Bill Weld: Libertarian Ticket is Performing Service to Americans, Republican Party
Libertarian vice presidential nominee Bill Weld isn’t worried about detracting votes from the Republican and Democratic parties this November. Instead, Weld says, by running for office he and his running mate, Gary Johnson, are helping Americans.
“I think Gary Johnson and I on the Libertarian ticket are performing a major public service, maybe even a service to the Republican Party, by offering an alternative that is fiscally responsible and pro-free trade. That sounds like the Republican Party, or it should be the Republican Party.”
Weld blames both the Republican and Democratic parties for “poisoning the atmosphere” on Capitol Hill over the last 15 years.
“The problem this year in the election is not third-parties,” he said. “It’s the Republican party and the Democratic party who think they have a right to a monopoly in Washington, D.C. and all they’ve done the last 15 years is poison the atmosphere down there and get more and more extreme—both parties—and be obsessed with reelection.”
In the event that he and Johnson aren’t elected, Weld said he would still remain an “interested observer” and that he would help the next president if called upon.
“I will keep on my big ‘L’ hat because I think the Libertarians are the closest to my personal beliefs,” Weld said. “I never agreed with the movement conservative social positions of the Republican Party. In the old days under Reagan we would joke about it. Half of us were Libertarians, half were movement conservatives. It’s no joke anymore, it’s poisonous down there. So I would be one trying to turn back the clock to the days when people listened to each other down in Washington, D.C. and I would offer the new president my services from the outside to the extent I could be helpful to move that ball.”