GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump claims often on the campaign trail that he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but news clippings and interviews from that time show otherwise.
In fact, the casino tycoon said in an interview on Sept. 11, 2002, that he supported military action in Iraq following the terrorist attacks suffered in the previous year, reported BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski.
However, despite the existence of Trump being on the record saying he was in favor of military intervention in Iraq, he continues today to claim just the opposite, and he’s getting a free pass from media to do so.
This has left BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief both perplexed and annoyed.
“Could reporters stop letting him lie to their faces about the most important policy call of the last 20 years?” Ben Smith wrote this week.
“Donald Trump did not oppose the invasion of Iraq. Further, there’s no evidence that he’s ever been a ‘dove,'” he added, calling the casino tycoon’s support for the war “totally unambiguous.”
Nevertheless, even with the audio recently unearthed, multiple newsrooms, including CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, Bloomberg News, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have failed to challenge Trump on his claim he opposed military action after Sept. 11.
As recently as this past weekend, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd referred to the GOP nominee as “Donald the Dove.”
Elsewhere in the pages of the Times, reporters Mark Lander and Ashley Parker casually referred to a moment at a campaign rally when Trump reminded, “his audience that he had opposed the Iraq War.”
The Times report did not challenge him.
The Washington Post’s editorial more recently let Trump’s claim slide during an interview, and instead pressed him on the size of his hands.
Earlier, during a March 29 GOP primary debate hosted by CNN, Trump declared he was, “against the war in Iraq. OK?”
Debate moderator Anderson Cooper did not challenge Trump on this claim.
And on and on.
“Trump lies all the time, of course,” Smith wrote. “He lies about big things, like the patriotism of American Muslims. He lies about medium-size things, like his knowledge of the Mike Tyson rape case. And he lies about tiny, absurd stuff, as when he pretends to date famous women.”
“The media, when not just airing his speeches unfiltered, has done a decent job of calling out these individual lies,” he added. “That’s why it’s all the more perplexing how great American news organizations have allowed a flat lie about the most important American policy decision in decades ooze its way into fact.”
The idea that Trump opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq has become an accepted narrative at many newsrooms, as few, if any, media personalities have actually pushed back on the GOP candidate for claiming it.
“I have two modest suggestions: First, let’s stop trying to construct theories about Trump’s instincts based on his lies about his own past beliefs,” Smith wrote.
“And even simpler, let us dispel once and for all this fiction that Trump opposed the Iraq war,” he added.
