Gary Johnson talks about his standing in recent polls during an interview on Monday. Libertarian Johnson faults pollsters for his standing

Gary Johnson needs at least 15 percent in five mainstream national polls to qualify for the presidential debates, and the Libertarian nominee would like a little more recognition from pollsters.

The former governor of New Mexico on Monday turned his attention toward polling organizations for excluding his name from the initial ballot test between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and instead inserting his name as part of a three-way contest or a four-way race with Green Party candidate Jill Stein.


Appearing on MSNBC, Johnson responded to host Thomas Roberts after he read off a list of results from the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey showing Clinton and Trump as the most unpopular candidates in history. In a four-way race with Clinton, Trump and Stein, Johnson drew 10 percent in the most recent poll conducted last week.

"Hey, I was at 10 percent, but that was after they polled Trump and Clinton, those two names, then they add Gary Johnson," he said. "Yeah, I’m at 10 percent. Really, to get to 15 percent, I think, right now, the polling organizations need to start with three names because at 10 percent, which is really where we're showing up in all these polls, shouldn't that be three names right now? I think so."

Johnson then noted that he and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, are the only third-party candidates on the ballot in all 50 states.

"I think that speaks volumes. This is a crazy election cycle. It's so crazy, Thomas, you may be talking to the next president right now," Johnson said, echoing a line he used at a conference in Washington last week.

"That is probably a definite possibility," Roberts responded.