Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said Tuesday he's all ready for Donald Trump to counterattack him for calling him a racist — and he blew the presumptive GOP nominee a kiss.
Over the weekend, Johnson, who was named as the party's candidate at its convention, had chastised Trump's stance on immigration and Mexico as being "just racist," and on Tuesday, he defended his statements, telling CNN's Chris Cuomo on the "New Day" program that Trump's contention about Mexican immigrants is wrong.
"The people coming across the border are people that just want jobs," Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, told Cuomo, while admitting that there are some criminals as well.
"How about making a system so it would be easy to get a work visa?" he said. "A moving line to get across the border, having a work visa, so that the people crossing the border illegally, that the border patrol would actually be able to identify those people as opposed to mothers with children actually waiting across the Rio Grande because of jobs that exist, and they can't get over to take advantage of them."
But he does think that it is "absolutely untrue" when Trump said Mexico sends its worst to the United States.
"I don't want to in any way defend the worst, but statistically, illegal immigrants commit far less crime than U.S. citizens," said Johnson. "That's statistically speaking."
Cuomo wanted to know, meanwhile, what Johnson would do once Trump wants to give him a "big punch in the nose" for calling him a racist, and Johnson delivered his on-air kiss, drawing a laugh from Cuomo.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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