On Tuesday, Miami Mayor and presidential hopeful Francis Suarez went on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show and got stumped when asked about his views on the Uyghur Muslims in China.
As a presidential candidate, he should absolutely be familiar with the situation. That he sounded completely unaware indicates that being a great mayor does not necessarily mean one should run for president.
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Hewitt asked, “Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?
“The what?” Suarez asked, laughing.
After reiterating the question, Suarez followed up, “What’s a Uyghur?”
At the end of the interview, Suarez brought up the topic again, saying, “You gave me homework, Hugh. I’ll look at — what was it? What’d you call it, a weeble?”
Oh my. Of course, Uyghurs are a Muslim minority in China who are being rounded up and sent off in trains, while blindfolded, to concentration camps to be “reeducated.” Thousands of pounds of Uyghur hair have been intercepted by American authorities, there are reports of sterilization, rape, and murder in these camps, and the few pictures from inside reveal a terrible reality. It is among the worst human rights violations of the Chinese Communist Party.
As such, somebody who is running for president must know who the Uyghurs are. This becomes doubly true when considering that China is one of, if not the top chief geopolitical rivals of the United States. For someone who wants to be the president to be oblivious to a human rights abuse that has sparked calls for boycotts against the most populous country in the world is just not acceptable.
This is not a personal attack on Suarez. By all indications, he has been a good mayor of Miami. But Gary Johnson, who didn’t know what Aleppo is, was also a good governor of New Mexico, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who doesn’t know what the nuclear triad is, is good at writing books. Marianne Williamson is a talented spiritual guide, and Bill DeBlasio is, well, actually not great at much.
None of that means these people would automatically make qualified presidential candidates, but each of them either did run or are running for the office. In today’s political world, it seems that everyone who feels like getting a profile boost will simply run. This is not just a feeling. The unprecedentedly crowded primary fields in 2016 and 2020 demonstrate this perfectly.
But president of the United States is one of the toughest and high-stress jobs there is. Every day, the president must make history-altering decisions. Therefore, presidents must have both a broad and deep knowledge of the issues. Unlike the campaign trail, one cannot do the job itself by merely repeating platitudes. Jim Geraghty at National Review pointed out that “some candidates seem to think they can coast on a handful of glib, memorized talking points.” But this is resolutely not the case.
It is not an insult to say someone is not qualified to be president. Few people are. However, our politics would certainly be better if more people had the humility to realize this for themselves before announcing their candidacy.
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Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.