[Kristine] All right, this might take a few minutes
just to get the light right,
'cause we've got really harsh sun right now.
But we're just gonna do a few.
If you don't mind doing just a few.
You're just walking this direction.
I'm just gonna shoot you as you kind of pass this--
We're walking? We're walking?
[Kristine] You're walking.
Yeah. Like, swagger.
[Reed] You know, I didn't wear my boots today,
but you want me to do a little--
[Kristine] I think if you got a little swagger, it'll go--
All right, well, let me back up and start over, then,
-'cause, you know-- - [Kristine] You gotta feel it.
[Keith] I'm trying to get a 30-minute call
to just go over, like, some FAQs
that The New Yorker's likely gonna ask
so that we can all be aligned
in how we wanna answer them.
[person] What's the question?
[Keith] Why there are no women cofounders?
[person 1] There is a woman cofounder.
[person 2] Speaking of...
There's a woman cofounder. End of discussion.
But, like, Jennifer's not on this call, you know?
[Rick] Part of this, they said be bluntly honest.
Hi, have you met us?
Do you know what world we come from?
You know, this was a white boys' club
for a very long time.
- I know. I don't think-- - I'm not gonna bullshit.
[Keith laughs] You know, it's--
- Skinny. - [Kristine laughs]
Skinny pictures.
[Kristine] I'll put the skinny filter on.
Has she turned against us?
No, but I can tell you
these are things she's gonna ask.
Look straight ahead to you.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Stuart] We're not the diversity council.
We're just, like, a bunch of men and women
trying to do something.
We'll take anybody.
[person] Yeah.
There's no vetting here.
- Clearly. - [laughter]
pensive music
I stand before you today to fulfill one of my highest
and most important duties
under the United States Constitution,
the nomination of a Supreme Court justice.
[applause]
This is my third such nomination.
This should be a straightforward and prompt
confirmation, should be very easy.
Good luck.
- It's gonna be very quick. - [laughter]
I'm sure it'll be extremely noncontroversial.
Today it is my honor to nominate
Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
[cheers and applause]
[Jeanine] President Trump's nomination today
of Amy Coney Barrett--
a brilliant scholar, jurist, constitutional textualist,
mother of seven with an unblemished reputation--
will cement the conservative leaning of the Supreme Court
for decades to come.
This alone will put the left over the edge.
[Stuart] Let me ask you a question.
I mean, you know, for the last 25 years,
we've said, you know, R v. Wade
could be on the ballot with the Supreme Court,
but it really hasn't been.
- [Ron] Mm-hmm. - [person] Right.
Now it is. What is the impact to that?
You can legitimately say that now.
So I had probably 10 to 12 of my girlfriends
reach out last night-- all of whom are
late 30s, early 40s, fiscally conservative--
and they're like, "Oh, my God."
And it's not--it's not like Roe versus Wade is top of mind,
but they're smart, and they understand that this could be
a six-three court, and that to them is,
like, unfathomable.
I think I broadly accept the argument that...
every voter for whom conservative judges
was the issue
- is already with Trump. - [Ron] Mm-hmm.
[Steve] I do think there is danger
that this whole thing
makes the race about something other than COVID, right?
And I wanna come back to, like, what we've succeeded at
in this organization:
framing messages and narratives
and being at the tip of the spear,
and people have followed in behind it.
That's what our maximum impact has been, I think,
on a lot of the narrative stuff, right?
Like, COVID is about...
- [Stuart] The incompetence. - [Steve] ...a lie,
the incompetence,
but also, he's never gonna change.
[Mike] And remember, COVID is the only thing
along with the George Floyd, you know, death-murder fiasco
in the last three and a half years
where Trump's floor broke with the Republican-based voter.
That's where we started to see really significant movement.
That's true. We know that he's still scared shitless of it,
because every time it comes up, he lies about it again.
[person] Yeah.
[Steve] We prosecute COVID, and 200,000
and more growing dead Americans
because this guy lied to the country 119 times.
Right, we're taking it home.
I think our path-- I mean, isn't it pretty clear
we focus on COVID?
[person] I agree.
These are the hardest-core of the Trump haters,
but nobody should dismiss.
These are smart, tough guys, right?
The key to The Lincoln Project is, they say,
"We don't wanna defeat Trump. We wanna defeat Trumpism."
These are old-school RINOs that are globalists, okay?
And they've now applied this.
And I think, in a very sophisticated, smart way,
they're just trying to peel off about 4%.
- [person scoffs] - [Mike] Hmm.
The old-school RINOs.
Guys are sophisticated, strategy, right?
I thought it was a good clip of Bannon.
- Come on. - [person] Yeah.
Got Lincoln Project on his head.
So the Bannon line is a strategic focus
of The Lincoln Project.
If we get 4% of Republicans to vote for Joe Biden,
then the likelihood of Donald Trump losing
is really quite significant.
Truth of the matter is, COVID is the one issue
that has proven to break Republican support levels
against Donald Trump.
It's literally taken a pandemic of historic proportions
to snap Republicans out of it.
It's not the authoritarianism.
It's not the disrespect that we've engendered
around the world.
It's their family dying because of his incompetence.
That's what it took.
So the strategy, seeing the COVID spike
and start to literally place ads.
As we know, the virus is going to start growing
in these markets,
because as long as COVID is the discussion,
it's prime opportunity for us to go in
and start messaging into this unfortunate situation,
which, you don't ever wanna do this,
but it would be political malpractice if we didn't.
tense music
All right, 30 minutes.
Let's write a script.
The Trump plan:
after months of lies and empty promises,
he told the terrifying truth.
The Trump plan:
after months of lies and empty promises,
he told the terrifying truth.
He wants to infect seven out of ten Americans with COVID.
"He wants to infect"-- I can't say that.
That's not quite there.
[Schmidt] Donald Trump was just a terrible person.
- The worst president-- - Today.
He is the worst president in American history.
He's divided the country.
He incited hate
and lied to all of us
about everything tens of thousands of times.
[Rick] Say goodbye to your parents,
your neighbors, your friends,
'cause the Trump plan will kill millions.
I would love to say, "Because of the fool
that sits behind the Oval Office.
- Vote him out." - We can say that.
Done.
All right.
Some people think I'm pretty good at this shit.
I'm the anthropologist of Donald Trump's shitty world.
[narrator] The Trump plan:
after months of lies and empty promises,
he's told us the terrifying truth.
His herd-immunity plan is to infect
seven out of ten Americans with COVID.
The Trump plan will kill at least three million people.
Say goodbye to your parents,
your neighbors,
your friends,
because the Trump plan will kill millions
in the next four years,
maybe even you.
suspenseful music
[person] So, Reed, when did The Lincoln Project
really kind of take off?
Look, if COVID hadn't come on,
I'm not sure you and I are having this conversation,
because he gave us our opening to really understand
how to climb inside his head and stay there
and, you know, make the summer, from our perspective,
about giving Trump what he could take,
you know, day in and day out.
[Tucker] What happened in Hazleton
is happening around the country: neighborhoods...
[Reed] We buy Fox News in Washington, D.C., every week--
Tucker Carlson, Fox & Friends,
Sean Hannity-- because we know
he sits in the residence every night
and watches Fox News.
He's like an old man, right?
He's a cranky old man.
And we knew that if we buy these spots,
eventually he was gonna see them.
Live from the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D.C.,
we are joined now by President Donald Trump.
[Reed] Last May, we heard that he was gonna
go to the Lincoln Memorial on a Sunday night
and do a Fox News town hall.
- That's amazing. - Thanks for doing this.
[Reed] And so after that, we put up an ad.
It was not only about COVID but also about Trump.
[narrator] There's mourning in America.
Today more than 175,000 Americans
have died from a deadly virus Donald Trump ignored,
praising China's response
instead of heeding the warnings,
then blaming them to cover his own failures.
[Reed] And that night I'm sitting in bed
in front of my laptop,
and I'm like, " What?
He's attacking us."
dramatic music
And then on the tarmac the next day
in front of Air Force One,
somebody in the White House press pool asks him about us.
[reporter] Do you wanna make any comment
about this Lincoln Project ad?
Yeah, no, I saw it.
They should call it The Losers Project.
Okay, thanks.
That was the beginning of history for us.
The president not happy with a new ad
from a group of conservatives
who haven't been shy in going after him.
The Lincoln Project released this ad.
They call it Mourning in America.
An organization known as The Lincoln Project
put out, like, the harshest ad.
The Lincoln Project
is like watching
a Jay-Z/Nas rap battle.
I don't give money to political organizations.
I've given money to Lincoln Project
because of ads like this.
You know, we had raised, I think, about $2 million
up until the moment he attacked us.
And we raised $2 million
in the immediate 24 hours afterward.
It's not fair to Abraham Lincoln,
a great president.
Does he just not comprehend that he got
so much more attention to your commercial
by his public reactions today?
You know, we expected this ad to hit.
We did not expect him to behave
in the completely maniacal way he behaved all day today,
but here we are.
None of this is that complicated.
Like, we never poll tested Mourning in America,
and it got his attention.
It's all psychology at some point, right?
[Ron] Hey, Mary. It's Ron. How are you?
[Mary] Hi, Ron. I'm okay. How are you doing?
[Ron] I'm okay. I'm hanging in there.
My team is working on a billboard design
for--it's sort of a huge wraparound billboard
with a couple of
sort of extra units at 49th and Broadway.
- [Mary] Yup. - [Ron] You know, this falls
into the psyops category of our different lanes,
and I would love to brainstorm some ideas with you
and see what you think would be most effective.
[laughter]
What do you think about the-- like, a task--
the COVID task force piece?
[Mary] I guess it depends on what--you know...
[Ron] When the pandemic first hit,
my sister was finishing up
her last year of med school in New York.
This is when the PPE shortages were hitting.
That was the first moment it became real for me,
because my sister, who was seven months pregnant,
was going to work.
[reporter] New York among the 22 states
reporting an uptick in...
[Ron] The hospitals didn't have enough protective gear
for the students, the doctors, the nurses
who were putting their lives on the line
to care for people who were sick,
and that was because of Donald Trump
and Jared Kushner.
[Mary] You know, and...
Yes.
Oh, now I think we're onto something.
Yeah.
While we were still thinking about what creative direction
to go for these billboards, I decided,
basically we should just try to fuck with them
and get in their head, right?
To do something similar to Mourning in America
in order to turn out donations from all around the country.
It was like crowdfunding for all
the other political campaigns that we were playing in.
- [Mary] Hopefully. - Yeah.
So we've got the space at 49th and Broadway.
It's, like, a wraparound billboard.
[Stuart] It's a block from Fox.
Exactly, so we're brainstorming
how to troll Jared and Ivanka.
- [Reed] Here's what it is. - [Ron] Yeah.
[Reed] I don't care what it says.
You guys come up with the worst ideas.
- The social climber aspect-- - [Ron] Right.
[Rick] You'll never eat lunch in this town again.
[Stuart] I don't know, I think Rick's dead-on about this.
[Ron] What do you think about the COVID task force piece?
Maybe that's one angle.
[Rick] Great idea.
On March 21st, there was a meeting in the White House
concerning the COVID plans across the country.
And Jared decided to ax the blue states from COVID testing.
The notion of the federal stockpile was,
it's supposed to be our stockpile.
It's not supposed to be state stockpiles
that they then use.
So we're encouraging the states to make sure
that they're assessing the needs.
They're getting the data from their...
[Rick] He essentially said, "Well,
they didn't get on the phone and ask us properly.
They weren't nice to us."
In shorthand, "Fuck the blue states."
[Stuart] Why don't we tell 'em, "You're not welcome here"?
[Reed] I know that that makes you feel good,
but it's not achieving the objective.
I just think it's just a play to get press, isn't it?
[Ron] Mm-hmm.
It will achieve press, but, like, we want
- their friends to call them. - [Ron] Mm-hmm.
Why doesn't somebody just come up with some ideas
and put them on a piece of paper?
[Ron] Yeah, okay.
If only Ivanka had married a nice Jewish doctor,
tens of thousands of Americans would still be alive.
- Ooh! - [Ron] Whoa.
- [Reed sighs] - [Ron] Whoa.
Well, that'll certainly get attention.
[Ron] That will certainly get attention.
Lisa says, "No, you can't."
Yeah, something clearly not okay with it.
[Conor] At this stage in the game,
going after his family, going after Ivanka and Jared,
that's just not my wheelhouse.
I personally want to be focused on persuading people.
But it's in New York City, right?
We're not trying to persuade New Yorkers.
But there's so many people in this organization
with so many combined decades' worth of political work
that sometimes you do have to sort of be like,
"Okay, you've done this before, so I trust you."
Getting Trump's attention gets us more attention,
which gets us more firepower,
which means we can reach more voters.
It's a very clear life cycle, and it works very well.
And The Lincoln Project
is very quickly becoming a bigger thing.
[person] This is the stretching pains of expanding
and doing more and doing more
and trying to figure out a way...
[Sarah] We now have 50 full-time staffers,
35 interns,
and eight founders and growing.
We're still adding staff and interns.
So my prediction is, we'll be at 100 before the election.
John Weaver, I talk to him daily.
I keep saying, "Stop with the interns."
Today we went from 39 to 45.
And we're gonna bring more.
I'm like, "We don't need any more interns."
We do, though. We do. We do.
We do.
[Reed] This is, like, a really important thing...
[Sarah] The thing just keeps growing...
Actually turn those ideas into action.
[Sarah ...faster and faster,
and now we'll be setting up a studio for LPTV.
But also, I think that's cool for the day show,
but then it's reflective,
so we'd have to put something on it.
Hold on.
I mean, there's the windows up there...
I'm a producer on LPTV.
...think that's a big deal,
but we could dress this whole area here.
[person] We'll just measure out.
[Ella] We'd realize, like,
"Okay, we can actually put a studio together,
and then we can get through the last,
like, six weeks of the election in person."
Yeah. It's, like, perfect.
That's gonna make an impact.
That's gonna be great content.
Like, we want to do that.
So... six days.
Actually, it's more like five days.
We've fabricated,
upholstered, lit,
gotten all the cameras in,
gotten a dog in,
and made a real set.
How we doing?
We started to recognize
that we had to be out there
with competing content in the cultural space
beyond just what a super PAC can do.
You sit right there.
[Rick] There are millions and millions
and millions of Americans
who live in a hermetically sealed bubble,
and that bubble is fed by the twin sewage pipes
of Fox and Facebook.
[Reed] Can you believe this?
- [Rick] No. - [laughs]
I'm having trouble believing it.
[person] Here is what we are going to do right now.
We are gonna start from the top of the show,
where, Tara, we will come to you in a single.
You will introduce the show
and a single to a two-shot bringing Rick in.
Everything is good to go.
[person 1] Got it.
[person 2] Five, four, three, two, one.
Good evening, and welcome to The Breakdown.
I am Tara Setmayer,
and we are broadcasting live from--
for the first time from our fancy new studio
in an undisclosed location.
There he is, the Rick Wilson.
Hey, Tara, how are you?
[Tara] Fancy new digs there.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rick] You look at these pictures from the rallies,
and these people are largely maskless.
We are gonna be able to model the COVID outbreaks
following this guy around.
[Tara] And now the White House is moving forward
with this medically dangerous herd immunity.
Like measles and other things,
you're supposed to become immune to this
once you get it.
This doesn't work, number one, without a vaccine,
which we don't have yet.
[Rick] If you wanna pursue the herd immunity equation,
on the lower boundary of it, you lose 2.5 million people.
If the idea is that you're going to end up
giving people herd immunity
by killing 2 1/2 million to 5 1/2 million Americans,
you're not a president.
You're a psychopath.
pensive music
[indistinct chatter]
She's generously shared the right AirPod with me.
Keep the middle open for open communication.
100%.
Teamwork to make the dream work.
So this is a series that we're looking at doing,
a billboard program in multiple states.
It's interesting that in 2020,
we're putting up billboards as a way to campaign.
Yeah, that looks really good.
[Ron] This is roughly--this is, like, a very early draft,
but this is roughly where we're going.
[Reed] I like where this is going, Ron, a lot.
Very good, Ron. It's really, really great.
[Stuart] It needs to be more of that, like,
deathly power he has.
This is almost, like, too human.
Yeah, I agree, Stuart.
[Ron] Okay.
Yes.
[Philip] So you want her like I had
in the original mock-up, right?
- Like, where she's, like-- - [Ron] No.
For that top piece, just put the death toll.
[Philip] Yeah, I think this is--I think this is the one.
[Ron] Yup. That's it.
[pops lips]
So for everybody's benefit, we found a better location,
which is actually a block north,
right in the bow tie of Times Square
on the building that Good Morning America tapes in.
And we are moving money and creative today.
[Jennifer] I think we have to be careful,
especially in the last weeks.
Like, this is everything that we're talking about.
My biggest concern is that I feel like our priority--
all of the stuff that we're talking about is good.
I get it. I know where you're coming from.
But our job is to persuade people to vote for Biden.
Insulting people doesn't do that.
We're here to persuade people to vote for Joe Biden.
I just wanna make sure that we don't forget
that that's our priority.
Sorry to bring the crowd down.
- It sounds like a great ad. - No, no, no.
That was the first thing--
[Jennifer] Sounds like a fun ad, but--
When I saw it, that was what my concern was.
[Jennifer] Yeah, yeah, I do worry about that.
We always walk close to that line,
and we're always disciplined about stepping back from it.
I just wanna make sure that we
- continue to be-- - We should show restraint.
Yes.
Sometimes less is more.
Some of our ads, I know,
can be tough to watch
every now and then.
[Stuart] Where are we in releasing?
What have we released so far?
[Sarah] Arizona, morning in Arizona this weekend.
We'll drop Florida tomorrow.
We'll do D.C. Thursday.
[Jennifer] This is Reed's and Steve's
and John's and Brooke's project.
[Steve] I think we should go play all of our Senate ads
on the base of the senatorial committee building...
[laughter]
[Steve] ...in the last week, right?
Like, I think, like, we should fucking do that.
[Reed] I love it. I love it.
[Jennifer] They're a very enthusiastic
and creative group of guys.
I'm a somewhat conservative
New England grandmother, you know?
- Thank you. - Thanks, Jennifer.
Good to see you.
[Jennifer] They reached out to me
and invited me in,
and I'm very happy to be part of it.
I will see you all again
before the day's over, I'm sure.
[person] All right. Are we good?
[indistinct chatter]
- [Jennifer] He owes me. - [laughter]
Jennifer, what a long, strange trip it has been.
- [Jennifer] We go way back. - Jennifer...
[Jennifer] Where the hell are we now?
...we go way back.
I mean, Jennifer was a Republican's Republican
before her conversion,
the bright light that came from Donald Trump.
[person] Yeah, before Trump.
Yeah.
[Jennifer] I was chairman of New Hampshire Republican Party
when Donald Trump was nominated.
- Thank you, darling. - [person] Good luck.
[Jennifer] And I remember my friends would say to me,
"You guys in New Hampshire, you're gonna stop it.
He's not gonna win New Hampshire really, is he?"
- You feel good about it? - [person] Yeah.
[cheers and applause]
Oh, wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
So beautiful.
[Jennifer] It was awful.
So beautiful.
[elevator bell dinging]
[Jennifer] And I have spent every minute since then
feeling some level of personal responsibility
of making sure that we don't let this happen again.
[person] Okay.
[Jennifer] Is this where I belong?
- [person 1] All right. - [person 2] Yeah.
[Ella gasps] Jennifer!
- [Jennifer] Hey, how are you? - [Ella] I'm good.
- Here she is. - [Jennifer] So how's it going?
[Ella] This is me hugging you, 'cause I can't,
-'cause COVID. - [Jennifer] I know. I know.
I know.
[Ella] Jennifer Horn is a Republican.
She's also, like, the quintessential American mom.
She's able to reach all these women
who wanna hear from someone like her.
[person] Jennifer, are you ready?
[Jennifer] I'm ready.
- Let's do it. - [person] Three, two, one.
So much going on right now.
It sounds like we've got a lot of people waiting.
Our next caller is Janet.
[Janet] I'm one of those white suburban women
that is not voting for Trump.
He's ripping our country apart in such a manner
that hasn't happened since the Civil War.
So how do we talk to each other in a way that is not
gonna be defensive or volatile?
[Ella] I have had many conversations with people
who have called in to our show,
written in, tweeted, who have said,
"I was undecided,"
or, "I was going to vote for Trump,
and a conversation that Jennifer had about empathy
spoke to my heart and told me
that I am now going to vote for Biden."
Like, that's the fucking goal.
[Philip] With the vendor and--
[sighs]
Hi.
[Philip] Hi.
- It's a bit stressful. - [person] What happened?
So the fun thing about billboards is,
they're different than TV.
That means there are strict guidelines
that different companies have.
And in this case, saying, "Trump lied.
200,000 people died," is apparently an opinion
and not a fact.
So we can't use that.
We just have to adapt to that,
because now billboard spaces are filling up quickly.
Okay, I'll be over there now.
Can't use that.
Can't use this or the photo behind it.
[Katre] This is for what, Arizona,
where we have a problem?
Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
[Kate] Great.
- Nothing important. - Mm-mm.
They don't have any value in the Electoral College.
[Kate] I have a feeling
that whatever we do with these quotes
is gonna get shot down at this point.
[Philip] I would bet that,
but we need to play their game for now, unfortunately.
So we pretty much need to do this today,
because we're set back another 48 to 72 hours,
and ballots are gonna start dropping in states
if they haven't already.
So we're between, like, a boulder and a cliff
and, like, a hard place and, like, a shark.
[Kate speaking indistinctly]
Like a pterodactyl but the one from, like,
Jurassic Park III.
[Keith] I literally woke up to, like,
five people saying, like,
"New Yorker article looks-- it's great."
- I was like, "What?" - [laughter]
- I was like, "It's out?" - Yeah.
You were one of them.
That was the first thing I read this morning.
[Keith] Me too. Like this.
Yeah.
[Keith] This is, like, Steve Schmidt's,
Rick Wilson's, Reed Galen's, John Weaver's baby.
I mean, like, as, like,
a young gay kid in New York City,
to be in The New Yorker
is just--
Just, like, makes me really emotional.
- I don't know. - [Lily] No.
Yeah, it's like, it's just a--
I don't know.
[person] That New Yorker reporter
didn't even talk to us,
anybody on our team, as far as I know.
It's all good. [chuckles]
Like, I read the article, or I skimmed it a little bit.
I learned who brought dogs.
I learned what kind of breed they were.
That was cool.
But the work that Mike's done and Zach's done
means more to me personally...
[person] Yeah.
[Philip] ...than a fucking article.
Mike has literally put his entire career at risk.
Mike is, like, the entire targeting operation
of Lincoln Project and--yeah.
[Philip] I thought we were just a Twitter account
when I first learned about The Lincoln Project.
Like, I saw some pretty spicy tweets.
I'm gonna do this. Watch.
[Lily laughs]
The power you wield is--
Insane. It's actually insane.
- It's too much. - It's insane.
You know, like, the shit we're all doing is pretty hard.
[Keith] No, I think everyone has a hand in it.
- Yeah. - And I think--I think it's--
- Like, I feel-- - It's like, it's not
anyone's place to, like, take credit.
[Lily] No, no, no, I'm not saying, like--
- Like, we all do-- - I didn't think it was bad.
I just wish other people had been highlighted.
That's all.
[person] Is there something about the article
that created tension?
No, I think it was--it's good.
I don't think anyone has tension about it,
that I'm aware of, at least.
I don't know.
- [clears throat] - [Keith chuckles]
It's gonna be a good day. Gonna be a great day.
Sarah wants to know if we're coming into the--
she emailed the whole team
to see who's coming to the office today.
- Should I say we're-- - We're not going.
- Okay. - [person] Yo.
[Mike] Yeah, guys, I wanna have a quick chat
with everybody.
Did everybody read the New Yorker piece today?
[person] Started to.
It bites me to no fucking end
that The New Yorker can write a fucking story
called "The War Room of The Lincoln Project"
without talking to the people that run the fucking war room.
There is a narrative about The Lincoln Project
being just an internet sensation
and a great tweet machine and really cool ads
when we all know that that is not all of who we are,
that if this race is won, it's gonna be
because of the work that the people in this room did...
obviously not exclusively but...
substantially.
[person] I'll be honest, guys.
- Like, I don't really care. - [laughter]
[Mike] No. Well, here's the thing.
This is important.
And let me teach you a lesson,
'cause you're really young in this business.
If you don't tell your story, somebody else is gonna.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
[person] We would be kidding ourselves
if we said that the angling hasn't begun.
And I think the best thing that we can do,
you know, let's be honest about the angling.
It's the thing that happens on campaigns.
It's like, it's not a nice thing,
but it's a thing that happens.
The best kind of angling is continuing to deliver.
dramatic music
[Mike] We're not making the ads.
We're not the ones who were on cable news.
That's what made The Lincoln Project
as influential as it is.
But that alone is not sufficient
to actually move the voters to accomplish
the mission that we are talking about.
That requires data work and targeting
and understanding the voters
at a very small, granular level.
And it's what we do.
We take pride in that.
That needs to be respected.
And...
...you know, it's just--
I don't think that my guys are feeling that right now.
I know I'm not.
This is a Fox News alert.
I'm Ashley Strohmier, live from New York.
President Trump just tweeted moments ago
that he and the first lady have tested positive
for the coronavirus.
The president and first lady now isolating
here at the White House in the residence behind me,
with all public events canceled.
[person] The president formally introduced
his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett,
just days earlier during a September 26th
Rose Garden ceremony.
Several of the attending audience members
since also tested positive for the virus.
This is more than an October surprise.
It's like an October asteroid hit.
Hey, gang.
- Hey. - [person] Hey.
Well, we have to start breaking our news cycles down
into milliseconds, I guess.
Trump's got COVID, and that organization,
I'm betting right now, is in chaos.
[Rick] Let me give you more insight in the White House.
Our little friend over there is sending me stuff right now.
She's on the Zoom call, and she said,
"No one knows who's in charge right now of anything."
She said, "Major push
to ensure that we call out liberal media
for snickering at Trump and first lady.
Highlight anything that looks insensitive
to the first family as they're going
through this terrible crisis."
Oh, my fucking God.
This is the best one I've seen.
Trump beat Biden
while suffering from COVID
in debate.
[laughs]
- [Mike] Jesus Christ. - [Reed] You know what?
Like, the beauty-- here's the thing
is that the beauty of living in a fictional world
means you can make up whatever goddamn thing you want to.
[Steve] I don't wanna be cruel,
but this is why
the word "karma" was invented.
I hope he recovers.
But, like, does any-- do we have sympathy for him?
But my point is, like, whatever the thing is,
like, we shouldn't have any mercy on these people.
[Rick] Well, here we go.
Donald Trump is now in the circle of people around him,
because they were sloppy and irresponsible and reckless
and didn't wear masks and didn't wear gloves
and didn't wash their hands and didn't socially distance
and all the other practical things
that every other American should be doing.
Now he has COVID.
You know, anybody that's looking for sympathy from me,
they can find that shit in the dictionary
between "shit" and "syphilis,"
'cause I am not playing this fucking game.
He brought this on himself, okay?
He bought this problem for himself.
The virus doesn't watch Fox News.
The virus isn't following Trump's Twitter feed.
The virus is an externality that cannot--
you know, in Terminator style,
cannot be reasoned with.
You can't bullshit the virus.
You can't pretend with the virus.
The virus doesn't watch reality TV
and think that you're something you're not.
It just is what it is and does what it does.
So here we are. He's got COVID.
And it has disrupted his campaign schedule...
- [phone dings] - ...but not ours.
We're gonna continue-- sorry, guys.
[person] It's okay.
[Keith] So that was true, then?
[Lily] Yup.
[Keith] Somebody called us at 2 p.m. and told us
that he was going to Walter Reed.
Wow.
As a precaution or...
[Lily] Wait.
[Keith] Wow.
- Something's not right. - Something's not right.
There's just so many unknowns.
[Mike] Variables.
[Ron] There's so many variables,
and there's so much potential for--
Fucker-y.
[Mike] I hate second-guessing, like, myself and say...
- [Ron] I know. - [Mike] ..."Is he lying?"
[Ron] I know.
[Mike] "Is this, like, a bigger play?"
[Ron] Like, I had the same reaction.
- [Mike] I think everybody is. - [Ron] Yeah.
[Mike] I think the whole country is.
[Tara] Hello, hello, and welcome
to The Breakdown's pre-debate show.
What a great way for the current vice president
in the United States to roll into his one and only
vice presidential debate.
Who knew that we would get the biggest
of all October surprises?
It's not a good look for them.
[Susan] Vice President Pence, you were in the front row
in a Rose Garden event 11 days ago
in what seems to have been a super-spreader event
for senior administration and congressional officials.
No social distancing, few masks,
and now a cluster of coronavirus cases
among those who were there.
How can you expect Americans to follow the administration's
safety guidelines to protect themselves from COVID
when you at the White House have not been doing so?
[Pence] Well, the American people
have demonstrated over the last eight months--
We'll see what she does, if she follows up and says,
"That's not what I asked you."
[Pence] President Trump and I have great confidence
in the American people and their ability
to take that information and put it into practice.
[Kamala] The vice president is the head of the task force.
Clearly it hasn't worked
when you're looking at over 210,000
dead bodies in our country.
[Susan] Thank you, Senator Harris.
This is such an important issue,
but we have other important issues as well...
[Tara] She crushed that answer.
Slanders against President Donald Trump
regarding men and women of our armed forces
are absurd.
President Donald Trump reveres those
who serve in our armed forces...
Bullshit!
[person] That's fucking insane.
[Tara speaking indistinctly]
[Susan] Well, let's go--
No, but, Susan, this is important.
Susan, I have to weigh in here.
Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.
- I have to weigh in. - I'm speaking.
- [person 1] Oh! - [person 2] Here we go.
- [person 3] Yeah. - Eat shit, motherfucker. Whoo!
[Pence] To the men and women who serve in law enforcement,
I want everyone to know, who puts on the uniform...
[Tara] He's got a fly on his head.
[laughs]
Look up at the fly on his head.
There's a fly on his head.
[laughter]
- [Rick] Tweet that shit. - [Lily] Yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
[Keith] Well, that's rapid response.
- Da-da-da - [Kate] Vote.
Please vote. Vote early.
Come up with a plan to vote.
Go to iwillvote.com.
[Susan] Thank you, Senator Harris.
Thank you, Vice President Pence.
Thank you so much for being with us tonight.
[horns honking]
[indistinct chatter]
[person] Four more years!
[person] God bless our president!
I will die for him.
I will die for that man happily.
Anybody wanna mess with him, you mess with me first.
He is the hero, that man.
[crowd yelling]
[Ron] On Wednesday,
Trump went on Twitter
to say that catching the coronavirus was...
a blessing from God.
- [laughter] - Let's take a listen.
[Donald] Hi, perhaps you recognize me.
It's your favorite president.
I got back a day ago
from Walter Reed Medical Center.
I spent four days there.
I want everybody to be given the same treatment
as your president,
because I feel great.
I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it.
This was a blessing in disguise.
- [Sarah] And-- - [Ron] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I'm speechless.
Look, I guess it's kind of a weird play to evangelicals,
I guess.
I mean, what's he saying?
What does that even mean?
That kind of language, I don't--
while it is jarring to hear, I think,
I don't think it is that jarring to his base.
[Mike] Yeah.
[Ron] I don't think it's jarring.
We know that he sees
a powerful political base that he can manipulate
when he uses religious rhetoric.
I would know.
- [Sarah] Tell them why. - My parents are pastors.
I grew up in an evangelical household.
I was homeschooled until I was in fourth grade.
Then I went to Christian school.
[all] I pledge allegiance to...
[Ron] In the Christian school, we started every day
pledging allegiance to the flag
of the United States,
then pledging allegiance to the Christian flag...
[all] One savior, crucified...
[Ron] ...then pledging allegiance to the Bible.
[all] God's holy word.
Three, right in a row.
Those things then become interwoven in your mind.
Being a Christian means being an American.
Being an American means being a Christian.
And if you aren't one, then you aren't the other.
Piss off God, then something bad might happen to America.
Those who wanna change the culture know
that it's fairly simple to do.
You simply get control of what you teach children.
[Ron] Focus on the Family was a big influence,
and Dr. James Dobson was the go-to teacher
for how to raise kids,
and my parents really looked up to him.
[James] Can you imagine 20, 25 five-year-olds
with their little hands folded in their laps
while their teacher talks to them
about adult perverse sexuality?
Have we gone completely mad?
That culture was...
...acidic
to a young boy who was figuring out
that he was gay
and didn't even know what that really meant.
But as I got older, I could sort of
compartmentalize who I was
with the work of electing Republican candidates.
[cheers and applause]
And at that point, I still
generally believed and preferred
most of the classically conservative ideas
about free markets and, you know, smaller government.
As a professional consultant,
you can rationalize working with and for candidates
and on projects that you agree with in most part,
even though you find some of those things objectionable.
But then Donald Trump was a complete surprise.
When he became the nominee,
I realized that the Republican Party
was not what I thought it was...
...that winning was actually all that mattered.
And fuck that. I'm not doing it.
Thank you, Mike and Sarah, for being on the show today.
And thanks to all of you at home for listening.
I decided I was gonna see if there was
meaningful work outside of this two-party structure
that I could do and feel...
happy about.
[Sarah] Same with you, Mike.
- [Ron] Okay. - [Sarah] You can just--
[Ron] And it turns out
that there are good people
doing meaningful work in that space,
and I found some of them.
light music
Oh, man.
[laughs]
They are gonna freak out.
- Hello. - Hey.
[Michelle] So it is up.
I'm gonna turn this around, okay?
[Ron] Okay.
[Michelle] There it is.
[Ron] Oh, my God.
[Michelle laughs]
[Ron] Wow.
[Michelle] Good morning, America.
[Ron] Good morning, Jared.
Good morning, Ivanka.
[Michelle] I don't know how much this cost,
but it was worth every penny.
- [Ron] Yeah. - [Michelle] You know?
Yeah, it was--
we got a very good deal.
[Michelle] Good. Good. I'm glad.
[Anderson] A pair of billboards
in New York City's Times Square
are attracting far more interest
than the normal advertisements.
They were paid for by a high-profile group
of Republicans opposed to the reelection of president Trump.
[person] Look up from New York City's Times Square,
and you'll see Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Trump smiling down at you.
But the couple isn't happy about that.
The billboards featuring them are the work
of The Lincoln Project.
The billboards went up just days before Election Day.
"Dear Lincoln Project persons,
we represent Mr. Jared Kushner and Ms. Ivanka Trump."
"I'm writing concerning the false malicious
and defamatory ads that The Lincoln Project
is displaying on billboards in Times Square.
Those ads show Ms. Trump smiling and gesturing
toward a death count of Americans and New Yorkers
and attribute to Mr. Kushner the statement that
'New Yorkers are going to suffer
and that's their problem.'"
"Of course, Mr. Kushner never made any such statement."
He did.
"Ms. Trump never made any such gesture."
She did.
"And The Lincoln Project's representation that they did
is an outrageous and shameful libel.
If these billboard ads are not immediately removed,
we will sue you for what will doubtless be
enormous compensatory and punitive damages."
Basically, like, "Take the billboard down immediately,
or we're going to sue you."
[Steve] I'm telling you right now, right,
that letter that they sent to us is going out.
- We're not taking it down. - Yeah.
[Steve] And we will attack the shit out of them.
- Yeah, - [Steve] 100%.
Yeah.
[Mike] I've never been sued by a Trump before.
[person] I know, man. I have--
Congratulations?
[person] This is gonna be fun.
So what is it-- what's your sense of it?
- They're suing us personally. - [person] What's that?
They're suing us personally.
[person] Yeah, they're personally suing us for libel.
- Okay. - [person] Yeah.
My sense is, this is perfectly protected,
First Amendment free speech,
and it's gonna be a big fight.
And we'll probably raise a lot of money on it,
and I think it'll get people fired up.
Who the fuck do they think we are?
It's offensive.
It's offensive that they think we'd be intimidated by it.
Political speech is the highest form
of protected communication under the Constitution.
[person] They are who we said they are.
We put up a billboard in Times Square
which we knew would have the exact effect
we wanted it to have.
And they had their lawyer send us some shitty letter,
which we're like, "Thank you. Thank you."
That's great. That's great.
[phone ringing]
[Philip] Hello.
- [Maria] Philip? - [Philip] Yes.
[Maria] Hey, it's Maria with OUTFRONT Media.
- How are you? - I'm doing well.
How about yourself?
And just to let you know, you're on speaker
with Conor Rogers, who's our digital director.
[Conor] Hey, Maria.
I'm just confirming again that there's no potential issues
with political content.
[Maria] If you have something that you can send me
so I can take a look at real quick--
Yeah, we have six examples we can show you.
In your inbox should be all of our proposed creative.
- [Maria] Okay. - Yeah.
[Maria] Take a look at that.
Let me just tap in here.
"Trump lied. 200,000-plus died."
- Okay. Got it. - [Philip] Yeah.
Just based on what you're seeing, how's it look?
[Maria] I don't think we're gonna have
a problem with this.
I mean, it's politics.
I guess, that's--I don't see a problem with it.
It is what it is. I'm, like--
Thank you very much, 'cause we've had
some fun conversations with other vendors this week.
[laughter]
[Maria] I will send this to my legal department
just to make sure that, you know,
they're okay with it.
- [Philip] Okay. - Okay.
[Maria] And if there's any problem with any of them,
- I'll let you guys know. - Okay, sounds fantastic.
- Thank you so much. - [Mary] Okay. Thanks.
Uh-huh, bye-bye.
Let's go. Mm-hmm.
[Sarah] I got the letter, the legal letter,
that we're gonna send back.
Here, guys, this will be perfectly dramatic for you.
"Dear Mr. Kasowitz, I write to respond to your recent letter
in which you threaten to sue my client, The Lincoln Project,
for openly criticizing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Please peddle your scare tactics elsewhere."
Nice.
"The Lincoln Project will not be intimidated
by such empty bluster.
Your clients are no longer mere Upper East Side socialites..."
"...able to sue at the slightest offense
to their personal sensitivities.
Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump are public officials.
They have been public officials since President Trump,
in a gross act of nepotism,
awarded Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump
senior White House positions in 2017."
"Fortunately, substantial constitutional protections
are afforded to those who speak out about public officials.
Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump will hear more
from The Lincoln Project soon."
- Okay, I emailed this to you. - [person] Okay.
I forwarded this. So let's just blast it.
- [person] Okay. Yeah. - You know what?
- Let's just pump it out. - [person] Gonna send it now.
[Keith] We've raised, at last check this morning,
approximately $1.5 million in relation to the--
[person] Billboards.
[Keith] The Times Square billboards.
So if anybody wants to send an edible arrangement
to Jared and Ivanka, please do.
[laughter]
[Ron] I just had them rotate in
a piece of fundraising creative for the billboards.
Okay, let's see.
It's currently turning a 6.4x ROI
on immediate conversion.
It's insane.
For every dollar we spend, $6.40, yeah,
which means you push the gas pedal down,
'cause that's gonna mint money for...
probably the next four to five days, I would imagine.
[person] Despite the incredible press
we've gotten on billboards,
the feedback we are still hearing is,
"Why are we spending money in New York City
- when that's on"-- - Yeah.
[person] "Why are we not spending the money elsewhere?"
[person] Because for a $100,000 investment,
we've raised $1.5 million
to put into places like Georgia
and South Carolina and Florida.
[Ron] In the final stretch of the election,
this is what they're gonna be focused on.
Not Joe Biden, not trying to win,
attacking The Lincoln Project.
[person] And we're in the process
of getting lots more space
in lots of other places to put these billboards up
all over the country.
[Reed] Trump is the child of privilege.
[Ron] Mm-hmm.
Ivanka is a child of privilege...
- [Ron] Mm-hmm. - ...and no consequence.
Jared is a child of privilege and no consequence.
These people have consistently had the world
laid out at their feet.
They're the kind of people who see a billboard
that tells the truth about them...
- [Ron] Yeah. - [Sarah] And freak out.
[Reed] ...and freak out and send us
a cease-and-desist letter.
- [Ron] Yeah. - [Red] So...
[Ron] And we should note that our response,
not just in writing via our attorney
but in practice is going to be to put more
- of these billboards up. - [Reed] Right.
[Ron] And as of today, when this episode is released,
we will have the same artwork
circling around Mar-a-Lago on a giant boat
designed to be a digital billboard.
dramatic music
[Rick] Hey, Siri, call Steve Schmidt.
[Siri] Calling Steve Schmidt mobile.
Hey, man.
[sighs]
We're gonna have to have a talk about John.
He's lost his fucking mind.
'Cause he wants $10 million for Texas.
I'm like, "John, go fuck yourself.
Fran says we can't even raise $1 million for Texas."
And he's like, "You promised me
we would all get on calls again."
And I was like, "John, it's not working out that way.
That's not how it's gonna be."
And he's like, "I'll blow this whole thing up tomorrow.
If you don't do Texas, I'll suicide bomber you fuckers."
I'm like, "You're in no position to blow anything up."
I mean, we gotta keep the fucking guy--
we gotta keep the guy under control for 19 more days.
And so I may need you guys to back me up.
So, you know, we're gonna have to cross that bridge.
stately music
[coughing]