Dave Smith (comedian)

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Dave Smith
Dave Smith by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Smith at 2022 Revolution hosted by Young Americans for Liberty
Born
David Smith

(1983-04-20) April 20, 1983 (age 41)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Comedian
Political party Libertarian [1] [2]
Other political
affiliations		 Mises Caucus
SpouseLauren Smith
Children2
Website comicdavesmith.com

David Smith (born April 20, 1983) is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, and libertarian political commentator. [3] [4] [5] He has frequently appeared on Fox News Channel's Kennedy [6] [7] and The Greg Gutfeld Show. [8] [9] [10] Additionally he was a recurring panelist on CNN's S.E. Cupp: Unfiltered . [11]

Contents

Smith is a member of the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party. [12] Smith hosts the libertarian podcast Part of the Problem. Smith has been noted as a strong critic of COVID-19 policies such as vaccine passports.

Career

In 2013, Smith was featured as one of the New Faces at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. He was a featured performer on the New York Comedy Festival's "New York's Funniest" showcase in 2014 and 2015. [13]

He hosts the Part of the Problem podcast and cohosts the comedy podcast Legion of Skanks . [3] [8] [14] [15] According to PorcFest, Part of the Problem is one of the top two libertarian podcasts in the world. [16] On Part of the Problem, Smith has interviewed political figures such as Vivek Ramaswamy [17] and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [18] Smith has also made appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and Timcast. [19] [20] [3]

On September 11 2017, Smith released his first comedy special, Libertas. [14]

He was the MC for FreedomFest, a libertarian festival, in 2021, [21] and a featured speaker there in 2022. [22] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Smith was running the Libertarian Party's social media, [22] but he has denied this saying that he only "helped with the Twitter". [23]

Smith considered running in the 2024 Libertarian Party presidential primaries but ultimately decided against it. [18] He also declined to run as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vice presidential candidate, citing Kennedy's support for Israel in its war in Gaza. [18] Smith spoke at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. [24]

Political views

Smith is a member of the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party. [12] [25] [26] Smith said in a 2017 Reason interview that he "became a libertarian through the Ron Paul movement". [27] He has opposed what he sees as big tech hegemony, describing it as "the biggest threat to liberty" aside from the "tyranny of COVID-19". [28] He believes vaccine mandates are an infringement of personal liberty [29] and told Reason in 2021 that he did not plan to vaccinate himself or his child against COVID-19. [28] [30] Smith defended the Libertarian Party of Kentucky when it criticized proposed vaccine passports by comparing them to yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear. [31] Reason described him as "a vocal opponent of wokeness and political correctness". [28] An admirer of the anarcho-capitalist economist Murray Rothbard, he told Reason that like Rothbard he would abolish government if he could. [32]

Smith has been noted for interviews and debates with far-right figures such as Gavin McInnes, [33] [34] Nick Fuentes, Richard Spencer, and Christopher Cantwell. [33] [35] [22] Smith has called Fuentes a "fellow traveler", according to the SPLC. [22] In 2021, The New Republic called Smith "a Nazi sympathizer". [33] The SPLC noted that Smith is Jewish and has disagreed with far-right figures on the creation of a white ethnostate and the alt-right's tactics. [35] Debating with Fuentes, the SPLC said, Smith argued for "hard-right libertarian viewpoints". [35] In an interview with Nick Gillespie, Smith defended his friendliness towards alt-right figures saying "People who listen to my podcasts have no doubt about where I stand on all of these issues" and said that his libertarian beliefs are "the antithesis of National Socialism." [14]

Smith has said he will not support the 2024 Libertarian Party nominee, Chase Oliver, saying that he did not do enough to fight COVID-19 policies such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates. [36] Smith had the same criticism for the party's 2020 nominee, Jo Jorgensen. [28]

Personal life

According to Smith, he was raised in Brooklyn, New York by his single mother. [14] Smith has two children with his wife, Lauren. [37] He is Jewish and has stated that he is the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. [35] [38]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Libertarian Presidential Candidates Champion 'Open Borders'". February 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising". July 4, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Gillespie, Nick; Weissmueller, Zach (June 20, 2022). "Dave Smith: Comedian, Podcaster…Presidential Candidate?". Reason.com . Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  4. ↑ "What Is the Ideal Strategy for the Libertarian Party? A Soho Forum Debate". Reason.com . September 19, 2019.
  5. ↑ Cleary, Tom (April 27, 2021). "Comedian Slams Vaccine Passports on Joe Rogan's Podcast [WATCH]". Heavy.com . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Kennedy: Vaping ban is a 'knee-jerk, nanny state' reaction". Fox Business . January 21, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  7. ↑ "'Kennedy' panel flips the political script in 'Party Swap' game". Fox Business . November 13, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Cleary, Tom (April 27, 2021). "Comedian Slams Vaccine Passports on Joe Rogan's Podcast [WATCH]". Heavy.com .
  9. ↑ "Halftime Report: A shout out to 'Red Eye' fans". Fox News . September 12, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Gutfeld: NBC decides to not air 2022 Golden Globes over lack of diversity". Fox News . May 12, 2021.
  11. ↑ Page, Nicholas (December 21, 2017). "S.E. Cupp Eviscerates Ex-Obama Advisor Ben Rhodes for Wishing Death on GOP Foes: 'Try Therapy'". Mediaite .
  12. 1 2 Weissmueller, Zach; Gillespie, Nick; Thompson, Danielle (June 15, 2022). "Inside the Mises Caucus Takeover of the Libertarian Party". Reason.com. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Home". Dave Smith.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Libertarian Comedian Dave Smith on the Alt-Right, Christopher Cantwell, and How the Left 'Went Off the Rails'". Reason.com . September 8, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Nick Gillespie on Libertarianism, Why Gary Johnson Is a Success, Trump, Clinton, and Millennials". Reason.com . October 31, 2016.
  16. ↑ Carroll, William (June 28, 2021). "Free Staters' Porcfest draws a capacity crowd". The Conway Daily Sun.
  17. ↑ Frevele, Jamie (November 8, 2023). "'You're the Wokest Out of Everybody!' Ramaswamy and Comic Dave Smith Attack DeSantis For Crackdown on Anti-Israel Speech". Mediaite . Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  18. 1 2 3 Weigel, David (February 9, 2024). "Libertarians could supercharge RFK Jr's campaign. But can he prove he's one of them?". Semafor . Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  19. ↑ Gipson, Johnell (November 15, 2020). "Joe Rogan Questions How America Will Improve With Joe Biden as President — 'Things Aren't Going To Change for the Better With Him'". cheatsheet.com.
  20. ↑ Carman, Ashley (April 27, 2021). "Spotify is okay with Joe Rogan's anti-vaccine remarks". The Verge .
  21. ↑ Wargo, Abby (July 21, 2021). "Gov. Noem, Dennis Quaid headline first night of FreedomFest". Rapid City Journal .
  22. 1 2 3 4 Newton, Creede (July 13, 2022). "Andrew Yang To Speak Alongside Far-right Figures at 'FreedomFest'". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  23. ↑ Dave Smith (July 17, 2022). "A Response to the S.P.L.C". Part of the Problem (Podcast). GaS Digital Network. Event occurs at 29:09. Retrieved June 20, 2024. I don't run the party's social media. That's just not true. I've helped with the Twitter. That's it. I don't even run the Twitter. Most of the tweets aren't from me.
  24. ↑ "Become Ungovernable". 2024 Libertarian National Convention. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  25. ↑ Welch, Matt (July 4, 2018). "Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising". Reason.com . Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  26. ↑ "Tom Woods, Dave Smith, and Jason Stapleton Join the Libertarian Party". The Libertarian Republic. July 13, 2018.
  27. ↑ "Libertarian Comedian Dave Smith on the Alt-Right, Christopher Cantwell, and How the Left 'Went Off the Rails'". Reason.com. September 8, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  28. 1 2 3 4 Gillespie, Nick (July 28, 2022). "Dave Smith: Libertarians vs. Big Tech, Big Government, and…Other Libertarians". Reason.com .
  29. ↑ Farivar, Masood (August 4, 2021). "Why Some Libertarians Support Vaccine Mandates". VOA . Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  30. ↑ Amore, Samson (April 27, 2021). "Joe Rogan Slammed for 'Deeply Irresponsible' Anti-Vaccine Comments". The Wrap .
  31. ↑ "KY Libertarian party bashed for comparing vaccine passport to Jewish Holocaust badges". kentucky.com.
  32. ↑ Weissmueller, Zach (July 25, 2022). "Should Libertarians Root for a National Divorce?". Reason.com . Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  33. 1 2 3 Simons, Seth (February 9, 2021). "The Comedy Industry Has a Big Alt-Right Problem". The New Republic . Retrieved July 18, 2022. In 2017, Dave Smith used a TGMS guest-hosting spot to interview Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell, giving both a friendly platform to lay out their vision for a white ethnostate.
  34. ↑ Horowitz, Justin (December 20, 2022). "Extremists, bigots, and conspiracy theorists: YouTuber Tim Pool's 2022 guests in review". Media Matters for America . Retrieved December 21, 2022. Smith is connected to white nationalist Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes and appeared on Pool's show in September.
  35. 1 2 3 4 Newton, Creede (May 22, 2022). "Mises Caucus: Could It Sway the Libertarian Party to the Hard Right?". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved July 18, 2022. Smith ... has long invited extremists and hard right and fringe figures –including HotepJesus –on his podcast, "Part of the Problem" (PotP).
  36. ↑ Weissmueller, Zach (June 6, 2024). "A Power Struggle Consumes the Libertarian Party". Reason .
  37. ↑ @ComicDaveSmith (October 27, 2021). "Happy anniversary to my beautiful wife, Lauren. The best thing I ever did in my life was marry her and it's not even close. She gave me two beautiful babies and a beautiful life. No matter what I do I will never be able to repay her, but I will spend the rest of my life trying" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  38. ↑ The Soho Forum (September 20, 2019). "How Can The Libertarian Party Effect Real Change?". Reason (Podcast). Reason Foundation. Event occurs at 1:13:42. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
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