Larry King will host an event with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Larry King hosts third-party faceoff

Larry King says Gary Johnson should have been on stage with Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama — but the libertarian presidential nominee’s only chance to debate comes during the third party showdown that King will moderate on Tuesday.

( Also on POLITICO: Campaigns launch fierce endgame)


The talk show host, who is moderating the Free & Equal Elections Foundation’s independent candidate debate, said he thinks any candidate who is on the ballot in at least 40 states should be invited to all the major sanctioned debates.

“I would say if you’re on the ballot in 40 states, you should be in the debates,” King told POLITICO. “And Gary Johnson is, and therefore in my opinion he should have been in these debates. You’re on the ballot in 40 states, absolutely.”

King said he realizes the issues the debate commission and the TV networks would face if they invited every independent candidate — “I mean what are you going to do, are you going to have eight candidates on running for president?”

( See also: PHOTOS: Scenes from the Boca Raton debate)

And King agreed to moderate the Tuesday event in order to give all the independent candidates “a voice” they’ve been denied thus far in the 2012 campaign, he said. For the independent candidates who have confirmed they’ll attend the Chicago debate — Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson — this is their sole chance to present their platforms to voters on a major stage.

Viewers can tune into the third party debate on Tuesday night at 8pm EST on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera English and Russia Today, and streamed online at Ora TV and on the Free & Equal debate site.

“I think they deserve a voice,” King said of the third party candidayes. “It’s obvious they’re not going to win, but in the Constitution it never says there’s a Democrat or a Republican Party. It never mentions a two-party system. We’ve had Federalist presidents, Whig presidents. … We’ve always had independent candidates. They deserve a voice and they haven’t had a voice in this campaign at all.”

( Also on POLITICO: 7 takeaways from final debate)

But will King vote for one of the independent candidates he’ll question Tuesday night?

“No, this time around I will not vote for an independent candidate,” King said. “I never say who I’m voting for, but I think they should be heard, they have a right to be heard, they have issues that should be brought up. For example, the war on drugs has never been mentioned in this campaign. That’s an important issue.”

While King won’t pose the initial questions — they’ll be submitted via social networks — he said viewers can certainly expect him to jump into the fray if the candidates dodge the issues.

“I’m a little inhibited here because this is a social network debate, so all of the questions have been submitted via social networks. So I’m going to follow that format,” he said. “However, if someone hasn’t responded to my liking, I will always jump in with a question.”

“I’m used to debates and the moderator has a role. It’s not his show. It’s their show. But he’s not a potted plant,” he added.

There’s no chance he’ll put in a Jim Lehrer-type performance, King said. “Jim Lehrer might have let it get out of control,” King noted. “You never let them control. You always control. It’s their show, but you control the flow. The other two were fine.”

King pointed to the performance by CNN’s Candy Crowley, particularly noting the controversial moment when she interrupted during the Libya question, as something he would emulate.

“She had the facts. He did use the word terror — the president did in the Rose Garden speech,” King said. “So when you see a guy make an obvious error, if you don’t correct it, the next day you’ll be slammed by the other side for not correcting him. So if someone said an error, if someone on tomorrow night’s debate said Romney’s in favor of gay marriage, I would interject and correct that. I think that’s a duty the moderator has. So I think the last two debates have been fine.”

And why should voters tune in to this third party debate, especially when King himself acknowledges there’s no chance an independent candidate could head to the White House this year?

“I think people should tune in out of curiosity,” he said. “Technically this is the last presidential debate, tomorrow night. We should always be open to ideas. The one sign of intelligence is curiosity.”

“And this might help you decide who you’re voting for based on what these people say about the candidates. Because they’re all running against Romney and Obama, so they might open your eyes to some things,” he said. “Let’s say you’re undecided — one of these people tomorrow night could pose a question to one of the candidates that could decide how you vote. That’s what I’m hoping for.”