Over the weekend, Senator Joe Manchin (WV) sparked fear in Democrats after he was announced as the headline speaker for a New Hampshire event put on by the No Labels Party, a group looking to launch a third-party run for the White House. ABC’s The View was in full-blown panic on Monday (the day of the event), as they lashed out at the No Labels Party for threatening President Biden’s reelection. This comes after The View had previously called for the Republican Party to be broken up.
“But there's been a lot of debate around the No Labels Party which is planning to run their own presidential ticket if Democrats and Republicans don't come towards the middle,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg announced at the top of the show.
But Goldberg, in particular, was vehemently against No Labels attempting to run in the middle in 2024. “Well, I think it's, you know, now is not the time to try the experiment,” she chided. “You should have talked about this four years ago if you thought this was something we should be thinking about, because now it's going to be a breakneck race, and that's not the way to do this.”
She attacked No Labels for waiting “too long to figure this out” and how “now’s the right time.” She also huffed that people didn’t listen to The View’s previous calls for a third party:
I want them to take the time they need. You, you know, right now's not the time. You waited too long. You waited too long to figure this out. And this is a question we have been asking on this show since you-know-who won. That has been a question we have been saying. Do we need a third party? Do we need to do – But nobody wanted to hear it. Everybody said, “Oh, pfft. Stop talking.” Now y'all are panicking. All of you. Both sides. Nobody's comfortable. It's kind of amazing, isn't it? But we are going to go and we'll be right back.
But as NewsBusters had previously reported, The View’s called for a third party when the goal was to harm Republican election efforts.
Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Goldberg pressed the show’s faux Republicans (Ana Navarro and Alyssa Farah Griffin) on people like them leaving the party to stop former President Donald Trump. “Is that what it's going to take to sort of get this straightened out? Is it going to take people saying to the party, I'm out if you can't get your act together?” she wondered at the time.
Those same faux conservatives were on hand to give their two cents on the No Labels Party push.
Calling it “the stupidest thing ever,” Navarro thrashed the group despite her husband’s (Al Cardenas, formerly with the American Conservative Union) work with the group:
I think this is the stupidest thing ever, and let me just say this. My husband has been very supportive of No Labels. He's been a part of No Labels. When No Labels started, one of the things they did was bring together a bunch of people in Congress, Senate and House, with a bipartisan agenda. It was Republicans and Democrats trying to work together on some of the crises that we have in this nation, and I think that part is so needed and so great.
She called the timing of their third-party push “dangerous” because Trump was on the ballot. “This is not Bill Clinton versus George Herbert Walker Bush with Ross Perot playing spoiler. No! This is Donald Trump! He is a threat to national security! He has threatened our democracy!” she shrieked.
She even made a personal appeal to former Pennsylvania Senator Joe Lieberman, one of the party’s national co-chairs, to call off their plans:
And so if you, John Huntsman or Joe Lieberman -- I love you, Joe Lieberman, but you've got to stop this, Joe. Joe, Joe, Joe, this is insane, and you cannot do anything, anything, that could possibly help Donald Trump become president. You cannot be an accomplice on that. You are better than that, Joe.
For Farah Griffin’s part, she did not “that Democrats are panicking so much over No Labels” because they realized “Joe Biden is really only strong against Donald Trump. If it's any other Republican candidate, I think that they realize it's a much harder race for them.”
The View’s election interference was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from General Mills and Progressive. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
July 17, 2023
11:03:39 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: But there's been a lot of debate around the No Labels Party which is planning to run their own presidential ticket if Democrats and Republicans don't come towards the middle.
(…)
11:05:41 a.m. Eastern
ANA NAVARRO: I think this is the stupidest thing ever, and let me just say this. My husband has been very supportive of No Labels. He's been a part of No Labels. When No Labels started, one of the things they did was bring together a bunch of people in Congress, Senate and House, with a bipartisan agenda. It was Republicans and Democrats trying to work together on some of the crises that we have in this nation, and I think that part is so needed and so great.
But this is dangerous because let's just put things in context. This is not a normal thing. This is not Bill Clinton versus George Herbert Walker Bush with Ross Perot playing spoiler. No! This is Donald Trump! He is a threat to national security! He has threatened our democracy! He caused an insurrection! He has weaponized government against his enemies!
And so if you, John Huntsman or Joe Lieberman -- I love you, Joe Lieberman, but you've got to stop this, Joe. Joe, Joe, Joe, this is insane, and you cannot do anything, anything, that could possibly help Donald Trump become president. You cannot be an accomplice on that. You are better than that, Joe.
SARA HAINES: They talk about they want more moderate candidates. There are other ways to go about this.
(…)
There were a lot of people coming out to vote against Donald Trump rather than for President Biden. So I think they'll be peeling away voters that will directly hurt President Biden if this was to go forward.
(…)
11:08:49 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: Well, I think it's, you know, now is not the time to try the experiment. You should have talked about this four years ago if you thought this was something we should be thinking about, because now it's going to be a breakneck race, and that's not the way to do this. If you want to take the time and figure out how this could work, then you have to give yourself some time to actually -- yes.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Sorry.
GOLDBERG: Go ahead.
FARAH GRIFFIN: I have one thing. I don't know if I was totally clear on this. Is I do think that the fact that Democrats are panicking so much over No Labels is them recognizing that Joe Biden is really only strong against Donald Trump. If it's any other Republican candidate, I think that they realize it's a much harder race for them.
(…)
11:10:39 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: I want them to take the time they need. You, you know, right now's not the time. You waited too long. You waited too long to figure this out. And this is a question we have been asking on this show since you-know-who won. That has been a question we have been saying. Do we need a third party? Do we need to do – But nobody wanted to hear it. Everybody said, “oh, pfft. Stop talking.” Now y'all are panicking. All of you. Both sides. Nobody's comfortable. It's kind of amazing, isn't it? But we are going to go and we'll be right back.
