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Trump not backing away from false claim Obama founded IS

Expressing anything other than confidence fewer than three months to Election Day is an unusual posture for a major party presidential nominee. Nope: Trump just up and made a decision to assert that Clinton and Obama founded ISIS – which was founded in 2004 by a Jordanian-born extremist named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – under former President George W. Bush’s watch, not Obama’s or Clinton’s.

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“In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama”, Trump said Wednesday during a raucous campaign rally outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Republican Donald Trump called U.S. President Barack Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton the “co-founders” of Islamic State, ratcheting up his assertion that they are responsible for the rise of the militant group and sparking renewed criticism of his leadership ability. “From inciting violence against his political opponent, to insulting a Gold Star family, to mocking a reporter with a physical disability, Trump has shown time and time again that he is temperamentally unfit and lacks the judgment to serve as commander-in-chief”.

The Clinton campaign’s response to Trump’s ISIS comments might just be the most impressive way of calling someone a “lying idiot” without having to stoop to their rival’s level of banality.

“Yes, Mr. Trump, words matter”.

He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.

The local group’s then-leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in 2006 in a USA airstrike but is still seen as the IS’ founder.

Mr. Trump has long blamed Mr. Obama and his former Secretary of State for pursuing West Asian policies that created a power vacuum in Iraq that was exploited by the IS. The following year, ISI joined the rebellion in Syria, which offered it a safe haven and easy access to weapons, some of them supplied by United States allies opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

ISI changed its name to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis or Isil) in 2013 and began seizing territory in Syria. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that-that was the founding of ISIS, OK?

A senior administration official would only respond “Seriously?” when asked for comment.

In recent weeks, several leading Republicans have deserted Mr Trump over his outspoken attacks.

Most recently, Senator Susan Collins said she would not be voting for him, pointing to a time he seemed to mock a disabled journalist.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a chart as he speaks to the National Association of Home Builders, Thursday in Miami Beach, Fla.

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Mr Trump denies that this conversation ever took place.

Donald Trump