This Abraham Lincoln quote is still emblazoned on the Lincoln Project’s Twitter profile.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln

As everyone now knows, they haven’t quite lived up to their own role model.

Now, the floodgates have been unleashed. Like Bill Clinton trying to get into a new strip club, reporters are falling all over themselves to throw the Lincoln Project under the bus and champion an investigation of its operations.

Our RedState team has been on top of covering the grift that is the Lincoln Project since 2020, including the current scandal that appears to be their final undoing: John Weaver’s predilection to pedophilia with marginally pubescent young men. Like an onion, every layer peeled gets more pungent with the stench of hypocrisy.

Even after the New York Times published their story (that Ryan Girdusky originally broke), other news organizations still tiptoed around the allegations that Weaver solicited 21 young men, one as young as 14. Every shop from CNN to MSNBC did all they could to make excuses for the organization, and give the co-founders Rick Wilson, Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, and boil on the CAGOP’s hide Mike Madrid a pass and air time to profess that they were <clutch the pearls> shocked over the allegations, and how they did not know anything was going on. People currently or formerly attached to the Lincoln Project were equally pretentious. George Conway, the Trump-hating husband wife of Trump’s former Senior Counsel Kellyann Conway, lied on MSNBC’s Morning Joe saying he barely knew Weaver. As the grift continues to implode, Conway is still backpedaling to disprove he is complicit.

An investigation is necessary. But it has to be thorough, and not a whitewash. And—THE LYING HAS TO STOP. It's clear now that, as early last *MARCH*, the people who were in operational control of the Lincoln Project … https://t.co/StL7uFfXHo

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 16, 2021

It's a shame, and we shouldn't forget the hard work of so many people and the positive things the organization did, but yes, I think this is right. https://t.co/To9dKcrigm

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 16, 2021

My colleague Bonchie calls out the fake concern trolling for what it is.

Is there a bigger grift than this guy trying to pretend he didn't have any real involvement with The Lincoln Project? https://t.co/yrgLYcby54

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 16, 2021

As Joe Concha noted in the Hill:

In 17 TV appearances after the Axios story, the allegations against Weaver never came up once in interviews with other co-founders, including Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and George Conway.

Amanda Becker of the 19th News organization peeled off a particularly thick layer, debunking the Lincoln Project’s claims that they knew nothing about John Weaver’s proclivities.

UPDATED: Some Lincoln Project founders knew about sexual harassment allegations as early as March; the revelation comes as the political group’s domestic and international associates cut ties, including Israeli prime ministerial hopeful Gideon Sa'ar https://t.co/Xr5zCBfEX1

— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) February 16, 2021

The Grifter gang has known since March (if not before), and Bonchie unpacks it here, putting a particular spotlight on Schmidt.

Of course they knew in March, and almost certainly well before that. Karl Rove said he'd heard rumors about Weaver as far back as 1988. These guys all worked with Weaver extensively over the years. They knew. https://t.co/FJdtWb0kgh

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 16, 2021

After doxing and throwing co-founder Jennifer Horn under the same wheels they are now under, Schmidt resigned from the organization, then went on Bill Maher to lie about his knowledge of Weaver’s activities and of the Lincoln Project’s finances.

–> A frequent quip from Schmidt overheard by multiple people was that the Lincoln Project was his vehicle to achieve “generational wealth.”https://t.co/L0QMYbtS3M

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 15, 2021

Since the hard hitting reporting of Girdusky, RedState contributors, and Amanda Becker, a shift has happened. This week, no less than 400 news or blog articles have done post-mortems. The Lincoln Project’s claim that they have hired the law firm of Paul Hastings to do an “independent audit” of their books and operations has not slowed the flood of recriminations, regrets, and navel gazing into what we all knew was a well-funded vengeance shell game.

Now that the Lincoln Project is no longer useful, they are the ones being run over by the very legacy media that propped them up and supported the grift, all in the name of taking down Orange Man Bad.

In the media’s eyes, the Lincoln Project is already dead, so they might as well roll back over the corpse.

Daddy’s little girl Meghan McCain was one of the first, ensuring the family name—and her fat status and paycheck on The View—were properly protected.

1. I've been very hesitant to comment but since my deceased father keeps getting invoked I will say this:

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.

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) February 13, 2021

Another former sycophant consultant Kurt Bardella also found some untapped virtue in distancing himself.

Just shut it down already … it’s over. https://t.co/esaNANQLgM

— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) February 16, 2021

The egregious Daily Beast gives a platform to the even more egregious Rick Wilson, who acts as an “editor-at-large”. Wilson also co-host DB’s “New Abnormal” podcast with faux journalist Molly Jong-Fast. Girdusky wrote to the Daily Beast to see what they had to say about all the lid being blown off of the Lincoln Project.

I emailed The Daily Beast today to see if they will continue to host Rick Wilson's podcast on their platform given he was credibly accused of knowing about John Weaver's sexual harassment allegations and doing nothing.

They did not respond.

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) February 12, 2021

But apparently they were willing to spill information to Fox News, saying the podcast was now on “pause”:

Wilson’s co-host, left-wing pundit Molly Jong-Fast, made the announcement at the top of the show on Tuesday. Jong-Fast was an unpaid adviser to the Lincoln Project and said she had resigned from that post as well, in yet another departure from the embattled political action committee.

And like vultures around a crash site, more of the media are still circling, waiting to pick at the flesh of any bodies still left in the wreckage.

Everyone with a pulse knows @MollyJongFast sat on the John Weaver story to protect her BFF @TheRickWilson.

Why the hell is she getting a pass?

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 16, 2021

Tara sat on a video stream with Rick Wilson, smiled as he lied and defended the Lincoln Project and plotted how to move the Lincoln Project forward https://t.co/G9ZO1RoAxl

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) February 13, 2021

The Washington Examiner’s Kaylee White put into words what everyone has known since 2019, when our political lives were beset by this human detritus.

The only reason the press is turning on the Lincoln Project now is because the group has outlived its use. A recent study by one of the Democratic Party’s leading Super PACs found that the Lincoln Project’s viral ads failed to persuade voters in crucial battleground states during the 2020 election. In fact, the only voter the group seems to have convinced is Schmidt, who recently made his conversion to the Democratic Party official after Democratic donors helped him buy a new mansion.

The Weaver scandal confirms the Lincoln Project was nothing more than an ugly grift, run by spineless men who speak of principles but have none themselves. Actually, I take that back. The Lincoln Project does have one principle: It’s to line its own pockets with money from donors stupid enough to believe Schmidt, Wilson, and the rest were ever capable of more than spiteful self-interest.

We’ll continue to watch (and report) as the wheels of the bus go round and round over their bloated corpses.