Posted on 02/14/2016 2:52:49 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Donald Trump sought Sunday to walk back his statements during Saturday night's Republican debate that former President George W. Bush bore responsibility for the Sept. 11 terror attack.
"I am not blaming him," Trump said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
Trump continued to imply Bush erred, however. "The CIA said there was a lot of information that something like that was going to happen," he said. The attacks killed just under 3,000 Americans.
During Saturday night's debate, Trump told former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: "The World Trade Center came down during your brother's reign, remember that."
"How did he keep us safe?" Trump said later. "I lost hundreds of friends. The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe."
Trump holds a large lead in South Carolina. A CBS poll released Sunday put his support at 42 percent. That is more than double the 20 percent of the second-place candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., polled in third at 15 percent.
But in the wake of the debate, many pundits argued Trump risks losing support of pro-military conservative voters in South Carolina and other upcoming primary states, among whom George W. Bush remains popular.
For some GOP voters, Trump's faulting of Bush may have sounded too similar to Democratic denunciations of the former president, who faced criticism at the time for taking a lengthy vacation in the weeks prior to the attack, which occurred nine months into his presidency.
Hoping to capitalize on the those views, Rubio responded to Trump's claims Saturday by arguing former President Bill Clinton was at fault for the 9/11 attacks. Clinton failed to kill Osama bin Laden, Rubio said.
Trump on Sunday also seemed to walk back his claim that the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
"They lied," Trump said during the debate. "They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none."
On Sunday, Trump said George W. Bush "thought there were weapons of mass destruction, maybe, or maybe he didn't."
Trump insisted the invasion of Iraq was a "disaster" that continues to spread instability.
"We would have been so much better off if Bush and the rest of them went to the beach and didn't do anything," Trump said. "If you had Saddam Hussein, he was a bad guy and all of that, but he made a living off killing terrorists. Now if you want to become a terrorist you go to Iraq."
Trump spoke just hours after he fired off a series of post-midnight tweets arguing he fared well in the debate.
Saturday's debate "might have been my best performance," Trump said Sunday.
Trump also had the foresight to change his political party affiliation to democrat in August of 2001 right before the 9/11 attack.
What a coincidence. Or not.
Maybe Rick Rescorla gave the Donald some information and the Donald changed so he could be on the winning team.
AFGP-2002-600321, maybe his good friend Hillary gave him a heads up?
This place has gone down the drain thanks to stupid post like that.
Congrats, mission accomplished troll.
Donald Trump slings mud. Then claims otherwise.
Bill Clinton was 100% responsible for not doing anything about Bin laden.
He is simply full of crap, all of the time...
Amen brother!
That ticket is better than Cruz anyway of the week.
You have won the dumb post award of the year.
For his first 9 months in office George W Bush seemed like a goldfish in the sharktank. 9/11 wised him up, but it was then too late.
He said bush knew that Iraq didn’t have WMD. He’s a Democrat.
Sure. I didn’t like GHWB but I tolerated him. GWB I loved. JEB! is just in an unfortunate position where the country doesn’t want to establish a dynastic family.
Did GWB lie about WMD? no, probably not. He was however probably lied to about WMD by people who changed the definition of WMD. It all gets muddled because it’s to the advantage of the opposing party to push this narrative.
But it wasn’t a clean. They changed the definition of WMD by fact and by fiction to support the war in Iraq.
As for Colin Powell, he is over rated, no more conservative than you say Trump is. He gave us the crappy Powell Doctrine — you break it you fix it. Which is not what war is about. He dragged W into the very thing he said he wouldn’t participate in. Nation Building. We wasted trillions on Nation building for what should have been a simple punitive military excursion.
Im glad I don’t know you
Bombing the shit out of Saudi Arabia...wonderful idea.../sarcasm
No one watches Face the Nation...Trump is playing this BRILLIANTLY as we will see in a week.
My big problem with GWB is that he never seemed to defend himself. Pelosi and the rest told lies and savagely attacked him without cause. Bush said nothing. And so much of the country decided that Pelosi and the others were right about everything.
We need a fighter who won’t let his opponents get away with anything.
Democracy had begun to take root in the ME, until Obama sabotaged it by sending arms to ISIS and allowing extremists to take over Libya, Egypt etc....
Trying to put the toothpaste back in, Doofus? Last night was a complete disaster. You had my vote until then.....
Guess who else didn’t know?
If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program.
But if we act as one, we can safeguard our interests and send a clear message to every would-be tyrant and terrorist that the international community does have the wisdom and the will and the way to protect peace and security in a new era. That is the future I ask you all to imagine. That is the future I ask our allies to imagine.
________________
President Bill Clinton 1998
I’m sure you would get real tired of being wrong all the time.
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