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Charlottesville City Council Tells Disgraced Lincoln Project They're Not Welcome in Stern Letter

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 07, 2021 8:00 AM

The Lincoln Project has had a particularly rough couple of weeks. Just days before the Virginia statewide races--which ultimately did not go as the Lincoln Project wanted them to--the group ended up admitting to a publicity stunt in which five individuals dressed up in white polos, khakis, and carried unlit tiki torches to pose by the tour bus of now Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin and chant "we're all in for Glenn." 

The individuals, which included a young woman and a Black man, were clearly calling to mind the deadly "Unite the Right" rally from August 2017 in Charlottesville. Well, as Brandon Gillespie and David Rutz reported for Fox News, the Charlottesville City Council responded on Thursday in the form a letter. 

The particularly stern letter, which concludes by telling the Lincoln Project not to return to the city for another stunt, is addressed to co-founder Steve Schmidt, at the organization's office in Washington, DC. 

With original emphasis, it reads:

Dear Mr. Schmidt:  

On Friday, October 29, you tore open a still-healing wound in Charlottesville with your political prank of having tiki-torch-bearing protesters outside of a Glenn Youngkin gathering.  

Tiki torches wielded by young men in white polo shirts and khakis mean one thing in Charlottesville – we are under attack.   Friday, 8 blocks away, the federal trial growing out of the events of August 11-12, 2017, heard the first full day of testimony from the victims of that attack.

For many of our residents who confronted the Nazis and white supremacists on our streets on August 11 and 12, seeing your operatives in white polo shirts and khakis carrying (even unlit) tiki torches caused a PTSD flashback to those traumatic days.   Many of our residents were badly hurt that weekend, and they still struggle with unpaid medical and living expenses.   For many more who may not have witnessed the events of August 11 and 12 but who know how our friends were traumatized that weekend, your insensitivity caused great anger.  And to have those images flashing again when the victims were testifying was particularly upsetting.  Some thought that the 2017 attackers had returned because of the ongoing trial.

Your post-demonstration press release promised the potential for more such painful memories, when you said about Glenn Youngkin,

"If he will denounce Trump’s assertion that the Charlottesville rioters possessed ‘very fine’ qualities, we’ll withdraw the tiki torches. Until then, we’ll be back."

You seem to regard “Charlottesville” as nothing more than a political meme, and parading mock white supremacists around our city as nothing more than political cosplay.  You clearly do not understand the extent to which your “prank” inflicted real emotional pain on innocent people here in Charlottesville.

Real – useful – repudiation of Donald Trump would involve supporting the victims of the attackers whom you mimic, through support for groups such as the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation that have helped those still dealing with unpaid expenses caused by the terrorist attack of August 11 and 12.  Real – useful – opposition would also mean using your resources and platform to support the work being done in the Charlottesville community to create authentic change and confront our local history.

Please do not bring your cosplaying operatives back to Charlottesville.  We do not wish to be the backdrop for your next exercise in political theater.

It's signed by Democratic Vice Mayor Sena Magill, as well as City Councilors Heather Hill, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook, all of whom are also Democrats.

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As the letter also noted in the beginning, the publicity stunt took place on the same day that a trial to do with the deadly rally took place not far from where the tour bus was.

Guy and I reported on the publicity stunt last week, with coverage making note that not only was the Lincoln Project behind it, but so was liberal activist Lauren Windsor.

Gillespie and Rutz in their reporting also revealed though that the five individuals were supposed to willingly share what they were doing and who they were with if asked, citing reporting from The Intercept, though in reality that did not happen:

Emails reported on by The Intercept showed the Lincoln Project seemingly wanted it to be an obvious stunt to tie Youngkin to Donald Trump, which McAuliffe desperately sought to do throughout the campaign. The report claimed the Lincoln Project operatives were supposed to identify themselves as part of the left-wing PAC if asked who they were by reporters, but no one in the media did.

However, one Reuters editor said the hoaxers did not answer questions about their identities.

Also, Lauren Windsor, a consultant who coordinated with the Lincoln Project on the tiki torch incident, tweeted out surprised emojis in response to the initial reporter's tweet drawing attention to the bizarre situation.

Gillespie and Rutz's reporting also highlights tweets from Reuters Editor Jim Bourg and Chuck Ross, an investigative reporter with the Washington Free Beacon. 

Ultimately, Republicans swept, as Virginians elected Glenn Youngkin for governor, Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor as the first woman and Black woman in the role, and Jason Miyares for attorney general as the first Latino and son of an immigrant in the role. Republicans also will now control the House of Delegates. 

It does not appear that the Lincoln Project has in any way learned their lesson, considering an ad targeting Youngkin that had just been released the day before the publicity stunt took place remains their pinned tweet.

The ad claimed that Youngkin decided to focus on Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a campaign issue because he wished to but could not say a word that is a horrific slur used against Black people. 

Their Twitter account has also retweeted it multiple times since then, for some reason, including just this past Saturday.

A Fox News exit poll found that CRT was the single most important issue for 25 percent of voters and that among them, 70 percent voted for Youngkin. Also, 72 percent of voters said that CRT was an "important" issue.