Democrats, in turn, have used Trump’s often hyperbolic statements ahead of the November 8 election to argue he is unfit to be president and lacks the temperament to be trusted with matters of national security. The Republican nominee continued his criticism of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as the “founders” of the Islamic State. Please click the button below to manage your account.
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“He’s the founder of ISIS. He made such a mess”, Trump said. Even some conservatives have questioned his portrayal of Obama and Clinton’s role in the rise of ISIS. Over the past two years Obama has organized a broad coalition of countries and launched more than 10,000 US airstrikes to defeat IS. “He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?”
Most recently, Senator Susan Collins said she would not be voting for him, pointing to a time he seemed to mock a disabled journalist. “Her only competition is Barack Obama”, he said.
“Oh boy, is ISIS hoping for her”, Trump said during an appearance before home builders in Miami Beach, portraying Clinton as lazy.
Clinton’s campaign accused Trump of “trash-talking” the USA while failing to present any serious counter-terrorism plans of his own.
Additionally, Trump called his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, the “cofounder” of the terrorist organization.
“Once again, he’s echoing the talking points of Putin and our adversaries to attack American leaders and American interests”, Sullivan said.
At least 70 Republicans have signed the letter so far, according to Republican operative Andrew Weinstein, who said it included five former members of Congress and 16 former RNC staffers.
In the interview with Hewitt, Trump did acknowledge the root of his argument was that if Obama “had done things properly, you wouldn’t have had ISIS”. But he then added, “Therefore, he was the founder if ISIS”.
Trump supporters have said they know what he really means by that – that Obama administration policies, which Clinton was a part of during her tenure as secretary of state, created a power vacuum in the Middle East that allowed terrorist groups to sprout up in the place of U.S. troops.
Trump later called Obama by his full name, “Barack Hussein Obama”, in a jab at his handling of the Russian involvement in Crimea.
Following June’s horrific nightclub shooting in Orlando, Trump had suggested that Obama had an ulterior motive.
The Democratic National Committee weighed in, saying Trump “should apologize for his outrageous, unhinged and patently false suggestions”. It was born out of the terror group Al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew in strength in 2006 following Republican president George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
Now, Trump is arguing that in trying to end the war and withdrawing USA troops in 2011, Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, and Obama created Islamic State. He’s sharply criticized Obama for announcing he would pull US troops out of Iraq, a decision that many Obama critics say created the kind of instability in which extremist groups like IS thrive.
In an interview and campaign event in Florida on Thursday, Trump doubled down on his comments.
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The U.S., under Obama, has led a coalition of 60 nations to go after the group’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria, and Washington has separately begun an air campaign to strike Daesh in Libya. The group carried out massive attacks against Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, fueling tensions with al-Qaida’s central leadership.
