Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Rectenwald said he believes the Libertarian Party’s nomination of Chase Oliver will help former President Donald Trump win the General Election on November 5, 2024.
Rectenwald failed to secure the Libertarian Party’s nomination on Sunday at the party’s convention after losing in the seventh round of voting to Oliver.
Oliver, who describes himself as “armed and gay,” is largely known for his Libertarian bid in the 2022 Georgia U.S. Senate race which ultimately helped carry the Democrat candidate in the race at the time, now-Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), to victory.
Rectenwald, who confirmed he would not be endorsing Oliver in the 2024 presidential race, said the nomination of Oliver as the party’s nominee has “divided the party in half.”
“I think that the party is in trouble because it is being represented by somebody that does not stand for what most Americans understand as Libertarian,” Rectenwald explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, specifically pointing to Oliver’s support of gender-affirming care for minors and open borders.
“I can’t, in good conscience, endorse the current nominee. I just can’t do it,” he added.
Rectenwald went on to add that the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus, which makes up approximately half of the party, will likely go on to support Trump in the general election as its members are “utterly disaffected” by the nomination of Oliver.
“A good half of the party is represented by the Mises Caucus…They are all utterly disaffected by [Oliver’s nomination]. They are not going to be in support of him,” Rectenwald said.
“This other contingent of the party – let’s call them the Mises Caucus haters – accuse me of being a ‘Trumpian’ in disguise when in fact, their nominee is going to help Trump. I was going to actually hurt Trump. So it’s a very ironic twist, but that is what it is,” Rectenwald added.
Rectenwald went as far to say that Oliver, who “loathes” Trump, may help the former president in the battleground states so much so that Trump could send him a “thank you note.”
“[Oliver] would be giving Trump a gift inadvertently because he loathes Trump like with a passionate inordinate,” Rectenwald said.
When asked about his analysis of Trump, who spoke at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday, Rectenwald said the former president has been subject to attacks by the “regime” which, as he added, are “totally untrue.”
“I don’t think Trump is like some particularly egregious president as compared to previous ones all the way back to John F. Kennedy. There’s nothing particularly worse about him than any of these other people. That’s what I’ve been trying to say, like, ‘Why are you targeting him?’ It’s because the regime narrative is that Trump is some abysmally horrible dictator, fascist, etc. This is totally untrue. I want to give credit where credit’s due. Trump is not a fascist,” Rectenwald said.
“I believe that [Trump] was actually better for the economy than Biden by a long shot. I don’t think that Trump wants to impose the kinds of restrictions that these other Democrats, the Green Party, and all of these other lunatics on the left of reality would like to impose. On the other hand, look, there’s mistakes. I think Operation Warp Speed was a mistake. I don’t think the government should be involved in healthcare. I also don’t think that we should have ruled out the CARES Act, which added six trillion dollars to the debt,” he continued.
“Listen he’s not perfect, but he’s not Satan. That’s how I’ll leave it,” Rectenwald added.
Rectenwald also gave an analysis of Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spoke at the Libertarian National Convention on Friday, explaining how Kennedy is a “big statist” on many issues and does not represent Libertarian values.
“[Kennedy] is a big statist. He wants to add layers to the federal government, when what we need to do is eliminate layers from the federal government. He wants to reform the agencies that oppress us, like the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and so forth. My call was to eliminate them all together. He is a statist at base. He is a big state Democrat with a few twists and rhetoric thrown into the mix of libertarianism, but he’s just pilfering from our rhetorical toolbox and throwing those things around that sound like he’s for liberty,” Rectenwald said. “I have no doubt that under a Kennedy administration, we will be under a kind of tyranny because this guy is a big believer in this climate change narrative, and I believe that he would institute all kinds of agenda items coming out of the UN and the World Economic Forum, Agenda 2030, lockdowns, restrictions on travel, restrictions on overall consumption and particular kinds of consumption including the way they want us to eat bugs rather than meat.”
“He’s not Libertarian. I would give him an ‘F’ for Libertarianism,” Rectenwald added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Michael Rectenwald” by Independent Institute and “Libertarian Convention” is by Donald Trump.
