Conservative Political Action Conference chairman Matt Schlapp refused to respond to questions about the sexual assault allegations against him when he was confronted by The Independent on the first day of the right-wing event.

Last year, a male Republican campaign operative accused Mr Schlapp of making unwanted sexual advances towards him in the last days of Georgia Senate’s runoff election.

In a sexual battery lawsuit, the anonymous accuser said Mr Schlapp had “placed his hand” on his leg and “began aggressively fondling [his] genital area in a sustained fashion” while they were in a car together.

Mr Schlapp has denied the allegations against him.

When approached by The Independent at the conference on Thursday, Mr Schlapp refused to comment when asked about the scandal.

Votes will be cast in the state’s primary election this Saturday; the fourth major state contest (not counting the US Virgin Islands.

John Bowden writes that unless something downright crazy happens in the next 48 hours, there’s pretty much only one way the contest is going to go.

Read the full story here:

Maga Republicans have been blasted for their nonchalance at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), after a January 6-themed pinball machine was set up at the venue.

GOP members were accused of “destroying the conservative movement” with the stunt and making light of the riots on Capitol Hill, in Washington DC in 2021.

Mike Bedigan has the story here:

President Joe Biden’s reported plan to restrict the right to claim asylum at the US-Mexico border has alarmed members of Congress and civil and humanitarian rights groups who fear the administration could be in breach of international law.

Such a proposal, which would bypass Congress, would mirror an illegal Trump-era measure that a federal judge had previously rejected as an unlawful attempt to “rewrite” the nation’s immigration laws to “impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.”

Alexander Smirnov was arrested on 22 February — the second time this month — on the same charges and based on the initial indictment following an arrest warrant issued from California, a Thursday filing states.

His attorneys are asking the court for an immediate release and say he has not set foot in the state of California since being released from custody on 20 February, days after he was arrested on 14 February. A magistrate judge in Nevada granted Mr Smirnov’srelease on various conditions.

Kelly Rissman has the story:

Eric Garcia explains what’s changed and who hasn’t shown up for this year’s conservative jamboree:

Andrew Feinberg reports from CPAC about how the woman whose political heyday was outlasted by a lettuce is trying to grow her base among Donald Trump’s allies.

Nearly 18 months ago, Liz Truss was the UK Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, with the authority to direct the actions of Her Majesty’s Government and even to unleash the United Kingdom’s store of nuclear-tipped Trident missiles.

But on Thursday, standing before a half-empty ballroom at a Washington DC-area hotel and convention centre, she cut a far less impressive figure.

Ms Truss is appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual right-wing confab once home to conservative and libertarian stalwarts such as Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney but which, in recent years, has morphed into a Trumpian pep rally.

To that end, she made her CPAC debut at a hastily-arranged “international summit” alongside Nigel Farage, the ex-UKIP MEP and former Brexit Party leader who has spent more and more of his time since Brexit focused on boosting Donald Trump’s effort to return to the White House.

A sleepy and half-empty CPAC convened for its first gathering in 2024 at the Gaylord National Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland, but there were still plenty of wild and unsubstantiated claims to be had.

Here are some of the most bizarre things said so far: