A few hours after Kennedy spoke, Vivek Ramaswamy gave a much shorter speech, followed by an on-stage discussion with two Libertarians.  In his youth, he was a Libertarian rap artist, not  becoming a Republican until 2021.  His biggest problem was explaining why he supported Donald Trump even though he disagreed with him on major policies relevant to Libertarians.  Those efforts were his boo-times.  Of the three “outside” candidates for President, Vivek was by far the most vivacious.

 

Present in name but not in body at these speeches were Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Ross Ulbricht.  Snowden is under indictment for espionage for releasing classified information on surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency.  He received asylum in Russia in 2013 and became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2022.  Julian Assange published Wikileaks, which released numerous amounts of classified information supplied by others.  Less known is Ross Ulbricht, who ran a dark website called Silk Road, which facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services.  He was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.

 

Libertarians do not believe these men are criminals.  The libertarian concept of liberty includes their actions.  There was a major campaign to “Free Ross” at the LNC, complete with table, buttons and posters.  In his speech, Kennedy specifically said he would pardon Snowden and drop charges against Assange, but he didn’t mention Ulbricht. Trump didn’t mention Snowden or Assange, but said he would commute Ulbricht’s sentence, while adding that he would pardon the Jan. 6 rioters.

 

After Trump finished speaking, three Libertarian candidates for President took the stage to denounce him for being a war criminal.  Chase Oliver, Michael Rectenwald and Mike ter Maat pointed out that when Trump was President, he did nothing to relieve the legal burden on Snowden and Assange or to commute Ulbricht’s life sentence.

 

Those three plus Joshua Smith, Charles Ballay and Lars Mapstead debated each other on the stage of the Libertarian Convention as part of its regular business.  At the end of the convention, Chase Oliver was chosen to be the candidate of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States.  He supported Barack Obama in 2008 but left the Democratic Party because it wasn’t opposed to war.  He ran for Congress in 2020 and Senate in Georgia in 2022 as the Libertarian candidate, receiving about two percent of the vote each time.

 

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