According to the GOP presidential nominee, Obama’s decision to pull USA forces from Iraq in 2011 destabilized the Middle East and created a situation in which Islamic State militants could thrive.
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Outside of Rio de Janeiro, this week’s top story has been Donald Trump repeatedly calling President Obama and Hillary Clinton the “co-founders” of ISIS.
“Last night you said the president was the founder of ISIS”, Hewitt said.
While Trump’s remarks landed him in fresh controversy, they did manage to push another deeply divisive row – his remarks that could be interpreted as advocating gun violence against Clinton – out of the headlines.
But in 2011, before the Islamic State was lethal and as Obama was determined to keep his campaign promise to end the war started by President George W. Bush, Washington wanted to leave several thousand American troops in the country to train Iraqi security forces.
Speaking at a rally outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Republican presidential candidate repeated the allegation three more times for emphasis. “You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace”, Hewitt attempted to guide Trump. Trump, 70, said. “Are people complaining that I said he was the founder of ISIS?”.
Republican sources earlier this month said Priebus was furious over Trump’s failure to endorse House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and his feud with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq.
“I don’t care”, Trump replied. “He was the founder”.
After trouncing 16 challengers in the Republican primary, Trump is encountering worrying signs as his campaign moves into the general election.
Trump has refused to make his filings public, saying they’re under audit by the Internal Revenue Service and he’ll release them only once that review is complete.
Clinton is looking to take advantage by expanding into traditionally Republican states, seeking a sweeping victory in November.
“Whatever it is, it is”, Trump said.
In the past Trump has accused his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, of founding the militant group.
Trump’s commentary also seemed to echo an opinion expressed by a leader he says he respects, Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He hates them. He’s trying to kill them”.
Another reporter from the cable network posted a video after Trump’s speech of a man raising his middle finger at the journalists present and shouting at them. But he added that the military has been depleted and America’s infrastructure is in frightful condition. Republicans believe that the USA decision to leave Iraq in 2011 created a power vacuum that allowed al-Qaida in Iraq, a subsidiary of the larger terror group al-Qaida, to morph into the 30,000-strong Islamic State group that in 2014 seized a third of Syria and Iraq. “I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton”. One exception came this month when he acknowledged a video he said showed a plane carrying US cash to Iran was actually a plane carrying USA hostages who were being released.
ISIS, in its latest incarnation, was officially founded by the group’s current head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in late June 2014 when a representative for the organization declared it had established an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
ISIL began as Iraq’s local affiliate of al-Qaeda and has carried out massive attacks against Iraq’s Shia Muslim majority, fueling tensions with al-Qaeda’s central leadership.
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GOP concerns about Trump are compelling enough that dozens of anxious Republicans were gathering signatures for a letter urging the party’s chairman to stop helping Trump and focus on protecting vulnerable House and Senate candidates, according to a draft obtained by the Associated Press.
