In the latest installment of the continuing CPAC saga, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich criticized the conference and its organizers, saying he no longer understands the meaning of the event.
“I don’t know what the purpose of CPAC is anymore,” Gingrich said during Laura Ingraham’s radio show on Wednesday.
Gingrich went on to add that the annual Conservative Political Action Conference used to be “sort of the militant wing of the conservative movement,” but now it’s “huge.”
“But I don’t know how they define who gets to come in and who doesn’t get to come in,” he continued. “And my sense is the board is not very open and not very clear about, you know whether its personality decisions or what they’re thinking.”
The American Conservative Union, the conference host, has received a lot of heat for some of the decisions it has made in regard to this year’s event. The ACU made waves with its speaker selections by inviting Donald Trump and deciding not to invite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, deeming his future in the GOP “limited.” The organization is also preventing GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans from sponsoring the conference, a decision that prompted MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes to turn down his invite and TheBlazeTV‘s S.E. Cupp to back out of the event.
During his radio interview, Gingrich also expressed a mixed view on Christie’s snub.
“You can say first Christie wasn’t invited for it, but you could also frankly look at his record on controlling spending and reforming New Jersey government and say, ‘Well, he has a story to tell that’s pretty interesting,’” Gingrich said. “And for a northeastern governor in a heavily unionized state, it’s pretty courageous. You know, I could go either way on these things. I thought hugging Obama was a bit much during Sandy. But on the other hand when you look at the level of damage that had been done to the Jersey Shore, you can understand how emotional he was at that time.”
Gingrich also called Trump “very good at getting in the news.”
The former presidential hopeful and Ingraham both spoke at CPAC in 2012, and Gingrich is slated to speak again this year.
