A Texas Republican consultant who recently accused a black female conservative of using sex to advance her career has called for the hostile targeting of advertisers on conservative outlets like Breitbart News.
Matt Mackowiak, president of the Potomac Strategy Group, called out conservative news organizations for their coverage of the 2016 presidential election. In an October 24 interview with the Washington Examiner, Mackowiak stated that Fox News’ Sean Hannity should only have paid consultants on his nationally syndicated radio show.
“We need to get to a point where Hannity only has paid contributors on. He doesn’t need to have elected officials on,” Mackowiak told the Examiner.
He went on to ask readers to fight back against advertisers on conservative news sites, naming Breitbart specifically.
“Someone needs to be making sure that if you want to go open $50,000 [in ads] on Breitbart, that there is, that you get a phone call that follows that up and makes clear you’re not helping.”
Noting his inability to deliver his message of frustration, Mackowiak continued, saying that as long as conservative luminaries “have an audience, there’s a limit to what you can do.”
This is not Mackowiak’s first outrageous comment or attack on conservatives. As recently as last week, Mackowiak tweeted a message questioning the credentials of Donald Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson saying, “She’s slept her way to the middle Zero moral or ethical character @KatrinaPierson.”
In what appears to be an effort to increase his television bookings, his attack on the character of a conservative black Republican woman came on the same day he was appearing on MSNBC for coverage of the last presidential debate in Las Vegas.
Pierson is not the only Republican woman to draw character assassination fire from Mackowiak’s tweets. On August 31, Mackowiak put conservative author Ann Coulter in his crosshairs tweeting, “Cocaine is a powerful drug,” in response to Coulter’s tweet about a Trump speech where he compared the GOP candidate to Winston Churchill. “I hear Churchill had a nice turn of phrase, but Trump’s immigration speech is the most magnificent speech ever given,” she wrote.
Mackowiak’s history of attacking women goes back further. In September 2014, he called cases of sexual violence against women, rape and incest, “minor issues” and said they do not deserve attention in the abortion debate because “Texas is a strong pro-life state,” the Burnt Orange Report stated. He went on to call then-gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis’ revelation about her own abortion “subhuman instinct,” the article states.
The comments became fodder for the Davis gubernatorial campaign. In response, Mackowiak tried to minimize the impact of his outburst claiming in an email to Politifact that he was not saying rape and incest are minor issues. “Rather, I said that rape and incest are a small percentage of abortions,” he told the fact-checking organization. The campaign for Greg Abbott quickly distanced itself from Mackowiak’s remarks. Spokesperson Amelia Chasse told Politifact via email that “Mackowiak hasn’t been employed or paid by Abbott’s campaign.”
Mackowiak has his own truth meter page on Politifact. The organization listed 75 percent of his statements they had checked as either “Mostly False” or “False.”
In response to Mackowiak’s interview calling for the targeting of advertisers on conservative media, one Twitter user, @MorganWarstler stated, “@HeyTammyBruce finally @MattMackowiak what’s DISGUSTING is you don’t get GOP base DRIVES Drudge, Hannity, Rush, Trump.” In an earlier tweet, he demanded that Mackowiak “APOLOGIZE, Mea culpa.”
Another person, @BowenSpence, tweeted, “They forgot to mention @BreitbartNews which is great. MSM will struggle to regain Trump supporters.”
The self-proclaimed consultant has managed to become a model archetype for an otherwise manufactured “War on Women” narrative when he is not debasing himself with low brow NeverTrump rhetoric. For his good deeds, Mackowiak continues to be rewarded with weekly features in POLITICO tipsheets and token MSNBC panel positions. Without those activities, one wonders what else occupies the Republican’s time, given that his company website does not appear to have been updated since 2012 and his official Facebook page has been dedicated to selling his personal home to all 97 of its fans.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
This article has been updated to reflect Mr. Mackowiak’s request that his office not be listed as Washington-based due to an alleged factual error on the part of the Washington Examiner.