Gary Johnson Has a Meltdown When Asked Something Every Candidate Should Know

“I’m not a dummy. I’m not.”


Since August, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has been plummeting in national polls. A new interview with the Guardian isn’t going to do him any favors.

When reporter Paul Lewis asked Johnson about his tax policy, specifically his intention to abolish income tax altogether, Johnson at first demurred: “Look, I don’t want to argue.” But when Lewis challenged him again, Johnson snapped: “Look, I came out for the legalization of marijuana!” 

“What’s that got to do with your tax policy?” Lewis asked.

“It’s leadership.”

Watch the entire cringe-inducing five-minute video—featuring lines like “I’m not a dummy. I’m not.”—above.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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