Libertarian VP Candidate Weld Now Openly Campaigning For Hillary
“I’m here vouching for Mrs. Clinton”
Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld has apparently given up campaigning for himself and Gary Johnson, instead opting to sing the praises of Hillary Clinton on the Rachel Maddow show.
Real Clear Politics reports:
Libertarian VP Candidate Weld: “I’m Here Vouching For Mrs. Clinton And I Think It’s High Time Somebody Did”
Fmr. Gov. and Libertarian party vice presidential candidate for president William Weld defended Hillary Clinton in an interview with Rachel Maddow. Weld, ignoring fundraising attempts by his running mate at the top of the ticket, Gary Johnson, said it is “high time” somebody defends the Democratic nominee for president and he is here to vouch for her.
WELD: You know in fairness Gary and I have not agreed on a number of substantive issues in this campaign, tax policy, we’ve had some influence on each other, I think I’ve had some influence on him, on constructive engagement around the world, he’s had some influence on me in criminal justice reform issues. We’re talking them through, I talk with Gary every other day we’re on different coasts usually but we keep in touch and yeah, No I do not agree with that release.
MADDOW: And that seems hard like, let me just say as a Massachusetts resident who knows something of your tenure in public life there, I’m in a different place than you ideologically on the number line but I have a lot of respect both for your career and your thoughtfulness and I think that you are, you’re a deep thinker and a clear thinker on these things and I have a lot of respect for you, hope you don’t mind me saying…
WELD Let me button my coat, I sense something’s coming…
MADDOW: I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t tell a person in North Carolina or Ohio to vote for Hillary Clinton if the choice they were making was between giving the Libertarian Party 5% or potentially electing Donald Trump because you guys don’t have a chance against Donald Trump and she does and if they vote for you they would be helping to elect Donald Trump. The Libertarian Party hasn’t treated you great if they’re putting out statements that you disagree with over your name even now, one week before the election I can’t imagine that your loyalty to them is stronger than your fear of Trump as a President.
WELD: Well I’m here vouching for Mrs. Clinton and I think it’s high time somebody did and I’m doing it based on my personal experience with her and I think she deserves to have people vouch for her other than members of the Democratic National Committee so I’m here to do that.
Here’s the video:
Allahpundit of Hot Air explains what’s really going on here:
Between this, Weld’s other quasi-endorsements of Clinton over the last few weeks, Johnson’s various brain farts in interviews this summer and fall (Aleppo-related and otherwise), and his weird eruptions of temper in encounters with reporters, the Libertarian ticket this year is pretty much a total debacle, huh?
Actual libertarians, which Weld is not, are naturally unhappy with this appearance but it’s the logical conclusion of Weld’s drift over the final month of the campaign. He sees the race tightening, he knows any chance of a splashy double-digit showing next week for the Libertarian Party is gone, and he’s getting nervous that he and Johnson are going to end up “Nader-ing” Clinton. If the plane’s going to crash anyway, he’d rather turn it into a kamikaze mission against Trump.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Neither Weld nor Johnson are there running for Libertarian principles or policies. Like the candidacy of “Eggs McMuffin”, their sole goal is, and has always been, the election of Hillary Clinton.
Just in – Mayor McCheese campaigning for Hillary after revealing his good friend the Hamburgler is a paid consultant to the Clinton Foundation.
Subotoi, thanks for saying that. I’ve never understood how Johnson got through the screening process to become the nominee. A libertarian who doesn’t believe in religious liberty (Sisters of the Poor)…??
Libertarian. Liberty. Hey, I’m stupid, but those words look mighty similar and I reckon it’s not a coincidence.
[btw, are you blogging anywhere? I used to follow you over on Belmont before they stupidly disappeared all the old comments. You made some great arguments, and I miss the days of settling in with a good cup of coffee to read you. Hope you are well]
Libertarian of the Pro-Choice or “=” variety, but without “benefits”. Where do they go after Obama? I guess Clinton is the amoral choice who will preserve the status quo.
I am not a lawyer, but it looks like people who donated to his campaign for VP have been defrauded. He induced people to donate to the Johnson/Weld campaign, but here his is campaigning for the Democrat Party candidate. Maybe it is not fraud in the legal sense, I don’t know, but I’d be pretty upset if I had donated to his and Johnson’s campaign.
I liked Johnson in 2012. Since then, he’s stepped into the mainstream establishment and taken three giant leaps to the left. He’s not a libertarian; he’s a Democrat-Lite.
But Bill Weld’s pro-Hillary campaign is not working. In North Carolina, at least, polling shows Johnson/Weld lost 5 points, Trump gained 5 points, and Hillary remained stagnant. This indicates that Libertarians are largely breaking for Trump, and in greater numbers than the Dems would gain if ALL of Jill Stein’s support suddenly broke for Hillary.
He is having some trouble with his puddle.
Is he trying to set a record for backing the most losers, in one election cycle?
“Libertarian”
Have another drink governor.
This clown endorsed Obama in 2008 and Romney in 2012. Libertarians obviously have no idea how the world actually works.
The system is rigged!
Weld is screwing every Libertarian supporting person across the country. If he wanted to support Crooked then he should not have accepted the VP spot with Johnson.
Weld is a so called republican before he became a turncoat.
This conduct is just one more reason why Trump beat 16 republicans and has the nomination.
Weld is has has been a RINO!
I search in vain for a Libertarian who actually follows libertarian principles, in fact, I don’t think there are any actual libertarians. I think a couple of newspaper editors out in flyover country drink beer and giggle over their hoax, the Libertarian Party.
I imagine it depends somewhat on your definition of “libertarian” (which is a substantial part of the party’s problem; there’s no consistency), but it’s mostly because you’re looking for “small-l” libertarians in a field of “large-L” Libertarians.
It’s like trying to find real conservatives in the Republican Party. They are everywhere on the ground; the only place you don’t find them is in politics. Anyone who follows the principles won’t make it past the primary for county dog catcher, let alone Senator.
When part of the principles says the government should leave us alone to live as we choose, we tend to be loathe to join that government and impose our will on society. It’s hard to fight to win a government position that deep down you don’t think should exist (not in an anarchic sense, merely one that believes the government is too big as-is).
It’s counterproductive — we’ll never successfully push for smaller government from the outside — but there it is.
I read your post and I think of Senators Cruz and Lee, and House Rep Gomert, and many others in congress, and I think of the 2010 and 2014 mid-term elections, and the steadily increasing victories of conservatives at the state level, and how the Tea Party positions and principles have outlasted and grown despite TP orgs coming and going, and… sorry, but your post just doesn’t compute for me.
I believe that today’s Libertarian is akin to the “anti-federalists” at the founding of our nation. Both were/are vehement backers of individual liberty, and both were/are unable to successfully pare off the onslaught of incrementalism.
You have to be a RINO to be elected Governor of MA as a Republican.
I think of Weld as a slightly more intelligent Lincoln Chafee. Weld simply never officially switched parties.
With Libertarians like this, who need statists?
(trying again)
Libertarians want smaller government that interferes with our lives less often.
Hillary wants a bigger government that interferes with our lives whenever she wants.
Having Weld endorse Hillary is like a vegetarian eating an entire side of beef, raw.
Of course, that only applies if Weld is really a Libertarian.
They were never “Libertarian” other than in name only.
Truly, they were “Libertine LiberalLite”.
And clearly, Weld has always been a Democrat operative.
As a former Libertarian and now a Tea Partier, I always knew that both Johnson and Weld were not Libertarians. All you have to do is look at their records.
I, Libertarian-leaning, was not upset by Johnson’s Aleepo gaff — why should a presidential candidate who is opposed to foreign entanglements know about a pimple somewhere, over which the US has no legitimate interests? If only Johnson was a real Libertarian.
Have to say, one of the more amusing spectacles this election was watching Libertarians attempt to justify their support of Hillary Clinton.
“Yes, we Libertarians are going to elect an Authoritarian. On principle….”
The late Harry Brown, who was the Libertarian candidate in 1996 and 2000, was a true libertarian. He was steeped in political philosophy, articulate,and and true gentleman. The Libertarian party left libertarianism behind after Brown. It’s a shame, because this should have been the perfect storm to launch libertarianism into the mainstream, but alas, we get a Johnson/Weld ticket who don’t believe in libertarian principles and have finished off what principled thinkers like Harry Brown worked so hard to lay down a foundation for.
“because this should have been the perfect storm to launch libertarianism”
Yup, that’s my major gripe with them – this should have been their season. They finally get their shot, get called into the game for the 4th Quarter, and they fumbled away the first snap.
I can’t be a libertarian because I find their foreign policy to be hopelessly naive about what its like out there in the world. But I was hoping for a viable 3rd party to counter the GOP Establishment taking the base for granted.
And the Libertarian Party didn’t even work out in the off season.
btw, how counter-intuitive is it for Libertarian policy to be a retreat from the Jihad to shelter behind the walls of a police state? Because its either one or the other:
1) we take the fight overseas to Islam
2) or we hunker down and play defense, with Big Brother monitoring our every move for potential terror activity.
It’s hard to believe that at one time some here viewed them as an alternative to Trump for conservatives.