Dan Gainor: Media covers for Lincoln Project, faux Republicans who can be counted on to bash GOP
The Lincoln Project isn't a Republican group. It tries to elect Democrats and is defended by them
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A phony White supremacist protest means it’s election time. An anti-Republican group beloved by the media tried to fix the Virginia governor’s race. It dressed people up as neo-Nazis to harass the GOP candidate.
The Lincoln Project claimed it was behind it all. Unlike its namesake, the group is made up of bitter, angry anti-Republican former Republicans who are media regulars. Their goal was to hurt candidate Glenn Youngkin.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The press did its part to downplay the threat to democracy. CNN called the attempt to manipulate the election, "antics" or a "stunt." Ayman Mohyeldin, on his MSNBC show "Ayman," blamed the victim, saying, "they’re obviously doing it to highlight Youngkin’s racist dog whistles."
The Washington Post buried its story about the incident on Metro page B2 at the bottom of the page. That was better than The New York Times, which wrote nothing about the fraudulent protest, according to its own search engine.
No wonder, the only reason anyone has ever heard of the Lincoln Project is because of the news media. Even before this insanity, the group was featured on CNN and MSNBC at least 14 times just in the month of October. Six different shows put these folks out there to do what the media love them for – attack Republicans.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Don’t be confused thinking this is a "Republican" group, as Reuters reported, either. It’s trying to get Democrats elected and is being defended by them. Big name funders include Democrat donors – among them are billionaire investor Stephen Mandel and DreamWorks founder David Geffen, according to Open Secrets.
With all this talk about White supremacists, look no further than the Lincoln Project itself.
Journalists were even there to help deflect criticism when the Lincoln battalion screwed this up so mightily. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo teamed up with the Lincoln Project and Democratic strategist James Carville to defend the sleazy pretend Virginia protest.
The group’s Stuart Stevens tried to make the incident about Donald Trump – specifically about a lie about Trump. Stevens said they were showing "Democrats how to win, how to play hardball." Hardball here included lying about a statement Trump made regarding the deadly Charlottesville conflict.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stevens asked the false question, "Why hasn't Glenn Youngkin denounced Donald Trump for saying there are good people on both sides?" Rather than correct him, Cuomo agreed, calling the question "a legitimate one."
Cuomo then turned to eternal Democrat Carville, who defended the group while trying to distance Democrats from them. Then he downplayed it, calling the faux-test "kind of a tempest in a teapot."
So the Lincoln Project team did a phony event to fix an election so they could argue another phony point. Trump denounced White supremacists on multiple occasions, including the one they cite here. Real Clear Politics reported what Trump actually said, "I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and White nationalists because they should be condemned totally." Sigh. Facts clearly never bother the left.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is stunning behavior for what even The New York Times would admit is a scandal-ridden organization. In fact, The Times did admit it. The paper ran this headline in January: "21 Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Online Harassment." That scandal is essentially forgotten by the major media that want the group to pretend to be Republicans while attacking Republicans.
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Here’s the paper’s description of that horrific scandal: "John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist and co-founder of the prominent anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, has for years sent unsolicited and sexually provocative messages online to young men."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Then came the awful detail: "Mr. Weaver sent overt sexual solicitations to at least 10 of the men and, in the most explicit messages, offered professional and personal assistance in exchange for sex."
Those revelations haven’t stopped the press from promoting the group because they see Never Trumpers as a way of perpetually attacking the right. That’s why they put this group on television almost as much as they promoted the now-jailed Michael Avenatti – simply to attack Trump and any successful Republican.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With all this talk about White supremacists, look no further than the Lincoln Project itself. National Review reported that the group created an ad "tying Trump to the Confederate ‘Flag of Treason’" during the 2020 election. Co-founder Rick Wilson "posted pictures to Instagram featuring a cooler with the Confederate Flag and the words ‘The South Will Rise Again’ on the top."
Just don’t expect the legacy media to rise to the occasion and remind you who or what the Lincoln Project really is.