Who Runs The Reagan Battalion?
Senior Reagan Regiment staff note: The following is a long and conclusive study into the Reagan Battalion. If you would like the spoilers, scroll to the bottom. There you will find the owners and account managers of the Reagan Battalion, as well as the various organizations connected/infected by it. Thank you.
As conservatives, all of us at the Reagan Regiment were intrigued when “The Reagan Battalion” popped up on twitter. Presented to the public as anonymous group that stood for constitutional values, it had the potential to re-balance the political landscape once again. Unfortunately for us Americans, the Battalion has fallen quite short of its advertised potential.
The Reagan Battalion as an entity exists mainly on twitter, with a site (http://archive.is/yB1sP) that serves as a directory of sorts for readers to find principled conservative pundits. There is a mailing list, video page, featured pundit page, and a barebones contact form.
The Reagan Battalion is a large new “Conservative” voice in America, and ties itself to Ronald Reagan’s legacy. Let us consider who runs the organization, what they are posting, and why they are posting it.
Let’s review what is commonly known about the Reagan Battalion.
http://archive.is/rAlZe (https://mic.com/articles/169118/exclusive-meet-reagan-battalion-the-anonymous-squadron-that-destroyed-milo-s-career)
The Reagan Battalion is a group of four people, spread across multiple states, who are involved in political activism,
“Once the primary wrapped, and Trump came out victorious, the group changed its name to the Reagan Battalion, because stopping Trump was no longer the group’s primary focus.
“At that time, our mission was not to stop Trump, we were opposed to Hillary,” the group’s co-founder said.
It was then that the group decided to back McMullin, hoping that he would push Trump to uphold conservative values.
The Reagan Battalion’s biggest public action thus far has been the following Milo Yiannopoulos expose:
The video contains clips of Milo talking about many different topics, including from the Alt-Right, Pedophilia and Child Abuse.
Here’s what The Reagan Battalion wants us to know about The Reagan Battalion:
Founded by: four politically active people in different states
Founded in: 2016
Initial stated goal: To stop Trump and secure Rubio or Cruz the nomination.
What The Reagan Battalion has done:
Supported Evan McMullin to encourage Trump’s conservatism.
Hired Yossi Gestetner to manage PR for the Reagan Battalion.
Changed from @StopTrumpPac to @ConAgainstTrump and finally to @TheReaganBattalion once Trump had the nomination
That’s the extent of The Reagan Battalion’s desired public image.
It’s not much to go on, but let’s dig in and see what we can find.
Unfortunately for us, The Reagan Battalion’s frequent name changes seems to have broken most of Twitter’s search functionality, so we can’t do any targeted searches for dates prior to December of 2016. We can, however, do more vague searches of their prior twitter names/handles (StopTrumpPAC and ConAgainstTrump) and retrieve otherwise lost tweets.
Let’s take a look at The Reagan Battalion’s past:
This tweet was sent when The Reagan Battalion was called Conservatives Against Trump, as can be seen in the replies which tag “@ConAgainstTrump” as the sender.
This is fairly innocuous at first glance: It’s a simple image meant to cast Trump in a negative light.
The common people included in the replies are a result of image tags.
Let’s review who was tagged:
Rick Wilson, Erick Erickson, and Jeb Bush all make sense. “Team Rubio MN” though? That seems oddly specific.
Here’s where the suspiciously vague Reagan Battalion creation story begins to fall apart.
Of the non-deleted @ConAgainstTrump-era image tweets, here’s who was tagged:
Erick Erickson, Alex Conant, Just Karl, Marybeth Glenn, Ben Howe, Kim Carroll - 1Brit Hume, Ken Gardner, Michelle Ray, “Team Rubio MN”, Eli Lake, Stephen Hayes - 2George F. Will, @RBPundit, Cheri Jacobus - 3Eli Rubenstein - 4Susan Goldstein, Glenn Beck, S.E. Cupp - 5Guy Benson - 6Rick Wilson - 13
Let’s take a peak at internet archive for @StopTrumpPac. Unfortunately for us, @ConAgainstTrump was only archived once:
We don’t like to jump to conclusions here at The Reagan Regiment — Your source for the genuine American perspective on conservatism — so let’s dig a little deeper.
Of the tagged names, names that had to be manually entered by the owner(s) of the Reagan Battalion, a few are very peculiar:
Alex Conant (1 tag)
Partner @FirehouseStrat. Former Comm Dir for @MarcoRubio. MN native
“Team Rubio MN” (2 tags)
Eli Rubenstein (4 tags)
Jewish | Zionist and Proud | @TimesOfIsrael Blogger | ΔΥ at THE Ohio State University | RT/ follow/ favorite ≠ endorsement.
Susan Goldstein (5 tags)
Marco Rubio Campaign Chair Broward County — Government Affairs Professional — FL State Legislator — Fixed Income Trader — Autism Advocate — Golfer @teammarco
The Reagan Battalion’s first interactions are with Rubio people.
Susan Goldstein and Rick Wilson take four year (election cycle) breaks in between talking to each other.
Who is “Team Rubio MN”, and why did The Reagan Battalion tag the account twice?
“Team Rubio MN” is one of many Rubio astroturfing accounts on twitter.
“Team X” Rubio Accounts On Twitter
All these accounts follow a similar pattern.
- follow/followed by a few hundred people
- follow Eli and sometimes Susan
- Eli and sometimes Susan follow them
- The astroturfing accounts tag Eli Rubenstein in their tweets.
The Reagan Battalion is 100% a Rubio operation. Two questions remain:
Who created the Reagan Battalion account, and who is tweeting from it now?
The answer includes TheRickWilson and Susan Goldstein. Admittedly anticlimactic. A bit of a let down, right?
Enter Benny Polatseck. Rubio campaigner and lifelong close friend of the Reagan Battalion’s PR guru, Yossi Gestetner.
Unfortunately for us, Benny locked his account right about the time Chuck Johnson expressed interest in the Reagan Battalion a few weeks ago, but we’ll have to take Yossi’s word for a character reference.
Or maybe we could just ask Benny and his family’s web of vague nondescript businesses. Maybe the “Digital team at @ReaganBattalion”.
Maybe the Reagan Battalion itself?
Who runs the Reagan Battalion?
Confirmed from start:
@SusanGoldstein @TheRickWilson @bpolatseck @TeamRubioMN
Probable at start
@YossiGestetner, @RBPundit, @kengardner11, @elirubenstein, @AlexConant, @DavidPolatseck
Confirmed who posts:
@EliRubenstein @bpolatseck @YossiGestetner @AlexConant @SusanGoldstein @TheRickWilson
Probable who posts:
@Cabot_Phillips @KassyDillon @ElliottRHams @DavidPolatseck
People of interest:
@courtchauncey, @caitlinconant (Wife of Alex Conant), @BritHume, Erick Erickson, Alex Conant, Just Karl, Marybeth Glenn, Ben Howe, Kim Carroll, Michelle Ray, Guy Benson, S.E. Cupp,
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
Groups of interest:
Twitter Archives:
Coming Soon
Aliases:
Benny Polatseck (@AccountRs )
EliRubenstein
Possible connections:
David Rubenstein
This brings us back to Alex Conant. He was tagged along with the Eli/Susan Marco account just three days into @ConAgainstTrump’s existence.
