The Washington Free Beacon, funded by GOP mega-donor and Mitt Romney 2012 campaign backer Paul Singer, tweeted an image of the former Massachusetts governor and failed GOP presidential candidate depicted as a muscular centaur throwing a spear.
— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 2, 2018
The tweet comes on the heels of news that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch will not seek re-election this year. Romney is widely speculated to be considering a run for Hatch’s seat.
The Free Beacon’s financial backer, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, was a bundler and early supporter of Romney during the 2012 election, raising over $3 million for his campaign. He was also reportedly instrumental in influencing Romney’s decision to choose Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate.
As Breitbart reported in October, the Free Beacon was the original funder of the Fusion GPS opposition research project on then-candidate Donald Trump — a project that would later be funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in mid-2016 after the GOP primary. Under Democrat control, Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele and created the salacious “Trump dossier” alleging that the GOP presidential candidate was compromised by the Russians.
“The Washington Free Beacon has issued a statement asserting that it had no involvement with Christopher Steele or the dossier he compiled from Russian sources,” Jack Langer, spokesman for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told Breitbart News in October. “The Beacon has agreed to cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee to help the Committee verify this assertion.”
Breitbart reported at the time:
The Free Beacon is funded in large part by the New York hedge fund billionaire and major GOP donor Paul Singer. The New York Times reports that Singer initially supported Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for the Republican nomination, but later spearheaded a campaign to deny Trump the nomination even after Rubio dropped out of the race.
While supporting Republican establishment favorites such as Rubio and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Singer was a major backer of Common Core and was the founder of a super-PAC that has the express purpose of turning the GOP pro-gay marriage.
The Examiner reports that the Free Beacon was originally part of the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization — the Center for American Freedom — but in 2014 became a for-profit organization. The Center’s original board of directors includes William Kristol, a prominent “Never Trump” activist.
Kristol is also the founder of the Weekly Standard, which like the Free Beacon has a neoconservative foreign policy outlook. The Free Beacon was co-founded by two former Weekly Standard writers, chairman Michael Goldfarb and editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti.
Romney has not yet announced his candidacy for Hatch’s seat.
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