Rick Wilson, a former GOP media consultant who co-founded The Lincoln Project, a conservative campaign group opposed to Donald Trump, told Newsweek when asked why some conservatives have been sympathetic towards Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime that it’s about “control.”

“Democracy is hard work and they want a shortcut to achieve their craven policy ends without doing the work,” Wilson said. “They want to put the control of all the people in the hands of a government that reflects their own ideological bias. It’s easy to see why they would want to replace democracy with a system that allows that they alone benefit from.”

Wilson released his first book, Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, in 2018.

Earlier this month, Infowars founder Alex Jones claimed liberals “have a fetish for hating Russians & Putin because they’ve become more Christian…The Left hates Russia because they’re becoming more like the American Midwest. That’s why Hollywood and Rob Reiner literally has a fetish for destroying Russia.”

Former President Trump is continuing to insist the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” against him, despite multiple Republican judges, independent polling experts, and state audits concluding it was won fairly by Joe Biden.

In August, Trump once again repeated his unfounded claim that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, demanding either “the rightful winner” is declared or fresh elections are held.

Posting on his Truth Social website he said: “So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, ‘Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election.’

“This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!”

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney released a video that same month accusing Trump of trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power.”

“In our nation’s 246-year history there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said.

Newsweek reached out to the Republican Party and Trump for comment.