New Hampshire Libertarian Party slammed for ‘abhorrent’ post about Harris
Chase Oliver, 2024 Libertarian presidential candidate, speaks at the Des Moines Register political soapbox during the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, US, on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Libertarian Party nominee for president Chase Oliver condemned a reportedly now-deleted comment from the New Hampshire Libertarian Party on X that appeared to encourage violence against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Oliver called the NHLP’s post “abhorrent” in his statement shared on X Sunday.
“I 100% condemn the statement from LPNH regarding Kamala Harris. It is abhorrent and should never have been posted,” Oliver wrote.
A New Hampshire reporter shared a screenshot of the since-deleted NHLP post, which reportedly read, “Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.”
The NHLP addressed removing an earlier X post on Sunday, writing, “We deleted a tweet because we don’t want to break the terms of this website we agreed to. It’s a shame that even on a “free speech” website that libertarians cannot speak freely. Libertarians are truly the most oppressed minority.”
Oliver went on to say in his statement that his party is committed to “non-aggression.” Chase Oliver, 2024 Libertarian presidential candidate, speaks at the Des Moines Register political soa…
“As Libertarians, we condemn the use of force, whether committed by governments, individuals, or other political entities,” he continued. “We are dedicated to the principle of non-aggression and to peaceful solutions to conflict. This is also something we pledge as part of attaining party membership.”
Following the posting of his statement, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire responded with a homophobic slur in a series of posts, accusing Oliver of being an “infiltrating leftist snake.”
The LPNH has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — A presidential election tradition dating back to 1960 brought some laughs in New York City on Thursday night, but for the first time in 40 years, only one candidate will be on the dias.
Former President Donald Trump spoke at the New York Archdiocese’s annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the New York Hilton, where he was joined by his wife Melania Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris announced last month that she could not attend due to a conflicting campaign event but appeared at the dinner in a video.
“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” a campaign official told ABC News on Sept. 23.
The vice president campaigned in Wisconsin on Thursday.
Trump alternated between making jokes about Harris and some of the other attendees and the regular lines that he uses while campaigning, but he did acknowledged the event’s tradition of self-deprecating jokes and said one was coming before admitting, “Ah, I got nothing.”
Harris appeared in her video with “Saturday Night Live” character Mary Katherine Gallagher, played by Molly Shannon as an awkward Catholic school girl who dreams of being a superstar.
Harris asked Mary Katherine for advice on how to address the Catholic gathering.
“Is there anything that you think that maybe I shouldn’t bring up tonight?”
“Um, well, don’t lie,” Mary Katherine replied. “Thou shalt not bear false witness to thy neighbor.”
“Indeed, especially thy neighbor’s election results,” Harris said.
Trump chastised Harris in a Truth Social post before the event for not showing up.
“They didn’t give me the option of a video message, nor would I have done it. This is very disrespectful to everyone involved,” he said adding that Harris should lose the Catholic vote over this.
After Harris’ video played, Trump repeated that sentiment.
“It’s been a long tradition for both Democrat and Republican candidates for president of the United States to attend this dinner. Always. It’s a rule. Otherwise, bad things are going to happen to you from up there,” he said. “You can’t do what I just saw on that screen. But, my opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular, to our great Catholic community. Very disrespectful.”
Later, mentioning the charity behind the dinner, Trump took another shot at Harris, saying, “I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis, and she would have been here, guaranteed.”
Since 1960, the black-tie event has hosted both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and allowed them to “share self-deprecating humor” and raise money for the archdiocese’s charitable organizations.
It is named in honor of Alfred E. Smith, the former New York governor who was the first Catholic to be nominated to a major party’s presidential ticket.
The last time a presidential candidate could not attend the dinner was in 1984, when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale bowed out.
The event was emceed by comedian Jim Gaffigan, who currently plays Gov. Tim Walz on “Saturday Night Live.”
Trump confirmed his attendance in a Truth Social post on Sept. 23, not long after Harris’ campaign announced she would not show up.
“It’s sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend,” he said in the post.
In the same post, Trump accused Harris of being anti-Catholic and repeated past claims, without evidence, that the administration was persecuting Catholics. President Joe Biden is the second Catholic president in American history and attends mass weekly.
In the past, the presidential candidates have roasted each other and appeared to be in good spirits throughout the night. However, things were different in 2016, the last time both of the presidential candidates attended the event in person.
Trump was booed during his 2016 Al Smith dinner speech for repeatedly attacking Sec. of State Hilary Clinton.
During Clinton’s remarks, the Democratic nominee made some self-deprecating jokes about her stamina and paid speeches, before turning her attention to Trump, where she jabbed him on everything from his temperament to his ties to Russia.
Trump did not laugh or appear to be amused by his opponent’s jokes.
ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON, D.C) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in portions of a New York Times podcast interview published Friday, blamed Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss on President Joe Biden’s late exit from the presidential race and the lack of Democratic primary.
Pelosi told Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of “The Interview,” that “had the president [Biden] gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” the paper said in a story about the Thursday interview. The exchange won’t be posted in full until Saturday.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi said.
“And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different,” she added.
As ABC News has reported, Pelosi worked behind the scenes to urge Biden to drop out of the presidential race following his performance at CNN’s debate.
The Times reported Pelosi also took issue with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders saying, after Harris’ loss, that “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
“Bernie Sanders has not won,” she said. “With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him, for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class families.”
The paper reported she suggested that cultural issues were more to blame for Democrats’ losses among working-class voters.
“Guns, God and gays — that’s the way they say it,” she reportedly said. “Guns, that’s an issue; gays, that’s an issue, and now they’re making the trans issue such an important issue in their priorities; and in certain communities, what they call God, what we call a woman’s right to choose.”
(PENNSYLVANIA) — From the moment he arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after being named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, it was clear that one of Sen. JD Vance’s primary roles was to help deliver battleground Pennsylvania for the former president.
The day Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick in July, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl that he was “going to leave [Vance] in Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania’s importance in this election can’t be overstated — it’s a crucial swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Whoever wins the state is very likely win the presidential election. During the 2020 election, Pennsylvania was the state that sealed the presidency for President Joe Biden.
It is essentially a dead heat between Harris and Trump, with the former president barely leading Harris 47.9% to 47.8%, according 538’s latest polling average in the state.
The importance of Pennsylvania and other critical Rust Belt battleground states was reiterated in Vance’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July.
“I promise you one more thing, to the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance, and Ohio native, said at the RNC.
Vance’s background is similar to those who live in Pennsylvania, which he shared in his book, “Hillbilly Elegy” and talks about often on the campaign trail.
Over the past few months, Vance has worked hard to court voters in Pennsylvania. When visiting the state, he often emphasizes his background growing up in the Rust Belt state of Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania, and touches on the top issues important voters in the state. That Rust Belt connection is something the Trump campaign is banking on to help the former president win in the state.
“JD Vance is more than just an eloquent voice on the campaign trail to break down how Kamala broke everything from our economy to our southern border, and how President Trump will fix it and get our country back on track,” Kush Desai, the Trump campaign’s Pennsylvania spokesperson, told ABC News in a statement.
“His upbringing and life story are an inspiration to countless working-class Americans left behind in Kamala’s America who want a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities — Sen. Vance is personal testament to the future that a Trump-Vance administration has in store for our country.”
In the final two days before Election Day, Vance will have visited Pennsylvania twice. It will also be the state where he will hold his final campaign event before Election Day.
Similarly, Harris will also be holding her final campaign event in the state, signifying the critical role the state plays in securing the presidency.
“Harris will spend the day crisscrossing Pennsylvania, making her final pitch to Pennsylvania voters and mobilizing them to return their ballots and get to the polls on Tuesday. The final swing marks the Vice President’s 18th trip to Pennsylvania since launching her candidacy in July,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
Since joining the Republican ticket, Pennsylvania is the state Vance has visited the most, making 16 visits to the state and taking part in a total of 19 campaign events, according to ABC’s tracker of the senator’s campaign schedule. (Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has visited the state nine times, according to ABC’s tracker of his events.)
While campaigning in Pennsylvania, one of the issues Vance often hits on is fracking, an important industry in the state. During her 2020 presidential run, Harris supported a ban on fracking, but has backed away from that stance since becoming the Democratic nominee. Vance has also emphasized the loss of manufacturing jobs, bringing them back from overseas, often arguing that unleashing American energy would drive down the cost of manufacturing.
Will Martin, a spokesperson for Vance, told ABC News in a statement that American working families have been hit hard by the policies of the Biden-Harris administration and has worked to bring Trump’s message to voters in Pennsylvania.
“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we are going to unleash a new golden age of American prosperity and Pennsylvania will be at the center of it all,” Martin told ABC News.
