Miami mayor Uyghur gaffe Storms snarl NYC airports
Miami Mayor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Francis Suarez stunned conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday by admitting ignorance about the plight of Uyghur Muslims in China.
“Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?” Hewitt asked on his syndicated show.
“The what?” answered Suarez.
“The Uyghurs,” the host repeated.
“What’s a Uyghur?” asked Suarez, 45.
“OK, we’ll come back to that,” Hewitt said before admonishing Suarez: “You’ve got to get smart on that.”
Hewitt later tweeted that Suarez “was pretty good” except for the “huge blind spot on the Uyghurs.”
Suarez tweeted later: “I am well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs,” but said he didn’t recognize Hewitt’s pronunciation. The host spoke the word correctly as “WEE-ger.”
It’s starting to look like a bummer of a summer.
Thousands of would-be travelers were grounded Tuesday morning as New York City-area airports canceled and delayed more than 100 flights due to storms plaguing the region.
As of early Tuesday, Newark Airport alone had nixed 136 departing flights and delayed 14 more, FlightAware showed. More than 180 flights scheduled to land at Newark were also canceled, the tracker indicated.
In addition, LaGuardia canceled 65 flights and delayed 18, while JFK axed 21 trips and delayed 43 others.
About 1,600 US flights were canceled and 5,800 more were delayed Monday.
One traveler posted on Twitter that they were giving up on flying out of JFK.
“After two days of canceled flights . . . Uber-ing to Penn Station now to catch a train to DC and fly back west out of there . . . Wish me luck!”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed doubt Tuesday about whether Donald Trump is the best bet for the GOP to regain the White House next year.
“Can he win that election? Yeah he can,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.
“But can anyone beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden,” the speaker went on. “Can Biden beat other people? Yes, Biden can beat them. It’s on any given day.”
Trump has been widely pegged as the GOP frontrunner and leads his nearest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 30.6 points in the RealClearPolitics
national polling average.
The same outlet shows Trump narrowly leading Biden in the 2024 vote, 43.8% to 43.6%.
The comments amounted to a rare waver by McCarthy in his backing of Trump. On Friday, the speaker supported a move among House Republicans to expunge both of the 45th president’s impeachments.
“I think it is appropriate,” McCarthy said at the time.
On Tuesday, CNBC cohost Joe Kernen pointed out Trump’s mounting legal troubles.
“It makes it complicated. It also helps him,” McCarthy replied, alluding to Trump’s strong polling in the GOP primary despite the indictments. Ryan King