Gary Johnson Has Officially Become an Embarrassment

There’s a version of our world—a sympathetic, kind version—where you could forgive Gary Johnson for his Aleppo blunder, in which he stared blankly at his interlocutor on MSNBC’s Morning Joe—like a puzzled, hurt child asking his parents why there are bad people in the world—and betrayed a total lack of familiarity with the Syrian city which has become a violent epicenter of that country’s Civil War. I personally don’t believe that kind of ignorance about foreign affairs is forgivable in an American presidential candidate; I’m only saying the argument can be made.

But even if you could envision a future where Gary Johnson recovered from that humiliation, nothing is going to dig him out his latest hole. This—THIS—is truly, cripplingly embarrassing. Don’t avert your gaze:

Gary Johnson had an “Aleppo moment” after @hardballchris asks who his favorite foreign leader is #JohnsonTownhallhttps://t.co/nRazpPL0q0

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 28, 2016

For those who can’t watch the video, the exchange happened at an MSNBC town hall when Chris Matthews asked Johnson to name a single active foreign leader that he admired. Johnson’s answer? Well, nothing.

The dude could not muster up a single name of any active leader of any foreign country. Matthews even helpfully reeled off a bunch of countries that he might draw from, but the only person Johnson could conjure in his obviously dysfunctional brain was former Mexican president Vicente Fox. And of course, he couldn’t actually remember Fox’s name—he had to be helped by his running mate, William Weld, sitting next to him.

“I’m having an Aleppo moment,” he said, as if this bit of lame comedy would somehow excuse his crushing ignorance.

It doesn’t—Gary Johnson has the third-most support of any presidential candidate, and he’s completely ignorant on every foreign policy issue. I mean, even Trump has stopped staring at himself in the mirror long enough to study up on the basics. Johnson? Johnson obviously believes that if we de-fund police departments, or whatever the ridiculous Libertarian policy du jure is today, events outside our borders will take care of themselves. Please don’t vote for this man—he’s officially become an embarrassment.