A group of establishment donors and activists, masquerading as a Republican organization, will use airtime on Fox News and the Sinclair network to attack President Donald Trump in support of Russiagate conspiracy chief Robert Mueller.
The group, farcically named Republicans for the Rule of Law, is actually a front group for Never Trump activist Bill Kristol.
Kristol is a neoconservative, pro-war, anti-America First activist most recently known for steering the once popular Weekly Standard magazine into bankruptcy.
President Trump's favorite television network has allowed Republicans for the Rule of Law to purchase advertising...
One of his new groups, the Defending Democracy Together Institute, is the parent company of Republicans for the Rule of Law, as well as a number of other astroturfed entities that boast the same names, board members, and writers, including the failing Bulwark blog site.
Despite this, President Trump's favorite television network has allowed Republicans for the Rule of Law to purchase advertising space during one of the most popular and most Trump-friendly prime time slots: during the Sean Hannity show.
The advertisement has been previewed by The Hill newspaper, and featured clips of pro-Trump officials such as Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Attorney General Bill Barr, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who had previously flattered Bob Mueller with kind words.
At the time of writing, the video already had 122,000 views on YouTube.
But conservatives have pointed to Kristol's record of anti-Trump work, as well as his network's lack of any real Republican support.
Julie Kelly of American Greatness recently documented how Kristol masquerades as a Republican but is actually funded by left-wing billionaires.
"...we have learned that one of Kristol’s benefactors is progressive billionaire Pierre Omidyar, the co-founder of eBay," Kelly wrote in an investigative piece published in November 2018.
The last time Fried donated to a notional Republican was in 2012, when he gave $100 to the Jon Huntsman for President campaign.
"REPUBLICANS"?
A brief investigation into the figures listed on the Republicans for the Rule of Law Website also reveals scant connections to any conservative philosophy.
The first name on the website is Charles Fried, a Harvard professor who endorsed Obamacare (in fact, he said government can force you to buy broccoli) and backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Fried is listed on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website as having most recently donated to ActBlue – the aggressive campaigning arm of the Democratic Party of America. Some "Republican"!
The donations state they are specifically earmarked for candidates Jeanne Sheehan (D-MA), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Doug Jones (D-AL).
The last time Fried donated to a notional Republican was in 2012, when he gave $100 to the Jon Huntsman for President campaign.
The next name on the list is Chris Gagin, who resigned from his position as chairman of the Belmont GOP group in Ohio back in mid-2018.
Gagin donates mostly to the Ohio Coal Association PAC, which in turn gave money to five Republicans in the 2018 mid term election cycle.
These included Steve Stivers (R-OH), who opposed Trump's travel ban and Bill Johnson (R-OH), a member of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership which has repeatedly attacked President Trump.
“I wish he would not tweet,” CEO Sarah Chamberlain once said of the President.
Why Fox News, and specifically Sean Hannity's show, are agreeing to air the advertisement one day ahead of the Mueller testimony is unclear.
Other "Republicans for the Rule of Law" include Slade Gorton (a donor to pro-choice Republican Susan Collins), Richard Lugar donor Peter Rusthoven, anti-border wall activist Chris Truax, and Stanley Twardy, who most recently donated to John Faso (R-NY), who pushed pro-amnesty views and referred to so-called DREAMERs as "American as apple pie".
Board member Wendell L. Wilkie II's last donation on the FEC website appears to be to Mitt Romney in 2012. He currently works for the anti-Trump, neoconservative American Enterprise Institute.
FOX NEWS.
Why Fox News, and specifically Sean Hannity's show, are agreeing to air the advertisement one day ahead of the Mueller testimony is unclear.
President Trump has recently noted a shift in Fox News' editorial line on him and his presidency, tweeting that watching the network's weekend anchors "is worse than watching low ratings Fake News CNN, or Lyin' Brian Williams..."
The network has recently been drifting to the center ground of American politics, if not the center-left, with only Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity being reliable rightist voices.
Republicans for the Rule of Law appear to be using fake conservatives – some not even Republican donors anymore – alongside Democrat donor cash to trick Hannity's Fox audience into believing the credibility of Bob Mueller and his failed Russia investigation.
If the group's most recent endorsements are anything to go by, Mueller just received the kiss of death.
Kristol's support for the embattled Justin Amash saw the former Republican forced to resign from the party and now sit as an independent, so unpopular did he become.
"...if Fox knows Kristol is openly and wantonly duping people, it should demand the advertisement reflect the true nature of his group and where it gets its money from..." – Terry Schilling.
Pro-Trump, conservative activists have told Human Events they may begin to boycott Fox News if Kristol and his fans are routinely allowed to propagandize against the President using fake conservatives.
"We believe in free speech, but if Fox knows Kristol is openly and wantonly duping people, it should demand the advertisement reflect the true nature of his group and where it gets its money from, or simply reject the ad for being misleading," said leading conservative activist Terry Schilling of the Americans for Principles Project (APP) group.
APP recently engaged in a successful campaign to force the Washington Post to stop referring to liberal journalist Jennifer Rubin as a "conservative" as they previously did, just because she once supported pro-war hawks in the Republican Party.
The Washington Post quietly removed the "conservative columnist" from her title a few weeks after a letter from leading conservatives, organized by the APP.
Raheem Kassam is the Global Editor in Chief for Human Events
