TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The three Florida men running for the White House all took heat this week from fellow Republicans. One had a radio show gaff. Another gave, perhaps, a weak comment about the Jan. 6 insurrection. Plus, party leaders may be questioning the strength of the current GOP frontrunner.
"What's a Uyghur?"
If you're running to be president, knowing world affairs is part of the job, a big part. Even so, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the latest of the Floridians to jump into the 2024 primary battle, seemed caught off guard Tuesday when conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked about China's alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic group.
Hewitt: "Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?"
Suarez: "The what?"
Hewitt: "The Uyghurs."
Suarez: "What's a Uyghur?"
Hewitt: "OK, we'll come back to that. Let me, you won't be, you've got to get smart on that."
Some suggested Suarez had an "Aleppo moment." That's a throwback to 2016 when Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson told Mike Barnicle on MSNBC that he wasn't familiar with the city, which was, at that time, the center of the Syrian crisis.
Barnicle: "If you were elected, what would you do about Aleppo?"
Johnson: "About?"
Barnicle: "Aleppo."
Johnson: "And what is Aleppo?"
Barnicle: "You're kidding?"
Johnson: "No."
Suarez tried to recover from his gaff later in the day. He posted a tweet saying he did know of the Uyghurs but that Hewitt's pronunciation threw him.
"Of course, I am well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs in China. They are being enslaved because of their faith," Suarez wrote on Twitter. "China has a deplorable record on human rights, and all people of faith suffer there. I didn't recognize the pronunciation my friend Hugh Hewitt used. That's on me."
"Rome wasn't built in a day."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to sidestep questions Wednesday about his steady second place in primary polling. The governor remains behind former President Donald Trump by double digits in most early states, that's despite heavy campaigning in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
On Fox News, DeSantis called the primaries "a long road" and noted, "Rome wasn't built in a day." He expected things to change this fall as voters typically become more engaged.
"Those of us who are in the process, we think everyone is living this and breathing this every day," DeSantis said. "A lot of these will start paying a lot more attention as we get into the fall and the winter. ... Our goal is to build the type of operation we need. ... Then when it gets to be crunch time, be able to turn on the juice and get the job done."
DeSantis also took flack for a comment he recently made in New Hampshire. When asked to condemn Trump for what happened during the Jan. 6 insurrection, the governor said it was time to move on and distanced himself from the U.S. Capitol riot.
"I wasn't anywhere near Washington that day," DeSantis said. "I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn't enjoy seeing what happened, but we have got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backward and be mired in the past."
Presidential rival and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn't care for that response. He condemned it during an interview on CNN.
"That's one of the most ridiculous answers I've heard in this race so far," Christie said. "You don't have an opinion about Jan. 6? Except to say I didn't particularly enjoy what happened. People were killed."
"Is he the strongest?"
Finally, as legal troubles mount for the current Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump seemed to be lacking support from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said the following on CNBC:
"Can he win that election? Yeah, he can," McCarthy said. "The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer, but can anybody beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden."
McCarthy was raked across the coals by Trump supporters. He later tried to walk back his comments. Reporting by CNN and ABC confirmed he called the former commander-in-chief to tell him he misspoke and suggested his comments were taken out of context by reporters. Even so, it has some pundits wondering if perhaps Trump's support isn't strong as it once was.
