On Thursday afternoon, “Gary Johnson” began trending on Twitter. This appears to have stemmed from an article from Mother Jones. The piece by Jeremy Schulman entitled “Gary Johnson Wants to Ignore Climate Change Because the Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day” and subtitled with “Attention, millennials…” seems only the latest attempt by progressives to keep the Libertarian from siphoning votes away from Hillary Clinton.
Mother Jones takes particular umbrage with the fact that Johnson denounced cap-and-trade, said the country should be building new coal-fired plants, and that the trillions of dollars it would cost to combat climate change would be better spent on other priorities. Johnson reasoned that “At a point in the very distant future, the sun will actually encompass the Earth. So global warming is something that’s going to be inevitable.” Mother Jones states that “All of that makes Johnson’s popularity among younger voters pretty surprising.”
This is an addition to a baseless rumor begun by Carl Bernstein on Sunday that Libertarian vice presidential nominee William Weld might withdraw from the race and endorse Clinton. Strangely enough, this new progressive attack is based off a statement from the former New Mexico governor five years ago.
See the relevant video below, beginning at 53:14:
