October 3, 2016 | No Comments
Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld on Monday answered for his running mate’s failure to answer basic foreign policy questions in recent TV interviews, excusing the gaffes by suggesting that Gary Johnson has trouble with “pop quizzes.”
“Well, you know, pop quizzes on TV are just not Gary’s long suit,” Weld said, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday morning. “But I think having the right policies is more important than doing well on a pop quiz.”
Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, has made headlines for freezing in recent interviews. Last week, Johnson failed to name a foreign leader he admired in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. In a TV appearance earlier in September, Johnson blanked when asked about the situation in Aleppo — a city in Syria at the center of the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis — and responded by asking, “What is Aleppo?”
In the wake of those mistakes, Tapper offered Weld a sharp question: How could he remain confident in his running mate?
“Why is your confidence in Gov. Johnson not shaken after his recent gaffes that show an apparent lack of understanding of world events?” Tapper asked.
In his interview with Tapper, Weld also sought to clarify comments he made last week suggesting that Democrat Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to be president.
“I said, ‘I’m not sure there’s anybody more qualified than she is on paper.’ I mean, she’s got quite a resume,” Weld said, referencing her experience as a senator and secretary of state. “You know, I went on to say that Gary Johnson would be the best president because of the policies, fiscal and military and otherwise, that he would implement.”