RFK’s Libertarian moment

The 2024 Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, unsurprisingly attracted a quirky bunch. Attendees would find themselves greeted by a man wearing a “Fuck Vaccines” shirt (not that odd) that was doing some squats in the lobby (pretty odd).

Also overheard in the lobby, a weird flex: “I read Mises before I was twenty” — and then an even weirder one: “I grew up without AC, a very libertarian upbringing.”

“Ermmm, konnichiwa actually means good afternoon,” one lady told her interlocutor.

Last cycle’s Libertarian vice-presidential candidate Spike Cohen told The Spectator, “It is useful to have Donald Trump…

The 2024 Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, unsurprisingly attracted a quirky bunch. Attendees would find themselves greeted by a man wearing a “Fuck Vaccines” shirt (not that odd) that was doing some squats in the lobby (pretty odd).

Also overheard in the lobby, a weird flex: “I read Mises before I was twenty” — and then an even weirder one: “I grew up without AC, a very libertarian upbringing.”

“Ermmm, konnichiwa actually means good afternoon,” one lady told her interlocutor.

Last cycle’s Libertarian vice-presidential candidate Spike Cohen told The Spectator, “It is useful to have Donald Trump speak, only if our candidate speaks right after him and rebuts him. Same with RFK. We should be leveraging them for attention, not the reverse.”

“They are here only to take votes,” Cohen added.

Chase Oliver, a former Senate candidate seeking the Libertarian presidential nomination, shared similar thoughts. “The Libertarian Party is ultimately an anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian party,” he said. “If you are looking for someone to represent that brand, Kennedy is not the person you want to go with. He’s been part of the political elite his entire life.”

He was more blunt in speaking on Trump: “This is probably the first time we’ve had a war criminal on our stage.”

Dylan Allman of American Values 2024, a pro-Kennedy Super PAC, sarcastically told The Spectator that “the critics do have a point. Robert Kennedy is by definition a statist — like literally everybody, unless you believe in zero government, period.” He also rejected accusations that RFK was “using” the Libertarian Party’s platform. “He was invited to this event, not the other way around,” Allman said.

Dave Smith, a comedian who recently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on X, said that he welcomes both Trump and Kennedy because of the relevance they can bring to the libertarians. “A lot of the former candidates and current candidates were like, ‘oh, they’re using us, we shouldn’t let them use us!’ As opposed to what? As opposed to just doing what the Libertarian Party has always done — just losing and being irrelevant.”

Kennedy’s speech, which began almost an hour late, was a masterclass in appealing to the crowd. “As everyone in this room knows, government doesn’t like to limit itself,” he said early on to laughter. Most of the speech focused on the Bill of Rights and the principles attached to it. He brought up in chronological order events in which the government has “gone too far,” starting with the Red Scare and ending with the Covid pandemic. “Maybe a brain worm ate that part of my memory,” he joked after mentioning the series of government-sponsored abuses.

Referencing the likes of Aldous Huxley, George Mason and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RFK delivered an address that captivated the nerds and the activists in the audience. “There has been no time when we look back at history and say that the people censoring speech were the good guys,” Kennedy said. Challenging Trump, who has skirted around these subjects, Kennedy said “On my first day of office, I will pardon Edward Snowden and drop all charges on Julian Assange.” The crowd, including Assange’s brother, who we also talked to, went crazy.

Whatever you think about Kennedy, what was clear from today is that he is knowledgeable and knows how to appeal to his audience. No wonder why neither Trump nor Biden want him on the debate stage.

–Juan P. Villasmil

On our radar

BIDEN’S MEME TEAM The Biden campaign is reportedly looking to hire a “meme manager” with a potential salary of $85,000 a year. The job description says the manager will collaborate with podcasters, digital-media companies and large meme pages.

ALL MY HOMIES HATE TICKETMASTER The Department of Justice filed court documents against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, accusing it of violating terms of its anti-trust agreement. Ticketmaster controls about 80 percent of ticketing for major concert venues and has been known for its high fees.

MEDIA TATTERS Left-wing watchdog group Media Matters, which has led advertiser boycotts against conservative media outlets and personalities, laid off dozens of employees Thursday. Management blamed Elon Musk’s defamation lawsuit and federal probes into alleged data manipulation for the cuts.

Big problems for the Big Ten

The latest salvo of Republican-on-college president violence saw some strange alliances form: a Hoosier and a Michigander teamed up to defend Northwestern University’s now-fired football coach.

Congressmen Jim Banks and Tim Walberg set aside their regional rivalries to note that the Illinois-based school’s leadership under president Michael Schill was quicker to fire Pat Fitzgerald, its longtime football coach, amid allegations of hazing, than it was to get its house in order amidst weeks of on-campus occupations.

Walberg, commenting on Schill’s “cowardice,” said that Northwestern gives due process for “students and faculty engaged in antisemitic behavior; yet, in a very high-profile instance, [did not] extend due process to Pat Fitzgerald.”

Schill was hauled before Congress in the wake of his illegal creation of Palestinian-only scholarships — a move he granted following weeks of an occupation of his quad by protesters who demanded that the school cut off Israeli institutions and stop investing in defense contractors.

Except, when testifying under oath, Schill seemed to deny the existence of a document posted by the school he runs that committed to “providing full cost of attendance for five Palestinian undergraduates to attend Northwestern for the duration of their undergraduate careers.” In response to a question about this commitment, Schill dissembled: “um, I did not commit, I don’t know, uh, who told you that.” Stefanik responded that she is “reading your words put out by your office.”

By the end of the hearing, Schill seemed hell-bent on proving that he shouldn’t be in charge of a gas station bathroom, let alone a purportedly prestigious university. In response to questions from Congressman Burgess Owens about his school’s formal partnership with the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera, he said that he “in fact, just found out about that last week.” Owens pressed Schill about his school’s relationship with Qatar while sitting in front of a massive check for $600 million, which represents the massive influx of cash the school has received in recent years from the country that continues to harbor Hamas’s leadership.

These hearings are, of course, great for TV, but also come with potential financial ramifications for the schools that appear. Banks himself said that “Northwestern’s president is refusing to fire antisemitic, criminal faculty members. Why should he keep getting nearly $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies a year?”

But outside the committee’s walls, Speaker Mike Johnson floated an even broader policy idea at Israel’s Independence Day celebration: the full elimination of federal funds to schools that “can’t stand for the basic fundamental freedoms of their students,” and an investigation of student visas of pro-terrorist foreign students.

To no one’s surprise, Stefanik called on Schill to resign following the hearing. Given her success at forcing regime change in the Ivy League, it won’t surprise anyone if she can tear through the Big Ten next.

–Matthew Foldi

Flippy Nikki

Nikki Haley went from “I feel no need to kiss the ring” to “so, I will be voting for Trump.”

After declaring that Trump was too chaotic, old and unhinged to beat Biden, and after dismissing his “nasty campaign,” Haley announced her decision to vote for Trump on Wednesday — though she hasn’t officially endorsed him yet.

If Trump wins, Haley is likely to work in the Trump administration for a second time.

“I think she’s going to be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts,” Trump told Long Island’s News 12 on Thursday. “I appreciated what she said. You know, we had a nasty campaign, it was pretty nasty. But she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form, absolutely.”

Trump mentioned Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and J.D. Vance as possible VP picks, but left Haley out of the specific listing.

–Ella Johnson