Who is Francis Suarez? That’s a question a lot of people will understandably be asking after clicking on this piece, but rest assured that he’s actually a presidential candidate.
The current “Republican” Mayor of Miami declared his candidacy in mid-June, and he’s trying to set himself up as some kind of real heir to the Florida throne. Recently, he claimed Ron DeSantis has “no personality,” which is a really odd thing for one man to critique another man over. Is he trying to date the Florida governor?
Regardless, I’d rather have someone less personable in such a serious office than an absolute know-nothing like Suarez. That leads me to this embarrassing flub he made Tuesday morning while speaking to Hugh Hewitt.
HEWITT: Penultimate question, Mayor. Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?
SUAREZ: The What?
HEWITT: The Uyghurs.
SUAREZ: What’s a Uyghur.
HEWITT: Okay, we’ll come back to that. Let me, you won’t be…you’ve got to get smart on that.
Suarez, whose brain is apparently as smooth as an apple, then went on to joke about Hewitt’s question being about “a Weeble.” You know, because genocide is hilarious.
I don’t expect presidential candidates to know everything about every single possible issue. I do expect them to have a knowledge base that shows they are engaged in world affairs. I’d suspect that almost every single person reading this article knows the Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group in China currently being put in camps and “reeducated” by the CCP. I’d further suspect that those who don’t know that aren’t running for president.
Suarez is, though, and it’s laughable to think that someone who wants to be the Republican nominee doesn’t even know about a years-long genocide that has been reported on extensively.
Of course, maybe Suarez has been too busy celebrating “pride” month to do any homework for his scam presidential campaign.
Suarez also recently came out against the expansion of the Parental Rights in Education law in Florida which protects children from sexualization and transgender indoctrination in schools. But trust him, he’s really conservative and whatnot.
I’ve seen some people compare Suarez’s mistake to Donald Trump not knowing who Iran’s Qassim Soleimani was when asked by Hewitt in 2015. I don’t think this is anywhere close to the same, though. Not knowing a specific general within an adversarial nation’s command structure isn’t ideal, but it’s not the same as not knowing who the Uyghurs are. The latter shows such a profound disconnect from the world that I’m not sure Suarez is qualified to run a lemonade stand at this point.
Seriously, why is Suarez in this race? Does the GOP field benefit from yet more dead-end candidates jamming themselves into an already limited space? And even if Suarez weren’t so obscure, what does he bring to the table? I’m thinking a pro-trans mayor who doesn’t want to protect kids and who thinks presidential politics is a dating show isn’t exactly what Republican voters are looking for these days. But hey, maybe I’m wrong.