Matt Schlapp Blasted as 'Hypocrite' After Report He 'Groped' Male Staffer

Longtime Republican activist Matt Schlapp is facing backlash after a new report alleged that the chair of the American Conservative Union (ACU) groped a male staffer working on Herschel Walker's Senate campaign.

Following Thursday's report in The Daily Beast, social media users took to Twitter to criticize Schlapp, the lead organizer of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), for anti-gay views that he's helped promote and spotlight over the years at the world's largest and most influential gathering of conservatives.

"This story is rock solid," journalist Michelangelo Signorile tweeted on Thursday. "Schlapp has allowed the most horrific anti-LGBTQ bile at CPAC. Another GOP hypocrite."

"Think of all the anti-LGBTQ speakers and hatred Matt Schlapp has promoted and profited off of at CPAC for years. Meanwhile he is crotch grabbing male staffers?..." filmmaker Jeremy Newberger wrote.

In the new report, a male staffer alleged that Schlapp made "sustained and unwanted and unsolicited" sexual contact with him while the staffer was driving Schlapp back to his hotel during an October campaign event in Georgia.

The staffer recalled that during the drive, Schlapp allegedly put his hand on the staffer's leg, before he reached over and "fondled" his crotch, which the staffer described as "scarring" and "humiliating."

In a video detailing the evening, the staffer reportedly said, "Matt Schlapp of the CPAC grabbed my junk and pummeled it at length, and I'm sitting there thinking what the hell is going on, that this person is literally doing this to me.

"From the bar to the Hilton Garden Inn, he has his hands on me. And I feel so...dirty. I feel so...dirty," the staffer said. "I'm supposed to pick [him]...up in the morning and just pretend like nothing happened. This is what I'm dealing with."

The staffer said that while he declined to take legal action at the time, he reported it to the Walker campaign, which offered him "nothing but support" and gave him "complete autonomy" on how to move forward. A senior campaign official confirmed the campaign's involvement to The Daily Beast.

Schlapp's attorney, Charlie Spies, denied the allegations, telling The Daily Beast, "The attack is false and Mr. Schlapp denies any improper behavior."

Newsweek reached out to the ACU and Spies for comment.

Although Schlapp has welcomed members of the LGBTQ community to his conferences, CPAC often embraces anti-LGBTQ figures, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who received a standing ovation at last year's event in Dallas.

"Matt Schlapp is the organizer of CPAC, who this year brought in a fascist foreign dictator to give an anti-gay speech," Ari Drennen, Media Matters' LGBTQ program director, tweeted referring to Orban.

"Will the last 'conservative' Republican who pushes anti-LGBTQ+ policies who's not a vomitous rapey closet case turn out the lights?" author Steve Silberman added.