ORLANDO, Fla. — The Conservative Political Action Conference, considered the biggest annual gathering of American political conservatives, is set to host former President Donald Trump in Orlando for what would likely be his first live appearance since leaving office.
CPAC is still working on details, but spokesman Ian Walters said Saturday the conference is aiming toward a Sunday afternoon speaking time on Feb. 28 to close out the event that starts Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.
Last year’s CPAC conference in Maryland was the site of the first real coronavirus scare in the Washington, D.C., political world, with an infected attendee getting one handshake away from the president.
Now, a year into the pandemic, Maryland’s COVID-19 restrictions have closed CPAC’s regular hotel, so conference-goers are packing their bags and heading to a more permissive place: Orlando.
“It’s family-friendly, it’s warm, and a lot of folks have told me that they’ve not had much fun since CPAC 2020,” said spokesman Ian Walters. “Folks are excited to go to a restaurant. If you’re in D.C., it’s sometimes at 25% capacity. Ditto for Maryland, Virginia … (and) New York.”
Despite concerns about the coronavirus, as well as the UK variant spreading in Florida, Walters said the decision to travel is up to the individual attendees.
“We trust you to make your own decision,” he said. Whether people choose to attend or not, “We still think of (CPAC) as a family reunion for the conservative movement.”
Republican heavy-hitters ranging from Floridians Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to national figures such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and embattled Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz are scheduled to appear at the Hyatt Regency Orlando from Thursday through Sunday.
Other scheduled speakers include a Dallas salon owner and New Jersey gym owner who refused to close their businesses amid a shutdown order. There’s also the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, who defended people who don’t want to wear masks.
And there’s Charlie Kirk, chair of a conservative youth group, Turning Point USA, that mocked “leftist” mask-wearers on Twitter — until a co-founder died of COVID-19, and the group’s tweet was deleted.
Despite that lineup of people either skeptical of or outright opposed to such policies, Walters said the conference will follow Orange County ordinances, including mandating mask-wearing and all other required safety measures for all attendees.
All staff, speakers and news media will be required to wear a mask indoors when not eating or drinking, Walters said, and anyone who can’t wear a mask for medical reasons will be provided with a face shield.
The venue will provide masks for anyone who does not have one, a Hyatt spokesperson added in a statement. An attendee who refuses to comply will be asked to leave the event or return to their room.
Each attendee will also be asked to sign a code of conduct written by CPAC, which includes Orange County’s face-covering mandate.
Attendees will be temperature-checked and asked to fill out a questionnaire, chairs in ballrooms will be six feet apart, and all registration is touchless. The event will also feature air purification and filtration systems.
But the conference has not been coordinating with health officials at the state level.
The Florida Department of Health had not heard from either CPAC or the Hyatt Regency in Orlando in the last six months, Kent Donahue, the public information officer for the department, wrote in an email.
Wes Hodge, the Orange County Democratic chair, said his organization’s biggest concern is for employees serving the conference.
“They’re going to have to deal with these people,” Hodge said. “Because Republicans, with our governor included, do not believe in mask mandates, do not believe in making sure that they protect others. Because they see it as an infringement on their personal liberties. So our number one concern is for the health and well-being of all of our convention and hotel employees, and hopefully that they don’t get exposed to coronavirus unnecessarily.”
Even when the Orlando location was first announced, he said, “we said that it was not a good idea and wish they would reconsider. And now, with this UK variant in our community, it’s even more of a threat to us.”
Walters, however, disputed the characterization of the coronavirus cases coming out of CPAC at the beginning of March last year as the first superspreader event in the U.S.
“Exactly one week after it ended, my boss … called me to alert us that we had one person who went back home and tested positive,” he said of a New Jersey doctor. Another attendee later tested positive, as well as a Spanish politician who attended, though it was unclear if he contracted it at the event.
It later turned out that neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Jersey nor Maryland notified other attendees or carried out any contract tracing, leaving it to CPAC themselves.
“There was no outbreak,” Walters said. “We had to alert members of Congress, a number of them quarantined appropriately, and we did the same thing.”
Walters said the conference had a number of options as to where to go this year, but Florida was chosen in part because of DeSantis’ policy of not creating any further COVID-19 restrictions, despite the second and third waves of last summer and over the winter.
“It was because of Gov. DeSantis and his leadership that we were capable of being able to bring some business down there,” he said.
Since its founding in the early 1970s, CPAC has served as a place where future presidential hopefuls can test the waters. Walters said DeSantis is seeing that kind of buzz already in conservative circles. (Scott, too, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the White House in 2024.)
Walters pointed to a tweet by Matt Schlapp, chair of CPAC’s parent organization American Conservative Union, that called DeSantis “America’s governor.”
“I think that’s an accurate reflection of where a lot of people are at right now,” Walters said.
But the conservative movement is at a crossroads after Trump’s defeat and the chaotic events of Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, leading to Trump’s second impeachment and acquittal. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has in the past supported the fanatical QAnon conspiracy, is scheduled to speak at the event.
Asked if CPAC would allow QAnon or other such conspiracies to be peddled at CPAC, Walters demurred.
“When someone gets up on the stage, and it’s our stage, we don’t really tell them exactly what to say,” Walters said. “We’re not vetting remarks. We highlight people that we think have done important things.”
Walters also said speakers would probably delve into the issue of “election integrity.”
Trump’s unfounded allegations of massive voter fraud were tagged by Twitter and other social media outlets as disputed. Since the election, those sites have also cracked down on conspiracy theories.
Hodge said CPAC coming to Orlando only highlights “how important Florida is.”
“I hope that the Democratic party at all levels realizes that we’ve got to fight for Florida,” Hodge said. “This is the shot across the bow, so to speak, for the Republicans that Florida is going to be front and center in 2022. So we need to get our act together.”
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