No Labels, the centrist political group that alleges there’s a criminal conspiracy to keep its third-party presidential “unity ticket” off state ballots, has been endorsed by Trump-era Attorney General William P. Barr.
Mr. Barr defended No Labels’ endeavor and its request to the Department of Justice to investigate what it calls an “illegal conspiracy” being waged by left-wing political organizations.
No Labels alleges the resistance to getting its unnamed third-party ticket on the ballot — which theoretically would feature a Republican and a Democrat running together — is because it threatens President Biden’s reelection chances.
“I don’t know whether a No Labels candidate would help or hurt either. But that calculus should make no difference,” Mr. Barr wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. “Blocking ballot access to a qualified organization doesn’t enhance American democracy and civic life. It extinguishes First Amendment rights and makes our elections less meaningful.”
Turning from friend to foe, Mr. Barr emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s biggest critics for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
No Labels welcomed the nation’s former top law enforcement official coming to their defense.
“It turned out, people were listening — including some of the most respected legal minds in America,” No Labels Chief Strategist Ryan Clancy wrote in an email to supporters.
In a recent eight-page complaint to the DOJ’s Criminal and Civil Rights divisions, No Labels laid out what it said is evidence of a “racketeering conspiracy” using violent language and threats to “deny Americans their constitutional right to choose the leaders who represent them.”
It singled out left-leaning or anti-Trump groups like Third Way, Lincoln Project and MoveOn Political Action, which have denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Barr said the campaign against No Labels, while perhaps legal, at best is “profoundly hypocritical and diminishes Americans’ already low trust in our democratic system.” He added that Mr. Trump “isn’t equipped” to be president again but that the anti-No Labels campaigns are “validating his claim that corrupt elites will stop at nothing to defeat him and the voters he represents.”
“Imagine what the progressive left would say if there were a campaign underway, with at least tacit support from the White House, to prevent Americans from registering to vote,” Mr. Barr said. “The current effort to block No Labels’ ballot access is as outrageous as taking away someone’s right to vote. But instead of fighting this campaign, political operatives on the left are participating in it.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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