Activism

MS NOW host Catherine Rampell took a sharp jab at President Donald Trump on Sunday for skipping the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convention for the first time in nearly a decade, suggesting he did so to avoid embarrassing optics tied to his “obsession” with crowd sizes.

“If we know anything about Donald Trump, it is his obsession with a handful of fairly specific things: gold plating, the Village People, and of course, crowd sizes. So you can only imagine how he must feel seeing this split screen,” Rampell said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend Primetime,” queuing up a split-screen video of the massive No Kings rallies and the CPAC event in Texas.

“On the left side, you have the absolutely massive No Kings day protests which took over small towns, big cities all over the place, all around the world. Organizers say at least eight million people showed up. And then on the right side of your screen you have CPAC. Womp, womp. Notice a difference?”

This year’s CPAC conference notably does not have either Trump or any of his children speaking at the event, often a strong draw for conservatives to attend the event. Turnout appears to have suffered as a result, Mother Jones reported.

“It’s sh----,” said GOP delegate Warner Kimo Sutton of the event’s turnout, speaking with Mother Jones. “Last time this place was packed.”