Libertarians pick ticket and slam Trump!

ORLANDO, Florida (PNN) - May 29, 2016 - Libertarians on Sunday selected a presidential ticket headed by former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who lit into presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on immigration and a range of other issues. At the Party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson got his preferred running mate, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, in a weekend gathering that drew sharp contrasts with the major Party candidates - Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democrat nominee.

Johnson described the real estate mogul's immigration policies as "just racist," particularly the Republican's call to deport 11 million undocumented people currently in the country.

Libertarian activists contend their ticket could play a pivotal role in the 2016 campaign, with Trump and Clinton both viewed unfavorably by large swaths of the electorate. Even grabbing a small percentage of the vote in key states could affect the Electoral College calculus.

Trump was a frequent target of criticism of many Libertarians at the weekend convention. In addition to immigration, participants particularly took issue with Trump's stated positions on international trade and national security - all of which stand in firm opposition to a Party that tends to favor lax immigration restrictions, free trade, and is skeptical of military intervention. Austin Petersen, one of the presidential candidates who lost to Johnson, called Trump a fascist, a term regularly echoed throughout the convention.

At one point on Sunday, an announcer told the convention that Trump had begun attacking Johnson and Weld. The audience roared in approval at the news. It was not immediately apparent what attacks the announcer was referring to, but in a statement to The New York Times about Weld, Trump said, "I don't talk about his alcoholism."

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.

Johnson was the Party's nominee in 2012 and once again won the position despite backlash from the Party's more radical Libertarian wing.

Weld, for his part, took a somewhat more nuanced tone toward the Libertarians' rivals.

"Someone doesn't have to be disaffected with Ms. Clinton to think that we have a good story," Weld said. "One doesn't have to be Never Trump to see that we were two of the most fiscally conservative governors in the United States."

Thanking the Libertarian delegates after his victory, Johnson played up his general election chances.

"At a minimum, I think we're in the presidential debates," Johnson said to cheers.

Johnson also called for inclusion in more national polling surveys.

"This is another voice at the table," Johnson said. "How about some skeptic at the table when it comes to these military interventions?"

In the first round of voting, Johnson reached 49.5% of the vote, according to the official Party total, just shy of the majority needed for victory. His nearest opponents, Petersen and John McAfee, reached 21% and 14% respectively. On the second round of voting, Johnson clinched the nomination with 55.8% of the vote. But his preferred choice for the vice-presidential nomination, Weld, also came up just short of 50% on the first round of balloting, leading to a second vote, which he won with just over 50% of the vote.