Gary Johnson is making headlines, but for exactly the wrong reason.
The Libertarian presidential candidate, who appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday in an effort to convince voters he’s a viable option was momentarily stumped when panelist Mike Barnicle was asking him about his plan for ending the carnage in Aleppo, Syria, the heart of one of the most pressing crises facing the next president.
“What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?” Barnicle asked.
“About?” Johnson asked.
“Aleppo,” Barnicle repeated.
“And what is Aleppo?” Johnson asked.
“You’re kidding?” Barnicle replied.
When Johnson said, no, he wasn’t kidding, Barnicle began to explain that the city is the “epicenter” of the war, where thousands have died and the five-year war has produced millions of refugees.
READ: [U.N. Investigates Reports of Toxic Gas Attack in Aleppo]
Johnson then recovered his footing some, replying that he’s “got it.”
“With regard to Syria, I do think it’s a mess,” he said, launching into an answer that did demonstrate some understanding of the complexities of the conflict. “I think the only way that we deal with Syria is join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end.”
“But when we’ve aligned ourselves — when we’ve supported the opposition, the Free Syrian Army, the Free Syrian Army is also coupled with the Islamists. And the fact that we’re also supporting the Kurds, it’s just a mess,” he continued. “And this is the result of regime change that we end up supporting, and inevitably these regime changes lead to a less safe world.”
Johnson is fighting to boost his national polling numbers to meet the criteria set out by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which allows any candidate who averages at least 15 percent in five select national polls in mid-September, as well as appears on a “sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College.”
While polls have found a relatively high number of voters dissatisfied with the choice between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, Johnson has struggled to break through.
He has been hovering between 7 and 9 percent for several months, when pollsters began to regularly include him in their questions, but he had made some headway in convincing the national networks to give him airtime and host town halls featuring him as well as Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
The conversation between the “Morning Joe” co-hosts following his appearance demonstrated why the moment was likely a devastating one for his efforts.
Elise Jordan, an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and a regular “Morning Joe” panelist, said she felt lost, calling the moment “incredibly depressing.”
Jordan had been supporting Johnson, but said after his flub on Aleppo “it would be hypocritical of me to support Gary Johnson after I’ve been beating up on Donald Trump for his lack of basic knowledge.”
“I don’t know where I’m left,” she said, to which co-host Mika Brzezinski, replied: “It probably leaves you with Hillary Clinton … or not voting.”
“It does,” Jordan said.
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Gary Johnson: ‘And What Is Aleppo’? originally appeared on usnews.com
