NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Conservative activist Laura Loomer had CPAC media credentials pulled Saturday morning as she arrived at security for President Donald Trump’s speech.

Loomer took video of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) authorities confiscating her credentials just outside a security checkpoint for president Trump’s speech. The video was provided to Breitbart News. She told them she had recently talked to Donald Trump Jr. and that he had 265,000 followers on Twitter before the platform banned her. She added that she had just had dinner with Trump 2020 campaign senior advisor Katrina Pierson.

“They are now banning me from CPAC,” Loomer said in the video of her handing her CPAC Media credentials to the officials. “I’m one of President Trump’s biggest supporters.”

“This is such bad optics for CPAC to be banning me,” said Loomer in the video. “I’m speaking out against social media bias.” 

One of the officials directed Loomer repeatedly to contact the CPAC media office for an explanation of why her credentials were being revoked. She then asked about “left-wing agitators” allowed into the conference. 

Loomer responded in an Instagram post to an article that stated she heckled reporters, “I was asking CNN’s Oliver Darcy why he lobbied Twitter and Facebook to ban Alex Jones. That’s a legitimate question. Far from heckling. Besides, I thought CNN was fake news. How come CPAC didn’t take CNN’s credentials away?”

Loomer provided a statement on the incident in response to an inquiry from Breitbart News:

I have now been told that I was banned from CPAC today and had my press credentials revoked because a Radical Left wing SPLC tied group called “Right Wing Watch” which is funded by George Soros pressured CPAC to ban me when they found out I had media credentials. Right Wing watch falsely accused me of harassing Oliver Darcy, a reporter for CNN. However, I was practicing real journalism at a Conservative conference where it is the consensus that “CNN” is fake news. I asked Oliver Darcy why he lobbied Facebook and Twitter as an employee of CNN to ban Alex Jones and Infowars. I asked him why he is working as a journalist to ban and silence conservatives on social media. I registered as a member of the media for CPAC so that I could report on social media bias of conservatives, a topic that both the president and His son have been vocal about. As I have been banned and de platformed on nearly every platform, I was interested in finding out if Darcy is getting paid by CNN or any of the big tech social media companies to help de-platform conservatives. Censorship is un-American, and it’s egregious that any journalist would advocate for others to be banned for political speech. 

I would love to know Why CPAC caved to the request of a Soros tied org that hates Trump and banned me, one of Trump’s most prominent conservative Jewish supporters? I was denied the opportunity to see President Trump speak and would like an apology from Matt Schlapp explaining why fake news CNN and Right Wing Watch we’re allowed to keep their media passes and I wasn’t. Censorship is one of the most important topics in the world right now and I came to CPAC to raise awareness about the digital assault on Trump supporters. Ironically, I was banned and silenced by those who are supposed to be on my same team. I look forward to meeting with President Trump someday to discuss this issue and reclaim my time that was lost today when I was denied entry to President Trump’s speech. I will continue to fight for President Trump and combat the tech tyrants who wish to influence the election through mass censorship.

CPAC representative Ian Walters spoke exclusively with Breitbart News on the details of why Loomer’s credentials were revoked. 

“When we go through each application individually,” he said they evaluate each individual media application. He said she qualified under an initial vetting of her qualification as media and adding there is disclaimer language on the CPAC website. “When we give the credential to someone it’s with the expectation that that person is there to cover the event as a journalist or in a journalistic fashion.”

“In this case…it’s a fairly unique one, it felt like that instead of covering- it appeared that instead of being here to cover CPAC, what she had hoped to accomplish was that CPAC and the members of the media in the filing center were to cover her. And that’s a new thing that we’ve never dealt with before.”

The representative then walked through the events that led CPAC to revoke Loomer’s credentials. He said CPAC received “several” complaints from people at desks in the media filing center. “We determined that because she was preventing folks in the filing center from doing the jobs they were assigned to do for doing their job which is covering the event that we were not comfortable labeling her as media,” he said.

Individuals with CPAC evaluated the complaints that had come in against Loomer late Friday and according to Walters the decision to revoke her credentials came Saturday morning. Where Walters admitted CPAC officials could have done better was in notifying Loomer before she arrived at security for the president’s speech.

“Let me be clear, she’s more than welcome to go to the registration desk and purchase the ticket as an attendee,” Walters made clear. When pressed on the timing of revoking her credentials he said that is where they could have done better. He left the possibility open that Loomer could engage in a conversation with CPAC, indicating she potentially receive media credentials in the future.

Walters was asked about rumors that the credentials were revoked for approaching Van Jones at CPAC. He responded that the decision was based on complaints from several individuals in the press.

Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook