Miami mayor Francis X. Suarez should pick Gary “Aleppo” Johnson for his 2024 running mate. After a revealing interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday morning, it seems the two are both woefully unaware of foreign policy.
Suarez was taking a hardline against China when Hewitt asked him if he would make the Uighurs a part of his campaign. “What — the what, what’s a Uighur?” Suarez responded, parroting Johnson’s famous “What is Aleppo?” gaffe during the 2016 election.
After Hewitt scolded the presidential hopeful for his ignorance, Suarez promised, “I’ll look at — what’d you call it, a ‘Weeble?’” Cockburn can’t help but think Suarez’s blunder is a bit worse than Johnson. How could he not know who’s been making his shirts and socks? And then to make a joke about his ignorance at the expense of hardworking Uighurs: rude!
Francis Suarez entered the 2024 GOP presidential primary on June 15. He has a long-standing rivalry with his governor, fellow candidate Ron DeSantis, and has worked to keep the other Floridian contender, Donald Trump, at arm’s length throughout his tenure. According to RealClearPolitics, he is yet to register in a poll. The Cuban American is the only Latino in the race, but at this early stage it’s not clear what his lane is — presumably not foreign policy heads…
Suarez isn’t the first Republican candidate to be stumped by Hewitt. In February, Vivek Ramaswamy admitted that he was unfamiliar with the nuclear triad when asked about it on Hewitt’s show. Obviously flustered, Ramaswamy asked if the triad was the “new axis of sort of evil” to which Hewitt responded, “No, I’m talking about the air, the land, and the sea nuclear deterrent that we won the Cold War with.” But hey, if the same question could trip up Trump in 2015, perhaps there’s still distant hope for Ramaswamy and Suarez too.
