Editor's Note: Steve Schmidt is one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project. He is a communications and public affairs strategist who has worked on several Republican campaigns, including John McCain's 2008 bid for the White House, and he is now a regular political contributor to MSNBC. On Friday, Schmidt continued to call on businesses to stop giving financial support to Republicans who voted to overturn the presidential election on Jan. 6. MaxNewsToday has assembled this 8-tweet thread and reprinted it as one easy-to-read op-ed for our ongoing segment, Schmidt Storm. It has been edited for grammar and clarity. There is a profoundly important issue that is being grotesquely under-covered in the media, particularly the business and tech media. It concerns the actions of 140 House Members, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and 7 U.S. Senators on the night of Jan. 6, 2021. This should not be a difficult concept to grasp. 147 white members of the GOP congress rose for the purpose of nullifying Black votes to maintain the loser of the election in political power. Had they been successful, the American Republic would have fallen. The throwing out of millions of Black votes is what that vote was about, and that vote was immoral and UN-American. No company can support any political committee that funds the people who voted to establish a new type of Jim Crow. They voted to strip the voice and rights away from millions of our fellow Americans on the basis of their skin color. Financing this evil cause that affronts our American values is unacceptable. This vote was an autocratic declaration steeped in the cancer of segregation. It desecrated the martyrdom of Americans who gave their lives so that future generations would have a voice and take their rightful place in the nation’s story. The Lincoln Project believes it is essential that the most important companies in America make a declaration and draw a line in the sand. This moment demands moral clarity. It demands actions for the common good and compels the practice of citizenship in defense of democracy and the civil rights of millions of Black Americans. The largest corporations in America must act in a manner that is consistent with their publicly stated values. There is no world where companies can sign morning statements about BLM and attend evening cocktails with members who acted maliciously to strip the vote of Black Americans. Kevin McCarthy led this effort. Who will write him checks? Who will write checks to election denier and devotee of the Big Lie, Rick Scott, at the National Republican Senatorial Committee? Who will fund the committees that fund Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and the other inciters of the insurrection?
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