Charlsy Panzino and Andrew deGrandpre

Military Times

NBC officials said Friday that the network is planning to invite the Libertarian presidential nominee to discuss his national security platform on its cable news channel, but military veterans who believe he has earned the right to appear alongside Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at a primetime event for next month are increasingly frustrated.

Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for NBC, said the network plans to invite Libertarian Gary Johnson to participate in a separate event to be aired MSNBC that will address national security and veterans' concerns.

Backlash among veterans supporting Johnson's surprisingly strong candidacy appears, at least in part, to have prompted the network's decision. The former New Mexico governor, who captured just 1% of the vote during his previous presidential bid in 2012, has become a potential spoiler in this election year marked by widespread dissatisfaction with the major parties' nominees.

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In a survey of nearly 2,000 active-duty service members, reservists and National Guard personnel, that Military Times conducted in July ahead of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, more than 13% of respondents said they intend to vote for Johnson. Those results, while not a scientific sampling of the armed forces as a whole, are representative of more senior and career-oriented troops, the men and women who run the military's day-to-day operations and carry out its policies.

Kornblau did not immediately address additional questions about the network's plans for inviting Johnson to appear on MSNBC.

NBC organized the event with Trump and Clinton, scheduled for Sept. 7 in New York City, in partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, one of the nation's largest advocacy groups for those who've served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001. The organization has nearly 190,000 members and says it is nonpartisan, according to its website.

Johnson's campaign has not responded to numerous inquiries from the Military Times.

Dylan Milroy, a Marine Corps veteran heading the cause to have the Libertarian appear at the veterans campaign forum, said he is unimpressed with the network's gesture.

"This is not about MSNBC," Milroy said. "This is about the IAVA claiming to represent ... veterans while actively ignoring them by the masses."

As dissatisfaction with Trump and Clinton has grown, pundits have speculated that Johnson could swing the election by siphoning votes from one or the other in key battleground states.

A spokesman for the veterans organization said organizers were looking into having Johnson join Trump and Clinton in New York City. It appears now that those efforts were unsuccessful.

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So far Milroy, who served in the Marines from 2010 to 2014, estimates that he's rallied more than 100 fellow veterans via the social networking site Reddit. The cause appears to have spread across other social media platforms since news of their efforts first arose Thursday.

If Johnson does accept the invitation to appear on MSNBC, it's unlikely to draw the same number of viewers were he to appear with Trump and Clinton. That's disappointing, Milroy said.

"All I know is I am not stopping until he is on that forum," Milroy said.

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Air Force veteran Louis Honeycutt, who also petitioned organizers for Johnson to be included in the Trump-Clinton forum, said NBC's invitation to Johnson is a big step in the right direction.

"I'm still hoping the IAVA does the right thing and invites (Johnson), too," he said. "It will send a strong message that they actually do care about their veterans."

Salvador Perez-Palma, a Navy vet who served five years on active duty as a machinist repairman, noted that the voting public typically has to choose between "the lesser of two evils."

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"The two options are so bad we are desperately pushing for a third," he said about this year's choices.

In June, CNN invited Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, to appear at a televised town hall event. They attacked the Obama administration's Middle East policies and blamed the Islamic State group's rise on what they called the White House's poor judgment on military matters. Johnson also faulted Congress for refusing to formally address the issue of military force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, saying lawmakers have abdicated their war responsibilities.

Like Milroy and Perez-Palma, Honeycutt said he thinks Johnson should stand with Trump and Clinton in New York.

"America needs to know his stance on national security, military affairs and veterans issues," Honeycutt said.

Follow Charlsy Panzino and Andrew deGrandpre on Twitter: @charlsypanzino and @adegrandpre

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