Anti-Trump Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway tried to put distance between himself and his colleague, John Weaver — who has been accused of online harassment, sending sexually explicit messages to young men — on Monday, contending that he did not know him “very well.”
Conway reacted to the allegations lodged against his colleague during a Monday appearance on Morning Joe, calling it “terrible and awful and appalling and unfathomable.”
“I didn’t know John very well,” he claimed. “Frankly, I only spoke to him a couple of times on the phone early on in the Lincoln Project.”
“I just, it’s almost — I don’t even know what to say,” he continued, adding that the turn of events left him “speechless.”
However, in late 2019, Conway strongly promoted an op-ed penned by himself, Steve Schmidt,
The introductory op-ed served as an explainer on why they decided to start the Lincoln Project, citing the “corruption and corrosive nature of Donald Trump” and describing the super PAC as a joint effort to “highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations.”
“Over these next 11 months, our efforts will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line,” Conway wrote alongside Weaver and other co-founders.
“We do not undertake this task lightly, nor from ideological preference. We have been, and remain, broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks,” they continued.
“Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort,” they added:
The embattled Lincoln Project released a statement Sunday, striking the same tone Conway displayed Monday — one of disappointment and shock over the allegations against Weaver.
“John Weaver led a secret life that was built on a foundation of deception at every level. He is a predator, a liar, and an abuser. We extend our deepest sympathies to those who were targeted by his deplorable and predatory behavior,” the Lincoln Project said in the statement, adding that the “totality of his deceptions are beyond anything that any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it.”
“Like so many, we have been betrayed and deceived by John Weaver. We are grateful beyond words that at no time was John Weaver in the physical presence of any member of The Lincoln Project,” it added:
While many of those associated with Weaver, who worked with the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have pleaded ignorance, political consultant Ryan James Girdusky, who broke the story, slammed the Lincoln Project’s statement, calling it “an absolute lie.”
“Members did know. Young men approached them about the accusations. Members knew I was writing the story and warned John Weaver,” he said:
Allegations of Weaver using his position as a means to receive sexual favors from men surfaced in January, leading Weaver to claim he was homosexual.
“To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” Weaver said, according to Axios.
“The truth is that I’m gay,” he continued. “And that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place.”