one of the biggest anti-trump groups the
lincoln project surrounded by scandal
after spending years
attacking the former president the
group's co-founder joe weaver john
weaver is accused of sexually harassing
and preying on scores of young men
when the allegations went public last
month the lincoln project said it was
quote
shocked but a new report says top
leaders at the group
knew about at least 10 allegations
against weaver
and that was months ago this is coming
to us from new york magazine and the
associated press as well
um greg i want to start with you i mean
their whole modus operandi was taking
the high ground the high moral ground
against former president trump and and
now according to these reports it was in
writing there were reports to numerous
people at the lincoln project
um and yet they say as of january they
didn't know what was going
on you know they were lying and also
it's interesting that now that trump is
out of office
almost like coincidentally the lincoln
project no longer is being protected
so now the ap exposes this scandal at an
appropriate time
when it has no effect on the election or
uh because they knew that if they'd done
this story it might have actually helped
trump and they don't want to help trump
so everybody that knew that hid this
from their
from their perch of high morality
claiming trump was unfit
i am told shannon by an anonymous
psychic
who has regular conversations with the
dead that uh she quotes
abe lincoln as saying get this the
lincoln project
is one of the top two worst things that
ever happened to him
ouch uh okay with that in mind
dana i want to turn to you because one
of the people who's come out to speak
against them is jennifer horn who was
part of founding the group
uh she has now turned against them she's
uh said she's
you know devastated by all that's come
forward and yet we have them
somehow they got into her private dms on
twitter
they posted these messages between her
and a reporter
i think they've since been deleted but
what does that say to you
as far as an intimidation tactic uh
something that appears very sketchy for
somebody who's coming out to speak
against them
i think that they're proving to be what
we already
knew they were and it wasn't about
anti-trump
i just want to remind people the lingam
project spent millions of dollars
trying to defeat susan collins
among senators they literally spent
millions
of dollars on advertisements targeting
her
in a very misogynistic way let's just
call it what it is
she um they actually called her a trump
stooge
and guess what she won so it didn't work
but um also uh winning the day today
would be
the credulous boomer rube demo
remember what rick wilson said right
it's a good day for them and one we have
some of these people who are
prominent members or founders have been
very involved with the lincoln project
going out and still doing other
interviews and not being asked about
john weaver
how is that possible one
well i think the one everyone's talking
about shannon is george conway
uh the husband of kellyanne but uh
conway says you know he really cut
ties with the group i guess in the
middle of last year
and he says he didn't hear these rumors
about weaver until after the election so
i mean i guess that's the best to say
about that
but on the media part of it i must say
you know when i look at
politico the hill the washington post
the new york times i see this
i see lots of reporting on this i mean
it's hard to miss a gay sex scandal
uh in america if you're a republican or
democrat it's out there
um but i would go with something that
picking up on something degan was saying
you realize that the lincoln group
lincoln project i should say
raised i think it's 90 million dollars
right
but they spent less than they spent less
than half of that
in terms of advertising so the rest of
it was going to into the pockets
of the people who were leading the
organization i think that's the real
scandal you know
true yeah and but jesse there has been
really no
these rumors have been out there there
are other people who have said this has
been whispered for a long time
dc is a small place the press corps is
small like we hear these things
so jesse they say that they didn't know
all this time
do you buy it no i don't buy it
it reminds me of michael avenatti you
guys have like a media darling that
swoops in and
they're great and they're really useful
and then the minute they become
not useful they just implode and then
the media forgets about them
anybody with any street smarts saw this
coming a mile away
the rumors were out there since the 90s
and a lot of these guys running the
lincoln project had deep
financial debts so to juan's point if
you bring in 90 million
and then you only spend 20 million on
ads the rest is overhead that means it
went into the pockets
of the firms that these guys ran i don't
know if this is like your typical
sexual harassment scandal or what or if
it goes deeper if it involves minors
or if people are going to come forward
within the organization and make
accusations
whatever it is if it goes in that
direction
i don't think you're ever going to see
another lincoln project member on
television again
well they say they fired an outside body
to come and do a thorough investigation
they also say they're releasing people
from non-disclosure
agreements if they want to come out and
share their stories and so hopefully
people will feel safe
and protected to do that