[birds chirping]
[background chatter]
[indistinct chatter]
[McConnell] The last time the Senate convened,
we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals
who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty.
The mob was fed lies.
They were provoked by the president
and other powerful people.
And they tried to use fear and violence
to stop a specific proceeding
of the first branch of the federal government,
which they did not like.
But we pressed on.
We stood together and said an angry mob
would not get veto power over the rule of law in our nation,
not even for one night.
We certified the people's choice
for their 46th president.
Tomorrow, President-elect Biden
and Vice President-elect Harris will be sworn in.
We'll have a safe and successful inaugural
right here on the West Front of the Capitol,
the space that President Bush 41 called
"democracy's front porch."
[door clanks open]
[Sarah] There's a nervousness, I think, right now,
between the events of January 6th,
some internal things that are going on
with The Lincoln Project,
and just life in general right now.
Reed asked me to start making calls
and let go of the entire political team.
Several of them did ask me, "Is this because of Mike?"
and I was told not to answer that this was because of Mike.
And I tried to talk around it.
I probably didn't do it well.
- [cell phone pings] - [door opens]
- How are you, gang? - [Sarah] We're great.
We should have movers soon.
I think we want to try and do some, you know,
maybe do a podcast thing over here--
- [Sarah] Yeah. - And a LPTV thing and...
[Sarah] It was always the plan that we were going to
downsize significantly after the election.
But it wasn't that we were going to fire all political.
It was like political was going to be smaller,
creative would grow,
there'd be a pro-democracy arm.
Like Reed would always say, "Campaigns end."
You go, you get other jobs.
Like... that's...
you know, it was never supposed to be this
self-sustaining organization that was making millions
and millions and millions and millions of dollars.
It probably could have been.
I don't know. I don't know.
quiet music plays
[Lucas] This wasn't working out for us,
bringing up these fricking...
Whew, it's hot.
[roommate] Do you want to see the rest of your home?
Lucas and I were a little bit concerned moving out here
because it was like, okay,
what happens if we move out here and we're not kept on?
And we were like, oh, come on, that's crazy talk.
But when we both got the phone calls,
we, like, called each other, we were like, "Fuck."
[laughs]
[Mike] Hey, buddy, how are you?
Struggling at the moment, but I did get a cappuccino.
So I'm--
- Oh, halfway there. - Doing okay.
You know, all good things come to an end, buddy.
And they're not-they're not an end, they're--
in many ways, it's a new beginning.
- And, uh... - Yeah.
Seeing you guys and how hopeful you were
and how passionate you were reminded me of...
of when I was in my early 20s and out of college
and doing campaign work,
because you're fighting to make the country better
and fighting for a worldview that's inclusive.
It was really my honor.
And I want to thank you for that.
If this was in person, I might have, like, teared up,
but because it's not, I'm, like, keeping it together.
But I appreciate it.
Love you, man.
[Mike] Thanks, man, love you too.
[Melber] President Trump will not attend
Joe Biden's inauguration as presidents have done
to acknowledge a peaceful transfer of power.
[reporter] There are plenty in Washington
who'd rather Trump not make it to inauguration day at all.
[reporter] House Democrats introduced
one article of impeachment on Monday,
charging U.S. President Donald Trump
with incitement of insurrection
in their second push to remove him from office.
[Trump] We just got 75 million votes,
and that's a record in the history of sitting presidents.
[crowd cheering]
[indistinct chanting]
A goodbye, we love you,
we will be back in some form.
So have a good life. We will see you...
[Sarah, laughing] "Have a good life."
[laughs] Who fucking says that?
- [Rick] "Have a good life." - [Sarah laughing]
[Rick] I mean, come on.
Amazing
Grace
How sweet
The sound
That saved
A wretch
Like me
I once was lost
But now I'm found
Was blind
But now I see
[Biden] Our history has been a constant struggle
between the American ideal that we're all created equal
and the harsh, ugly reality that racism,
nativism, fear, demonization
have long torn us apart.
Through Civil War, the Great Depression,
World War, 9/11,
through struggle, sacrifice, and setbacks,
our better angels have always prevailed.
In each of these moments, enough of us--
enough of us have come together
to carry all of us forward.
This is a great nation.
We're a good people.
And over the centuries, through storm and strife,
in peace and in war, we've come so far,
but we still have far to go.
soft, stirring music
[background chatter]
[bird chirping]
[ambient background noise]
[phone rings]
[ringing]
[Lily] Hello?
[Conor] Did you see the article this morning?
[Lily] Yeah, it's really upsetting.
[Conor] Um... [exhales]
it's just unbelievable.
edgy music plays
[reporter] The Lincoln Project is in the hot seat.
21 men have accused co-founder John Weaver
of sexual harassment.
[anchor] Allegations that Weaver sent them
sexually provocative messages,
often suggesting that he could help them
get work in politics.
[anchor] He told one man that he would, quote,
"Spoil you when we see each other,
"give advice, help with bills.
You help me sensually."
[reporter] According to The New York Times,
one of the boys was just 14 years old
when Weaver first contacted him.
[anchor] Weaver has been on medical leave
from The Lincoln Project since last summer
and hasn't responded to NBC News' requests for comment.
[reporter] The Lincoln Project said it was, quote, "shocked,"
calling Weaver "a predator, a liar, and an abuser,"
adding, "The totality of his deceptions
"are beyond anything any of us could have imagined,
and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it."
Hey, folks, I want to talk to you tonight about John Weaver.
And it's not an easy story to tell.
Over the weekend, on Sunday, the New York Times
published a story about John Weaver,
one of the seven co-founders of The Lincoln Project.
That story was about...
contacts with John that began in 2014,
while he was working for John Kasich,
with a young man, a young man of 14 years.
This is the first time we'd heard this story,
first time we'd had any information
about John contacting a child.
And I have to tell you, it shocked us, disgusted us.
It left us in a state of absolute just dread
over the fact that that a child could have been
victimized by John Weaver.
You know, for four years now, my kids have been victimized.
They've been stalked, they've been harassed,
they've had rape threats and death threats,
because I oppose Donald Trump.
And that's a burden they had to bear.
And they've been great kids, and they're amazing kids.
But the thought of this guy doing this
to other people's kids,
it sickens me to the core, and all of us.
I hope that you will continue to repose
the confidence you've shown in us for the last year.
We will earn it from you every day.
We will keep this mission going.
And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
somber music plays
[Rick] Here's a fun fact.
I've been in the same room with John Weaver in my life
one time.
I met John...
virtually, of course, through LP.
The deepest feeling I have right now
is a regret I did not know what I should have known.
Let me tell you, if that had come to me,
th-that John was-was saying to interns
or staff members or anybody,
"I will give you a job at The Lincoln Project
for sexual whatever..."
he'd be out the next day, be out that minute.
[doorbell rings]
[Conor] Your door's open.
- [laughing] - [Lily] I just left it open
- for you. - [laughing] I know.
[Lily sighs] So... how you feeling?
[Conor] You know, just sort of permanently like
-"What the fuck?" - Yeah.
[Conor] I haven't been able to relax in...
you know, a week and a half.
This is dystopian as fuck.
[Lily] I know.
I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings, I guess.
[Conor] Which are?
[Lily] I would love to be released from my NDA.
- [Conor] Yes. - That's all I want.
[Conor] Yep.
I don't even think I'm allowed to call the interns
and be like, "Are you okay? Did this happen to you?"
- Like, how are you doing? - Yeah.
[interviewer] So people feel, yes,
it's a bad thing that happened.
But I don't think anybody's imagining that,
at least from the people that I know, who are donors--
Let me just say a sentence to you.
The Lincoln Project
knew that John Weaver was doing this in June 2020.
They continued to put him in contact
and hire his interns into October 2020.
uneasy music plays
I warned them about this in a three-page email,
detailing 15 instances of sexual harassment
by John Weaver.
I was told that there was an investigation,
that he was sidelined, and I believed the assurances
that I got from the organization
that John had been cut out.
I did not realize the degree of the deception and the cover-up
until October, when he got back involved,
and I was like, "What the fuck?"
And at that point, it was five days to the election
and I was like, "What am I gonna do
with this information right now?"
Then it's in the fucking New York Times,
and their comment is, "We didn't know."
[interviewer] I'm just playing devil's advocate,
but in terms of like, it was all consensual--
No, and I don't think you wanna have this fight with me.
John has been doing this to people for 30 years.
He did a version of it to me.
You know, it's just, um...
It was like 2011, and I was 19,
and I just got a message from out of the blue.
I knew who he was.
And he was telling me that there was a governor
that was going to run for president in 2012
on the Republican side
and he was looking for smart, young, digital talent
and kept trying to get me to come to New York a few times.
And then I sort of rebuffed him.
He started, like, play a victim a little bit,
like he was like, "I'm stuck in such a terrible situation.
Do you have any advice for me?"
And I was like, "No." Like, I'm 20,
and you're married with children and gay.
I don't know how to help you here.
And then as soon as I re-engaged,
'cause I felt bad for him,
he slipped it right back to the predatory-style behavior.
My dad asked me a really kinda tough question.
You know, "How did you get so close to people
who are apparently this bad?"
- [Lily] Yeah. - And I didn't have an answer.
And I still don't.
[Lily] Well, I think we all saw the good in this organization.
- It sucks, dude. - [Conor] Yeah.
[Lily] It sucks.
"Dear Sarah, Reed, Rick, Steve, and Stuart,
"I wanted to first express my gratitude
"for the opportunity that The Lincoln Project
"has provided to me.
"I believe The Lincoln Project was on the right side
"in putting country over party.
"It is with a heavy heart that I express my belief
"that The Lincoln Project is an organization
"that preaches morality
"but in practice, cannot stand up to that belief.
"I'm formally issuing my resignation
"to The Lincoln Project, effective immediately,
[sniffles] "due in part to the events
"surrounding co-founder John Weaver
and the allegations that have come to light."
That's that.
[Lucas] To learn of everything that's come out
has been incredibly gut-wrenching.
I just want to read out something
that they have, you know, publicly put out there.
It's one of them that interned with the, uh, with our team,
the political team.
"At the time, I was a senior in college, studying government,
"and I thought connecting with him
"could really open some doors for me.
"But in exchange for open doors,
"Weaver always wanted sex.
"This went on for more than three years.
"I never knew the extent of his actions,
"and I hope others he targeted for grooming
"will feel comfortable with telling their stories.
I just wish I had said something soomer--sooner."
There is almo--I-- there is no way.
Learning what happened now, there is no way
that the principals and people on the principals' calls
and the founders did not know that this was happening.
edgy music plays
[anchor] When the allegations went public last month,
The Lincoln Project said it was, quote, "Shocked."
But a new report says top leaders at the group
knew about at least ten allegations against Weaver.
[reporter] Here, you have, in June--
the group was told about Weaver,
about these horrible text messages to young boys,
promising sex for jobs,
and they did nothing.
[child laughing]
[Sarah] It wasn't complete news to me.
There had been rumblings of John for decades.
He had a reputation around this stuff.
And I'm going to just be really straight.
I had interns coming out of my ears.
John would send them to me. I'd get resumes.
And I found out, after the fact,
that the interns that John at the time was sending me
were people that he was DMing.
When we first received this email, right?
First thing I do-- send it to the attorney.
Take a look at this.
Do the necessary investigations.
It turns out that the people who were named in the email--
they didn't want to--
they didn't want to pursue a formal complaint
within the organization.
A board member comes to me subsequent to that and says,
"I'm not happy with the outcome."
And I said, "What do you want me to do about it?"
The board was made up of me, Ron, and Mike.
It only took two people to make a decision.
I think it was, at least from my perspective,
as much as I know, it was
a bunch of right-wing,
you know, sort of Trump-aligned trolls
who had been working on this for many, many months.
They were out to get us.
[Sarah] We woke up this morning.
Veracity, our new digital vendor, pulled.
Anedot, who runs our money, pulled out.
Um, m-more people have resigned.
It's just-it's-it's like...
it's falling apart.
[Jennifer] There is a destructive nature to secrets
and how they eat at you internally.
The day the story came out,
I got my first phone call from an intern at the Project.
He said the cornerstone of Trumpism
is about an abuse of power.
This is one of the reasons why I joined.
But, he said, I feel like I've become a victim
of what I was fighting against.
I said, this is it. I'm done, this--I'm done.
moody music plays
Late afternoon, after I had resigned,
my attorney texted me and said,
"Oh my God, Steve's statement."
Steve suggested that I was seeking hush money.
Not only was I not-- I would never.
It is so...
arrogant and hypocritical
and antithetical to what we said we were all about.
[Steve] Let's lay it all out.
Jennifer Horn sent a letter
asking for lifetime compensation
on Christmas Eve.
Lifetime financial security,
on the backs of the donors of The Lincoln Project.
And my answer was no.
Outrageous.
About five weeks later,
the first story came out
about John Weaver,
and she started using that
to lever the organization,
demanding compensation,
and then, after she resigned,
leaked to the press
that The Lincoln Project's leadership
had covered up
serious allegations...
of sexual misconduct
against a founder of the organization
so we can all keep making money.
It was disgusting.
[Jennifer] You are publicly attacking a woman
going through an aggressive contract negotiation
for fair compensation for what she was contributing.
It was such a sexist thing for them to do.
When they make an attack
suggesting that I would do such a thing,
they attack the integrity
of everything I've ever accomplished.
And one of the more offensive moments
of the entire, uh, saga,
was Jennifer Horn playing the victim card, um...
As...
"I'm a woman who's been treated badly here."
Please. Jennifer Horn,
a contract employee
who was given an honorific co-founder title,
uh, spent most of The Lincoln Project on leave--
paid leave-- because her mom was sick,
then ran a couple of Facebook groups.
She says, "I want lifetime compensation."
No.
And the response is, "You're anti-woman."
Okay. Guess so.
Answer's still no.
[Ron] I didn't learn anything new about them
from that episode.
I knew exactly who they were and exactly what their MO was.
Anybody who gets in your way is disposable.
Anybody who stands up and says,
"This is not why we got in this fight,"
is disposable.
I mean, that's just the tip of the iceberg
of what they're capable of.
I mean, look at what we did at The Lincoln Project.
Imagine the firepower that we aimed at Donald Trump
being aimed at you.
moody music
[Jennifer] I think I just, like had gotten out of the shower
and just was, like, flipping open Twitter.
For the first second I was like,
this can't be what I think this is.
Steve tweeted out screenshots of my conversation
with the reporter, Amanda Becker.
It felt like an assault,
and I went into, like, a full-blown panic.
My heart was racing. My head was pounding.
Pacing back and forth in the room.
And that's when George called.
I was like, "George, call them.
"You have to make them take it down.
"Call Reed. Call Reed right now.
They have to take it down."
But it was too late.
I mean, it was everywhere by then.
I am shocked at how dirty it was.
But I shouldn't be shocked,
because that is absolutely who they are.
I do have a regret, uh, with regard to that.
I regret the apology. Um...
[both chuckle]
She went and hired a Lincoln Project staffer
to be her personal publicist.
Um... she gave that person access to her Twitter account.
When that person had access
to Jennifer Horn's Twitter account,
he saw Jennifer Horn's direct messages with a reporter
where she was threatening to destroy The Lincoln Project.
And this person was aware that while that was going on,
Jennifer was also in a financial dispute.
Her conduct was as absolutely inappropriate,
unprofessional, and unethical
as Ron Steslow's and Mike Madrid's
and is another person who claimed herself to be a victim
and played a leading role
in really functionally destroying the organization
over nonsense.
So yeah, I do regret apologizing to her.
She's not owed an apology.
[reporter] The Democrats are facing an uphill battle
in Mr. Trump's historic second impeachment trial,
this time for his role in the January 6 attack
on the U.S. Capitol.
[anchor] Two weeks ago,
Republicans were condemning Donald Trump.
Now, some already appear to be softening their stance.
[Graham] Most of the evidence is hearsay.
This is not evidence.
This is a liberal Democratic novel.
The process of impeachment and conviction
is a narrow tool...
a narrow tool for a narrow purpose.
If we impeached every politician
who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans,
this Capitol would be deserted.
Impeachment is for removal from office.
And the accused here has already left office.
Hyper-partisan Democrats
are about to drag our great country
down into the gutter of rancor and vitriol,
the likes of which has never been seen
in our nation's history.
Instead of stopping the Trump train,
his movement will grow stronger,
for you will have made him a martyr.
[reporter] On this President's Day,
Donald Trump supporters
gathering to celebrate a former President,
fresh off his second acquittal.
And tonight, he is plotting out his next steps.
[anchor] You have all these Republicans
kissing the ring still.
Given that Trump is still wielding so much power,
I think it does reflect
we are still very much in the midst of this crisis.
It's not behind us.
[Sarah breathing heavily]
[phone line rings]
[Sarah] Hey, Stuart. How are you?
Not great.
It's been a horrible week.
I-I mean, Stuart, I hired people,
knowing the beginning started with John.
And Reed knew as well.
That--
T-that's not the issue.
That is not the issue.
somber music plays
Ron had made Reed and Steve aware, back in March,
of Conor and all these other guys. I--
I mean--
Well, then why were we trying to cover it up
if it didn't matter?
dark, moody music
Look, I'm not going to pretend like I didn't know,
if asked, is the bottom line.
I sent a letter to you and Reed, and nobody responded.
I sent you and Reed my letter of resignation.
Okay.
I want to be honest about mistakes.
If we were all about the mission
and being anti-Trump and acting differently from Trump,
things should have been handled differently at the start.
I threw out all my Lincoln Project gear.
The only I kept is that thing.
I-I'm embarrassed to have been a part.
[anchor] The Lincoln Project
has been coming apart at the seams in recent weeks.
[anchor] Reporting on the anti-Trump group,
a new New York Times article claims
there is a civil war inside The Lincoln Project
over financial mismanagement.
[anchor] The Associated Press reports
more than half of the money raised by the project in 2020
was paid to consulting firms
tied to the group's founders and staff.
[Lachlan] They used a loophole
in the disclosure of campaign finances,
and incidentally, it is a loophole
that the Trump campaign used to great effect as well.
So exactly where that money ended up
simply is not knowable.
They've got all the money.
They drained-- they took all the money
from the nice, mean-- well-meaning liberals.
Meghan McCain also got in on this.
She tweeted that "John Weaver and Steve Schmidt
"were so despised by my dad,
"he made it a point to ban them from his funeral.
"Since 2008, no McCain would have spit on them
if they were on fire."
[Reed] So first and foremost,
I just wanna apologize to everybody.
One of the base tenets of our...
of our-our movement--
which, it is a movement, I really believe that--
has been honesty and transparency.
And on that front, in too many ways, we failed.
We have brought in a law firm
called Paul Hastings, out of Los Angeles,
who is going to come in.
They've already actually started, uh,
their inquiry, uh, into the... the situation
regarding John Weaver.
Specific questions about John, um,
are being answered as we speak, and we'll have a report out.
I think also there's been a lot of questions
about the finances of the organization,
which I'm happy to answer questions about.
Let me just say this--
is that no one created generational wealth.
I know that expression's been thrown around a lot.
I believe that every dollar we spent last year, uh,
was an effective dollar.
And I'm happy to answer any questions.
[Stuart] Hey, Reed, you guys have really screwed up here,
and I still think you're on your back foot.
- Yeah. - I want to hear,
"We are accountable, personally and forever."
[Steve] I am not convinced that you can't talk about
why you had so many people from your organization leave.
On some of those people that left,
I literally cannot talk about it.
I can't.
And I can't even tell you why I can't talk about it.
[Steve] You can't talk like that.
[Reed] So let me- let me just say this.
[Stuart] You're behind on transparency.
You're behind on trust.
We want to be able to be huge supporters of yours,
but we have a hard time raising money
for you folks right now, because you look so bad.
I think you should consider the possibility
that the brand is so damaged at this point,
you might need to step aside.
[Reed] I'm committed to as much accountability
as there needs to be.
So, like please understand,
like, the easy path is to fold up the tent.
[Stuart] And that would be disastrous.
That would be a victory for the dark forces, truly.
[person] Look, all I'm saying is
you gotta find some other way, right?
I mean, part of what is
giving me a little hesitation here
is I am not convinced that you can't talk about the money
and where it went.
[sighs, whispering] Fuck.
[groans] Uhh.
Last time I saw you guys was on inauguration day.
It's different world, I mean, for us, since then.
We stepped on a landmine, and then said,
"You know what? That was fun.
Let's do that three or four more times."
So now we're up to sort of our mid-femur.
We made mistakes last year.
And what disappoints me most in myself,
and us generally, um, is that, like, we knew better.
And so we are now in a place where,
three weeks ago,
this was a story about one man's behavior,
and it is now about a, you know,
"What is The Lincoln Project?
What's wrong with us?"
We didn't hold ourselves up to the standards
that we claimed to hold up everybody else to.
Um... a-and that's fair. That's totally fair.
You know, I've been on the phone
with donors for the last ten days.
Um...
I mean-I mean, it's Icarus, or hubris.
Use whatever Greek tragedy you want to.
Like, this is not a new story.
We built this thing. We caught fire.
You know, by September, people are saying,
well, what are you gonna do next?
And we hadn't won the campaign yet,
and they're already asking us that.
So this sort of, like,
th-these heady, you know,
sugarplums dancing in your head...
It's really, really easy to, like, have everybody love you.
I-I've never been in that position before, right?
You know?
You know, your friends calling, you know, and saying,
"You guys are heroes,"
and I'm like, that is ridiculous.
Right?
Um... they don't do that anymore.
[laughs]
We're back to being Republicans.
[Stuart] What's different about the American political system,
more than anything else, is money.
The amount of money in American politics
is pretty unique for a democracy.
It is unique for democracy.
Take The Lincoln Project. We raised $100 million.
80% of that was from small donors.
I mean, we had billionaires who gave us money.
Um, and under our legal structure,
you could give unlimited money, because Citizens United.
The story here, really, is the rise of soft money
after the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United.
Super PACs, unlike regular political action committees,
can raise an unlimited sum of money
with very few restrictions.
The way a super PAC works, a federal super PAC,
is it can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.
It can take in a $1 contribution.
It can take in a $10 million contribution.
Right?
Then, the ways that money can be spent are very liberal.
Voter contact, television ads,
Facebook ads, direct mail, billboards,
airplanes with "Vote Joe Biden" thing
coming out the back-- you name it.
That is not reported anywhere,
because nobody wants that reported
because the system is set up to be
as opaque as it possibly can be.
And it's--you know, look, uh, the Trump campaign--
you know, there was, like, two companies owned by Jared,
or controlled by Jared, that sucked a total of $700 million
out of the Trump campaign.
Nobody knows where that money went
once they invoiced for it.
Everybody knows that the campaign finance system
is really fucked up.
Everybody knows that the FEC is a toothless organization,
and it's that way by design, because neither Republicans
nor Democrats want it to have any teeth.
The Democrats could change this if they wanted to.
They're in control of both Houses right now.
If they wanted to change the composition of the FEC,
they can do it. They haven't done it. Why?
Because it serves them, too.
So there used to be this thing in American politics
called "general consultant"--
the James Carvilles,
the Lee Atwaters.
But in many ways, they've kind of gone away,
because, see, there's a limit to how much
you can charge a campaign just as a fee
without it looking weird.
And there's a limit to how many campaigns you can work on.
So where the real money was--
every year, more money's spent on media.
If you were in media, you could charge a percentage
of the dollars spent on television as your fee.
So a lot of people who would have been general consultants
at another era have called themselves
media consultants, just so they can
get into buying television.
There is an industrial-political complex
in America, and that is about consultants.
It's not about ideology. It's about money.
It's about power.
[interviewer] Should we regulate political consultants?
Uh, I think we ought to regulate money.
And by regulating money, you would regulate
political consultants.
[interviewer] You guys raised about $90 million, right?
Right.
[interviewer] You guys were billed $27 million.
- Mm-hmm. - People are like, well,
if you billed 27, where did the money go?
80% of every dollar we spent went straight
to trying to contact a voter.
Um...
But you know, it's interesting, because you guys mentioned,
like, how much money my company billed, right?
You don't mention how much Ron's company billed,
which was a similar number.
$21 million, right?
Ron bought a bunch of media.
But again, once that money goes into an account,
you take it on faith.
Would we have been better off if we had communicated more?
I think so.
I think more communication is better than less.
But I don't know that, even with greater communication,
there would have been an accompanying
sort of satisfaction.
[footsteps]
I love leading people,
but that's different than managing an organization.
But somebody's gotta do it.
Seeing the stuff that we see on social with our followers
and members and everything--
most of them are sort of like, okay, you clearly
got a bunch of dirty laundry you didn't take care of.
We're reading about it.
We don't wanna read about it anymore.
Oh, my...
Basically, like get your shit together and get back to work.
You're not done yet.
Right now, I'm trying to figure out, you know,
how to transition from a truly fighting organization
into something that represents millions of people.
All right.
We found the bridge. We turned around.
There's a metaphor here, too, but I'm not sure what it is.
We've been really good at fighting against stuff.
Now we have to get to fighting for something.
[Bobby Kennedy] I know at times you must feel very alone
with your problems and with your difficulties.
But I want to say how impressed I am
with what you stand for
and for the effort that you are making.
[Lucas] My hero is Bobby Kennedy.
And whenever I feel kind of down,
I'll listen to a speech of his.
That would just remind me of what
actual decent leadership is and what courage looks like.
But I-I would be lying if, like, my faith wasn't, like, shaken,
you know?
[Bobby] President Kennedy was speaking to the young people
of America when he said, "The energy, the faith,
"the devotion, which we bring to this endeavor,
"will light our country,
and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."
[Lucas] I can tell you one thing.
People-young people like myself that are coming up
and seeing this shit and, um...
pfft.
Gotta stay hopeful that there can be a better-
better future, but...
[Bobby] With history, the final judge of our deeds,
let us go forth to lead the land we love,
knowing that here on Earth,
God's work must truly be our own.
soft, stirring music
To some generations, much is given.
Of other generations, much is expected.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
[Steve] I knew the real McCain.
He was an imperfect man.
[person] Okay, let him through, let him through.
- Let him through. - [Steve] Complicated man.
But he was a full-on fucking American hero
of the highest order.
The idea, though, that we look for perfection
and we look for saints in our political leaders
is, in part, a childish delusion
that has brought us to this disaster.
quiet music plays
The story of America...
- One day... - [Steve] Is one that
you can find all the optimism you need for hope.
You can find all the pessimism you need for despair.
[crowd] Six, eight, we don't want to integrate!
[Steve] America has never been a ship,
uh, that has sailed on smooth seas, ever.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
[Steve] Every generation of American
has been born into an imperfect and unjust country.
And every American born into that country,
whether they died a day later or 100 years later,
died in a more just country
than the one they were born into.
And the question is, will that trajectory continue?
Is it preordained?
Is it providential?
It's not.
And we are at a hinge of history.
Can I get a Trump 2024?
[crowd] Trump 2024!
Trump 2024!
[crowd] Trump '24, Trump '24!
[reporter] Over 20-mile-an-hour winds didn't stop
droves of Trump supporters
from getting here days in advance.
There's a horrible, venomous, poisonous argument
that's bubbled up from beneath the surface
that's disoriented a lot of the country.
[indistinct chanting]
We're not going to take it anymore.
I see a civil war coming.
I do.
[Steve] At this moment in time, we're on the edge.
Touch me again! Touch me again!
[Steve] And what we're on the edge of
is what we've always been on the edge of.
Will this radical concept,
this American experiment...
will it continue?
Can we expand freedom?
Or will we lose it?
- [crowd cheering] - USA, USA, USA, USA!
[reporter] Back in the state where presidential campaigns
are born, former President Trump rallying supporters
and hinting at a 2024 bid.
Back to make America great again,
dash, slash, comma, again.
[Ali Velshi] Former President Donald Trump
held a huge election-style rally
in Florence, Arizona on Saturday,
where he repeated his election lies
and embraced some of the most radical Republicans.
Last year, we had a rigged election,
and the proof is all over the place.
We have a lot of proof, and they know it's proof.
They always talk about the big lie.
The big lie is a lot of bullshit.
That's what it is.
[crowd cheering]
Did anybody in here vote for Joe Biden?
[crowd] No!
Do you guys really think he won?
[crowd] No!
[Rubio] You're not going to convince,
at least most normal and sane people,
that our government last year
was almost overthrown by a guy
wearing a Viking hat and Speedos.
January 6th allows them to create
narratives that are negative about people
that supported Donald Trump.
Why do we not know some of the people who we know
were really involved in orchestrating this?
You know why.
They were almost certainly working for the FBI.
So FBI operatives
were organizing the attack on the Capitol.
[anchor] If the President was the party's nominee,
would you support him?
The nominee of the party? Absolutely.
We will take this fight to them in the courts,
in the halls of Congress, and, if necessary,
in the streets!
[crowd cheering]
Trumpism is the beginning of a dangerous extremism.
And we're going to have some big choices as a society
and a culture ahead.
Make no mistake.
The conspiracy could have worked,
and it might work next time.
somber string music
[Ron] Hello, from Politicology.
I'm Ron Steslow, and I'm really excited
for today's conversation.
I have three of my fellow co-founders
of The Lincoln Project with me today.
Kinda cool to see, uh, where all the magic gets done.
[Ron] Each of us had taken our own unique path
to The Lincoln Project...
I get to sit with George. I'm very excited.
[Ron] With full awareness that those paths might diverge
after the election was over.
George, Jennifer, Mike, thank you all for being here.
Let me just ask a big question for the table.
[Ron] Please, please.
Would you have done anything different last year,
knowing the way things stand today?
And answer that at any level that you want.
[Jennifer] That's really loaded.
[laughs]
- As far as the election goes-- - Any level you want.
[Jennifer] As far as the election goes and the role
that we all played
and the commitment that we gave to it
and the sacrifices that we all made
and the, you know, kinda the pain and the difficulty
that came along with it in a lot of personal ways, no.
Those of us at this table engaged
in what we did last year for a very principled,
sincere commitment to preserve democracy
in the United States of America.
It had to happen.
Without what The Lincoln Project did,
we would not have been successful.
soft, dramatic music
Now you have the gay guy, the Latino and the woman,
all of them just decide...
They all left. [Reed]-They left.
They weren't pushed aside. They left.
Each one of them left.
Jennifer Horn quit to The New York Times.
- [interviewer] Right. - Ron and Mike left
- of their own accord. - [Steve] Yep.
Uh, well, we didn't turn them on-we kept
turning them on the bad guys.
- Yeah. - [Reed] Just, you know, um,
who's that guy that shot Billy the Kid?
Pat Garrett. We didn't know there were
going to be a whole bunch of fucking Pat Garretts out there.
We did.
We've talked to hundreds of major donors.
You know what they care about?
The big thing.
They care about the mission.
They care about what we did in '20
and what we're going to do in '22 and '24 and beyond.
[Reed] The first non-peaceful transfer of power in 244 years
of the republic took place.
Now, here we are. The fight is not over.
This fight has just begun.
You know, I've heard a lot of people say, are you the devil,
are you guys bad, or are you good?
I'm curious why people see it that way.
The old philosophy was, just win.
Just win, baby.
And you could get there however you needed to.
And we got there ugly a lot of the time.
I freely admit it. Brutal.
But we turned those skills in this election cycle
against Trump and his enablers, but we didn't beat Trumpism.
I have to say, I-- I find it a little bit--
I'm just going to be very honest here.
I feel like you helped deliver us to this bad place.
I think it's a very fair and legitimate point to say
you guys helped create this.
Um...
but what do we do?
I can't undo that.
But what I can do and what the Lincoln Project has given us
a vehicle to do is use the skills
that we acquired to fight for what I think
is really the central fight of our time,
which is for democracy.
[Steve] You have eight U.S. senators.
A lot of them are from the most elite institutions
in the world--
Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton--these guys...
when the rioters are outside the Capitol,
they're in there, laughing it up
about trying to disenfranchise tens of millions
of African-American voters to flip the election
of Donald Trump.
That's not a political party anymore.
That is an emergent authoritarian movement,
that, if we're going to preserve this country,
we're going to have to fight against, not tomorrow,
not the next day, but for the next 10 or 20 years.
[Ron] How should we be thinking about the long-term fight
for democracy?
Because we now know that Trump wasn't
actually the biggest obstacle.
He was a symptom of a deeper illness.
To really understand and internalize what that means,
we have to understand that this is
a reflection of these larger social changes.
It's not just that
the Republican Party's dysfunctional.
It is. There's no question about it.
But there's a bigger question about what
is happening in our society--
and this is going to be a bit controversial.
Can democracy survive in this new digital era?
[Ron] Information warfare is political persuasion,
manipulating who's in charge.
How much freedom and how much equality, right?
[Mike] In that environment,
what you're really trying to do
is secure the attention span of the public.
What Donald Trump did in 2016 was manipulate the media
by being that commodity that everybody had to cover,
and sucked up all the oxygen from the other candidates.
What we did with The Lincoln Project
was we turned that on him.
That's how races are going to be run in the future.
[Stuart] The Lincoln Project was formed
by top political consultants who wanted
to fight Trump and Trumpism.
And the greatest danger of what we're in now
is not realizing the greatest danger.
Look.
Here's the key.
There's nothing noble about us, in the least.
The cause is noble.
You don't have to think we're good people.
You don't have to agree with us.
You don't have to like us.
But we're useful.
And if you really believe this is a fight for democracy,
and if you really believe it's an existential fight,
you need every useful son of a bitch
you can get on your side.
[crowd cheering, applause]
[commentator] There's something happening
within the Republican Party.
I-I think it's bigger than Trump.
[anchor] A majority of Republicans do not believe
Biden legitimately won the election.
Do you have faith in elections now?
No.
[anchor] Does this have the chance of happening again
in a different shape and form?
Because a lot of the people who were there on January 6--
they're now running for office.
As expected, in Wyoming, Republican Liz Cheney
lost her bid in the Republican primary--
the last of the ten House Republicans
who voted to impeach Trump.
Today, there are Republican candidates for governor
who deny the outcome of the 2020 election
and who may refuse to certify future elections
if they oppose the results.
I don't know what's legit, what isn't legit.
So you're just questioning democracy.
No. I'm questioning the integrity
of the election system.
I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals
saying that Trump won the election, and damn it,
- I stand by my word. - [cheers and applause]
I know for a fact, we will no longer
accept rigged elections.
Who's with me on that?
[anchor] Good evening.
Our big story tonight on News at 6--
the push to change the way we vote--
[anchor] 19 states have passed
34 voter restriction laws in 2021, more than any other year
in the last decade.
[Schumer] Every single Senate Republican
just voted against starting debate--starting debate--
on legislation to protect Americans' voting rights.
Bill Barr sent a dossier concerning
The Lincoln Project, naming myself and Reed
and Stuart by name--
[anchor] A new ad put out by The Lincoln Project...
[announcer] Fighting for the right to vote
has been a long American journey.
In 2022, democracy is on the ballot.
[anchor] How is The Lincoln Project still going?
It's honestly remarkable.
- The Lincoln Project. - The Lincoln Project--
The Lincoln Project--
Trump is threatening to sue The Lincoln Project.
[Rick] We're delighted by the thought
that you would try to sue us, Donald.
Do it. Do it.
I double-dog-dare you.
funky music plays