“And what is Aleppo?”.
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“His fellow MSNBC panelists were agape, as Johnson had just claimed unfamiliarity with a city at the heart of Syria’s ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis”.
On a Thursday MSNBC show, Johnson’s “What is Aleppo?” regarding the city in Syria, was roundly mocked. At least Johnson, when he was confronted out of the blue with the question “what would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?” simply and humbly asked, “What is Aleppo?”. For Johnson, a third-party candidate desperate for a polling boost that would allow him to qualify for the presidential debates, it was a damning admission of a lack of knowledge about the Syrian conflict and the victims ravaged by its chaos. Bill Weld of MA, have been aggressively making the case that they represent a viable alternative for voters who are not happy with the major party nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The Facebook post and tweet by the star of “The Terminator” move franchise followed a supportive tweet on Johnson’s behalf by Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate and a former MA governor. In order to do so, he needs to reach 15 per cent in a series of major national polls but has been hovering around the 10 per cent mark until this point.
The Republican presidential nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, said Wednesday on Twitter that he hoped voters would get to see Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, on the debate stages this fall. “Well, no, I do understand Aleppo, and I understand the crisis that is going on”, he said.
“I blanked”, he said in a statement.
Johnson then apparently postponed and interview later Thursday morning on a NY talk radio program.
Clinton, asked at a news conference about Johnson’s remarks, laughed and quipped, “You can look on the map and find Aleppo”. “But hit with ‘What about Aleppo?’, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict”, Johnson wrote. He also stated in an interview that he felt “horrible” about it. “Yes, I understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict-I talk about them every day”. Do I understand its significance? In case you’re uncertain yourself, it was Syria’s most populous city before the civil war began in 2011.
“We’re there [in Syria] in the first place because we do support regime change, which I think has resulted in what is happening right now in Syria”, he said. It worked. That is what a President must do.
“I blanked, ” he said.
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“I’ve never viewed this from a standpoint of financial advantage and I never believed I would have the opportunity to serve as the CEO of a publicly traded company but was given that opportunity and I jumped on it”.
