Financial Problems Plagued Rick Wilson as He Became Never Trump Leader

Matthew Boyle 17 Jun 2020

Never Trump leader Rick Wilson’s hypocrisy is not limited to now attacking those who support the Confederate flag after previously supporting it himself.

As Wilson’s personal financial situation turned dire in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, the political operative with a long history of backing bomb-throwing right-wingers began to reinvent himself pursuing what financial records indicate is a more lucrative book-deal-filled career in bashing President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Records demonstrate that as Trump was taking off as a political force, Wilson’s personal financial situation turned dour. The bank was moving in on his house, credit card companies were suing him over debt accrued, and the IRS filed various liens against him for almost $400,000 for back taxes in February 2014. As that happened, Wilson’s political style changed to become anti-Trump instead of continuing with his decades-long history of inflammatory right-wing politics.

Wilson’s The Lincoln Project, a group of Never Trump political consultants running targeted ads attacking Trump this year, has been touting an ad bashing the Confederate flag as a symbol of “treason” against the United States.

“The men who followed this flag 150 years ago knew what it meant,” a narrator says in the ad released earlier this month as a Confederate flag waves in the background. “Treason against their country. The death of the United States. America defeated the men who followed that flag. Those with honor surrendered and cast it aside forever.”

But then some conservatives uncovered social media posts from Wilson and his wife featuring a cooler with a Confederate flag on it as well as the text in one image: “The South Will Rise Again.” Wilson has been feverishly deleting the images from Twitter, and when his wife, Molly—legal name Mary—was confronted by conservative Caleb Hull, she would not deny owning the cooler or disavow the Confederate flag on it. She simply replied “Fuck off” to Hull, per screenshots he posted of his confronting her about it.

Wilson is also getting lots of national attention this week after attempting to shame Dominos Pizza for thanking now White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for praising their pizza back in 2012. “You just killed your brand,” he tweeted at Dominos with a screenshot of the pizza chain’s 2012 reply to McEnany’s tweet from eight years ago. At the time, McEnany was not in a government political position but was a civilian. Later, Dominos joked in response that it’s “unfortunate” to think the company would be held responsible for something from 2012 in 2020.

But these latest mishaps by Wilson come after years of him leading a small and shrinking band of GOP political consultants who dub themselves Never Trumpers furious with Trump’s rise ahead of their more-preferred 2016 GOP candidates during that year’s primary.

Prior to turning against the party over Trump, Wilson, whose legal name is Frederick George Wilson Jr., had long been a fixture in Republican circles. His career as a media consultant, strategist, and ad-maker is intertwined with several major political events of the last 30 years and his flair for the dramatic—and viciously negative—style of ad could make even Trump’s aggressive nature look timid.

Officially, Wilson, a Florida native, got his start on George H.W. Bush’s successful 1988 presidential campaign. During that race, although only the Florida field director, Wilson was supposedly mentored by Bush’s campaign manager, Lee Atwater—the mastermind behind the infamous Willie Horton television ad.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/17/financial-problems-plagued-rick-wilson-as-he-became-never-trump-leader/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

More confirmation from Judge Joe Brown, a black man, Trump is not a racist! He just doesn’t like very many people, black, white, brown, whatever! Me too

https://twitter.com/ShawnG927/status/1273344539609227274?s=20

Jun 17, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Scoop: Republican operatives launch pro-Biden super PAC

Alayna Treene, Jonathan Swan

A group of prominent Republican operatives that includes former officials from the Trump and George W. Bush administrations are launching a super PAC to turn out GOP voters for Joe Biden in November, organizers tell Axios.

Details: The "Right Side PAC" aims to identify former Trump supporters across the country who have cooled to the president's approach in office and convince them to vote for Biden, says founder Matt Borges, a former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party.

Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired after 10 days as Trump's communications director and later turned on the president, also is part of the effort.

How it works: The PAC will initially target voters in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida.

They'll use digital, mail and telephone to reach voters. They'll encourage absentee voting. They do not have plans to run TV ads.

It's getting help from a few dozen operatives, including alums of Bush and the late Sen. John McCain's presidential campaigns.

They'll lay out Biden's record on free trade, states' rights, federal spending and respecting U.S. diplomatic and military alliances — and highlight his Catholic faith — to make the case that most anti-Trump Republicans can feel comfortable supporting him.

The group intends to rely heavily on major donors.

More detail on its backers should come out with its first Federal Election Commission filing in mid-July.

Between the lines: The group sees itself as a complement to The Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump group led by George Conway (husband of Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway) and several prominent GOP operatives.

The Lincoln Project is more focused on TV ads and broader messaging, while Right Side will concentrate more on data and individualized turnout, Borges said. "We're going to dig into the data and find out where these voters are and try to help turn them out."

A similar group, Republican Voters Against Trump, which launched in May, is also focused on getting white, college-educated Republican voters in the suburbs to vote for Biden.

What they're saying: "We want to take an opportunity to kind of reset things," Borges says. "And the first way to do that is cut out the cancer and start rebuilding."

"We're not trying to become Democrats," Borges says. "I intend to vote for every other Republican on the ballot. And I expect that there are others like me who aren't looking to leave the party."

Scaramucci says he's "very confident that we can convince a large group of Republican voters that Biden is the right person to vote for if they want to stay true to their principles and to the legacy of the Republican Party."

Defeating Trump "will be a very necessary part of the reorganization and the regrowth of the Republican Party," while if he's reelected "he may set the Republican Party up to be a minority party for a generation," Scaramucci says.

Behind the scenes: During the crowded Democratic primary, Borges says he and other GOP operatives set about identifying disaffected Republicans who might be eligible and willing to cast primary votes for Biden.

“What that did more than anything else was sort of open our eyes to the opportunities that are out there," he said.

Borges says he “would never” be doing this if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were the Democratic nominee.

He says anti-Trump GOP organizations are "sprouting up all over the place" but generally lack the focus on voter targeting and turnout — areas in which he says his group has deep expertise.

Don't forget: Borges, who worked on several presidential campaigns and chaired the Ohio GOP from 2013-17, clashed publicly with Trump during the 2016 campaign.

After Trump won, he helped oust Borges as state party chairman.

https://www.axios.com/republicans-pro-biden-super-pac-e48b415a-7fc3-44e4-b02e-11a105239811.html

Sorry of posted before but I didn’t see this, did you

https://mobile.twitter.com/realTrumpForce/status/1273060125079633921

DennisDeYoung #Styx #ShowMeTheWay

Dennis DeYoung (Formerly of Styx) With All Due Respect, on fake news

https://youtu.be/CFy4hB8EnVU