Self-identified Nazis were at CPAC—and for all of the event leadership’s political waffling, NBC News had the receipts to prove it.
On Saturday, NBC News reported that the fascists “didn’t meet any perceptible resistance” at the conservative conference, and mingled openly with Republican personalities and members of Turning Point USA, describing themselves as “national socialists” while discussing “race science,” skull measurements, and anti-Semititc conspiracy theories.
CPAC’s Chairman Matt Schlapp refused to comment on the article, but he did take to Twitter to instill his own spin, claiming that NBC had made the whole story up and that liberals were ideological Nazis—rather than his event’s attendees.
“Yawn. This is a tired old cliche,” Schlapp posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “The Neo-Nazis in our midst are the ones controlling our college campuses and major institutions and grossly populate the newsrooms of corporate media, calling for an Israeli surrender.”
In another post on Sunday, CPAC’s account described NBC’s reporting as “false, misleading, and grossly manipulative,” while condemning the report’s author, Ben Goggin, for his coverage of Gaza.
But Goggin had his evidence ready to go, dropping photos and clips of the Nazi cohort peacefully navigating the event and its conference hotel—including an image catching one of the Nazis shaking hands with Jared Taylor, the founder of the blatantly white supremacist publication American Renaissance.
“Here’s a post from one mentioned in my piece wearing a CPAC badge. In the next video, he’s giving a Nazi salute in the lobby of the conference hotel,” Goggin wrote. “There was a notable presence at the conference whether CPAC was aware of it or not.”
Here’s a post from one mentioned in my piece wearing a cpac badge. In the next video, he’s giving a Nazi salute in the lobby of the conference hotel.
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) February 26, 2024
There was a notable presence at the conference whether CPAC was aware of it or not. pic.twitter.com/6diHfoGpMU
“Either CPAC is lying about having no idea about this, or they simply don’t have a grasp on who they approved to come to their conference,” he continued.
Sanchez also posted a photo of himself inside the conference’s secure area shaking hands with Jared Taylor, founder of the Nazi publication and website American Renaissance pic.twitter.com/fEMqA3MQRf
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) February 26, 2024
At best, it appears that CPAC was willfully ignorant of the Nazi presence inside their walls—at worst, they knowingly allowed it. But either way, their quiet navigation of the event points to a deeper horror: that Nazis at CPAC have become so commonplace that they simply do not illicit shock anymore. Instead, they are now a banal presence within the conservative conference.
“Nazis, antisemitism, the great replacement theory, Fuentes, have become so common among conservatives that I think attendees, even journalists, didn’t think too deeply about them being at CPAC. There was very much an ‘oh them’ attitude about the Nazis,” Goggin wrote online following the initial release of the article.
“It really illustrated how successfully extremists have shifted the Overton window. This year, they were expected, and their presence was tolerated,” he added.
