Report on the Lincoln Project town hall today.
At 5:00 today the Lincoln Project held a town hall with 10,000 Zoom attendees and 12,000 YouTube attendees. Lincoln Project members present were Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Jennifer Horn, Ron Steslow, and Mike Madrid. The group was formed in Dec. 2019 by anti-Trump Republicans. The average donation to the project is $41.00. Their dedication to their cause is impressive and they area smart bunch. And then there’s Steve Schmidt’s uber snarkiness. Most of you have probably seen their no-holds-barred ads on TV. As one of them said, “we are just getting warmed up”. Some of this is.paraphrased. I did not identify the speakers in the answers section. They said some excerpts of the town hall will be posted on YouTube.
Their 3 basic communication efforts are:
1. Messing with Trump (their words) and driving him out of his mind. They do it to distract him away from his campaign and put his attention elsewhere. Example: the amount of time he spent trying to refute the accusations that he can’t hold a glass of water with one hand.
2. Litigating the case against a Trump: electoral vote driven.270. That’s the goal. Point out his shortcomings and incompetence. Educate swing voters and make a case for them to walk away from him. Identifying swing voters who can be persuaded.
3. Persuading voters to actually make the jump. They are building a grass roots movement. Michigan alone has 300 LP volunteers.
Some audience questions and answers:
Q. I love your ads. They make me feel good. Is there any confirmation that your ads have swayed any voters?
A. If you look at all the polling of the a Republican base since mid-March, it’s showing softening in all polls. The biggest growing gap is between white college -educated Rep. voters and white non-college -educated white Rep. voters. There is a direct correlation from our confederate flag ad and these 2 groups of voters. This ad was very emotional to the Rep. base. We followed that ad 5 weeks later with the ad done by the Navy Seal who called Trump out for not doing anything about the bounty placed on American troops heads. That further softened the base. After that, even the Rasmussen Report showed decreasing support for a Trump. Steve Bannen said when we started that if we can peel off 3-4% of Trump’s Rep. support its game over. We’re past that right now.
Q. In light of the pandemic, how critical is mail-in voting to the cause? It seems a Trump supporters don’t mind crowding into polling places while more thoughtful people won’t take the risk.
A.i assure you that below the Trump level every Rep. operative is working on an early voting mail-in campaign. They want to get those votes in because a Trump is a disruptor and no one knows what he’ll do right before the election. Trump will play both sides by using mail-in votes and by using them to explain a rigged election when he loses. He wants to sow the seeds of discord so there is an excuse for losing.
Q. Trump says he wants schools to open in the fall, but doesn’t want it politicized. But he’s done exactly that.
A. I find this psychologically and politically fascinating. He wants teachers and students to crowd into schools. Meanwhile Rep. politicians are trying to avoid meetings and the Rep. convention in person. Trump’s behavior is another example of thevcomplete narcissism in his motivation. Just like opening up businesses, he needs it because it makes him look good and look strong. Anything Trump says or does about reopening schools has nothing to do with the health and welfare of your children.
There were many more questions, but I don’t want to take up any more of your time. Maybe I’ll do a few more shorter posts with some of the Q’s and A’s. If you get the opportunity to join another of their town halls, sign up. It’s worth it. (I believe I received the email to sign up because I have donated to them).
= new reply since forum marked as read
I was only able to catch ten minutes live. K&R 
