No Labels Is a Bunch of “Powerful, Elite Folks in a Boardroom in D.C.,” Says MoveOn’s Joel Payne

No Labels, the self-styled centrist political group that might run a third-party candidate for president, claims that Democrats are guilty of waging an “anti-democracy” campaign against them. But Joel Payne of the progressive advocacy group MoveOn says No Labels has it exactly backward—that they’re the ones who have a distaste for democratic principles.

While Democrats and Republicans have a nominating process that involves primary elections, which allows for “the voice of the people to come through,” Payne said, “that does not exist for No Labels. Their process is the modern-day incarnation of the smoke-filled room. It is a small group of powerful, elite folks in a boardroom in D.C.”

Payne, MoveOn’s communications director, was speaking at The New Republic’s Stop Trump Summit on Wednesday, alongside Al From, founder and former CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, and Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United.

“We all agree on one thing very critically, and that is if you’re going to beat Donald Trump you need to be united,” Payne said. “That’s why we’re here talking about No Labels today, which I know may seem like a little bit of a diversion, but it’s really not,” he added, because the key to beating Donald Trump “is to prevent voters from being distracted by other choices.”

No Labels insists that it is a moderate, bipartisan group, but its financial backers include Harlan Crow, the billionaire who has showered Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with gifts. The group also claims that a significant number of American voters dislike both Trump and President Biden and are craving a third option, but analysts believe a moderate candidate would largely pull voters from Biden, thereby increasing Trump’s chances of returning to the White House.

“No Labels, the people they claim to want to represent, people who want to save democracy, are not going to be well served by No Labels,” he said, “because a No Labels run is going to make it easier for Donald Trump to win.”

To counter No Labels, Payne said, MoveOn is “trying to do more grassroots activation, more direct outreach to voters, to citizens just making sure folks know the real stakes that we’re dealing with here.” He said his group has gathered signatures from more than 50,000 people who want to stop No Labels.

But Payne acknowledged that it’s hard to organize political opposition to No Labels because its work is so “nebulous.”

“You’re asking people to plug in and worry about this kind of inside-the-Beltway group that has like a lot of money, and you know, really operates in an undemocratic, small-d way,” he said. “That’s a high bar that we’re asking citizens to check into.”

Donald Trump will be found guilty in the hush-money criminal case involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.

That’s Michael Cohen’s prediction, anyway.

“I can tell you from everything I know about it, he’s going to be found guilty,” Cohen, the former Trump lawyer, said during The New Republic’s Stop Trump Summit on Wednesday.

Trump pleaded not guilty in April to 34 counts of falsifying his business records related to money he allegedly paid to Daniels in 2016 to keep quiet about a past affair. The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Cohen is expected to be one of his star witnesses.

“This is the Al Capone theory,” he added. “They didn’t get him on murder, extortion, racketeering, prostitution, etc., they got him on tax evasion. I truly believe the Alvin Bragg case is the easiest case to prove of all of the criminal cases.”

Cohen is also a witness in the civil fraud case brought against Trump by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump is facing at least five separate civil and criminal trials.

When asked at the Stop Trump Summit whether Trump was scared as a result of the myriad prosecutions, Cohen said, “I think scared is an understatement. I think he’s absolutely petrified.”

He cited two reasons for his answer.

“One, the worst thing that you can do to Donald Trump is to take away his money, because his money is his id, his ego, his superego all wrapped into one,” he said. “Then the threat and fear of potential incarceration on top of the loss of the money; basically making him into a loser … that’s his biggest fear.”

Six Republican representatives will move to expel their fellow New Yorker and serial fabulist George Santos, calling him a “stain” on their party.

Santos, a freshman representative, has caused nothing but controversy since he took office. He fabricated the vast majority of his personal and professional background, and on Tuesday, he was federally indicted for financial fraud and identity theft.

“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster, George Santos,” freshman Representative Anthony D’Esposito announced Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.

He revealed the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow first-term lawmakers Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams. These six lawmakers were some of the first Republicans to call publicly for Santos to resign once his lies were revealed. All of them except Langworthy won in districts that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, making them more vulnerable to being voted out in 2024.

Speaking separately to CNN’s Manu Raju, D’Esposito said of Santos, “After the latest indictment I think it’s clear he’s not fit to serve in the house of representatives. He’s a stain on the institution, and that’s why the New York freshmen have come together. He’s also a stain on our state.”

In addition to apparently lying about his employment history, Santos has falsely claimed that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors, his mother died in the 9/11 attacks, and four of his employees were killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting. He also lied about founding an animal rescue charity and producing the disastrous Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Santos has been federally charged with 23 counts of various types of financial fraud. He pleaded not guilty to the initial 13 in May, and he has denied the additional 10 that were filed Tuesday night in a superseding indictment. Earlier this year, he also agreed to a deal with Brazilian authorities investigating him for financial fraud, so that he could avoid prosecution.

Democrats introduced a motion to censure Santos over the summer but have temporarily shelved it, despite bipartisan support. He is under investigation from the House Ethics Committee, but nothing has emerged yet.

Santos told reporters Wednesday that he ​won’t take a plea deal in his indictment, and that he plans to stay in office and run for reelection.​ He said the expulsion resolution is essentially “silencing the people in the 3rd Congressional District of New York.”

Except, the 3rd Congressional District of New York doesn’t even want him speaking for them anymore.

A MAGA mayoral candidate for Franklin, Tennessee, seems to have opted for a dubious political alliance, affiliating with white supremacists and self-described Nazis.

Last week, alderman and mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson strolled up to Franklin’s candidates forum with the white nationalist organization “Tennessee Active Club” in tow. The hate group claimed it was there to “protect” Hanson with a show of force, according to News Channel 5 Nashville.

In a hearing on Tuesday, Hanson refused to denounce the group, which had harassed journalists and threatened a local resident’s life, alleging instead that its presence was to prevent disruptions by antifa.

“I don’t denounce any of my clients,” Hanson said. “I’m a realtor, I’m not going to denounce anybody their right to be whatever it is that they want to be, whether I agree with what they do in their personal life or not.”

But that reaction wasn’t what the group’s facilitator and self-avowed “actual literal Nazi” Brad Lewis was expecting. In a Sunday episode of the conservative streaming show Patriot Punkcast, Lewis expressed frustration that Hanson claimed she had nothing to do with their presence at the forum, adding that they were “security by request.”

“I facilitated all of this. She asked me, and I in turn asked the guys if they would be interested, and they of course accepted,” Lewis said, adding that Hanson “was aware” of the club’s involvement.

Opposite the controversial city leader, the city’s other aldermen used Tuesday’s hearing to lambaste Hanson.

“Is it your mission to divide our city? Because you are doing a bang-up job of it right now,” huffed Alderman Beverly Burger.

“It’s embarrassing to end up on HBO, to end up on MSNBC, and not for the good stuff,” said Alderman Brandy Blanton.

Last month, Hanson made headlines when it was revealed that she was stealing other people’s Instagram posts as campaign fodder, using their images of women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds to pretend they were her political supporters.

Hanson is running against another Republican, incumbent Mayor Ken Moore, in Franklin’s mayoral race. The city votes on October 24.

House Republicans agreed Wednesday to nominate Steve Scalise, who once reportedly described himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” for speaker.

Eight Republicans voted last week to vacate the speaker and oust Kevin McCarthy, plunging the House into chaos. The chamber is set to vote later Wednesday on a new speaker, but the GOP has struggled to get its act together.

Republicans voted 113–98 to put current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise forward as McCarthy’s replacement. He will now face a vote from the full chamber that will be split at least along party lines. Democrats plan to back Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

But it won’t be an easy road for Scalise. He was up against Jim Jordan for the Republican speaker nomination, and he may still get some pushback from lawmakers loyal to Jordan. Representative Max Miller told reporters that he’ll still vote for Jordan on the floor, even if Scalise gets the caucus nomination, a move others may follow. Representative Ken Buck has said he’ll vote for neither candidate, all but guaranteeing to draw out the process.

A Scalise victory means that the farthest-right wing of the Republican Party would be in complete control. Scalise has refused to say outright that the 2020 election was legitimate, instead remaining loyal to Donald Trump.

But even long before that, Scalise had embraced the extremist movement. At the start of his congressional career, Scalise reportedly described himself as being like Duke, the former head of the Ku Klux Klan, but “without the baggage.”

Scalise also attended a white supremacist conference that Duke organized in 2002. Scalise later described attending the conference as “a mistake.”

But Duke said Scalise was invited because he would “communicate a lot” and was “friendly” with Kenny Knight, Duke’s political adviser.

Former Republican George Conway said Democrats need to wage a “psychological war” against Donald Trump until it makes him so “crazy” that he violates court orders.

“I think you have to wage psychological war on Donald Trump,” Conway, a lawyer and Never Trump activist, said during a panel discussion at The New Republic’s Stop Trump Summit on Wednesday. “I don’t think the Democrats have ever attacked Trump enough.”

In an interview afterward with TNR, Conway explained that Democrats could wage a coordinated psychological campaign against Trump through a series of advertisements. “You can just run ads on TV in the local area where he is,” said Conway, whom Trump had once considered nominating for solicitor general.

Conway said that the ads could target the things Trump feels the most insecure about. “He knows he’s not that smart, he knows he’s not that rich, he knows that he’s not that good. And so, if you go and attack him for the things he knows he is not deep down, it makes him crazy.”

“He’s not that far from his bursting point,” Conway added. And making Trump nuts could impact ongoing his legal troubles.

“The more he gets attacked the more he will talk about things he shouldn’t be talking about,” Conway said. “I think you could even get him thrown into jail, by running the right ad,” he added.

Trump was slapped with a gag order in his New York trial after he made comments attacking New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused him and his associates of fraudulently inflating the value of their real estate assets. In the Georgia case, the conditions of his release on bail bar him from intimidating witnesses and co-defendants.

“You run ads that make him angry at those people, like [Mark] Meadows,” said Conway, referring to the former top Trump aide and co-defendant in the Georgia trial. “You run these creepy ads that get into his head, he’ll just go out there and he’ll violate his conditions of release.”

Conway went on to say that beating Trump requires the media to show America who Trump is. “I disagree with some of the critiques that you hear, I think predominantly from the left, about ‘You don’t give him oxygen; you don’t give him air time.’ No. You give him more. Show everybody the crazy.”

Four former Ohio State wrestlers are speaking out against Representative Jim Jordan, alleging that the conservative hard-liner and Freedom Caucus founder is not qualified to be House speaker after he shoved sexual abuse concerns under the rug during his time as a coach at the university.

“He doesn’t deserve to be House speaker. He still has to answer for what happened to us,” former Ohio State University wrestler Dunyasha Yetts told NBC.

Before his explosive political career and nomination to speaker of the House, Jordan served as an assistant coach to OSU’s wrestling team from 1986 to 1994, a period that overlapped with the tenure of Richard Strauss, a team doctor accused of abusing at least 177 male student-patients.

A 2019 investigation found that school officials were aware of Strauss’s conduct as early as 1979 but, instead of taking action, chose to orchestrate a cover-up of the abuse.

Several former teammates and even referees claim that Jordan knew about the doctor’s misconduct but did nothing to stop it.

A Jordan spokesperson, Russell Dye, denied that the Trump-endorsed congressman knew of the abuse during his time at OSU. “Chairman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it,” Dye said in an email to NBC.

But Jordan also skirted involvement with the official investigation, which did not name him but found that “coaches, trainers and other team physicians were fully aware of Strauss’ activities, and yet few seemed inclined to do anything to stop it.”

“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” former OSU wrestler Mike Schyck told NBC. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”

At a 2018 hearing before the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee, Adam DiSabato, another former OSU wrestler and the brother of the scandal’s whistleblower, Mike DiSabato, claimed that Jordan had called him weeks before his testimony “crying, groveling, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour.… That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on here. He’s a coward. He’s a coward.”

Representative Nancy Mace continues to try and fail to cast herself as an underdog warrior of the people.

Mace was one of eight Republicans who voted last week to vacate the speaker and oust Kevin McCarthy, plunging the House into chaos. The chamber is set to vote Wednesday on a new speaker, but the GOP cannot seem to get its act together. Throughout it all, Mace has given the impression that she’s fighting off attacks for having principles.

Her latest attempt was to wear a T-shirt with a red “A” emblazoned on it. “I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week that I just had last week, being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” she told reporters Tuesday night.

“I’m here to let the rest of the world know and the rest of the country know, I’m on the side of the people. I’m not on the side of the establishment. And I’m going to do the right thing every single time, no matter the consequences.”

It seems Mace skipped the day in high school English literature when the class discussed The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, Puritan woman Hester Prynne is forced to wear a red letter A because she had sex out of wedlock. The book does discuss themes of female independence, but the A is primarily a punishment.

Mace appears to have taken her interpretation from the first half of the 2010 movie Easy A, which initially portrays the A as a badge of honor but then shows how it can also be isolating. Ironically, the movie also mentions several times how important it is to read the original book.

The South Carolina Republican isn’t exactly a victim here, either. Mace’s colleagues aren’t calling her “disgraceful” or threatening to kick her out of the GOP conference the way they are Matt Gaetz, who led the charge against McCarthy.

Instead, Mace’s actions have actually revealed how hypocritical she is. In January, during the seemingly interminable rounds of votes for speaker that McCarthy ultimately won, Mace criticized Gaetz for fundraising off of the ordeal.

But since voting to boot McCarthy, Mace has aggressively tried to fundraise off of her vote. She even asked for campaign donations while doing an interview inside the Capitol—a violation of House rules.

Mace, an outspoken advocate for abuse victims, has also said she will support Jim Jordan as the next speaker. Mace is apparently content to overlook the allegations that Jordan was aware of sexual abuse complaints against the doctor of the Ohio State University wrestling team, which Jordan coached, and did nothing about it.

“Yeah, I’m not familiar or aware of that. He’s not indicted on anything I’m aware of, and so I don’t know anything and can’t speak to that,” Mace said on CBS Monday.

Her comments highlight not only her hypocrisy, but the fact that she didn’t pay attention in English class: The Scarlet Letter is also critical of men who abuse their positions of power.

House Republicans are on the verge of electing a new speaker, but so far, it’s not looking good.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday to replace Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the first ever House leader to be removed from the position after eight rebel members of his own party led a campaign to boot him. However, a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night proved that deep divisions in the party still remain.

Kentucky’s Republican Representative Thomas Massie put the odds of finding a speaker Wednesday at “two percent,” reported The New York Times’ Luke Broadwater, noting that some party members are “dug in” for their candidates, including former McCarthy backers.

So far, party members have put forward two leading candidates: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Trump ally and Judiciary Committee Chairman Representative Jim Jordan.

But the rules of the game are changing while the ball is still in the air, according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman, who reported that the party is still contesting the rules of the election even as the election itself arrives. The House vote has also become increasingly private, with politicians stripped of their cell phones ahead of the closed-door meetings.

“Not [a] fan of snitches,” tweeted Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, referring to the policy change.

Meanwhile, the House remains paralyzed without a leader, unable to move forward on things like the spending bill or responding to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.

While Republicans squander more time on their civil war, another government shutdown looms large on the horizon, with just a month and change until the House’s stopgap spending bill expires.

Fox News has turned on Robert Kennedy Jr. now that he is running for president as an independent, a move that could steal votes away from Donald Trump.

Kennedy Jr. announced Monday that he is switching his candidacy to run as an independent. Previously, he had been embraced by the far right for things like his opposition to vaccines and belief in conspiracy theories. But his popularity among Republicans means he could also pull just enough voters to turn the election against GOP front-runner Trump.

Fox host Sean Hannity adopted a noticeably more aggressive approach to Kennedy Jr. during a Tuesday night interview. “By the way, I’m giving you comments that you’ve made in 2016, ’17, ’19. Endorsements, we know the years: Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary, Bernie Sanders.… The NRA quote you made about calling them a terror group was 2018,” Hannity said, recounting Kennedy Jr.’s more liberal past.

“These are recent positions you’ve had. I’m not sure why the Democratic Party wouldn’t allow you to compete.”

Kennedy looked visibly stunned while Hannity spoke, and when he finally responded, he struggled to find the words.

“Do you want to talk about my positions, Sean, or do you want to read talking points from the Trump campaign?” he eventually asked.

“Excuse me, these are not talking points. These are called Hannity Points. I do my own research,” Hannity shot back.

Independent candidates historically perform poorly in the general election. They are more often viewed as spoilers who strip just enough votes away from one major candidate to tip the election toward the other. In the case of RFK Jr., his embrace of far-right talking points is expected to woo voters away from Trump.

Current polling indicates Kennedy Jr.’s favorability ratings are far higher among Republicans. It’s unlikely he’ll pull a lot of voters away from Trump, but he could pull just enough to turn the election decisively for Joe Biden. Fox News does not necessarily like Trump, but the network knows it benefits from him being in the headlines.