‘Nothing Noble About Us, But We’re Useful’: Showtime Drops Trailer for Series on Rise of Controversial Lincoln Project
Showtime
Showtime has dropped a trailer for its upcoming five-part docuseries for the controversial Never Trump PAC the Lincoln Project, which will debut on Oct. 7.
A two-minute trailer of the series highlights the group’s highs and lows since it formed in 2019 to oppose the reelection of former President Donald Trump.
It offers a glimpse of how a group founded by disaffected former Republican Party strategists and advisers went from raking in $90 million in donations in 2020 to nearly collapsing under the weight of numerous leadership exits and one very high-profile sexual misconduct scandal.
2020 was just the beginning. A five-part docuseries about @ProjectLincoln, the fastest-growing super PAC in America, streams 10/7 on @SHOWTIME. #TheLincolnProject pic.twitter.com/Ad2jVsFcHD
— SHOWTIME (@Showtime) September 28, 2022
Co-founders Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson are prominently featured, as is adviser Stuart Stevens. Schmidt and Stevens at different points in the trailer shoot shotguns.
The series began filming before the 2020 election, and the cameras stayed on for a sexting scandal that nearly brought the Lincoln Project to its knees. Co-founder John Weaver was accused by 21 young men of unwanted sexual advances and left the group in early 2021.
The group’s current and former members comment on the scandal after the group triumphantly claims partial credit for President Joe Biden’s win against Trump. Reporting on Weaver from the New York Times is invoked.
Weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the Times reported:
John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist and co-founder of the prominent anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, has for years sent unsolicited and sexually provocative messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics, according to interviews with 21 men who received them.
“Nobody cares,” Wilson says in the promo. “They care about what we did in ’20, and what we’re going to do in ’22, ’24 – and beyond.”
Stevens says in the trailer, “Here’s the key: there’s nothing noble about us, but we’re useful.”
Schmidt has left the Lincoln Project, as have co-founders George Conway, Jennifer Horn, Ron Steslow, and Mike Madrid.
The Lincoln Project’s place in the political landscape is uncertain. Last October, the group controversially staged a small Charlottesville-esque Nazi tiki torch gathering in Virginia in an apparent attempt to smear then-gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.
In May, a spokesman for Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Tim Ryan asked the group not to campaign on his behalf.
