A founder of a 'never-Trumper' Republican lobby group, The Lincoln Project, has conceded that its 'white supremacist' stunt during the Virginia gubernatorial election was "recklessly stupid".
Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt made the admission on Thursday, in an interview with YouTube channel America at a Crossroads.
The October 29 stunt involved five volunteers — one a black man — cosplaying as members of one of the far-right groups that joined the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
The group stood holding unlit paraffin garden 'tiki-torches' in the rain in front of Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin's tour bus as he made a campaign stop at a Mexican restaurant in Charlottesville. Youngkin went on to win the election, in a reversal for US President Joe Biden's Democratic Party.
“I thought the action was recklessly stupid," Schmidt said. "It was dishonest and cheap."
But then he appeared to double down on his organisation's claim that it acted out of fear that neo-Nazis were infiltrating the Republican Party during the presidency of Donald Trump — while blaming others in his organisation for the debacle.
"It is exactly the wrong way to approach the fight against a real fascist movement, against extremist elements," said Schmidt. "It showed appalling judgment by the day-to-day management and leadership of The Lincoln Project."
"Someone could have gotten beaten up, could have gotten hurt, could have incited violence, there are 100 bad things that can happen," he stated.
"Today’s demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it," the Lincoln Project said while owning up to the late October prank.
A Virginia Democrat campaign publicised the pantomime on social media, claiming it was real — drawing accusations that they had helped organise it with the Lincoln Project.
Democratic Party candidate Terry McAuliffe was later criticised for associating Youngkin with Trump. The latter did not visit the state during the campaign but was later credited by some media outlets as securing Youngkin's win.
The stunt drew ridicule from conservatives on social media, some of whom compared it to the presence of suspected federal agents at the recent 'Justice for J6' rally in Washington DC.
The Lincoln Project announced a probe into another co-founder, John Weaver, in February, after 21 men accused him of sexual harassment. Weaver had already stepped down from a leading role in the organisation the previous summer. Another founding member, Jennifer Horn, quit over the scandal.