• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 12, 2020

For some keen insights on what makes the gang of Anti-Trump Republicans at Lincoln Project tick, Leslie Stahl’s 60 Minutes piece Sunday night on the group is a must watch. 

As you’re probably aware, the LP founders are veteran Republican strategists who went rogue, formed the LP PAC and are committed to toppling Trump from power — largely through the sharply pointed and spot-on political ads they create. 

As Stahl notes, the ads are some the meanest you’ll see during this year’s campaign. Not surprisingly, that’s by design with no apologies, Rick Wilson, one of the group’s founders who oversees its ad effort, told Stahl. 

In part, those ads are designed to get under Trump’s skin, Wilson pointed out. And they do, judging from some of the Twitter rants and other comments Trump has aimed at the LP. And when Trump goes off the rails, so does the campaign. “One thing you never get back in a campaign is a lost day,” Wilson says in the piece. 

In some ways, Trump helped to put the LP, formed last December, on the map.

In May, it put out its “Mourning In America” spot that mimicked the Reagan-era campaign ad “Morning In America.” The LP spot highlighted the tragedy of COVID-19 and Trump’s inept handling of the crisis. After it aired, Trump called out the LP gang as a bunch of “Republican losers.” 

“The President attacked us by name, called us losers and we raised $2 million in 48 hours,” Reed Galen, another LP founder, told Stahl. “He bought us instant credibility.” In total, the group has raised $60 million and counting. 

Republican women are a prime target for the group’s ads because it has found that when those women turn away from Trump, their husbands often follow. 

The LP is convinced that if just 4% of Republican voters go for Biden this year, he will win the election.