The Warning: a fearless hub to chart our future
This morning, I woke up to being smeared by Mr. Meghan McCain, Ben Domenech. He is a serial plagiarist and Fox News contributor, who doesn’t like Matt Gaetz, despite being well-known for being an awful lot like him.
I was once again accused of saying that the Lincoln Project of 2020 was a vehicle for creating “generational wealth.”
It isn’t true. In fact, I said exactly the opposite in a meeting. My exact quote was: “The Lincoln Project isn’t a vehicle for you to achieve generational wealth.”
The person I said it to was a woman named Jennifer Horn, who was demanding lifetime compensation after working on a super PAC for just a few months. I told her no, and she didn’t like it.
At any rate, Showtime showed the engineering of the smear and refuted the attacks, with a documentary that came out after the events. It was amazing to watch it all play out on screen, and even more amazing to realize that — even though the documentary discredited the smears — the people who printed them couldn’t have cared less one year after the fact. Not a single media outlet followed up with the real story because it was all about the clicks.
The smear is standard. Any person who stands against Donald Trump on principle is accused of either being mentally defective or a grifter. The Chicago Tribune editorial page did exactly this to Oprah Winfrey when they opined that she should have made illegal and felonious donations to the Harris campaign.
This is what intimidation looks like. It is designed to suppress interest in civic participation. Being lied about is draining, maddening, saddening, and deeply dispiriting. It is a magnet that pulls people to the sidelines. Make no mistake — it is purposeful, deliberate and effective.
There is a very small group of people who were prominent leaders in the pre-Trump Republican Party who never capitulated to Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham and I started out at the same place on Trump. The difference between us is that he is a coward, and I am not. He lacks integrity, fortitude, strength, conviction and honesty. I don’t.
Every person who stood tall when everyone else wilted became a target. I was forced to move out of my home because my address was shared across the right-wing media ecosystem, but also through an Associated Press story that was published in major dailies across the country. Here are just some of the fliers that were sent to every zip code in which I ever lived after the 2020 election:
These revenge fliers represent a couple of things. First, they are a taste of things to come for anyone who dares speak out against Trump.
Second, they were sent because the group I led, the 2020 Lincoln Project, was devastating to Donald Trump, and contributed to President Biden’s win.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, it was attacked by MAGA and Democratic insiders — the architects of 2024 — as ineffective when the truth was that it had more followers than both major parties within 10 months of existence, and had more than $1 billion in impact on the 2020 election.
There is an old saying that every cause becomes a business, becomes a racket.
Tragically, Domenech is correct when he points out that the Lincoln Project of 2024 is a grift that was hijacked and led by resistance versions of MAGA chieftains. Sixty percent of Lincoln Project money in 2020 went to reaching voters. During the 2021-2022 midterm cycle the Lincoln Project reported spending $34,464,309.00, according to FEC filings.
Incredibly, only $1,143,459.00 was spent on voter contact, or independent expenditures. That is $.03 cents on the dollar, or 3 percent.
During 2023-2024, the Lincoln Project reported spending $20,977,270.00, according to the FEC filing, and $5,263,000.00 was spent on voter contact or independent expenditures.
When the entirety of the four-year presidential cycle is considered – meaning 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 – the Lincoln Project spent a total of $55,441,579.00.
Out of that number, a total of $6,406,459.00 was disclosed on FEC reports as being spent on voter contact or independent expenditures.
That means that, out of a total of $55,441,579.00 reportedly spent by the Lincoln Project, only an appalling 12 per cent was spent on voter outreach during the presidential cycle.
It is disgusting, and it is why I repudiated the group, which I left in 2021.
Honesty matters.
Soon, The Warning will surpass 90,000 subscribers, and includes readers from all 50 states and 165 countries. The Warning You Tube channel is nearing 300,000 people and growing quickly. Post-election, we have seen a surge in subscribers, and I thank you all — those who have been with The Warning from its inception to those who have joined more recently — for creating this incredible community.
I also felt that it as important to update The Warning mission following the election. The Warning will be a place that explains today’s American crisis, placing it into a broader context. It will be a guide to finding our way back to the high ground, where Americanism stands ready to cast Trumpism out of the great temples of American democracy, which they have temporarily occupied.
The Warning does not seek favor from power. It is also not intimidated by MAGA threats and Donald Trump’s attacks.
The Warning will be a fearless hub for those who care about our future in a troubled time.
Over the last two years, I have published more than 1,600 times. What I have tried to do is take the reader behind the scenes of what is really happening, and why it happens.
I write often about ego and the disordered personalities who rise to the top ranks of American politics and media. Mostly, they are not on your side.
For me, working in the top ranks of national politics was a constant battle between idealism and cynicism. Each day presented a thousand choices, and I like to think I got many more right than wrong, but there’s no question that some were, in fact, wrong.
Over the years, there have been many false accusations and inaccurate information about me, so for those who have recently joined The Warning community, I’d like you to know the following about me:
I am not a Republican. I left the Republican Party in June 2018, and became an independent. In 2020, I became a registered Democrat.
I am not responsible for the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. I suggested her to Rick Davis, who was responsible for the vetting process, along with A.B. Culvahouse, because, at the time, she was the most popular governor in the United States. John McCain was the person who selected Sarah Palin. I was not involved in the vetting process. In fact, it is this chapter in my life that I sought to clarify that began my Substack adventure. No detail of it has ever been refuted, and it never will be, because it is all true. You can read the whole story here:
No Books. No Money. Just the Truth.
This is a story about lying. Public lying. It is a story about Senator John McCain’s lying, and the damage it has done to many people, including me. It is also a story about my lying because, ultimately, John McCain’s lie became mine.
Truth is more than important in a democratic society, it is essential. It is air, water and the source of all life. Without, it there is tyranny.
Yesterday, I urged The Warning readers to remember that politicians shouldn’t be idolized in free societies. When the time comes, we remember the greatest leaders who rise up from among us to chart the path forward. Americans must always demand that their politicians ask for the vote. Political leaders demanding loyalty from their supporters is a perversion of Americanism.
Politics is a brutal business.
Remember that.
But also remember that not everyone lies.
The Warning is such a place.
Thank you for your continued support as we build a path forward for our great country.
Steve
Keep speaking truth to power, Steve.
Thank you Steve for being a constant, vital voice for the best of what our country can, and, should be. Please hang tough.