A J Delgado
Posted on 09/08/2016 10:33:51 PM PDT by Pinkbell
Trump recently claimed he opposed the Iraq War in 2003 and “before that.”
Buzzfeed’s Andrew K (a tremendous reporter, with terrific scoops) did some digging, though, and found audio of Trump appearing on the Howard Stern show on September 11, 2002. It’s a solid find by Andrew but it’s being used by Trump critics to apparently demonstrate Trump is a ‘liar’ who didn’t, in fact, oppose the Iraq War.
In 2002, Donald Trump Said He Supported Invading Iraq
“Are you for invading Iraq?” Howard Stern asked him, and Trump answered, “Yeah, I guess so.”
I don’t see, however, how this audio negates Trump’s alleged opposition to the war. If anything, it supports the notion that Trump was against the war. Why?
1. For starters, Trump’s “Yeah, I guess so…” isn’t exactly an enthusiastic, ringing endorsement of the war plans. One can almost hear his shoulders shrugging. Let’s just say that’s not what an Iraq War supporter sounded like in 2002.
2. It’s September 2002 — months before the war began the following year. At that time, I recall opinions (my own included) wavered week to week. Wildly varying information and various Bush pitches were emerging constantly, and opinions on whether to invade — including even what the ‘invasion/war’ would actually entail — were all over the place. So, yes, one could say “Sure, let’s go over there” one week and easily turn around and oppose it the following week, or vice versa. Thus, it’s possibly Trump could go on a show and say “Yeah, I guess so” regarding plans to invade but then reconsider — which would make his “I opposed the war” truthful.
(Excerpt) Read more at aj-delgado.com ...
AJ has put forth a good case by saying the Stern interview was on 9/11 (a year later), months before the war, opinions were varied, there was a lot of support in New York circles, and his support of the war was hardly enthusiastic. His comments on Cavuto months before the war indicate that he believed Bush would have to make a decision but thought he would be better off dealing with domestic matters.
Now AJ upgraded her post to say that Andrew from Buzzfeed found audio from a day after the war began when he said about the war that "it looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint." CNN journalist Jeremy Diamond, who is an embed covering the Trump campaign, asked Trump about this, and Trump said that he knew what he meant. Jeremy of course protested, but I know what he meant. He said it looked like a success militarily. You don't have to endorse or support the war to complement the military and think they were successful.
Five days after the war, he called it "a mess" at a Vanity Fair Party. If you were enthusiastically for it, you wouldn't be calling it "a mess" five days in. Five months after it started, he told Joe Scarborough (now a hater), "It wasn't a mistake to fight terrorism and fight it hard, and I guess maybe if I had to do it, I would have fought terrorism but not necessarily Iraq." Within a year of the war starting, Trump was virulently against it in interviews, at a time when there was still a lot of support.
AJ then posted Tweets of people's comments to this piece - Tweets backing Trump up. Someone said that it was hardly a serious interview with Stern considering the prior question from Stern was, "Is your wife naked right now?" Someone noted that Trump expressed regret it wasn't done the right way the first time after he said, "Yeah, I guess so" to Stern. Someone pointed out it was the anniversary of September 11th, a time when people were still upset and angry, not really a time to come out against a war. Another said that many people were for the war at the time, even the NYT. A person remarked that there was no war because Bush didn't even address the UN yet. A good question was posited by another person who asked if he supported the war, why was there nothing out there indicating as such? No interviews where Trump is arguing for the the war, making a case for it with reasons, and enthusiastic are out there.
People Tweeted that Sean Hannity and Roger Stone (who was working for Trump) both said that in private he had expressed opposition to the war. Hannity said they "battled" over it. AJ was able to find a couple video clips of Hannity talking about that on the air. Trump should get Sean Hannity and Roger Stone to publicly vouch for him on this, despite the fact the media will try to discount them because they are Trump supporters.
I think Sean has backed him up, saying they disagreed,at the time.
Trump DID oppose the Iraqi war. I remember him saying so and I remember thinking he was very unpatriotic for his opposition. I was wrong for thinking it was the right thing to do, and I did so because we were told that Iraq ..Saddam Husein was behind it. Yes, go after the perp!
But Trump had a different perspective, much higher than mine. He saw that it was a cluster f- -k and he was correct. It’s cost us much more than we gained from it only to learn later that Iraq was NOT the supporter of 911, but Saudi was. I think Iran had more to do with it than anybody because they’ve had a vendetta against us for a very long time.
In any event, Trump was right and I was wrong. And, he’s right also in that we should have taken the oil. One of the tv talking heads called it ‘’stealing’’ the oil. Well, it was OUR technology that even made it possible for them to gather and utilize that oil. How much were we paid for THAT??? Probably nothing.
We’ve handed the middle east untold billions of dollars in weapons, planes, awacs, support and technology to bring them out from sucking camel’s milk into the 20th century and the talking heads call it ‘’stealing’’ the oil???? And then we spent how much money rebuilding what we destroyed only to have them tear it up like ungrateful children at christmas, because they didn’t get something they wanted????
Taking the oil was the least we could have done for ourselves and those who died and got sick over there.
So, Trump was right after all, once again.
And now the muzzie loveing talking heads want to publicly behead him...just..wow.
It must be in an archive somewhere.
That came off as prophetic. It’s interesting watching liberals embrace neocon views they once eschewed once Trump came along.
On Sept 15...a couple days after the Trump/Stern conversation, Hillary gave quite and interview with Tim Russert. I will post it. It says an awful lot.
So this insignificant opinion is going to be the focus of the Leftwing Media? But not Clinton’s egregious security violations?
The MSM is the Country’s greatest threat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.