Gary Johnson didn't know what Aleppo is. Here are some other things he doesn't know.

By Katie McDonough | September 8, 2016 | 4:07pm

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Gary Johnson is having a rough day.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday, the Libertarian presidential candidate was asked a question about what he would do “about Aleppo” if he were elected president.

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Johnson answered the question with another question: “And what is Aleppo?”

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria, a former economic and cultural hub that has been virtually reduced to rubble by years of civil war. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled, and an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people remain trapped during the government siege of the city. The death toll has been astronomical.

Johnson, after being informed what Aleppo was, offered a cheerful “got it” followed by some non-interventionist boilerplate. Pressed again by host Joe Scarborough, he continued: “I do understand Aleppo… But when we involve ourselves militarily, when we involve ourselves in these humanitarian issues, we end up—we end up with a situation that in most cases is not better, and in many cases ends up being worse.”

Whether or not Johnson’s lack of recall about a humanitarian crisis of this scale will alarm some of his supporters isn’t a question I can answer. But I can say that Johnson’s record of not really knowing the kind of things a president should know hasn’t seemed to hurt him thus far.

Recent data show that he’s currently polling around 10%, and that he’s receiving equal support from voters who might otherwise vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

So what other things does Gary Johnson not know? Let’s join hands and take a look back:

Gary Johnson did not know who Harriet Tubman was.

While being shadowed by The New Yorker, Gary Johnson revealed that he did not recognize the name Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who helped 300 enslaved people escape to freedom through a network of safe houses called the Underground Railroad.

Gary Johnson did not know what a bill he said he supports actually does.

“My understanding is that it does advance the ball,” Johnson told ProCon.org in a phone interview about his position on the the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

He liked the deal because it is “more free trade than not,” but admitted he couldn’t get into specifics about why he didn’t like parts of it.

“Is it a perfect document? Based upon what I understand it is not, but I could not tell you what the specifics are for why that’s not the case other than that it’s better than nothing given the current state of trade. So I would be in support of TPP.”

Gary Johnson did not know his running mate’s position on an issue he said he is “scared to death” of.

Johnson was asked about his position on hate crime laws during Fusion’s Libertarian Presidential Forum, and his response was an echo of a previous statement that he is “scared to death” of hate crime legislation.

“You’re talking about me throwing a rock through someone’s window. I should be prosecuted on throwing the rock, not my thoughts that motivated me throwing the rock through that window,” he continued. “I foresaw a situation where I got beat up in a parking lot and—‘well gee, you’re not gay, you’re not black, you’re not Hispanic you’re not Jewish, are you sure you want to press charges here? It doesn’t seem to be any hate crime.’”

When asked if his vice presidential pick, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, shared his view, Johnson copped to not knowing what Weld thought about the issue.

As it turned out, Weld did not agree with Johnson. “Yeah, I don’t know. I think a burning cross on the lawn of a black church—you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know there is an overtone there,” he responded.