Chase Oliveris not everybodys cup of tea.
Trump wasroundly booedwhen he spoke at the Libertarian convention in May.
Rolling Stonespoke to Oliver at length on Monday.
Libertarian Party 2024 presidential nominee Chase Oliver speaks with attendees during the Libertarian National Convention at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., May 26, 2024.Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP
The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.
Youre not going to be on the debate stage, but give us your opening statement.
First and foremost, the two-party system is broken.
That leads us to further division and further polarization.
We want to remove governments impact on our lives as much as possible.
Not mine, and not the federal governments.
Why is Trump the wrong guy, from your perspective?
Look at his governing style, which is quite erratic, and chaotic.
This is because he doesnt stand on any one principled position.
The last idea that gets whispered into his ear is the next idea that Trump comes up with.
This is why you have erratic foreign policy.
And you have economic protectionism.
Take these tariffs, which he claims are a tax on China or others.
The truth is that tariffs will always be a tax on the American consumer and the American businesses.
I cannot stand somebody who makes false promises.
Trump promised he was going to cut the debt in half in eight years.
He is inherently dishonest.
And thats not good in a leader.
Things like price controls, which will always inevitably lead to shortages.
Shes talking about outlawing price gouging.
That is its own form of price control.
The math just doesnt math there.
It still adds to the debts and deficits that are the primary driver of inflation.
I find the Democrats to be just as much a part of this divisive system as the Republicans are.
There are states where Democrats have beensuingto keep candidates off the ballot.
People will call you a spoiler.
If youre not running to try and win, youre not doing it right.
Im an advocate for things like ranked-choice voting.
But I cant give that to the voters because Im just Chase Oliver the Libertarian candidate.
Dont blame us for the system that we have.
How much would you downsize federal government?
You want to get rid of the Department of Education, for example.
Are there any departments or agencies you would keep?
If I could wave a magic wand, I would bring us to the minarchist ideal.
Im sorry, the what ideal?
So you know anarchy?
Minarchy is the minimum amount of government.
That is the ideal.
But I dont think, even if I were president for 20 years, we would get to it.
I would like to wholesale get rid of a lot of departments.
What would I keep?
Not much else, really.
No, I dont think you better have an EPA.
Theres nothing in the Constitution that empowers an EPA.
If pollution wants to be checked, it has to be by government at a state or local level.
Dont I have a liberty interest in having my neighbors not pollute?
Oh, theres absolutely a need to have clean air, clean water, and stop pollution.
One of the best ways to facilitate that is to remove tort caps [i.e.
Instead of giving them a slap on the wrist boom give them metaphorical punch to the face.
And the state just had a school shooting.
What is your policy solution to addressing that?
We need to address two things.
One, we need to make our schools more secure by hardening the target.
Weve had guns in our society for a long period of time.
Guns are nothing new to the American experience.
But mass shootings at schools?
Columbine thats when we really started seeing the growth of this.
So gun regulation is not part of your menu?
I do believe in the Second Amendment.
I believe in being a responsible parent.
Theres some responsibility there for parents to have better purview over their kids.
But no I dont think theres a need for outright gun bans because of this.
Are there limits to the Second Amendment, or is it absolute?
Like if I can get a rocket launcher, is that cool with you?
Hey as long as youre not shooting people with it, yeah.
What about if I could get a pocket nuke?
I get asked all the time about nuclear weapons.
And I dont think government should have nuclear weapons.
So I dont think people should either.
Is there no theoretical upper limit, is what Im getting at.
Can get my hands on an Abrams tank?
As long as its not used to harm anybody.
The action comes when you harm people with it.
Owning it, having it, merely, that does not necessitate a harm against somebody.
And any further regulation, you would have to amend the Constitution.
You mentioned that the federal government shouldnt have nuclear weapons, but youre a big booster of nuclear power.
Why champion an energy source thats expensive and at times dangerous?
Take Fukushima as a recent example.
We have to examine why nuclear is so expensive.
Its due to the regulatory red tape thats been put around it.
As far as safety, nuclear power is far safer than coal, natural gas, or oil.
It has far less environmental damage.
And so theres a lot of areas where I find nuclear to be a really great alternative.
If you look at the market economics behind renewables, theyre incredibly cheap and getting cheaper.
Im not championing one over the other.
Your platform quotes you as saying, Nuclear power is what we need to power the 21st century.
That seems like a championing.
But may the best technology win.
Youve blamed inflation on the federal money machine going whir.
But weve recently learned that Kroger was using supply chain disruptions to gouge customers on basic goods.
Dont consumers deserve some protection, and shouldnt that come from their government?
But the understanding is this behavior was pervasive.
CEOs even bragged about it on their earnings calls.
Customers have been hit with greed-flation in the extreme over the last several years.
We dont need to be having government setting price controls, which is what anti-price gouging laws are.
Anti-gouging laws lead to shortages in emergencies.
Thats just the plain truth whenever we interject ourselves we create problems in the marketplace.
I would like to keep the governments hand out of it as much as possible.
Talk to me about your criminal justice platform.
It starts with things like ending qualified immunity for police.
I believe that law enforcement should have to hold liability insurance.
In a local instance, this would mean, the lawsuit money would come from a private insurance policy.
It takes the politics completely out of it.
Just, Hey, youre uninsurable, you cant be a cop anymore.
This would create much better policing.
We need to join most of the rest of the world, and outlaw the death penalty.
Its like us, China, North Korea, and a few other nations.
We want to be on the list of the nations that dont have a death penalty.
Whats your view about how people should relate to their government in terms of their health?
Im a big supporter of medical freedom.
Obviously, as a Libertarian, that should be no surprise.
You should be able to control the vaccines you take that you have your children take.
I am pro-choice, with regards to abortion, to the point of viability.
Post viability, theres the standard of health or life of the mother that should be honored and respected.
In general we need to deregulate the health care marketplace.
Things like being able to buy health insurance across state lines.
Removal of caps for health savings accounts.
Things like being able to buy drugs across international boundaries that would lower the cost of drugs.
Or if you were able to allow generics to come online, you would see the cost drastically reduced.
Your platform says every state should have the right to exit from its present constitutional subjugation.
Is that an allowance for Texas to become its own country?
That is what I mean.
I do believe that if the state wanted to leave, they should be allowed to voluntarily do so.
I dont think its really a good idea, personally, in most cases.
But we do reserve the rights for states to exit out of the agreement if they want.
So thats not something that I really think most voters are really stressing about in 2024.
Sounds a little bit like Alabama could go back to Jim Crow if it wanted.
There are definitely civil rights being violated under Jim Crow.
Theres a reason why it doesnt exist anymore.
Explain what you mean about nullifying federal legislation.
If you were the governor of Georgia, what federal legislation would you nullify?
Again, not something most voters are super concerned about.
Its on your platform and honestly its the most concerning idea in there.
The Libertarian platform, correct?
Ive grown up during the War on Terror years.
My worldview has been informed by how the government has been acting, mostly, since 2001.
The candidates who are older are still living in the Cold War mindset.
