Lincoln Project Republicans call Trump worst president in U.S. history, endorse Biden
Former Republican strategists Rick Wilson and Steve Schmidt called President Donald Trump the worst president in American history and endorsed Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden, at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker event Sept. 24.
The two founded the Lincoln Project, a political action committee, in late 2019 to join with other Republicans to defeat Trump in his run for re-election.
Schmidt contends Trump told “the most lethal lie in American history” when he downplayed the COVID-19 threat and called it a Democratic hoax. Without this lie, “If we had the same mortality rate as Germany did, there would be 150,000 more Americans alive today,” he said.
According to Schmidt, Trump’s step to use important symbols of the republic for political purposes at the Republican convention said in essence, “I am the truth, I am the law, I am the state.”
Moderator Lisa Matthews, Club vice president, asked why traditional Republicans in the Senate did not speak up. Wilson answered, “Cowardice.”
Schmidt said their organization has several million followers [on social media] and half a million donors to “fight back against Trumpism.”
Wilson said he expects they will enter the election with a war chest of $50 million.
The pair said they are concentrating on the Senate races in Alaska, Montana, Maine, South Carolina and Mississippi.
Schmidt said, “I think he [Trump] is overtly stoking racial animus in this country, the likes of which we have not seen since [former governor of Alabama] George Wallace was on the scene.”
Matthews asked about the role of the Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr leading up to the election.
“It is horrifying that you have the attorney general of the United States declaring municipalities anarchist territories … in order to engage in a political stunt to assist the Trump campaign,” Wilson said.
Wilson also condemned Barr for using government resources to defend Trump against a sexual assault case stemming from an incident before his time in office; attempting to quash books that have already gone through security review, simply because they offend Trump; and a list of other lies and interference in legitimate processes.
“We will look back on Bill Barr as a reckless and lawless individual who was determined to break the role of the Justice Department as a fairly independent part of the Executive Branch and turn it into the Trump family’s personal legal and political arm,” he said.
Despite their condemnation of Trump and Barr, the Lincoln Project duo expressed optimism for the future.
“I think that Biden will win and I think the Democrats will take the Senate majority,” Schmidt said.
Wilson said Biden would need around 340 of the 538 votes in the electoral college to gain public acceptance of the win.
“The choice that Joe Biden specifically presents in this race is between a good man and a bad man, a decent man and an indecent man, an honest man and a dishonest man, a recognized global statesman and an international laughingstock,” Schmidt said.
The Lincoln Project will support Biden in achieving legislation addressing voting rights, civil rights, election security and prevention of foreign interference, ethics reform, civil service reform and immigration reform, he said.