This past week, the infamous Lincoln Project has completely collapsed. Its rise was swift, and its demise was even swifter. This political action committee (PAC) became famous for its anti-Trump/anti-Republican television and internet ads during the 2020 election season. But after bombshell revelations and multiple departures by key Lincoln Project members, this organization is finished.
To the Lincoln Project, we should all say good riddance and for good reason.
The Lincoln Project was a divisive organization (of former Republicans) who looked to take down President Trump and Congressional Republicans in the 2020 November election. These grifters took advantage of Anti-Trump resentment by raising $90 million through their PAC. Unbeknownst to many, some of the founders used the PAC’s funds to fix their financial problems (i.e. John Weaver and Rick Wilson). In fact, a majority of the Lincoln’s Projects money went to firms controlled by the founders. Furthermore, less than a third of the PAC’s funds went toward political advertising. Not only did the Lincoln Project conduct some shady financial dealings, we will later see how the organization overlooked the wicked behavior of co-founder John Weaver.
You can probably tell that this organization sickened me. It does not bother me that some people dislike President Trump. What bothers me is how this group acted as though they owned the moral high ground. By fighting President Trump, the Lincoln Project believed that it was the true flag-bearers of conservatism and the GOP. In the end, we saw the true colors of the Lincoln Project. The Lincoln Project was never about the free-exchange of ideas. It was always focused on personal attacks of Trump-supporting Republicans. Let’s now look at the history of the Lincoln Project.
The Lincoln Project: A Recent History
This political action committee (PAC) started in late 2019 after co-founders George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson announced the PAC’s creation ( here is an op-ed they penned together in the New York Times). Other notable co-founders of the Lincoln Project were Jennifer Horn, Ron Steslow, Reed Galen, and Mike Madrid. Before the PAC’s founding, these people primarily worked as political strategists and campaign consultants.
To clarify, the Lincoln Project’s founders were not Democratic party strategists or avowed Marxists. Instead, they are unabashed Anti-Trump Republicans. For the past few years, the Lincoln Project’s co-founders were some President Trump’s harshest critics. Many of them made televised appearances on news channels and wrote numerous op-eds in order to reduce support for President Trump. For instance, here is a video clip of co-founder Rick Wilson mocking Trump supporters during an appearance on CNN:
As mentioned previously, the Lincoln Project became well-known for its political ads during the 2020 presidential campaign. The Lincoln Project’s ads ranged from strange to emotionally manipulative to downright deceptive. Go check out their YouTube channel, and you’ll see that I’m right. There was one recent Lincoln Project video in particular that creeped me. The video included a whispering narrator that claimed Josh Hawley “had it all” and was giving up a bright political future by his continued support of President Trump.
Their videos clearly and regularly take audio/video clips out-of-context from various conservative politicians and pundits. Their videos acted as hit pieces that only sought to divide an already polarized nation. Sadly, the Lincoln Project made an impact this past year on the political process. At the current moment, the PAC’s YouTube channel has accumulated more than a combined 280 million views on its videos. Even though the Lincoln Project clearly misused most of their PAC donations, they still saw their primary goal achieved: President Trump did not win his 2020 reelection.
Now, we will review the newest scandal and ensuing downfall of the Lincoln Project.
The Recent Scandal & Downfall
A few months after the election, sexual harassment recently allegation resurfaced that involved co-founder John Weaver. To note, Weaver worked for the presidential campaigns of John McCain and John Kasich.
In these allegations, twenty-one young men accused John Weaver of sending them sexually-explicit text messages. One of the victims was a fourteen-year-old boy. According to multiple news reports, other Lincoln Project founders knew about Weaver’s disgusting misconduct several months ago. They did nothing about it. Now, the news media is turning on the Lincoln Project now that the election is over. Other founding members of the Lincoln Project have played damage control in recent days by either leaving the organization or distancing themselves from John Weaver.
Here’s my big question about this story: where was the news media before this past week?! People knew about Weaver’s evil behavior well before this past year. In a 2004 article, The Atlantic magazine attacked GOP strategist Karl Rove for “spread[ing] a rumor that Weaver had made a pass at a young man at a state Republican function.” Clearly, the media was okay with letting a sexual predator make media appearances on 60 Minutes and MSNBC because he hated Trump. Just like the Jeffrey Epstein story, legacy media outlets are fine with burying news story that do not fit with their agenda.
Fortunately for us, justice won in the end. The truth came to light, and people now know just how shady the Lincoln Project truly was.
-Tin Can Conservative