On Friday, Trump passed off as sarcasm the assertion he made repeatedly this week that President Barack Obama and Clinton were “co-founders” of Islamic State and its Most Valuable Players.
Advertisement
Trump tweeted Friday morning that the media was missing his sarcasm.
Ms Clinton has attacked Mr Trump for the remarks, writing on Twitter: “It can be hard to muster outrage as frequently as Donald Trump should cause it, but his smear against president Obama requires it”.
An exasperated Trump pointed out that he was being sarcastic, ridiculing the media for taking his comment literally. “But to say that an elected official in our country founded a terrorist organization like ISIS is taking the facts that took place in 2011 and carrying that far too far”.
Trump appeared to make one concession to the policy argument in his conversation with Hewitt, even as he claimed that the literal meaning of his remarks still stood.
“Then – but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you”, Trump said during a rally here. “I have been wrong so many times”.
“Right now Mr Trump is losing, and this very likely terrifies him”. After all much of the time Democrats have said the same things that Trump did. “He sometimes uses three words when he needs 10”.
In a statement, the Democratic National Committee said, “Donald Trump should apologise for his outrageous, unhinged and patently false suggestions on the founding of ISIS”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that President Obama founded ISIS. “He has got to learn to use language that has been thought through and that is clear to everybody, and to stick to that language”.
“I hope the Republicans are watching closely”, he said. “All I do is tell the truth”, Trump told CNBC News.
“These are the founders of ISIS because of bad judgment”.
Later on Thursday, Trump was asked by conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt about the Wednesday night comments in Florida, saying that he took Trump to mean “that he (Obama) created the vacuum, he lost the peace”. But he and Hillary get the most valuable player award having to do with Iraq. “I give him the most valuable player award”, he said.
Advertisement
Hewitt: “But he’s not sympathetic to them”.
