‘What’s a Uyghur?’ Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Whiffs on a China 101 Question from Hugh Hewitt in Brutal Gaffe

Less than two weeks after launching his longshot 2024 presidential campaign, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has already had his “What is Aleppo?” moment.

Appearing on The Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday, Suarez made a brutal gaffe revealing a lack of some truly basic knowledge about China.

“Will you be talking about the Uyghurs during your campaign?” Hewitt asked.

“The what?” Suarez replied.

“The Uyghurs,” Hewitt said.

“What’s a Uyghur?” Suarez said.

Hewitt — known for testing presidential candidates on matters of foreign policy — seemed taken aback that Suarez whiffed on this rather simple question.

“We’ll come back to that,” Hewitt said. “You gotta get smart on that.”

The Uyghurs are a group of roughly 12 million Turkic-speaking Muslims in China. It is estimated that more than one million of them have been detained in labor camps where they have been tortured and subjected to forced sterilization. The U.S. government and others have accused China of committing genocide against the Uyghurs.

Hewitt advised Suarez to brush up on the subject going forward.

“Mayor @FrancisSuarez was pretty good for a first conversation on air about national security — except for the huge blind spot on the Uyghurs,” Hewitt wrote in a tweet after the interview. “‘What’s a Uyghur?’ is not where I expect people running for president to say when asked about the ongoing genocide in China.”

Listen above, via The Hugh Hewitt Show.