Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove expressed his disappointment in the allegations of sexual harassment against The Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver in a Monday appearance on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha MacCallum.”
Rove was asked by host Martha MacCallum about the allegations and the concerns that Rove expressed in 2004 about Weaver.
“The Lincoln Project was founded basically to be a very strong anti-Trump organization and to paper social media and everywhere else with anti-Trump messages. John weaver was one of the people who ran it,” MacCallum said. “He has a lot of accusations against him from young men who call him a sexual predator. You mentioned this back in 2004, that this was a concern of yours. You know, this isn’t something that anybody really wants to be vindicated on, but it turns out that you were right.”
“I didn’t mention it in 2004. It was printed in an Atlantic article by Joshua Green, who is now a major figure in Bloomberg. I’ve actually known about this pattern of behavior since 1988,” Rove said. “All I want to say is that the 21 statements from those 21 young men who talked about how they had been approached by Mr. Weaver, that statement speaks for itself, and I don’t have anything to add to it. It’s a sad, sad chapter.”
In January Weaver admitted to sending “inappropriate” online messages to multiple men and said that he was gay, as previously reported by The Hill. The New York Times then reported on Jan. 31 that 21 men are accusing Weaver of making “sexual overtures” towards them.
The Lincoln project released a statement on the same day as The New York Times report, calling Weaver a “predator, liar, and abuser.” Weaver is no longer associated with The Lincoln Project.
MSNBC avoided asking about the revelations when Weaver’s former associates at The Lincoln Project appeared on the network on 17 different occasions, until Monday when “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski asked co-founder George Conway about the allegations. He called them “awful and appalling” but denied knowing Weaver well. (RELATED: ‘Awful And Appalling’: George Conway Says He ‘Didn’t Know’ Co-Founder Of Lincoln Project ‘Very Well’)
Rove didn’t give any further details on what he knew about Weaver’s behavior in 1988, but MacCallum did not press the issue further.