Libertarian Sparks Fly: Trump and McCardle Face Backlash at LP Convention
Vivek Ramaswamy steals the show, debating LP's Clint Russell.
The 2024 Libertarian Party national convention is well underway in Washington, D.C. this Memorial Day weekend and yesterday did not disappoint in Libertarian Party tradition. Calls for removing the Libertarian Party’s chair, Angela McCardle, were made in no uncertain terms as well as anger over Donald Trump who is scheduled to address the crowd this evening. Delegates will be nominating the 2024 Libertarian Party presidential nominee this weekend, and even the process as to who gets to debate during the convention was mired in controversy. Delegates will also be electing a new chair to lead the Libertarian National Committee - McCardle is seeking re-election.
Here is Day One of the Libertarian Party 2024 national convention:
One surprising, or not so surprising, bright spot of Day One was when Republican Vivek Ramaswamy spoke and somewhat debated popular podcaster and Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate, Clint Russell. Although Ramaswamy is a Republican, I have written that he was the most libertarian of the 2024 GOP presidential candidates running. He has since dropped out and seems to be working hard to become Trump’s VP, time will tell if that actually happens.
Regardless, Ramaswamy spoke like a true libertarian, very much like LP presidential candidate Jacob Hornberger. Whereas many of the other LP presidential candidates speak of reforming current “cancers” within the federal government, Vivek has long talked about the need to get rid of them and start from scratch. Russell brought up a good point last night at the debate, that while Vivek talks about ridding ourselves of the FBI, Trump and most in the GOP talk about the need for reform. Trump even goes so far as wanting to spend billions of taxpayer money to build a new, more grandiose FBI headquarters.
Additionally, Ramaswamy was all-in for freeing Ross Ulbricht, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange - which is music to libertarian ears. Vivek argues that he feels that when Trump wins in November and with him as the Vice President, he can have some influence over Trump’s decision-making, pointing it in a more libertarian direction. Again, time will tell if such a scenario occurs. As Russell noted last night, Republican candidates often talk like libertarians on the campaign trail and govern completely differently once in public office.
