A PAC of RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and anti-Trumpers has lumped Donald Trump and The John Birch Society (JBS) in with the KKK and neo-Nazis in one of their latest smear ads.
The ad, released earlier in October, was paid for by a political action committee ironically called the Lincoln Project. To put the U.S. president and JBS in the company of hateful, murderous, terrorist groups is hyperbolic absurdity void of any semblance of truth. Honest Abe would be disappointed.
The video ad, one minute long, is called “Our fight.” Its high-quality production tries to appeal to human emotion through patriotism; it aims to draw a line between real patriotism –represented by film of American soldiers fighting in World War II—and “extremist groups,” such as the Klan, neo-Nazis—and the JBS.
“We’ve seen this before,” the narrator begins. “In the history of the great American experiment, extremist groups have risen up to challenge our democracy. There were anti-semitic fascists in the 1930s, the KKK, The John Birch Society.” While the narrator mentions each of the three groups, it shows black-and-white film of American neo-Nazis, KKK rallies, and representing the JBS, G. Edward Griffin. Though not mentioned in the ad, footage of Griffin came from his 1969 film presentation This Is The John Birch Society: An Invitation to Membership, wherein he condemned Communism, Nazism, and the KKK, while supporting limited government under the Constitution. Talk about the Lincoln Project turning truth on its head!
The malicious ad continues: “And each of these hate groups were opposed by the American president, rejected by the American mainstream. Today, for the first time in our history, an American president embraces extremists and incites them to violence.”
There is absolutely no evidence that Trump or the JBS has ever advocated for the ideology of or taken part in the sort of horrid, hateful actions neo-Nazis and klansman have. But there is plenty of proof showing that the opposite is true. In fact, the Society, which founder Robert Welch created in 1958, had Jewish and black members and officials before integration between black and white was mainstream. The Society also has a long and well-documented record of exposing and opposing fascism, Nazism, racism, and all forms of collectivism and tyranny.
Unfortunately, the Society, which has always been a threat to the establishment political class, Democrat and Republican, is no stranger to ridiculous lies.
So who is this new group to lob the latest shameless smears at the JBS?
A Look Into the Dishonest Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project announced its arrival on the scene late 2019 via a pious op-ed in the New York Times. It was founded by Republican political operatives Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson, as well as New York lawyer and husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, anti-Trump Republican George Conway.
Schmidt is a political strategist who worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Weaver worked as a strategist for President George H.W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. John Kasich. Wilson is a media consultant and author of “Everything Trump Touches Dies.” Conway is known for being married to someone much more notable than him who worked for the man he’s working to keep from getting re-elected.
The PAC is a “an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations,” the group claims. Their reason for existence, the Lincoln Project claims, is to prevent Donald Trump’s re-election—apparently by convincing the electorate to vote for a Democrat: “Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College.”
But are there more lies to this group than just the run-of-the-mill smears?
Investigative reporting by National Review and the New York Post indicate the group’s official agenda may be a façade for covering their debt as well as their true political identities.
“If a group of unemployed strategists were looking to shape a persuasive center-right critique of Trump and his allies, these are not the talents they’d turn to,” NR reports. “If, on the other hand, the aim was to open up anti-Trump wallets on the left, they couldn’t pick a better team.”
“The Lincoln Project’s communications director is Keith Edwards,” NR continues. “He previously worked on communications for Mike Bloomberg’s run in the Democratic presidential primary and as a staffer for New York City Council speaker Corey Johnson, also a Democrat. Johnson is on record as trying to kick a Christian relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, out of New York City, after its staff set up a field hospital in Central Park at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.”
To date, NR reports, the Lincoln Project has spent nearly $100,000 for “fundraising consulting services” with the Katz Watson Group. “That firm’s founder, Fran Katz Watson, is a lifelong Democratic operative who previously worked as the national finance director for the Democratic National Committee. The firm’s long list of left-wing clients includes the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Beto for Senate.”
As of September, the group’s FEC filing shows it has raised nearly $59 million since its inception.
These operatives may also be looking for a way to cover some debt.
According to IRS filings obtained by the New York Post, the Republican operative Weaver — who has also called Trump a “tax fraud” — also has an outstanding $313,655 federal tax lien against his Austin, Texas, home.
American Express had taken Rick Wilson to court for his own unpaid $25,729 credit card bill the year before, documents show, The Post reports.
There seems to be very little that’s honest about this group.
“The project is a scam — little more than the most brazen election-season grift in recent memory,” NR writes.
America First Action, a pro-Trump PAC, circulated a memo entitled “The Lincoln Project Discrepancies,” with the intention of showing that the group’s principals are using the Lincoln Project to pay each other through their consulting firms.
Citing FEC filings, the memo says the treasurer of the Lincoln Project has a media firm called Summit Strategic Communications. It just so happens that Summit Strategic Communications received $19,581,590 from The Lincoln Project. The memo says that Lincoln Project founder and adviser Ron Steslow is the owner and president of TUSK Digital, which the Lincoln Project just so happens to have paid $6,441,614.
JBS’ True History of Inclusivity
Given it encompasses all the tells of a sham, it should be no surprise that the Lincoln Project — which did not reply with comment for request about why it smeared the JBS — blatantly lied about the Society in its ad.
Unfortunately, such fabrications are nothing new. Since the JBS arrived on the scene, it has had one overarching goal: to educate, organize and mobilize Americans to measure all policy and legislators with the ruler of the U.S. Constitution. In doing this, the Society has drawn the ire of a cornucopia of leftist groups, as well as neo-conservatives, none of which have any interest in reining American laws and policy into the small pen of American Constitutionalism.
One of the most common smears against the Society has been of the most egregious kind: hate. As with Trump, the Birch Society has occasionally been smeared as ‘racist’ or ‘anti-Semitic’ by some of its more dishonest enemies. But the truth is the opposite.
In 1963, the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities performed an extensive investigation into the Society. Welch, the founder and president at the time, welcomed the investigation. He had even asked for it.
In the five years of existence at the time, the Society had grown exponentially and had become very successful in its mission. Its success alarmed and spurred to action those whose ideals and goals were diametrically opposed. The communists, socialists, and other groups knew the JBS threatened their mission, so they attacked with their favorite weapon: lies. The nonpartisan investigators confirmed this was happening as well.
“The Birch actions to throttle Communist activities provoked immediate reaction, and on December 5, 1960, through the Manifesto of 81 Communist Parties, and again through the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the anti-Communist movement in the United States was specifically and unmistakably pointed out as the most important target against which to concentrate communist strength,” the investigators reported.
As for its look into the JBS, the commission investigators pored over Society bulletins and writings, including everything available by Welch and in the Society magazine at the time, American Opinion. It looked over “a wide range of newspaper descriptions of the John Birch Society.” Investigators interviewed detractors and supporters of the group. It secured affidavits and signed statements from 91 people. It reviewed reports submitted by agents who attended Society chapter meetings. It read the report of then-attorney general and the charges made by the then-governor.
After all that work, here’s what the commission found:
“Among other unjustified criticism against the society is the charge that it is anti-Semitic. Our investigation leads us to the opposite conclusion. The organization is open to people of all religions, all races, all political persuasions except those deemed subversive…. There are many jews on the Birch committees, many in the society; some members have been asked to resign because they were found to be disruptive with their anti-Semitic attitude.”
Furthermore, the investigators added, all-black chapters had been formed, as well as integrated ones: “There are also several local chapters consisting of both colored and white members.”
Again, the report was filed in 1963, before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Birchers didn’t need government to tell them to be inclusive.
Meanwhile, while the JBS was being pelted with false smears, black Society members were exposing the communists, stressing the need for racial harmony, and working to prevent civil unrest. They included George Schuyler, Alvin Smith Freeman Yearling, Charles Smith, Solomon Belete, Anthony Bryant, and Evans-Raymond Pierre.
Also, prominent black Americans such as nationally renowned conservative radio host Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of the pro-family group BOND (the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny), have been involved with JBS for decades. JBS chapter leader, radio co-host, and U.S. military veteran Ken Wood also happens to be black.
Furthermore, the JBS has not only excluded hate, but it has helped eliminate it.
Working with the FBI, a member of the society helped bring down some of the KKK’s most violent murderers. Reverend Delmar Dennis was a JBS member who infiltrated the most violent Klan in U.S. history, the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi. He played a crucial role in bringing down some of its murderous members. Afterward, he went on a speaking tour for JBS exposing the Klan.
We Truly Have Seen This Before
The Lincoln Project ad got one thing correct in its deceitful ad: “We’ve seen this before.”
There is nothing new about political operatives pretending to be someone they’re not, pretending to care about causes they don’t.
The John Birch Society, however, has never lied about its agenda, nor strayed from it. The Society motto perfectly encapsulates its purpose, “Less government, more responsibility, and — with God’s help — a better world.”
