MSNBC host S.E. Cupp has announced she is not attending CPAC this year, and she joined HuffPost Live Monday to further explain the reasons behind her decision.
Cupp told HuffPost Live host Abby Huntsman that while she has enjoyed her "long and wonderful relationship" with CPAC, she's skipping the conservative conference this year because it will continue to exclude gay Republican organizations like GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans.
"It just became increasingly uncomfortable to align with an event, a great event in many ways, that had nonetheless attempted to marginalize a really important group of conservatives working on our behalf," Cupp said. "For us to sort of slap them on the face and say, we no longer want your services or we're embarrassed by you and ashamed of you and we'd like to put you in the back of the tent just felt really dismissive and disrespectful."
Cupp added that conservatives are "lucky that anyone is still coming to come out and cheerlead for us."
Cupp also said that she attempted to speak about gay rights at last year's event with the intent to influence CPAC to be more accepting of its gay supporters.
"That didn't work," she said. "I can't keep doing that over and over again with no consequences. For me, it's personal now, so it felt like I had no choice but to back off and say: look, not this year."
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