According to a report from the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, a far-right PAC that backed Judge Roy Moore's failed bid to win a U.S. Senate seat representing Alabama, is now focusing their efforts on defeating the handful of Republicans who either voted to impeach Donald Trump or agreed with Democrats to investigate the Jan 6th insurrection.
The Drain the DC Swamp PAC has already sunk over $300,000 into attacks on the GOP lawmakers which include Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
According to the Daily Beast report, those conservative lawmakers are being called "turncoats" and "RINO communist traitors" in ads from the PAC.
"All of those Republicans voted to impeach the former president. But they also voted for a Jan. 6 commission. In total, there were 35 House Republicans and six Senate Republicans who supported an investigation into the insurrection. And that list includes a number of lesser-known Republicans, like Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), and even some Republicans who voted to overturn the election results but then voted for a commission, like Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-NY)," the report states.
As for who is bankrolling the group's latest efforts, Sollenberger said the PAC's financial, filing isn't due until next month, but a look at the group's history may provide a clue.
"Drain the DC Swamp's top financier was himself one of the most timeworn symbols of swampy influence: an oil-and-gas billionaire. That megadonor, Colorado's Tatnall Hillman, contributed four out of every five dollars the PAC raised," he wrote. "While the PAC's current registration obscures its leadership, it isn't entirely anonymous. An old statement of organization filed with the FEC in 2018 names disgraced Tea Party pioneer Judson Phillips as treasurer."
As for Phillips, the report notes he has a checkered past that includes being losing his license to practice law.
"Phillips, who has a blog and was disbarred by the state of Tennessee for the first time in 2018 after swindling clients out of timeshare fees, has a deeply controversial past. That history includes Islamophobic remarks and an attempt to get his Tea Party followers to blame 'leftists' for the 2011 assassination attempt on former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), which left six dead," he wrote.
That didn't hamper the PAC from raising about $675,000 and dispersing close to $450,000 in ads promoting Judge Moore whose campaign was derailed by sexual misconduct allegations regarding younger women.
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