Newly Reported Emails Show How Lincoln Project’s Glenn Youngkin Tiki Torch Act Spiraled Into a Crazy Hoax

Screenshot via lincolnproject.us.

A Democrat operative working with The Lincoln Project is coming clean about how the organization’s defamatory stunt against Glenn Youngkin (R) became an out-of-control hoax.

Lauren Windsor provided emails to The Intercept to show how The Lincoln Project came up with the idea to dress actors up as white supremacist marchers from the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally, and have them pose in front of Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign bus. The organization took credit for the publicity stunt even as it morphed into a full-blown media scandal that was condemned from all sides.

Windsor’s emails show that as she and her colleagues were setting up the act, they never intended for it to look real and didn’t count on creating a hoax. The tiki torch-carrying operatives were instructed to be open about how The Lincoln Project commissioned their presence, and that they were there to emphasize Youngkin’s connection to former President Donald Trump.

From the email:

Only questions to be answered are:

Who are you with? We’re here with the Lincoln Project.

And Why are you here? We’re here to remind Virginians what an endorsement from Donald Trump really means

No comment for any other questions.

The Intercept notes several aspects of the performance art that should’ve tipped people off to the fact that they weren’t actual tiki-torch wielding Neo-Nazis. Slight problem though: even though the actors were told to be transparent about who they were and what they were doing, no one got up close to them since it was rainy and drizzling that day.

The article continues with an explainer on how photos of the troop got picked up by reporters and social media people for the Terry McAuliffe campaign, which eventually caused people to run wild as they took the stunt seriously. This inevitably led to the fiasco it became before Youngkin’s victory in the state last night.