We’ve shown how the Media Research Center repeatedly concern-trolled about a push for a third-party presidential candidate in the hope that said candidate would divert votes from President Biden. But it was only when a third-party candidate might divert votes from Donald Trump that it raised any objection, such as in this Jan. 10 post by Nicholas Fondacaro:
With the calendar finally reading “2024,” the realization and panic seemed to be really setting in for the liberal cast of ABC’s The View. During an interview with former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, which spanned most of the Wednesday show, moderator Whoopi Goldberg and co-host Sara Haines literally begged Cheney to launch a third party and/or run third party in order to stop former President Trump from possibly beating President Biden, if he won the GOP nomination.
After returning from a commercial break, Goldberg immediately floated the idea of Cheney finding a “smart” Democrat to start a third party with. “I have felt for a long time that there’s no reason why you can’t find somebody smart on the left and somebody smart on the right and put them together and make that the new party,” she opined.
[…]Their desire for Cheney to run third party was dripping with hypocrisy. Back in July, The View was viciously against the idea of a third-party campaign from the No Labels Party, because it could harm Biden. And in November, they lashed out at Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) because there were rumors he was thinking of running third party.
Fondacaro didn’t say whether that hypocrisy was any different from his own. Nevertheless, he flip-flopped in a Jan. 29 post while accusing “The View” of flip-flopping:
The View’s back-and-forth position on the need for third parties could give viewers a serious case of whiplash. On Monday’s episode, the ABC hosts proved themselves to be hypocrites yet again when they suddenly weren’t for the existence of third-party candidates in the 2024 presidential race. This outcry against third parties came the same month they literally begged former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney to run third party to hurt former President Trump. This time, they feared for President Biden.
Staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host Sunny Hostin feared for a repeat of 2016, saying she “just learned today” about how then-Green Party candidate Jill Stein had impressive enough margins that some say it harmed then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton:
[…]Faux conservative Ana Navarro recalled “when Ross Perot was a spoiler for George Herbert Walker Bush.” According to her hysterical take, the world couldn’t afford Trump getting elected president again because he’s not only an “existential threat to democracy” but also “to the universe!”
“There’s a lot of credible people who we know who’ve left No Labels now, including my husband, including Larry Hogan,” she touted.
As usual, Fondacaro failed to tell his readers that No Labels is largely funded by right-wingers. And, yes, Fondacaro still thinks Hostin is “staunchly racist” because he doesn’t understand how metaphors work and is “anti-Semitic” because she merely talked about the Israel-Hamas war.
(Remember, the MRC stopped promoting Robert Kennedy Jr. as a candidate when he switched from Democrat to independent.)
Tim Graham was in full concern-trolling mode in a Feb. 2 column, complaining that Gail Collins, “partisan Democrat columnist” for the New York Times, discussed third-party efforts:
Then Collins brought up “the dreaded No Labels people,” who might run Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.). She wrote “the idea of Joe Manchin as president is pretty terrifying, but in the real world, the most No Labels could do is take votes away from Biden.”
Collins can’t acknowledge the irony of the Democratic Party trashing anyone who would want to participate in democracy by running for president. She noted how Phillips found some state Democrat parties have refused to allow anyone but Biden on the primary ballot. She didn’t mention Semafor.com reported on a conference call organized by the “center-left Democratic group Third Way” and “progressive” Move On talking about playing dirty with third-party candidates.
Like Fondacaro, Graham failed to disclose that the funding behind No Labels betrays its actual mission to draw votes from Biden. He also complained that Collins referenced Dean Phillips, one of the MRC’s great white hopes to undermine Biden’s re-election efforts, grumbling that she was “expressing relief that Phillips has no plans to run as a third-party candidate in the fall.”
A Feb. 6 post by Kathryn Eiler complained that ABC’s George Stephanopoulos queried former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie about running as a third-party candidate:
Though Christie did not concede to the host’s point, and instead brought up alternatives such as the No Labels organization, Stephanopoulos again interjected that a third-party group like No Labels would “drain more from Joe Biden than Donald Trump.”
[…]In addition to waiving off the third party as indirectly pro-Trump, Stephanopoulos also seemed to nervously query, asking in so many ways if Christie had put his name on the ballot, if he had been nominated by No Labels, or if he had “closed the door” to reinserting himself into the election.
Eiler didn’t mention that the funding of No Labels shows its desire to drain votes from Biden.
Graham spent a Feb. 28 post complaining that Chuck Todd noted the failure of a serious third-party effort for the 2024 election:
Don’t look now, but deposed Meet the Press host Chuck Todd has unleashed another grand political analysis. Last month, Chuck was having deep thoughts about Trump while touring a Nazi museum in Germany. Now he’s absolutely certain that third parties just won’t matter in the 2024 presidential race, because of….abortion. The headline?
Chuck Todd: Why the third party window may have closed for 2024
Chuck acknowledges that a chunk of voters in both parties aren’t happy with their nominee, even if both think the Other Party’s candidate is beatable.
[…]He underlines that it’s difficult for third parties to gain access to ballots in many states — without mentioning the Democrats aggressively put up ballot barriers — no Democrat challengers to Biden and no third-party challengers to Biden. Then they insist Donald Trump is unfit for the ballot. And forget your No Labels threat:
Graham offered no proof that only Democrats “aggressively put up ballot barriers” to third-party candidates, and he yet again censored the fact that No Labels gets funding from right-wingers.