At a town hall meeting at St Anselm College in New Hampshire, Manchin,
a West Virginia Democrat, and John Huntsman,
a former Utah Republican governor, made their pitch for No Labels,
a bipartisan group trying to move the nation beyond its partisan gridlock.
>> Speaker 2: They're just trying to move the nation beyond the partisan gridlock
everyone.
That's what CNN wants you to know about No Labels.
Except that's not the whole story.
The reality is that No Labels is a dark money group funded by corporations and
billionaires in favor of the status quo.
And Joe Manchin, the conservative Democratic senator,
might be running for president on their ticket.
At least he won't rule it out.
And you're about to hear from him in the next video.
Let's watch.
>> Speaker 3: Let's see what happens.
It's too early.
Everyone thinks we need to do something.
Because if you do get in the race and you spoil the election,
would that factor into [INAUDIBLE] I've never been any race I've ever spoiled.
I've been in races to win and if I get in the race, I'm going to win.
So with that, >> [APPLAUSE]
>> I haven't made a decision,
I've never made a decision.
>> Speaker 2: Now he went on to say, quote, I'm not here running for
president tonight.
I'm not.
I'm here trying to basically save the nation.
The guy who served as a major obstacle to Joe Biden's entire
agenda is here to save the nation everyone.
I've got a lot more to get to, including who actually funds No Labels, and
we'll talk about our theories on what's really transpiring here.
But Cenk, I'm curious what you think about all this.
>> Speaker 4: Okay, so I think that everything he's saying is a lie and
I'm gonna prove it to you.
And I think these are some of the worst people involved in politics.
But there could be a silver lining here.
There could be one positive thing that comes out of this, so
I'll get to that in a second.
But it's interesting that there are now several different
corporate groups trying to take over the government and
the different corporate interests have started to fight against each other.
So third way is a corporate group, they're on the Democratic side, but
they're fighting against No Labels, which is another corporate group, and
then the Heritage Foundation, another corporate group, is on Trump's side.
And now the corporations have started to fight against each other because they
realize the American people are helpless and mainstream media lies on our behalf,
24/7, and so does right wing media.
So let's just fight against each other and see who can win.
So these guys are the most corporate out of all the groups.
They're the biggest liars out of all the groups.
So when he says, we're against partisan gridlock,
dude, you created partisan gridlock.
You're the number one advocate for the filibuster,
which is the number one reason we have partisan gridlock.
>> Speaker 2: Exactly.
>> Speaker 4: My God, what a colossal liar Joe Manchin is.
Have you ever seen anyone in mainstream media call him a liar when he lies 24/7?
It's unbelievable.
>> Speaker 2: Well, you're about to hear more lies, but
before we get to those lies, I do wanna just give you a statement from the former
North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, who is involved with No Labels.
When asked whether they plan on running a ticket in the 2024 presidential election,
he said he hopes it won't be necessary, but that if by Super Tuesday,
we see the final two candidates as Trump and Biden, we will present a president and
vice president if we see we have an opportunity to win.
Now, let's get back to that town hall.
Manchin in that town hall continued to lie, he lied and
in his statement had the audacity to claim that he's very
concerned about corruption and money in politics.
You're going to love this, Cenk.
Let's watch.
>> Speaker 3: It is time to speak up and
basically make sure that we're held accountable and responsible.
I can assure you both the Democratic Party and
the Republican Party have benefited greatly by the dark money.
And everybody is talking about dark money.
>> Speaker 5: They're also talking about the two, whether or
not specifically with money should groups like No Labels have to be transparent
about where that money is coming from?
>> Speaker 3: I would think the Democratic Party and
Republican Party should be transparent.
They got $1.7 billion in the 2020 election, 1.5 billion for
the Republicans, that's over $3 billion of dark money nobody knows anything about.
Nobody knows anything about.
So I can tell you, if you want to change Citizens United,
it can only happen in Washington.
Both parties are going to have to pass a legislation that basically outlaws
Citizens United.
I can speak and I can tell for No Labels that they would change Citizens United
overnight if you could, but that only happens in Washington.
So I'll be one vote, I would vote to overturn Citizens United and
make it the law of the land that you cannot have dark money in politics.
>> Speaker 2: So John Huntsman, who's sitting next to him in that panel,
went on to say that he's also concerned about the fact that No Labels is not open
about the dark money donors.
But don't worry, John.
Don't worry.
I'm here to help.
Because just back in June, mother Jones actually put out a report where they
listed 36 wealthy donors and corporate high rollers who wrote pretty
big checks to support No Labels just last year.
The roster includes past and present chief executives of major companies,
including Loews Corporation, a vast conglomerate, of course,
you have Fluor, an engineering and construction giant, Abry Partners,
a private equity firm, SailPoint, a tech firm, and Fortress Investment Group.
>> Speaker 4: I don't know where the money came from.
I hear the American people want it.
We're just going for the moderates in America.
Golly geez, all of our funding from corporations, my God,
look, our entire career, McCorry, Huntsman, Manchin,
Joe Lieberman, we've always voted 100% in favor of our corporate donors.
That was just a coincidence, though, was it?
>> Speaker 2: What's really interesting about the language that No Labels is
using to sell what they're doing to the American public is that they
have co-opted the populist rhetoric that we see on the ground.
>> 100%.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah. >> Speaker 4: So lets talk a little bit
more about that.
So number one, he says he's against Citizens United, against dark money.
As Ana just showed you, the group is made up entirely of dark money.
But in Manchin's career, he's patient zero of dark money.
He's patient zero of corruption.
No one gets bribed more than Joe Manchin.
And then he comes out, he's so brazen, and he's yeah,
I'm guessing this is united in dark money.
Then why don't you stop taking it?
>> Speaker 4: Totally. >> Speaker 4: Okay?
So, no, guys, the reason he is enabled and feels like he can lie to you
that brazenly is because the mainstream media never, ever challenges him.
And when they do, by the way, well, first of all, they don't.
There was this one brief period where the New York Times,
he actually takes some money from donors.
And why did they do that?
Because the other corporatist, Joe Biden, said, we are now opposed to Manchin for
a minute and a half, right?
And that's the only time they ever said anything at the New York Times, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, take all the dark money stuff into your pockets.
They say, dark money theoretically bad.
But whenever they're voting on legislation,
they're, that doesn't affect the legislation at all.
>> Speaker 2: Totally. >> Speaker 4: You guys are jokes.
You're total and utter jokes.
Go become plumbers.
Anyway, so this guy, his number one trick is to call himself a moderate.
Now, for example, he votes against legislation that would bring you paid
family leave, paid family leave polls at 84%.
Being opposed to it means you're in the 16%,
which is the radical position, totally, utterly radical, right?
But what does mainstream media call him?
And every one of you in the audience knows this,
every single time they call him a moderate.
>> Speaker 2: They do, yep.
>> Speaker 4: They lie on his behalf, and they do it every time.
So he's used to the media lying for him.
So he's, apparently there are no rules.
I'll tell them I'm against dark money,
even though my career is built on dark money.
And these dogs in the media who are just corporate marketers will come out here and
tell them, I'm the moderate, and I'm against corruption.
They lie on my behalf 24/7.
So that's why he does this.
>> Speaker 2: Manchin and
Sinema themselves have received campaign contributions from at least 13
billionaires who had also donated money to Trump's campaign.
>> Speaker 4: These guys are a joke.
>> Speaker 2: They're absolute liars.
>> Speaker 4: And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Ana, I'm interrupting, and
I'm going on my usual-, >> On a media rant?
>> Speaker 4: Yeah. >> Speaker 2: How about it?
>> Speaker 4: The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC,
CNN are you ever going to tell the truth?
>> Speaker 2: They're not, Cenk.
>> Speaker 4: Okay, they're not.
All right, so as long as we know everyone in mainstream media are gigantic liars.
Moderate, moderate, moderate, Medicare for all polls at 70%,
30% is the radical position.
They're no Manchin is a moderate for opposing it.
Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi are moderates for
opposing a position that 70% of Americans want.
And I could list you two dozen at a minimum other bills that are incredibly
popular and when these incredibly corrupt people go to kill,
makes their pockets stuffed with corporate bribes.
Mainstream media and New York Times, bribes, campaign contributions affecting
legislation, no way they killed it because they're moderates.
>> Speaker 2: To be more clear, though, I think the way that they mislead the public
is even more nefarious because they don't just print lies,
what they do is they omit important context and important details.
So you can't really point to, look,
here's a sentence in the reporting that is a clear lie, it's what they don't report.
It's the context they don't provide that I think, leaves the public,
I think, misinformed or lacking the information necessary to understand why
the system is working the way it is, or what the motivating factors are for
these politicians and the actions they take or don't take.
And to go back to the point that I made about the rhetoric being co-opted
by No Labels, I think this next video is a perfect example of that.
It has to do with the status quo, if you will.
Let's watch.
>> Speaker 6: I think that part of what we've done is because we actually begun to
do this, and the two parties Padilla the Democratic Party seems most anxious,
nervous about what we're doing because we're challenging
the political status quo.
>> Speaker 7: Listen, I know the game.
I've played the game.
I've been a part of the game.
I've been played by the game.
And the fact of the matter is, the game wants to keep the status quo.
They wanna keep the power, regardless of the pragmatic circumstances on the ground.
And we're challenging the status quo.
And maybe by even challenging the status quo between now and Super Tuesday,
we can have an impact on the two parties.
>> Speaker 2: So Lieberman obviously very much involved with No Labels.
We're just trying to fight back against the status quo the Democratic Party wants
to protect so much.
Now let me tell you who's funding this so
called war against the status quo, which, of course, is a lie.
Let's go to graphic five.
Louis Bacon, billionaire CEO of hedge fund Moore Capital Management,
gave $1 million each to No Labels and the Republican Party after
donating the maximum allowable contribution to Kyrsten Sinema.
Nelson Peltz, a major backer of former Republican President Donald Trump and
a billionaire investor, gave $900,000 to two No Labels political
action committees and also maxed out his donations to Sinema.
And I'm sure they did all of that because they're against the status quo.
>> Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you know who else is against the status quo?
Fortress Investment Group.
They're, you know what?
We would love some radical change.
We would love for populism, and we would love for the American people and
the average worker to get more money and for us to get less money.
The system that put us at the very, very top, we hate it so much.
Golly gee, we're against the status quo.
I'm telling you.
So, look, last things about the media sleight of hand.
Ana is absolutely right.
It's what they omit.
And Noam Chomsky talks about this all the time.
Quick example on that is this segment on CNN I often talk about where they said,
this university, there's a study, and it shows that Medicare for
all costs $32 trillion.
What they don't tell you is it was paid for by the Koch brothers, and
they found out that it saves $34 trillion, so it would save you $2 trillion,
but if you watch CNN, you thought it cost you $32 trillion.
That's deception through omission.
The other sleight of hand they do with guys like Manchin is, Manchin is from
a red state, West Virginia, and that is why he voted against paid family leave.
And he's moderate because he's a Democrat from a red state.
Wait, you talked about the state as if that determines the policy position, but
paid family leave is a very moderate position supported by 84% of Americans.
But they do a little sleight of hand, and they pretend that paid family leave is
radical, and Joe Manchin is moderate not because of the policy, but because of,
theoretically, the state he's from.
You see how the lies get into the system.
Which then leads us to one other proof of concept here.
Manchin is not the only one considering a third party race.
A lot of you know, there's one other person who has announced that he is going
to do a third party run, Cornel West.
Is Cornel West called moderate?
Is Cornel West ever given positive praise in the media?
No, Cornel west is called by everyone in the media, radical.
Radical Cornel West going to destroy our democracy.
That piece of calling Cornel West radical.
But when Manchin is promising a third party candidacy,
is the press calling him radical?
Nope, they're still calling him moderate.
How could he be moderate for a third party run, and Cornel West is radical for
a third party run?
It's because you're not even bothering trying to be objective.
Mainstream media is the initial cancer.
All of the corruption,
all of the money in politics goes to media to buy political ads.
And then they come out and deceive the entire American people with
a massively pro corporate agenda, pretending to be objective.