The beleaguered Lincoln Project endured widespread social media ridicule on Monday after promoting an unfortunately named civic action campaign aimed at combatting voter fraud allegations floated by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
What happened? The anti-Trump group, which has been beset in recent months by infighting and a series of scandals, urged its followers to participate in MSNBC contributor Glenn Kirschner’s “Democracy Pledge.”
- According to “The Democracy Pledge” website, companies who choose to take the pledge agree to recognize the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as “free, fair and legitimate” and vow not to support or donate to politicians who “promoted false conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential elections.”
- Participants also pledge not to “support or endorse any legislation which makes it more difficult for people to exercise their constitutional right to vote” – a reference to anti-voter fraud laws like the one signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last month.
- “It’s time for corporations to take a stand for voting. It’s time for them to take @thedpledge,” the Lincoln Project tweeted from its official Twitter account.
The mockery: Twitter users said the Lincoln Project’s call for followers to “take the D pledge” sounded a bit too much like a popular slang term referencing male anatomy.
- “If there is anything Lincoln dudes know about, it’s definitely the D Pledge,” Fox News contributor Stephen Miller quipped.
- “Not surprised the Lincoln Project supports pressuring people to ‘take the d’. The jokes write themselves,” tweeted one commenter.
The scandal: The Lincoln Project, a PAC formed by veteran GOP strategists and which aimed to prevent Trump’s re-election, has virtually imploded amid allegations of sexual misconduct by one of its co-founders and the departures of key figures in the organization.
- In January, the organization was rocked after The New York Times published a report detailing allegations from 21 young men, who accused John Weaver, one of the Lincoln Project’s founding members, of sending sexually charged text messages to them.
- Another of the group’s co-founders, Steve Schmidt, left the Lincoln Project in February, citing his outrage over Weaver’s conduct.
