One stalwart Trump critic dared to take the stage at this year’s CPAC. “If we want an audience with young people, we have to separate ourselves from the men on our side who’ve behaved atrociously toward women,” said conservative writer Mona Charen—a think tank fellow, and TWS contributor—during a panel discussion of conservative women’s feminist crisis.

“I'm disappointed in the people on our side for being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party who are sitting in the White House who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women,” Charen challenged. “And because he happens to have an ‘R’ after his name, we look the other way, we don't complain.”

And then she called Marion Le Pen’s invitation to speak at CPAC a “disgrace.”

It’s been an interesting 24 hours at CPAC.

On Friday night, still high on the rhetoric of the French far-right, attendees booed the claim that Mexicans coming to America have more in common with conservatives than liberals and shouted down a suggestion that Republicans, like Democrats, ought to recruit voters at naturalization ceremonies. Then, when THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Fred Barnes pointed out that many Mexican immigrants share these values, he likewise drew ire from the crowd.

By Saturday afternoon, the convention audience had dwindled to “diehards,” according to the man working media registration. And Charen was ready to take the stage.

In an email on Friday night, Charen explained to me that “There remains a sizable contingent of conservatives in America who have not drunk the Trump kool aid and they are very thin on the ground at CPAC.” She continued: “I feel an obligation as one of the only Trump critics on the program to express dismay at some of the invitations CPAC has extended.”

She certainly did.

Midway through her panel, Charen warned, “I'm going to twist this around a bit.” The moderator had just asked which immoral excess of modern feminism makes her blood boil. And Charen went rogue.

“This is the party that endorsed the Roy Moore for the Senate in the state of Alabama, even though he was a credibly-accused child molester,” she said. “You cannot claim that you stand for women and be all right with that.”

At this statement, two young men thunderously applauded, while many more booed and shouted, “Not true! Not true!” (From my vantage, I did not see any of the young women in the audience reacting audibly.)

Later, the discussion turned to talk about the influence of sex panic on young men. And Charen turned her attention to Le Pen. “Speaking of bad guys,” she said, “there was quite an interesting person who was on this stage the other day. Her name is Marion Le Pen. Why was she here?”

Boos and grumbles rose from the crowd. “Why are you here?!” a male voice boomed.

“She’s a young, no-longer-in-office politician from France. I think the only reason she was here is that she’s named Le Pen. And the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather is a racist and a Nazi.” Here, a smattering of applause swelled to battle the boos, and Charen strained to talk over them. “The fact is she stands for him. The fact that CPAC invited her was a disgrace.”

More boos cascaded down, but the number of young men applauding her doubled to four, and they were standing.

As the panel wound down, I searched the audience for this quartet, but they were lost in the crowd. When I asked some of the attendees if they were the ones who had applauded Charen, the only responses I got were angry glares.

And as she made her way out of the hall, Charen had to be escorted by three security guards, for her protection.