As Allahpundit pointed out earlier, the Lincoln Project released a statement not long ago admitting that they were the ones behind the tiki hate hoax this morning in Charlottesville, Virginia. But sharp-eyed observers noticed that earlier when images of the hoax first circulated on Twitter, the Lincoln Project was helping to retweet them to their 2.6 million followers:

Clearly the Lincoln Project was happy to see their own Jussie Smollett hate hoax spread and I suspect they would have let it roll all weekend if they’d be able to. So why did they confess to their involvement a few hours later? According to Vice, it’s because they identified one of the participants as someone who has held events with the Lincoln Project.

The Lincoln Project acknowledged they were behind the stunt after VICE News identified one of the people dressed in the photo in front of Youngkin’s campaign bus as a low-level Democratic operative who has recently been working for Democratic sting operator Lauren Windsor’s The Undercurrent. Her group has repeatedly gone undercover as conservative activists to goad politicians into saying what’s really on their mind—and has also held events alongside the Lincoln Project in recent days…

That operative who attended the Charlottesville rally, furthest to the right in the above photo, can be seen on-camera in their most recent sting.

Lauren Windsor also RT’d the initial stunt and later admitted she was behind it:

😮😮😮 https://t.co/4O0tFDtImU

— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) October 29, 2021

And a few hours later she’s so proud:

NICE WORK 👏 https://t.co/UcgJhpYCK3

— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) October 29, 2021

In my capacity as a communications consultant, I worked w @ProjectLincoln to coordinate today's Youngkin action in Charlottesville. I join them in the fight to defend our democracy from rightwing extremists and call for Glenn Youngkin to denounce Trump’s ‘very fine people.

— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) October 29, 2021

The idea that Youngkin should be apologizing after this hoax is pretty special. Meanwhile, Terry McAuliffe’s spokesperson has released a statement to Vice condemning it: “What happened today is disgusting and distasteful and we condemn it in the strongest terms. Those involved should immediately apologize.”

That’s a start but given that this was clearly intended to benefit McAuliffe, we should hear it from his own mouth. Is he personally able to condemn the Lincoln Project as disgusting or does he believe there were very fine people on both sides?

You know, I honestly believe McAuliffe’s people are sorry. Not because they don’t agree with Lauren Windsor and the Lincoln Project but because this hoax was exposed so quickly. Had this continued to spread over the weekend and worked as planned I’m sure they would have been thrilled with it. In fact, it’s worth remembering again that one of the first people to share a picture of the hoax was Terry McAuliffe’s social media guy, Charlie Olaf. I wonder if there was some collusion/coordination taking place there.

But because this fell apart fast and didn’t really have time to work in painting Youngkin as a racist based on a lie, now I think the campaign is very sorry indeed. Now there’s the potential for this to become one more story backfiring in McAuliffe’s face just days prior to the election.

What a shame. But you know what they say, lie down with dogs and you’ll wake up with fleas.