Texas Libertarian Presidential Debate 2024

welcome everyone delegates guests candidates of course Liz thank you all so much for being here for yet another Stellar libertarian party of Texas presidential debate um as you know oh first of all thank you to everyone who made this possible obviously all of the staff you know who you are thank you so much um donors candidates everything that you’ve done to get to this point thank you so much and congratulations thank you we’re really glad to have you here as you know we will have four candidates with us this evening and the debate will be moderated by Liz wolf uh associate editor at reason so Liz’s work includes um topics related to sex work tattooing Tech uh restaurant industry Venture capitalism etc etc and her work has appeared in um Playboy The Daily Beast and lots of major Metropolitan newspapers she appears uh on has appeared on multiple Fox business programs and is I assume is still a recurring guest on the um the hills YouTube show Rising um before I turn things over to Liz um because she’s going to be in charge of this thing here shortly I do want to announce our sponsor uh Dr Charles B who is yeah also a Libertarian candidate for president and uh I am now going to read a statement from our sponsor ladies and gentlemen fellow delegates of the Texas libertarian party my name is Dr Charles ballet and though I am not featured in tonight’s debate I am here as a passionate candidate for the libertarian nomination for president if I have not met you yet I look forward to meeting you at some opportunity during this convention I’m deeply rooted in this state I met my wife Lisa here she’s from Bourne our children attend high school and college in Texas tyy and TCU our oldest now lives in Georgetown I trained at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and I served as an auto larang autoist autology physician in kville Texas uh for many years though now moved to my home in New Orleans my career has been a testament to the power of helping others individual choice and Prof professional autonomy core principles that resonate deeply with libertarian libertarian values as we Champion such causes as ballot access the need for third party inclusion and the DraStic reduction in government interference in personal and econom economic lives our party must understand that inclusion not exclusion will attract open-minded people to look for Solutions we must reflect that there are an overwhelming number of people in this great country who understand that limited government equates to more individual empowerment Innovation and a more robust economy yet said people are not registered as Libertarians why an overwhelming contingent of Americans indeed want a government that protects one’s freedoms but at the same time does not suffocate America’s potential with excessive regulation and oversight an overwhelming number of people are sick of vehement political rhetoric which is destroying our country and youth attracting and including these disenfranchised individuals will create a more powerful libertarian party and move and movement I believe it is a matter of framing the conversation and that proper messaging can guide these disenfranchised individuals to our party I believe in our cause and the power of numbers and with added people we can achieve our goals this belief guides my vision of the presidential office America needs a Healer my platform focuses on fiscal responsibility the protection of personal freedoms and a personal and a foreign policy emphasizing non-intervention I stand for a Healthcare System free of bureaucratic entanglement where patients and providers make decisions without government intrusion you can find out more about Dr ballet at ballet 2024 please let us be the party that not only talks about these freedoms but actively embodies them in our practices it is crucial that every voice regardless of its volume or the extent of its connections contributes to our dialogue and decision-making processes third parties need a voice individuals need a voice echo Chambers are the antithesis of democ democracy and the downfall of democratic ideals such inclusivity will enrich our debates and strengthen our resolve as we work towards a more accessible prosperous and peaceful Society thank you all for your dedication to these principles and for the opportunity to share my vision with you today together we can forge a future reflecting libertarian ideals of Liberty minimal government and peaceful principal diplomacy again I look forward to meeting every one of you Dr balet will he’s here go ahead and stand up thank you for sponsoring the debate and of course he will be here and available immediately following this uh this particular hour and a half uh at our meet and greet so those of you who are ticketed to attend that he’ll be there for you and without further Ado I turn things over to Elizabeth thank you so much uh can everybody hear me okay yep okay so for reason I write the morning newsletter reason Roundup uh and I also co-host the show just asking questions on our YouTube channel we’ve interviewed all kinds of people from Thomas Massie to Dave Smith so I have lots of experience wrangling all kinds of big thinkers and politicians I’m very excited to share the stage with you guys here tonight a few notes of housekeeping I’m going to try to my very best ability to keep things brief concise entertaining for all of you good people and also ideally very informative so I have no buzzer I have no true ability to cut off your microphone access but I may or may not be interrupting you guys if you guys end up going far too long please aim to keep all answers two minutes or under because I want to make sure that we’re excellent at sharing the stage with others and being as charitable as possible the aim here is entertaining our audience and also really giving them useful information that they can make future decisions based off of so on that note point of question ma’am you said politicians and big thinkers that wasn’t like politicians and other big thinkers with two different grou so normally on presidential campaigns candidates Trot out a whole list of things that they would do on day one in office generally it’s executive orders that Libertarians aren’t especially fond of every once in a while you know they talk about granting clemency every once in a while they use executive orders to slash regulations but what would each of you do on day one in office we’ll start at the very end good evening I’m Michael reonal and I’m running for president as a Libertarian hello Texas so I am thank you I am running on a platform of Maximum Liberty and that is the strategy of decentralization and I’m running as an anarcho capitalist so I believe that we need to represent maximum Liberty to the American people as a load star towards which we aim and if we have that load star in Vision we cannot go wrong as a president should I be so miraculously owed with that position I would of course uh aim immediately to end all of the intelligence uh agencies the whole apparatus all of it CIA FBI NSA uh and then going down the line TSA but furthermore the doe the CDC uh you name it um I would get rid of them I think that what we’re living under is the most onerous oppressive and the largest state in the history of humanity this federal government is an outrage it’s a total Beth and that it is crushing the lifeblood out of the people of this country we need to overcome this and so the way to do it is through decentralization and resistance at the local level we must get power locally and I’m running to be the beacon of that message that message not only of decentralization But ultimately full private property society and a full full on anarcho capitalist order that is what I’m running on and I make no apologies for it thank you so much thank you thank we’ll also want to keep clapping to a minimum and just assume that there’s some amount of endorsement from some number of people in the audience but I think that that will help us sort of move ahead how many minutes next one we’re going to try to do two and under all right thank you Texas thank you Mike I appreciate that look there’s only one path for us to reach the president of the United States and it’s a real long shot and that is to cause a contingent election and send it to the House of Representatives where the House of Representatives could pick a Libertarian presidential candidate this is really not going to happen because there’s win or take all laws there’s jry mandering there’s ballot access issues the complete system is rigged and that’s what I’m running on is to unrig the system we can’t affect change we can’t do the things that we would want to do on the first day of office if we can’t even reach office so I have put forth the voters bill of rights which puts forth uh ballot access laws that are equal and fair for both Democrats Republicans and any other CER it allows us to audit our vote so any citizen can audit the vote um and so there’s a bunch of pieces of policy you can reach on LS 24.com uh but what I’m trying to do is something different I’m trying to cause this contingent election I’m trying to get national attention for the libertarian party and I’m starting right now I’ve been working actively getting 800,000 views a day on my Twitter ads getting our message out there that this is possible I’m working in Nebraska and Maine because those are PE two states that split their electoral vote and I think this is totally achievable we only need to win 250,000 votes in Maine or Nebraska in order to win an electoral vote and on CNN recently they were talking about 269 to 269 electoral votes and that one electoral vote might cause a change after beon marones last week Donald Trump called up the governor of Nebraska and said I want to get rid of the split electoral vote literally after I’m talking on smes about doing this thing they had a vote in Nebraska to get rid of it it failed okay but it’s clear that I am on their radar and they’re paying attention to me and that is because I have been in 12 National polls which other presidents haven’t done please go to LS2 24.com check out my plan to unrig the system and cause a contingent election but that’s not an answer to day one in office it because there why would we even talk about day one in office when there’s very little chance that we’ll get there I mean I can talk more about not mine I can talk more about how I would um there’s a thing called The Plum Book which offers 7,000 positions the president gets to pick I would not place any of those 7,000 positions which would be 35,000 bureaucratic positions that would be eliminated if Congress thinks that those positions are important they can create those positions but I think the president has way too much power and one of the things I would do as president is reduce the power of President return to Congress the power that they give up because they don’t want to do their damn job thank you next no no clapping don’t even think about it don’t break my rules already don’t even think about it yes look the big difference between my campaign and the other campaigns buying to represent the libertarian party is that we are in this to actually disrupt the duopoly if we leave American politics unchanged after my campaign I will owe each and every one of you and each and every one of you on this stage a huge apology we are designing this campaign to run with the absolute competitive credibility required to take it to the Republican and the Democratic nominees we are not in this with a gimmick we’re not in this to try to throw it into some weird vote in the House of Representatives we are not in it to compete in one particular District or another we are in this to actually run a competitive campaign the reason I believe that we can do that is because in the past our libertarian candidates have been able to achieve double digits in the polls but they did not run a sufficiently principled campaign to hang on to that I won’t make that mistake you are familiar with the gold New Deal the platform I’m running on you can read about it at Gold new deal.org by the way this is a transformational collection of ideas to give us a brand new relationship between us and the government that we will tolerate we lean very hard not only into the professionalism of our campaign team we have 20 professionals on our team now because we’re actually ready to go for the general election but we also lean hard into my personal background in public service and in public policy the difference between my day one in office and someone else’s day one in office is I’ve been there I spent two years working as an economist for the White House I know the tricks of it I know how hard it is I know how hard it is to answer this question but the answer is that you’ve got to start out yes with some EXE ex cutive orders making an enormous amount of federal regulations subject to the approval of State Governors you have got to make an enormous number of phone calls especially to our European allies that says whatever your plan B was it’s now your plan a because it’s not an ethical proposition in the view of this White House in the view of this Administration to take money away from people around the United States and to use it to project military hegemony in other parts of the world just because you people don’t want to spend the money that you feel is necessary to protect yourselves there’s going to be a new sheriff in town and those phone calls are going to get made thanks a lot thank you howdy Texas I’m happy to be back here uh so what would I do on day one if I were elected president well what most Libertarians would do I’m going to start off by uh pardoning Julian Assange Edward Snowden Ross Leonard Peltier and any candidate or any uh prisoner who’s currently in federal prison for a nonviolent victim’s crime sex work drug possession any of those things we’re going to start freeing them immediately then I imagine our Libertarian president will give a barn B of an of a speech talking about how we’re going to dismantle the war machine piece by piece talking about how we’re going to return sovereignty back into each and every individual how we’re going to hold government and its law enforcement and its Judicial System accountable to representing the people and not government when we get into a courtroom there’s lots of things a Libertarian president could do to push those ideas forward but the truth is is we have to build our party’s Foundation up in order to get there and that’s the kind of campaign I’m running right now I’m about to be in all 50 states I’ll be the first libertarian candidate for president to ever campaign in all 50 states and I’m doing that before I’m even the nominee why because I believe it’s important for every voter out there to see an alternative on their ballot to see that there’s somebody who’s not part of the broken two party system and to build our party Foundation up we need to do things like earning ballot access in States all over the country just like the state of Georgia where I’m from we need to do it by earning major party status in a state like Iowa when they got major party status that’s what got me as a Libertarian on the soapbox stage at the Iowa State Fair the first time that’s ever happened we build our party Foundation up we can elect hundreds of local Libertarians all over the country and get them started so we can start building up our bench but I’m committed to you if I’m our nominee whether I win or lose in November I’m committing myself to maintaining doubling our membership and holding it for the next four years so whoever gets on this stage four years from now has twice as many donors twice as many activists and twice as many people ready to get on the ground and help them win that’s the commitment I’m making to you right now maybe a Libertarian president doesn’t win in 2024 but if we do the work of building our party Foundation up while we tear the state down Brick by Brick we will have a Libertarian PR in the future I guarantee you that thank you very much so I I want to make sure that our answers stay concise uh in the future um but I do there’s an interesting you know cleavage forming here which is a belief about you know what the long shot presidential campaign is really for I am certainly of the opinion that long shot presidential campaigns aren’t really about winning office per se but they are sometimes a way to really affect our national political discourse and get a few ideas typically only one or two ideas in front of a mass audience starting at the very end once again as concise as possible what are the one or two ideas that you need every person in America to internalize to care about to have on their radar now the state is a parasite that’s number one the state is nothing but a blood sucking parasite that draws the lifeblood out of people so what I would say that the thing that I would run on here is not limited government I’m running on a bigger Vision than limited government that excites absolutely no one absolutely no one gets excited about limited government that is a republican sounding word term and it has actually no veilance no uh no no no energy behind it I think we need to model ourselves after what we just saw in this in this world jav who won a national election as president Argentina this is the kind of campaign that we need we need to wake people up we’re talking about a a sublist state people are in a a sleep a stuper they need to be woken up with a strong bold message and that message is not limited government that won’t get us there we need to get there with bold messaging and no apologies for it this will get people’s attention I have been on the national stage you know on Tucker Carlson all of these things free publicity I don’t have to pay for it uh and so I think that we we need to get this message out there and I am uniquely positioned to get it because I have the largest uh reach outside of this party uh that’s just happens to be the fact and so thank you yes so for me the number one thing that I would like to have happen after my campaign is over is that we all focus on the voters Bill of Rights that we return Integrity to our election system right now people are disenfranchised people are pissed off in America people don’t feel like they’re represented at all I’ve been voting all my life and I have yet to ever elect a congress person that has won that I voted for I do not feel represented in America today and what we need to do is we need to allow more voices and more choices on our American presidential stage so that we can have better options than Donald Trump and Joe Biden again my whole life it seems like I was voting for Bush and Clinton Bush and Clinton and it’s just a repeat of this thing we’re being lied to completely by our government we’re being completely forced into this doop we have the illusion of choice and I want to break this freeze so that America actually has a choice because when we don’t have a choice we end up with George Floyd riots and we end up with January 6 and if we continue down this road America is going to be splintered we cannot have a functioning Republic if we do not have free and fair elections that we trust and that’s what my voters Bill of Rights is all about go to LS 24.com and check it out thank you thanks very much it may be true that a presidential campaign representing the libertarian party has an unlikely chance of winning it is not true however that the best strategy with which to prosecute that campaign is to raise your hand and say I can’t win if you raise your hand and you say I can’t win you have just taken away the one reason anyone in the United States has any reason to pay attention to you this is not a philosophy seminar this is a competition if you take yourself out of the competition you take out of the ability to PR to present your ideas and our ideas you asked for one or two number one the federal government the United States is going to go bankrupt this is not a prediction I’m just telling you as a professional Economist that that is going to take place and it’s going to take place before the middle of the century I say this not because I’m so good at predicting the future but after four University degrees I can add this is going to happen the only chance we have of turning that around is to end the enormous amount of federal spending that we make on entitlement programs we need to reel in how much we spend on defense the reason this is important is not because you would miss the federal government neither would I it’s not like this organization adds any value to our lives the problem is that if it brings down the debt Market it brings down the dollar and that’s a depression economically worldwide that we should not be tolerating just because we have a stupid government thank you thanks so if there’s one idea I can impress upon people is that if if we don’t fix the problems our future is done for the next generation is done for our kids are going to live in a world with $50 trillion of debt and hyperinflation if we don’t start balancing the budget now and start paying down the debt if we don’t start fixing the education system we’re going to raise another generation of kids who are institutionalized to think that government is the solution and not the problem in this country if we don’t end the war machine right here and now we risk another generation being sent to go fight in wars and go die for BS reasons that are put forward by the intelligence agency just like the war Terror and the war in Iraq so what do I want to put out there is that if we don’t start changing course now we will eventually get to a point where we can’t change course and where we will fail as a nation and so if I can put that idea out there as a presidential candidate that freedom is the future and the future is freedom that’s the idea that I want to put out there but if we talk about what we’ve already done when I ran for Senate I when I forced the runoff between hersel walk and Raphael warno I ran in the runoff on one idea only rank Choice voting we need rank Choice voting to fix our system to make elections less expensive than runoffs and guess what before I forced the runoff rank Choice voting was about 5% of the vote in Georgia it shot up over 25 points after I made that point after forcing the runoff so when we put a thumb in the eye of the duopoly we get that outsize influence and we need to take advantage of it and I will use that as a candidate for president to talk about ending the war machine both here and abroad and fixing our economy so that our children have some sort of semblance of a future thank you now that we’ve sort of warmed up a little bit I want to shake it up from this order and switch to a sort of hand raising order I imagine everybody will sort of raise their hands at once but I will do my best to honor the order in which hands are raised because I do feel like this format is awfully predictable people sort of know how things are going to go so we want to make it a little bit more anarchic in a sense um next question record numbers of Voters call themselves Independents and express their discontent with the two major parties puping data indicates that Independents tend to skew a little bit younger and a little bit more male let’s just for the sake of argument call me young and I would like each of you to make your pitch to me the standin young voter assume I’m not even a Libertarian I’m more of a normie or a moderate what is the way that you would message to that young person who may or may not currently be clamoring to have Joe Biden forgive their student loans yep Michael okay so I’m going to go first again so look I I was an educator for 20 years 25 I think it was actually wait make your pitch directly to me oh to you you’re young person yes you are young Liz uh relatively yes definitely listen I know the kind of indoctrination you’ve gone under in the University system I’m ass now I’m immediately defensive you’re what now I’m defensive oh okay well I’m I’m just going to I’ll real you in sounds good listen I know what has been pummeled at you what you’ve been what’s been propagated in your direction what are the kinds of things you’ve been taught but I can tell you that it’s been wrong because I used to think just like that like many of your professors I know exactly where they’re coming from and I know where you might be coming from I think you need to understand that what we really deal with the real exploiter the real oppressor is not capitalism as such it is not the free market that isn’t our enemy because that’s free production and free exchange it is that entity that only entity that can rob you with that can coerce money out of you at the point of a gun that is our Real Enemy that is the state that’s what we need to oppose capitalism is not the problem the free market would do well without the state’s interference in fact it is what creates these monopolies that you probably hate it is what creates the Tilted economic situation that you probably face it is what has created all of the uh onerous debt that you’re going to definitely be shouldering and unfortunately that message hasn’t been delivered on a college campus and I intend to do so I will be uh speaking to the Young Americans across the country uh Li for Liberty across the country and giving this message this will really get to the um to the students yes next Chase so if you’re a young person I imagine you have a lot of uh anxiousness about getting into the the real world buying your first house starting a family doing all these things and let me tell you tell you right now for my generation the government really screwed the pooch on it they sent my generation to go fighting Wars all over the world and we’re still suffering from the the physical and mental ailments from that you know the government they they they completely bailed out Banks while they left the regular guide screwed in 2008 that’s right when I was getting out of school and it made it really difficult to really get that start up and so if I’m a candidate for president when I think about what you’re going to be meing as you start out in the world you need a world that’s more free you need a world that has more choice for you and let me tell you right now the libertarian message of freedom is something that should be very attractive to you as a young person because if you’re not committing Force fraud coercion theft or violence if you’re not hurting anybody your life is your life your body is your body your business is your business and your property is your property it’s not mine and it’s not the government’s and what can I tell you as a student I understand the cost of student loans the cost of education is out of control in this country and while I want to fight to make it less expensive for the Next Generation I actually have a plan to get the government out of the student loan business for good that will allow you to have a little bit of relief by making all government held student loans interest free we’ll pay for that by cutting out some military bases and cutting some Pentagon spending and allowing you to get your government loan off the balance sheet and that’ll bring free market practices back to education for the Next Generation thank you either of you guys yep y go ahead yeah did you say that you did want Joe Biden to get rid of your student Deb or that you didn’t no yes say assume that I I’m a person who’s interested in in in getting rid of your student absolutely I like free things you know I haven’t learned the ton Stafa lessons yet 100 100% so you know I I get that um you know we’ve been kind of students have been sold a bill of goods that they should show up and go to college and that they’ll get a good job and uh and they’ll earn the American dream and you know students all over the country get out of college and find that there are no jobs available that they’re working under uh paying jobs that they thought they were going to get and I think this is a problem uh but the problem is caused by the government the government has uh basically emphasized and got given out these loans to students and push these loans because it’s incentivized for them to do so uh so for me we need to get completely out of student loans okay um but that leaves us with all the people that still have loans right we you know Biden has been getting rid of these uh paying down these student loans but they’re still continuing to shovel them in at the other end so we’re going to have this problem continuously we need to get rid of that and then we need to basically make it so that you have zero interest on your loans if you’ve already paid off all the money that you owe with principal and debt you should just not have to pay anymore because You’ basically paid it off and we can just stop this madness of the government involved in student debt get you out of your debt and stop promoting always that people have to go to college people could go to trade schools people could do other things that might be more more beneficial to them we need to let the free market work and it’s not working right now because the government is involved creating mediocrity by being mediocre thank you Liz you seem like you’re probably approximately the age of my daughter and my son and if you’re anything like my daughter and my son you make decisions based on very very important values values that you consider to be close to your heart you’re not like my generation making bad decisions with arithmetic your generation believes in values that do not align with the values of the people that run our government our government operates in the shadows because they don’t want you to be analyzing their principles and their values they don’t do things that you would do you would not send American money and American troops and American Equipment to Iraq and to Afghanistan to prosecute a war that was not justified that wound up not only costing your fellow Americans trillions of dollars but wait for this cost over a million lives that is not something that you would do it is not something that others in your generation would do you would not decide that inflation is okay but our generation has decided that you would not decide that interest rates ought to be set the way that my generation has been setting interest rates did you know that the way that the United States sets interest rates on the dollar is that every six weeks we lock 12 old people into a room and we ask basically what mood they’re in that’s not metaphorical that’s literally how it works I’m guessing that if you and 11 of your cohorts maybe including my son and daughter and and eight other people decided how to run our government it would look a hell of a lot different than it does now starting with not passing down3 trillion to the Next Generation M thank you so say for the sake of argument imagine each of you one of you is the libertarian nominee and you end up running against Joe Biden and Donald Trump but also in a state where RFK Jr is on the ballot as an independent and you must make your pitch to somebody who considers thems you know maybe libertarian is but probably going to pull that lever for r Jr what is the super concise pitch 30 seconds or under that you make to that voter I I saw Chase first if you’re a Libertarian is and you’re thinking about pulling the lever for RFK you need to stop doing that right now because he’s not building a party up by the foundation he’s an independent candidate that when he’s gone he’s gone it doesn’t really build anything so Win Lose or Draw you’re going to be left with nothing but if you get out and you vote for the libertarian candidate in your state you’re going to win ballot access for the party you’re going to make it easier for more candidates to run and you’re actually going to build something that will challenge the two- party system over the Long Haul thank you Michael yes I mean I debated RFK Jr directly and the biggest thing that to be drawn from this uh experience and having heard him at a luncheon as well at the uh California libertarian party convention is that he’s all for big big government the guy is a statist how can you possibly elect or nominate a statist uh for the libertarian party for one but there’s a rumor that he’s actually going to seek the nomination Bring It On he’s an unbelievable status the guy wants to uh Institute 3% guaranteed mortgage loans uh hinging on the federal government uh on the bond market and he says it’s like having a rich Uncle co-sign on your loan and I’m I’m saying what rich rich Uncle would that be the one Uncle Sam who’s $34.5 trillion in debt is that the rich uncle that you mean because we don’t have any Rich uncles here you can clap for that thank you any others yes yeah there’s no path for RFK to become president of the United States there’s no path for him to win 270 electoral votes because the system is rigged we have win or take all laws that will prohibit him from winning 270 elector votes the only path for RFK to win the president of the United States is to cause a contingent election send it to the House of Representatives and hope that they vote for him thank you yes the big problem with Robert Kennedy is he is not a man who makes policy judgments based on principle that is unfortunately the truth and Michael is right we had the opportunity to meet him in person nice guy smart guy I’m sure he’s a patriot he is not a principled guy this is a guy who doesn’t like vaccine mandates because he doesn’t like vaccines let that sink in if he loved the vaccines guess what would be okay he doesn’t like Wars until he likes the side he’s on this is why his position in the Middle East is very different from his position any place else this is a guy who doesn’t like the fact that government and corporations are all tangled up together why is that because he wants to use the government to knuckle under corporations to do what it is that he says for them to do he’s not just someone who’s not a Libertarian he’s not a man of principle and that’s important thank you so I want to drill down a little bit into more policy issues is what’s happening at the southern border truly a crisis and what role does the federal government actually play in immigration enfor if you were elected president Michael yeah so we have a we do have a humanitarian crisis uh the um the immigration uh issue is in humanitarian crisis caused by the government okay there are several factors that have played into this of course the War on Drugs is a major one this has created the cartels and the black market that they service obviously the War on Drugs has put a tremendous pressure on our border and has caused drug smuggling and human trafficking uh second of all we have to have we have had foreign interventionism that has displaced people all around the globe it is no wonder they have nowhere to go so it’s no wonder that they come here that’s number two number three of course our trade policies have been a very much a factor here and we need to to get rid of all uh tariffs and all trade uh barriers so that these people will have something to to do where they live because the production will be uh increased there and and finally we have an artificial incentivization of the immigration uh issue we are incentivizing immigration through social welfare payments and uh just recently for example the um the office of uh Refugee resettlement noted that it spent uh $20 billion in the last two years alone Distributing money to Goos who hand out money to immigrants this is baiting people it’s artificially U affecting the market for immigrants and I hate to put it in those terms but there’s a way to look at it that way thank you thank you yep yep thank you so I agree that the War on Drugs is a big part of the problem at the southern border we’ve created these cartels we’ve handed them a monopoly and they are basically trafficking people now and that is their business and so we need to end that by ending the fail War on Drugs and let and taking the money out of these people’s hands look I don’t want to see any more kids and moms crawling under barb wire I don’t want to see any more kids separated from their moms it’s disgusting it shouldn’t be happening this is a miracle we should have people in in policy that fix this right and we don’t right now because the Republicans and Democrats raise funds off of this they are feeding off of the suffering of people and we have to stop this so what I would do is I would vastly uh reduce the amount of visas that we have from 21 to three a work visa an immigrant visa and a visitor visa and I would allow corporations to sponsor people to get people into the workforce as quickly as possible so that they can be productive members of society which is what I believe most people fleeing these other countries would want to do thank you yes Chase I saw you then so uh you know I was recently on the border both in the Gallas Arizona and here in El Paso Texas and I got to speak both to uh folks involved the immigration issue the immigration crisis that is caused by our government as well as business owners you know when you hear a business owner in El Paso say man I wish I could hire some of these people but they have no legal documentation to Works they’re stuck on the public doll and on the Charities here in town and it stretched them thin that is wrong so I support an LS Island style of immigration you come through a Port of Entry declare who you are if you’re not dangerous or wanted for extradition come right on in get to work get started I don’t care what you want to do as long as it’s peaceful and that is something that we can actually have in this country uh and what we’re causing right now is the the crisis itself if we were able to simplify this process we could also make sure that everybody’s coming in is safe and if they’re wanted for a crime that requires extra addition and they feel like they’re being persecuted that’s when you go through the Asylum process but really we should have no quotas no caps let the market determine how immigration Works in this country and you’re right remove incentivizing you’re right remove the War on Drugs these are all things that will help the immigration crisis but at the end of the day if the government is not able to process people that are coming in in a timely fashion it creates the crisis that we’re seeing on our Southern border order thank you and uh one more thing I would say if we could increase this this uh Ellis Island style we could have more seasonal employment for agricultural workers like in my home state of Georgia they would come here for plant and harvest they would go back with their uh dollars in their pocket and they wouldn’t stay here stuck thank you thanks very much uh it needs to be said that there are two different issues going on here and as Libertarians we need to be able to say both of them virtually at the same time number one we need to recognize that immigration when done right when done legally when done saying ly when done in an orderly fashion is good for America it’s one of those things that defines America it’s good for our society it’s good for our culture it’s good for our economy and as long as you don’t do something moronic like pass out free money to people as they come over the Border it’s even good for us financially but at the same time we need to be able to say that illegal immigration is bad for America my friend Russ uh who’s in the back working the camera make sure Lars is not completely in the camera there for me if you will uh Russ is a great guy he’s an attorney but he’s a good guy anyway Russ and I spent a coup couple of days on the border last year and we came away uh really in some sense heartbroken over the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis going on down there we met with customers border patrol we met with the sheriffs we met with ranchers On the Border the number of people coming across the border that are sold into indentured servitude it’s a bad foreign policy it’s a bad domestic policy it’s bad for America this is what undermines our wage structure is people coming to into the United States to have to work in the shadows if we stop this silly idea of letting people in either legally or IL or legally and then telling them that they can’t work this is bass Awards we should be telling people rather I’m going to call you in six weeks to make sure you have a job but as far as illegal immigration goes we need to shut it down completely it’s bad for us it’s bad for immigrants it’s bad for America thank you so right now inflation has been Skyhigh for kind of a while I live in evil New York City um and a carton of eggs is like 10 bucks there it’s truly to an obscene point from my perspective gas prices have thankfully stabilized but there’s a huge housing Supply Crunch and mortgage rates are really high so people feel as though they can’t really transact real estate perhaps the way they want to there’s a little bit of this palpable sense right now that the American dream is Out Of Reach is this in people’s imaginations or is this real and how would you address this to the extent that the federal government needs to address it at all yes yes and the fed this this is the real problem this is the real problem look the Federal Reserve is stealing the money out of your pocket each and every day $34 trillion of debt that is stolen from you it’s stolen from your standard of living and people on on social media are blaming the corporations and they’re blaming all the things that aren’t the problem the problem is endless printing of money is reducing the value of the money in your pocket so you can’t buy anything we absolutely this is something that I have just come to believe totally firmly we have to get rid of the Federal Reserve it is just an Abomination and it is it it is Insidious and people don’t understand how it is ruining everyone in America’s lives the contian effect basically allows for the government to take the money from you give it to the Federal Reserve who gives it to the banking cartel who brows it out to the corporations and by the time it gets down to you it’s Pennies on the dollar and that is why we have wealth inequality and income inequality in America is because the damn Federal Reserve and the FED thanks who raise your hand next yes uh Michael I saw you yeah this is a great question it’s very Cur interesting to me because I my son uh wrote a song called Miss American dream and it’s about the fading ideal of of the American dream it’s a sad song and it’s a very moving song and it’s nostalgic and it’s it’s it’s really tragic so what has caused the loss of this American Dream the the Federal Reserve money Monopoly has certainly played a massive role and yes I would love to strike down the FED tomorrow and then audit it to find out just how much money they have been robbing us of but in lie of that or should I should say not instead of but in advance of ending the FED what can we do we can’t encourage the use of parallel uh alternative currencies today that is Bitcoin uh gold leaves uh silver whatever I am not here to adjudicate what currency people use that is up to the network that they are in that the network of of of exchange that they are involved in but this is one way to get the uh effect of inflation the devastating effect of inflation off of our uh our backs and so parallel currencies today not tomorrow we need to build these networks and I should say with the looming uh possibility of a Central Bank digital currency which would completely make all of our transactions transparent to the fed and likewise the federal government we better get these parallel currencies in place right now thank you thank you who is next Chase uh you know I think uh I agree with much of what other people are saying here yeah absolutely support alternative currencies such as Bitcoin uh ending and auditing the FED I think that’s libertarian bullet plate I think if there’s a Libertarian on stage who’s not supporting that they need to be Tomatoes thrown at them right now uh but what we need to communicate to the voter is how dangerous and how bad inflation actually is for each and every one of them as much as we hate it when Congress votes to raise taxes on US inflation is a hidden tax that HS hits every one of our pockets it hits every dollar you have whether it’s in your pocket your uh your boardroom or in your bank doesn’t matter where the money is it’s being stolen from you just by the very fact they’re printing trillions of dollars at a thin air and devaluing your dollar and so yes in the FED yes support alternative currencies I would even say if we can get our monetary policy back to a gold standard or something where it’s actually tag to something that’s finite that would be a great thing to do but what we really need to tell you as kids is if we don’t stop the spending right now it’s only going to get worse and the and the the American dream that you see slipping out of your hands which My Generation has seen slipping out of our hands ever since we’ve gotten involved will only be made much more manifest which happen much more quickly if we don’t get spending under control so for the Next Generation I beg you please please help us in the FED help us bring monetary policy back under control so that inflation can be tacked to the market and not to the actions of government thank you Liz you’re right for a lot of people it is increasingly difficult to pursue what we used to call the American dream and it’s for a number of different reasons as a professional Economist the difference between my campaign and the others is that I have spent years interfacing with the Federal Reserve System I know how it is that they think they actually think that they’re doing you a favor and I know how to fix it uh as you know I’ve spent enormous proportion of my campaign talking about the Federal Reserve System including the world’s most boring two-minute video and how end the Federal Reserve System I encourage everyone to go watch it after this debate it’ll make the debate look good by comparison but it starts out with this we need to replace the governors and the Federal Reserve System with people who understand that we need a rules-based system and not a discretionary system whereby which the FED can just create as much money as they want we need a rule in place to limit the amount of money that is created because inflation is one of those things that Outlast presidential campaigns and new presidents and old presidents it just keeps rolling on it makes it difficult for young people to make ends meet it makes it difficult for the middle class and for the underclasses to make ends me and not as a police officer I’m sorry not as an economist but as a police officer I can tell you I have seen up close and personal the devastating effects of bad public policy it’s not just inflation we need to change our policies on the local level regarding the stupid monopolies of education at the local level we need to change our zoning policies we need to change our housing policy and arguably above all we need to end the war on drugs this is something that undermines families and our entire culture remember if you if you remember nothing about me forever remember please the following intergenerational Poverty of the persistent kind that we have too often in the United States is not something that is a phenomenon predicted by free markets it is a product of bad public policy thank you following the do Supreme Court ruling abortion has been returned to the states row and Casey are no longer the law of the land and States including the state that we’re in which I guess you know now has basically nearly outlawed abortion have made a patchwork of abortion laws that put some women in a bind where they must travel very far distances or incur all kinds of costs in order to abort unwanted babies or fetuses whatever your nomenclature will probably depend on your uh sort of moral compass on this issue is this better than what existed before Chase so the first thing is I’ve met lots and lots of women as I travel a campaign Trail and almost without a doubt that’s the first question is where do you stand on the topic of abortion so I’m not like other girls by making it like my 17th question no you no so uh I am pro-choice I am unapologetically pro-choice on the concept of bodily autonomy I believe in the right for a woman to choose up until the point of viability after which I believe the only exception should be for the life of the mother because at that point there is two viable lives at stake but up until that point that should be the decision of the mother if they want to continue the pregnancy uh I think there are things we can do to lower the number of abortions in this country without outlawing it making criminals of doctors and women we can make birth control over the counter so it’s easier to access we can uh you know we can streamline the process of adoption so more people see that as a viable alternative uh but what we cannot do in this country is deny women their bodily autonomy it is something that is Paramount to freedom and so as somebody who is pro-choice I am going to be a pro-choice candidate I recognize that might lose me the votes of some people in this room but it’s where I stand it’s where my convictions are and it’s where uh you know lots of long hours of faith and reflection have brought me to what do you say to the pro-life Libertarians though that say that that’s a total violation of the non-aggression principle that the you know unborn child Bears rights to and who would we be as Libertarians if we allow those to be transgressed upon so so my answer that is if you believe the patchwork quilt of abortion policies across the country would actually solve that you’re not if you believe abortion is murder you should want abortion outlawed everywhere all right if that if that is your position it should be outlawed everywhere because murder is illegal everywhere I happen to think that there is a a a a gray area there of conscience and allow individuals to make those decisions and if you are pro-life in a pro-choice world you have every right to not have an abortion you just don’t have the right to make that very very personal determination for someone else uh I saw Michael with a hand up yeah so this is a very thorny and uh unpleasant topic to be honest but I I should say this I the first thing I want to say is I don’t want the state involved in arbitrating this issue at all I don’t want the state arresting women and doctors I don’t want the state hounding people running them out of business what I want is basically what I want doesn’t matter what what matters is that what people want to do and I do think frankly that abortion is a violation of the nap I I do believe that in this is just my personal belief it has nothing to do with what I would do I do believe that no matter the size or stage of development of an individual they have right the right of property in themselves which is the primary most fundamental right that we Advocate as Libertarians property and oneself so I do believe that’s a violation so what I would do is tell the truth of what I think I think it’s wrong but I am not going to bring the state in to bring an end to it that is just outrageous we would have a nightmare in this country if that happened the state has no business arbitrating this thank you thank you yes Mike thanks I believe that how Chase feels about this and how I feel about this is really similar and I would just like to I’m going to ask Chase to answer a question on my time um I call myself pro-life and you call yourself pro-choice and yet I don’t think that our positions are very different and this is the first time I’ve heard you say so boldly that you’re pro-choice and this is the first time anyone else is going to hear me say so boldly that I consider myself pro-life and yet I think our positions are similar would you uh agree with me that this should be a state issue no okay well we do have differences uh look as in Chase you’re saying that sort of across the board all states ought to adopt fror he’s saying you believe it would be it should be a federal issue I believe it should be across the board a viability standard yes across the board across the board is language I’m asking you if you would support Federal legislation that said States uh are not allowed to make their own laws I support no legislation with regards to abortion at any level other than the viability standard whether that’s done at the state level so are you supporting Federal legislation or not I don’t think this is a states rights issue because like I said if you the whole world is a states rights issue what I mean is if you believe abortion is murder it should be outlawed in every state and if you don’t believe abortion is murder if you believe that it’s situ it should be allowed in any St so now I do see that we have some differences look I call myself pro-life because I don’t like abortion I’m not going to be able to hide how I feel about this issue having been raised as a Lutheran and a calvinist but it needs to be said we all want the government out of this we all want the government I don’t know if I do a little awkward we want the government to be only involved in those stages where we all agree for those of us who feel pro-life we need to make this argument in a cultural sense not using the government you don’t get to use the government and public policy as a weapon to make your argument you don’t get to skip to the end of the argument and say well now we’re going to use public I can’t win my argument in a public policy sense and so you know now I get to shove it down your throat that’s not how this works we need to allow States in conjunction in alignment with their individual State cultures to make these decisions this isn’t Michael is right this is an uncomfortable discussion but this is not a discussion for us to impose on some other state just because I don’t like abortion just because I feel pro-life doesn’t mean I get to shove it down everyone else’s throat thank you do you LS yes absolutely so when I was young I knew two different young ladies that had abortions and I talked to them many years later and one of them said that it was the horrible worst decision of her life and the other one said that it was the best decision of her life I’m glad that I never have to make that decision I don’t think that if Mike and Chase argued all day and all night that they would change each other’s mind ever and I don’t think that if I said anything it would change your mind on this on this issue what I believe is that we should not use government Force to tell one group of people how to behave over another grp group of people and that’s it thank you but we do that so I just I want to follow up here yeah but we do that in lots of areas right like the murder example is a good one we do have laws that are laws of the land that we don’t really allow states to sort of decide their own course on and that’s wrong right no but so it’s murder the federal government should not be involved in deciding whether murder is illegal as much as we all agree it’s an easy one every state has laws against murder you don’t need federal government telling you that that killing someone is a bad idea yeah hm yeah I just want to say Mike Mike’s right here and um this has been my argument from the entire GetGo of this campaign is this this is decentralization WR this is decentralization this is a perfect example of it you can’t arbitrate what the cultures of various regions do and I and in terms of this being if it’s a universal uh wrong it is not recognized as such okay so that’s the fact it’s just not recognized as such yes murder is the illegal and it’s recognized as such but this is not this is a very divisive issue it’s not recognized so those people that want to make their case for one side of the other need to do so and that’s the only thing that we can do we need a c I think we need a campaign a cultural and spiritual campaign but that’s just my belief it isn’t up to these four men on stage to decide this issue frankly No it should be up to me the woman who’s very pro-life exactly you guys wouldn’t like the laws I call but Chase I want to give you the opportunity to respond but what I’m saying is is being pro-choice is allowing for that decision to be made at the individual level which is the most localized level that’s the most decentralized level is making an individual decision that’s why it needs to be allowed in all 50 states uh the truth is is a local tyranny is just as bad as a state tyranny which is just as bad as a federal tyranny tyranny is tyranny removing body autonomy from women is wrong it doesn’t matter whether it’s the state government doing it the local government doing or the federal government doing it women have rights and I will say that this is a this is an inherent right and if we’re going to have ederal government they should protect inherent rights and one of those is bodily autonomy for every man woman and child with all due respect the chase was not uh there’s no reason why Chase should have gotten an extra minute here let me pin you down buddy because what you just said what you just said policy-wise you believe in federal legislation making it impossible for a state to pass a law that says it’s illegal to abort a child 10 minutes before delivery that’s what you just said no I just said I’m going give a chance to back off of it but that’s what said I support the right to choose up until the viability standard which is what most Americans support while also supporting the hide Amendment which would put no federal dollars towards abortion but absolutely so you’re saying that women don’t have Choice until 10 minutes AG go I support a federal standard that says no state may infringe upon the bodily autonomy of women and that is a 50-state standard and that is where the standard should be okay up until viability up until viability when up said multiple times I want to maintain some amount of order here though I do kind of love the violent conflict right like I’m hoping somebody throws a punch right like it would be really funny if we’re talking about like violence and nonviolence and aggression and non-aggression and then somebody gets really aggressive Michael did you have a 30 second I want to say is what shouldn’t be happening which is happening is the federal government is funding abortions that is absolutely wrong they should not be funding them support the hide ine and furthermore they’re also funding all kinds of other they’re putting their finger on the scale in many ways culturally socially they’re trying to tip the scales in a particular directions they should not be doing that at all get the state out of these matters thank you so I want to bring us all together and sort of have a group therapy session now I imagine we’re all in agreement about the taxes being too damn High yes right yes so if elected president how would you simplify the tax code and look we already got bogged out in the abortion specifics I need a 30 second or shorter answer that really cuts to the heart at this Lars I saw you first all right so we need to abolish the 16th Amendment the incom the income tax is a coercive method of the state and look no one should have to go to jail for filling out a piece of paper wrong I’ve been audited by the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board more times than anybody should ever have happened to them we need to get rid of the income tax let people keep 100% of the paycheck we need to get rid of the payroll tax it’s it’s stealing money you should keep 100% of the money that you earn through work the government has no right to it thank you thank you yep Chase yeah so I supported into the income tax as well I think we can get our government small enough to not need one but in lie of that what we can do is we can fight to remove all uh subsidies and deductions out of the tax code and just flatten the rate overall because that’s what we have right now is in the country is where people don’t know what the their neighbor is paying or other people are paying just flatten the rate out remove all subsidies and deductions lower the tax Cod altogether if you can’t eliminate the uh the the uh the income tax which I would love to do but it requires a constitution am that’s a little higher thing to go through but what we can do is demand that our leaders today remove deductions and subsidies and flatten the code thank you uh M uh Mike yes so one of the Michaels Michael please we have to make distinctions here am I going or you going yeah me Michael’s going yep uh look it it you asked how would I simplify the tax code very simple I’d end it completely and I wouldn’t replace it with like a flat tax a a flat sales tax you know my hero is Murray rothbart and he said never replace a tax with another tax this is disastrous do not replace a tax with another tax and that’s what some of my fellow candidates want to do I think it’s ridiculous first of all you would have to say well people under $40,000 of income could be exempt well how do you find out if they make $40,000 or not you have to file an income tax return how else are you going to know and then there’s a race to the bottom everybody of course would claim every exemption they possibly could in deductions G gazillion deductions and so forth so we need to abolish it period I don’t want to talk about reforms of the income tax it’s just mind- numbing thank you Mike it’s okay that that went on for three minutes he was exactly right that answer is so good I just want to prattle on and waste my time and say you know he’s got it right look I love these two guys but your answers uh were terrible no they were good they were good actually the idea of replacing with sales tax oh my Lord no we can’t do that and the idea of uh working so hard to change the income tax uh code and then replacing with a flat tax that’s just not worth the lift I can’t be bothered we need to shut down the income tax and end the IRS and the reason we need to do that is because the relationship between the federal government and us as individuals is completely inappropriate we need to force the federal government to go to state legislator for the money we need to have someone stand up for our rights the reason that we get steamrolled is because nobody in Washington cares about you or me and the IRS just steamrolls us Lars is right you know being audited is a hell of exper I’ve been audited it is not a fair fight right they have their own courts they steam rate over you nobody cares how much money they spend we need to end the inome tax completely so presidents For Better or Worse are given vast War making Powers Congress is also of course supposed to authorize our entry into foreign entanglements but we all know that that’s not really how that goes you know this is a little bit more relevant of a question I think especially because we might be on the precipice of Iran you know possibly striking Israel right now and obviously things have been very intense in the Middle East lately we’ve had issues with you know obviously what happened on October 7th Israel and Gaza we’ve had you know houti militant striking ships that’s forcing all these container ships to divert their traffic which creates supply chain issues throughout the world we also have an ongoing conflict where Putin has entered into Ukraine and you know the United States in some way or another is supporting its allies and or bankrolling some of these things you know how would you take steps to roll back executive power in war making but more specifically how would you handle these two situations in Israel when with Gaza and the situation in Ukraine as well as well as the threat post to Iran sort of I imagine you don’t necessarily have a fully fleshed out plan for every single one of those but what is your attitude yes okay okay everybody does okay well let’s try to keep do try let’s try to keep them as concise as possible let’s skip past a lot of the boilerplate libertarian end the war roll back the spending because I’m just going to assume that we’re all totally on the same page here but what are the specific areas in which you would handle these situations differently than your opponents would uh I saw Lars up first thank you so look the Congress should authorize use of military force not the president so I would not have the president with aumf I would return the power to the prep to the Congress they should do their job like I said standard libertarian the no but it is the truth because that is their job is to declare war and they’re not doing it that’s what I said in my opening statement that I’m going to reduce the power of the president and return the power to Congress to make them do their damn job the reason they don’t do their job is because they want to get reelected and they don’t want to have like weird things hanging out there they don’t want to take responsibility this is what our founding fathers wanted was for them to do their job and they’re not doing it we need to reduce the power of President and get rid of this stuff so as far as Foreign Relations look we’re $34 trillion in debt we’re broke we can’t afford anymore anything we’ve got to stop funding Foreign Wars we got to get our nose out of it look I talked about we don’t want to be forcing our views on other people in America imagine being in a foreign country where America comes and tells you how you should live your life right that pisses people off and that’s when we start getting George Floyd riots in January 6 except they turn into Gaza and Ukraine and we got to stop that stuff thank you uh Michael yeah so just as we speak the US is moving forces to the Middle East uh on contingency that Iran might strike Israel and so we now are involved in another Theater of War uh what we I’m not going to give you the boilerplate answer we need of course no funding of Any Nation for any wars or any foreign aid period and then cut it all but in the particular case of Israel and this is going to differ from a boiler point point of view our our foreign policy has been dictated to by Israel Israeli uh lobbyists I mean this is just a fact APAC has an incommensurate impact on the policy of the United States embroiling us in a potential War now in the Middle East again this is unbelievable we need to examine the relationship between the United States and Israel and I would say it I’d put it this way I consider Israel a friend but you don’t give the keys of the car to a friend when they’re drunk you don’t let them drive drunk you get the keys back so this is exactly what we’re doing we’re actually en enabling Israel to put their own country in jeopardy we’re enabling them to do it by sending endless arms and Aid and for military aid to Israel we’re actually harming them thank you Chase I’m going to Echo many of the sentiments that others are saying on stage but uh the truth is if we were a friend to Israel and I don’t mean a military ally having to give them any money but if we were just somebody who has a relationship with Israel as we do many people uh know people in Israel we should be able to be their friend and say what you are doing here is wrong what you are doing in relation to the response to October 7th is wrong while you had every right to hold Hamas to Justice which they do the non-surgical Complete air strikes that are killing tens of thousands of innocent people that is wrong and we have to be friendly enough to Israel to tell them this just like we should have had somebody come to us on 912 2001 and say a global worldwide war is not going to make the world a better place it’s actually going to destabilize the world and that’s the world we’re living in right here and now we need to be willing to tell Israel the way when you’re killing tens of thousands of young people babies innocent people you are destabilizing the region you’re making it harder to be an Israeli who lives safe in their life you’re making further int you’re flaming intentions in Gaza and in the Arab world around you you are facilitating this course that we are on and the only way to stop it is if you reverse course now and call for a ceasefire we have to be brave enough to call for this if people want to call us oh you’re anti-semitic because you want a ceasefire why because I want less dead Jews in the world does that makes me anti-semitic no I want more peace in the world and we have to be willing to be those people that say those things and in regards to Ukraine you know I have always said that I have a policy of any war zone if people want to sponsor people to be refugees we should absolutely be able to sponsor anybody to get out of the war zone in Ukraine in Gaza or anywhere else but I would also say that if you’re a member of the Russian military who’s being conscripted to go fight in this War I support your right to claim Asylum claim in the United States because nobody should be forced by their government to go fight in a war and die and so I think that as a human rights abuse those people deserve an asylum claim and I would bring them here and demoralize the front line of the Russian military and hopefully push them back across uh Ukraine to sue for peace that no war no money but without firing a single shot we can do that thank you each of the theaters in which we are about to trip into World War 3 teaches us a different lesson so instead of talking about the overall principles globally let me talk about each theater individually we need to unwind the silly relationship that we have with Taiwan which has created a self-fulfilling prophecy the idea that we would protect Taiwan come hell or high water has led to overinvestment there in microchips that we now believe that we can’t live without and therefore we are according to the White House willing to go to war with the People’s Republic of China over microchips that is every bit as stupid as it sounds we need to tell the PRC they can have their cake and eat it too but they’re going to have to wait for us to unwind our stupid policy of strategic ambiguity in the China uh straight number two with regard to Ukraine the reason we’re in this the reason we’re in this is because of our stupid policy toward Europe the idea of NATO was probably a bad idea 20 years ago it was probably a bad idea 40 years ago but it’s absolutely not in America’s interest any longer to be taking money away from Americans and use it to project defense power in Europe we have intimidated the Russians and don’t mishar me Moscow is one of the few governments on this planet that makes Washington look smart I’m no apologist for Putin or anybody else who’s running the show over there but the truth is that we got ourselves into this by making promises that we had no intention of keeping we should not be waging a proxy war on behalf of anyone least of all Ukraine with regard to Israel I know it feels different I personally have attachments there I’ve traveled at northsouth East West I’ve traveled to Palestinian territory with my children I have sent my children there to train there uh to party there I get how we feel I have people on my team with family there believe me I get how we feel about it but as a matter of principle we have to learn that foreign aid doesn’t work it ties us to governments over whom we have no influence much of the reason that Israel is in this predicament is because of the crappy relationship with the United States Israel would be better off if it were not tied to us and we would be better off if we were not tied to a responsibility for owning up to everything that the Israeli government does that’s the truth thank you agreed during during the covid pandemic we were deprived of our civil liberties across the board Anthony fouchy who essentially served as pandemics are has not receded from public life he hasn’t been punished in any way really he hasn’t really been held accountable for the ways in which his policy recommendations harmed tons of Americans whether it’s school children who’ve suffered learning loss or the many adults struggling with loneliness and depression and alcoholism that really didn’t exist to the same degree before the pandemic families were not allowed to bury their dead Believers were not allowed to worship how should we talk about this dark time and does Anthony fouchy or any of the federal government officials who made this happen to the rest of us do they deserve any consequences for this what would this look like in your eyes Michael I saw your hand get raised the entire covid regime needs to be investigated and prosecuted all the way down the line from the Inception beginning with the Inception of the of the V virus in the first place which is a bioweapon it was a bi it’s a bioweapon first of all why is the United States uh government involved in the creation of bioweapons this has to stop immediately and we need to be out out ahead of these issues Co was a total disaster the most rights infringing episode in modern history if we weren’t out in front of this thing like I was writing and talking and speaking about it all over the place and talking about what a totalitarian regime it imposed if we weren’t out in front of it then how are we going to be expected to be out in front of the next Crisis disease X which is being uh concocted as we speak I’m I’m not talking about the disease but they’re framing this already disease X is next and then of course there’s climate catastrophism which they’re going to use to restrict our rights believe me it is all about restricting and uh controlling people and that is the next Crisis they’re going to impose I have written about it extensively I’ve actually taken on the climate science directly thank you well hold on what do you mean when you use sneer quotes or Scare quotes about the climate science I don’t I don’t buy it I think it’s I call it climate change catastrophism because it’s been concocted i’ I’ve I have a PhD in the history of science I studied science this is not science this is the most flimsy uh science that there is it is unbelievably it’s close to fraudulence if not fraudulent I right Chase I saw your hand go up so uh how should we look at the co era the co era should be looked as the largest most broad invasion of people’s individual liberty that happened in the 21st century now I preface that cuz I believe segregation was pretty terrible slavery before that in the 19th century but in the 21st century without a doubt this is the greatest invasion of human Liberty uh people were locked down I always tell people a story about a friend of mine she was a florist she loved making flowers and her business was shut down during covid because it wasn’t essential granted the Lowe’s that had a garden center down the street was still open selling flowers and her business didn’t make it it didn’t survive and now she works at the Lowe’s Garden Center she works for the big corporate store instead of her own business that was her dream those are the stories we need to be reaching out and telling people because those affect each and every individual American uh and I’m somebody who’s always said get the government out of our Lives as much as possible uh I you know I have always said don’t trust politicians about medical stuff trust doctors as opposed to them and not even all doctors you can trust I happen to have a really good one uh but we should look at that time as a clear infringement Upon Our Liberty and never ever let it be repeated again and use the lessons that have come from this the loss of businesses the loss of life the loss of livelihoods as an example for why it should never ever be allowed to happen again shouldn’t really have been allowed to happen to begin with but that’s what you have happen when we have Republicans and Democrats now I will say this if you want to see Anthony Fon taking a task I support a creation of a special prosecutor to be able to look at all the illegality that might have happened during the co era I also support the creation of a covid uh like they had the 911 Commission a covid commission to examine every single step and misstep that government made along the way so it won’t happen again hopefully you know they can ignore that of course and then lastly I’ll say this if you want to see a group of people taking Anthony fouchy to task remember what act up did in the 90s they walked in and they shut down the FDA through the practice of non-violent peaceful resistance and if this ever comes to us again we need to take a page from that book and challenge Anthony fouchy directly with activism what you’re suggesting is kind of funny because the government absolutely loves making commissions to study absolutely everything right it’s another way for them to waste our time and money uh and yet this is the one area where they suddenly just you know have no interest in investigating what is it funny how that happens when they want to investigate their own wrongdoing they don’t want to make a commission but you know of course that catching on the fact that they might not be so great at what they’re doing uh who do we have next LS yep does anybody else feel like we’re being groomed by the government yeah look Anthony fouchy was Trump’s swamp creature he was also Clinton’s swamp creature he was Bush’s swamp creature and he was Obama’s swamp creature isn’t it interesting that he’s not being prosecuted I wonder what kind of dirt he has on all those people and do you really believe that a commission or an investigation is going to be real and honest by our government no absolutely not I think that they need to be held accountable the people that did this the people who perpetrated this whether we’ll find out who that actually was and what that was all about I don’t know but it definitely was not normal it was definitely not normal I literally was watching business news and watching China weld its citizens into their houses and I said thank God I live in America where that will never happen yeah two weeks three weeks later I’m watching old people watching the sunset get rolled up by the cops and telling them to go home because they’re out past curfew that should not happen in America if I was president that would not happen in thank you Mike absolutely I love uh everything that Lars just said there uh you’re right uh we do need a a commission and a special prosecutor the way you do that is you actually start with a special counsil Russ I assume that you’ll take up the job you help me stand up to the FEC certainly standing up to Anthony fouchy will be a lot easier than that look it we need a complete separate where this needs to go right we need a complete separation in in this nation of Science and state the the problem here is not that the science sucked which it did the problem is that the government is involved in science and it has no business being involved in science Not only was it involved in the science it was involved in the development of the virus that’s a weird thing by the way just you know we probably should spend an hour on that then the government decided to lie to you about how it was developed lied to you about how the the the virus uh was developed and and how it was financed and then they lied to you about how the vaccine was developed they lied to you about the fact that the pharmaceutical companies were free from liability and that give them the chance to lie to you about the side effects wait for it they already knew about the vaccine and decided not to tell you about that the problem here is not merely that they’re unethical that they lie to you that they’re Dopey that the science sucked the problem is more fundamental the government should not be involved in these processes and until we get them out we will be their subjects Lars is right we’re being groomed what I fear is that two groups of people in this country learned two very different lessons at the same time we learned all the terrible things that the government can do to us it’s good that we learn that because next time we’re going to stand up harder louder and faster but the people who run this government they learn the same damn lesson they learned that they can do some weird to you and they’re going to try it next time louder faster and harder and we need to be ready there are few things more sacred than how we raise our children right how we raise our children is how we you know instill them ideally with libertarian ideas or certainly with critical thinking skills the ability to not just be sheeple where the government and other people in positions of authority get to tell them what to believe or how to live how would you sell the idea of school choice which I think we probably all believe in to parents across the country how do you make the pitch to The the apolitical moderate mother who just loves her kids and wants to make sure they learn how to read and develop those critical thinking skills how do you make your pitch to her Chase so I got to make this pitch to lots and lots of moms the Iowa State Fair because I probably spoke to three or 4 thousand people throughout that weekend raise your hand if you’re a parent here in the room all right I bet each and every one of you whose hands is up you have unconditional love for your children you would fight and die for your children if you had to so you’re going to be your child’s best Advocate because you have that unconditional love and desire to see them survive and thrive you know who doesn’t have that a bureaucrat in Washington DC a bureaucrat in Austin they don’t know your kid they don’t know what makes them special they don’t know the the struggles they go through or the triumphs they’ve had you know those things so why do we continue to take power out of your hands and give it to those bureaucrats that’s a wrong that needs to be writed each and every parent should have sole dominion over the way their kids are raised over the way their kids are educated over the the the the things their kids are exposed to because that’s the role of a parent is to be the advocate for their child not the state the state will never be a true advocate for your child and so if you really want true educational freedom I support putting that power in your hands as a parent because you know the kind of school that’s going to be best for your kids and not a public school system that is that is determined by your ZIP code because in Atlanta where the schools are so bad that the teachers administrators had to cheat and create a RICO conspiracy to lie about test scores well if you’re a parent in that jurisdiction you want better options and I think we deserve to give those parents better options because again they are going to be the the the true advocate of their children not the state thank you Michael I saw your hand up yes so everybody here is going to say that we should separate the state and education and I agree 100% are they are they going to go this far that we should get rid of governmental mandatory education period we don’t need to have mandatory education imposed by the state let’s allow people to educate themselves and their children as they see fit does a child need to go to school for 12 years it really is up to the child and the parent this is not a requirement that should be imposed on us by the state and so I go further than simply school choice and I certainly don’t like charter schools because it’s a way of the state getting a control of a market that is potentially breaking away from their power and then it captures that that market and imposes State imperatives on those schools so I I say school choice should go to the point all the way to the point where the state has no arbitration on the matter whatsoever let the child and the parent do what they will educationwise thank you Laris yeah so we’ve given government a monopoly on education for our children and whenever we give government a monopoly things go really bad look my one of my daughters has dyslexia and growing up it was really challenging in the public school system to get anything for her in fact they completely failed her and I had to get her a different type of education on my dime they want to put everybody in a box and students don’t live in a box every student is different every student has different needs and the government is ill equipped to deal with all the different types of people that are out there um my other student is a straight A student and I took her out of school for a couple weeks and I got a truancy letter that said I was going to be taken to court and I was going to be you know have the book thrown out me for taking my student out of school for two weeks and I realized they only wanted my student in their school so they could get paid they don’t they only care about the money they don’t care about the damn student whether they’re learning or not so I agree that we should get the state out of Education we need to let the market create a better education system government breeds mediocrity and the more government we have the more mediocre we become and it’s no more apparent than our public education system abolish the Department of Education at the federal level and give people choice in their education for their students thank you Mike I love that I love the treny letter uh when the FEC sent me that Dopey letter that says I’m supposed to divulge all the financial uh information that i’ had already given them just 12 months earlier Russ sent him a nasty letter I’ll get him to send you a letter for the truancy thing that says my daughter is not going to go to school anymore go pound sand look uh the the way that uh we want to address this issue because I think what your question was was how do we sell it to folks we need to recognize that you as a parent it’s your values that you want instilled in the education of your children the only way you’re going to be able to do that is to choose the school that’s best for you if that if you think that’s a a government school which would be a little bit weird by the way but if you think that the government school you know go for it but if it’s not you should have that choice in the long run you’re not going to have I don’t know what the long run is I don’t know if it’s two years or 22 years but in the long run you’re not going to have the government choice because if we create a Level Playing Field for competition the government schools are going to get run out and that’s the way that we want this to work we don’t want the government to have a monopoly we know that we want as a matter of efficiency just speaking as an economist never mind the education itself or the ethics never mind all the more important issues just as a matter of Economics we want competition because the schools will get better but in the long run the government schools are going to get run out and then to Michael’s point we’ll be able to get government out of it altogether but the way that you need to lead that conversation is to remind parents it should be up to you it’s your values that should be governing your kids’ education thank you so I’m a resident of stateus New York City now but I’m originally a Texan uh so it’s yeah it’s kind of awesome so I know a thing or two about when I can sort of sense in a room the energy changing to the point where everybody’s like I need a beer it’s hot outside these dudes have been talking for a while so I think at this point we’ve gotten a strong sense of your different approaches I think it’s time that we sort of move in the beer and Cocktails Direction but I want to give you guys each the opportunity to make a three minute closing statement final pitch to delegates and to voters about why you are the person who ought to represent them on a national stage we will start with Michael thank you uh yeah so listen I’m running to lead a movement joh this is not merely a campaign this is a movement and the movement is to rest power from the federal government and to vest it in the people at the local level this is not about a White Knight riding into DC and fixing all the problems that is the model we have been taught if we think with a central government model will end up with central government we need to get away from central government thinking altogether and that means decentralization getting people in office at the local level to control their lives as such finally moving towards total privatization which I think is really the ultimate goal and and why is that the ultimate goal because the state has no business existing let alone what it’s doing to us it is a vampire and so I’m running on a message of bold leadership not simply a statement of limited government and we’ll curtail this and we’ll curtail that this is nothing this will go go nowhere we need bold messaging Fearless leadership and original thinking I think I bre all those to the table I have exhibited in 12 Books five of them from a Libertarian perspective dealing with issues across the board including not only the typical infringers of our rights but also the new infringements that are coming down the pike I have written about all of these things we have right now coming up in July I think it’s going to be decided whether the United States signs on to the who pandemic treaty which is event eventually going to uh seed our our sovereignty to them so I am leading with bold messaging thank you thank you you guys are worse than teenage girls over here taking selfies on stage Loris let’s take it to you I’m sorry that’s that’s better than teenage girls not worse than teenage you guys look worse than we’re on the Tik Tok we’re on the Tik Tok we didn’t even get into age of consent laws or seat belt laws I really exercise restra here LS go all right look I’m trying to do something different here I’m trying to grow this party I’m trying to drive massive amounts of dollars to this party I’m a businessman I ran a large company a lot of internet companies I Was a Serial entrepreneur I grew my biggest company to 600 employees doing $350 million a year in sales and I sold that in 2007 for $500 million okay I’m using that money to get our libertarian message out there and I’ve developed a plan to do just that and I’ve developed a plan that is going to give Libertarians in every state all the people who are running I met a bunch of candidates tonight and thank you Texas for running candidates because a lot of states don’t do that my whole campaign is to get National media attention for the libertarian party so that people know what the hell a Libertarian is that we’re not a libtard or a Maga who smokes dope that people go to the polls and say I want to vote for a Libertarian and the way that we’re going to do that is we’re going to cause a contingent election on Election night and people are going to go across the map and it’s going to be California is blue and Texas is red and Florida is red and what the hell is this gold crap doing on the map okay and that is going to give us the win that we so rightly deserve that is going to give us the credibility that we need that is going to give us for the next four years all the candidates running I would vote for you but you can’t win oh crap you won now I will vote for you right this is what’s going to get it and I am getting this right now the Donald Trump called the government of Nebraska to get rid of the split electoral vote which is exactly what I’m doing after I’m on radio with smirk Onish right this we can do I went to Maine because this is where I want to go and they didn’t have ballot access so I G gave them $225,000 and hired a bunch of people with Bill redpath and Richard Winger and the and the chair of Main and I got them ballot access major party status without me doing that we wouldn’t have this okay the National Party All put also put money in and thank thank you for to them for that but look this is totally achievable we only need to win 250,000 votes I have people on the ground in Nebraska and Maine we’re setting up shop right now I’m not waiting for the general election I’m already on the ground I have a huge team of people 200 volunteers tons of paid staff I have one of the best if not the best staff in in the presidential race I put 700 Grand into my campaign so far and when I win the general I am going to put another $100,000 a month in and I have lots of donors ready to go with pack money to get this thing we can win this I just need you to show up in Washington DC for me vote first round as a delegate go to ls2.com check it out I need you to help me thank you Mike and you have to be a little shorter than LS because I was I want him to have ballot access but microphone access not just kidding thank you we all do appreciate everything the Lars has done for ballot access he’s thrown some significant money at it and I don’t want to diminish that in any way but I got to draw the line at saying you got the better team uh I got a lot of people at home are going to be pretty pissed if I don’t stand up for our team the the truth of the matter is that we’ve got 20 professionals paid I know not enough don’t don’t start calling me right now I know that we don’t pay them enough but we have 20 professionals on our team because we’re actually ready for the general election and the reason that we’re ready is because we take this very seriously I’m sure many of you know Jim turny he has been on our team for over two years uh he has a past uh lnc chairman twice elected who has just uh come on board our team fulltime to lead the charge going into the general election we’ve got a pack about to be ready to Lin up uh we’ve got a book out you can see it for n bucks on Amazon.com or at the table we’ve got an artificial intelligence bot up and running you’ve seen it in its beta phase it’s about to come out in its Final Phase it’s going to blow the lid off of this election we take this very seriously and the reason we do is because it is up to us as Libertarians to represent the interest of a lot of people around the United States who can’t even spell libertarianism that don’t know that there is a Libertarian party remember this isn’t about you and me you already knew it wasn’t about me this is not about the people that we know this is about people all over the United States who cannot stand up who are the least able among us to stand up to the force of the federal government least able to withstand the idea that they should be taxed to death we need to represent these people okay I thought this was three minutes a little little bit more can have a little bit more I’ve had 1 minute and 53 seconds okay okay well you you wasted all that time there go ahead go ahead finish it I pushed the button when Lars stopped talking okay God don’t push the button Okay the reason we’re in this the way we are is because we believe that to actually disrupt the American political duopoly is going to require a very competitively credible campaign we lean very hard into my own personal background of public service and public policy as a police officer for 11 and a half years until just a couple of years ago I learned the hard way and in some ways the easy way of what it takes to actually change our Criminal Justice System we need profound change and when a police officer talks about it it matters and when an economist talks about how we need to change the way we spend money in the white house and on Capital Hill people listen that’s why we’re in it to win it and that’s how we’re going to change American politics thanks a lot thank you so I started this journey run for president in Adelaide Texas that was the first place I traveled to to meet with Libertarians and talk about the message of Freedom I’ve been all through the state of Texas I’ve been to Fort Worth Dallas Austin San Antonio El Paso uh uh I’m missing one abalene absolutely and now I’m here in Corpus Christie why because I believe in being a candidate with the energy and enthusiasm to put our message board I’m going to be a 50 state candidate in about 2 weeks traveling to all 50 states in this country putting a bold libertarian message forward so voters can see that there’s somebody other than Donald Trump running for and and Joe Biden running for president voters are sick and tired of being sick and tired and we need to harness that energy and bring them into the tent and we need to do that with an Evangelical style of being a Libertarian what is your libertarian issue and you come on it are you are you against money being taken out of your pocket to go kill babies overseas with bombs welcome to Liberty are you tired of seeing people being put in cages or having to climb under Barb Wire to seek freedom for their own lives welcome to Liberty are you tired of imminent domain stealing your land to build a wall or a pipeline through your farm welcome home to Liberty whatever your issue is we want to bring you into the tent and we want to connect your libertarian issue with the greater philosophy of Liberty that is how we build a foundation that lasts for our party that’s how we get new members new enthusiasm that’s how we elect Libertarians all over the country that’s how we build our foundation to last and that’s what I’m committed to doing in this party if I am our nominee I have metrics of Victory other than winning the White House I want to see how many states can we win or maintain ballot access so Libertarians can continue to run in those races all over the country I want to see how many states can we win major party status that gives us primary access or the increased media attention that we deserve I want to see how many local Libertarians I can get out and knock on doors just like Ryan Woodcraft in El Paso I’m going to be out there knocking on doors for him and candidates all over the country because I want to help push them across the Finish Line to Victory and lastly I want to double our party’s membership and hold it for the next four years I’m committing myself not just to be the candidate through November but to stay deeply involved in this party to make sure everybody who clicks I’m interested in Chase knows when their next affiliate meeting is and if there’s not an affiliate where they’re at let’s get them started building one that is how we build our foundation up so we can tear the state down Brick by Brick I need your help to get this done I’m hoping that we have a whole lot of Texas delegates who are ready to shake up the political system get out there and support Oliver for presid at our national Convention if you want to join this movement the largest number of volunteers the most miles traveled the most Med earned and donors in all 50 states plus d you go to vote Chase oliver.com and join the movement I’ll walk right alongside you and fight for liberty every single day thank you thank you a big round of applause to all of our candidates thank you so much I believe we’re going to do meet and greet I thank you thank you thank you so much for that that was wonderful much better than I even expected thank you Liz face Lars Mike Michael thank you so much for that really appreciate it delegates uh who are in the room tonight we are working on getting a list of the delegates who attended this be watching your email for an Opa vote um email for a an exit poll um thank you so much for being here tonight everybody I hope you enjoyed it and as much as I did and yeah get all get all your pictures I want to say something to the this is not about me this is about all gentlemen here we get along we love each all of them I just want you to know that thank you [Applause] [Applause] Charles he a great guy he’s a great libertarian a great also [Applause] [Music]

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Video Duration: 01:36:12