Fact Check: Did Mercedes Schlapp, the CPAC Chair’s Wife, Tweet a Racist Video?
CPAC #CPAC
Former President Donald Trump is set to make his first public appearance since leaving office at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida on February 28.
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The announcement has caused the Twitter activities of Mercedes Schlapp from last summer to surface. Schlapp is the wife of Matt Schlapp, who is the chair of the American Conservative Union.
The Claim
Filmmaker and Ironbound Films CEO Jeremy Newberger wrote in a tweet Monday morning: “The head of CPAC’s wife tweeted video of a guy with a chainsaw chasing anti-racism protestors around while screaming the N word. So CPAC is the perfect forum for Trump to speak at,” in a post that received more than 800 likes and 200 retweets.
The Facts
Mercedes Schlapp served as the White House director of Strategic Communications in President Donald Trump’s administration from 2017 to 2019 before working as Trump’s senior adviser for his 2020 re-election campaign.
Last June, it was reported that she retweeted a viral video of a man seen revving and wielding a chainsaw while yelling a racial slur in an apparent attempt to get protesters to leave outside a store in McAllen, Texas.
Schlapp retweeted the video from an account titled “LATINO TOWNHALL,” which shared the caption, “That’s how to do it,” according to Politico.
Latino TownHall’s tweet still shows the caption but is displayed by Twitter as “unavailable,” and the video no longer is there.
The original video was initially tweeted by user Edson Grim, but that was not the post retweeted by Schlapp.
Politico reported that after initially reaching out to Schlapp regarding her retweet in June, she shared the same video in a second retweet that omitted the racial slur. After they published their report, they wrote that she deleted both of the retweets that evening. Then, Schlapp issued apology statements to multiple news outlets.
“I deeply apologize and I retweeted without watching the full video. I deleted the tweet. I would never knowingly promote the use of that word. This is time for healing the nation and not division,” Schlapp said in her statement to Politico.
Schlapp has a following of more than 191,000 Twitter users. At the time of her retweets last year, she had 140,000 followers, according to Politico.
The Ruling
True.
Mercedes Schlapp retweeted a video of a man using a racial slur who was seen trying to get rid of protestors by wielding a chainsaw last June. She later apologized for the retweet and said she had not watched the full video.
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