#Fail: 'Aleppo Man' strikes again with second political blunder

US Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson made yet another blunder when he failed to name a single world leader he respected during a recent television interview.

Narrated

2 min read

Sana Uqba

29 Sep, 2016

The US presidential candidate's White House was trolled for his Aleppo comments [AFP]

Knowing the name of the world's most heavily bombed city and some of world's most prominant leaders would probably feature highly if an Idiots Guide to Campaigning for President was ever released.

But US Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson appeared to have missed out on his homework after he made a second major blunder on television this month.

Earlier this month, Johnson failed to recognise the name "Aleppo" - where thousands of civilians have been killed in Russian and Syrian regime bombing, asking an TV pundit "what's Aleppo?".

Yesterday, the former New Mexico governor stumbled again when he couldn't name a single world leader following a journalist's brainbusting question on which head of state he most admired.

In the cringe-worthy minute-long segment, Johnson sat silently as host Chris Matthews asked "who's your favourite foreign leader? Any one of the continents, any country, name one foreign leader that you respect and look up to, anybody".

Johnson's running mate William Weld, sitting alongside him in the town hall style interview, offered, "Mine was Shimon Peres".

"I'm talking about living," Matthews responded.

"Go ahead," he said, gesturing to Johnson. "You gotta do this. Anywhere, any continent. Canada, Mexico, Europe, over there, Asia, South America, Africa, name a foreign leader that you respect."

Johnson's answer: "I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment."

He then said "the former president of Mexico", but was unable to give a name, blaming a "brain freeze".

Weld prompted "Fox," referring to Vicente Fox, who served from 2000 to 2006.

"Fox! He was terrific," Johnson said, but Matthews had already moved on to Weld, who had no problems in answering that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was his personal favourite.

While Donald Trump continues to carelessly spew racist rhetoric and Johnson quite clearly failing international relations, the 8 November Election Day is anticipated to be a field-day for the world of social media trolls.