For months, Donald Trump has claimed that he opposed the Iraq War before the invasion began — as an example of his great judgment on foreign policy issues.
But in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump said he supported an Iraq invasion.
In the interview, which took place on Sept. 11, 2002, Stern asked Trump directly if he was for invading Iraq.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
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At the Feb. 6 debate in New Hampshire, Trump said, “I’m the only one up here, when the war of Iraq — in Iraq, I was the one that said, ‘Don’t go, don’t do it, you’re going to destabilize the Middle East.’”
Trump’s Libya Quagmire
.. but on foreign policy, Trump has actually tried to run to Clinton’s left. Yet he keeps getting snagged on evidence that he’s not that different.
.. For months, Trump claimed that he had opposed the Iraq war before it started, a decision that would have placed him a prescient minority—alongside Barack Obama, and notably apart from then-Senator Hillary Clinton, who voted to give the George W. Bush administration the right to pursue the war. Initially, he got away with that: Because he wasn’t a politician, there was no easily found record of his position at the time. But dogged work by BuzzFeed and others eventually turned up proof that Trump had voiced support for the invasion in 2002.
Trump’s Endorsers Can’t Disown His Comments
Party leaders and down-ballot candidates who are backing Trump won’t be able to distance themselves from his racism and bigotry.
The prevailing view among prominent Republicans is that Trump still has the time and ability to make the necessary course corrections, especially given Clinton’s vulnerabilities. But they see some acute problems in the way he has conducted himself in recent days.
Although these and other GOP leaders will try to distance themselves from Trump’s most offensive comments, they can’t. First, from the moment he accepts the Republican nomination in Cleveland, Trump will be the titular head of their party. Second, theyknowingly backed an intolerant narcissist. This was no accident, no bait and switch.
Long before his political meltdown last week, Trump revealed his views on Hispanics, Muslims, and women—not to mention indifference to public policy and the truth. This is no aberration. It is confirmation.
.. The prevailing view among prominent Republicans is that Trump still has the time and ability to make the necessary course corrections, especially given Clinton’s vulnerabilities. But they see some acute problems in the way he has conducted himself in recent days.
.. Trump can’t make “course corrections.” This is not 1992: He can’t “soften” his views or “shift” to the center. There is no pivot from depravity in the 21st century—not when voters are a few keystrokes removed from everything a politician has said or written or done.
The Donald Trump Veepstakes: A Cheat Sheet
“I think Newt is lobbying to be the vice president, and I think their people are paying a lot of attention to him,” adding, somewhat dubiously, “It’d be a ticket with six former wives, kind of like a Henry VIII thing. They certainly understand women.”
.. Cons: “He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued. Let no one be mistaken—Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised, and discarded.” —Perry on July 22, 2015