- The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Call it Aleppo 2.0.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson repeatedly blanked when asked Wednesday by MSNBC host Chris Matthews “who’s your favorite foreign leader?”

In a memory freeze lasting almost a minute, Mr. Johnson could not name a single foreign leader without prompting by his running mate, William Weld.

“I guess I’m having ’an Aleppo moment’ in the former president of Mexico,” said Mr. Johnson.

The former governor of New Mexico, an admitted marijuana smoker, embarrassed himself in an interview earlier this month, asking “and what is Aleppo?” when asked what he would do about the bloody Syrian-Russian offensive against that city.

As Mr. Johnson acknowledged forgetting a name, an incredulous Mr. Matthews said, “I’m giving you the whole world; anybody in the world you like. Anybody.”

Mr. Johnson repeated “the former president of Mexico,” prompting Mr. Matthews to ask “which one?” to Mr. Johnson’s further stammer.

Mr. Weld then tried to help out his ticket-mate, saying “Fox? Zedillo?” at which point Mr. Johnson said he meant Vicente Fox, who was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006 and whom Mr. Johnson called “terrific.”

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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