Washington Examiner reports:
Tensions rose at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday as delegates filed into a ballroom at a hotel in Washington to hear former President Donald Trump speak.
The delegates, who were told they would have priority seating at the speech, entered the ballroom to find it nearly full.
ADVERTISEMENTEric Bowling, a delegate from Virginia, told the Washington Examiner that delegates, who were conducting convention business in another chamber, ended their official proceedings early to make sure they had seating.
Libertarian National Committee Chairwoman Angela McArdle, who was reelected to her position Saturday, asked the front rows, which held multiple supporters of Trump, to leave their seats to make room for the Libertarian delegates.
“What’s happening right now is not fun,” McArdle said before asking the first four rows to leave their seats. “Those of you who are Donald Trump supporters: I think what I would like to see tonight is for us to all get along and come to an understanding and find areas of agreement even if we don’t agree to vote for the same person.”
Kelsey Lyon, the communications director for Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver, told the Washington Examiner there was no reason that the party’s delegates should not be front and center.
“I mean, there are Trump supporters right in the front row over there, and we were told that we would have priority seating as delegates,” Lyon said.
“As someone who’s been in the Libertarian Party a long time, we fight Joe Biden and Trump on a lot of these issues, right, and we have our own presidential candidate,” Lyon continued. “I don’t want the optics to be we have a room full of MAGA hats, and a room full of people who are supporting him. And when that’s not the case, like, we oppose Trump. I can’t tell you how many times in the meetings between yesterday and today people were angry that Trump is even here.”
Oliver and Lyon were among the members who were not able to find seating upon entering the ballroom.
Travis Lerol, a delegate from Maryland and the state Libertarian treasurer, was seated in the back row of the room.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of upset, and people are feeling like they were robbed of their seats,” he said. “I definitely did not expect to be in the back corner despite getting here early.”
Anger rose again when Michael Rectenwald, another presidential candidate, took the stage. He was met with boos from Trump supporters multiple times as he spoke, including after he said that the former president had a lot to learn.
ADVERTISEMENT“We have a lot to teach Donald Trump,” Rectenwald said. “We don’t know if he has any capacity to learn.”
The room soon devolved into a shouting match between Trump supporters and Libertarian Party members.
“This isn’t your convention,” one Libertarian shouted in between chants of “Trump.”
“Trump did nothing to drain the swamp,” another Libertarian yelled.
MSN adds:
Donald Trump’s closest allies are worried about what’s going on at the Libertarian National Convention, where Trump supporters were purportedly asked to give up their front-row seats to make room for members of the group.
Trump is soon scheduled to take the stage at the Washington, D.C., political convention, but there has already been some drama. For starters, there was an email from a party official suggesting the Trump event might be cancelled. There was also a Libertarian crowd member who yelled out that Trump “should have taken a bullet.”
Trump fans seized priority seating at the libertarian convention and are refusing to vacate their seats for the libertarians
RFK in shambles pic.twitter.com/D5zaAHGD7v
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) May 25, 2024
Welp, it looks we’re done for.
The Trump Train is over.
The Libertarians booed us down and overwhelmed us.
Ha!
BREAKING NEWS🚨🚨: @LPNational OVERWHELMS #MAGA & BOOES them DOWN!
Libertarians are owning @X & bringing down MAGA. pic.twitter.com/zSodCWnKss
— Bryce Lipscomb (@BryceMLipscomb) May 25, 2024
Do you see all the booing they booed?
How can they possibly believe they stand a chance to defeat Trump?
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