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‘Biggest Threat to Our Survival’: Experts Blast No Labels and Third Party Candidates as Manchin Tests the Waters

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U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, on Monday shared a stage with former Governor Jon Huntsman, Republican of Utah, at an event hosted by No Labels.

No Labels insists it is neither a political party nor engaging in a “spoiler” effort to take votes away from President Joe Biden and hand Donald Trump the 2024 election, despite its goal of having a third party presidential and vice presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states.

Manchin at times has been President Biden’s greatest challenge on the left. The West Virginia politician is a coal baron in his spare time, earning millions from the pollutant.

Monday night at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, home of several presidential debates, Manchin refused to say if he planned to run for president on a third party ticket, but defiantly made clear he hadn’t ruled it out.

“I’ve never been in any race I’ve ever spoiled. I’ve been in races to win,” Manchin said, as CNN reported. “And if I get in a race, I’m going to win.”

“Sitting beside former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman,” CNN added, “Manchin railed against withering bipartisanship in Washington, DC, saying the ‘business model’ of the two major parties ‘is better if you’re divided.’ Huntsman offered a similar critique, as the men complimented one another’s work and blamed the ‘extremes’ of the Republican and Democratic parties on Capitol Hill for holding up popular legislation.”

READ MORE: Trump Announces He Is a ‘Target’ of Special Counsel’s Jan. 6 Probe

Manchin’s allegation ignores President Joe Biden’s historic accomplishments, signing into law many bipartisan bills despite having a slim majority in the House and an evenly-split Senate during his first two years, and now a GOP majority in the House and effectively just a one-seat majority in the Senate.

“We’re here,” Manchin claimed, “to make sure the American people have an option.”

Except the American people have options: A Democratic nominee, likely President Joe Biden, and a Republican nominee, yet to be determined but currently, likely Donald Trump.

Mother Jones‘ David Corn wrote on Monday that No Labels “says it is not a political party,” which “means it does not have to reveal the donors that have pumped tens of millions of dollars in recent years into its coffers. Parties must disclose their funders; nonprofit outfits, as No Labels claims to be, do not. But in several states, No Labels has established an affiliate that explicitly declares it is a political party, and some of these groups, particularly the party it set up in Florida, have deep Republican roots.”

Referring to a potential third-party presidential candidate, Corn added, “Democratic and Never-Trump Republican strategists … cite polls to contend that such a move would likely draw more votes from President Joe Biden than Donald Trump, assuming these current front-runners end up being the nominees.”

Monday night on MSNBC, Corn told Joy Reid many of the Republicans donating to No Labels support Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Liberal and conservative experts are lashing out at No Labels this week.

“The seductive allure of a third party candidate who is sold as being above the political fray has swung elections in the past. 2024 is too important for a repeat. A vote for any candidate other than the Democratic nominee is a vote for Trump,” warned former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now a professor of law and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst.

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarianism Will Be on the Ballot’: Experts Sound Alarm Over NYT Bombshell Detailing Trump’s Plans if He Wins in 2024

Dave Wasserman, the U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, in late 2016 pointed the finger at third party candidate Jill Stein, placing blame for the election of Donald Trump at her feet. Trump had lost the popular vote but took the White House via an Electoral College win, in particular in three states.

“Jill Stein is now officially the Ralph Nader of 2016,” he tweeted. He posted the number of votes Stein won and compared them to Trump’s margin of victory in 2016 across Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, suggesting had Stein not, run Hillary Clinton – who won the popular vote – would also have won the Electoral College and the presidency.

Indeed, just days after the 2016 election, even before Wasserman’s tweet, Vanity Fair’s Tina Nguyen wrote: “Millions of Americans, dissatisfied with both candidates and unwilling to choose between the lesser of two evils, registered their protest by voting for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, helping hand a number of critical swing states, and the presidency, to Donald Trump. ”

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol on Tuesday tweeted, “No Labels’ 63 page policy booklet has no mention of…Ukraine, the most important foreign policy challenge facing us, the central front in the global fight for liberal democracy and against brutal dictatorship. Didn’t want to upset their Trump-friendly donors, I suppose…”

Pointing to the Mother Jones report, The Lincoln Project notes, “No Labels’ own polling has shown: a third-party candidate would pull more from Biden than Trump in 2024. There’s not a scenario where their spoiler doesn’t secure a second term for Trump.”

The Lincoln Project also put out an ad denouncing No Labels.

David Rothkopf, the foreign policy, national security and political affairs expert and commentator, blasted No labels.

“A vote for a No Labels candidate is not just a vote for Trump, it is a vote for the end of democracy, for authoritarianism in the US, for a pro-Putin, anti-NATO, pro-corruption, pro-1%, anti-the rest of us government.”

READ MORE: Trump Gets Bad News From Georgia Supreme Court

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer: “The No Labels 2024 campaign is about money and relevance. The organization pays a company called HarrisX for its polling. HarrisX is owned by Mark Penn who also happens to be married to Nancy Jacobson, the founder of No Labels.”

A very defensive Jacobson insisted No Labels is “not a party,” while NBC News’ Vaughn Hilliard held her feet to the fire as she ducked his question about why they refuse to reveal their donors – which political parties are required to.

After a back and forth on the issue, Hilliard pointedly told Jacobson, “you’re registering as a political party.”

“That’s just language,” she replied.

“Entirely possible that a 2024 third-party candidate could, intentionally or not, tip this nation toward a fascist Presidential autocracy,” NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss announced Monday.

Describing what’s at stake, constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe, University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and a former professor of law at Harvard Law School on Tuesday denounced third party candidates including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and, should he decide to run, Senator Manchin.

“Third party candidates like RFKJr, Cornel West, possibly Joe Manchin, are the biggest threat to our survival as a free people who govern ourselves.”

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News

Trump Is Promising Mass White House Pardons: Report

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6 hours ago

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April 10, 2026

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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.

“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”

Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.

“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.

The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”

READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness

The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.

“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”

While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.

READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post

 

Image via Reuters 

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White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness

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7 hours ago

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April 10, 2026

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The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.

“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.

“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”

Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”

“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”

Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.

He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”

Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”

Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”

Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”

Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.

The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”

“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.

 

Image via Reuters 

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‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post

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9 hours ago

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April 10, 2026

By

Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.

“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.

“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.

His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”

Some ridiculed the president.

“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.

Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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