In a segment sponsored by an anti-Trump political ad from Americans for Limited Government, ABC’s This Week spent a portion of Sunday’s show swooning for the anti-Trump/pro-Biden political group The Lincoln Project. Celebrating how they and other former Republicans were “waging war against the President of their own party,” fill-in host Martha Raddatz and chief congressional correspondent Mary Bruce were beaming as they discussed how it helped the Biden campaign.
Of course, there was no mention of The Lincoln Project’s controversies like a certain Confederate cooler, their grifter co-founders, and ties to Russia.
After teeing herself up with a soundbite of Dr. Jill Biden (PhD.) dubiously claiming she’s spoken to “a lot” of Republicans who were secretly going to vote for her husband, Raddatz cheered how “Several Republican groups are hoping for the same, waging war against the President of their own party.”
Bruce kicked off her report with a soundbite from a Lincoln Project ad. “Blistering ads targeting President Trump but not by Democrats but from a group of Republicans intent on taking down the leader of their party. Many using the President's own words against him,” she boasted.
Her report was flush with soundbites from an interview she did with Lincoln Project co-founder Reed Galen (click “expand”):
REED GALEN (co-founder, The Lincoln Project): We pull no punches. We don’t tell people about Donald Trump, we illustrate why he's unfit for office.
BRUCE: It's called The Lincoln Project and co-founder Reed Galen tells us many of the ads, which are running heavily on Fox News, are intended for an audience of one.
GALEN: What we see strategically is that it throws him and his campaign off its game.
She interviewed Galen and not his fellow co-founder Steve Schmidt, because last week it was discovered that Schmidt had interviewed for a position with the Trump campaign in 2016.
After Bruce had touted how “the group, Republican Voters Against Trump is hoping to amplify the voices of frustrated Republicans” and their “goal to sway Trump voters to back Biden,” she did the same for the former Bush officials “now piling on.”
It was a 180-degree turn for a media that had told the American public that the Bush administration was made up of Nazis and war criminals. But CBS’s The Late Show didn’t forget.
While being interviewed by cartoon characters last month, prominent Lincoln Project member Rick Wilson was humiliated by a fake political ad calling out their former Bush administration officials. The cartoons also called out how 89.3 percent of the money The Lincoln Project raised went to lining their pockets. ABC and Bruce didn’t care to mention that tidbit during their swooning.
Speaking of Wilson, Bruce also didn’t mention his little controversy with a certain cooler. Back in June Twitter sleuths exposed how both Wilson and his wife proudly displayed a Confederate-theme cooler on their Instagram pages. The pictures, which have seen been deleted, showed a cooler with the words “the south will rise again” on the top and the Confederate flag on the side.
But that didn’t stop Bruce from celebrating how Galen was “more blunt about his long term goal: wiping out Trumpism” and “targeting Republican senators who have sided with the President.”
Following the report, both Raddatz and Bruce had huge smiles on their faces as they discussed how the Biden campaign was happy to have the Lincoln Project working for them. Bruce was thankful that the group could do the dirty work and keep Biden clean (click "expand"):
I think what strikes me here, especially in watching some of these ads, is that these groups are able to do what Joe Biden politically simply can't. Right? Joe Biden is trying, in many ways, to maintain this squeaky clean image. And now you have these groups who are doing anything but, these ads are not subtle, they are brutal, they are hitting trump where it hurts, trying to beat him at his own game. These are simply ads Biden could not run.
And being dirty was what The Lincoln Project specialized in. According to a New York Post report, “The founders of the Lincoln Project (…) have their own checkered dealings with Russia and the tax man, documents obtained by The Post reveal.”
The report went on to describe how co-founder John Weaver was a registered Russian agent working for TENEX, a uranium conglomerate. And he also had “an outstanding $313,655 federal tax lien against his Austin, Texas, home.”
Where was all of this Martha, Mary? The truth didn’t matter because they wanted to promote the group who was helping their candidate.
In addition to being sponsored by an anti-trump ad, this segment was made possible because of lucrative corporate ad deals from Gillette and Verizon. Their contact information is linked if you want to tell them what they’re funding. ABC also wants people to tweet at them using #ThisWeek and to visit their Facebook page.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
August 2, 2020
9:42:20 a.m. EasternJILL BIDEN: From what I've seen, a lot of Republicans re going to vote for Joe. [Transition] Maybe they’re not saying it publically, but when I was out there on the trail a lot of people came up to me and said, “Jill, I'm a Republican but I'm going to vote for your husband because he's moderate a and he's a steady leader and we believe in Joe.”
MARTHA RADDATZ: Dr. Jill Biden making the case that Republican voters are going to be crossing the aisle to vote for her husband this November. Several Republican groups are hoping for the same, waging war against the President of their own party. Here's senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce.
[Cuts to video]
POLITICAL AD: COVID has robbed America of so much, none of this had to happen. We have suffered needlessly because Trump is a fool, a liar, and a failure.
MARY BRUCE: Blistering ads targeting President Trump but not by Democrats but from a group of Republicans intent on taking down the leader of their party. Many using the President's own words against him.
REED GALEN (co-founder, The Lincoln Project): We pull no punches. We don’t tell people about Donald Trump, we illustrate why he's unfit for office.
BRUCE: It's called The Lincoln Project and co-founder Reed Galen tells us many of the ads, which are running heavily on Fox News, are intended for an audience of one.
GALEN: What we see strategically is that it throws him and his campaign off its game.
(…)
BRUCE: Trump is not amused but he is taking the bait.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They shouldn't call it The Lincoln Project it's not fair to Abraham Lincoln. They should call it the losers project.
(…)
BRUCE: The group, Republican Voters Against Trump is hoping to amplify the voices of frustrated Republicans.
(…)
BRUCE: The goal to sway Trump voters to back Biden.
TIM MILLER (RVAT): We can help nudge them over to Joe Biden's camp using these messengers from the people their community rather than wagging our finger at them.
BRUCE: Its founder, Tim Miller tells us that the coronavirus has been a tipping point.
(…)
BRUCE: Former Bush administration officials are now piling on.
ROSARIO MARIN (fmr. U.S. treasurer): What do we have here? The greatest nation in the world on its knees, because of failed leadership. We can't have four more years of this.
BRUCE: Galen is more blunt about his long term goal: wiping out Trumpism.
GALEN: I do believe that a philosophically-driven, center-right party is healthy for the United States. We do not have that right now.
BRUCE: The Lincoln project now broadening their scope.
POLITICAL AD: They chose Trump.
BRUCE: Targeting Republican senators who have sided with the President.
GALEN: It's not about just Donald Trump although he is the prime target. It’s about all of those people who failed their oaths of office.
BRUCE: You'd be gutting your own party.
GALEN: Well, it's not our party anymore.
BRUCE: I guess that’s what it comes down to then.
GALEN: For us, it’s not even about the party, it’s about the country.
[Cuts back to live]
RADDATZ: With that let's bring in our senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce, who is joined on the roundtable by Axios national political reporter Jonathan Swan, ABC News White House correspondent Rachel Scott, and FiveThirtyEight's senior writer Perry Bacon. Welcome to you all.
But I want to go back to you Mary, Republican strategists targeting both President Trump and Republican senators up for re-election. How does Joe Biden's team view all this?
BRUCE: Well, Martha, I think they certainly welcome any help they can get in this department. They are quick to point out that these groups, especially The Lincoln Project and some of these others, are not just now anti-Trump groups but have really become pro-Biden. And they see that as yet another problem for President Trump.
I think what strikes me here, especially in watching some of these ads, is that these groups are able to do what Joe Biden politically simply can't. Right? Joe Biden is trying, in many ways, to maintain this squeaky clean image. And now you have these groups who are doing anything but, these ads are not subtle, they are brutal, they are hitting trump where it hurts, trying to beat him at his own game. These are simply ads Biden could not run.
And the question though, is whether they're needling the President or are they actually going to sway voters?
(…)
