Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks with “Today” show co-anchor Matt Lauer at the NBC Commander-In-Chief Forum held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid, New York, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016. According to fast ratings from Nielsen, 10.8 million viewers tuned in.
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Democratic candidate Clinton and Republican nominee Trump will appear separately at a forum sponsored by NBC News and take questions from an audience primarily of veterans and active USA servicemen and women. “I took it very seriously”, Clinton said. The 9/11 families are never far from her mind, she said, including when she and the rest of the Obama administration killed Bin Laden dead, remember that: “That’s who I was thinking of ten years later in the White House situation room when the decision was made with President Obama to bring Bin Laden to justice”. “It was something that should not have been done”.
Clinton drew an implicit contrast with Trump when asked for the most important quality a commander in chief must possess. “What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts. said to do”, Trump said.
Olsen’s piece cites statements of support for Donald Trump by members of ISIS (based on a previous article in Foreign Affairs) and goes on to endorse Hillary Clinton as “the clear choice for national security”. A new poll suggests most Americans (53 percent) expect Clinton to win the debates, which is sometimes considered a disadvantage – the person expected to win typically has to outperform to beat expectations.
But when Lauer confronted Trump, the candidate didn’t backtrack from that tweet; rather, he wholeheartedly defended it. “And I have said that my voting to give President Bush that authority was, from my perspective, my mistake”.
Asked about what critics call her hawkish foreign policy record, Clinton said: “We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again and we are not putting ground troops into Syria”.
Clinton mostly used the time to attack Trump for things he said in the Wednesday forum, as well as throughout the campaign.
Russian Federation could help, Trump said, welcoming Vladimir Putin, calling him brilliant.
“What was really scary was he keeps talking about the secret plan that he has to defeat ISIS”, Mook said.
“I have a substantial chance of winning, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is”, explained Trump. The war in Iraq started in 2003, and Lauer didn’t challenge him on it.
“They know they can count on me to be the kind of commander in chief who will protect our country and our troops, and they know they cannot count on Donald Trump”, Clinton said Tuesday.
She said the U.S. does not “invade” other countries to “plunder and pillage” and she will not send America’s courageous soldiers to “steal oil”.
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Clinton also dismissed criticism that she was hawkish and too interventionist. He saw that as a good thing, saying: “That’s how well we did”.
