Several Chinese state media outlets have penned fawning reviews of the Lincoln Project, a Never Trump “Republican” group, The National Pulse can reveal.
Launched in 2019 by a cohort of establishment, so-called “Republicans” dedicated to “defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box,” the group is routinely praised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) run media outlets such as China Global Television Network (CGTN) and China Daily.
Both outlets are registered as foreign agents in the U.S. under the same law designed to stop Nazi propaganda in the 1930s.
CGTN editor Ceng Jing dedicated an entire op-ed – “Lincoln Project and the Republicans for President Biden” – to chronicle the group, hailing it as “a leading voice in the online political crusade against Trump” and “gaining particular attraction in the anti-Trump camp.”
“Taken together, the one-minute clips are nothing short of a psychological warfare campaign, some laced with extremely personal messages aimed at provoking Trump’s deepest insecurities,” the piece continues.
CGTN also praises the Lincoln Project founders’ alleged “knowledge and resources in Republican politics,” and leverages the group to demonstrate “critics of the most polarizing American president is not uncommon.”
Another CGTN editor, Liane Ferreira, heaped praise upon the group in a piece entitled “A World of Regrets: Republicans Turn Their Backs on Trump.”
Declaring “the end of Trumpism at the hands of Lincoln,” the article quotes several of the group’s anti-Trump ads and insists its comprise of “high-profile Republicans.”
CGTN also uses the Lincoln Project’s criticism of President Trump’s coronavirus response as part of the country’s broader campaign to deflect blame for spawning and spreading the virus, noting “the project puts the spotlight on Trump’s comments at the beginning of the pandemic in reaction to the delay in COVID-19 testing: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
Another state-run media outlet, China Daily, has covered the Lincoln Project in its article “Former Bush Administration Officials Openly Backing Biden“:
The Lincoln Project, run by Republican strategists Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson with the support of Republican lawyer George Conway, the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. The Lincoln Project has gotten attention for targeted political ads it created and aired only in Washington with the admitted goal of taunting the president.
The outlet’s European Bureau Chief and notorious Trump critic Chen Weihua frequently retweets the group on Twitter:
State-run media’s affinity for the group is reflective of the CCP’s desire to fight against President Trump’s efforts to transform the Republican party’s approach to China: rather than turning a blind eye to the country’s human rights abuses and exploitative economic practices like his establishment predecessors, President Trump is unprecedentedly tough on the country.
While the Lincoln Project initially garnered support from the political left, it appears that some Democrats aren’t as keen to legitimize the likes of Wilson and Weaver.
Stephen Colbert’s Late Show eviscerated Wilson during a jocular interview, illustrating the group actually has no real base of support, right or left. Maybe the totality of their backing comes from Democrat donor types, and Chinese Communist Party media outlets.
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