A small group of President Donald Trump's fiercest conservative critics is launching a super PAC designed to fight Trump's reelection and punish congressional Republicans deemed his “enablers."
The organization is known as the Lincoln Project. It represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement, which has been limited largely to media commentary during Trump's presidency.
Organizers launched a website Tuesday, coinciding with an opinion piece in the New York Times by some of the principal people involved. Among them:
- George Conway: Conservative attorney and husband of Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway
- Steve Schmidt: Former John McCain presidential campaign adviser
- John Weaver: Adviser to former Ohio Governor John Kasich
- Rick Wilson: Republican strategist and author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies" and “Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America From Trump and Democrats From Themselves”
The organizers in the op-ed say they question Trump's moral compass and temperament, but they also go after those in Congress who steadfastly support him.
"Indeed, national Republicans have done far worse than simply march along to Mr. Trump’s beat. Their defense of him is imbued with an ugliness, a meanness and a willingness to attack and slander those who have shed blood for our country, who have dedicated their lives and careers to its defense and its security, and whose job is to preserve the nation’s status as a beacon of hope," the op-ed reads.
They also say they are hopeful, but not optimistic, that some Republicans in the Senate will vote to convict Trump in an impeachment trial.
The group reports fundraising commitments exceeding $1 million to begin. They hope to raise much more to fuel an advertising campaign in a handful of 2020 battleground states to persuade disaffected Republican voters to break from Trump's GOP.
Trump has the public backing of virtually every Republican member of Congress.