CNN
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Former President Donald Trump repeated a wide range of his earlier false claims in regards to the Center East, rival Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Republican Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and different topics in an interview that aired Sunday morning on Fox Information – notably together with his years-old lie that he warned the US to not invade Iraq. Right here’s a non-comprehensive roundup.
Trump revived a lie he has been uttering since his 2016 presidential marketing campaign – an assertion that he publicly spoke out in opposition to the thought of invading Iraq. He mentioned on Fox: “Going into Iraq was a silly factor. Keep in mind I used to say: ‘Don’t do it, however should you do it, maintain the oil.’”
Details First: Trump’s declare that he mentioned “Don’t do it” is false; the declare was debunked eight years ago. In actuality, Trump didn’t publicly express opposition to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq before it occurred. In his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Trump argued a navy strike on Iraq is likely to be mandatory; when radio host Howard Stern asked Trump in September 2002 whether or not he’s “for invading Iraq,” Trump responded, “Yeah, I assume so. I want the primary time it was executed accurately”; and Trump didn’t categorical a agency opinion in regards to the looming battle in a Fox interview in January 2003, saying that “both you assault or don’t assault” and that then-President George W. Bush “has both obtained to do one thing or not do one thing, maybe.”
Trump started criticizing the battle in 2003, however after the invasion, and likewise mentioned that 12 months that American troops shouldn’t be withdrawn from Iraq. He emerged as an specific opponent of the battle in 2004. You may learn extra here about his shifting positions.
A CNN search in 2019 turned up no examples of Trump saying something earlier than the battle about holding Iraq’s oil. Trump’s White Home didn’t reply on the time to our request to offer any such proof.
Trump repeated a declare he has made at various campaign events in recent months, saying Iran deliberately prevented hitting a base that housed US troops in Iraq when it launched missiles towards the bottom in January 2020 in retaliation for the Trump-ordered assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
Trump claimed on Fox, as he has earlier than, that Iran “known as me” to let him know of its plan to intentionally miss. He mentioned, “We knew they weren’t going to hit contained in the fort” although exterior observers had been left questioning, “How come all of them missed?”
Details First: Trump’s claims that each one of Iran’s missiles missed the bottom are false. As The Washington Put up noted in its personal reality test late final 12 months, 11 Iranian missiles hit the al-Asad base Iran focused within the retaliatory assault. The truth that missiles hit the bottom was confirmed by satellite images, by the Pentagon, and by a CNN visit to the base days after the assault. CNN reported from the scene: “Ten of the 11 missiles struck US positions on the sprawling desert Iraqi airbase. One struck a distant location on the Iraqi navy’s aspect.” CNN reported that “the Iranian missiles, which used on-board steerage methods, managed to shred delicate US navy websites, damaging a particular forces compound, and two hangars, along with the US drone operators’ housing unit.”
Whereas no US troops had been killed, more than 100 had been recognized with delicate traumatic mind accidents. Gen. Mark Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees on the time, informed reporters he believed Iran’s intent was to kill; he credited “the defensive strategies that our forces used” for the absence of deaths.
Trump has supplied no substantiation for the declare that Iran known as him to telegraph the strike and supply reassurance. As The Put up reported, Iraq’s prime minister mentioned he acquired a normal warning from Iran that it was about to start its response and goal US troops.
Trump mentioned the New Hampshire major he received in January was the one place that Haley had an opportunity to win – claiming that that is “as a result of Democrats are stupidly allowed to vote within the Republican major, and independents additionally.”
Details First: Trump’s claim is false. Registered Democrats aren’t allowed to vote in New Hampshire’s Republican major. Solely registered Republicans and independents are allowed to vote.
Some independents who lean towards Democrats nearly definitely participated within the Republican major, plus some Democrats who switched their affiliation to unbiased earlier than the early October deadline. However Trump claimed, with no caveats, that Democrats are merely allowed to vote in New Hampshire. That’s not true. (And it’s customary for states to permit individuals to modify affiliations by a sure date to take part in one other celebration’s major.)
Trump claimed of Haley: “We’ve got a state of affairs the place they forgot to use, I assume, for Indiana. You don’t run and never apply for Indiana. Nice state.”
Details First: That is false. Haley didn’t overlook to use to be on the Republican major poll in Indiana. The filing deadline for the Might 7 major, February 9, has not arrived but. Trump has beforehand made a unique claim that Haley didn’t submit sufficient signatures by the state’s January 30 signature deadline to qualify for the poll; Haley’s marketing campaign informed CNN and different media retailers that this isn’t true and that she submitted greater than sufficient signatures.
Regardless, the marketing campaign didn’t overlook to use.
“We’ll be on the poll. We turned in additional than double all of the signatures required and they’re being verified now as a part of the method earlier than the submitting deadline on February 9,” Haley marketing campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas mentioned in a Sunday e mail.
In response to an identical declare from Trump, Haley wrote on social media on Friday: “Seems like he’s confused once more…”
Mitch McConnell and the Inexperienced New Deal
In a clip from the interview that Fox aired Friday, Trump claimed McConnell has supported trillions in spending on “initiatives which are Inexperienced New Deal.” The Inexperienced New Deal is a broad congressional resolution, supported by some Democratic legislators, that requires main investments in a wide variety of environmental, social and economic initiatives.
“Mitch McConnell: I imply, he’s agreed billions of {dollars} and trillions of {dollars} for initiatives which are Inexperienced New Deal – you already know, I name it the Inexperienced New Rip-off – trillions of {dollars} for the Inexperienced New Rip-off,” Trump said.
Details First: Trump’s declare that McConnell has supported “trillions” in spending on Inexperienced New Deal initiatives is fake even beneath a generous-to-Trump definition of what counts as a Inexperienced New Deal undertaking. And as in the past, Trump failed to say right here that McConnell has been a vocal opponent of the Inexperienced New Deal congressional decision as an entire – and that Congress has by no means really handed the decision.
McConnell has repeatedly denounced the Inexperienced New Deal decision, describing it as, amongst different issues, “radical,” “socialist” and a “mess.”
So what’s Trump speaking about? Trump’s similar past attacks have been about how McConnell voted in 2021 for a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure invoice that contained spending that overlaps with among the proposals within the wide-ranging Inexperienced New Deal decision. For instance, the 2021 infrastructure invoice contained tens of billions in spending on cleansing up poisonous waste websites, modernizing public transportation, rising the nation’s resilience in opposition to local weather change, guaranteeing consuming water is clear, and facilitating a transition to zero- and low-emissions autos.
However even should you had been to rely all of this as “Inexperienced New Deal” spending – which might be deceptive on condition that the record contains priorities that each events funded lengthy earlier than the Inexperienced New Deal was launched in 2019 – the overall can be within the lots of of billions, not “trillions.”
McConnell opposed a major Democratic bill in 2022 that spent lots of of billions extra on local weather initiatives.
Touting his efficiency on immigration coverage, Trump claimed, as he has earlier than, “I constructed 561 miles of wall.”
Details First: Trump’s “561 miles” declare is fake, a considerable exaggeration. An official report by US Customs and Border Protection, written two days after Trump left workplace and subsequently obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, mentioned the quantity constructed beneath Trump was 458 miles (together with each wall constructed the place no obstacles had existed earlier than and wall constructed to switch earlier obstacles).
Even in his marketing campaign speeches late final 12 months, Trump generally put the determine, extra accurately, at “almost 500 miles.” You may learn extra here.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski contributed to this report.