Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson believes many problems facing the United States can be solved by executive actions that are almost as simple as waving a magic wand.
Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, won the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president over the weekend and has since embarked on a media blitz. In an interview with C-SPAN, Johnson said there are some things that cannot be solved with a magic wand, but many others that can be fixed that way.
After railing against government spending, Johnson faced a question from C-SPAN about whether he advocates the dismissal of government workers, and if so, the number of workers that should be cut.
“You can wave a magic wand in many cases because so much of what has been implemented is executive order,” Johnson answered. “Take the NSA for example and the fact that they’re spying on you and I as U.S. citizens. I mean the satellites are all pointed on us right now, being monitored in everything that we do.”
Johnson continued to say that he would “make sure that those satellites get turned away” as president, and argued that, “this country is about our Constitution first, second, last.”
He added that he believes, “Donald Trump assaults the Constitution, starting with the First Amendment,” in response to a question about Trump and the press. Earlier on Tuesday, CNN questioned whether Johnson was ready for vindictive attacks from Trump and Johnson replied by blowing Trump a kiss on camera.
The newest way to respond to Trump criticism: Blow him a kiss (at least if you’re @GovGaryJohnson) https://t.co/whBQzoFgio
— New Day (@NewDay) May 31, 2016
The Libertarian nominee told C-SPAN listeners he was demanding to be included in upcoming presidential debates and noted that, “When 50 percent of Americans now registering to vote declare themselves as independent, well where is that representation?”
“I happen to think that most people in this world are libertarian, it’s just that they don’t know it,” Johnson said.
