Bill Clinton was 'secret weapon' behind Joe Manchin and Larry Hogan's decisions to NOT run on a third party No Labels ticket by convincing them it would hand Donald Trump a victory in 2024

Both moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan have said that they won't run on a third-party 'No Labels' ticket and behind-the-scenes it was former President Bill Clinton who was pushing them not to do so. 

New York Magazine reported Monday on the role Clinton played persuading the influential moderates to stand down. 

In June while Hogan, the former Maryland governor, was appearing alongside the ex-Democratic president at an event in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton gave him a talking-to before they walked onstage. 

Any independent presidential bid would only benefit former Republican President Donald Trump, Clinton said. 

Two months later when Manchin was vacationing near the Clintons in East Hampton, the former president delivered the same message to the outgoing West Virginia senator.

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton told both former Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin that they would help reelect former President Donald Trump if they ran on a 'No Labels' ticket 

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (left) has since announced a Senate bid in Maryland while retiring West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (right) announced in mid-February that he would not run for president in 2024 

'This time, he ditched the diplomatic niceties and told the senator sharply that he was risking putting Trump back in the White House,' New York Magazine reported. 

In a one-two punch, the 77-year-old ex-president had taken out two of the more formidable third-party hopefuls that the No Labels venture could hope for. 

Since then, Hogan has announced that he'll run for U.S. Senate, vying to take over from Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring. 

Manchin announced in mid-February that he would not run. 

Both Manchin and Hogan have been critical of Trump, though Manchin played a thorn in President Joe Biden's side on several key pieces of legislation. 

Without Manchin and Hogan as options, the No Labels effort currently seems rudderless. 

The group has been courting Nikki Haley, whose campaign for the Republican nomination against Trump could be mathematically over by the middle of this month. 

The current chairman is former Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham, who, like Haley, is from South Carolina. 

He was ousted from Congress by Haley's friend turned foe, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace. 

Haley has publicly rejected these flirtations. 

'If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat. I can't do what I wanted to express with the Democrats,' she said during a recent gaggle with reporters. 'I've always believed if you do something, do it right or don't do it.' 

The idea of a No Labels ticket is to have one Republican and one Democrat on it, however according to reporting from Puck News, the group has made it clear that they need a Republican atop that ticket in order to not hand the election to Trump. 

On Friday - three days after Super Tuesday is expected to award Trump wins in a dozen or more states - No Labels will hold a virtual convention with its 800 delegates poised to decide if the effort should move forward and with whom. 

If it doesn't happen, Clinton can take credit for derailing it.