Libertarian Gary Johnson betrayed a striking lack of foreign policy knowledge Thursday when he was stumped by a question about Aleppo, at a time when he’s trying to prove he deserves to be on the stage for the presidential debates.
The Syrian city has been the site of the fiercest fighting between rebels and the Russia-backed Bashar Assad regime, but Mr. Johnson had to ask what Aleppo was when asked about it on MSNBC. He later said he had a brain freeze, thinking it was an acronym, but said there was no excuse for his gaffe.
“I’m running for president of the United States, and everything is fair game,” he said on ABC’s “The View.” “Hey, it’s how you deal with adversity that ultimately determines success.”
The flap comes at a particularly inopportune time for Mr. Johnson, who is already struggling to gain credibility as he tries to qualify for the upcoming presidential debates.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton rubbed salt in the wound Thursday, telling reporters that you can look at a map and find Aleppo. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan didn’t exactly offer a lifeline, either.
“Well, he is an isolationist,” Mr. Ryan quipped to radio host Hugh Hewitt. “So let’s, you know, give him the credit of the doubt.”
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Mr. Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico, has offered himself as a credible and less embarrassing choice for voters balking at Mrs. Clinton or GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
His gaffe will probably dent Mr. Johnson, but it won’t derail him from a campaign built as a protest vote against the major parties.
“I’ve had plenty of candidates where some smart aleck reporter says, ’well, what’s your position on SB293?’ And the smart thing to do there is to be, ’you know what? The reason I’d be a good candidate is because I don’t know what SB293 is, but it’s probably some stupid piece of legislation that doesn’t matter in Washington,’” said longtime Republican strategist Curt Anderson.
Still, Mr. Anderson said not knowing where Aleppo is could be “a little bit of a problem for a presidential candidate.”
The gaffe also comes as the Commission on Presidential Debates prepares to announce who qualifies to be on stage at the first presidential debate, to be held at Hofstra University in New York on Sept. 26.
Participation is based on polling in mid-September, and Mr. Johnson will have to quickly improve his standing if he hopes to reach the 15 percent threshold needed to qualify. CNN and Fox News polls — two of those the commission will use — put him at 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
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Before the flap, prominent Republicans were hoping Mr. Johnson would be included.
Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, said Wednesday via Twitter that he hopes “voters get to see former GOP Governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld on the debate stages this fall.”
Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a member of the debate commission himself, said at an event in Washington on Wednesday he wanted a more liberal standard than the 15 percent threshold because “people are so obviously shopping and wishing for some other choice,” according to the Indianapolis Star.
Commission co-chairman Mike McCurry, meanwhile, said at the event that changing the participation criteria could invite a lawsuit.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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