Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump refused to back down on Thursday from claims President Barack Obama founded Daesh.
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Trump once again sparked outrage on Wednesday night after claiming at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that Obama has a relationship with ISIS, the Middle East-based terrorist organization, and was its “founder”.
This is also connected to the theories that stated Obama was born in Kenya, which would make him ineligible for the U.S. Presidency. Joe Scarborough on Wednesday said he thinks Trump is pulling a “marketing ploy, a scam”, and that he’ll end up saying, “I can’t believe you suckers fell for this”.
“ISIS is honoring President Obama”, he said.
“Our government has unleashed ISIS”, Trump told the National Association of Home Builders in Miami Beach. “He is the founder of Isis”, he said, repeating the claim three times.
“I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton”, he added, a day after making remarks that were widely seen as calling for violence against his Democratic rival.
Clinton’s campaign accused Trump of “trash-talking” the USA while failing to present any serious counter-terrorism plans of his own.
The last time CT went for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1988, when George H.W. Bush, a former state resident, captured it.
In interviews Thursday morning with CNBC and the Hugh Hewitt Show, Trump said he did not regret the charge. The withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq in 2011 helped create the vacuum IS fighters exploited, while the group’s early military gains were fueled in part by western weaponry seized from defeated or retreating Iraqi army units.
Trump blamed the president for his decision to withdraw troops, which some argue created a power vacuum in which extremist groups like ISIS thrive.
The Republican presidential nominee, mirroring Hewitt’s argument, contended Obama’s policies allowed ISIS to form. And then you had Hillary with Libya.
While ISIS was forming overseas, Obama was busy campaigning for and eventually being elected to the presidency. “I do”, Trump said.
“It can be hard to muster outrage as frequently as Donald Trump should cause it, but his smear against President Obama requires it”, Clinton tweeted. “In fact he gets the – in sports, they have awards”. Trump often hosts fundraisers near rallies, though his campaign did not say if any were planned.
The Democratic nominee isn’t expected to use her speech to come out with any major new policies.
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The Pentagon has said its airstrikes have taken out more than 20,000 ISIS supporters.
