Democrats used ‘Watergate’ tactics to destroy third-party election run, docs show
Newly discovered court documents show how Democrat operatives destroyed an independent political party using dirty tactics that journalist Matt Taibbi says “put Watergate tricksters to shame.”
No Labels is an independent political organization founded in 2010 by former Democratic fundraiser Nancy Jacobson with backing from the late Senator Joe Lieberman. It advocates for a centrist, bipartisan approach to unify the “common sense majority” of American voters.
Last year, Democrats began to view No Labels and its $70 million as a real threat to a Joe Biden win in the 2024 presidential election. Lucy Caldwell, a Democrat strategist, sent an email to Dmitri Mehlhorn, a close associate of LinkedIn Founder and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman warning No Labels could be a “nuclear grade [sic] threat” if it were to nominate a presidential candidate. She proposed a “brand destruction” campaign using “controlled burns” to destroy No Labels’ reputation.
Shaming, clowns, and marching bands
The campaign centered heavily on “shaming” and “stigmatizing” No Labels leadership and donors. If someone donated to No Labels, for example, the proposal suggested notifying the donor’s community and business associates. No Labels Founder Nancy Jacobson and her husband Mark Penn were to be personally attacked in the media as part of a “social shunning” campaign. Activists were to investigate any “unethical behaviors” and “support for Trump” among No Labels leadership and publicize them.
Even dirtier tricks were proposed. The document suggested distributing negative posters about No Labels members around their communities, their places of work, Capitol Hill, and the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner. Clowns could be sent to hang out on the street where Jacobson and Penn live according to the plan. The proposal even offered to send a marching band with performers to Jacobson’s house at 6 AM to anger the neighbors. Banner planes could be used to shame Jacobson and Penn, as could mobile billboards.
“These are fun to be able to use video and audio to shame Nancy, Mark, and the whole No Labels crew,” the proposal said about the billboards. “This would be great both for her neighborhood, office area, big events like WHCA and other pop up [sic] moments where they can be effectively shamed.”
The proposal was unearthed during the discovery phase of No Labels vs. No Labels, where the organization is suing an imitator for creating another No Labels site with an identical theme and trademark but with deceptive information about the organization. The trick was proposed by Charles Siler, a Democrat lobbyist in Arizona, in a 14-page proposal detailing how to destroy the nonprofit. The site not only includes photos of Donald Trump to make visitors think No Labels is a right-wing effort, but Siler also proposed adding “christo-nationalist dog whistles” to the site.
Democrats: No Labels must be ‘burned to the f***ing ground’
These proposals appeared to be part of a coordinated effort among Democrat operatives to shut No Labels down. Rick Wilson, co-founder of disgraced activist organization The Lincoln Project, said last year that No Labels had to be “burned to the f***ing ground politically.”
In December 2023, The Lincoln Project joined Mehlhorn and other Democrat activists on an 80-minute conference call that participants later dubbed the “Anti-No-Labels Coalition meeting.” According to Semafor, one of the speakers during the call said:
Through every channel we have, to their donors, their friends, the press, everyone — everyone — should send the message: If you have one fingernail clipping of a skeleton in your closet, we will find it. If you think you were vetted when you ran for governor, you’re insane. That was nothing. We are going to come at you with every gun we can possibly find. We did not do that with Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, we should have, and we will not make that mistake again.
Emily Kane, a political strategist on the call, sent a summary email to participants afterward recapping that not only is destroying No Labels necessary for democracy but so is “deterring other third-party presidential candidates.”
“If you look at the actual law, federal and state law, ballot access has the same kinds of legal protections as voter registration,” No Labels Chief Strategist Ryan Clancy said. “So in other words, the law sees it as equally serious if you’re preventing somebody from being registered to vote as they do preventing somebody trying to get on the ballot.”
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows did her part to directly discourage voters from joining the organization. Bellows, a Democrat who tried unsuccessfully to block Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s voting ballot, sent a letter in May 2023 to 6,500 Maine voters informing them how to de-enroll from No Labels.
No Labels asked the Department of Justice to investigate what it correctly believed was a “highly coordinated, conspiratorial, partisan, and often unlawful conspiracy” to destroy it. The request went unanswered, as did a personal plea from Lieberman to his old friend and colleague Joe Biden.
In April, No Labels said they would not be running a candidate in the presidential race, much to the satisfaction of Democrats.
