On Thursday, a rumor spread that Donald Trump would be speaking at the Libertarian national convention in May. America Emboldened quickly reached out to party leadership and affiliates and was able to get an interview to confirm the news as an exclusive to the show. Today we are joined by Project Manager working on the campaign of Mike ter Matt for President, Dr. Irene Mavrakakis. Dr. Mav shares the breaking news that the Libertarian Party is excited to extend invitations to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There may also be more news from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., if he decides to attend as well.

This week saw a uni-party vote bi-partisan to rob Americans of their first amendment rights with the vote for HR 6090. The Libertarian party could be poised to leave the children’s table in political circles and move towards having an equal voice in conversations. All eyes will be on D.C. in May when the convention takes place which is a remarkable achievement by the leadership in the party.

HR 6090, officially known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act, is a piece of legislation passed by the United States House of Representatives that aims to expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism. This expansion is intended to help the Department of Education determine if harassment or discrimination against Jewish students on college campuses is motivated by anti-Semitic intent. The bill requires the Department of Education to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism when making such determinations. The IHRA definition includes examples of anti-Semitism, such as denying Jews the right to self-determination or drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

When the news broke about the vote results, Michaels and Boulden took to X with a live show blasting the ramifications of the language in the bill. Critics of the bill argue that this could conflate legitimate criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Jewish bigotry, which could potentially chill free speech and violate the first amendment. Using the IHRA definition to determine anti-Semitic incidents could suppress criticism of Israel's policies and actions towards Palestinians, thereby hindering broader efforts to combat true instances of discrimination against Jewish communities.

Additionally, some people, including members of the Jewish community, are concerned that codifying a single definition of anti-Semitism is inappropriate and that the Jewish community has not reached a consensus on the matter.

Learn more on today’s episode.