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Gary Johnson Couldn't Name One Foreign Leader And Everyone's Blaming Millennials

by Alexandra Svokos
REUTERS

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson could not name a single living foreign leader at a town hall on Wednesday night.

During the town hall on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews asked,

Who's your favorite foreign leader? ... Just name any one.

Johnson's running mate, Bill Weld, said his was Shimon Peres: the former Israeli president and prime minister who died this week.

Matthews rejected that answer, saying,

I'm talking about living.

Johnson struggled for a moment, then said,

I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment in the former president of Mexico.

Johnson was referring to former Mexican president Vicente Fox.

He was also referring to a moment a few weeks ago when he was asked what he would do about Aleppo, which is a city in Syria that's facing a mass amount of destruction due to the ongoing war there. Johnson responded to that question by asking what Aleppo is.

These are obviously both bad looks.

Syria is arguably the biggest global conflict that our country is struggling to be involved with, along with Russia and Turkey (and really, any country dealing with refugees).

Similarly, being able to name literally any foreign leader you like shouldn't be a hard task... especially if you're running for president of the United States of America.

Much like the Aleppo slip, this clip is very difficult to watch. It's super awkward and awful.

But Johnson currently has a ton of support from our Millennial generation. Over a third of 18 to 29-year-olds said they would vote for him or Green Party candidate Jill Stein, according to the latest poll from New York Times/CBS.

Given that we make up a massive voting block, that's a big deal.

Now though, thanks to Johnson's two major slips, people all over the internet are making fun of Millennials for supporting this dude.

Old people are generally assholes about our generation, so this reaction isn't totally unexpected. We've heard this kind of condescension before.

Of course, it's not our fault if some 63-year-old guy says some dumb stuff. But it IS our fault if we vote for someone without really thinking about it.

So, you know, think about it.

Elite Daily and 50 other media organizations partnered with Rock The Vote to register 100,000 women to vote. You can register right here (and men can use it too) :

Citations: NPR, CNN, New York Times