Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld laughed when asked about a Tweet sent out by longtime journalist Carl Bernstein on Friday that stated Weld “could be a hero — instead of Nader” if he dropped his own Libertarian candidacy and endorsed and campaigned for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In a phone interview Wednesday on First Coast Connect, Weld said the Bernstein Tweet and comments he received over the weekend felt like an organized effort to get him out of the race.
“Somebody at Clinton headquarters blew a whistle or something because I got two dozen emails that day from people I didn’t know that said ‘Weld, unless you renounced your candidacy right now you’re going to be a pariah. Your name will be a hissing and a byword. You will go down in history as the worst guy who ever lived,’ ” he said.
Weld said the more he and his running mate former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson are able to get out their message to voters, the more support they receive.
“The plan is to get around the country and get better known,” he said. “We’re hoping we can get over that 15-percent bar that the Commission (on Presidential Debates) has erected to participate in the debates and we’ll be in debates two and three.”
Weld said their campaign is the one that is fiscally conservative and socially inclusive. He said that doesn’t describe the campaign being run by the two major parties.
Weld will participate at 7:30 Thursday evening in a town hall meeting at Jacksonville University sponsored by the J.U Public Policy Institute.
It will be held at the Dean College of Business conference room and is open to the public.
Producer Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax
