Gary Johnson Stabs Delegates in the Back: Admits He’ll Abandon Libertarian Party Platform

The Libertarian Party National Convention was met with a wave of attention yesterday after Governor Gary Johnson was elected as the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee, and his running mate Governor Bill Weld received the nod for VP. Media cameras swamped the Rosen Centre Hotel to cover the largest convention in the history of the Libertarian Party.

News of Gary Johnson’s victory made national headlines and was the talk of the town on Sunday, since the 2016 election is slated to see a large outpour of third party support. But in the midst of all the media coverage, one MSNBC article went almost unnoticed, and Gary Johnson was quoted as saying something that may upset a lot of members of the Libertarian Party.

The author writes in her article,

After securing the nomination, Johnson briefly addressed the delegation. In his acceptance speech, Johnson pleaded, repeatedly, to the crowd to select his chosen running mate, focusing on the national notoriety that Weld would bring to the ticket. Johnson suggested Weld would help secure millions in fundraising donations and garner national media attention that no other vice presidential contender would be able to.

Despite Johnson’s words on his behalf, it was unclear whether Weld, who endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president during the Republican primary season, could win the vice presidential nomination, which, like the presidential nomination, is decided by the delegates. The campaign of runner-up presidential candidate, Austin Petersen, made attempts to thwart Weld’s bid in the lobby after Johnson clinched the nomination.

Should the delegates give him his chosen running mate, Johnson seems to understand that it won’t be the party, exactly, he’s bringing into the mainstream, but rather just his ticket.

“This would be a separation from the Libertarian Party, this would be the Johnson campaign organization,” he told NBC News when asked whether the party would be able to lift him through a general election.

But he’s hopeful. If he’s included in the polls, he says, he’ll rise and make the national debate stage (to do that, he’d need to routinely rank at 15 percent in the polls). If he can make the debate stage, then he can bring Libertarian views to the country.

Gary admit to MSNBC that he sold a lie to all of the delegates in Orlando. During the course of his campaign, he asked libertarians and disaffected voters for their support in order to help grow the party and spread libertarian ideals. But Johnson told MSNBC that it is not the party that he cares to elevate, but rather his own name. He has directly stabbed his supporters in the back by admitting that he doesn’t plan on keeping his platform grounded in the Libertarian Party.

It should be noted that Gary’s running mate Bill Weld has an extensive record of supporting gun control as governor of Massachusetts; a position that is at extraordinary odds with libertarianism. At the convention yesterday, Vice Presidential candidate Alicia Dearn brought Weld to the stage to have him promise the audience that he would never betray them. After deflecting the question three times and being met with vociferous boos, Weld reluctantly said that he wouldn’t abandon the party.