I guarantee you that the next time Miami Mayor Francis Suarez does an interview, he will know all about the plight of the Uyghurs. He experienced on of those moments during an interview with Salem Radio Network’s Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that every presidential candidate dreads. Suarez did not do well.

Hugh Hewitt asked Suarez, “Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?” Suarez answered, “The what?” It went downhill from there, though Hewitt very graciously let Suarez off the hook pretty quickly to spare him further embarrassment.

“The Uyghurs,” Hewitt said, prompting Suarez to ask, “What’s a Uyghur?”

At the end of the interview, Suarez told Hewitt, “You gave me homework, Hugh. I’ll look at – what was it? What’d you call it, a weeble?”

A WEEBLE?!! Oh, my. That’s a flashback to the 1970s and those roly-poly children’s toys. If he wasn’t running for the Republican presidential nomination, that would have been pretty funny, but he is running and he’s left looking unprepared for the big leagues.

Over one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in “re-education centers” and subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and sterilization. Uyghurs are the second-largest predominantly Muslim ethnicity in China. With China and its treatment of its people a hot button issue, especially on the Republican side of the aisle, Suarez was bound to get that question.

This shows the difference between a mayor who decides he wants to run for president and say, Nikki Haley who has vast experience with both domestic and international affairs. As the former United States ambassador to the United Nations she was known for calling out bad actors like China on a regular basis. She could have taken that question and run with it.

But, that’s the point. Suarez will continue to get questions for which he is not prepared because he’s the mayor of Miami. There is nothing wrong with that and it is a political accomplishment for his resume but it is also the pinnacle of his political career to date.

Frankly Suarez did not help himself when he responded to CNN and put the blame on Hugh Hewitt.

In a statement to CNN Tuesday afternoon, Suarez denied that he was unaware of the Uyghur situation and the human rights abuses China is accused of committing.

“Of course, I am well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs in China. They are being enslaved because of their faith. 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,” Suarez said in a statement to CNN.

Really? He throws Hugh Hewitt under the bus on the pronunciation? C’mon, man. Hugh tried to save him from himself and moved on to another subject and this is how Suarez repays that show of grace? Not cool, Francis.

Needless to say, CNN was eager to report that Nikki Haley, well, pounced.

“We promised never again to look away from genocide and it’s happening right now in China. And no one is saying anything because they’re too scared of China,” Haley said at an American Enterprise Institute event. “Part of American foreign policy should always be that we fight for human rights for all people. And what’s happening with the Uyghurs is disgusting. And the fact that the whole world is ignoring it is shameful.”

Suarez is the son of former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. Francis Suarez served on the Miami City Commission from 2009 to 2017. In 2017, he was elected Mayor of Miami and he was re-elected in 2021.

Here's that moment:https://t.co/YFhjzSk9ex

— The Recount (@therecount) June 27, 2023

The website Florida Politics was brutal in its write-up.

Suarez’s misunderstanding of a key plank of China’s internal oppression is arguably the greatest foreign policy mistake from a candidate since the 2016 Presidential campaign.

Back then, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson went on MSNBC and discussed foreign policy in a shambolic interview, the low point of which was when he was asked about Aleppo, Syria.

“What is Aleppo?” Johnson responded, providing a gaffe on national television from which his campaign never recovered.

Johnson said he thought Aleppo was an “acronym” amid the media outcry over his mistake.

It’s up to Suarez to prove he’s up to being on the stage with other Republican candidates when the first debate happens in August. Will he qualify? Then, will be look qualified and prepared? We’ll have to wait and see.