Friend, 

With less than five weeks to go, a lot of ultra-MAGA candidates like Blake Masters and JD Vance are furiously scrubbing their websites and trying to remove any mentions of Trump or abortion or any of the totally insane things they had to say to win their primaries (remember, they believe the insanity, too). Countless more aren’t even bothering to try to hide it.

As a former Republican strategist one of the questions I get most often from old friends is “is the GOP irredeemable?”

Yes. They are irredeemable. But what I point out is that they answer that question every day. It doesn’t matter how many tweets they delete or articles they scrub. It’s why we are throwing everything we have into beating this authoritarian ultra-MAGA menace over the next 33 days and beyond, and why we need your help.

Take a totally unscientific look around and you’ll see the answer to this question. Just in the last few days, I pulled three examples that I think you’ll find telling:

1. The main communications arm of the GOP is unabashedly pro-Putin

Watch this clip. It’s Tucker Carlson, the loudest ultra-MAGA mouthpiece on the loudest ultra-MAGA network, spouting Russian propaganda and blaming Biden for destroying the Nord Stream pipeline. If you take a look at Russian state media (which - Fox News has essentially become) - they excitedly play Tucker’s clips on a regular basis. Should be all you need to know. 

And yet - the Murdochs and the GOP spent 40 years building this propaganda behemoth. They take orders from the top and it is always very coordinated. Tucker is not going rogue. There is a coordinated anti-America, pro-Putin agenda from the very top of the Republican Party. 

2. The crazies aren’t “fringe.” They’re the mainstream in the GOP.

Let’s not forget that the man voted against hurricane relief funding. 

The thing about Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan and MTG and all of them is that they aren’t the fringe. They’re the leadership of the party and the party follows them in lockstep. 57 of them voted for Putin and against Ukraine aid in the House. All of them consistently vote against American interests in an effort to stymie any actual wins under Joe Biden (who has made significant progress this year nonetheless).

If the GOP takes the House, you can kiss Ukraine aid goodbye. And that’s just the start of it. Don’t take my word for it. It’s what they’re openly saying and how they’re voting right now.

That’s why we can’t let them win this fall. We’re up in swing districts right now unmasking the MAGA crazies to voters. Are you with us? 

I should also add that this isn’t just about Putin and Ukraine. The ultra-MAGA GOP has become a party that places the pursuit of power over everything. An influential MAGA commentator said the quiet part out loud: ““I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.” 

3. From Reagan to whatever they are now

Going back to the Cold War, conservative Republicans could always be counted on to stand up to the Soviet threat. The party of Reagan. They were the Soviets’ greatest adversaries. We went from “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” to…

This is from one of the leading “conservative” groups in America. This same group welcomed Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban to be their keynote speaker with open arms. It’s a feature, not a bug.

Now the MAGA-dominated GOP is Putin’s greatest ally. Now you know just why Russia supported Trump – and then Trump fully compromised the GOP. This has to be the most successful foreign intelligence coup ever.

Those that believe there is still a sane and decent core of the GOP are dead wrong. To put it another way: Trump didn’t change the Republican Party, he simply revealed it.

You’ll see more on this from us very soon. In a lot of ways I think this is the most important battle we at The Lincoln Project can fight. Revealing the corrupted soul of the GOP so that it can - must - be defeated. That’s our mission for the next 33 days and beyond, and why we need your help.

Thank you for being with us. 

-Stuart Stevens

@StuartPStevens on Twitter