{"id":56846,"date":"2021-02-27T16:57:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T16:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=69fbbd6fceb76a72a3a12597775a118f"},"modified":"2021-02-27T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T16:57:41","slug":"trumps-allies-are-the-defining-force-of-cpac-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/27\/trumps-allies-are-the-defining-force-of-cpac-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Allies Are the Defining Force of CPAC This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\"People<\/a>

Donald Trump<\/a> is no longer a sitting president but his allies are still playing an outsize role in this year\u2019s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, widely known as CPAC. <\/p>\n

The convening organized by the American Conservative Union<\/a> culminates Sunday in a speech<\/a> by the former president himself, Trump\u2019s first public appearance<\/a> since leaving White House. <\/p>\n

Donald Trump Jr. and campaign fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle were slated to speak<\/a> Thursday, while various other campaign aides and administration officials are peppered throughout the convention lineup. <\/p>\n

A Friday panel on \u201cunreasonable search and seizures<\/a>\u201d featured former Trump campaign official and National Diversity Coalition for Trump CEO Darrell Scott. The pastor is reportedly under FBI investigation<\/a> for his role in allegedly using a now-defunct pro-Trump \u201cdark money\u201d group called the Urban Revitalization Coalition to solicit money from foreign nationals. In 2020, the IRS revoked the 501(c)(4) nonprofit\u2019s tax-exempt status<\/a> after it gained notoriety for reporting on its cash giveaways to Black voters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The presence of Trump\u2019s allies is evident throughout CPAC\u2019s sponsors as well. <\/p>\n

Ace Specialties<\/a>, Trump\u2019s go-to vendor<\/a> for campaign paraphernalia, is listed as a supporting sponsor of CPAC. The firm was paid $16.1 million by Trump\u2019s 2020 campaign and $35.3 million by the campaign\u2019s joint fundraising committee with the Republican Party for rally signs, hats and other swag.<\/p>\n

A nonprofit created by former Trump for President campaign staffers, Look Ahead America, is another CPAC sponsor. Created as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the group\u2019s mission included using data and psychometrics<\/a> to target inactive voters. But the IRS revoked Look Ahead America\u2019s tax exempt status in 2020 after the group failed to disclose financial information for three consecutive years. Representatives of the group told OpenSecrets<\/em> that they have reapplied and are waiting to hear back. Look Ahead America appears to have continued soliciting<\/a> \u201ctax-deductible contributions\u201d through its website. <\/p>\n

The group\u2019s president, former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard, raised around $675,000 for his Voting Integrity Project<\/a> set up days after the 2020 election. There is no apparent evidence Braynard pocketed donor funds but he was paid tens of thousands of dollars<\/a> to serve as a witness in multiple cases contesting election results, according to court <\/a>records<\/a>. Braynard\u2019s voter fraud testimony was strongly criticized by election experts<\/a>, statisticians<\/a> and fact-checkers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three groups at the helm of efforts pushing largely unfounded and disproven claims of voter fraud around the 2020 election, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch, are all listed as sponsors of this year\u2019s CPAC convening. According to an investigation by the Guardian<\/em> using OpenSecrets<\/em> data<\/a>, the three nonprofits share a small circle of wealthy conservative donors with a revolving door of staff and consultants. Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, is also a sponsor of CPAC. <\/p>\n

A panel on \u201cprotecting elections\u201d titled \u201cThey Told Ya So: The Signs Were Always\u201d features J. Christian Adams of the Public Interest Legal Foundation and Hans Von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, two of the most well-known voices<\/a> in \u201cshaping restrictive voting laws and helping the myth of voter fraud proliferate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another panel in CPAC\u2019s series on \u201cprotecting elections\u201d features Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, another group that helped organize protests in D.C. on Jan. 6<\/a> shortly before the U.S. Capitol riots. She is slated to speak alongside Cleta Mitchell, a conservative attorney and longtime \u201cdark money\u201d operative. Mitchell recently parted ways<\/a> with her longtime law firm Foley Lardner after controversy over her participation in a call where former President Trump pushed Georgia\u2019s secretary of state to find 11,780 votes to help overturn Biden\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

Turning Point USA<\/a>, a nonprofit conservative student group that flourished<\/a> under the Trump administration, is listed as a supporting sponsor. Turning Point USA\u2019s 501(c)(4) nonprofit arm, Turning Point Action<\/a>, is one of the groups that helped organize protests<\/a> in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. <\/p>\n

Conservative media outlets are also among some of CPAC\u2019s biggest sponsors. <\/p>\n

Fox Nation<\/em> is playing a much more sizable role in the convention\u2019s funding than in previous years. Fox Nation<\/em> paid at least $250,000 to be listed among CPAC\u2019s top corporate sponsors<\/a> of 2021, a significant jump from $28,000<\/a> the prior year<\/a>. Unlike 2020 when the only other major media outlet listed among CPAC\u2019s sponsors was the Washington Times<\/em>, Fox faces competition from a number of burgeoning conservative and ring-wing news outlets seemingly following in One America News Network\u2019s playbook<\/a> in vying to use the convention as a jumping off point to become the \u201cnext Fox News.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the contributing sponsors are Real America\u2019s Voice<\/em>, a recently-rebranded conservative media site and TV network<\/a> operated through Performance One Media LLC that distributes Steve Bannon\u2019s War Rooms<\/em> show, and a conservative online media network called Right Side Broadcasting Network known for live-streaming Trump rallies<\/a>. The Washington Times<\/em>, a stalwart of conservative media, is also listed as a partnering sponsor of CPAC. <\/p>\n

CPAC\u2019s 2021 sponsors reflect its shift from embracing big tech sponsors such as Facebook<\/a> to more alternative social media platforms. <\/p>\n

Our Freedom Media Group, part of an alternative social media network including Our Freedom Book and Our Freedom Tube<\/a> as purported alternatives to Facebook and Youtube, is listed as a supporting sponsor of CPAC. CloutHub, is another alternative social media platform<\/a> sponsoring CPAC that has attracted media attention<\/a> in recent weeks. It attracted a stream of new members after Parler<\/a> was removed from Apple, Google and Amazon due to its alleged use in organizing violent events on Jan. 6.<\/a> <\/p>\n

As in prior years, interests tied to Asian countries are playing an increasingly significant role in the American conservative conference.<\/p>\n

KCPAC Korea, one of the American Conservative Unions\u2019 recent overseas offshoots<\/a> of its hallmark event, is listed as a $125,000 presenting sponsor.<\/p>\n

Liberty Ecosystem, a Japanese cryptocurrency start-up<\/a> run by Japanese Conservative Union co-founder \u201cJay\u201d Aeba, is listed as a $60,000 partnering sponsor. Aeba is slated to speak on a CPAC panel about \u201cChina\u2019s neighbors.\u201d He founded the \u201cHappiness Realization Party,\u201d the political arm of a controversial religious group called \u201cHappy Science.\u201d The group gained notoriety for backing pro-Trump \u201cStop the Steal\u201d protests in Tokyo<\/a> and claiming a \u201cSpiritual Vaccine<\/a>\u201d with a price-tag of hundreds of dollars could cure coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Other \u201cStop the Steal<\/a>\u201d protests in Taiwan that drew a reported 8,000 people supporting Trump after his loss in the 2020 election were backed by Epoch Media Group, publisher of the Epoch Times<\/em>, which is also a CPAC 2021 supporting sponsor. The Epoch Times has previously been criticized for taking a pro-Trump<\/a> editorial stance and has ties to members<\/a> of the Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement banned<\/a> by China\u2019s ruling Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Some major sponsors do not have apparent Trump ties but are not without their own controversies. Medical bill sharing organization Liberty Healthshare<\/a> is one of three top-tier sponsors of CPAC giving at least $250,000 to the convention alongside Fox Nation<\/em> and the ACU. The organization has been subject to hundreds of complaints<\/a> from members claiming they have experienced problems with their credit and have been forced into collections because of Liberty HealthShare\u2019s failure to pay bills in a timely fashion, an issue<\/a> thrust into the spotlight during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald Trump’s allies are still playing an outsize role in this year\u2019s annual Conservative Political Action Conference.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2674,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10435,10112,49,4402,10436,4,3371,10437,3661],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2674"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56847,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56846\/revisions\/56847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}