The Lincoln Project

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Part of a series on #NeverTrump. [View Related Entries]

About

The Lincoln Project is a political action committee made up of a group of prominent "Never Trump" Republicans. The group uses memes, viral videos and social media in a campaign aimed at influencing voters toward Democratic candidate Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The group was founded by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, Rick Wilson, Ron Steslow and Reed Galen. Some have criticized the group for supporting policies in the past, similar to those enacted by President Trump.

History

The Lincoln Project launched on December 17th, 2019.^[1] That day, the group announced their formation in a New York Times^[2] editorial entitled "We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated." The article, written by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson says:

That’s why we are announcing the Lincoln Project, an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations. This effort transcends partisanship and is dedicated to nothing less than preservation of the principles that so many have fought for, on battlefields far from home and within their own communities.

Less than one month later, on January 7th, 2020, the group posted its first YouTube video "The MAGA Church." The post received more than 1.8 million views in less than one year (shown below).

The group has also begun releasing television ads aimed at the President. These ads, such as "Mourning in America" and "#TrumpIsNotWell," received more than 1 million views on YouTube (shown below, left and right, respectively).

Criticism

Some have criticized the group for their previous public statements on various issues. On July 9th, 2020, video editor and comedian Vic Berger tweeted^[3] several tweets from Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, implying that the tweets were Islamophobic. The post received more than 3,000 likes and 645 retweets in less than one month (shown below, left).

That day, The Daily Dot ^[4] published a series of tweets by Wilson and Lincoln Project video editor Ben Howe. The tweets focused on the death of Michael Brown, a Black teenager shot and killed by former police officer Darren Wilson, and George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager (examples below). Days later, Howe would leave the Lincoln Project over the tweets. Keith Edwards, the group's spokesperson, said, "Based on these unacceptable and offensive posts, and those that came to light last week, Ben Howe is no longer affiliated with the Lincoln Project, effective immediately." The tweets have since been deleted.^[6]

On July 21st, Berger tweeted^[5] that the Lincoln Project had used one of his images, commenting, "I made this image and the Iraqi child-killing neocons at The Lincoln Project stole it." The tweet received more than 7,200 likes and 900 retweets in less than one month (shown below).