In a rare reversal from his earlier stance, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, on Friday acknowledged that he did not see the secret footage of transfer of $400 million to Iran as ransom for the release of U.S. prisoners. He sent a tweet Friday morning admitting that the plane he saw was the plane carrying American hostages, not $400 million for Iran.
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“It was interesting because a tape was made”, Trump Thursday during a campaign event in ME of a nonexistent video of an unmarked plane dropping $400 million in Iran, reportedly in exchange for the release of four American hostages.
US President Barack Hussein Obama ranted Thursday about a story that detailed the transfer of $400-M in cash to Iran the same day 4 American hostages were freed from the country. The cash was part of a $1.7 billion settlement of a dispute over an arms deal between the US and pre-revolution Iran.
His reversal comes just days after he said at a Florida campaign rally that video released by Iran showed people taking money from the plane in order to embarrass the United States, according to The Washington Post.
The Washington Post reported that late on August 3 – which was after the Daytona Beach event but before the Portland event – Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks responded to an email “that asked if the footage Trump was referencing was actually widely shown video of a private plane landing in Switzerland in January with three American prisoners who had just been released by Iran, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian”.
“A little bit later, part of the interest money was also paid to Iran, and the USA government made a commitment to pay the rest of Iran’s money”.
Trump maintained that the video “was given to us – has to be – by the Iranians”. But then the revolution and hostage crisis occurred, causing the USA to cut off diplomatic relations with Iran and freeze Iranian assets in America. Trump said without offering evidence that it was the Iranian government.
On the campaign trail this week, Trump spun tales of high-quality, “top secret” footage provided by Iran showing what he claimed was the “ransom” payment being unloaded from planes in exchange for the hostages.
On Thursday, Trump repeated that he saw such a video during a rally in Portland, Maine. They have a flawless tape, obviously done by a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane.
“It looks like we paid $400 million for the hostages”, Trump falsely claimed on Wednesday, telling supporters that America paid ransom for the USA service members temporarily detained after illegally entering Iranian waters. “It’s a tape that was a ideal angle, nice and steady”, Trump said, as quoted by the Huffington Post.
“They have a flawless tape, done by obviously a government camera”, Trump said.
“$400 million in cash”.
“It’s a military tape”.
Kaine, who was a co-chairman of President Obama’s White House bid in 2008, said that Clinton would be able to fight the gridlock in Congress because she has better relationships with Congressional members than President Obama did when he entered the White House.
Some commentators initially anxious that the video Trump was talking about was classified footage that he had been shown from the top-secret intelligence briefings major party presidential nominees receive; however, according to Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, those briefings had not yet started.
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“I have no idea what he’s talking about”, Kaine said in an interview with CBS’s “This Morning.”
