Marriott Refutes Matt Schlapp, Claims No ‘Screens of Either People or Facilities’ Were Conducted at CPAC

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Mar 12, 2020

American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp is under fire for potentially exposing thousands of conservatives to coronavirus during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md two weeks ago.

Schlapp has defended his record, claiming without providing any evidence that 2,000 screens for coronavirus had taken place around the Gaylord National hotel where the conference was located.

“They did 2,000 screens all around the hotel,” Schlapp said to Laura Ingraham while appearing on her Fox News program. “They found nothing.”

“Several days ago they came to us and said there’s nothing to be alarmed about,” Schlapp said.

But Marriott hotels, who are the owners of the Gaylord, are disputing Schlapp’s narrative about testing hotel attendees for coronavirus.

“It is my understanding that no screens of either people or facilities has been performed at the property,” said Allison Sitch, a spokeswoman for Marriott.

“We take hotel hygiene and cleanliness very seriously and have already taken a number of additional steps to perform enhanced cleaning of areas of the hotel where the conference was hosted,” she said but maintained that there was no record of any testing regime taking place.

A worker who attended a meeting with Gaylord staff claims that the general manager of the hotel “was flat out asked if that was true” regarding the thousands of screenings that Schlapp contended took place.

“And he [the manager] said, ‘No,’” the worker said. “According to the general manager there’s been no sort of mass screening of employees … he flat out denied it.”

A Prince George’s County, Md. health official also reportedly said at the meeting that they “did not have any knowledge that the state of Maryland had screened thousands of employees.”

Ian Walters, spokesman for the American Conservative Union, was forced to backtrack somewhat about Schlapp’s assertion.

“I don’t think screening is the right term. It’s more of an assessment than a formal screening, an assessment or an evaluation,” Walters said.

The Prince George’s County Health Department issued a press release warning people who worked or attended the event to monitor their health closely while mentioning nothing about health checks.

“Residents who attended or worked this event should check their temperature twice a day and notify their health care provider and our Health Department if their temperature exceeds 100.4 or if they develop a respiratory illness,” the release said. “They should remain at home until they receive instructions about next steps from their health care provider or local health department.”

Trump’s soon-to-be chief of staff, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) have been forced to quarantine themselves because they had contact with a man infected with coronavirus who attended CPAC. Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Doug Collins (R-GA) are also under quarantine and had contact with President Donald Trump before they were alerted that they came in contact with the infected individual at CPAC.

In addition, Schlapp exploded on journalist Raheem Kassam for expressing valid concerns about coronavirus at CPAC, accusing “War Room” podcaster of having sour grapes because he wasn’t booked to speak at the conference this year.

It may be time for the ACU to replace Schlapp, who is a notorious supporter of the GOP establishment and open borders.

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