NEW: Democrats And Anti-Trump Republicans Held Secret Strategy Meeting On Stopping Third Party Candidates

The uni-party of Democrats and Never Trump Republicans is gearing up to stop a third-party candidate from inadvertently helping former President Donald Trump retake the White House in 2024.

According to the Washington Post, top Democratic strategists including former U.S. senators and a top advisor to President Joe Biden met with Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol and other Republicans to put up roadblocks against President Trump at all turns. The off-the-record virtual meeting included a presentation showing that a candidate by third party group No Labels would draw more voters away from President Biden than President Trump, leading the group to proffer ways to shut down the operation including putting pressure on No Label’s donors.

In addition to Kristol, other attendees at the June 6th meeting included former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Democratic National Committee senior adviser Cedric L. Richmond and Stephanie Cutter, former senators Doug Jones (D-AL), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), along with representatives of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and Lucy Caldwell, a former Republican consultant who now advises the independent Forward Party, according to people present at the event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event was private.

The growing consternation over No Labels has the anti-Trump forces reeling about the possibility that voters apathetic about President Biden will “protest vote” against him in support of an alternative candidate. Such a scenario would be deadly to the 46th president’s reelection chances.

“I see a group, under a catchy slogan that is misleading at best, saying that they have the country’s best interest at heart when the exercise will do nothing but elect Donald Trump,” said Richmond, who like Klain and Caldwell told The Washington Post that they attended in their personal capacities. “I am encouraged that a lot of people share the concern that this effort is dangerous.”

For its part, No Labels has declined to say if it views Biden as an unacceptable nominee, an opinion it has already offered about President Trump. The group in recent days has toyed with dropping its effort to produce a third-party candidate if another Republican like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis captures the nomination.

Matt Bennett, the executive vice president for No Labels, declined to comment on the latest conspiracy against his group.