Lauer brought up the tweet after a veteran at an NBC forum on national security asked Trump about statistics on sexual assault in the USA military, noting that his daughter decided not to join the service when she saw them.
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Trump, who has both said he has a secret plan to defeat ISIS and, if elected, that he would give generals 30 days to present him with a plan to beat ISIS, also offered little clarity as to which was the case. “I think I am in the best possible position to understand that and prevent it”. In its release unveiling the longer list, the Clinton campaign declared that Trump “lacks the knowledge, stability and values” to be commander in chief, and noted that 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney had the endorsements of 500 former military leaders.
Clinton is trying to raise questions about Trump’s temperament and fitness for office given his history of incendiary rhetoric, such as declaring President Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS”, an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. But she promised more help for Iraqi and Kurdish forces now doing much of the fighting against the group, a not-so-subtle dig at her former boss, President Obama, and his handling of the crisis.
The forum came hours after Trump laid into Clinton as “trigger happy”.
Even if Trump made a decision to solve the problem of sexual assault by kicking women out of the military, that wouldn’t solve another problem when it comes to sexual assault: Men are also victims. “I’ve been called a lot of names today, names that I wouldn’t put in a family newspaper”, she said with a laugh.
Clinton’s campaign says she now has 95 retired generals and admirals backing her.
One audience member asked Trump: “As president, what specifically would you do to support all victims of sexual assault in the military?” “We will show the whole world how proud we are to be American”, Trump said.
In a move likely to enrage the brass in the Defense Department, Mr Trump also blasted the current status of America’s top officers, saying they had been hamstrung by Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton.
A member in the audience asked Trump how he would deescalate tension with Russian Federation.
The New York businessman, who has struggled at times to demonstrate a command of foreign policy, also seemed to acknowledge he does not now have a plan to address cyber security or the Islamic State group.
When asked about her 2002 vote to send troops to Iraq, Clinton admitted that, too, was a mistake.
Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, repeatedly refused to say directly whether he had confidence in Trump as commander in chief when questioned on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.
Several Congressional Republicans were quick to endorse Trump’s comments, suggesting that at least among them, transitioning his public statements to be more in line with the party leaders is working.
“I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously, always have, always will, ‘ she said”.
By virtue of a coin flip, Clinton took the stage first.
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“The generals have been reduced to rubble”, Trump said, before noting he had “faith in certain of the commanders”.
