'Do you choose violence, chaos, cruelty, conspiracy:' Ex-Republicans sound the alarm on stopping Trumpism in November
Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson appeared on MSNBC's "Deadline White House" with Nicolle Wallace Monday to talk about the group's latest ad that highlights the ways in which the Republican Party was once opposed to so-called "big government" and the "nanny state" legislating the personal behaviors of Americans.
Wallace, who served in George W. Bush's White House, has abandoned the GOP since Trump took over the GOP. Wilson similarly did the same, forming the super PAC with a group of so-called "Never Trumpers," who continue to support moderate candidates.
In their latest ad, however, the group takes off after the GOP, saying that many Republicans might believe that because they don't support Donald Trump they aren't as bad as he is. The ad argues that if Republicans vote for people like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott they're just as bad as Donald Trump.
"That may not be what you think you represent, but if you vote Republican, it is," the voiceover says in the ad.
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"Versions of that ad will run in targeted races, including in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin where Trump-backed candidates are so, so extreme, so outside of where the mainstream of American voters are in their states, they have imperiled their party's chances of success in November," Wallace explained.
Wallace had little sympathy for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been preparing GOP donors and officials for an election that doesn't work out the way they'd anticipated.
"But Mitch McConnell stinks," she said flatly, noting that it was the McConnells of the world who let it happen. "I mean, he's the one that refused to vote to get rid of Donald Trump when he was impeached for a second time."
Wilson recalled McConnell strategist Josh Holmes saying, "we could have a permanent governing majority if we can just fool these rubes into voting for Mitch's candidates. We're just humoring Trump by not saying that he lost the election in 2020."
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He explained that all of the Republicans have made a bet, but now they can't control the monster they created.
"The reason we did this ad was to show voters that there is a choice this year," said Wilson. "And Donald Trump is making it into a choice. Do you choose violence, chaos, cruelty, conspiracy? Or do you choose a country that can work? Do you choose a small 'd' democratic system? And we are seeing Mitch McConnell as one of the chief enablers of Donald Trump, and he's paying a terrible price. They've incinerated $150 million of corporate donor money trying to elect guys like Blake Masters and Dr. Oz and JD Vance. It is what I think is probably the greatest expenditure of money for the greatest failure of a political strategy in history."
Wallace noted reporting saying that Biden can't change the election to being a referendum on his presidency, but he has Trump as an ally in bringing down the GOP. Even as Trump is facing off against the Justice Department, he's claiming that it's election interference, despite not even being on the ballot or declaring he's running in 2024.
"This is possibly a worst-case scenario for Republicans," said former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL). "They thought they were cruising to a historic midterm election. Biden's numbers were down and they wanted this election to be about Joe Biden. But now we're in a post-Dobbs America and an America where Donald Trump has now inserted himself into the political dialogue. Two terrible dynamics for Republicans. And then they're burdened by a number of really bad candidates."
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He predicted that Democrats could be able to pull off defying history in November.
"It's going to take something very special, and we saw it in Joe Biden last Thursday in Rockville, Maryland," Jolly explained. "Just as the Lincoln Project is laying down the fear, if you will, of what's on the line, Joe Biden and Democrats need to invite Independents and those mainstream Republicans into the coalition. Joe Biden, on Thursday, said, now is the time for Democrats, Independents and mainstream Republicans to come together. Do not take that coalition for granted. It was there in '18 and '20 to stop Trumpism, but it wasn't necessarily there to really buoy Democrats. You need that this cycle. So, invite that coalition in. Joe Biden made a pivot last Thursday that was a remarkable one, and one that could carry them through November very successfully."
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