Los Angeles, California - Presidential candidates Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party), Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party), and Randall Terry (Constitution Party) took the stage Wednesday for the fourth Free & Equal debate less than two weeks from the November election.

Invitations to the Los Angeles debate were also extended to Claudia De La Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation), Kamala Harris (Democratic Party), Donald Trump (Republican Party), and Dr. Cornel West (Independent).

The candidates and moderators lamented the fact that Harris and Trump were not present.

"We're missing two of our major-party presidential candidates tonight. They're spending a lot of time talking about the past and insulting each other rather than focusing on the future and the issues that are of real concern to the American people," co-moderator David Walker, former US comptroller general, said in his opening remarks.

Politicians Tim Kaine backs Senate resolutions to block offensive weapons transfers to Israel

In Harris and Trump's absence, Stein, Oliver, and Terry discussed everything from student loan debt to the US' bloated military budget, housing crisis, inflation, Social Security, climate and energy policy, and more.

But some of the tensest moments came during discussions of abortion, immigration, and US-Middle East policy – three of the highest-profile issues heading into the 2024 election.

Significant differences of opinion among the candidates arose when it came to immigration and border policy.

Stein argued for addressing the root causes of migration, including US interventionist foreign policy, neocolonialism, and human-driven climate collapse. In order to alleviate those pressures, she proposed legalizing cannabis, passing a Green New Deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ending sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba.

Oliver, meanwhile, emphasized migrants' significant contributions to the American economy. He advocated for a "21st-century Ellis Island" to streamline immigrant processing and allow people entering the country to begin working without extended delays, while enabling law enforcement to focus on true threats to public safety.

Donald Trump Trump ally says transition team ignoring rules is part of "hostile takeover"

Terry, whose Constitution Party centers what he called Judeo-Christian values, went off on a different track, backing a "mass deportation" of migrants and claiming that "walls are good."

Oliver countered, warning, "You would be separating families. You would be having people go door to door asking for people's papers. Any person of a certain shade in this country would be suspect by the government."

"That is cruelty. That is an invasion of liberty," he added.

Abortion access, increasingly under threat since the Supreme Court's 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, was another recurring topic in Wednesday's debate.

"Abortion is murder, and we will strive to crush it and drive it back to the gates of hell where it came from," Terry said in his opening remarks.

The Constitution Party candidate later claimed that "blood talks to God" and suggested setting up a "church-run [health care] system for the poor" where "no one who goes there can sue anyone."

Stein followed, "For those who do not approve of abortions, you're welcome not to have them."

The Harvard-trained physician pressed for Medicare for All, which would include comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. She said the single-payer system would address the US' public health and medical debt crises while saving the country trillions of dollars per year.

Oliver also upheld the right to seek an abortion through fetal viability, or at any stage of pregnancy to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.

The Libertarian nominee disagreed with Stein on Medicare for All. He advocated for more decentralization and less regulation in the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

The candidates met Wednesday amid mounting public outrage over the US' continued support for Israel's violent attacks on Palestine, Lebanon, and other countries in the Middle East – a topic that featured prominently in their debate.

Terry received boos and cries of "shame" from the audience when he suggested that the root of the problems in the Middle East is "the heart and the soul and the founding of Islam itself."

"True Islam is a threat to freedom," he said, claiming that "Israel has the right to do what it can to eradicate the leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas and the rest of them who are committed to destroying Israel."

Stein responded with swift condemnation of Terry's "blatant racism and Islamophobia."

"I speak as a Jew," she continued. "When I grew up after the Holocaust, I was told that we must never let genocide happen again, not to anyone. And I grew up with that as understanding, this is how we discover life after genocide, which is what my community was asking after the Holocaust."

"We held accountable not only those who perpetrated genocide but the bystanders to genocide, and I am proud to be among those who will not stand by and allow this blood to be on our hands with our tax dollars from our weapons and our diplomatic cover," Stein said to cheers.

The Green Party candidate has said that on Day 1 in office, she would call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to notify him that he will no longer receive any weapons or aid from the US.

Oliver agreed that the US' continued supply of arms to Israel is enabling the violence in the region and rejected Terry's comments about the Muslim faith.

The general election for president takes place on November 5, 2024, with early voting already underway in many states.