Mitt Romney, an outspoken critic of both major-party nominees this year, called for Johnson and his running mate on the Libertarian ticket, Bill Weld, to be included in the presidential debates.
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“And what is Aleppo?”.
“You can find Aleppo on a map”, she said. On a Thursday MSNBC show, Johnson’s “What is Aleppo?” regarding the city in Syria, was roundly mocked.
He added: “I think that the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russian Federation to diplomatically bring that at an end”.
The episode also exposed the limitations of Johnson’s quirky persona as he tries to woo voters from Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The moment comes as Johnson and Weld are struggling to reach 15 percent in the polls, the threshold needed to get into the presidential debates, the first of which will be held September 26.
But Weld acknowledged that the episode comes at a hard time for a long-shot campaign fighting to register the 15% support in national polls needed to get onto the presidential debate stage later this month.
Some leading Republicans who oppose Trump have said openly that they are giving the Libertarian ticket a serious look.
“I’m incredibly frustrated with myself”, Johnson said in an interview taped off-set after the gaffe and aired on MSNBC.
BARNICLE: What would you do about Aleppo? Do I understand its significance? Yes.
“Yes, I understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict – I talk about them every day”, he said.
“I think Gary just didn’t realize the context was Syria or geography or anything like that”, Weld said.
After piling on Gary Johnson after a mistake that honestly many people would have made, and which he was refreshingly honest about, people were not kind to The New York Times.
Following the interviews, Johnson admitted he dropped the ball on the question.
The answer is a city in Syria that is at the center of the refugee crisis and civil war there.
Host Joe Scarborough pushed further on Johnson’s confusion about Aleppo.
Johnson and Weld describe themselves as fiscally conservative, but say they appeal to young voters due to their views on social issues like same-sex marriage, abortion rights, gun rights and legalizing drugs like marijuana. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. When asked if his presidential campaign could recover from the gaffe, the Libertarian nominee responded “Gosh, I guess people will have to make that judgment”. MI proved most surprising, as the state has been very reliable for Democrats, always one of the 15 best states for them in the past five elections.
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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.
