Conservative Clash Over Trump Sets Stage for CPAC Gathering

by Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — It didn't take long for the first ideological fight to break out over this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, an eclectic annual gathering of activists, officials and luminaries on the political right.

In fact, it happened Monday night — three days before Thursday's opening gavel.

Jonah Goldberg, a National Review senior editor and leading light of the conservative intelligentsia, took issue with Matt Schlapp, chairman of the CPAC-hosting American Conservative Union, over a lineup of speakers — including Marion Le Pen, the niece of French National Front Party chief Marine Le Pen — who figure to lavish adoring praise and little criticism on President Donald Trump. 

Schlapp fired back on Twitter in personal terms: "Hey Jonah our biggest coup was getting your wife to join mine on the trump train. Choo choo."

In theory, the two should be on the same side: A pair of telegenic, thoughtful, successful-in-Washington conservatives whose wives, Deputy White House Communications Director Mercedes Schlapp, and Jessica Gavora, a speechwriter for U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, work for the same president. 

But not in the Trump era — and especially not when CPAC comes to town. 

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Source: NBC News