With Hillary Clinton’s pneumonia putting the health of the presidential candidates under the microscope, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson says he’s in great shape.
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“And what is Aleppo?” he answered. “No!” Johnson said, prompting Barnicle to explain that Aleppo is a city in Syria that epitomizes the country’s refugee crisis and has seen some of the worst horrors of its civil war.
The embarrassing exchange followed a forum on Wednesday night in which Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump sought to showcase their national security and defence credentials.
“You’re kidding?” the MSNBC interviewer said. Between this suggestion, in addition to the similar opinions of former governors Mitt Romney and Mitch Daniels, Johnson and Weld have received near-unprecedented support for their inclusion in the ever-important presidential debates.
Now, more people than ever know there’s another choice than the two least popular major party candidates in recorded history. Despite the Aleppo flap, I hope they make it.
As for the impact the matter would have on his presidential prospects, Johnson said that would be up to the voters to decide.
“What is Aleppo?” Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city. “I understand the significance”.
“What is Aleppo?” the Libertarian candidate responded, prompting a wave of online criticism and ridicule that quickly made its way around the internet.
“I think a President Donald Trump”, said Weld. “Look, I should have known what he was talking about”, he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“Probably 85 percent of the people in the country couldn’t put Aleppo on a map, so I’m not sure the outcome of the slip is going to be lasting at all”, Weld said. He also issued a statement, saying in part that he “was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict”. “I think he has pitched his campaign on setting group against group and trying to stir up negative passions, envy and even hatred”.
Hitting 15 percent and making the debates would be a huge boost to his campaign, giving the Libertarian an opportunity to reach a larger audience.
But let’s be fair to Johnson: In the context of the 2016 presidential campaign, he’s far from winning the cluelessness contest.
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On the question about the best way to deal with terrorist threats in the United States, Weld – a former U.S. Attorney for MA – said he would create a 1,000 member Federal Bureau of Investigation task force dedicated to tracking lone wolf killers.
