Gary Johnson appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to defend himself against critics who say his lack of foreign policy knowledge should disqualify him from serious consideration as a presidential candidate. The concern emerged after two separate incidents; one in which the Libertarian presidential candidate asked “What is Aleppo?” and in another interview in which he was unable to name a single foreign leader he respected.
But while attempting to assert his competence, the former New Mexico governor appears to have stumbled into yet another gaffe by suggesting that somehow his ignorance of foreign policy is actually an advantage. After all, Johnson argued, you can’t engage in war with a country you can’t accurately locate. He also claimed that the geographical knowledge of our leaders puts “our military in harm’s way.”
“We wonder why our men and service women suffer from PSD [sic] in the first place?” Johnson said. “It’s because we elect people who can dot the I’s and cross the T’s on these name and geographic locations, as opposed to the underlying philosophy which is let’s stop getting into these regime changes!”
He suggested to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell “maybe I think too much.”
