Gary Johnson has another "Aleppo moment" and the other candidates react
US presidential candidate Gary Johnson fails to name a foreign leader he admires
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, asked during a televised town hall meeting to name a foreign leader he admires, struggled to come up with a single one, saying that he was having an “Aleppo moment”.
On Wednesday, Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld were being interviewed by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who posed the question: “Who’s your favorite foreign leader?”
“Anybody,” he added.
Johnson exhaled hard.
“Mine was Shimon Peres,” Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, interjected.
But Matthews pressed Johnson. “You gotta do this. Anywhere. Any continent. Canada, Mexico, Europe over there, Asia, South America, Africa - name a foreign leader that you respect.”
“I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment,” Johnson said, then quickly said “the former president of Mexico”.
In the end he was rescued by Weld, who leaned over to identify the name Johnson was scrabbling for - Vicente Fox - and put Johnson out of his misery.
Weld was nominated by Bill Clinton in 1997 to serve as US ambassador to Mexico, but his appointment was blocked by Congress.
Fox, the former president of Mexico, has been extremely vocal in his opposition to Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border between the two countries. “I am not going to pay for that fucking wall,” he said in February.
Everyone has a mental lapse once in a while - just ask Rick Perry - though Johnson’s foreign policy positions have often run contrary to received wisdom in the area.
In June, Johnson told the Guardian that he felt the US “shouldn’t meddle itself or get involved in” the Israel-Palestine peace process.
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Stein trolls Johnson on world leaders gaffe, also fails to name world leaders
Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein tried to capitalize on Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson flubbing a question on world leaders by listing three figures she liked.
But none of the ones she listed are leaders of their respective countries.
A day after Johnson was unable to name a world leader he admired when asked at an MSNBC town, Stein tweeted out a list of her own.
Here are a few of my favorite leaders: @ElizabethMay, João Stédile of @MST_Oficial and @jeremycorbyn. #AleppoMoment
- Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 29, 2016
May, Stédile, and Corbyn, however, aren't technically world leaders, as none holds a top position in their country's government. May is a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Stédile is an economist and member of Brazil's Landless Rural Workers Movement, which he helped found. Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party in Britain.
Johnson, sitting with Libertarian vice presidential nominee Bill Weld, was asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews to "name one foreign leader that you respect and look up to." Johnson couldn't name any.
"I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment," Johnson said, referring to a previous embarrassing interview he did when he didn't recognize the name of a Syrian city at the center of the country's humanitarian crisis.
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In swipe at Trump, Clinton names Merkel as her favorite world leader
Hillary Clinton trolled two White House opponents with a single response, dinging Gary Johnson and Donald Trump by naming Angela Merkel as her favorite world leader.
The Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday joined the discussion about politicians’ favorite world leaders, a topic that went viral when Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, drew a blank when asked Wednesday to name a world leader he looks up to and respects.
“Oh, let me think. Look, I like a lot of the world leaders,” Clinton said, bursting into laughter initially when asked about her favorite world leader during a gaggle with reporters aboard her campaign plane in Chicago. “One of my favorites is Angela Merkel because I think she’s been an extraordinary, strong leader during difficult times in Europe, which has obvious implications for the rest of the world and, most particularly, our country.”
Clinton praised the German chancellor’s “leadership and steadiness on the Euro crisis,” while adding that “her bravery in the face of the refugee crisis is something that I am impressed by.”
Clinton said she and Merkel have known each other since the 1990s and spent a lot of time together. “And I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work with her in the future, but we could talk about lots of different leaders if you want to sometime,” she quipped as she walked away with a smile.
Her seemingly innocuous response could be interpreted as a two-pronged attack against Johnson and Trump, though.
When first asked the question, Johnson admitted that he was having another “Aleppo moment,” a reference to an embarrassing interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” earlier this month in which he asked, “What is Aleppo?” in response to a question about the city that represents the center of Syria’s civil war and refugee crisis, prompting serious questions about his acumen to be commander in chief.
Trump has frequently attacked Merkel on the trail, panning her for Germany’s intake of refugees, and will likely use that line against Clinton in the final stages of the campaign.
“Hillary Clinton is running to be America’s Angela Merkel, and we’ve seen how much crime and how many problems that’s caused the German people,” Trump said in a speech he delivered last month in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Trump, however, also named Merkel one of his favorite leaders Thursday, despite his rhetoric on the campaign trail that would suggest otherwise.
“Well, I think Merkel is a really great world leader, but I was very disappointed that - when she - this move with the whole thing on immigration,” he told New England Cable News. “I think it's a big problem and really, you know, to look at what she's done in the last year and a half. I was always a Merkel person. I thought really fantastic. But I think she made a very tragic mistake a year and a half ago.”
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OP Note: Dear lord, this hot mess. How is this election even real? Also, I thought Jill Stein's answers were okay, but the only articles I could find were that the people she chose weren't 'technically world leaders'. I don't know, I didn't think her choices were so obscure to be called a 'fail' but maybe that's just me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, asked during a televised town hall meeting to name a foreign leader he admires, struggled to come up with a single one, saying that he was having an “Aleppo moment”.
On Wednesday, Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld were being interviewed by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who posed the question: “Who’s your favorite foreign leader?”
“Anybody,” he added.
Johnson exhaled hard.
“Mine was Shimon Peres,” Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, interjected.
But Matthews pressed Johnson. “You gotta do this. Anywhere. Any continent. Canada, Mexico, Europe over there, Asia, South America, Africa - name a foreign leader that you respect.”
“I guess I’m having an Aleppo moment,” Johnson said, then quickly said “the former president of Mexico”.
In the end he was rescued by Weld, who leaned over to identify the name Johnson was scrabbling for - Vicente Fox - and put Johnson out of his misery.
Weld was nominated by Bill Clinton in 1997 to serve as US ambassador to Mexico, but his appointment was blocked by Congress.
Fox, the former president of Mexico, has been extremely vocal in his opposition to Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border between the two countries. “I am not going to pay for that fucking wall,” he said in February.
Everyone has a mental lapse once in a while - just ask Rick Perry - though Johnson’s foreign policy positions have often run contrary to received wisdom in the area.
In June, Johnson told the Guardian that he felt the US “shouldn’t meddle itself or get involved in” the Israel-Palestine peace process.
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Stein trolls Johnson on world leaders gaffe, also fails to name world leaders
Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein tried to capitalize on Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson flubbing a question on world leaders by listing three figures she liked.
But none of the ones she listed are leaders of their respective countries.
A day after Johnson was unable to name a world leader he admired when asked at an MSNBC town, Stein tweeted out a list of her own.
Here are a few of my favorite leaders: @ElizabethMay, João Stédile of @MST_Oficial and @jeremycorbyn. #AleppoMoment
- Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 29, 2016
May, Stédile, and Corbyn, however, aren't technically world leaders, as none holds a top position in their country's government. May is a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Stédile is an economist and member of Brazil's Landless Rural Workers Movement, which he helped found. Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party in Britain.
Johnson, sitting with Libertarian vice presidential nominee Bill Weld, was asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews to "name one foreign leader that you respect and look up to." Johnson couldn't name any.
"I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment," Johnson said, referring to a previous embarrassing interview he did when he didn't recognize the name of a Syrian city at the center of the country's humanitarian crisis.
Source
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In swipe at Trump, Clinton names Merkel as her favorite world leader
Hillary Clinton trolled two White House opponents with a single response, dinging Gary Johnson and Donald Trump by naming Angela Merkel as her favorite world leader.
The Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday joined the discussion about politicians’ favorite world leaders, a topic that went viral when Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, drew a blank when asked Wednesday to name a world leader he looks up to and respects.
“Oh, let me think. Look, I like a lot of the world leaders,” Clinton said, bursting into laughter initially when asked about her favorite world leader during a gaggle with reporters aboard her campaign plane in Chicago. “One of my favorites is Angela Merkel because I think she’s been an extraordinary, strong leader during difficult times in Europe, which has obvious implications for the rest of the world and, most particularly, our country.”
Clinton praised the German chancellor’s “leadership and steadiness on the Euro crisis,” while adding that “her bravery in the face of the refugee crisis is something that I am impressed by.”
Clinton said she and Merkel have known each other since the 1990s and spent a lot of time together. “And I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work with her in the future, but we could talk about lots of different leaders if you want to sometime,” she quipped as she walked away with a smile.
Her seemingly innocuous response could be interpreted as a two-pronged attack against Johnson and Trump, though.
When first asked the question, Johnson admitted that he was having another “Aleppo moment,” a reference to an embarrassing interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” earlier this month in which he asked, “What is Aleppo?” in response to a question about the city that represents the center of Syria’s civil war and refugee crisis, prompting serious questions about his acumen to be commander in chief.
Trump has frequently attacked Merkel on the trail, panning her for Germany’s intake of refugees, and will likely use that line against Clinton in the final stages of the campaign.
“Hillary Clinton is running to be America’s Angela Merkel, and we’ve seen how much crime and how many problems that’s caused the German people,” Trump said in a speech he delivered last month in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Trump, however, also named Merkel one of his favorite leaders Thursday, despite his rhetoric on the campaign trail that would suggest otherwise.
“Well, I think Merkel is a really great world leader, but I was very disappointed that - when she - this move with the whole thing on immigration,” he told New England Cable News. “I think it's a big problem and really, you know, to look at what she's done in the last year and a half. I was always a Merkel person. I thought really fantastic. But I think she made a very tragic mistake a year and a half ago.”
Source
OP Note: Dear lord, this hot mess. How is this election even real? Also, I thought Jill Stein's answers were okay, but the only articles I could find were that the people she chose weren't 'technically world leaders'. I don't know, I didn't think her choices were so obscure to be called a 'fail' but maybe that's just me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯