The Outsider Perspective Issue 383 | The Beltway Outsiders

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Good Friday Morning! If you think you have it bad, imagine being in the New Orleans police department. The department’s evidence room is apparently a dilapidated building that was invaded by rats. Those rats proceeded to gobble up all the marijuana stored in the evidence lockers. According to one person, “The rats are eating our marijuana… they’re all high.”

You can’t make this stuff up. This week, I’m going to do a deep dive into the Democratic Party’s initiative to get rid of third-party candidates and why they’re doing it—links to follow.

Quick Hits:

One of the more bizarre turns in recent years has been the Democratic Party pivoting towards a pro-regime change party. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer exemplified that this week by giving an unprompted speech calling for leadership change in Israel. He stunned everyone, saying: “The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7…The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past … Should Israel refuse to change course, namely to safeguard Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and seek a two-state solution, then the U.S. should play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.'” That caused an immediate uproar across the political spectrum, both in the U.S. and Israel. Schumer later backtracked on X/Twitter, saying the U.S. “cannot dictate the outcome of an election.” Democrats can hate Netanyahu all they want. Chuck Schumer just gave Bibi a political gift by uniting all of Israel behind him. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, blasted Schumer’s speech. What makes that more notable is that Herzog’s brother was once Netanyahu’s political opponent in a general election for the Labor Party. Benny Gantz, the current opposition to Netanyahu, also blasted Schumer’s speech.
One of TikTok’s claims is that it doesn’t have a connection to the Chinese government. But on Thursday, the Chinese government said it would “strongly oppose any forced sale of TikTok” and that any “sale of divestiture of TikTok would involve exporting technology and had to be approved but the Chinese government.” Again, for a company that says China’s government does not control it, the CCP has confirmed everything in a statement.
New York’s decision to send the National Guard into the subway system to bring security has not yet paid dividends. A genuinely terrifying situation broke out when a man was shot after a fight on the subway. Since this is the internet age, people were filming the events as they all hid in the subways and screamed for police to show up and for the subways to close to keep them safe. We’re watching the day-to-day functioning of major US cities crumble in real-time.

Where you can find me this week

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Biden, Democrats Do Not Care That Laken Riley Was Murdered – Conservative Institute

Biden’s ‘State Of The Union’ Pivot Failed – Conservative Institute

The Senate Must Pass The TikTok Ban Bill – Conservative Institute

Democrats Launch An Official Initiative To Kill All Third Party Candidates

One of my readers got me into Josh Pate’s college football coverage on the Late Kick show (YouTube and Podcast). One of my favorite lines he likes to say, when discussing a pick he’s made gone wrong, is: “I’m never wrong. It’s just the players, coaches, and referees that make mistakes.”

He’s being facetious. But you can find that mindset in many places.

One of the unspoken assumptions in Democratic politics is that they’ve never really lost an election in 30+ years. In their view, Clinton’s wins in the 1990s were helped by Republican division and Ross Perot. That informs their opinion on the 2000 race, which they believe was stolen at the Supreme Court and by Ralph Nader’s interference.

I remember sitting in a class in college where a professor went off on Nader, blaming him for costing Democrats the 2000 and 2004 races (this is also where I tell you, there are no statistical or electoral studies that prove either of these things). The ship was finally righted in 2008 and 2012.

But then we get 2016, which they believe was stolen by Russia and many other things. 2020 fixed those issues. And now they’re staring at 2024, with Biden down in the polls and looking for a way to win a tight race. One of the working theories is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler to sink Democrats.

I’ll give you an example. Quinnipiac (a garbage pollster) released a poll of Michigan this week showing Trump leading Biden by 3 points, 48-45, in a head-to-head race. Then, they did a five-way race with Trump, Biden, RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornell West. Trump’s lead grew to five points: 41-36, with RFK Jr. holding 10% of the vote.

I say Quinnipiac is a garbage pollster for many reasons. This poll shows Trump leading Biden in Michigan, a left-leaning swing state. But in Quinnipiac’s national poll, Biden leads by 4 points. Dear reader, many things are true, but there is no way that Trump could win Michigan while being down to Biden by 4 points in the national polls. These two polls by Quinnipiac are mutually exclusive.

Regardless, they’re not alone in showing that Trump is leading Michigan. That’s a terrifying thought for the White House.

That’s why NBC News reported this week that Democrats are creating an operation to counter this problem. The headline: “Democrats prepare to go to war against third-party candidates: The Democratic National Committee is building its first team to counter third-party candidates, while outside groups stockpile money for a wider campaign.”

“We’re facing an unprecedented election and we know the GOP is already working to prop up third-party candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr. to make them stalking horses for Donald Trump,” Corridoni told NBC News. “With so much on the line, we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re going to make sure voters are educated and we’re going to make sure all candidates are playing by the rules.”

The move comes as a coalition of outside groups — which includes Democratic and anti-Trump Republican organizations — stockpile money and work to stymie third parties.

“There is some Jill Stein hangover,” Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group, said referring to the 2016 Green Party nominee who was seen as a spoiler in places like Michigan. “A lot of people, including me, regret that we didn’t go after her further.”

Democrats have long blamed Green Party candidates such as Stein and Ralph Nader for contributing to their losses in 2016 and 2000.

But they say third parties will be incredibly impactful in 2024 because of the nature of Trump’s support base.

NBC News reported this on Thursday, but I’d already suspected something was up earlier in the week when RFK Jr. spun the news cycle around himself for a bit and announced possible VP options, one of which was NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

If you’re an average human, you read that headline and get a good laugh. There’s no way RFK Jr. wins anything in this race, and Aaron Rodgers as a VP candidate is so crazy that it’s funny to think about.

The next day, CNN ran an article accusing Aaron Rodgers of being a Sandy Hook truther. The CNN journalist says she heard Aaron Rodgers say these things in 2013. That was 11 years ago.

Aaron Rodgers dominated the NFL then and was atop multiple MVP campaigns. He’s done many weird things, made news, and dated various celebrities. But ten seconds after getting named in the same breath as RFK Jr., here comes an opposition file dump on Rodgers. After that, Aaron Rodgers had to issue a press release on the whole thing.

Other news outlets said that RFK Jr.’s donors started pressuring him to reject Rodgers and the other names he listed. This also feels like the group is pressuring donors because if you’re already donating money to RFK Jr., I doubt that Aaron Rodgers is some “bridge too far.”

What does this tell us? For one, it should tell you a bit about the press’s political leanings. What happened to Aaron Rodgers is a classic Washington D.C., a targeted opposition hit to knock someone out. It’s a signal, too, of what the press would plan to do to Rodger’s career if he messed with a presidential campaign, and they don’t want anyone else meddling in 2024.

Even with this strategy, It won’t impact the race’s final results. In the RealClearPolitics average, Biden leads in only three of the twelve current polls. Biden hasn’t gotten any boost from the State of the Union. In an environment where Trump is ahead nationally, he likely sweeps or comes close to sweeping all the battleground states.

It will be interesting to watch how these Democrats approach ballot access. They’ve already attempted to kick Trump off the ballot. In 2020, Democrats ran a brutal legal campaign in swing states to keep Jill Stein off the ballot, even taking it to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in one situation.

The strategy for 2024 is harsher. Democrats are actively employing the media to discredit any third-party candidate. RFK Jr. is a loon, so that’s not hard. But going scorched earth on someone like Aaron Rodgers is a new tactic.

There’s an irony here, too. Democrats love calling Republican negative advertising “voter disenfranchisement.” If your ad campaigns push people not to vote on Election Day, Democrats call that disenfranchisement. Yet, according to their logic, they’re doing that very thing here.

For a party that’s built their entire modus operandi on “saving democracy,” they are remarkably illiberal in that quest.

Links of the week

MTG and AOC, united? Inside the House’s highly unusual TikTok vote: Progressives and a handful of conservatives aligned against on the proposal that could ban the app, while Trump’s opposition appeared to move few votes. – Politico

Judge tosses 6 charges in Trump Georgia indictment: But the judge emphasized that prosecutors may refile the charges in greater detail. – Politico

Biden Admin Poised To Grant Iran Billions in Sanctions Relief, Lawmakers Warn
Sanctions waiver unlocks upward of $10 billion for Tehran – Free Beacon

Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over Transgender Competitors in Sports: ‘I was racing Olympic gold medalists and I was changing in a storage closet. My privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room.’ – The FP

The Shame of Schumer – Commentary Magazine

Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez is considering running for re-election as an independent, sources say: The New Jersey Democrat has been indicted on 18 federal counts, including accepting bribes from a foreign government. He and his wife have pleaded not guilty. – NBC News

Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China – Reuters

Bird flu strain raises alarm as H5N1 virus kills South American wildlife – Reuters

Florida border agents placed on high alert for refugees following breakdown of order in Haiti – NYPost

Gina Carano on Getting Sacked From Star Wars and Her Grudge Match With Disney: The ex-MMA sensation finally opens up about her ‘Mandalorian’ firing, the toxic tweets that led to it and why she’s tag-teaming with Elon Musk to take the entertainment giant to the mat. – The Hollywood Reporter