‘What’s a Uyghur?’: Republican presidential candidate Francis Suarez fumbles during bizarre radio interview as Miami mayor appears completely unaware of China’s ongoing Muslim genocide
- Host Hugh Hewitt put the GOP candidate on the back burner with his knowledge of foreign policy
- Trump administration labeled Muslim minority abuses ‘genocide’
- Suarez later claimed he misunderstood the question
GOP White House hopeful Francis Suarez made a major gaffe on Tuesday when he admitted he was unaware of China’s human rights violations against Muslims.
Radio host Hugh Hewitt has asked Miami Mayor Suarez if he plans to raise the plight of the Uighurs, a Muslim minority from northern China who have been placed in detention camps by the Chinese Communist Party.
“What’s a Uyghur?” Suarez asked the stunned conservative talk show host.
Hewitt then fired back at the mayor, “You have to be smart about that.”
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez appeared dumbfounded by a question about China’s human rights record
He had to be corrected by the host Hugh Hewitt, which led to an awkward on-air exchange
Then, in a bizarre exchange, Suarez said Hewitt had given him “homework” to identify exactly what a Uyghur is.
“I’ll look at what a, what was it, what did you call it, a Uyghur,” he said.
‘The Uyghurs. You really need to know more about the Uighurs, Mayor,” Hewitt told Suarez. “You have to talk about it every day, okay?
Suarez later claimed on Twitter that he misunderstood Hewitt’s correct pronunciation of the Muslim minority.
UN researchers interviewed former prisoners of the Uyghur camps Beijing calls ‘de-radicalisation centers’
The United Nations accused China last August of “serious human rights violations” and possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
The 48-page report, based on interviews with former detainees, said Beijing repeatedly singled out Uighurs and other minorities between 2017 and 2019.
It revealed “patterns of torture” in the camps and cited “credible” allegations of torture or ill-treatment, including instances of sexual assault.
UN investigators said “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of such groups amounts to a possible violation of international law.
Human rights groups believe more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have been held in the notoriously squalid camps.
China denies those claims, insisting the camps are “learning facilities” designed for de-radicalisation.
In a farewell shot at the CCP before leaving office, the Trump administration decided to label the abuses as “genocide.”
That prompted an angry response from the Chinese embassy in Washington, which called the statement “a farce used to discredit China.”
Officials dismissed the US statement as a “gross interference in China’s internal affairs.”
Suarez’s presidential rival, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, lashed out in Beijing earlier on Tuesday during a foreign policy speech in Washington, DC.
Nikki Haley denounced China for its human rights record in a speech in Washington on Tuesday at a center-right think tank
“I mean, genocide — we promised never to look away from genocide, and it’s happening in China right now,” Haley replied. “And nobody says anything because they’re too afraid of China.”
It follows that last week Joe Biden proclaimed Chinese leader Xi a “dictator,” while former President Donald Trump said he “opposed China as no government has ever done before.”
Suarez launched a long-running presidential campaign in a rapidly expanding GOP field earlier this month.
He was first elected mayor of Miami in 2017 and then won re-election in 2021