No Labels Has Lost Another Potential 2024 Candidate, Because of Course

The self-described centrist group No Labels has been rejected, again, by a potential candidate for its bipartisan presidential ticket.

No Labels voted two weeks ago to plow ahead with its so-called “unity ticket,” a move that will likely unleash chaos on the 2024 election. The third-party movement has not named its presidential and vice presidential nominees, who are meant to represent both parties, but No Labels was reportedly considering former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.

But Duncan, a Republican, poured cold water on that idea Monday. “After careful deliberation, I have withdrawn my name from consideration for the No Labels presidential ticket,” he said in a statement. “In addition to my private sector career and earning a living for my family of five, I am focused on healing and improving the Republican Party with a GOP 2.0 so we can elect more common-sense conservative candidates in the future.”

It’s unclear who will actually run on a No Labels ticket. In fact, No Labels itself doesn’t even know who could run on its ticket. The group, which has repeatedly been accused of running a pro–Donald Trump spoiler campaign, has promised only to run a ticket if the group believed it had a candidate that could actually win.

During the vote two weeks ago, members praised each other for being courageous and patriotic. But the fact remains that all of No Labels’ reportedly preferred candidates have either been generally unpopular or, like Duncan, have said no—and, in some cases, both.

Prior to Duncan, the group reportedly courted Nikki Haley, Joe Manchin, and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary earlier this month after a terrible performance, while Manchin is one of the most unpopular senators nationwide. Both turned down No Labels before a formal offer could be made.

Hogan, who left office with record-high approval ratings, had weighed a presidential run on a No Labels ticket. But he ultimately decided to run for Maryland senator instead.

Duncan was unlikely to garner nationwide support. While he was one of the few Republican leaders willing to state that the 2020 election hadn’t been rigged and he defended Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger against Trump’s conspiracy attacks, Duncan also holds several deeply conservative stances that would have made him unpopular with the majority of the country.

He opposed the Affordable Care Act and expanding Medicaid. Duncan is also staunchly anti-abortion, backing multiple restrictions on abortion access in Georgia and describing Planned Parenthood as a “malicious organization” during his 2018 campaign.

It’s starting to become normal for No Labels, a purportedly nonpartisan group, to court right-wing or right-leaning connections such as Duncan. The organization has accepted donations from a man with close financial ties to Jared Kushner, as well as Nazi memorabilia–collector Harlan Crow.

One of the group’s members is former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who oversaw a contentious, highly partisan, and decidedly far-right four years. He defended voter ID laws, rejected the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, and backed a bill that banned people from using the bathroom that matched their gender identity.

President Joe Biden just got another win in his monthslong standoff with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. On Monday, the nation’s highest court ruled that the implementation of Texas Senate Bill 4 would be further delayed until the legal challenges against it are settled.

The court waited until the eleventh hour to issue a ruling—even allowing the delay to lapse for several minutes—before extending the administrative stay indefinitely.

“It is ordered that the stay issued on March 4, 2024 is hereby extended pending further order of the undersigned or of the court,” read a court order issued by Justice Samuel Alito.

S.B. 4 proposed allowing Texas police to question and arrest anyone they believed might have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, and granting them the authority to charge them with misdemeanors for first-time offenders and felonies for repeat offenders. It also would have allowed Texas law enforcement to deport immigrants back to a port of entry along the border. The contentious bill was signed into law by Abbott and was supposed to take effect on March 5—until the Justice Department and several civil rights groups got involved, arguing that the bill went way too far, stepping on the toes of the federal government. Earlier this month, Alito placed a temporary stay on the case, which expired at 4 p.m. CDT on Monday.

Local authorities, however, have indicated that their policies will remain relatively unchanged by the outcome.

“We are aware of the governor signing SB4 into law effective March 2024. Given the stated goals and implementation parameters discussed in the state legislature, we will comply with the law and do not expect to make any substantive changes to SAPD policy or practice,” the San Antonio Police Department told NewsNation on Monday.

Biden and Abbott have had a similar legal showdown over a length of concertina wire along the U.S.-Mexico border, which ended in a 5–4 ruling by the Supreme Court that sided with Biden.

“Texas has the sovereign right to construct border barriers to prevent the entry of illegal aliens,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said at the time.

A conservative influencer has been arrested for participating in the January 6 insurrection.

Isabella Maria DeLuca faces a total of five misdemeanor counts: one each for theft of government property; entering restricted buildings or grounds; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area; disorderly or disruptive conduct in the Capitol Building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, according to federal charges unsealed Monday.

The documents show DeLuca was arrested on Friday in Irvine, California. Her case was assigned to a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C.

DeLuca currently works as a conservative social media influencer, boasting more than 330,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter). Before that, she interned for far-right Representatives Lee Zeldin and Paul Gosar.

DeLuca, who according to a post on her LinkedIn is in her midtwenties, shared many details about her January 6 visit to Washington with her social media followers. Court documents show she posted an Instagram story the night of January 5, 2021, complaining about how her train to Washington had broken down and she needed a ride. (Her Instagram profile was private at the time of publication.)

On the afternoon of January 6, DeLuca tweeted, “Fight back or let politicians steal an election? Fight back!” She then sent private messages to an Instagram follower saying she was walking to the Capitol.

Surveillance footage from the attack shows DeLuca inside the restricted area of the Capitol grounds. She stood near one of the doors, taking photos or videos on her phone. Eventually, DeLuca climbed through a window and helped pass furniture outside to the mob. One of the items she passed out, a table, was later used as a weapon against Capitol police.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection, and the numbers just keep going up. Many said they went to Washington because they felt Donald Trump had personally called on them to fight for him.

Donald Trump has finally admitted he can’t secure the bond for his New York civil fraud trial, as his lawyers filed a request Monday to delay execution of the judgment.

The former president was fined $354 million for committing real estate–related fraud in New York. With interest adding $112,000 per day, the total sum has already exceeded $467 million. Trump’s lawyers say that to obtain the bond, they would need to post collateral worth $557 million—which they say is a “practical impossibility.”

“Defendants stated their expectation that it would be ‘impossible to secure and post a complete bond,’” the Monday court filing said.

Trump’s lawyers explained they have asked about 30 different organizations to underwrite the bond. The list of companies they can ask is limited, since the bond is so large that it would require a company to have cash reserves of nearly $1 billion, according to the court documents.

“Critical among these challenges is not just the inability and reluctance of the vast majority of sureties to underwrite a bond for this unprecedented sum, but, even more significantly, the unwillingness of every surety bond provider approached by Defendants to accept real estate as collateral,” Trump’s lawyers said.

Trump’s lawyers indicated that if the judge does not grant them a stay, they intend to appeal the decision. If the appellate court does not intervene, then Trump has just one week left in the 30-day post-judgment window to pay up. New York Attorney General Letitia James has said she intends to start seizing Trump’s assets if he fails to post bond.

Unfortunately, Trump has no one to blame but himself for his current predicament. He has repeatedly bragged about how rich he is, which no doubt contributed to such a hefty judgment. By his own account, he can handle it—despite reportedly only having about $413 million in cash assets.

Trump’s real estate fraud trial also revealed that the former president was in the habit of inflating the value of his real estate assets to make himself look better when trying to secure loans. So it’s no wonder that bond providers don’t want to accept real estate as collateral. There’s no way they can be sure the property is worth the amount they underwrite for Trump’s bond.

The companies are also likely loath to subject themselves to the scrutiny that has fallen on the Chubb Corporation, the insurance group that backed Trump’s $91.6 million bond in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit.

Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg, whom Trump appointed in 2018 to a White House advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations, had to send a letter to Chubb’s clients last week assuring them that the decision was not a political one and that the company’s assets were “fully collateralized,” or protected against failure of repayment.

Trump still owes Carroll $5 million for sexually assaulting her and defaming her a separate time. He also owes $400,000 to The New York Times, thousands of dollars for gag order violations, and $382,000 to Orbis Business Intelligence, the consulting firm owned by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Trump had sued Orbis over a dossier Steele compiled in 2016 that alleged Trump and members of his inner circle had been “compromised” by Russia’s security service.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case that, on its face, appears to set a double standard for Donald Trump and every other private citizen in this country.

On Monday, the nation’s conservative-majority high court upheld a ban preventing former New Mexico official Couy Griffin from running for office within the state again due to his specific criminal history: In 2022, Griffin was convicted on misdemeanor offenses for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, ultimately costing him his job as county commissioner.

It’s the Supreme Court’s first decision on the Fourteenth Amendment since it axed a Colorado decision earlier this month to keep Trump off the state’s GOP presidential primary ballot, and the first time that the “insurrectionist clause” has been used to bar someone from office since it was created to keep ex-Confederates from reattaining high office following the Civil War. By allowing the Fourteenth Amendment to be used against Griffin, the Supreme Court seems to have, circuitously, deemed the January 6 riot an insurrection.

“I just found out (through the media) that my appeal to the SCOTUS has been denied,” Griffin wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Very disappointed. I don’t even know what to say. But I thank you for your prayers and for standing with me through this.”

The rationale for the discrepancy between Trump’s and Griffin’s cases, however, likely boils down to state election specifics—whereas Colorado attempted to bend national electoral precedent by keeping Trump off the ballot, New Mexico’s case keeps Griffin out of New Mexico politics.

But the Cowboys for Trump founder didn’t stay down for long, instead turning to social media to make it clear he was available for other, more national roles serving the GOP presidential nominee.

“Has @realDonaldTrump picked a Vice President yet? Would be such an honor to only be considered,” Griffin posted on X.

Donald Trump had a very coherent response when asked if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin had a hand in the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Just kidding.

Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin, was loath to criticize the Russian leader during a Sunday interview on Fox News. Navalny died in one of Russia’s harshest penal colonies in February, and the international community, including President Joe Biden, has largely laid the blame for his death on Putin.

When asked if he thought Putin had a hand in Navalny’s death, Trump said, “I don’t know, but perhaps.”

“I mean, possibly, I could say probably,” he continued. “I don’t know.”

Host Howard Kurtz pointed out that Navalny had survived a poisoning attempt in 2020 and that the circumstances of his death were very mysterious. “How could anything like that happen without Putin and high-ranking Kremlin officials sanctioning it?” he pressed.

“Well, I don’t know. You certainly can’t say for sure, but certainly that would look like something very bad happened,” Trump replied.

Trump has made no secret of his fondness for Putin or other pro-Russian autocrats. Just last week, Trump swore that if he is reelected, the United States will cease all aid to Ukraine. He is also reportedly considering hiring his former campaign chair Paul Manafort to help with Trump’s 2024 presidential run, which could reignite suspicions of Russian collusion.

When Trump has commented on Navalny’s death in the past, he has managed to leave Putin out of it altogether and focus attention on himself. Trump claimed Navalny’s death highlighted how bad things are in the U.S., and later compared his own being found liable for rape and fraud to Navalny’s political work.

Putin, meanwhile, doesn’t seem quite so enamored with Trump. In an interview with Russian state media last week, Putin recalled a private conversation with Trump in 2020, during which the American president grew jealous that Putin liked Biden and began acting like a spurned girlfriend.

After spending the weekend in a back-and-forth with Democrats over his alarming “bloodbath” comments, Donald Trump doubled down on the word Monday morning, reiterating the postelection threat in an early morning Truth Social post.

“The Fake News Media, and their Democrat Partners in the destruction of our Nation, pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry,” Trump wrote. “The United Auto Workers, but not their leadership, fully understand what I mean. With the Electric Car Mandate being pushed by Biden, there soon won’t be any cars made in the USA—UNLESS I’M ELECTED PRESIDENT, IN WHICH CASE AUTO MANUFACTURING WILL THRIVE LIKE NEVER BEFORE!!! MAGA2024”

The soundbite emerged from a dark speech Trump made in Ohio on Saturday, in which he warned he would place high tariffs on automotive imports from China. “If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” Trump warned. “That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

The alarming phrase, mixed with the morbid candor of the event, quickly elicited strong reactions from his political opponents.

“It’s clear this guy wants another January 6,” wrote President Joe Biden on his personal account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “But the American people are going to give him another resounding electoral defeat this November.”

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also chimed in, insisting that Democrats “just have to win this election,” since Trump is predicting a bloodbath.

“What does that mean? He’s going to exact a bloodbath?” she said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Trump’s allies—and even Republican critics of the GOP’s presidential nominee—denied the charges, claiming that the viral blurb was taken wildly out of context.

“You could also look at the definition of ‘bloodbath’ and it could be an economic disaster,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning, arguing that the out-of-context coverage would only sow more distrust and hand Trump’s base actual material to attack the press with. “And so if he’s speaking about the auto industry, in particular in Ohio, then you can take it a little bit more [in] context.”

In the same speech, Trump warned that the entire January 6 committee investigating him should be jailed.

Donald Trump may soon bring back his former campaign manager Paul Manafort to help with the 2024 reelection campaign, a move that could resurrect accusations of Russian collusion in the former president’s favor.

Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud in 2018 under Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump, who pardoned Manafort in the final days of his presidency, is expected to bring him back on board as a campaign adviser, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Manafort’s role will likely focus on the Republican convention in July and on fundraising for Trump’s campaign, the Post said, citing four anonymous sources. Those four people said that nothing has been officially decided yet, but Trump is determined to bring Manafort back onto his team and is widely expected to hire him.

Manafort chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign but was forced out in August that year, after Trump reportedly “blew a gasket” upon learning Manafort’s lobbying firm had not properly disclosed its work on behalf of pro-Russia figures. He was replaced by white nationalist Steve Bannon.

Two years later, Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud (and terrible fashion sense). He was found guilty of hiding millions of dollars that he made lobbying for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians in overseas bank accounts. He then falsified his finances to get loans when those politicians lost power.

Mueller’s investigation alleged that Manafort wielded those pro-Russian ties during the 2016 campaign. According to Mueller’s report, Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national with alleged ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort was also accused of working with Kilimnik to spread Russian disinformation claiming that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 election.

Despite agreeing to cooperate with the FBI investigation, Manafort allegedly lied to investigators about the extent of his interactions with Kilimnik, Mueller said.

A report issued in 2020 by a Senate bipartisan committee on Russian interference found that “Manafort’s presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign.”

Manafort was sentenced in 2018 to four years in prison, but he was released early to home confinement because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump pardoned him in December 2020.

If Trump brings Manafort back onto his campaign, it could reignite concerns that the former president is colluding with Russia in order to secure the White House. Trump has made no secret of his fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin or other pro-Russian autocrats. Just last week, Trump swore that if he is reelected, the U.S. will cease all aid to Ukraine.

One thing is certain in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dimming bid for the White House: The 70-year-old third-party candidate does not have the family blessing.

On Sunday, dozens of members of the so-called American royal family lined up behind their presidential candidate of choice for a very public St Patrick’s Day photo op—but that contender wasn’t one of their own.

“It’s not enough to wish the world were better, you must make the world better,” Kerry Kennedy captioned the family photo with President Joe Biden on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “@POTUS President Biden, you make the world better. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.”

In February, the third-party contender earned more ire from the family after he cannibalized one of his uncle’s famous campaign ads for a Super Bowl spot, using pictures of John F. Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver as cheap fodder to better his public perception.

Some of RFK Jr.’s cousins accused him of tarnishing the family legacy with the political gimmick, arguing that Shriver would be “appalled by his deadly health care views” and forcing the presidential candidate into an awkward, half-willed public apology.

“I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain,” RFK Jr. posted after the commercial aired, albeit with a clip of it still pinned to his X profile. “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super PAC without any involvement or approval from my campaign. FEC rules prohibit Super PACs from consulting with me or my staff. I love you all. God bless you.”

Mike Pence exhibited the bare minimum of courage on Friday when he announced he had no intention of endorsing Donald Trump, whose followers wanted to hang the former vice president.

Pence’s revelation is surprising given the fact that most other Republicans have fallen in line behind Trump, who officially clinched the party’s nomination earlier this week. But Pence still told Fox News that his decision “should come as no surprise.”

“I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said.

When asked how he would vote in November, and whether he would vote Democratic instead, Pence declined to reveal his plan.

“I’m gonna keep my vote to myself,” he said. “I would never vote for Joe Biden, but how I vote when that curtain closes, that’ll be for me.”

Pence has stood at odds with Trump since the January 6 attack, when the former vice president refused to delay certifying the 2020 election votes. Pence has repeatedly stressed that his loyalty is to the Constitution, not Trump, a detail he reiterated during the Friday interview.

But Pence has also refused to lay blame for the insurrection squarely on Trump, lest he alienate potential supporters among Trump’s fans. Pence also refused to cooperate with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s role in January 6 and had to be subpoenaed.

His continued loyalty has been shocking considering that the January 6 rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” before storming the Capitol—while Trump cheered them on. Pence may finally have taken a stand on Friday, but it seems like too little, too late.