CNN's Jake Tapper Pushes Trump On His Claim That He Opposed The Iraq War

Tapper: “If There Is Evidence Of You Being Against The War Strongly Before The War Actually Started, I Would Love To See That”

From the June 5 edition of CNN's State of the Union:

Video file

DONALD TRUMP: I have a very strong temperament, but I have a temperament that's totally under control. And [Hillary Clinton] mentions that I'll bring us into war. She's the one that wanted to go into Iraq. She raised her hand. She didn't know what the hell she was doing. She raised her hand. I said, I don't want to go into Iraq. Iraq is going to destabilize the Middle East, and I was 100 percent right. 

JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Can I just say one point on that, I have looked so long and hard for any evidence -- 

TRUMP: I'll give it to you. 2004, they had newspaper articles. 

TAPPER: Right, but the war started in 2003. 

TRUMP: It did, but you know what, you look at -- I did an interview with Howard [Stern], and that interview was the first time I was ever asked the question. Don't forget I was an entrepreneur. I'm a real estate person.

TAPPER: But didn't you say to Howard that you thought it was a good idea?

TRUMP: This was before the war started, long before the war started and it was a very, like, I don't know. First, nobody ever asked me the question, when you're do what I did nobody was talking about a lot of the questions that you ask me today, and I was -- I sort of like, well, I don't know, maybe, I don't know. By the time that started, I was totally against it, and from 2004 on, there's a lot of proof of that, because, as you know, there was articles in magazines, there was a lot of articles. 

TAPPER: Yeah. A year after the war started.

TRUMP: No, no, but I was against it from before it started. And if you go back and look at that interview, and I'll get it for you if you want, but that interview was substantially before the war started. It was the first time I was ever asked the question. And even that, it wasn't like, oh yeah, we should go in. It was a very, like yeah, maybe. 

TAPPER: The only thing I would say, and then we don't have to belabor this point, is if there is evidence of you being against the war strongly before the war actually started, I would love to see that. 

TRUMP: OK, but I think there is evidence. 

TAPPER:I just haven't seen it.

TRUMP: I think there is evidence. I haven't been asked that question before. Nobody said that to me before. I think there is evidence, I'll see if I can get it. But I will say, from the beginning of 2004, I mean I've had articles, and I mean there are magazines --

TAPPER: 2004 no question. 

TRUMP: I was against the war a long time ago and it destabilized the Middle East, and that's exactly what I said was going to happen.

Previously:

16 Times The Media Let Trump Falsely Claim He Opposed The Iraq War From The Beginning

On MSNBC, Huff. Post's Stein: Media Failed To Hold Trump Accountable For “Flat-Out Lie” About Opposing The Iraq War

BuzzFeed’s Editor-In-Chief Slams Media For Giving Credence To Trump’s Lie He Opposed Invasion Of Iraq

How Conservative Media Enabled Trump’s Outrageous Lies