his own people : Attacking Hillary Clinton over what he criticized as her overly interventionist instincts , Mr. Johnson pointed to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians killed by forces loyal to President Bashar al - Assad , as well as civilian deaths caused by the American - backed coalition , and said Mrs. Clinton , the former secretary of state , bore at least partial responsibility . But when pressed four times on whether he saw a moral equivalence between deaths caused by the United States , directly or indirectly , and mass killings of civilians by Mr. Assad and his allies , Mr. Johnson made clear that he did .