Fox News host Charles Payne presented the “No Labels” party as a centrist alternative to polarized politics and dedicated to finding “common ground,” but the reality is it’s funded by rich Republicans and will accomplish nothing but to elect or re-elect a MAGA Republican in 2024.
The New Yorker gives a pretty good explanation of how No Labels will have an outsized impact on the 2024 election despite an almost certain small share of the vote. Jonathan Cowan, president of the centrist Third Way, Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn and Patrick Gaspard, CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, are so alarmed that they have teamed up to warn everyone about how No Labels would help elect a MAGA extremist president in 2024.
On top of all that, it’s led by Nancy Jacobson, wife of Mark Penn, a Fox News “Democrat” and Trump defender.
And if all that doesn’t persuade you that No Labels is a GOP wolf in bipartisan sheep’s clothing, the fact that it’s funded by pro-GOP, anti-democracy billionaires should.
All of that was ignored on Fox’s Your World show yesterday, a show that purports to be about business.
The guest was Larry Hogan, the Republican former governor of Maryland. He’s also an enthusiastic No Labels supporter. Hogan said he’s not considering running for the No Labels nomination “but I totally understand the frustrations that led to a group like this.”
“First of all, I’ve been involved in the organization ‘cause I really believe in common sense, bipartisan solutions and reaching across the aisle to get things done,” Hogan continued. “It’s what I did as governor, as Republican governor in the bluest state in America.”
Hogan said he wants to “get the Republican party back on track” and returning to “a more Reagan-esque big-tent party.” Which overlooks the fact that the majority of Republicans want a MAGA candidate.
“59% of the people in the country say they would consider another alternative,” Hogan said, as if there’s a chance a majority would vote for a third party.
Payne helped perpetuate the dangerous myth. “Since I’m 18 years old, I’ve been a registered Independent, and I voted for third party on more than one occasion,” Payne said.
“Everybody’s coming to where you are, Charles,” Hogan said.
To his credit, Payne brought up the fact that a recent poll showed a hypothetical third party would likely get significantly more support from Biden’s voters than Trump’s. Noting that No Labels has pledged not to “tilt the election one way or the other” he asked if that is really the case, would No Labels drop out?
Third Way debunks this No Labels pledge, saying that it has not explained its criteria for that assessment, nor how it would work, given that “the GOP nominee likely won’t be known until June, long after the No Labels ticket is nominated and on ballots.”
Hogan replied, “I think we’re a long way from figuring that out,” but the fact that 21% already say they’d vote for a third party means they start out in a stronger position than any previous third party candidate, he claimed.
FACT CHECK: Not really. Ross Perot was the choice of 36% of registered voters in June, 1992.
Hogan seems to genuinely believe in the stated promise of No Labels and maybe Payne does, too. But you can bet your Trump University diploma that Fox knows exactly the practical effect the party will likely have on the 2024 election and that's the reason, probably the only reason Fox will continue to promote it.
You can watch Fox pull the No Labels wool over its viewers eyes below, from the July 19, 2023 Your World.
(Note: Ellen contributed some of the information about No Labels as well as the fact check about Perot)