John Oliver vets Jill Stein and Gary Johnson like they are 'legitimate potential presidents'

"This election has now achieved a dubious distinction," John Oliver sighed on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are among the most disliked presidential candidates in history, so it is hardly surprising that some are seeking an alternative." Luckily, there are a lot of third-party options out there, he said, naming people you've surely never heard of — Joe Exotic 2016!? — plus Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green Party). More than a third of young voters say they are considering voting for Johnson or Stein, Oliver said, "so they are worth taking seriously." So he does.

"Before we go any further, we should probably address the common critique that third-party candidates can siphon off votes and potentially wind up electing an ideological opponent," Oliver said. "And there is some historical precedent for that, from Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 run, which arguably helped to elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson, to Ralph Nader in 2000 winning nearly 100,000 votes in Florida, a state which Al Gore famously lost by just 537." Third parties "are a little touchy about that whole 'spoiler' attack," he noted, and "just dismissing third-party candidates as spoilers shuts down debate. And while the argument that the only thing that stops Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton is a powerful one, so is the argument that people should vote for the candidate who most closely shares their values. So let's vet these candidates not as spoilers or as protest votes but as legitimate potential presidents."

Oliver gives them a serious look, and — spoiler — he isn't impressed. "The more you look at both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the more you realize the lack of coverage they complain about so much might have genuinely benefited them," he said, "because their key proposals begin to crumble under the slightest scrutiny." Oliver said he would "love for there to be a perfect third-party candidate" this year, but "there is no perfect candidate in the race, and when people say you don't have to choose the lesser of two evils, they are right, because you have to choose the lesser of four." Sorry, Evan McMullin — or maybe you just dodged a bullet? Watch below. Peter Weber

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