Rick Wilson gets the appeal of a third party in an age of hyper-partisanship.
“If you hear ‘No Labels, Problem Solvers,’ it sounds great, doesn't it?” he said.
But the former longtime Republican strategist, who in 2019 co-founded the Lincoln Project to fight the GOP’s growing autocratic impulses of the Donald Trump era, is issuing a dire warning about a group that’s promising to promote bipartisanship.
Wilson in a fiery, expletive-laced video the Lincoln Project tweeted Thursday, alleged that No Labels is funded by Republicans who support Donald Trump, and that the party founded in 2010 is seeking to put Joe Manchin, the conservative Democratic senator from West Virginia, on the ballot in swing states to draw away votes from Joe Biden and return Trump to the presidency.
“They're not trying to accomplish centrism or independent voters or everybody singing (expletive) Kumbaya,” Wilson said.
“They're a pro-Trump super PAC. They're raising $70-plus million from billionaire Republican hedge fund guys and billionaire Republican developers and billionaire Republicans Silicon Valley types so they can elect Donald Trump.”
Wilson called out a common No Labels talking point that “we're only doing this as a contingency plan of fire. 'A break glass in case of fire' plan, if both candidates are morally unacceptable.”
“What is that they're saying, you guys? Because they know Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic candidate. They're saying that Joe Biden is morally equivalent to a guy today who sat in a courtroom being indicted for 34 (expletive) felonies,” Wilson said.
“They're saying that Joe Biden is equivalent to a guy who ordered his neo-Nazis and his stormtroopers and his terrorists and his fanatics, to storm the U.S. Capitol to overturn a free and fair democratic election.
“That's what they're saying. Don't buy their (expletive). They need to be burned to the (expletive) ground politically. They are a threat to this republic. They are a pro-Trump super PAC.”
Watch the video below or click here.
\u201cHow much should we be worried about @NoLabelsOrg? A lot says @TheRickWilson. Listen as he explains why they're a pro-Trump SuperPAC posing a major threat to democracy leading into the 2024 election cycle.\u201d— The Lincoln Project (@The Lincoln Project) 1680829854
