Larry King says Gary Johnson should have been on stage with Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama — but the libertarian presidential nominee’s only chance to debate comes during the third party showdown that King will moderate on Tuesday.
The talk show host, who is moderating the Free & Equal Elections Foundation’s independent candidate debate, said he thinks any candidate who is on the ballot in at least 40 states should be invited to all the major sanctioned debates.
“I would say if you’re on the ballot in 40 states, you should be in the debates,” King told POLITICO. “And Gary Johnson is, and therefore in my opinion he should have been in these debates. You’re on the ballot in 40 states, absolutely.”
King said he realizes the issues the debate commission and the TV networks would face if they invited every independent candidate — “I mean what are you going to do, are you going to have eight candidates on running for president?”
And King agreed to moderate the Tuesday event in order to give all the independent candidates “a voice” they’ve been denied thus far in the 2012 campaign, he said. For the independent candidates who have confirmed they’ll attend the Chicago debate — Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson — this is their sole chance to present their platforms to voters on a major stage.
Viewers can tune into the third party debate on Tuesday night at 8pm EST on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera English and Russia Today, and streamed online at Ora TV and on the Free & Equal debate site.
Larry King hosts third-party faceoff - POLITICO.com
