Libertarian presidential candidate slams 'evils' of two-party system

The Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate Chase Oliver slammed the “evils” of the two-party system, arguing it does not give Americans quality voting choices. 

“I think voters are conditioned, much of it out of fear to pick one side or the other, or the lesser of two evils,” Oliver said during his Thursday appearance on NewsNation’s show “The Hill.”

“But I remind voters, as I travel across the country that when you pick a lesser of two evils, you're still picking evil,” he added. “And if people you know ... I hear all the time, oh, I would vote for you, except you wouldn’t win.” 

“Do you think they are evil though?” NewsNation’s host Blake Burman then asked in response.

Oliver, who is currently on the ballot in at least 34 states, criticized both the Republican and Democratic parties for contributing to the increase of the national debt and a hawkish foreign policy — issues, that in his view, have not been dealt with due to the current two-party make-up. 

“I think much of what the two-party system provides is an invasive, overly intrusive and abusive state that invades our liberty up and down, you know, from the federal all the way down the most local government,” he said on Thursday. 

“So yeah, we want to fight back against the abuses of government that you're not getting from Republicans and Democrats who continue to bloat the debts, the deficits, the wars around the world using taxpayer dollars,” Oliver continued. “There's plenty of evil to find in the Republican and Democratic party that has not been addressed due to the nature of this binary two-party system.” 

Burman then asked the candidate, who polled at 2 percent in Pennsylvania in the recent Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, if he would “potentially tip the scales” in the key battleground state President Biden won in 2020 by less than 2 percent. 

“Well, you know, one of the goals of the Libertarian Party is to be a disrupter of the two-party system,” Oliver said. “And whether it's one way or the other, we hope to disrupt this election enough to where voters can be provided more choices on the ballot. And let's change the way we vote. If we had ranked-choice voting, there would be no so-called spoiler effect. But we have to make it hurt the two-party system to give us that.” 

The White House candidate, who was chosen as the party’s candidate in late May, said he is not in favor of helping President Trump or Vice President Harris since none of them will be “great” presidents. 

“Either way, I don't feel like we're going to have a great commander-in-chief,” Oliver said. “I don't feel like we're gonna have a great leader. So really, it's two sides of a terrible coin. I don't have a preference one way or the other.”

The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media which also owns NewsNation.