Project Lincoln, the anti-Trump group known for its bombastic advertisements and questionable finances, has essentially imploded as scandals ravage the group, but critics are now pointing the finger at the liberal journalists who built the super PAC.
Lincoln Project co-founders emerged as regulars on MSNBC and CNN, while CBS’s “60 Minutes” dedicated a brilliant segment to the beleaguered group.
CNN ANDERSON COOPER AGAIN INVITES GEORGE CONWAY ON THE AIR, AVOID JOHN WEAVER, LINCOLN PROJECT SCANDALS
Lincoln Project co-founders Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, George Conway and John Weaver.
Bombshell reports published on Thursday by the Associated Press and New York magazine allege that anti-Trump PAC leaders were informed in June 2020 of at least 10 allegations of sexual harassment against their disgraced colleague John Weaver, including two involving employees of the Lincoln Project. The reports also detail the sexually charged messages Weaver sent to young people and the Times reported that “new disclosures about spending practices raise significant issues” about the group’s management.
But Weaver’s co-founders, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and George Conway were made stars by the press. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace regularly offered them a platform and the “60 Minutes” icon Lesley Stahl celebrated the group’s “scathing” anti-Trump ad campaign. As the group’s skeletons began to emerge, critics think the press built the Lincoln Project a little too much.
“This 60 Minutes on the Lincoln Project article looks particularly bloated today,” Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake tweeted Friday to follow the segment video.
THE FOUNDERS OF THE LINCOLN PROJECT WERE ‘WARNED’ ABOUT JOHN WEAVER’S PREDATORY BEHAVIOR
MSNBC’s Wallace has hosted Schmidt so many times that a video showing every time she thanked him for showing up in the past seven months has been posted on Twitter. That was just the tip of the iceberg, as Schmidt has been a regular guest on his program since 2017, whom he could count on to denounce Trump and the Republicans.
The group announced its existence in a December 2019 opinion piece in the New York Times, authored by four of the co-founders, including Weaver. Another author, Conway, criticized on Thursday for publishing co-founder Jennifer Horn’s private messages talking to a reporter about his recent departure.
The group and its campaigns have received profiles numerous times, including TIME (‘a talent for quickly producing memorable videos and ads “), the New Yorker (” bold tweets “), the Washingtonian (” one of the political groups of 2020 race signature “), Politico and others. It wasn’t all positive, as some like Andrew Ferguson at The Atlantic said they hardly matched their namesake with their scathing approach.
He also received praise from conservative writers who became liberals in the Washington Post, such as Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin, who once referred to the Lincoln Project as “geniuses of NeverTrump”. Boot and Rubin are regular guests on CNN and MSNBC, respectively.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald scolded the press to promote the group.
“They tricked a large number of liberals into taking their money in the middle of a pandemic – because NBC, CNN and others (60 Minutes) promoted them as a group of noble and honest people of conscience when it was clear that they were swindlers and liars” , he tweeted.
The Free Beacon put together a media supercut building the group in October:
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Meanwhile, cable newscasters like CNN’s Anderson Cooper regularly interview the group’s founding members in trouble and strangely don’t ask about the scandal.
Conway, who left The Lincoln Project in August 2020, called the New York magazine report “disturbing and terrifying” before offering the group any legal advice – but Cooper didn’t bother to ask him about it during an appearance on “AC 360” on Thursday night when chaos among the group was in fashion on social media.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn and David Rutz of Fox News contributed to this report.