Republicans Join With Democrats In Push To Take Down Trump The Bully
I have this dream about the scene in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie snaps, finally having enough of the bully, Scut Farkus and Ralphie proceeds to wail on Farkus, bloodying and bringing the big bad bully to tears. Only Farkus is trump and Ralphie is the Democrats.
Get ready for a media blitz by Republicans Against Trump that will bloody trump’s nose like never before. Supporters of the media campaign hope it will foster animus and fear of another trump reign and be as successful as another series of ads in 1964 that called on Republicans to vote for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson’s reelection. The ad, “Confessions of a Republican,” featured voters who were fearful of the GOP nominee, Barry Goldwater, for his aggressive views and his support from the Ku Klux Klan. A man in his late twenties speaks to the camera about his pride in the Republican Party’s past, before admitting that he is frightened by Goldwater causing a possible nuclear war.
Republican Voters Against Trump is spending $3.5 million for five 30-second video ads to be shown on streaming platforms in three key election states, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
A woman identified only as Beth, who says she voted for trump twice, looks into the camera in one spot and declares, “He is a criminal.” Beth explains that trump is running not for democracy but to keep him from going behind bars.
Trump, she said, is running not for democracy but to keep himself out of jail, and she declares she will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris :
The organization said it’s spending $3.5 million for the five 30-second videos to appear on streaming platforms in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that could ultimately decide the outcome of the election.
The group is also putting up 69 billboards in the same states featuring former trump voters declaring “I WON’T VOTE FOR TRUMP.”
“Donald Trump thought he could coast through this election, but now he’s feeling the pressure from voters who have real concerns about his age, his criminality, and his anti-democratic behavior,” said Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump. “Even for those who supported him in the past, these liabilities are real — and they are alarming. We are reminding voters that there is a better choice, and that we can’t gamble with American democracy by returning Trump to the White House.”
The campaign will run $1.3 million worth of ads in Pennsylvania; $1.2 million in ads in Michigan; and $1 million in ads shown in Wisconsin. Video ads will run on CTV (streaming) and YouTube through the end of the month in key markets, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg; Detroit and Grand Rapids; and Milwaukee and Madison.
The Republican Accountability PAC also has placed four billboards in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that feature former trump voters who switched to Harris. One quotes Dwight from Michigan and reads, “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m a gun owner. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.” Another from Lars of Wisconsin, touts “I’m a former trump voter. I’m a conservative. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.” Mike from Pennsylvania says “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m a patriot. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.” And there’s Matthew of Pennsylvania, with the words, “I’m a Trump voter. I’m a veteran. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.”
Longwell is founder of Republican Voters Against Trump which is now known as the Republican Accountability Project. The campaign spent millions to defeat trump in 2020. Longwell also is publisher of the The Bulwark. a conservative website that opposes trump’s agenda in a moderate coalition of traditional conservatives and libertarians.
Longwell grew up in a majority Republican town in central Pennsylvania. In 2005, Longwell moved to Washington, D.C., where she landed a job with Berman and Company, whose principle, Richard Berman, is a Republican lobbyist and later public relations expert. For the next 15 years Longwell she worked at Berman and Company, as senior vice president and communications director, leading media campaigns on a wide range of public policy issues.
Longwell was the first woman to chair the national board of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for LGBTQ+ issues. She was a leading voice in persuading the Log Cabin Republicans not to endorse then-candidate trump in 2016. In 2019, the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed trump for re-election and Longwell resigned as board chair.
Longwell is a strong voice in the Never Trump movement and was instrumental in founding Defending Democracy Together, an umbrella organization for Republican Voters Against Trump, Republicans for the Rule of Law, and other anti-Trump projects. Longwell pushed for trump’s impeachment and removal in 2019 and 2021.
After trump lost in the 2020 election, Republican Voters Against Trump changed its name to the Republican Accountability Project, targeting Republicans who spread lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election. In January 2021, the group launched a $1 million billboard campaign, calling on then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others to resign for continuing to support trump in the lead-up to the January 6th Capitol riots.
Longwell launched The Bulwark in 2018, with help of William Kristol and conservative radio host Charlie Sykes. By 2019, The Bulwark had raised about $1 million to establish a “rational, non-Trumpist forum.”
Kristol is a neoconservative writer and frequent commentator on several networks including CNN. Kristol worked to defeat the Clinton health care plan of 1993 and supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Kristol was an ardent promoter of Sarah Palin, advocating for her selection as the vice-presidential running mate of John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.
Kristol vehemently opposed trump’s nomination for president in 2016, for his focuses on domestic and foreign policy. Kristol endorsed Joe Biden for President in 2016 and 2020.
The Republican Accountability Project and Republican Voters Against Trump launched in May 2020 for the 2020 presidential election cycle. The projects produced a $10 million advertising campaign focused on 100 testimonials by Republicans, conservatives, moderates, right-leaning independent voters, and former trump voters who planned not to vote for trump in 2020. By August 2020, they had collected 500 testimonials. Since January 29, 2021, the project has focused on attacking Republicans whom they hold responsible for the 2021 storming of the Capitol by trump supporters.
Major funders of the current, anti-trump media campaign are Reid Hoffman, Seth Klarman and John Pritzker.
Hoffman is the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn. Klarman is a billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and author. He is the chief executive and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment partnership he founded in 1982.
Pritzker is the grandson of A.N. Pritzker and son of Jay Pritzker, an American billionaire and investor and founder of the Hyatt Hotel chain.
Hoffman helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit for defamation and battery against trump. A jury found Trump liable and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Hoffman has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Another media campaign, the Anti-Psychopath PAC, is concentrating on trump’s mental health. The six-figure ad campaign notes trump’s “mental unfitness for office. It was formed by George Conway, the anti-trump pundit who was formerly married to top trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway.
The PAC’s initial efforts include a website, mobile billboards and a TV ad that features clips of trump’s previous comments with Conway reflecting.
“Donald Trump has never, ever been right in the head,” Conway says over a TV ad titled “Trump is Crazy.” It features clips of trump speaking, including his bizarre reference to the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter as a “wonderful man.” Trump is also shown proclaiming that the “kidney has a very special place in the heart.” Other highlighted comments include trump claims that a voter ID is required to buy bread and claiming that noise from windmills can cause cancer.
“Even before he began showing age-related cognitive decline, Trump had a long history of doing and saying bizarre things,” Conway said. “He was never right in the head. And as he’s gotten older, he’s only gotten worse. We’ve all seen videos of Trump slurring words and rambling nonsensically even with the help of a teleprompter — most recently about sharks and electrocution and Hannibal Lecter. But Donald Trump has a bigger problem, and it’s not his age: It’s the fact that Donald Trump has never been right in the head.”
Conway said he has given initial seed money for the PAC’s work to the tune of $343,434.34, representing Trump’s 34 felony convictions. Conway also contributed nearly $1 million to the Biden campaign earlier this year.
In addition to the TV ads, Conway’s committee supported a series of mobile billboards in Milwaukee, Wis., thanking Republican voters for nominating a “convicted felon,” a “criminal” and a “psycho.”
Conway is a contributor to The Atlantic, co-host of The Bulwark’s “George Conway Explains It All” podcast, board president of the Society for the Rule of Law, and former law partner. A lifelong Republican, Conway has been among the most outspoken voices in the Never Trump movement.
Other anti-trump ads by the Democratic National Committee were posted on 57 Milwaukee County Transit System buses prior to the July 15 start of the Republican National Convention. One ad includes a smiling trump next to the words, “TALE OF THE TAPE: TRUMP: CONVICTED FELON. TRUMP: OVERTURNED ROE V. WADE. TRUMP: 80K BADGER STATE JOBS LOST ON HIS WATCH. Another with a smiling Joe Biden and the words, RESTORE ROE? VOTE FOR JOE!!Top of Form
Another series of mobile, anti-trump billboard was unveiled near trump’s rally in Atlanta, Ga., last Saturday. The ads highlight trump’s “long, dangerous history of racism and disrespect toward the Black community.” The latest campaign comes in the wake of trump’s comments at a national black journalist conference that disparaged Vice President Harris for not being truly a Black woman.
One of the older anti-trump campaigns is the Mad Dog PAC, a citizen-funded, anti-trump effort that was “founded with a simple goal in mind: Fight Fascism. Stop Trump.”
Mad Dog PAC was created in December 2017 by Claude Taylor, a former travel photographer and veteran of presidential campaigns who served as a White House staffer for Bill Clinton.
Mad Dog PAC is posting billboards in eight battleground states-including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida.
The billboards displayed under the post show trump’s eyes dominating the image, with “UNFIT” written across the lower section.
Another billboard reads: “ROE ROE ROE YOUR VOTE.”
Another says: “TRUMP KILLED BORDER SECURITY.”
There is also plenty of anti-trump merch, though none of it seems to stoop to the level of $145 fake gold sneakers or $60 God Bless the USA Bibles.
Last year, Taylor released a steel mug with trump’s mug shot on the front labeled: “CRIMINAL DEFENDANT.”
The Mad Dog PAC website notes, “This lightweight, powder-coated carbon steel, 16 oz mug is perfect for camping, tailgating, picnics….oh wait! Sorry. Perfect for PRISON!”
A company called The Blue Deal sells stickers, like “Very stable genius” along a photo of a crying blonde-haired baby. Another is “elect a clown, expect a circus.” And of course, “Trump Putin. Make Russia Great Again” and a “Humptee Trumptee” cat toy.
Republicans for Biden, meanwhile, has been officially relaunched as Republicans for Harris. Early Republican supporters are former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (the 2016 Libertarian nominee for vice president who then challenged trump in the 2020 Republican primary); former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman; former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggelman; former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh (who also challenged trump in the 2020 primary); and former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham. Former Rhode Island Rep. Claudine Schneider, who now lives in Colorado, has been leading efforts to organize former Republican members of Congress.
The Democratic Party is plenty busy in its plans to harass and intimidate and embarrass trump after he first agreed to debate Harris but then began dodging it. Democrats plan to launch digital homepage takeovers of local news organizations in battleground states to hound trump for backtracking on a debate.
The ad on various homepages notes that “Trump is a convicted felon whose Project 2025 agenda would ban abortion nationwide. No wonder he’s afraid to debate.”
The campaign kicked off on Saturday, the day that trump and Vance held a political rally in Atlanta, Ga. Trump’s image will be spread across the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website, his tongue out and teeth bared. The attack builds on weeks of Democratic efforts to tie trump to Project 2025, a far-right plan to go into effect if trump is returned to the White House. Trump has disavowed the project although many supporters and former trump administration members were involved with it. The plan calls for limiting reproductive rights, rolling back various environmental laws, filling thousands of civil service slots with administration with trump loyalists among other plans.
Trump said he would debate Harris, more than once. But he wavered on doing the ABC News debate on Sept. 10, which had been scheduled before Joe Biden exited the race and Harris assumed his place. Harris said she will show up at the Sept. 10 debate, with or without trump.
“Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” Harris said at a rally in Atlanta last Tuesday. “Because as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
The Democratic National Committee has approached seven major newspapers in critical swing states about buying out their homepages if trump visits. The news organization include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Detroit News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Arizona Republic, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Las Vegas Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Donald Trump boasted he’d debate ‘anytime, anywhere,’ but after 34 felony convictions and one campaign meltdown after another, he’s running scared and attempting to dodge his commitment to a September debate,” DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement.
The latest list of Republicans who oppose trump in the 2024 election include:
President George W. Bush, Vice President Mike Pence and Vice President Dick Cheney. Former members of trump’s cabinet include Mark Esper, John F. Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, Dan Coats, William Cohen, John Danforth, Chuck Hagel, John Lehman, Rosario Marin and Richard V. Spencer. Former executive branch officials include John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Robert D. Blackwill, Ty Cobb, Ashley Davis, Stephanie Grisham, Michael E. Guest, Cassidy Hutchinson, Bobbie Kilberg, Mary Kramer, Frank Lavin, Sarah Matthews, John McKay, Harriet Miers, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Elizabeth Neumann, Karen Pence, Jeanne Phillips, Anthony Scaramucci, Marc Short, Miles Taylor, Jay Town and Olivia Troye.
Current U.S. Senators include Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Jerry Moran, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Todd Young.
Former U.S. Senators include Rudy Boschwitz, Richard Burr, Jeffrey Chiesa, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, Cory Gardner, Judd Gregg, Gordon J. Humphrey, George LeMieux, Rob Portman, Alan Simpson, John E. Sununu, and Pat Toomey.
Current U.S. Representatives include David Joyce, Thomas Massie, Greg Pence, and David Valadao.
Former U.S. Representatives include Gresham Barrett, John Boehner, Mo Brooks, Susan Brooks, Liz Cheney, Barbara Comstock, Mike Gallagher, Anthony Gonzalez, Will Hurd, John Katko, Adam Kinzinger, Mia Love, Tom Rice, Paul Ryan, Joe Scarborough, Chris Shays, Fred Upton, and Joe Walsh.
State and local officials including current governors Eric Holcomb, and Phil Scott.
Former governors include Charlie Baker, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Jim Edgar, Bill Haslam, Larry Hogan, Asa Hutchinson, John Kasich, Pat McCrory, James G. Martin, George Pataki, Marc Racicot, Bruce Rauner, Mark Sanford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Weld and Christine Todd Whitman.
Other current, statewide elected officials include John Dougall, Jeanette Nuñez, Winsome Sears, and Roby Smith.
Former statewide officials include Geoff Duncan, Adam Laxalt, Corey Stapleton, Michael Steele, and Cate Zeuske.
Current state legislators include Becky Edwards, and other state and local officials include Manny Díaz Jr., John Giles, Stephanie Kopelousos, Joseph Ladapo, and Daniel Rickenmann.
Former state legislators include Mary Pat Christie and Steve Laffey.
Former federal judicial officials include J. Michael Luttig.
Current party officials include Bill Palatucci and former officials include Katon Dawson, Jennifer Horn, Jennifer Nassour, Chip Saltsman, Michael Steele, Amy Tarkanian and Chris Vance.
Other public figures include Kathy Barnette, John Anthony Castro, Ann Coulter, S. E. Cupp, Jenna Ellis, Carly Fiorina, David Frum, Nick Fuentes, Robert Kagan, Sarah Longwell, Meghan McCain, Ana Navarro, Ramesh Ponnuru, Harry E. Sloan, Eric Tanenblatt, Mary L. Trump, Fred Trump III, and George Will.
Organizations opposed to trump include 43 Alumni for America, Americans for Prosperity, The Bulwark, National Review, New York Post, Republican Accountability Project, Republicans for the Rule of Law and The Lincoln Project.