Hillary Clinton admonished rival Donald Trump today for claiming that she and Barack Obama were the founders of the Islamic State, saying anyone who would “sink so low” should never be president. “He is the founder of ISIS”.
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“He knows what he’s saying when he says Obama founded ISIS”. And I give it to him, and I give it to, I gave the co-founder to Hillary. The comments were widely condemned, including by Trump’s opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
In response, Trump said he would stop raising money for the Republican Party if it ends its help for his campaign. I give him the most valuable player award.
As the Clinton campaign argued a year ago, when Jeb Bush used this same argument to blame the current administration for the chaos in Iraq, the Status of Forces Agreement under which the US promised to withdraw all of its troops by the end of 2011 was in fact signed by President Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, on December 14, 2008 (during a visit to Baghdad better remembered for the nimble way Bush ducked when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at him). Martha, great to have you, and you heard a conservative radio host asking Donald Trump if this is what he really meant.
Trump again roiled the presidential campaign late yesterday, telling a rally in Florida that Obama “is the founder of ISIS”. “I know what you meant, you meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace”. You can read it while you wait for the next stupid thing Trump says.
That’s what Trump was alluding to, but what he actually said was, “He’s the founder of ISIS”.
It’s a claim that Trump repeated at least a dozen times in three cities since debuting the attack-line Wednesday during a rally outside Fort Lauderdale. Declare victory and leave, because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. “I was against the war in Iraq”.
Senator Susan Collins of ME announced she would not vote for Trump, citing a “constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologise”.
Trump has a history of suggesting the President has terrorist ties.
Republicans have long stated that the foreign policies of Obama and his then-secretary of state Clinton share blame in helping create conditions that allowed IS to grow in Iraq and Syria. “Donald Trump should apologize for his outrageous, unhinged and patently false suggestions on the founding of ISIS”, the DNC said in a statement. “So there’s a very powerful case to be made”.
Hewitt and Trump went back and forth after that, with Hewitt warning Trump that his critics would seize on his use of “founder” as more example of Trump being loose with words. “Does he not think that his audience could not accept the slightly more complex, the slight more reasoned message that this president made serious mistakes that led to the creation of ISIS?”
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“He inflames the debate, and we don’t need the flame, we need cold, rational discussion”, Hayden said, adding, “He insults his audience”.
