During a Newsmax discussion about Rupert Murdoch stepping down at Fox, pro-Trump activist Matt Schlapp provided a dubious explanation for why he was dropped from the network: his own politics.

That explanation ignores that Schlapp and his wife Mercedes Schlapp stopped appearing on Fox after he was accused in a lawsuit of groping a male staffer.

“I was on Fox practically every day for years and years and years,” Schlapp said on Newsmax Thursday. “And then something happened in the country; the BLM riots happened, the virus happened, and then this crazy presidential election with all this voter fraud happened, and Fox seemed to want to be at war with its viewers. And people who have opinions and voices like me, became a less hospitable place.”

Schlapp, who is head of the American Conservative Union, was accused in January of groping GOP operative Carlton Huffman. Schlapp denied the allegations, and Huffman filed a lawsuit. Schlapp’s attempts to settle the suit were reportedly rebuffed.

Since the allegations became public, Schlapp has not appeared on Fox News. Other allegations against him by male staffers have also been reported on.

Members of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which Schlapp runs, have called for a formal investigation into the allegations. The Post reported:

In addition to that lawsuit, some board members and staffers have been told about other incidents involving Schlapp, 55, and two younger men, multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation said.

In one incident, a staffer said Schlapp attempted to kiss him while drinking late after a work function in 2017. The staffer also provided documentation from that night to The Washington Post showing physical contact that the staffer said was unsolicited.

In another incident, Schlapp allegedly made unwanted physical advances on someone else’s employee during a CPAC business trip in Palm Beach, Fla., in early 2022, according to multiple people informed of the incident. The alleged victim did not respond to requests for comment.

Fox News did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Watch the clip above via Newsmax.

The post Matt Schlapp Claims He Was Dropped By Fox News Over Politics — And Not His Groping Allegations first appeared on Mediaite.

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