Stunning dishonesty...
Donald Trump Said He Favored Iraq Invasion in 2002 Interview
By Maggie Haberman
nytimes.com
Donald J. Trump, who has made his claim of having opposed the Iraq War in 2003 a centerpiece of his stump speech, said in a 2002 interview with the radio host Howard Stern that he favored the invasion.
“Are you for invading Iraq?” Mr. Stern asked in the interview, audio of which was discovered by the website BuzzFeed.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Mr. Trump replied, adding, “I wish the first time it was done correctly,” in reference to the initial Persian Gulf invasion by the first President George Bush.
The interview, while not a rallying cry for the second invasion, which came after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was also at odds with Mr. Trump’s current claim that he is the sole Republican in the presidential primary to have had the vision to oppose the 2003 war. Mr. Trump repeated that claim on Thursday night during a town-hall-style event hosted by CNN.
“It may have been the worst decision going into Iraq,” Mr. Trump said, the worst of any made “in the history of this country, that’s how bad it is.” He added that he was the only one before the war who “said we shouldn’t be doing it.” Fact-checkers have struggled to turn up evidence of Mr. Trump’s opposition to the war before it took place.
Asked about that interview by the CNN host Anderson Cooper during the event Thursday and whether he had made those comments, Mr. Trump conceded he may have, adding, “That was probably the first time I was even asked that.” |
