A day after Donald Trump repeatedly called President Obama the “founder” of the Islamic State and labeled Hillary Clinton the terrorist group’s “co-founder”, he shifted his tone abruptly, insisting he was being sarcastic and blaming the news media for misrepresenting his comments.
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“This is different from them espousing perspectives and opinions”, said Angelo Carusone, the group’s executive vice president.
At a rally on Wednesday, he said that President Barack Obama is “the founder of ISIS”. This time it’s the New Yorker, with an image showing Trump with wet hair covering his face.
But Trump sounded pretty serious in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Undeterred, Trump stayed on-message, “I don’t care. Except with Trump, it’s the Muslim standard: They’re blaming a woman’s rape on being a woman”. A candidate who soared to the top of a field of 17 Republican primary contenders in part by provocative declarations finds himself adjusting to a general election in which even some officials in his own party have raised concerns about his temperament.
Donald Trump has, throughout his campaign, tested the pliability of rhetoric and language, sometimes to underline an affirmative point, but more often of late – and in particular on Friday morning – as a tool for walking back damaging (or straight-up false) assertions.
“They had eight states, eight countries, now they have 28 states … they are expanding”.
Trump supporter Newt Gingrich on Friday said that the GOP nominee has failed to understand the importance of being precise. But the allegation had elicited fresh concerns about Trump’s relationship with the truth and his preparedness to be commander in chief.
Trump use Twitter for commenting from the first day, and he used to tweet one after one comment. “He hates them. He’s trying to kill them”, Hewitt said.
That is especially so against the backdrop of Trump’s repeated accusations that Obama and Clinton have been soft on terrorism, his allegations of an “almost criminal” conspiracy that allowed Americans to die at the USA consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the “lock her up” chants heard about Clinton at many Trump rallies, Zelizer said. Iraqi leaders, however, refused to give US troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the USA refused to stay without it. Al-Maliki told USA military officials that he did not have the votes in parliament to provide immunity to the American trainers. The group rebranded after his death, becoming ISIS, and under the guidance of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has capitalized on a series of missteps by both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations – along with a civil war in Syria and Iraqi government failures – to create a new global terror state.
As for the manner of the USA withdrawal, Trump actually wanted US troops out years earlier than Obama brought them out. “He’s the founder of ISIS”, he told the Miami NBC affiliate Thursday night when asked what he meant by the comment. The group began as Iraq’s local affiliate of al-Qaida, the group that attacked the US on September 11, 2001.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a chart as he speaks to the National Association of Home Builders, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Miami Beach, Fla. Trump said he wasn’t anxious Republicans would cut him off – and threatened to stop fundraising for the party if they do.
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So who did found the so-called Islamic State?
