The Lincoln Project is a group comprised (at least publicly) of NeverTrump hold outs, including former GOP strategist and political opportunist (whatever garners the most cable hits though, right?), Rick Wilson.
“The Lincoln Project is holding accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans,” claims the group’s website, which also claims “President Donald Trump and those who sign onto Trumpism are a clear and present danger to the Constitution and our Republic.”
But I guess this isn’t divisive?
Every Lincoln Project post is either anti-Trump or anti-Republican (even anti-ultra moderate Republican), which begs the question — what, exactly, are they for?
David Harsanyi at National Review sums it up nicely:
If the Lincoln Project was exclusively campaigning against Donald Trump, one might be tempted to believe it wasn’t merely an arm of the Democratic Party. If one of its co-founders, John Weaver, hadn’t been registered as a foreign agent lobbying for a Russia-owned nuclear-energy company against U.S. sanctions not long ago, one might accept that the group believed the conspiracy theories it spreads. If the group wasn’t working against the moderate Republicans senators for the sin of supporting originalist Supreme Court justices, who will transcend the Trump presidency and help preserve the traditional constitutional order, one might believe that its mission was to preserve the system. If you target moderates like Susan Collins and Cory Gardner — politicians who not only parted with Trump on issues but have quite un-Trumpian dispositions — you’re not working against Trumpism, you’re working against the GOP.
…By far the biggest donor has been Stephen Mandel, who gave the Lincoln Project — which, as far as I can tell, produces cheap b-roll-laden ads and takes nearly 90 percent of its budget in “operating expenditures” — a million dollars. Employees at his company Lone Pine Capital, it seems, have given the Democratic Party Senate committee $497,000 this year, $248,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, and a bunch of money to other left-wing candidates. During the 2018 cycle, employees at Lone Pine Capital doled out $5,893,300 to Democrats and $1,333,333 to Planned Parenthood.I’m confused somewhat by one of the other top names: Arturas Kerelis, who news reports say is actually an Internet grifter named Arturas Rosenbacher. Maybe the donor is a different person. Then again, it would fit. (It looks like his donation was refunded.) Amos Hostetter, who dropped over a million dollars on the Obama Foundation, and David Geffen have been giving money to Democrats decades before Donald Trump ever ran for president or “Trumpism” existed. As has another top Lincoln Project donor, Joshua Bekenstein, director of Bain Capital, who gave Democrats $3.5 million in 2018.
More on Arturas Kerelis here:
As for John Weaver, Kasich campaign alum, who publicly bills himself as a Biden supporter:
If it walks like a Democrat, talks like a Democrat, is run by Democrats, and funded by Democrats, it’s probably a Democrat.
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