The Latest: Conservative leader denounces alternative right

OXON HILL, Maryland (AP) — The Latest on the Conservative Political Action Conference (all times local):

11:10 a.m.

The leader of the American Conservative Union has taken the stage of an activist conference to forcefully denounce as "sinister" the alternative right. As he is speaking, a white nationalist leader is walking the hallways of the same event.

Dan Schneider, the ACU's executive director, is calling the alt-right anti-Semitic, racist and sexist. He says people who hold those beliefs are in no way conservative. "They despise everything that we believe in."

Schneider specifically decried a recent Washington meeting of people who were shown on video extending their arms in the Nazi salute.

Yet as Schneider is speaking, the leader of that meeting is steps away. Richard Spencer is telling reporters that he "coined the term" alt-right. He is wearing a general admission badge, an indication he paid to attend.

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10:40 a.m.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has advice for Donald Trump: "Do what you said you were going to do."

Speaking at a conference of conservatives outside Washington, Walker urges Trump and conservatives to "go big, go bold."

Walker recounts his battles with liberal activists and labor unions, comparing his experience in Wisconsin with what President Donald Trump and his Cabinet are experiencing now. He tells the activists, "Been there, done that."

Walker ran for president last year and after dropping out endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Walker endorsed Trump after the Republican National Convention.

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10:05 a.m.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is thanking conservatives for helping elect President Donald Trump.

Conway tells a gathering in a Maryland suburb of Washington that while Trump might not have naturally bonded with conservatives at first, "he went right to the grassroots and brought you along."

She says, "He earned the nomination in a way that was bottom-up, not top-down." She also describes Trump as "a man who just absorbs information and people and experiences."

Conway is speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, which draws more than 10,000 activists. Others from the Trump administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, will speak later Thursday. Trump addresses the group Friday.

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3:54 a.m.

For the past eight years, thousands of conservative activists have descended on Washington each spring with dreams of putting a Republican in the White House.

They finally have one, but they are not sure he's really conservative.

With Donald Trump's presidential victory, the future of the conservative movement has become entwined with an unconventional New York businessman better known for his deal-making than any ideological principles.

It's an uneasy marriage of political convenience at best. Some conservatives worry whether they can trust their new president to follow decades of orthodoxy on issues like international affairs, small government, abortion and opposition to expanded legal protections for LGBT Americans — and what it means for their movement if he doesn't.