptives, and called such fears “scare tactics.”

Fox News contributor Byron York claimed on America’s Newsroom that because Kavanaugh “talked a lot about the role of women in his life” and “has two daughters,” he wouldn’t pose a threat to women’s rights.

Fox News host Brit Hume said on Tucker Carlson Tonight that “if Roe v. Wade were reversed, it would not mean that abortion would become illegal across this country.” He argued that saying otherwise “is hysterical and overstated.”

The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland wrote that “overturning Roe v. Wade will not criminalize abortion,” but instead would mean that “the question of abortion, and any limits on abortions, would return to the states and in most cases the legislative branch.”

The Wrap reported that Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said that she thinks Kavanaugh “will follow precedent” in any decision impacting Roe v. Wade.

On Fox News Channel’s Hannity, host Sean Hannity mentioned the “fearmongering has already begun” around Kavanaugh’s nomination. Fox’s Gregg Jarrett agreed, saying that “the left is already conjuring up the hysteria, claiming that this means abortion will be outlawed in America,” which he called a “lie perpetuated by the left.”

The Heritage Foundation’s John Malcolm said on Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs Tonight that Democrats were “trotting out, as they always do, scare tactics with respect to Roe versus Wade.”

American Constitution Union’s Matt Schlapp told Stuart Varney on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Company that “most conservatives and constitutionalists believe” that without Roe, abortion regulation “goes to the states,” which he claimed was just a continuation of what is “already happening” with abortion regulations.

On Fox News Channel’s The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino, Judicial Crisis Network’s Carrie Severino downplayed Trump’s promise during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would appoint “pro-life justices” as only “shorthand” used “during the campaign” and that he “can’t actually ask any nominee … how they would rule on a specific issue.”

During a segment on Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, who also serves as Trump’s judicial nominations adviser, pointed to a book Kavanaugh wrote about the principle of stare decisis -- the idea that Supreme Court’s previous rulings should be followed -- and said that Kavanaugh’s record shows “he does believe that the courts need to consider precedent.”

Responding to a clip of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) talking about the danger Kavanaugh poses for women’s rights, Fox News host Laura Ingraham said, “So, Brett Kavanaugh is essentially -- we’re supposed to believe … -- standing at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and barring women from going in.” Guest Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) argued that if there was a concern about women’s rights, “how about protecting a woman when she’s in the womb as an infant?”

On Fox News’ Fox & Friends, National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch characterized concerns about abortion access as advocates claiming that Kavanaugh’s nomination “means that women by some magical force field are going to be prevented from going and seeking health care.” She continued that “abortion is not health care, nor is it a constitutional right.”

Everything right-wing media tried to blame for the Trump administration’s family separation policy

Blog ››› June 22, 2018 4:53 PM EDT ››› BOBBY LEWIS

946

Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

As President Donald Trump’s administration implemented a new “zero tolerance” prosecution policy at the border that led to unprecedented and systematic separation of immigrant families and locking kids in cages, right-wing media flailed around trying to blame the administration’s policy on anybody or anything except Trump.

The president’s media enablers blamed Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, “the law on the book,” Democrats in Congress, the media, the families themselves, and even “the Illuminati of K Street” for the Trump administration’s policy:

Blaming the families themselves

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt claimed that families “are choosing to be separated” by coming to the United States in the first place. Co-host Steve Doocy agreed, saying “the part that is troubling ... is the conscious decisions the parents are making” in trying to bring their children to America.

Recently pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza rhetorically questioned whether the “deported aliens” were “the ones choosing to separate their families.”

Fox’s David Bossie said that if parents “don’t become criminals, they’re not separated” from their children.

Fox’s Tomi Lahren said, “If you do not want to be separated, do not cross the border illegally. Follow our laws, follow the process. That's the best way to ensure that your family stays together.”

Blaming former presidents

Radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed that family separation at the border "is an entirely manufactured crisis. It’s entirely manufactured. This has been going on for years. It happened during the Obama administration."

American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp declared, “Obama and Trump have [the] same child protection policy.”

Turning Point USA Communications Director Candace Owens falsely claimed that “these policies were in place” during the Obama administration.

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk falsely stated, “All of this happened for 8 years under Obama.”

CNN commentator Ben Ferguson shared an image on Facebook that claimed that policies of separating children from “illegal parents” had been in effect since 2009.

Breitbart claimed Trump’s “new ‘zero tolerance’ policy worked during the presidency of George W. Bush,” referring to an initiative that began in 2005 and has not worked.

Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs stated that “previous presidents, including Bush and Obama, long ignored” family separation at the border until Trump “mov[ed] to stop” the practice.

Fox’s Sean Hannity claimed, “This is nothing new and took place in previous administrations as well.”

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said that family separation has been “standard procedure for decades” when you “pick up a group of a hundred people and you have no idea who the hell they are.”

Blaming a nonexistent law

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro fallaciously argued that Trump is simply “enforcing the law on the books.”

Fox’s David Bossie claimed that Trump is just “following the law,” ignoring the reality that separation is a Trump administration policy, not the law.

Fox host Sean Hannity also said that “it is the law.”

Blaming media, claiming they were using family separation as a distraction

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade said that Trump’s media detractors “had to reach for something else” after Trump “put a lot of the skeptics to bed … and they found it with the so-called separation of kids and parents.”

Rush Limbaugh claimed that media is inundating Americans with “manufactured crises” like family separation to distract from the Department of Justice inspector general report and strong economy.

Fox’s Tucker Carlson, host of one of the most racist hours on television, said that reporting on family separation is just the media pursuing their goal “to change your country, forever.”

NRATV commentator Dan Bongino claimed that media reporting on family separation is “propaganda, nothing more.”

Hannity accused the media of harboring an “obsession” with “the so-called policy” of separating children from their parents in order to mislead Americans.

Twitter troll Bill Mitchell predicted, “Every Sunday news show will be about Trump's #FakeNews ‘concentration camps’ and NOTHING about the OIG.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s propagandist Boris Epshteyn devoted his “must-run” segment on family separation to attacking the media for their “politically driven” attempts “to make it seem as if those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters.”

Blaming Democrats, claiming they were using family separation for political ends

According to The Gateway Pundit, Democrats “would rather the problem persist so they can continue to wring their hands over another manufactured crisis to distract from the damning IG report and robust economy.”

Fox Business’ Stuart Varney complained that Democrats “hijacked” a hearing on the IG report “within seconds of it beginning,” and “poured out [their] scorn for President Trump” instead.

Fox’s Trish Regan commented that Democrats “would much rather cry on television like [Rep.] Elijah Cummings [D-MD] did” than stop family separation, because “it plays to any hatred they can gin up, as we go into ‘18, for Donald Trump.”

National Review’s David French wrote, “I have a feeling that for some partisans, it’s fascism to impose the policy and fascism to try to end it -- at least so long as the GOP is in charge of the process.”

Right-wing media are rallying to defend the Trump administration’s inhumane separation of families at the border

Fox's Jeanine Pirro suggests both that there were "more votes than people" in Florida and that a "truckload" of ballots were destroyed

Video November 9, 2018 10:54 AM EST

Matt Schlapp: Gillum's call to "count every vote" means "count the votes of people who are not legally allowed to vote

https://www.alternet.org/trump-backer-rants-about-his-first-amendment-rights-after-host-accuses-him-using-fancy-rhetorical

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Wednesday battled conservative Matt Schlapp over the legal implications of Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and onetime campaign chairman both landing on the wrong side of the law, after Michael Cohen struck a plea deal with the Southern District of New York on the same day Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Asked if Cohen’s plea deal impacts his support of Trump, Schlapp insisted the only thing made clear by the deal is that the president’s personal attorney, like Manafort, “had an elaborate scheme to not pay their taxes and committed a lot of financial crimes and in Cohen's case, because they had him over a barrel.”

“I believe what happened is Michael Cohen pled to charges that are actually not crimes according to the FEC but that are an attempt to try to do anything to connect Cohen's wrongdoing to potential wrongdoing by Trump, and I think it’s a travesty,” Schlapp argued. “I don't believe that the transactions associated with these two people are FEC crimes and I believe that Michael Cohen pled guilty to crimes in the plea deal that aren't in fact crimes,” he later said.

“What I think you're doing is a lot of fancy rhetorical footwork,” Camerota replied.

“I'm answering your question,” Schlapp shot back.

“My question to you was does at all affect your support of Donald Trump knowing these things?”

Schlapp rehashed the conservative talking point that he knew “Donald Trump had an extravagant life-style” and “nobody in my party or nobody of the folks that made up the Trump coalition were naive to the fact of the life he had.”

“So you were okay with those things?” Camerota asked, referring to Trump’s payouts to multiple women who claim they’ve had affairs with the president.

“No, I never said I was okay with those things,” Schlapp claimed, before complaining that Camerota was treating him with less respect than she had with her previous guest.

“I would like this interview to be along the same tone as Elizabeth Warren just had,” Schalpp whined. “Ask your questions and let me answer them.”

“I'd like that, Matt, but you have to answer my questions and not redirect,” Camerota said.

“I get to do whatever I want,” Schapp insisted. “I have a First Amendment right to answer. I will answer any question you pose to me. If you're going to turn this into a morals case against Donald Trump what the reason for the special counsel was to determine whether or not there was collusion with Putin's government, I think that that is the ultimate redirect and I think it bastardizes the very reason for this investigation.”

Schlapp continued to claim Trump’s payout, which Cohen facilitated, was not a crime, prompting Camerota to explain it’s a campaign finance law violation.

“It is not,” Schlapp argued. “It is not. Name a person in this country who has been prosecuted for this alleged crime that you say occurred. Name the name.”

“Michael Cohen,” Camerota said.

“Michael Cohen was not prosecuted,” Schlapp said, splitting hairs.

“Let's move on,” Camerota remarked. “You're saying Michael Cohen just pleaded guilty to a non-crime which seems like bad legal advice.”

Watch below:

nyt vogel no lnx

Meet the Schlapps, Washington’s Trump-Era ‘It Couple’

Image

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp at home in Alexandria, Va. To some Republicans, the Schlapps are a conservative “it couple.” To others, they’re opportunists.CreditT.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

By Elizabeth Williamson

April 30, 2018

“I find myself shaking my head,” Mr. Steele said in an interview, “and saying, ‘Who is this person?’”

Image

The Schlapps and their children in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush and with President Trump.CreditT.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

(Asked about the couple’s own membership in the elite, Mr. Schlapp responded, “I mean, I’m not trying to act like I’m driving a garbage truck in Des Moines.”)

To some Republicans the Schlapps are a conservative “it couple.” To others they’re opportunists. Either way, they’re symbolic of a deep rift within their party.

Image

Letters from Mr. Bush in Mr. Schlapp’s home office. The Schlapps met in the Bush White House.CreditT.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Now Ms. Schlapp describes herself as representative of “Hispanic voters that absolutely agree that there should be no illegal immigration,” and is working with Stephen Miller, the White House senior adviser for policy and an immigration hard-liner, to promote Mr. Trump’s tough agenda.

Going ‘All-In’

Image

Mr. Trump was the star of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, an event that Mr. Schlapp helped revitalize.CreditPete Marovich for The New York Times

But as the Republican front-runner, Mr. Trump wanted more speaking time than the others, and no reporter questions. Mr. Schlapp refused and Mr. Trump abruptly backed out, leaving Mr. Schlapp to try to appease conservatives furious that Mr. Trump had been invited in the first place. Others were disappointed that Mr. Trump had bailed. Mr. Schlapp parried with his critics on Twitter until the wee hours, when “Mercy took my phone away.”

There was one setback: Ms. Schlapp seeing her husband defend Mr. Trump on Fox News after an “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced of the candidate boasting of grabbing women’s genitals. Mr. Schlapp did condemn Mr. Trump for “inexcusable talk” and evoked his wife, “who has been in situations where it was hard for her to be an attractive woman in the workplace.” But he concluded it would be terrible if Mr. Trump lost: “Hillary Clinton gets elected, Bill Clinton is right back in the Oval Office.”

Image

Ever since, Mr. Schlapp said, “we’ve been all-in.” But he said he still can’t bear to watch his televised defense of Mr. Trump that day.

‘I’m Not Delusional’

At the Tex-Mex restaurant, the couple had paused to pray before dinner. How do they square their faith and values with their support for the man on the “Access Hollywood” tape?

“I’m not delusional on who Donald Trump is,” Mr. Schlapp said. “But I think there’s great virtue in the fact that he aggressively fights for the things I care about.”

“Everyone assumes that Donald Trump changed our politics, that Donald Trump has perhaps coarsened our society,” he said. “My view is that he’s a function of what’s happening in society.”

Ms. Schlapp karate-chopped the table for emphasis, and the cutlery jingled.

“She said it was a ‘screw you’ message,” Mr. Schlapp interjected.

“I don’t have that many friends left,” Mr. Schlapp said.

Ms. Schlapp smiled. “We have each other,” she said.

Kenneth P. Vogel and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting

wiki

Mercedes Schlapp (née Viana) (born December 15, 1972)[1] is an American lobbyist, and columnist. Since September 2017, she has served as White House Director of Strategic Communications.

1 Personal life

2 Career

2.1 Media

2.2 Lobbyist

2.3 NRA

2.4 Trump administration

3 Political positions

4 References

5 External links

Personal life[edit]

Schlapp is a first-generation Cuban-American raised in Florida, whose father was jailed for six years by the government of Cuba. She is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union.[2] The Schlapps have five daughters and attend a Catholic church.[3]

Career[edit]

Media[edit]

Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush, and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration.[4] Later she was a Fox News contributor and a columnist for several publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Times.[5][6][7][8]

Lobbyist[edit]

Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009.[9] Since Trump entered the White House, the income of the firm surged (from $600,000 in 2015 to more than a $1 million in 2017).[9] Koch Industries was the firm's first client.[9]

NRA[edit]

She was a board member of the National Rifle Association before joining the White House.[10] She was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA for an average of one hour of work per week in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016.[9]

Trump administration

On September 12, 2017, President Donald Trump's administration announced that Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications.[11] Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.[12]

Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the White House Correspondents Dinner early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes aimed at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.[9][13] In a limousine en route to an exclusive NBC/MSNBC afterparty, she tweeted that Wolf's comedy routine is "why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite".[9] In May 2018, Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that John McCain's opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel was irrelevant because "he’s dying anyway".[14][15]

Political positions[edit]

Schlapp has stated an opposition to same-sex marriage, calling President Barack Obama’s decision to support it a "political ploy".[16][17]

References[edit]

Jump up^ (subscription required)https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KLJG-KV7

Jump up^ "The Hon. Matt Schlapp". American Conservative Union. Retrieved 2016-06-11.

Jump up^ The ACU (2015-02-27), CPAC 2015 - Matt Schlapp, Chairman, ACU, Former White House Political Director, retrieved 2016-06-11

Jump up^ "Mercedes (Mercy) Viana Schlapp", ffrwculpeper.com/Founding Fathers Republican Women.

Jump up^ "Mercedes Schlapp". www.usnews.com. Retrieved 2016-06-11.

Jump up^ "Mercedes Schlapp: CNN Debate Was 'Montessori School' 'Unstructured'". NewsBusters. Retrieved 2016-06-11.

Jump up^ "Mercy Schlapp stories". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-06-11.

Jump up^ "Mercedes Schlapp | Stories - Washington Times". www.washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved 2016-06-11.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f "Meet the Schlapps, Washington's Trump-Era 'It Couple'". The New York Times. 2018-04-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-17.

Jump up^ Woellert, Lorraine (February 28, 2018). "Missing from the gun debate: Trump's own experience with concealed carry". Politico. Retrieved April 29, 2018. Mercedes Schlapp, his director of strategic communications, was a board member of the NRA before joining the White House.

Jump up^ Greenwood, Max (September 12, 2017). "Mercedes Schlapp joins White House as senior communications adviser"". thehill.com. Washington DC: Capitol Hill Publishing. Retrieved April 29, 2018.

Jump up^ Darcy, Oliver. "Top White House communications aide has history of rhetoric strongly critical of Trump". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-06-18.

Jump up^ Stelter, Brian. "Here's how people reacted to Michelle Wolf's White House correspondents' roast". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-05-17.

Jump up^ Hart, Benjamin. "Five White House Staffers Leak Meeting About White House Leaks". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved 2018-05-17.

Jump up^ "The White House's John McCain death joke controversy, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2018-05-17.

Jump up^ Schlapp, Mercedes (May 11, 2012). "Churches Feel Persecuted by Obama". U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report L.P. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018.

Jump up^ Riley, John (September 12, 2017). "Anti-LGBTQ activist Mercedes Schlapp joins White House Press Office". Metro Weekly.

https://www.alternet.org/grifter-chief-has-administration-full-thieves-fixers-and-money-grubbers

not just Trump’s cabinet secretaries who are living high on governmental largess. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski set up a “consulting firm” called Lewandowski Strategic Services last year and quickly signed a contract for $20,000 a month working for Community Choice Financial, a payday lender based in Ohio. Lewandowsky quickly called for the firing of Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had issued strict guidelines regulating the payday lending industry. Cordray was forced out of the CFPB three months later.

Most recently, Lewandowski showed up in Belgrade, Serbia, with two former Trump campaign aides who run Turnberry Solutions, a lobbying firm headquartered in the Capitol Hill townhouse where Lewandowski resides. Lewandowski denies any connections to Turnberry Solutions, which is named after a golf course in Scotland owned by President Trump. He also denies that he is engaged in lobbying for foreign governments, despite reports that he attempted to set up a phone call between Trump and Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, according to sources in a Serbian opposition party cited by Mother Jones.

Lewandowski appears to have arranged a contract between the BGR Group, a lobbying firm chaired by veteran Republican political operative Ed Rogers, and Poland’s state-owned arms contractor, Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), a conglomerate of 60 Polish defense companies. The contract is worth $70,000 a month, according to the Daily Beast. Two months after the lobbying contract was signed, BGR Group made a subcontracting agreement with Jason Osborne, one of the two lobbyists for Turnberry Solutions, headquartered in Corey Lewandowski’s townhouse.

And then there’s Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, the director of strategic communications at the White House. These two griftoids are also making out like bandits riding on Trump’s money train. Schlapp’s political consulting and communications firm, Cove Strategies, nearly doubled its income from $600,000 a year to over $1 million after Schlapp decided to back Trump in 2016 and invited him to the annual CPAC Convention, the annual gathering of wingnuts put on by the American Conservative Union in Washington.

Schlapp and his wife were pictured on the front page of the New York Times recently in their new $3 million home in Alexandria, Virginia. The Times reported that the happy couple also owns a 30-acre vacation retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains they call Victory Farm.

maddow town hall brooks reunion said 3 WH, 2 koch?

Matt Schlapp

Government: Head of the White House’s Office of Political Affairs

Industry: Executive Director of Federal Affairs, directing lobbying in "the Washington office of oil-and-gas conglomerate Koch Industries, the latest example of high-level administration and congressional staffers making post-election leaps to the lobbying world." [26]

Bush aide leaving to join Koch Industries

By Josephine Hearn - 01/31/05 08:00 PM ET

Top White House official Matt Schlapp is joining the Washington office of oil-and-gas conglomerate Koch Industries, the latest example of high-level administration and congressional staffers making post-election leaps to the lobbying world.

Schlapp has headed the White House’s Office of Political Affairs since 2003, after having served two years as deputy director of the office under Ken Mehlman, who left to lead the president’s reelection campaign and now chairs the Republican National Committee.

Sarah Taylor is expected to replace Schlapp.

Schlapp will be executive director of federal affairs, a new position created atop Koch’s current Washington lobbying staff. He begins Feb. 21.

Although Koch has been active in lobbying for passage of the energy bill and its political action committee spent more than $1 million in the last election, the privately held company is perhaps better known in Washington for the Koch family’s support for conservative causes, including its role in the founding of the libertarian Cato Institute, the grassroots anti-tax group FreedomWorks/Citizens for a Sound Economy, and George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. David Koch, one of Koch Industries’ heads, was the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate in 1980.

Leaders of Koch’s Washington office have typically played a role in conservative activism. Wayne Gable, managing director of federal affairs and the Washington office’s current head, sits on the board of conservative nonprofit organization Americans for Prosperity, which is headed by his predecessor Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer.

Before coming to the White House, Schlapp was a regional political director for Bush-Cheney 2000 and, before that, chief of staff to Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.).

A native of Wichita, where Koch is based, Schlapp received a master’s degree in public administration from Wichita State University. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Notre Dame.

Kelly Sadler told Trump that Mercedes Schlapp was a leaker in the ...

https://www.axios.com/oval-office-leak-kelly-sadler-mercedes-schlapp-trump-0b622a...

May 27, 2018 - Sadler, Mercedes Schlapp, Raj Shah, and John Kelly all gathered in front of the Resolute Desk for a conversation with Trump about the leaking ...

POLITICO Playbook Power List: Mercedes Schlapp

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/politico-power-list.../mercedes-schlapp/

Mercedes Schlapp doesn't have an easy gig as the White House strategic communications adviser. She must contend with a president who serves as his own ...

Mercedes Schlapp called Kelly Sadler a 'b---h' after being accused of ...

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/.../mercedes-schlapp-called-kelly-sadler-a-b-h-...

May 30, 2018 - Top White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp reportedly referred to White House communications aide Kelly Sadler ...

Who Is Mercedes Schlapp? White House Strategic Communications ...

www.newsweek.com/who-mercedes-schlapp-white-house-strategic-communications-d...

May 12, 2018 - The White House strategic communications director said “you can put this on the record … I stand with Kelly Sadler,” in response to the aide's ...

Meet the Schlapps, Washington's Trump-Era 'It Couple' - The New ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/schlapp-trump.html

Apr 30, 2018 - Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, conservatives who scrambled aboard the Trump juggernaut, have made money, lost friends and become a ...

White House aide who mocked McCain pushed out over tensions with ...

thehill.com/.../390906-white-house-aide-who-mocked-mccain-pushed-out-over-tensio...

White House aide who mocked McCain pushed out over tensions with Mercedes Schlapp: report. By Luis Sanchez - 06/05/18 09:27 PM EDT. 526. AddThis ...

Matt and Mercedes Schlapp Bought $3 Million Home - The Cut

https://www.thecut.com/.../matt-mercedes-schlapp-whcd-elites-usd3-million-home.htm...

May 1, 2018 - Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the couple who walked out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner because of “elites,” just bought a $3 ...

Kathy Griffin proud of attacking Matt, Mercedes Schlapp at White ...

www.foxnews.com/.../kathy-griffin-proud-attacking-matt-mercedes-schlapp-at-white-ho...

May 13, 2018 - The controversial comedian Kathy Griffin lashed out at White House aide Mercedes Schlapp and her husband, Matt, on Twitter Saturday, ...

2009- Cove Strategies

Revolving Door Personnel: (3)

Firm lobbying profile

2005-2008 Koch Industries

Revolving Door Personnel: (6) Executive Director of Federal Affairs

Client lobbying profile

Major Donor profile

2000-2000 Bush/Cheney 2000

Revolving Door Personnel: (26) Regional Political Director

2000-2005 White House

Revolving Door Personnel: (558) Deputy Director of Political Affairs

Agency lobbying profile

Tiahrt, Todd

Revolving Door Personnel: (5) Chief of Staff

Member profile

Client Subsidiary (Lobbied For) No. of Reports

Biotechnology Industry Organization - 6

Comcast Corp - 6

Royal Dutch Shell Shell Oil 6

Alcatel-Lucent - 4

American Hotel & Lodging Assn - 4

AO Smith Corp - 4

Bexar County, TX - 4

Blue Cross/Blue Shield - 4

Blue Cross/Blue Shield Wellpoint Inc 4

Boston University - 4

Coca-Cola Co - 4

Dominion Resources - 4

Dow Chemical Dow AgroSciences 4

Duke Energy - 4

FMR Corp - 4

Greater New York Hospital Assn - 4

Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound - 4

Nextera Energy NextEra Energy 4

Nielsen Co - 4

Private Equity Growth Capital Council - 4

Real Estate Roundtable - 4

Sapphire Energy - 4

Syngenta AG Syngenta Corp 4

Time Warner Cable - 4

United Parcel Service - 4

US Travel Assn - 4

Western Growers Assn - 4

American Assn for Justice - 3

American Assn of Nurse Practitioners - 3

Council for Opportunity in Education - 3

eHealth Inc - 3

Innocence Project - 3

National Assn of Health Underwriters - 3

National Breast Cancer Coalition - 3

National Hydropower Assn - 3

National Indian Gaming Assn - 3

Retail Industry Leaders Assn - 3

Sempra Energy - 3

United Steelworkers - 3

Wal-Mart Stores - 3

XpressWest - 3

AARP - 2

Aerospace Industries Assn of America - 2

AFL-CIO AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Dept 2

AFL-CIO AFL-CIO Bldg/Construction Trades Dept 2

AFL-CIO - 2

Afognak Native Corp - 2

Agricultural Retailers Assn - 2

Agriculture Energy Coalition - 2

AIDS Institute - 2

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cove

Matthew A. Schlapp

Principal

Matt Schlapp has nearly twenty years of government, corporate and political experience which led him to join his wife in founding Cove Strategies, a legislative, communications and political consulting firm.

Schlapp’s executive branch experience started in President George W. Bush’s first administration where he became a deputy assistant to the president, and his political director. During his tenure at the White House, Schlapp advised the President, the Vice President, members of the cabinet, senior White House staff and has extensive contact with Members of Congress and federal agencies.

Schlapp’s Capital Hill experience started in 1994 where he worked for 5 years as a press secretary, chief of staff and campaign manager. He transitioned from the Hill to the presidential election in 2000 in Austin, where he served as a regional political director.

After the 2004 cycle, Schlapp joined Koch Industries, headquartered in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, as Vice President of Federal Affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC. In this role he directed the major federal public policy strategies on environmental and energy policies, financial markets, legal reform, and international and domestic tax issues.

Matt grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in public policy from Wichita State University. Matt’s held a board position for the National Association of Manufacturers and currently serves on the boards for the American Conservative Union, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Administration at Wichita State University, and the University of Kansas Washington Intern Program and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s political affairs committee. Matt and his wife, Mercy, met while working at the White House, where she served as the Director of Specialty Media. Matt and Mercy have five young daughters.

Mercedes SchlappMercedes Viana Schlapp

Principal

Mercedes Viana Schlapp is co-founder of Cove Strategies, a governmental and public affairs firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. She works as a consultant for clients from Fortune 500 corporations and nonprofit organizations. Mercedes serves as the interface between the clients and Spanish-language media outlets, develops media strategy including message development and implementation plans and works on Hispanic coalition-building efforts. She identifies the most effective ways to reach targeted audiences nationally and/or locally.

With more than 10 years of experience, Mercedes has developed strong regional, national and international relationships with reporters in the Spanish press. Mercedes served in the White House for President George W. Bush as a spokesperson for Spanish-language media outlets in the United States, Spain and Latin America as well as worked with other specialty media outlets including religious press.

In 2006 Mercedes hosted the Republican National Committee’s cutting-edge web show, In the Know, where she delivered current Republican news and interviewed Republican political leaders and policy makers for both Spanish and English audiences. In addition, Mercedes serves as a media surrogate and political commentator on the radio and recently appeared on Univision and Hannity’s America on FOX News.

Mercedes SchlappStephen Replogle

Principal

Stephen Replogle is a Principal with Cove Strategies with extensive political, legislative, and coalition experience while serving in the executive branch, the United States Congress, in campaigns and advising fortune 500 companies.

Most recently, Mr. Replogle served as a senior federal relations advocate for Walmart. He directed and advised successful legislative campaigns in policy areas including labor, immigration, education, financial services, energy, tax and trade. These successes were based on the detailed development and precise implementation of targeted congressional and agency legislative and public policy strategy, strategic messaging, and coalition building.

In public service, Mr. Replogle worked in the United States Senate as Senior Policy Advisor to three currently serving members of Senate Leadership, Senators Jon Kyl, Lamar Alexander and John Thune. In these positions, he advised the Conference Chairman, as well as members of the Republican Conference, on issues relating to fiscal, social, and international policy matters. Also during his Senate tenure, he served as the primary liaison for the Senate Republican Conference to House Leadership, the White House, other Departments and outside industry interests.

Prior to the Senate, Mr. Replogle served as Legislative Advisor and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Key policy responsibilities ranged from technology, intellectual property, economic development, international trade as well as serving as the primary liaison for the Secretary of Commerce to all governors and local elected officials. Mr. Replogle also served as a coalitions advisor to the Bush/Cheney 2004 Presidential campaign and as staff on the 2004 Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Additionally, over the past 10 years, Mr. Replogle advised fortune 500 clients on public affairs strategies as an Associate for DCI Group, as a Political Advisor for the Georgia Republican party, and as an intern in the White House Office of Political Affairs. In 2011, Washingtonian named Stephen Replogle on of the Top Forty Lobbyists under Forty.

Frank F. Sadler

Frank Sadler has worked both in the private and public sectors for almost a decade. Most recently, Frank was engaged as a strategic advisor for a 501(C)4 organization. As a strategic advisor, Frank made decisions on how to best utilize and allocate the organization's national budget to better educate voters through a variety of media including direct mail, and radio and television advertisements. He also created metrics to measure the impact of those efforts and has been in charge of constructing an implementing voter turn-out projects. Frank has also worked as a senior development associate at Koch Industries, both fundraising for and providing strategic guidance at non-profits aligned with free market ideals. Prior to Koch, Frank worked for United States Senator George Allen in a multitude of roles to eventually become his deputy national finance director. Frank is a graduate of Hamilton College in upstate New York and is getting his masters degree in economics from American University.

Dow Chemical $60,000 - Chemicals

Motion Picture Assn of America $80,000 - TV/Movies/Music

Verizon Communications $10,000 - Telephone Utilities

Wal-Mart Stores $110,000 - Retail Sales

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Brazil’s President May Appoint Son, Friend to the Trumps, as Ambassador to U.S.

Eduardo Bolsonaro is being considered by his father, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, as the next ambassador to the United States.

Eduardo Bolsonaro is being considered by his father, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, as the next ambassador to the United States.Credit...Joshua Roberts/Reuters

By Ernesto Londoño

July 12, 2019

RIO DE JANEIRO — President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is weighing appointing his third son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, as ambassador to the United States, arguing that his son’s friendship with President Trump’s sons would make him an effective envoy.

But the move immediately provoked criticism because ambassadorial appointments for noncareer diplomats in Brazil are exceptionally rare. The younger Bolsonaro is a federal lawmaker.

Diplomats are selected through a highly competitive process that has made Brazil’s foreign service one of the most respected in the world.

“We’ve never had a president who named a son as ambassador,” said Maurício Santoro, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “That is something that sets Brazil apart from other countries in Latin America.”

The president and Eduardo Bolsonaro spoke enthusiastically on Thursday about the possibility, in separate conversations with reporters, but both said it was not yet a done deal.

Their remarks appeared to be a trial balloon to test how much opposition a formal nomination would face.

Brazilian legal experts said appointing Eduardo Bolsonaro as ambassador could run afoul of nepotism rules. The appointment would require approval from the Senate.

The president said part of the appeal of the idea is the preferential access he thinks his son would get in Washington.

“Clearly, the treatment he would receive would be different from that of another ambassador,” the president said. “He’s a friend of Trump’s sons, speaks English, speaks Spanish, and has a lot of worldly experience.”

Eduardo Bolsonaro, 35, was elected last year from São Paulo, and serves in the lower House. He is the head of the foreign affairs committee there.

The son’s effusive support of the Trump administration has endeared him to the American president, who singled him out for praise when the father visited the White House in March. The younger Mr. Bolsonaro accompanied the Brazilian leader on that visit and was invited to attend an Oval Office meeting.

During a visit to Washington earlier this year, Eduardo Bolsonaro said undocumented Brazilians living in the United States are “an embarrassment.” During a visit to the White House he wore a baseball cap with the slogan Make America Great Again — Trump 2020.

In February, during a stop at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s golf club in Palm Beach, Fla., Eduardo Bolsonaro reminisced about his days working as a federal police officer along Brazil’s border with Bolivia as he hailed the White House’s bid to build a wall along the Mexican border.

“We know how the things work,” he said. “So build that wall! We Brazilians are supporting you!”

Eduardo Bolsonaro told reporters on Thursday that by nominating a son as ambassador to the United States his father would be sending a clear signal of his “strong commitment” to strengthen relations between Brazil and the United States. He added that as ambassador he would strive to rebuild Brazil’s reputation abroad and attract investment.

Unlike several countries in the region, Brazil has built a professional foreign service in which top posts are not used to reward campaign donors and political allies.

The ambassadorship in Washington is seen as the service’s premier overseas post and it has historically been held by officials with distinguished careers in diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Mr. Santoro, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said Eduardo Bolsonaro lacked the experience for such a complex job. He also said Eduardo Bolsonaro’s effusive support for Mr. Trump would make him ineffective at dealing with Democrats in Washington, particularly if they win back the White House next year.

Under Brazil’s Constitution, ambassadors must be at least 35 years old. Eduardo Bolsonaro turned 35 this week.

Eduardo Bolsonaro and two of his brothers, Carlos, a Rio de Janeiro City Council member, and Flávio, a federal Senator, have become high-profile and at times controversial political figures since their father’s election last year.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under criminal investigation for a suspected money laundering scheme run out of his office when he was a state lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro. The scandal has marred the president’s image as a anti-corruption crusader.

Carlos Bolsonaro has been a driver of infighting and intrigue within his father’s senior team, picking public fights with the country’s vice president and other top officials.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has generated fewer headaches for the president.

Last year he sought the counsel of the former White House strategist Steve Bannon and after a meeting declared that the two “share the same worldview.”

He also has railed against leftist leaders in the region, saying they sought to impose a form of “cultural Marxism.”