Governor Gary Johnson was the first to stop by the SRLC Media Filing Center to talk about his new efforts with a 501c(3), Our America Initiative, for libertarian-themed conservatism. Johnson considers himself a fan of Ron Paul, but with a different approach. He wants to end deficit spending by cutting government spending, not with the kind of eliminationism Paul espouses, but with actual 43% cuts in every program in the federal budget.

On foreign policy, he sounded more Paul-like, arguing that we should pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan as they don’t represent national security threats. “I supported our initial invasion of Afghanistan,” Johnson says, “but we went there to get rid of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and they’re not there any more.”  My friend Kerry Picket of the Washington Times joins me in this interview.

Update: I misquoted Gov. Johnson on the “we went there” quote, and was corrected by HA reader Thomas E; Johnson did not mention the Taliban. The quote above is now correct.