Lincoln Project: A dark cloud of scandal
“As quickly as it rose to its perch as a media darling, the Lincoln Project is crashing down swiftly to its fitting end,” said Joe Concha in TheHill .com. The Never-Trump Super PAC founded by former Republican strategists to produce polished ads attacking Trump is now imploding in scandal. The group’s leaders are facing allegations they used donors’ funds to enrich themselves and that they covered up the sexual harassment of young interns and other males by co-founder John Weaver. Weaver, a 61-year-old married father of two, has since admitted sending “inappropriate” messages to at least 21 men—one as young as 14. The group’s leaders reportedly were told about Weaver’s predations in June, but they let Weaver take a “medical leave” in August and professed to be “shocked” when the accusations became public. Six of the Lincoln Project’s co-founders, including George Conway, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Horn, and Mike Madrid, have resigned.
The Lincoln Project was “an ugly grift,” said David Harsanyi in NationalReview.com. The Associated Press reports that of the $90 million the group raised, only $27 million was spent on ads, while more than $50 million went to consulting companies controlled by its leaders.
Liberals deserve blame, too, said Glenn Greenwald in Greenwald.Substack.com. They exalted the Lincoln Project’s leaders “as noble men of conscience” even though these same strategists had produced some of the “most grotesque and amoral” Republican attack ads of the modern era—including one that suggested that Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran, was a tool of Osama bin Laden. As long as the Lincoln Project was using its dark arts against Trump, the Left and the media forgave all.
Given that the Lincoln Project’s roots are in the GOP, said Will Bunch in The Philadelphia Inquirer, it’s no surprise it turned out to be “morally bankrupt.” The party long ago abandoned “any and all former principles” for a cynical, self-dealing mentality. We should have seen this coming, said Alex Shephard in NewRepublic.com. The Lincoln Project was founded on “the operating theory” that “to defeat Trump, you needed to act like him.” They sure did, assailing him with vicious personal attacks, stuffing their pockets with donors’ cash, and reportedly creating a toxic workplace culture rife with sexism. In fighting dirty, the Lincoln Project’s leaders became like the monster they had set out to destroy.