Netanyahu Rival Cuts Ties With Lincoln Project Advisers As Anti-Trump Group Implodes Over Sexual Exploitation
Netanyahu opponent Sa’ar was “falling in the polls consistently since he hired” Lincoln Project advisors.
In an apparent attempt at damage control, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival has distanced his campaign from advisors linked to the scandal-ridden Lincoln Project.
Gideon Sa’ar, who left Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud political party to form his center-right New Hope party, recently hired the Lincoln Project co-founders Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Reed Galen as campaign advisors ahead of the March 23 general election.
Sa’ar will “no longer work with his American advisers who are being accused of covering up a sexual harassment scandal involving the Lincoln Project’s co-founder and pocketing millions raised by their political action committee,” the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
Given President Trump’s overwhelming support among the Israeli voters, hiring the anti-Trump spin doctors was hurting the New Hope party’s campaign.
“Sa’ar has been falling in the polls consistently since he hired,” the Lincoln Project advisors, the Jerusalem Post reported citing a rival campaign official, probably from the Netanyahu camp.
The Jerusalem Post reported the ouster of the anti-Trump campaigners from the Israeli election campaign:
Prime ministerial hopeful Gideon Sa’ar will no longer work with his American advisers who are being accused of covering up a sexual harassment scandal involving the Lincoln Project’s co-founder and pocketing millions raised by their political action committee, a Sa’ar spokesman told The Jerusalem Post exclusively on Tuesday morning.
Last month, Sa’ar hired Steve Schmidt, Stuart Stevens, Rick Wilson and Reed Galen of the Lincoln Project, which was formed in late 2019 by Republicans and former Republicans who aimed to prevent US President Donald Trump’s reelection and to defeat all pro-Trump Republicans in close races running for reelection in the Senate.
There had been speculation at the time that the Lincoln Project’s advisers would help Sa’ar defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with negative ads as they did with Trump. But the spokesman downplayed what the advisers had done for Sa’ar’s campaign.
“We have never worked with the Lincoln Project. The party engaged four senior consultants who were connected with the project. The individual in question is not known to us, we have never had any contact with him and certainly have not worked with him.
The Lincoln Project advisors were expected to mount a cynical campaign to turn the right-wing base away from Netanyahu — a tactic which failed miserably in swaying the Republican base in the U.S. presidential election, the Times of Israel reported last month.
The Israeli announcement comes as more than a dozen young men, including minors, accused Lincoln Project’s co-founder John Weaver of sexually harassing them. The organization’s top management is also under fire for what Fox News described as a “suspected cover-up of Weaver’s predatory behavior” towards young men. The anti-Trump group is imploding following these damning revelations, with several prominent members fleeing the sinking ship.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s re-election campaign did not comment on the anti-Trump campaigners’ ouster. Still, some of his supporters have been vocal about their involvement in the Israeli election campaign. This month, the noted Israeli commentator and former Netanyahu policy advisor, Caroline Glick, blasted the Israeli media for not scrutinizing the Lincoln Project over their dubious track record.
Not they're running NeverBibi Likud turncoat @gidonsaar's campaign. Funny, the Israel (anti-@netanyahu) media haven't asked Saar about the fact that his advisors partnered with a sexual predator OR about the fact that they are running a blacklist against conservatives. https://t.co/QR6kT2v9tV
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) February 1, 2021
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Comments
The Lincoln Project is finished. But, they are rebranding themselves with a New Name: Republican Pedophiles Against Trump!
Don’t laugh: the rinos and the left will start donating.
Peophiles infest politics – it’s one of the few places they can buy protection and still operate.
It all started with bill and hillary clinton. They have been tumors on our nation. By failing to remove them early on, the tumor has fully metasticized onto kamala harris.
They’re socially progressive, but perhaps a generation or two premature. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #Forward!
How about reversing the first two word, then we can call them PRAT.
Republican Pedophiles Against Trump! to
Pedophile Republicans Against Trump!
I’d say the grift is over. Where’s my tiny violin?
Interesting how all these open secrets only become an issue when they really become open not just part of the belt way existence.
TLP is no longer useful, but they’ll always be idiots. And pedo enablers.
Remember george conway and steve schmit’s role in the pedophile scandal. It could bot have happened without their complicity.
Sociopaths, who sell themselves as cheaply as kamala harris.
Looking forward to someone shutting up George Conway
I’m not surprised. I thought well of Sa’ar, and if I were an Israeli voter I would have gone into this campaign seriously considering voting for his party, but hiring these clowns would have been a big warning sign.
(Sa’ar is not a leftist; he’s more consistently right-wing than Netanyahu, who talks a good game but in practice is a complete squish, and in his latest government he gave the economy to the left in return for his holding on to power.)