Reacting to Trump’s claim, Clinton’s campaign aide Jake Sullivan said Trump was echoing the views of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Donald Trump has reached a new level of petty.
Tweets from Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account on Thursday afternoon asserted that no, the president did not in fact found ISIS and stated that for remarks like these, Trump should never be allowed to serve in office.
For Republicans uncertain about whether Trump has the discipline to maintain focus for his campaign, the latest comments were concerning. “And I give it to him, and I give it to, I gave the co-founder to Hillary”, he added, referring to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
US Representative Sean Duffy, a Republican from Wisconsin who backs Trump, said Obama and Clinton did not found Islamic State and urged Trump to stay on message. “And at the end, it’s either going to work or I’m going to have a very, very nice long vacation”.
Of course Obama didn’t “found” the Islamic State. Meanwhile, dozens of frustrated Republicans gathered signatures Thursday for a letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that urges the party chief to stop helping Trump and instead focus GOP resources on protecting vulnerable Senate and House candidates.
“Normally you want to clean up; he made a bigger mess out of it”, Trump said.
“It’s not what I’m looking to do – I think we’re going to have a victory but we’ll see”, he said. “And the something else in mind, you know, people can’t believe it”, Trump said on Fox News” “Fox and Friends”.
“I made that decision”, he said.
As far as the veracity of his claims about Obama and Clinton, ISIS was founded in 1999 by a Jordanian militant named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but really blossomed after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Hewitt pushed back again, saying that Obama is “not sympathetic” to ISIS and “hates” and is “trying to kill them”.
Republicans frequently trace the birth of Islamic State to the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw the last US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.
It was Bush’s administration, not Obama’s, that negotiated the 2009 agreement that called for the withdrawal of all us forces from Iraq by December 31, 2011. “I do”, Trump responded.
In interviews following the initial comments, Trump doubled down on the claim.
In a later speech to homebuilders in Miami on Thursday, Trump said his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be given “the most valuable player award” by ISIS. “I do. He was the most valuable player”.
Trump has been using the line since at least January and as recently as Wednesday at a campaign rally in Florida.
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“I would say the co-founder would be Crooked Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonClinton touts 5B infrastructure plan to help create jobs Clinton invokes Michael Phelps to slam Trump Clinton blasts Trump’s tax plans MORE”, he added.
