Trump first said he saw the “top secret” video, which he claimed Iran released to embarrass the USA, during a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. The White House has said the payment related to an old arms deal and was a previously negotiated settlement.
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That explanation, which was first made in January when the settlement was announced, did not wash with Trump, however.
He told the crowd: “Iran, I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here, Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane”.
“Now, here’s the wonderful thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi”. But “they have a ideal tape, obviously done by a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane”. Right? That was given to us – has to be – by the Iranians.
“We were right in January 2016 to describe the Administration’s $1.7 billion transfer to Iran as a ransom payment”, the Illinois Republican said in a statement. “Nobody getting nervous they’re going to be shot because they’re taking a picture of money pouring off a plane”.
Donald Trump says he saw a video that no other US officials said they knew about.
Donald Trump is dramatically describing a video that he says shows the USA paying off Iran as part of a deal to release US sailors from Iranian custody.
Trump claimed he saw a “top secret” video filmed by “government cameras” in Iran showing $400 million in cash being given to the Iranian government in exchange for the US soldiers they detained back in January for illegally entering Iranian waters.
“Yes”, spokeswoman Hope Hicks responded in an email. “Merely the b-roll footage included in every broadcast”. The footage he is referring to shows three shadowy figures disembarking from an aircraft, and was first shown on Fox News. But intelligence officials say they don’t know of any such video and that neither of the presidential nominees have received a general intelligence briefing.
“It looks like we paid $400 million for the hostages”, Trump falsely claimed, as ABC News reported.
“And you know, it was interesting, because a tape was made, right, you saw that with the airplane coming in?” Nice plane. The airplane coming in.
“And the aeroplane coming in and the money coming off, I guess, right”.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who was among those who were critical of the Iran nuclear deal, denounced the payment as a “ransom”.
Trump continued: “Iran released that tape, which is of quality like these guys have”, he said, pointing to the media in the back of the room. “Otherwise, they would’ve had to wait until I became president”.
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Trump, in his remarks on Thursday, alluded to seeing a video of the plane landing. “If they want to be president, they’ve got to start acting like president and that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread it around”.
