Matt Schlapp, chairman for the Conservative Political Action Conference warned in an interview Sunday that Utah Senator Mitt Romney may not be safe at this year's event, should he choose to attend.
In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on "Full Court Press," Schlapp was pressed about CPAC's decision to disinvite Romney from the annual event, after he voted last week to convict President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial. Schlapp told Van Susteren that senator's safety could not be guaranteed if he choose to attend CPAC this year.
"We won’t credential him as a conservative. I suppose if he wants to come as a non-conservative and debate an issue with us, maybe in the future we would have him come," Schlapp said. "This year, I would actually be afraid for his physical safety because people hate him so much."
Schlapp went on to accuse Romney of lying "continuously to conservatives" and that: "He's a 'use-em-and-lose-em' kind of guy. When he needed a conservative like Donald Trump to endorse him in his Senate primary last time, he wanted him in...But then, when he gets the Senate job, he wants to distance himself from Trump."
Schlapp already dis-invited the 2012 Republican nominee for president, in a tweet that "formally not invited" the junior senator from Utah.
It's unclear whether Romney ever had any plans to attend the event.
Romney is one of the few senators who has distanced himself from Trump and his policies since he being elected in 2016 as Utah's junior senator. The former presidential nominee made history last week when he became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president of his own party from office after he voted to convict Trump on the charge of abuse of power.
"Well, I took my responsibility exactly as the Constitution defines it and as the oath I took requires it," Romney said during his vote last week. "Which is that I was sworn before God to apply impartial justice as a Senate juror."
Romney's vote has invited attacks from the president and his allies, including one tweet from Trump last week that read: "Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election."
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