Libertarians ignore Trump and RFK to pick Chase Oliver – BBC.com
The Libertarian Party has selected Chase Oliver as their 2024 presidential candidate, rejecting overtures from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy.
Mr Trump did not file the paperwork to be considered a candidate during the voting process and and Mr Kennedy lost in the first round.
Mr Oliver's victory came after seven rounds of voting at the party's convention, which took place in Washington.
Both Mr Trump and Mr Kennedy gave speeches at the convention, with the former president and Republican nominee being booed by the crowd.
Mr Oliver, 38, is a first-time presidential candidate for the Libertarian party and attempted to win multiple congressional races in Georgia.
He said he aimed to win 2% of the vote in the 2024 election.
"I think that’s a definite doable thing, and certainly we can improve upon that with a hard-run campaign that wakes people up,” he told CNN.
Mr Oliver is running on a platform that includes decriminalising abortion, limiting US involvement in foreign wars and making major cuts to federal budgets – a standard platform for the US third party, which pushes small government and individual freedom.
Mr Oliver also took aim at Mr Trump, stating the former president was "not a libertarian… "You're a war criminal and you deserve to be shamed."
Mr Trump was booed and heckled while stating he wanted the Libertarian nomination during his speech to the convention on Saturday.
He argued the Libertarians should unite themselves with him in an effort to beat President Joe Biden, and claimed some of his record proved he was a Libertarian.
"Maybe you don't want to win… keep getting your 3% every four years," he said.
Mr Trump even tried joking about his four criminal indictments, saying the charges had convinced him to join forces with the Libertarians.
"If I wasn't a Libertarian before, I sure as hell am a Libertarian now," he said.
The crowd did not agree.
On Sunday, he claimed that he would "absolutely" have won the party's nomination were it not for his nomination for the Republicans.
"I would have absolutely gotten [it] if I wanted it (as everyone could tell by the enthusiasm of the Crowd last night!)," he said on his social media platform Truth Social.
He added: "As the Republican Nominee, I am not allowed to have the Nomination of another Party."
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