Daniel Connolly

daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com

The first person to yell criticism at Libertarian vice presidential hopeful Bill Weld at his Memphis rally Wednesday night was one of the warmup speakers.

"Bill Weld!" 32-year-old former soldier Cole Ebel shouted toward the end of a fiery anti-war speech. "We do not endorse Hillary Clinton or her foreign policies!"

Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, has joined former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson in a longshot run for the White House.

Weld found himself on the defensive at his rally at Minglewood Hall in Midtown because of a recent MSNBC interview in which he criticized Republican candidate Donald Trump as dangerous and praised Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

He had said, "I know her well professionally, I know her well personally. I know her to be a person of high moral character, a reliable person, an honest person."

Ebel, the warmup speaker who criticized Weld, said later that he lives in Smith County, Tennessee, served in Iraq and grew weary of the war. He said Clinton's support of the conflict was unacceptable and that Libertarians shouldn't settle for the lesser of two evils.

Almost immediately after Ebel spoke, Weld went on stage. "Just so the record is clear everybody, I endorse Gary Johnson for president of the United States," Weld said.

Later in the evening, other people in the audience of about 100 yelled at Weld about the Clinton comments. One man shouted, "She's a war criminal! Stop lying!"

"OK," Weld said calmly. "Well, Gary and I have said we do not agree with Secretary Clinton's policies about Libya and Syria," he began, then soon moved on to other topics.

Not everyone in the audience was angry at Weld for the Clinton comments. "My guess is a lot of people feel that way, right?" Leslie Taylor of Memphis said, explaining that she believes many people are picking one candidate because they want to vote against the other candidate. Taylor, 46, a retired engineer and stay-at-home mother, said she'll vote Libertarian. "For me it's about changing the system from a binary choice into having another alternative."

The Libertarian ticket was polling at 4.6 percent nationally on Wednesday, compared to 43.4 percent for Trump, 45.3 percent for Clinton and 2.1 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

Weld told the Memphis crowd that Libertarians are trying to reach a 5 percent national vote total, which would help access to the ballot and with federal matching funds in the next election cycle."Which is $10 million on up," he said.

In an interview, Weld said the campaign sent him to Memphis because its media can reach more than one state and because he can peel Republican voters away from Trump. He presented the Libertarians as the party that's for low taxes and limited government while being socially tolerant toward immigrants, minorities, gays and lesbians and women.

In his speech, Weld predicted Trump's rise would cause the Republican Party to split within the next 12 months as "decent Republicans" break from Trump. He compared Trump's wing of the party to the historical Know-Nothing Party: "Founded on anti-immigrant prejudice . . . conspiracy theories and violent rallies."

He predicted the split among Republicans would create chances for Libertarians.

Tennesseans are expected to vote overwhelmingly for Trump and deliver the state's 11 electoral votes to the Republican nominee.

Weld's next stop is Kansas City, Missouri, likewise a solidly Republican state.