But this morning, Trump seemingly reversed his position.
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“No, I meant he’s the founder of [ISIL]”. “He was the most valuable player”.
In remarks Friday at an Erie, Pa., rally, Trump seemed to reverse himself again: “Obviously I’m being sarcastic”.
A large number of Republicans have attempted to argue that the Obama administration, in which Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, permitted ISIS to grow by opting not to send troops to the Middle East.
At his Erie event, Trump seemed to acknowledge he is facing a formidable opponent in Clinton as well as a hard electoral path.
Trump has used the sarcasm defense before.
Clinton released her tax returns yesterday, painting the move as a sign of transparency that her campaign says Trump lacks. She’s hammered him for avoiding accountability for his actions.
Clinton, whose lead over Trump has widened in recent polls of the most competitive states, has seized on those and other eyebrow-raising comments to portray the reality TV star as lacking the temperament to run the nation – Trump has his own argument for why she’s unfit to do so.
“We’re going to win so big”, Mr Trump told a roaring crowd one month ago at the Republican National Convention.
It was only two days earlier that Trump blamed the media for making much ado about nothing after he suggested during a rally that gun rights enthusiasts might find a way to stop Clinton if elected. In July, after he drew widespread criticism by appearing to suggest that the Russians should hack Clinton’s e-mails, he later explained his remarks by saying, “Of course I’m being sarcastic”.
While Trump generally tries to avoid apologizing for provocative things that he says, he often accuses his critics of misconstruing his words or misunderstanding his sense of humor.
“That’s what normal candidates do”, he went on.
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Following the suggestion on Wednesday evening, Trump went back on his words on Friday, insisting he had not meant to say President Obama and Democratic candidate Clinton founded ISIS. “It is true in a sense that before Obama, [ISIL] was an nearly unknown, small little organization, he who called it the [junior varsity], totally wrong, and here’s why it happened, because he withdrew the troops from Iraq”.
