Reelection. How are you doing . Guest i am good. Host remind us of the purpose of the Lincoln Project and for the viewers who want to know, where do you get your funding . Guest are funding comes from the National Grassroots with over 500,000 donors. We have a few major donors trade almost all of our fundraising as come through small dollar donations and people who want a voice that is able to attack donald trump and able to go after his campaign in a way that many others cannot. We are a group of former republicans and folks who were driven out of the donald trump iteration of the Republican Party for a host of reasons. Primarily because he has conservative principles. He is governing as more of an authoritative statist. We look at this election as a threat to the future of this country great it was our moral and political obligation to do something about it. Host you described yourself as a former republican strategist. Does that also mean you are a former republican . Do you still consider yourself to be part of the Republican Party . Guest i am a nonparty affiliate in the state of florida. I wanted to vote against trump twice. I cannot be part of a party right now that represents the lavish corruption, the over cruelty and the inherent statism and the other characteristics that donald trump has transformed what was once a party of ideas and ideals into. Onceepublican party involved a whole cluster of principles, individual liberty, the rule of law, adhering to the constitution. None of those things are central to trumpism. All of those things the rule of law is a joke to trump. The constitution is a vague guideline to trump. The idea that constitutional liberty is a limit on executive power are immaculate to trump. He believes in the expansive power of the state and government. The oldschool conservatism i grew up with was not that. Aboutwhat needs to change the Republican Party . Or is your argument just with President Trump or is it with the entire Republican Party right now . If the Republican Party in anything except donald trump, we could have a conversation. Look at the convention. It is not a platform anymore, it is are you loyal to donald trump . That is the definition of the Republican Party. There is no philosophical underpinning to the party at all. Look at any member of the party. Any Single Person in the elected office today, if they said i believe in x and donald trump said i believe in y, x is stupid, they would abandon x in a millisecond. Look at ted cruz, marco rubio. All of these people who were so rigidly inherent to the constitution, every time donald trump chapels over it, it is not how dare you sir, stop. It is yes, may i have some more. Ae party itself has taken poison pill with donald trump. They got a sugar high with the camping season of 2016, ever since then the party has been in rapid decline across the board. It has shrunken. Over 700 seats have been lost in various levels from congress down. There is Great Electoral peril this year. There is philosophical and political peril. It does not end. Everything trump touches dies. I mentioned it facetiously. Now it has taken on a grim and horrible truth. Host being against President Trump does not automatically mean that you are for joe biden. Does your Group Support joe bidens candidacy for president . Guest yes. We have endorsed joe biden. I support joe biden and will vote for joe biden. I will tell you why. It is not because i have to agree with every single one of his political philosophies or policy proposals. Not at all. It is because it is the difference between a good man and a bad man. It is between the choice of a man who will manage covid and one will mismanage covid. One who has an adherence to american rinse. Someone who has adherence to his own greed. I am voting for joe biden. There particular areas where you disagree with joe biden, even though you said that you know there are areas where you do not agree with him. Are there any particular areas about his platform that concerns you as a former republican . Guest here is the thing that people mistake about what will happen when joe biden becomes president. I think there will be some massive they think there will be some massive ideological shifts. They are wrong. In the center. The first two or three or four years of joe bidens term will not involve a green yield deal Green New Deal or something else, they will undo the damage that donald trump has done to this country. We have to get the pandemic under control and face it as a nation. That will require the vast majority of his leadership in the future. Donald trump has proven to us that he cannot succeed in managing this pandemic. He has proven he does not care. He will lie. He will deceive. He will delay. He will give deals to his friends and his supporters. This is not a solution for someone who something that has killed 200,000 americans. Whatever joe bidens policies end up being, i suspect they will be a lot more in the broad tradition of american governance than Donald Trumps wild excesses. Host lets get some of the viewers involved in the conversation. We will open up special lines for the segment. Our first line will be for republicans, who oppose President Trump. If you are a republican who opposes President Trump, you want to hear from you at 202 7488000. If you are a republican supporting President Trump, once again, republicans who support President Trump, your line will be 202 7488001. Everyone else, we want to hear from you as well. Your number will be 202 7488002. Atp in mind, you can text us 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media on twitter, at cspan wj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Rick, one of the big conversations during the Campaign Cycle has been the Lincoln Project commercials, where they show up whether they show up online or in emails or on television. Can you tell us how much you campaignpend on advertisement in this election cycle . About 90 have devoted of our resources, maybe a little higher to voter contact. Whether it is digital broadcast or other outreach. You will see in the closing 30 days of this campaign, a fairly massive investment in a number of markets both in the president ial site and the senate side. While we do not give out daytoday tallies, you could probably expect to see 30 million of spending in the next few weeks. Host rick, this is a question that comes up often. If joe biden wins the president ial election, will you go back to being a republican or have you made a permanent break from the Republican Party . Guest that is so far in the future right now. There is no Republican Party to speak of right now, there is the donald trump party. I think that there needs to be a party that focuses on free markets and fair trade, but i do not think that the current republican will shake off trumpism very quickly. It will have to learn lessons about the political costs of abandoning every principle you claim to believe in and moving into this era where you are a personality cult rather than a political party. Host one day i have not asked is about the New York Times story that says that President Trump has paid 750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017, after he became president. What is your opinion on that story . Guest how is anyone surprised . I wrote in my first book a recollection of a conversation i had in 2015 with a new york billionaire, and he leaned back in his chair, and he goes, he will not spend his own money. He is not a billionaire, he is a clown living on credit. That was a great story because it was revelatory about what people actually knew about donald trump. The fact he has been involved in a multiyear scheme to maximize deductions for things like 70,000 worth of hair cuts should not surprise no one. He does not believe the law applies to him. And he has built a gigantic scheme, i will not say a fraud, because i am not an attorney. I do not know if that is the correct term here, but he has built a tax avoidance scheme that if any other candidate was doing it, he would be attacking them with hammer and tongs. Host we havent yet talked about his Current Supreme Court barrett, whoconey will be going to capitol hill this week to start meeting with republican senators. How does the president making this nomination so close to election day affect the election . Guest i think it will affect ie election in a big way and think it will be bad for cory gardner, Susan Collins, and probably dan sullivan and alaska, all more or less prochoice states, except for South Carolina, a different chemistry there, but arizona, aine, it has m turned the election in those states to a single or issue. It speaks to the care of these republicans, who say they are independents, but are not. I think that the nomination will lead to a scramble in the senate. I think it blew up one of the plans they had to turn the fall into their where ron johnson was going to have a ukraine palouse a to attack john byron palooza to attack joe biden. I think Mitch Mcconnell will pay a price for this. He may lose his majority because of this. At the Lincoln Project, the garwin rule, established by the republicans, should have been applied here, and the nomination should have been made by the person who wins the election. At that point, we wouldve had a different chemistry in the country, one way or another. This race will fundamentally be a referendum on donald trump, not on his nominee. From lets start with kim tennessee. Good morning. Caller can you hear me . Host we can, go ahead. Was afirst of all, nonpolitician because our system does know longer represent we the people, it represents the rich. We have gotten distracted with the republicans and democrats again. Doesnt anybody know how fast donald trump does anything . Artist,n, like a con gone by the time the guy realizes he has been cheated. Are tryingn people to get more. And the programs we think protect us in government, like the eta, fta, medicare, fema, they are talking about how expensive it is. They are fighting it. Whitecollar criminals do not go get prosecuted and go to prison like we do, when we are just trying to feed her families. In prisons where cca is making a profit off of keeping us there. And criminals lose the right to have hardear arms, time getting employment and housing, and so on. People are distracted by the little tax cut, the minimum wage has not gone up. Andknow, he is even went in cleared out the projects of people that, you know, our foreign, the dogs and murderers ok, those of the people that help our economy. I am so mad. Im so mad. Host go ahead and respond. Guest i think a lot of americans ha elected donald trumpve lot of americans elected donald trump because they thought he would be this uncorruptible, wealthy guy. He is ultimately corruptible and corrupted. I think when we are done with this president , one thing that can happen, and once joe biden gets daylight on covid, we need to do ethics reform. We need to do a reform of civil service, a reform of the Voting Rights act. These are things we can look at on how to empower the country again that are not ideologically driven, but rather are meant to strengthen our small democratic systems and small republican governments. Host lets go to randy, calling from williamsburg, virginia. He is a supporter of President Trump. Good morning. Caller good morning, america. I have a question, since you say you are a republican against donald trump. That is great for you, not for anybody else. I am glad that you have come to that decision. But just to compare, in virginia, you know our governor, governor northam, a democrat, had every single democrat in the state legislature, local, politician mark warner, tim kaine, tell our governor to resign for six months. And six months after that, a year later, all those same people were taking his campaign donations. So, you and your group are not unlike that. We that support america, we want change. Donald trump is the tip of that spear. You have a great day. Aest the reason you have democratic majority in virginia is because of donald trump, because he is a political poison. The reason there are democrats and majority situations, the Virginia Legislature right now, donald trump. The governors office, donald trump. Enjoy the illusion you are at the tip of change, but you are at the tip of an influence that is destroying the ability to govern states. You have bought the ticket, you are taking the ride. Host one of your more recent ads targets Lindsey Graham of South Carolina over scotus nominations. I want the viewers to see that, and then you talk about it. [video clip] i am a conservative, i want conservatives on the court. N opening comes in the last year President Trumps term, and the primary process is started, we will wait until the next election. I want you to use my words against me. You are on the record. Hold the tape. Lindsay must go. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this ad. Host why did you make that ad . Guest to point out that Lindsey Graham has always been a political parasite and a flipflopper, somebody who is not consistent in his word. He is not consistent while holding up his oath of office. And he is not honest. Lindsey graham has become a target of the Lincoln Project and other groups for a big reason. In South Carolina, a state that the president should be comfortable ahead in, he is only ahead by four or five points. Lindsey graham, who should comfortably hold that seat, is behind in some polling. We believe that he is one of the chief enablers of donald trump, one of the people that has been the most corrosive and destructive to the Republican Partys ability to hold onto its principles because he has sold out a donald trump. And so, lindsay deserves everything that comes at him. And he deserves the scrutiny that the Lincoln Project and other groups are bringing on his character and his positions. Promiseshear political alike that all the time, so what is the difference between those in the past and people making political promises now . Guest Lindsey Graham is a particular flavor of hypocrisy. He is a man who not only ran a Vicious Campaign against donald trump, but prior to that was the wing man of john mccain for decades. Betrayal of both that and that relationship he had with john mccain, which created his career, and the scope of Lindsey Grahams flipflop on donald trump, in order to become his minion and golf caddie, we think that those things are outliers, even among the normal range of political promises being broken. Host lets go back to the phone lines to talk with jane from north carolina. Jane opposes President Trump. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like you to comment on i feel like the party has left me, i did not leave the party. I remember when we used to stand for things, like, you know, character. We used to criticize liberals for their situational ethics. Then i hear over the weekend, the former secretary of state saying donald trump might be crazy, but at least he is one of us. I think that is why i am not a republican anymore, because we do not stand for anything. Anyway, thank you for the work you are doing at the Lincoln Project. My husband and i are both lincoln voters. You have a good day. Guest i appreciate that. I think that is a point that is often lost on people. We understand how difficult it is to leave the tribal campfire of your party. We understand it. We have all experienced it. All the folks supporting us. It is difficult, but it also lets you sleep at night, it gives you clarity on the fact you will not have to be a part of owning Donald Trumps criminality, corruption and cruelty and everything else. Host lets go to michael calling from san diego, california. He opposes President Trump. Good morning. Caller i would like to thank cspan for giving americans a place to vent our opinions. Helpingo thank rick for to form the Lincoln Project, and everybody else involved with it, because you folks are correct, in my opinion, that this man is the worst president in the history of the u. S. , as he would like to say. And it is funny you should mention Lindsey Graham. I tried to call him and leave a message to say that every time he says that him and john mccain were good friends, he disgraces the memory of john mccain. I hope that you folks can do your job well and get this man out of office. Thank you. Guest we are doing our best every day. And we are going to keep swinging until the very last. Host not every republican is with you. Guest no. Host many folks, one person actually wrote this about the Lincoln Project. I will have you respond to this. The Lincoln Project has no future if its objective is to remake the post Trump American Party in its image. American voters did not want what they were selling before donald trump, and