So Johnson really didn’t help himself this morning when he botched a question from MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle about the world’s worst humanitarian crisis – the one now unfolding in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which is being pounded by Russian and Syrian aircraft.
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“And what is Aleppo?”.
Joe Scarborough asked if Johnson thought foreign policy was “so insignificant” that it’s OK for a presidential candidate to not know “what Aleppo is, where Aleppo is, why Aleppo is so important”?
“What is Aleppo?” Johnson replied when asked how he would address the crisis in the Syrian city.
Now that we finally do know what Aleppo is (thanks Gary), wouldn’t it be nice if it was just a quiet town in Syria again and not the epicenter of the refugee crisis riddled with killings and bombings?
Republican nominee Donald Trump, a businessman whose foreign policy stances remain hard to pin down, is neck and neck in recent polls with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a career politician with years of foreign policy experience.
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson would have be shot in the head than have to choose between his two major presidential opponents, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP nominee Donald Trump.
A Washington Post-Survey Monkey poll released Wednesday found that Johnson, a former Republican who is often excluded from presidential polling, is supported by an average of 13 per cent across all states. But the gaffe, while embarrassing, may not have a significant impact on the fate of Johnson’s campaign, as experts say foreign policy doesn’t typically play a large role in the outcome of elections. In an interview with Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin, he said that he felt “horrible” about the question.
While the Libertarian Party has long rejected USA military intervention overseas, the candidate’s failure to recognize one of the most troubled spots in the Middle East drew ridicule and prompted speculation that his campaign was essentially over. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes.
In a written statement, Johnson said he understands the dynamics of the Syrian conflict, “but hit with ‘What about Aleppo?’, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict”.
“Sometimes I think there is a conspiracy”, he said. “I do understand Aleppo and I. understand the crisis that is going on”.
“I understand its importance”.
Chris Karpowitz, a political science professor at Brigham Young University, said it’s unclear how much of an effect Romney’s message and Johnson’s misstep will have in Utah, where the overwhelmingly conservative state has given a relatively lukewarm response for Trump. It worked. That is what a President must do.
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“For those who believe this is a disqualifier, so be it”, he said.
