Yes. I just received a big postcard
from the Lincoln Project, and I am just appalled
at the lies that you guys are putting out.
Why would you want socialist government
to take over this nation?
It makes me want to work harder for President Trump.
The Lincoln Project. Who are you?
Yeah. I just wanted to let you know
that there's a special place in hell
waiting for you, you Communist bastards.
This message is for Goldie.
No matter what you do, we are still voting for Trump.
We love Trump.
Hi. This message is for Goldie.
All of my friends are not voting for Biden.
Goodbye.
This is for Michael Steele, Rick Wilson.
Youse all suck cock,
you fucking lowlife nigger motherfuckers.
And Rick Wilson, you're a fucking punk, motherfucker.
I'd like to smack you in your fucking face,
you ugly cocksucker.
Trump supporters decided
that Donald Trump is the avatar of their rage,
and their anger, and their hatred.
There's a part of me, maybe in the beginning of this,
that would have said,
"Wow. I've gotta really look at it from their perspective."
But you know, after the tenth time your kids
get a death threat from these fucking people, you're done.
I fucking brought my passport to Utah.
You don't do that, unless there's something
in the back of your head thinking,
"We may have to get the fuck out of here quick."
You're a wolf in sheep's clothing.
You're a Democrat.
You're working against the Republican Party?
Okay. You're a piece of worthless, torrid crap.
Your whole Lincoln Project. You're shit!
dramatic music
So Russians talk about lozhnaya informatsiya,
which is, in essence, false information with a purpose,
and that's really what's been going on here.
They've started this "election fraud's a problem."
That's been a narrative since the beginning, right?
They've been laying this groundwork forever.
This was just the other day. It's from--
He literally lays it all out right here.
And we are going to win four more years.
Four more years! Four more years!
- Four more years! - And then after that,
we'll go for another four years,
because you know what? They spied on my campaign.
We should get a redo of four years.
Because the only way we're gonna lose this election
is if the election is rigged. Remember that.
Why do democracies fail?
What I have seen, in places like Venezuela,
Russia, Belarus,
where you've had democratically-elected
people become autocratic leaders,
there's a tipping point where they cross it
and where giving up power is more of a threat
than peacefully transitioning.
And it sounds like high-minded conversation,
but in reality, it's something that we may end up facing here.
So beyond that, create an existential threat.
They say that they're gonna threaten riots if they lose.
We'll put 'em down very quickly, if they do that.
How are you gonna do that?
We have the right to do that.
We have the power to do that, if we want.
Look, it's called insurrection.
We just send in, and we do it very easy.
It's all about division.
Chaos. That's what they want.
It's the ecosystem.
I mean, it is incredibly efficient and effective.
This is Trump saying he's never gonna concede.
Can you give a direct answer? You will accept the election?
I have to see. No, I'm not gonna just say yes.
I'm not gonna say no, and I didn't last time, either.
And when the peaceful transition of power fails,
then all of the normal rules
under which we operate may go off.
Like, what percentage right now,
of Republicans, no matter what happens,
they're gonna say that Donald Trump was cheated?
It's high. They're gonna have the party behind 'em.
They'll all rally to him.
This is our experience from '15, and '16,
and '17, and '18, and '19.
Every time someone gambles
that somebody's standing up to this guy...
It doesn't happen.
They have violence
and the threat of violence on their side.
When it's given the right prompting
by the right kind of authoritarians,
all the veneer of civilization goes, like that.
soft music
Hey, honey.
Hi, Mommy.
You asked me to wake you
and tell you what happened in the election.
Who won?
Trump. Trump won.
But I thought you could only be president two times.
Not anymore.
Four more years! Four more years!
Four more years, four more years!
The Lincoln Project is responsible
for the content of this advertising.
What they're asking you to do
is take their temperature before you get to school,
so that they--'cause a temperature check--
Yeah. Last time it didn't work.
Well, it did work. It was just different.
Yeah, so Friday is the school party, and then...
I have twin boys, Abel and Eli.
I don't know about, like, what you want to do
about trick-or-treating on Saturday.
When I had my embryos implanted,
my parents were not happy.
They're very pro-life, and I thought that was something
that they would celebrate, because it's life.
They were like, "We're praying about it, Sarah."
It was one of those moments in my life
that I was really-- I-I didn't understand.
I don't know that I'll ever understand.
All right. You good?
I'm gonna go down and give you a kiss goodbye.
I'm going to the airport,
- and you're going to Denver. - Oh!
Now, my parents, they feel very differently.
They tell me that Abel and Eli, they're the...
greatest gift that they've ever had.
I love you. I'll see you. I'll call you tonight.
I like your car.
Yeah. He loves cars. Have fun!
Actually, I'm sad that they're leaving this week,
but there's more to do than I expected.
So first of all, we're dropping four spots today
and debuting one tonight,
so we already dropped Fairytale.
A man comes down from his tower
and is crowned the most powerful man on Earth.
He gives from the rich and takes from the poor.
We dropped a Joe Biden aspirational.
This is Joe Biden's moment.
Also, tomorrow, we're gonna drop the 545.
It's called Cruel.
It's about the 545 children that are still in cages.
Trump's plan was to crush immigrant children.
So starting this Tuesday through November 3rd
has to be done and approved by Facebook by Saturday night.
We need to get all these South Carolina ones done.
Reed disagrees. Reed thinks that those can go.
Those can go on Facebook.
They just will go without money.
What do you mean it can go on Facebook without money?
What does that mean?
There will be no digital campaign behind it,
so we won't be shoving it into a specific state.
I want to--where is Reed?
Reed is not gonna be on this call.
Is Rick on?
No.
Guys have limited time.
We have a day and a half for them to do this.
I have no higher priority than getting squared away
in these senate races,
so, like, we don't need to do a Biden positive spot
at the expense of doing what we need to do in South Carolina.
Like, I literally don't want to have to find a roof
to jump off of, because, you know,
Lindsey Graham won by 900 votes in South Carolina.
Yeah. - I wanna do everything we can
as an organization, right,
to get Lindsey Graham out of there.
Okay. All right.
And I'll say this.
This is like a story that's never been told, right,
in connection with the Donald Trump thing.
When I took over the McCain campaign,
I was put in charge of everything
except the VP vetting.
And so the idea was, like, we'd pick Lieberman.
McCain picked a great Democrat,
and we're gonna solve this country's biggest problems,
but it was dependent on secrecy,
and Lindsey Graham went out and leaked it.
So that was off, right?
And so I say we should take a look at Palin.
And I said, "I don't know anything about her,
other than she has the highest approval level
of any governor."
Biggest fucking mistake of my entire life
and that I will regret, until the day I die,
is what happened the next morning.
Sarah Palin comes rolling down into McCain's compound,
in Sedona, Arizona,
and McCain goes to me and Mark Salter,
he goes, "Come on, boys."
He goes, "Let's go talk to her."
And I go, "It's totally inappropriate for us
to be in the meeting."
After they met for two hours,
we went for a walk by the river.
I go, "Listen, is she ready?"
He goes, "She'll be ready."
And Cindy McCain said, "It's a gamble."
And he said,
"Well, you shouldn't have said that to me, Cindy,
'cause you know how much I like craps."
I never told the story.
John McCain pretended to fucking roll dice in his hand,
and he blew out his hand, he went--and he threw the dice,
and he said, "Fuck it. Let's do it."
Thank you.
Three days after we got to the convention,
I had my first, like, discussion
of any substance with her.
Ten minutes later, I was showing her on a map,
you know, this is Iraq, this is Afghanistan.
Jesus Christ.
People in the caves here attacked us.
We attacked this country.
Saddam Hussein is here. Osama bin Laden is here.
And later that day, I had to tell her
that no, it wasn't the Queen of England.
It was the British Prime Minister
that the President dealt with.
So that was like when I knew.
Don't you think we made the right choice
for the next vice president of the United States?
Fifty states in this country.
She is the most popular governor,
of any governor, of any state.
She is the future of the Republican party.
She's going to be an outstanding vice president.
Steve is in a very small group of people
that have been what we call the number one--
the person in charge of the presidential, the race.
There's maybe a dozen people alive that have done that.
You are going to make decisions
that are going to change the course of history,
whether you win or lose.
That decision created a cascading effect
for the Republican Party and for the country now.
So what they're gonna try to do is make you scared of me.
Our opponent sees America as imperfect enough
to pal around with terrorists
who targeted their own country.
Boo!
Barack Obama is a socialist.
He believes in redistributing wealth.
He scares me.
He scares me, because I believe that he's a Marxist.
"You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents
on those dollar bills. You know?"
He's related to a, uh, known terrorist.
Tell me he's American. No, he is not.
People are trying to figure out
why isn't he giving his birth certificate?
I appreciate that The Donald wants to spend his resources
in getting to the bottom of something that so interests him
and many Americans.
Barack Obama is the first illegal
that needs to be removed from the United States of America!
That Muslim, no-good-for-nothing,
- Communist piece of shit! - Yeah!
- It's bullshit! - Bullshit!
And guess what, Obama? You're fired!
Tonight, Sarah Palin is back.
Are you ready to make America great again?
Shaking up the Republican race
with just 13 days to go before the Iowa caucuses.
Build that wall! Build that wall!
You want to be in America?
A, you better be here illegally,
or you're outta here.
B, when you're here, let's speak American.
What they're tapping into
is this peculiar form of isolationism,
and rejecting expertise,
and claiming it as a virtue.
It began in that moment. It had always been there,
but that's where it was given the imprimatur of the party,
at the highest levels.
And the party's never turned back.
edgy music
With eight days left until the election,
early voting has already soared to record highs.
More than 60 million people have cast ballots.
Trump continues to cast doubt
on the integrity of the election,
making outlandish predictions of widespread fraud,
as he did today,
while speaking to voters in Pennsylvania.
We're watching you, Governor, very closely, in Philadelphia.
We're watching you.
This morning, Texas Governor Greg Abbott
restricting the number of ballot drop boxes
in each of the state's counties to just one.
Harris County,
which includes the city of Houston,
is nearly 1,800 square miles. Larger than Rhode Island.
The bus ain't gonna bring you here.
You can't walk across this parking lot.
They're not gonna let you,
so you have to have some type of vehicle
to get you into this location.
It's just impossible to imagine
what Governor Abbott is doing here
other than restricting voting access.
We are fundraising. 10 million for Texas,
so we're doing a big media push on it,
to try to help with that fundraising effort.
- Okey-dokey. - So I need...
So 10 for Texas is an idea
that Rick and John have come up with,
the founders, about raising 10 million for Texas.
John lives in Austin, Texas.
John, do we know when we're looking at taking that live?
He's still recovering from his heart condition that he had,
but he knows Texas better than any of us
are gonna know Texas.
And I do think Joe Biden
has a chance in Texas, and I'll tell you why, Cheryl.
We just got off a call with Weaver and Rick,
on the 10 for Texas thing that we're working on.
Fran, I don't know if--
What is the 10 for--is that $10 million?
Yes. We're trying to do a push in Texas.
Just to push back a little bit,
and I just want to make sure that we feel
that is the most efficient place for our resources.
There's nothing in the numbers that backs up
that this is worth this level of investment.
I totally could not agree with you more.
I will flag this for Rick and let Rick or Reed
call you back on it.
Suddenly, near the end of the campaign,
John Weaver's now attempting to get back in,
and we're like, "Well, you're sick.
This is not a good idea,"
'cause I guess he probably saw the campaign
maybe was gonna pass him by,
and he wouldn't get what he saw
as his due share of the credit.
But the truth is we were never gonna spend
$10 million in Texas in October.
Like, we're just never going to do that.
This is what it looked like, in 2016.
Remember, this is how Trump won.
John Weaver would call me, and call me,
and call me constantly.
And I decided to be the lightning rod,
because I didn't want them to have to deal with it.
I'm like, "Guys, I will manage the John situation.
I will yes John to death, on this."
He could get Arizona.
He could pick up Georgia. He'd be over 270.
There are a number of other options
that present themselves for Joe Biden.
So Mom, hi. This is Jennifer Horn.
She's one of the founders of the Lincoln Project.
Hi, Mrs. Lenti. How are you?
- Please call me Carol. - Thank you.
So Jennifer was the head of the Republican Party
for New Hampshire. Dyed-in-the-wool Republican.
I am not just a lifelong Republican.
I'm a lifelong Catholic, as well. I was raised--
In these last couple days,
I want my mom to hear that there are pro-life women,
like Jennifer, who are conservatives first,
who are part of this team.
Maybe Jennifer's perspective-- she'd be open to it,
because it was from another woman of faith.
And because I'm kind of more conservative,
I've always been Republican. I've always voted Republican.
But Donald Trump changed all of that for me.
Well, first of all, Joe Biden and Donald Trump--
neither of them are choir boys,
and I wouldn't want my daughter
to date either of 'em, to be perfectly honest.
However, Sarah--however,
I am an issue voter,
and I really believe that we are created
in the image of God
and that when it was made legal it was easier to think,
"Well, if it does happen, I can end it."
When before, it wasn't that easy to do.
You know what, Carol, I don't disagree with you
on a lot of what you're talking about,
but Donald Trump, to me, he is instilling a culture
that is truly anti the value of life.
So I don't feel like I am, in any way,
betraying my faith or my religious upbringing
when I vote against Donald Trump.
I'm not crazy about him either,
but no one is beyond redemption,
so let's understand that, you know, he can change too.
But Trump is the antithesis of everything
that a Godly man should be.
I don't want my sons to ever model that behavior,
and that behavior starts at the top.
And having that kid go to Kenosha and shoot--
There have been a lot of Biden followers
that have shot people, and looted,
and rioted also, so--
We're talking about life. Looting is one thing.
Shooting two people.
Killing people is another thing, to me.
Like, that's enough.
You are so angry, and you hate him so much.
That is what you're running on, instead of running on issues.
I feel like I have a better chance,
in the pro-life arena,
with Donald Trump as president
and a conservative White House.
Trump's going to Atlanta, and they're spending.
Zack, how much are they spending on Atlanta?
They're spending, like, $50 million.
Or no, sorry. It's 2:1 in Georgia.
I think it's like eight to four, I want to say.
Let me double check those numbers and make sure.
Yeah. I mean, they're spending 400 or 500 grand a week,
in Atlanta, which is nuts,
because the polling that came out today
shows it's a dead heat.
If you have high African-American turnout
or something, a model similar to 2018,
I think I'm a little bit more bullish
on Georgia than most folks.
I mean they've spent, like, a no bullshit amount of money.
They're seeing the same numbers we're seeing.
They're seeing what we're seeing.
Yeah.
- So Georgia? - Georgia.
Georgia? Yeah.
energetic music
In some parts of Georgia,
it already looks like election day.
How long have you guys been out here, so far?
Four hours.
It could have rained. It could have snowed.
I would not care.
- You're not going anywhere? - I'm not going anywhere.
It's time to stand up
and take back our democracy.
We win Georgia, we win everything.
Give me one second.
Politically speaking,
I've done more work on the Republican side,
but I've always been Independent.
And so I worked with Republican candidates
who I thought could move more into that middle space,
so John Kasich, in 2015, for instance.
I think the betterment of America was found
in that middle space,
so I'm very electorally pragmatic, I would say.
And I say it all the time, I say it like this.
With the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln,
a lot of people like me to leave the word "possible" out,
there is no president that has done more
for the Black community than Donald Trump.
It's true.
Unbelievable.
Welcome back, Nate Nesbitt. Nate is back with us.
The Lincoln Project's national press secretary.
Unlike any president I've ever seen,
Donald Trump has looked to both suppress and subtract the vote,
and he's keyed in on a particular demographic
within the Black community,
and that's Black young men,
and it's important that we turn them out and that we...
I think most of white America understands white America.
You run into it with conservatives.
You run into it with liberals.
It's still not a full extension of freedom and liberty,
and irrespective of which way you swung it politically,
I'd still be having this fight in different ways.
Yes indeed. Yes indeed. What's happening?
Welcome to Vote or Die,
the roundtable with the Black man's perspective.
My name is Big Tigger.
We are in front of a live audience. I want you to be--
I wish I had a longer runway on this,
but my desire, as we near election day,
is to be able to push for the vote, for our people.
I think those things need to take place a lot more often.
My name is Antonio, but how are we supposed to vote
when we getting killed out here by the police every day?
If you didn't get killed today...
you can vote tomorrow, all right?
If you live long enough,
you do that in honor of everyone else
who didn't make it to see that day.
Just people that show up to vote,
every single election,
and they care about what they voting for.
They not your people. They don't represent you.
They making decisions about your life,
so who gonna stand up and make a decision for you?
I like to do things people say I can't do.
Me personally. If you tell me I can't do this,
I'ma make a way, if I can, to do it.
And so for me, voting just made me feel like
I was a part of something,
like, that somebody told me I couldn't be a part of.
Right. Don't be dying to fit in
when you were born to stand up.
I want to thank you for joining us.
Shout out to Lincoln Project. Grass roots law project.
This has been Vote or Die, the Black male perspective.
I cannot say I'm at peace
with where I think this country is going.
You know, this town hall makes the argument plain and clear
of why we must turn out to vote, in this moment.
So get this. I just finished an hour, uh, Zoom
with all of Demi Lovato's people.
She did a song, and the Lincoln Project is gonna premiere it.
Oh, my God. I love it.
A song and a video called "Commander in Chief."
And it's tremendous, so we're working out all the details.
We're gonna release it, like, the next 24-48 hours.
Oh, my God. I love that. That's amazing.
Okay. What am I doing?
Close your eyes, and listen to the song.
What do you see?
Were you ever taught when you were young
If you mess with things selfishly
They're bound to come undone
I'm not the only one
It's a big project, and you're feeling overwhelmed,
but you've got this.
Washington Square Park. Riots. Cops. George Floyd.
- Breonna Taylor. - Breonna Taylor.
"Commander in Chief."
How does it feel to still be able to breathe?
That is all violence.
When we get to "Won't give up. Stand our ground,"
that's when you start showing the positive stuff.
And then, Rick,
you've also got Demi Lovato, right?
Is this a strategic thing?
One hundred million followers. 1% of them join us, it's--
This could be a really good fundraising push.
Like really good.
I hate pulling these clips of,
like, George Floyd's brother, like, on the ground, in tears.
I know. I know you do.
- It feels so exploitative. - But you know what?
You are reaching emotional resonance with people.
It's not exploitative. This is what people need,
in this moment, to catalyze around.
All the stress on the country right now.
moody music
We're all taking a break, and going to have food
downtown, in beautiful Park City.
I don't know the meaning of the word break.
Too bad. You're gonna take a break.
I'm the mom here, remember?
These are my surrogate parents.
We are gonna close in, by the end of this week,
on around 200 ads produced in the last nine months.
Our daytime show is doing huge numbers.
Our daytime show streamed more people than MSNBC had on,
at one point, last week. Thank you.
Which is kind of a remarkable experience.
Hopefully, we're gonna launch a Demi Lovato video
that they gave us permission to use today
that we're making a video for her.
So I don't think we have a TikTok now,
but we're about to.
We're in the democracy business now.
Our product is rebellion and democracy.
The skill set we've brought into it
and the audience we built for it is fungible.
Hey, Siri. Call Ra Kumar.
Did you get that spreadsheet I sent you?
So yesterday, a friend of mine in the Valley.
He's a venture guy.
He's not a media guy, and he says, "Dude,
our social media footprint of ad views is insane."
Just on YouTube, over 200 million views for our ads.
Just on YouTube.
Some of those numbers are like CNN numbers.
He goes, "If people knew these numbers,
they'd be beating your door down."
We're talking about
a $25-55 million a round.
I mean fuck me.
So you have my full proxy, as always.
All right. Thanks, brother. See you.
How are we feeling, Kate?
We're feeling good.
Are we feeling good? Can I see what we got?
Won't give up, stand our ground
We'll be in the streets, for your commander-in-chief
Honestly
You fucking nailed it.
It's so good, Kate.
Fucking nailed it.
- Isn't it amazing? - Whoo!
Wow.
We're about to wreck the internet with this, okay?
One day a week, I will just drive out this way,
because I just need to, like, get away from screens
and everything and just chill out.
If we don't get the outcome we want from the election,
this is, like, the last normal weeks for a long time.
The world is ugly, if...
the United States
is in democratic crisis, right?
Or if American democracy is in trouble.
The world's in trouble.
If that happens, I mean it's a protracted,
decade-long bad situation,
and it's just sort of like--this might be
the last normal couple weeks we all get for a while.
So enjoy it.
Win or lose, just no offense, everybody,
I would rather be in my own house with my husband
and, um, you know,
there's a lot at stake, so.
You can say that twice.
I think we did the best with a very difficult situation.
With people from different political backgrounds,
and political parties and views,
which doesn't usually happen, on a campaign.
And all of us have different reasons
for supporting Joe Biden.
I think the reason why I might be here is very different
than the reason why someone else is,
and so that adds a different dynamic than you usually get,
in most campaigns...
And can add some conflict.
It seems, on the basis of what we've been reading
in Axios this morning
and other places that you guys have a longer-term ambition
now that goes beyond, in terms of advocacy.
It goes beyond just beating Donald Trump.
It goes to some larger--
The Axios article came out on a morning
when Reed and I were doing interview
on Morning Joe together.
I was sitting there miked up, ready to be interviewed.
Had never heard of it before, but they asked Reed about it.
Like, what's life after Trump like, for the Lincoln Project?
Sure. Well, first and foremost, I think, like the rest of us
who are dedicated to beating him,
we've got seven more days to go until--
And he kind of blew off the question,
and thank God they didn't ask me,
because I knew nothing.
I was shocked. Got off the air, texted Sarah,
and said, "What is this all about?"
Steve, do you want to address the Axios?
Because I know a lot of people have questions.
You all, I just want to say something.
I'm pissed about it.
Yeah. No one gets more
pissed about it than I am.
The story is not correct.
Questions?
Yeah. Do we know how it happened?
Didn't they--weren't they over
there interviewing you and Rick?
No, no. Yes.
We had fully intended to do a story with Axios.
My question is why did Rick's agent tell them that?
Ron? Ron, call me real quick.
Yeah.
Hey.
I understand that, but here is my request.
I would appreciate a lot more communication
about whatever it is that may or may not be happening,
because I feel like I haven't been in the loop.
And I don't want to read headlines
and have that be the first I hear of something.
Okay. Okay bye.
Story is not correct.
We have no representation in Hollywood.
We've had no discussions with each other,
other than political discussions.
Like, we're all doing the same thing every day.
We have talked to the EPA guys,
and we've talked to other people
who all have thoughts about opportunities in the future.
We've signed no papers. There are no deals.
The story is being corrected by Axios.
The Axios article came out,
and it was very odd. It was very peculiar.
It never occurred to me to go out
and start a media company, all right?
That's not what I do.
It's not what anybody in the organization does.
That's not necessarily bad, but at a minimum,
there needs to be some discussion about it.
Well, I have a question.
Why are we doing any type of victory lap,
seven days before the election with that type of story?
That's a good question, Keith,
and we shouldn't.
In a political organization that moves fast,
that's decentralized, stuff happens.
We had people calling us like,
"We want you to form a media company," after this.
You know, we had taken some very, very early,
preliminary steps, because we realized
Trumpism isn't simply a political problem.
It's a cultural problem,
and my idea of the media company, on the outside,
was to use that platform and that credibility
we had to start influencing the cultural space,
to dismantle the perverse incentives that make people go,
"Hey, authoritarianism is cool."
There is an honest point here.
The Lincoln Project was a content machine
dedicated to defeating Donald Trump.
It was the content that mattered.
It was the messengers who could carry that content
out into the national media
and go to war with Donald Trump's people every day.
And that was me, and that was Steve,
and that was Reed, and that was Stuart.
I would like to make a suggestion.
I think that the founders need to have a meeting with just us,
to have kind of a long-term discussion
about a lot of things.
We've never had that meeting. I think it's time.
Yeah. I think that's a good idea.
I'm in agreement. I think it would be smart.
No objection here. None whatsoever.
So as you know, we're not fans of Rick Wilson here.
Do you think these are principled people,
or you think they're grifters who are taking money?
These spiteful losers are looking for a way
to enrich themselves while empowering the very people
who want to tear down the traditions
that they claim to hold so dear.
They just have, like, a new business opportunity,
is all that it is.
After bilking Republicans for years,
they're now sucking up millions
from duped Democrat voters.
The Lincoln Project is not your friend.
Do not support the Lincoln Project!
What an incredible grift.
What a great country where you can make money
doing stuff like this.
It truly is incredible.
I don't know. Why do they need to believe this?
Why is there this need?
We have become the named adversary of Trump.
We've become, you know, the nemesis of Trump,
and therefore, we must be attacked
at all times by the right.
The accusation that it's a grift is projection,
because they see what the Trump campaign is.
A billion-dollar grift.
I mean, we're a rounding error,
compared to the Trump campaign.
- Sure. - Well, I think we should
also remember just on the like who doesn't really dig us--
it's also like the professional left.
Let's be clear.
They still see us as Republicans, right,
and anything that gives any sort of credit
would mean that it took the Republicans to beat this guy,
'cause the Democrats couldn't.
There's a part of me that says "You know what?
Like, I don't really fucking care
what any of these people say."
One of the topics of conversation
in the D.C. circles is,
"How are they getting all this amazing press?"
Maybe because we're good at getting press?
Which is exactly why they are pissed off.
We had a founders-only meeting at Steve's house...
and Steve said to everybody,
"We want to keep the Lincoln Project going and expand it,
and there may be an opportunity
for everyone around this table
to join a media company, and if we do it right,
it can be something that we do great things in the culture
and that could generate generational wealth
for all of us if we sell it at the right time
in the future."
- Hey. - Hey, how are you?
I'm good. How was the meeting?
It was good. It was good.
Was there a lot of airing of grievances?
- Almost none. - Oh, good. Wow.
In fact, I would say none.
Okay. Unbelievable. After all that?
Well, I mean I talked to Mike.
- Yeah. - And I told him that,
if that was how it was gonna be,
it was gonna go downhill, in a hurry.
- Okay. - Steve ran it,
so he basically like,
"If you guys wanna be involved you can be involved,"
and you know, we'll get to the hard things when it's like
yes, when we say you're an equity partner
that means you get 1% of the company. You know.
- Uh-huh, uh-huh. - We didn't do any of that,
so I think letting Steve take the lead, too,
helps because they might push back on me.
They're not gonna push back on him, right?
No they won't. No. Yep. Good.
So but that we also said
there's no discussion on that front,
until and unless we solve our black box problem, so--
- Got it. - As we called it.
- Got it. Yeah. - All right. Perfect.
Hey, there's Rick. Let me call you back.
Okay. Bye.
moody music
- Good way to put it. - Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah. Fair enough. Well put.
Yeah. I can't--
Hello.
Didn't realize they were right there,
but I'm good with where we are, so--
- Yeah. - All right.
- I thought it was good. - Yeah.
I had a good chat with Ron about it, too, and--
Good, good, good.
Yeah. I think the main thing
is we're building something for a new chapter.
Right, right.
And some of those old wounds are gonna be there,
but they need to be resolved,
and I heard that they're aware of that.
Yeah, and I just want to know, going forward,
that we are all in agreement about our purpose
and our positions in the organization, so...
I think as long as we keep pressing the case, it'll...
Yeah, yep.
Keep being the case, as you said.
- Mm-hmm. I'm in. - Yeah?
I'm in. I like it. I like where we're headed.
I'm glad.
I really like where we're headed.
I really like the vision. I think it's--
It's exciting.
It's exciting, and it's good.
Rick, Steve, Kate reminded me last night
that she put together those South Carolina videos
for you guys, and they haven't gone out.
She just wanted to remind you guys
that they're still out there.
- The other Lindsey videos? - Yeah.
They're the ones that you guys asked her to cut this weekend.
She showed 'em to you on Sunday, at her house.
Oh, yeah. I don't know why those aren't out.
Are you telling me that those videos
are not digitally purchased?
They weren't sent over.
I've literally asked this question 11 fucking times
about whether we made the deadline or not,
and until this moment, I've been told repeatedly
that all of those ads are maxed out on digital.
Like, why can't I get an answer to that question?
Are those ads online?
Are they playing digitally in South Carolina?
The answer's yes or no.
I haven't seen the ads.
Like, how the fuck is that possible?
- Okay, Ron-- - Are those ads
- up online? - I don't know what ads
we're talking about. I have not seen them.
Rick?
Yeah. We can't put them up, unless we see 'em, I--
I haven't seen them.
They were created for the deadline.
Part of that--the 1,500--
Wait, wait, wait. Okay, so--
When I ask a question
about the fucking traffic,
and I got ten people bobble-heading
back at me like it's done,
I want precise fucking information
about what's up and where.
We sent you a chart, at 4 p.m.,
of everything that we had.
- Christ's sakes. - I'm just giving--
You were on all the calls.
I said ten times on this
that this is a game of small numbers,
and these ads need to be on the air digitally,
under a deadline that we knew about on Sunday.
Get this shit squared away immediately.
- Hey, Mike. - Hey.
I need to understand
what happened here, okay? What happened?
Okay. Late Friday night, Steve said,
"I want 15 Lindsey Graham ads.
I want 'em done tomorrow."
Like 10-15 second things that we can run on Facebook.
I said, "My understanding is this stuff has to be approved
by Saturday, at midnight."
And he said, "Mike, I want it done."
It didn't occur to anyone to let me know?
It didn't occur to anyone.
Now, that would be Steve's fault and my fault,
because I don't know how ads gets done.
I just assumed that Kate cut these quick spots,
and then they got these things approved.
- I had no idea. - They got 'em approved by whom?
By Facebook,
but I don't know how the process works--
No. They did not get them approved by Facebook.
Okay. I didn't know. I--
Everything--the only people that get things
approved by Facebook are Conor and Ron.
Conor's never seen them?
No! We never saw them, until this morning, Mike.
I hear you.
I'm just telling you this is Steve's fault and my fault.
Rick and Ryan know better.
They should have known immediately,
and Kate knows that everything runs through us.
It has to be approved by legal,
and they chose to not loop us in, period.
I don't know that this is of value,
to have the conversation in front of everybody,
on email.
Yes it is, because they need to be held accountable, Mike.
They're not children. They're not fucking children.
I'm sorry. Grow up. Not you. Them.
No.
I know what you're saying, but is that the right way to--
Yeah it is!
Make them accountable?
You know what? They don't listen to me.
At all.
If Rick and Ryan are gonna fucking assign Kate stuff
and not tell us, I don't know what to do.
Rick said he didn't even know.
Rick admitted on the call that he saw them on Sunday.
Okay. Like, let's not get
wrapped around the axel on this.
I am. I am.
Please don't. Please don't.
Why?
Because he wasn't yelling at you.
Okay.
I talked to Steve. He wasn't--yeah.
He wasn't mad at you. He was mad
that the things he'd asked for hadn't gotten done.
You know what, Reed? Nobody else--
It's nothing.
Okay great. Good for him.
Well he's not--I mean what do you want me to do?
There is a lack of leadership on this campaign,
and I've had it.
A lack of leadership?
Yeah.
Well, what do you want me to do? I mean--
We just--we won't do anything. It's fine.
Let me--no. Sarah, don't do that.
What? I'm not doing anything.
I'm asking--
Here. I think when--
If I can do anything--
I think you should just ask them
to please respond to the email.
They need to be held accountable.
- Okay fine. - That's it.
I will do that. That is easy.
- That's all. - I'm more than happy
- to do that. - Thank you.
I got a notification that my kids' kindergarten class
in Denver had several cases of COVID
and needed to be quarantined for 14 days.
How are you? How's he doing? Hey.
And I'm like, "Should I go home?"
But if I go home, I can't come back.
Which I'm fine with, so I think I'm gonna get a flight.
I think that's the responsible thing to do.
I'm gonna cry. I am so mad.
I just--like, I'm sick of it, so I'm like, "It's time to go."
My kid might have COVID,
so I'm done. Fucking done.
- I'm sorry. - It's fine.
No. I'm mad about a lot of other things
that still continue to go on, and I'm tired.
I'm gonna go home. Just made that decision.
moody music
Here we are now, just hours from election day 2020.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are tonight
surgically trying to pick off the states
that could push them over the line.
Vote for Trump, like true Americans!
Like socialism? Move to Cuba.
Well, this guy Trump has destroyed everything.
He's a vile, nasty human being.
Officials in a number of states
bracing for an avalanche of mail-in ballots.
This universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing.
It's fraught with fraud
and every other thing that can happen,
and I want to make sure the election is not stalling.
It's going to be several days
before we get the result,
and that is going to lead to fear of civil unrest.
We're done with the chaos, the tweets,
the anger, the hate.
We are gonna fight for our country.
We're tired of living in the darkness,
and we're ready to move into the light.
Video of armed security guards
outside of St. Pete
polling place spurred fears of voter intimidation.
There's really no reason to have guns at a polling place.
A pro-Trump convoy
surrounded a Biden campaign bus on a highway.
A Biden-Harris staffer's car
was hit during the incident.
Federal agents are stepping in to investigate.
We want Trump for four more years!
Four more years!
We will turn this city red!
Whoo!
We have made America strong again.
We have made America proud again.
We have made America safe again,
and we will make America great again!
Thank you, Iowa. Thank you, Wisconsin.
Tomorrow, we have an opportunity
to put an end to a presidency that's divided this nation.
Tomorrow, the power to change the country is in your hands.
Thank you, sir.
Hi, gang.
It's election day. It's a celebration of America.
Nobody's going into a general election
better set up in our lifetime than Biden.
Well, Reagan, but...
no Democrat has.
Yeah. It shouldn't be close.
I mean the ideal circumstance would be, you know,
Trump gets blown out by 13 points,
and you could say,
you know, you didn't need a Lincoln Project.
But I think going out and hitting Trump
was really important.
mellow music
Gonna be a good night, right?
It's gonna be what it's gonna be now, right?
I think it's gonna be a good night though.
It's gonna be a good night.
I think that people aren't gonna tolerate
any more of this.
It'll be a good night.
How you feeling, guys?
Feeling good.
Hey, guys. Running behind. What else is new?
Look at you. That is a stylin' jacket, right?
- I cleaned up. - Once a year.
It's been a very busy day here,
and this is a very very evenly split state, as you know,
where we have about the same rough amount
of Republicans and Democrats, and some...
Somebody's going to win the election.
One side wins, and the other side loses.
And we, as a nation,
have always tried to build a world around that.
We're gonna be facing potentially
some really big questions of who lives,
who dies, who has power, who doesn't.
Those are hard questions. Are they Shakespearean?
Probably. Are they biblical? Probably, right?
We're talking about questions
that have been foundational to us,
as people, from the beginning of time.
- Exciting. - Yeah. It's exciting.
We're having a day, guys.
Two hundred and fifty years ago,
a whole group of guys got together, in Philadelphia,
and came up with a pretty good solution
how to answer some of those questions
that the world hadn't been answering very well.
Right here, folks.
Maybe we've taken that gift and decided
that we don't want the responsibility
that comes with that. I don't know.
Jubilation. Yay!
Just wait till we win.
But we're gonna find out.
Not just on election day.
The next four years are going to tell us
a lot about who we are,
about where we go.
Okay. We're gonna show a view of the crowd...
Still looking good?
Wisconsin.
At the White House--
Pennsylvania's not.
I know. They said they can't do it then.
They said there's gonna be another Wisconsin update
at 4 a.m., East Coast.
4 a.m. Oh.
Right now, in the great state of Georgia--
What about Georgia?
and you see a difference of 100--
Oh, he is just not out of the woods yet.
Not by a long shot.
Oh, he's got his whole scumbag family with him. Terrific.
Of the United States,
Donald J. Trump!
I want to thank the American people
for their tremendous support.
Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight.
Literally, we were just all set to get outside
and just celebrate something that was so beautiful.
So good. Such a vote. Such a success.
What's he talking about?
The citizens in this country have come out...
- He's such a freak. - This is a record.
There's never been anything like it.
We won states that we weren't expected to win.
Florida. We didn't win it. We won it by a lot, and--
Whoo!
The great state of Ohio.
We won Texas. We won Texas.
It's also clear that we have won Georgia.
Is that true?
He's gonna lose Georgia.
The citizens of this country
have come out in record numbers.
This is a record. There's never been anything like it.
We're up 690,000 votes, in Pennsylvania.
690,000.
Whoo!
We won states, and all of a sudden, I said,
"What happened to the election?
It's off," and we have all these announcers saying,
"What happened?" And then they said, "Oh."
- Is he riffing right now? - Yeah.
Frankly, we did win this election.
Whoo!
This is a major fraud on our nation.
We want all voting to stop.
We don't want them to find any ballots
at four o'clock in the morning
and add them to the list. Okay?
It's a very sad moment. It's a very sad moment.
To me, this is a very sad moment.
dramatic music