The alleged moderate centrist outfit No Labels is very unhappy that a lot of people have been calling No Labels spoilers who intentionally or not — definitely intentionally — will increase the chances of Donald Trump regaining the presidency. Naturally enough, yesterday the group implored the US Justice Department to investigate groups like the Lincoln Project and “left-of’-center” Third Way, because, you will be flabbergasted to learn, they are doing the RICO.
In a presser and a hilarious letter, No Labels and its attorney Dan Webb claimed that group had been the victim of an “unlawful conspiracy to subvert Americans voting rights, and shut down the organization’s effort to secure ballot access in the 2024 presidential election.” Why yes, the letter does indeed compare people slagging No Labels to being just like the KKK during Reconstruction, because doing plain old politics is some kind of criminal conspiracy, as proven by people publishing editorials taking No Labels to task and even agreeing with each other.
The eight-page whine claims that people pointing out the danger of splitting the anti-Trump electorate is a RICO, exactly like a mob boss ordering a hit, as well as a violation of civil rights laws, because allegedly those who oppose No Labels are going beyond merely politicking and are trying to “intimidate” candidates from running on the No Labels ticket.
As the Washington Post (gift link) daintily points out, the argument is “untested and unusual for a political group”:
Efforts to pressure donors, candidates and endorsers from taking various actions are the currency of politics, and courts generally give significant leeway to campaigns to compete publicly and privately for support.
Oh, but let’s just look at the alleged evidence of this nasty conspiracy, which is every bit as bad as Night Riders burning down homes and murdering Black voters to keep them from the polls.
For starters, Michael Bennett, co-founder and leader of Third Way (not the senator of Colorado), and a chief heavy in the letter, organized a phone call that included representatives from a bunch of other groups like “Move On Political Action, End Citizens United, Lincoln Project, American Bridge, Public Citizen, and Reproductive Freedom for All,” in in which they strategized ways to oppose No Labels. See, you have a group of people talking, and that in itself is pretty conspiratorial. Plus, Bennett said they ought to pressure potential donors, egad:
“What we want to do with [No Labels’] donors is continue to build the idea in the minds of the political elites and the people that they talk to . . . [is] that if you get involved with this, you are throwing, you’re really risking your entire reputation and your legacy.”
Why, one participant in a call even suggested doing aggressive oppo research on any candidate that ran on the No Labels ticket!
“Through every channel we have, to their donors, their friends, the press, everyone — everyone — should send the message: If you have one fingernail clipping of a skeleton in your closet, we will find it. If you think you were vetted when you ran for governor, you’re insane. That was nothing. We are going to come at you with every gun we can possibly find.”
According to the letter, such statements “demonstrate that the attendees were participating in a conspiracy to use retaliation, fear, intimidation, and even threats of violence,” although the closest the letter got to specifying any actual threats seems to be a video tweet in which Lincoln Project cofounder Rick Wilson said No Labels was a pro-Trump Super PAC and that the group and its leaders “need to be burned to the fucking ground politically.” Oh, also, Bennett told a bunch of Senate chiefs of staff he wanted to “kill” No Labels.
Come see the violence, etc.
Oh, but the political violence just keeps coming:
On April 29, 2023, Melissa Byrne, executive director of “We, the 45 Million,” an organization working with the White House to promote the cancellation of student debt, posted a tweet on Twitter promoting a mobile billboard that had been dispatched to the Washington, DC neighborhood of No Labels CEO Nancy Jacobson. The billboard included photos of Ms. Jacobson, her husband, and Donald Trump, with the message: “Nancy and Mark need to stop playing around with America’s future to make rich donors happy.”
That husband, of course, is noted bipartisan centrist moderate Trumper Mark Penn.
Another example of the relentless campaign to threaten and intimidate people from supporting No Labels basically boiled down to a Lincoln Project representative telling No Labels cofounder and board member Holly Page at lunch, “You’ll never work in this town again,” and that was a clear threat to Page’s livelihood. Why, Page actually lost a consulting gig shortly after, and was told by her former client’s attorney that it was because Page had become “persona non grata with the White House.” Conspiracy! RICO!
Of course, one problem with all this conspiracying is that it’s been largely public, what with all the public statements and billboards and tweets and op-eds.
The DOJ hasn’t commented on the request for an investigation into all the RICO, and is not obligated to pay it any attention. But attorneys sure have had fun mocking it; on Threads, Ken “Popehat” White said the No Labels letter “is lunatic and should have been run past an attorney, an adult, or at least someone not in the midst of a manic episode,” and followed that up by adding, “By saying this I recognize that I am probably now part of the RICO. Yes it’s me Joe Lieberman I did the RICO come get me.”
Hey, us too! No Labels didn’t even mention Yr Wonkette’s many Conspiratorial and Racketeering headlines and commentary, like such as:
In fact, our conspiracy to take down No Labels goes all the way back to 2010, when Yr Wonkette opined, “‘No Labels’ Is Worst Ever Non-Political-Party Political Party.”
Like Bugs Bunny being super pissed off that the bounty on rabbits was only two cents, compared to $75 for bears or $50 for foxes, Yr Wonkette is pretty darn miffed that No Labels doesn’t consider us part of the criminal conspiracy against it. Guess we’ll have to saw off Florida and push it into the Atlantic just to get some attention.
[ No Labels letter / CBS News / WaPo (gift link)]
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