Even while working to restore confidence in his campaign, Trump appeared to court controversy anew when he said late Thursday that he was open to trying Americans suspected of terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. Media outlets also pointed out in their coverage that Trump’s claim was false.
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Trump scheduled a speech in Warren, Ohio, on Monday that will focus on how he would handle the threat posed by Islamic State.
Donald Trump says that CNN just doesn’t get the joke. “The mainstream media wants to pick on every single word”. “Everyone’s liking it. I think they’re liking it”.
He drew heavy criticism after he suggested gun rights activists could take action against Clinton, a statement he later said was aimed at rallying votes against her.
“Donald Trump has shown that he lies every single day and then the next day he just tries to claim it was sarcasm”, he told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day”.
A little later Friday morning, the Republican nominee tweeted more scorn at the press.
“One of the things that’s frustrating about his candidacy is the imprecise language”, Gingrich said on “Fox and Friends”.
“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS”.
And when pressed to clarify in interviews Thursday, Trump insisted he had said what he meant.
“It was a style that none of his Republican opponents could cope with”, Gingrich said. “You don’t get any argument from me”, Hewitt continued. He is the founder of ISIS.
Republican leaders have repeatedly stated that the foreign policies of President Obama and his former secretary of state Clinton were to blame for helping to create the conditions that allowed the IS group to grow in Iraq and Syria.
“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. He gets the most valuable player award”. “He was the most valuable player – I gave him the most valuable player award”.
“But he’s not sympathetic to them”, Mr. Hewitt said, referring to President Obama.
Trump said he wasn’t anxious Republicans would cut him off – and threatened to stop fundraising for the party if they do. “He was the founder. His- the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?”
On Thursday night at a rally in Florida, he repeated the claim, explaining that if the president had maintained a small force in Iraq, he could have prevented the militant group’s rise.
“In fact, in many respects, you know they honor president Obama”. “He is the founder of ISIS”, he said, repeating the allegation three more times for emphasis. He’s the founder! He founded ISIS! “He’s the founder. He founded ISIS”.
By Friday morning, as the backlash to Trump’s comments was again threatening to knock out the potential to generate any positive news or electoral momentum, he began a familiar process – the walk-back.
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Only hours before, the billionaire businessman had restated the allegation with no mention of sarcasm, telling rally-goers in Kissimmee, Florida, that “I’ve been saying that Barack Obama is the founder”.
