January 19, 2021
Lincoln Project's John Weaver Comes Out Amidst Charges of Inappropriate DMs
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Following in the steps of Kevin Spacey, John Weaver, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, came out as gay amid charges of inappropriate behavior towards younger men seeking employment.
"The truth is that I'm gay," he wrote in a statement to Axios on Friday, January 15, 2020. "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."
Weaver, a veteran Republican operative, went on to apologize to the young men for his behavior. "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.
Reports of the allegations against Weaver began to circulate this past week on conservative websites "after right-wing political commentator Ryan James Girdusky posted a cryptic tweet about former aide," reports the Daily Mail.
"Maybe I should start talking about one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex... his wife is probably interested," Girdusky said in a tweet reported on by the Daily Mail.
A number of the young men came forward about their relationship with Weaver.
"The writer soon began sharing multiple shots of DMs he was sent by various people claiming they had received from Weaver," the DM continued.
Axios reports that before co-founding The Lincoln Project in December 2019, Weaver "was a top adviser to leading Republicans including John McCain and John Kasich. Amid Donald Trump's political ascendance, he became one of the most prominent members of the so-called 'Never Trump' movement." Over the lead-up to the election, the Lincoln Project produced both anti-Trump and pro-Biden ads.
Weaver went on to claim that the reporting on his behavior was politically-motivated. "While I am taking full responsibility for the inappropriate messages and conversations, I want to state clearly that the other smears being leveled at me by Donald Trump enablers as a way to get back at the Lincoln Project for our principled stand against democracy are categorically false and outrageous."
