The Lincoln Project, politics’ version of boys yelling encouragement at a schoolyard fight while making sure they stay well out of harm’s way, has finally managed a feat hitherto thought impossible: irritate the Washington Post to a point where even it says “enough, children.”
Glenn Kessler, legendary fact-checker whenever the checked facts confirm his bias, has looked at the latest LP BS. This meander through the steer manure claims that President Trump has lavished all funds raised via the two PACs with which he is associated to lining his own pockets. Kessler’s findings, which took maybe 15 seconds of quality search engine time? It’s a lie.
Even with the obligatory potshot at Trump — we are talking the Washington Post, after all — Kessler notes the Lincoln Project’s claim is unsupported.
We first checked the campaign finance records for two Trump leadership political action committees, Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC. Trump has certainly been hoarding the money at the Save America PAC, sitting on about $100 million in cash and giving out relatively little to fellow Republicans. (A Leadership PAC generally is used to raise money to support other politicians.)
But we could not find any evidence to support the statement that “every dollar you sent him paid to keep his shady business empire and lavish lifestyle going.”
Oops.
The mirth grows even merrier as Kessler asks Lincoln Project for receipts.
We relied on the summaries created by OpenSecrets because the Save America PAC’s July filing with the Federal Election Commission ran to almost 50,000 pages. Presumably if there was something fishy buried deep in those filings, the Lincoln Project would have identified it.
So we contacted spokespeople for the Lincoln Project via email, repeatedly, asking for evidence to support the ad’s claim. We received no answer.
Perhaps the staff, if there is one, at the Lincoln Project was too busy cutting hush money checks to interns touched by John Weaver. So, Kessler reached out directly to Rick (I daily thank God he and I are not related) Wilson.
Then we called Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, who posted a video Thursday daring Trump to follow through on his threat to sue. “Come at me. I can’t wait,” he said. “We’re delighted by the thought that you would try to sue us, Donald. Do it!”
Wilson answered our call but when he heard we had questions about the accuracy of the ad, he responded he was about to get on a Zoom call and hung up. He then also did not respond to text messages or emails.
Hmmm. Experience has taught us that when ad-makers duck our requests for factual backup for their claims, they generally do not have anything to provide.
When Glenn Kessler makes fun of you, you are officially the king of fools. That said, applying such a term to Rick Wilson is demeaning to Quasimodo, who had courage, a heart, and a brain, three elements of which Rick Wilson has no first-hand experience.
When it comes to results, the Lincoln Project’s game level is three steps lower than the class nerd, whose sum total knowledge about romancing a woman comes from watching “WandaVision,” asking the school’s head cheerleader to the prom. The primary difference is the class nerd doesn’t know any better. Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project should know by now their usefulness to the left has long expired. Or, perhaps they do know this, so they continue to milk their liberal financial backers for every last dime until the latter wise up.
If outfits such as the Lincoln Project, the Bulwark, or the Dispatch, made actual cases for conservative politics and politicians, they might be worth a lick of attention. But they don’t. Instead, they choke daily on their #OrangeManBad spittle and phlegm. They are CINOs (Conservatives In Name Only), drifting from grift to grift and forever playing Little Jack Horner. They can stay in their corner, and we can join Glenn Kessler in laughing at their claims regarding goodness. Politics indeed makes strange bedfellows.