A mere few hours after Gary Johnson found himself at a loss of words over Aleppo, the Libertarian candidate has begun his apology tour. The Libertarian presidential nominee stopped by — of all places — The View and said there was “no excuse” for his gaffe and admitted he messed up. This was certainly a pre-scheduled appearance, but he had to have known Whoopi Goldberg would address the subject. Johnson handled the matter gracefully even though Joy Behar wasn’t very forgiving of the incident.
On the campaign trail, there are a number of subjects a candidate has to multi-task, and some issues may fall by the wayside. We have seen candidates like Donald Trump divert attention to cover up his lack of knowledge, but Johnson was forthcoming in admitting he had no idea what Aleppo was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday. Johnson sat down with the hosts of The View to say he should be held accountable for his oversight:
“I was thinking about it in terms of acronym: ALEPPO. That’s no excuse, whatsoever, but the dynamics in play in Syria are that you’ve got the Assad regime up against the free Syrian army, which we support, that are allied with the Islamists, ISIS, and you can’t make this stuff up.”
When asked if he was the victim of a “gotcha question” on live TV, Johnson said it was a perfectly fair question to ask, and he can learn from this situation: “It’s how you deal with adversity that ultimately determines success, I mean, that’s all of our lives.” Joy Behar added her belief that his failure to recognize a city that she recognizes is “a disqualifying statement, frankly,” and Johnson simply responded, “Fair enough.” He then told Behar he’s not dropping out of the race because of this mess.
While it may be disconcerting to see a presidential candidate not be aware of a major foreign-affairs issue, it is refreshing to see Johnson admit his mistake. We have seen time and time again Trump sidestep easier questions in favor of blasting rhetoric at Hillary Clinton or other groups, so Johnson coming off as human is a welcoming change of pace.
(Via Raw Story and ABC)