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Aleppo Slip-Up: Twitter Reactions Suggest That Gary Johnson Was High On Pot ‘What Is Aleppo?’

By Amanda Katherine
Published on: 04:16 PST, Sep 8, 2016

Libertarian presidential nominee and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday morning (September 8), where he was asked about the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo.

Aleppo was clearly something that Johnson was not familiar with, as he displayed a puzzled look on his face.

“And what is Aleppo?”

People have shared there reactions all over Twitter today. Since the interview this morning, Aleppo has been tweeted about over 100,000 times. To say the least, people are not happy with Gary Johnson.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

Some Twitter users have even suggested that the libertarian nominee must have been high on pot.

Johnson’s Aleppo slip-up incited angry and disappointed reactions on Twitter about the presidential nominee.

Even MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle was shocked that the Libertarian did not know what he was talking about.

“You’re kidding.”

Aleppo is a city in Syria that has been devastated by the ongoing war that began back in 2011.

Syria has been at the center of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Currently, there are over 20 million refugees worldwide, and 4.8 million are from Syria.

In recent weeks, Aleppo has been the focal point of many news stories. Readers may recognize this heartbreaking photo of a child in Aleppo, whose life has been severely and irrevocably impacted by the violent conflict in Syria.

Gary Johnson’s slip-up today sparked a furious response from a lot of people. How could someone who is running for president not know about the refugee crisis affecting Syrians, specifically in Aleppo?

This devastating video, published last week, features two brothers in Aleppo comforting each other after their brother was killed by a bomb.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe tweeted after the interview that Gary Johnson has basically disqualified himself from the election.

After the interview on MSNBC, Johnson attempted to clarify his remarks during the interview. Some would say the Libertarian made things worse for himself.

Although the United States has been involved in the Syria conflict for some time, according to a Pew Research poll, half of America cannot point out Syria on a map. However, half of America is not running for president — Gary Johnson is running for president.

Twitter remarks following the interview have been flooding news feeds all morning.

While some people have defended the Libertarian nominee, the majority of the reactions were not too forgiving.

People do not believe that Gary Johnson does not deserve the support of voters after this interview.

A lot of Twitter users made similar comments this morning, insinuating that Governor Gary Johnson was high on pot.

Perhaps the only positive of Gary Johnson’s MSNBC interview is that it will bring more awareness about Aleppo and the issues regarding Syria to people who would have otherwise not looked into it.

Gary Johnson has issued a lengthy statement regarding the Aleppo flub.

“This morning, I began my day by setting aside any doubt that I’m human. Yes, I understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict — I talk about them every day. But hit with ‘What about Aleppo?’, I immediately was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict. I blanked. It happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign.

“Can I name every city in Syria? No. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. Do I understand its significance? Yes.

“As Governor, there were many things I didn’t know off the top of my head. But I succeeded by surrounding myself with the right people, getting to the bottom of important issues, and making principled decisions. It worked. That is what a President must do.

“That would begin, clearly, with daily security briefings that, to me, will be fundamental to the job of being President.”

Following his Morning Joe interview, Governor Gary Johnson postponed his next interview on a New York radio talk show.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Staff/Getty Images]

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