What is CPAC?
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States. CPAC is hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU).[1] More than 100 other organizations contribute in various ways.
What Happened?
Many of the delegates were happily waving the Russian flag while Trump was giving his speech.
Why?
What happened is that two guys attending, Jason Charter, 22, and Ryan Clayton, 36, passed out roughly 1,000 red, white, and blue flags, each bearing a gold-emblazoned “TRUMP” in the center, to an auditorium full of attendees waiting for President Trump to address the conference. Audience members then proceeded to happily wave them —and took pictures with them—
The penny dropped, and CPAC staffers suddenly realised that these were Russian flags, so they frantically rushed around grabbing them all back. As you might anticipate, the media noticed and started asking questions.
No joke, someone has been handing out Russian flags that say #Trump on them. And people are waving them.#CPAC2017 pic.twitter.com/CDZS5oEqyL
— Maya Shwayder (@MayaErgas) February 24, 2017
A section of people in the back of #CPAC2017 waving Russian flags — a staffer just came and demanded they all be handed over. pic.twitter.com/mZVoVUqudn
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) February 24, 2017
Crowd at CPAC waving these little pro-Trump flags that look exactly like the Russian flag. Staffers quickly come around to confiscate them. pic.twitter.com/YhPpkwFCNc
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) February 24, 2017
One of the pranksters, Ryan Clayton was also seen with a larger flag …
#CPAC pic.twitter.com/Hb8JUxVfIm
— Ali Rogin (@AliRogin) February 24, 2017
Jason Carter on Facebook
The other prankster, Jason Carter later posted it all up on Facebook …
The Atlantic Interview
The Atlantic wrote it all up and interviewed Ryan Clayton about it all. He is quoted as follows …
“Most people didn’t realize it was a Russian flag, or they didn’t care,” Charter told me in a phone interview. He and Clayton had purchased tickets to CPAC for the day the president was scheduled to speak, and managed to disperse the flags with surprising ease among the crowd.
But the two wouldn’t call it a “false-flag” operation. “It’s true-flag operation,” Clayton told me over the phone, in a thick, mock Russian accent. “It show how Trump and Russia are so connected, they like peas in pod!” The CPAC stunt comes after a report from February 14 suggesting that Trump aides were in contact with Russian intelligence officials in the year before the U.S. presidential election. Trump himself has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on a number of occasions.
Ryan was booted out, but Jason kept a low profile and saved his master stroke for a grand finale …
After the flag trick, Clayton was escorted from the premises, but Charter wasn’t booted until he stood up during Trump’s official remarks to accuse him of being a “fascist” and “Putin’s puppet.”
“And, I was banned from CPAC,” Charter said, sounding pleased. “I think there are multiple ways you can resist against Trump, and I think this is one way that’s extremely effective,” Charter said. In other words, he said, “It’s fun to have a joke sometimes in a very serious situation.”
It is hilarious that Trump supporters don’t know the russian flag when they see it.
It is epic that anti Trump activists get a crowd of trump supporters at CPAC to wave the Russian flag
Calling Trump a “fascist” to his face in the middle of CPAC … grand master of epic.
“We will continue doing these actions until Trump is impeached,” an unrepentant Charter said.