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from the compassionate-conservative? dept.

AlterNet reports [alternet.org]

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson Thursday told Newsmax TV [newsmax.com]"[1] he would "certainly look into pardoning" Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information exposing illegal wiretapping practices at the National Security Administration, if he were elected president in November.

"This is someone who has divulged information that we would not know about currently--and that's the United States government spying on all of us as U.S. citizens", Johnson told "Hard Line" host John Bachman. "I don't want to see him in prison."

[...]Johnson's statement is at odds with both the Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump (who has called Snowden a traitor) and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton (who said she thinks the whistleblower should stand trial for leaking classified documents). Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders offered tepid support for Snowden, saying he "played a very important role in educating the American public", but added the former NSA security contractor "did break the law".

Johnson is also at odds with President Barack Obama.

[...]It should be noted that while Johnson's position on Edward Snowden--as well as his vocal support of pot legalization--signals the kind of progressive policies some want, Johnson still supports privatizing prisons, abolishing the [minimum] wage and child labor laws, cutting government welfare, and initiating preemptive military strikes against suspected terror targets, among other regressive policies. His beliefs are conservative enough to draw the support of self-described GOP operative and legendary dirty trickster Roger Stone, who similarly supports Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Just some context.

[1] Newsmax puts its content behind scripts and the URL redirects when you don't run those; it also is video-centric (Flash). archive.is will run the scripts [archive.is] for you.

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