When Chelsea Handler tried to book a genuine Donald Trump supporter on her Netflix talk show, she canceled. So now she’ll have to settle for someone who’s with Gary Johnson.
Handler told her guest, former Minnesota Governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, that she wanted him to come on her show because she’s found it “impossible” to get anyone to speak with her that either supports Trump or is an Independent. “That bitch Ann Coulter was booked, and she never even showed up,” the host said. To which Ventura replied, “I don’t like her either.”
“I believe that you vote your heart and your conscience,” Ventura told Handler, before quoting Jerry Garcia, who explained his decision not to vote to Rolling Stone in 1989 by saying, “Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.”
“I won’t vote for evil,” Ventura said. “I will vote for someone who I want to be the president. And when I do that, I will have fulfilled my duty as a citizen. I voted my heart, I voted my conscience, and it will be Gary Johnson getting my vote. It will not be a Democrat or Republican.”
Handler turned around and asked Ventura, “You know Gary Johnson’s not going to win, right?” The former New Mexico governor is currently sitting somewhere in the mid-to-high single digits in most polls.
On this question, Ventura entered the world of the hypothetical. If this wasn’t a “fixed, rigged election” and Johnson were allowed in the debates, “there’s a great chance he could have won, just like I did,” he said. The big problem with this argument is that Johnson has not exactly seized the day when given the spotlight (see Aleppo moment one and Aleppo moment two).
“But he’s not going to win!” Handler replied, emphatically. “So you’re giving your vote to somebody who’s never going to get it! It’s like throwing someone a lifeline and they’ve already drowned!”
All Ventura could say to that was “So what?” He then went on to argue that anyone voting for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is voting for a candidate they “don’t really want” in office and is essentially voting “against” someone instead of “for” someone. The two major party candidates may be unpopular, but they’re not that unpopular.
“We truly will not get a revolution in this country until we stop electing Democrats and Republicans,” Ventura added, using the same argument Bernie Sanders-supporter Susan Sarandon once made to suggest a President Trump might not be the worst thing in the world.
When The Daily Beast spoke to Ventura earlier this summer, he seemed to be in the process of moving his allegiance from Sanders to Johnson. But he did have one other idea.
“Had I been the nomination of the Libertarians, they would have a better chance to win,” Ventura said at the time. “In today’s day, you have to have a candidate with charisma: I have that.”
