Republicans launch another pro-Biden Super PAC to help defeat Trump

[June 18, 2020]  By Tim Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans who worked for U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush have formed a Super PAC to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in November, the latest group launched by members of Trump's own party who will work to see him defeated.

The new political action committee, called Right Side PAC, was founded by Matt Borges, the former head of the Ohio Republican Party, and Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days as Trump's White House communications director in July 2017.

Borges and Scaramucci have become fierce critics of Trump. Trump helped oust Borges as head of Ohio's Republicans early in 2017 after Borges failed to back his presidential bid.

Borges told Reuters he continues to be a Republican, and will back every other Republican candidate this year. But not Trump, he said.

"Trump is an existential threat to the Republican Party, and to the country, and we need him out of office," Borges said.

He declined to name the major donors to his PAC but said there will be a public filing of contributions with the Federal Election Commission in mid-July.

Several Republican-led groups have launched efforts to persuade voters who backed Trump in 2016 to switch their support to Biden in the Nov. 3 election, criticizing him for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and racial tensions after the police killed African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

Those groups include the Lincoln Project, the most prominent and active, with anti-Trump ads already running in battleground states; Republican Voters Against Trump; and 43 Alumni for Biden, formed by officials who worked in the George W. Bush administration, America's 43rd president.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event devoted to the reopening of the U.S. economy during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 11, 2020. REUTERS/Bastiaan Slabbers - RC267H90Y3SD/File Photo

A co-founder of the Lincoln Project is George Conway, husband of prominent Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway. It counts Christy Walton, a billionaire and member of the family that founded Walmart, as a major donor. The 43 Alumni for Biden group has yet to reveal its members.

Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump re-election campaign, was dismissive of their efforts.

“President Trump has the support of a record number of Republicans and leads a united party," Murtaugh said. "Any efforts by disgruntled former Republicans is doomed to fail.”

Borges said his Right Side PAC will focus on the six biggest battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida, and will use data to identify Trump voters who might have soured on the president.

He said he is not collaborating with the Lincoln Project, but sees his effort as complementary to it.

(Reporting by Tim Reid, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Sonya Hepinstall)

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