It is interesting to see when Never Trumpers attack each other.
Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt didn’t hold anything back in a Twitter conversation that attracted plenty of attention due to the fact that his criticized his former organization and claimed they “should either be professionalized and reformed or shut down” due to the group's “despicable and unethical behavior.” He also demanded financial transparency within the group.
Schmidt demanded Reed Galen, one of the co-founders of the Lincoln Project, to be removed from the group. Schmidt claimed that the co-founders Mike Madrid, Ron Steslow, and Jennifer Horn have “destroyed the organization” through “their fame seeking and narcissism.” “The Galen lie cost millions of dollar of @ProjectLincoln money and bankrupted the organization,” Schmidt declared.
It's not entirely clear the exact meaning of what he was saying. Many speculated that he was talking about the allegations of sexual harassment of John Weaver, another Lincoln Project co-founder. It was reported that the Lincoln Project paid $27 million to Galen's consulting company in 2020.
“There is a shocking and delusional scene at the end of the @ProjectLincoln documentary where Galen says he is the leader of a movement of millions. That makes him as deluded as Trump and MTG,” Schmidt stated in reference to the documentary that has just come out. It seems like there are many questions that could be raised regarding the source of the funds.
Then Schmidt began to attack Rick Wilson, another co-founder. He described Wilson “a brilliant ad maker” but added that the ad maker “should never have any leadership or management responsibilities whatsoever in an organization.” Schmidt claimed that one of the reasons why he quit the Lincoln Project about a year ago was due to the way Wilson was trying to raise money for a movie he claimed he was planning to make concerning Donald Trump. Schmidt explained that Wilson was able to raise “tens of thousands of dollars” via a GoFundMe campaign, but “never made the movie.” He claimed he asked Wilson to refund the money, saying that he needed to “fix this.”
Schmidt stated that he was confident of the “integrity, competence and judgement” of Joe Trippi and Stuart Stevens, two of the remaining members of the Lincoln Project. Schmidt ended by saying “self interested shell of that organization under the selfish and dishonest management of @reedgalen.”
The Weaver scandal wasn't the only incident that the group was involved in.
Weaver was condemned by his co-founders after the reports and resigned last year, but things only got worse, as a flood of stories ensued about the organization’s self-dealing and financial mismanagement – the Lincoln Project paid $27 million alone to Galen’s consulting firm in 2020 – and a toxic work environment. Schmidt was widely panned when he said he would open the group’s books for audit only when the Trump organization did, and it was later revealed he ordered Kurt Bardella, now a Democratic advisor, to publish the private messages of Horn with a reporter in an effort to embarrass her.
Weaver was condemned by his co-founders after the reports and resigned last year, but things only got worse, as a flood of stories ensued about the organization’s self-dealing and financial mismanagement – the Lincoln Project paid $27 million alone to Galen’s consulting firm in 2020 – and a toxic work environment. Schmidt was widely panned when he said he would open the group’s books for audit only when the Trump organization did, and it was later revealed he ordered Kurt Bardella, now a Democratic advisor, to publish the private messages of Horn with a reporter in an effort to embarrass her.
Stuart Stevens, the one who Schmidt says has “integrity,” was the one who stood up for the tiki torch controversy. There were also questions raised about Schmidt's compensation.
What's the bottom line? It is time to examine the answers to all of these questions, especially the ones about money, and they're all deplorable, including Schmidt. The group raked in $90 million from a lot of ignorant Democrats by promoting their anti-Trump stance. Schmidt's trying to get away from the group now that the documentary has been released.
