What should we expect a presidential candidate to know?

Whoops.

(2024 presidential candidate Francis Suarez)

The following exchange happened between Miami Mayor — and 2024 Republican presidential candidate — Francis Suarez and conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday morning:

HEWITT: "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."

Which, oomph.

The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority in China. They have reportedly been subject to vicious crackdowns by the Chinese government — with more than 1 million detained since 2017 and many of those put into reeducation camps.

As the Council on Foreign Relations notes:

The United States and several other foreign governments have described China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, while the UN human rights office said that the violations could constitute crimes against humanity. Chinese officials have said that they have not infringed on Uyghurs’ rights and claimed that they closed the reeducation camps in 2019. However, international journalists and researchers have documented an ongoing system of mass detention throughout the region using satellite images, individual testimonies, and leaked Chinese government documents.

Suarez, as mayor of Miami, likely never has had to think about the plight of the Uyghurs. He’s been focused on making Miami better — and other domestic issues.

But, still…He’s now running for president. And that means knowing about things like the Uyghurs.

It reminded me — a lot — of a back and forth between Hewitt (yes, again) and then candidate Donald Trump during a 2016 Republican primary debate.

Hewitt asked Trump about the nuclear triad — essentially our ability to launch nuclear weapons from the air, land and sea.

Here’s Trump’s initial response:

Well, first of all, I think we need somebody absolutely that we can trust, who is totally responsible; who really knows what he or she is doing. That is so powerful and so important. And one of the things that I’m frankly most proud of is that in 2003, 2004, I was totally against going into Iraq because you’re going to destabilize the Middle East. I called it. I called it very strongly. And it was very important.

But we have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ball game. Frankly, I would have said get out of Syria; get out — if we didn’t have the power of weaponry today. The power is so massive that we can’t just leave areas that 50 years ago or 75 years ago we wouldn’t care. It was hand-to-hand combat.

Which, um, ok?

But Hewitt wasn’t done yet. “Of the three legs of the triad, though, do you have a priority,” he asked Trump. To which Trump responded: “I think — I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me.”

We can safely conclude from that back and forth that Trump had NO idea what the nuclear triad was. He gave a vague answer about the power of nuclear weapons and then when pressed on the triad specifically made clear he really didn’t know what it was.

Trump’s penalty for his ignorance on a key nuclear issue? Not much! Rolling Stone ran a piece on the exchange headlined “Trump’s Terrifying Nuke Answer at the Debate Should End His Campaign (But It Won’t)” and a few other media outlets ran critical headlines but the story was gone in (at most) a few days.

And, for his part, Suarez is being put through the ringer — lightly — today, with a bunch of headlines about his lack of knowledge about the Uyghurs.¹

All of which has me thinking about what we should — and do — expect a presidential candidate to know.

The average American, my guess, knows almost nothing about the Uyghurs. And spends roughly zero time thinking about their plight. Ditto the nuclear triad.

But, the average person isn’t running for president. There is a responsibility that goes with seeking the most powerful office in the country. Because if you are elected, you are actually in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal. Or America’s relationship to China.

Of course, knowing everything about everything is an impossibility. We are human. We make mistakes. We forget stuff.

The question is where that line gets drawn. Is Suarez not knowing who the Uyghurs are disqualifying? What about Trump not knowing what the nuclear triad is?

Obviously, the nuclear triad gaffe had exactly zero impact on Trump’s march not just to the Republican nomination but to the White House. Voters either didn’t know he didn’t know or didn’t care.

And, I don’t think Suarez’s candidacy will be made or broken based on this Uyghurs gaffe.

But, I DO think that we should have high expectations for what the men and women who want to be president know about the world around us. They are putting themselves forward as the best of us — the single person who can lead a country of 330 million Americans.

To me, that means you need to study up! Running for president is an entirely different challenge than what most of these people have been doing before. And, therefore, it requires an entirely new level of intensity, knowledge and focus.

We should expect more from those who want to lead us. And only by expecting more will we get more.

1. If Suarez was better known or regarded as a more serious candidate, I think it would be a bigger story. He is the longest of long shots and, therefore, doesn’t merit a huge blowout of media attention.